12:00

buzz

buzz

It was exactly thirty minutes after nine o' clock, when Aiden rolled up to my driveway, music blasting for the whole neighborhood to hear. I felt the beats and vibrations rattle the window as I peered out of the it and flashed a smile when I heard her honk the horn, in a hurry. There was a burst of nervous excitement in me, and my fingers began to tremble with nerves.

"Bye, mom and dad," I called, my hand latching onto the door knob, ready to fly out. I didn't even wait a second to say proper goodbyes, and looking back on it: that is the one thing I wished I did.

"Hurry up! Hurry up!" Aiden called from the rolled down window, her hands flying everywhere. "The party already started, and I need me some Matt Dyer!"

I rolled my eyes before launching myself into the passenger seat, shutting the door to her Mercedes.

"Calm down," I said, as Aiden begun to speed down the driveway and towards the main road. I hastily scrambled for my seat belt as Aiden made a sharp turn out of my neighborhood. Her fingers were gripping the steering wheel so tight that her knuckles turned white. Brow furrowed in concentration, Aiden pressed harder on the gas, zooming by a changing yellow light.

"If you don't slow down, Aiden, we are going to crash, and you'll never get to Matt."

That's what snapped Aiden out of it. She instantly slowed down, and my body flung itself back into the seat at the sudden change of speed.

"Sorry," she murmured, eyes still concentrated on the road. "but this could be my night. The night were Matt falls in love with me, and my popularity will sky rocket! I may even become more popular than Darcy Marrier."

Fat chance. Darcy was the most popular girl in the whole school. She was basically a Matt Dyer minus the whole ego. She was actually also one of the nicest in our grade, and always volunteered for charity work or offered to help students, who were falling behind in classes. Aiden was not a Darcy Marrier, and never would be.

"Please tell me you do not want to be Matt Dyer's girlfriend just because of popularity," I said, hoping that my friend wouldn't stoop that low.

"Of course not-"

I breathed a sigh of relief.

"I also want to be his girlfriend for his money."

I gasped, turning to Aiden, who was using one hand to steer and the other to apply another coat of lip gloss to her already plump, pink lips. That was Aiden for you. Doing everything she possibly could to be the center of attention. She would go to extreme measures to make sure everyone knew she was the best, and nobody was superior to her.

I remember the time in third grade, when she purposely gave Anabella Dark a cookie with peanuts in it. Sounds harmless, but it wasn't when everybody knew that Anabella was deadly allergic to nuts. Anabella was out of school for weeks, so she had missed the annual third grade play, the one she was supposed to star in. So, normally the understudy filled in for Anabella. The understudy was Aiden. Even then, Aiden couldn't help but feel the need to bask in the attention. Some days, I think it got to the point were it had become unhealthy.

"Why does it matter though?" I asked, generally curious. "Why does all the popularity matter."

Aiden set down her lip gloss, and glanced at me as if I had two heads. "It matters because it's the only thing that matters. You don't understand, Cora. No one like you could possibly comprehend what this means."

No one like me? What does that mean? Just because I care about my grades and my future, I can't understand what this whole battle for popularity is for? Just because I prefer reading a book over going shopping, says that I don't give one thought on my social status?