The Popular Nerd

The Long Day

The next morning was oddly normal. Taylor was acting as if everything was fine, as if I hadn’t caught her stalking me home. The three girls, Emily, Sarah-Grace and Liz, were with us again but took no notice of me and I preferred that this morning. They chatted aimlessly and I blatantly ignored their conversation, pretending to be interested in my phone. Taylor was acting as if nothing happened, and that angered me more than it should. One of the things that Taylor is good at is acting as nothing happened and that skill always came in handy for her.

Luckily for me, Jenna was there so we walked slightly in front of the group, discussing our French and Chemistry homework.

“Did you finish the French assessment?” She asked, pulling a sheet out of her bag.

I nodded. “Yep, I handed it in yesterday.”

“Was it due in yesterday?”

“Yeah, just give it in today. She won’t be too angry.” We continued walking and if she could sense that something had happened between me and Taylor, she decided not to comment.

“Thank gosh. I wouldn’t want to get on her bad side this early on in the year.”

Laughing, I shook my head. “It’ll only be if she’s in a good mood that she won’t be angry at you.”

We continued walking in silence until I thought I heard my name being called from behind. I assumed it was Taylor asking me about school work as we had English Lit today. I listened in closely this time.

“Yeah “ That was Emily.

She whispered the next part. “-Ruby,”

“-She’s a bitch. Apparently she threatened Hollie the other day…” I heard Sarah-Grace continue.

I had to stop listening as I forced myself not to laugh. I threatened Hollie? They obviously didn’t hear what Hollie had come out with.

I jogged quickly up to where Jenna was, desperate to get into school for once. Today was bound to be another long day.

**-**

Once again, I went about my day ignoring Taylor. That wasn’t hard. There would be days where we didn’t have the same lessons and today was one of those days and I was extremely grateful for that.

Ignoring Emily, Sarah-Grace and Liz was a little harder, unfortunately. It wasn’t that we were in the same lessons it was more that they had a lot of friends and liked to spread “gossip.” I blocked most of it out but with the “circle of friends” that they had, that was becoming a rather challenging task.

Hollie, on the other hand, decided to go for a silent approach. I could feel her staring at me all through tutor, glaring at me at any chance she got during French and shaking her head in despair any time she caught sight of me during US history. I kept smiling at her, knowing what I had on her.

Putting all of the above together, the morning’s events and last night’s shenanigans, it was fair to say that I wasn’t in a great mood by the time English Lit came around. I had a free lesson before and had spent the last 55 minutes staring at my geometry textbook, completely unable to focus or do any work.

I made my way to English, passing my locker, hoping that I had everything on me that I needed as I was in a rush to be on time for English. This class, unfortunately, had Taylor, Hollie and Emily-people I wasn’t up to facing at that moment.

I spotted Delilah and Fiona at the back, and walked straight past them all, sitting next to Delilah at the back. There was a spare seat next to me but only a few people weren’t here yet and there were enough chairs for them to sit in so I wouldn’t be forced to sit with someone I didn’t like. I just hoped so, anyway.