Take it Like a Man

2: Robots

2: Robots

"Clara, are you even listening to me?"

"Van, if you really know the answer, why would you be asking me that question?" I felt my smirk widen as her eyes squinted at me.

"Why am I friends with you?"

"Beats me. Most people can't keep up with my charming and witty personality for very long," I smirked and a smile finally graced her face. She loved me.

She threw one of her pretzel goldfish at me and smiled, victory shining in her eyes.

Vanessa and I were sitting at our designated lunch table, technically by ourselves, though there were the creepy robotics nerds on the other end of the table, but we mutually ignored each other. We weren't exactly popular, but we weren't outsiders or anything. We had other friends, but we were closest with each other. We had been best friends since the first day of pre-school. Sharing a love for blue and evil smiles made us inseparable almost instantly. Long story short, we were practically sisters.

"If we weren't BFFLs, I would hate you," she stuck her tongue out at me.

"Ew Van," I scrunched up my face in disgust, "we are no longer friends. I don't associate with people that use words like BFFL. I can't believe we made it this far."

Vanessa threw another one of her pretzels at me. "Larry-"

"Oh my god Van! Stop calling me Larry! It not only makes me feel like a fat loser plumber man but that creeper sitting at the other end keeps looking over at you every time you do it. I think that's his name. He might be infatuated with you."

Her face turns frightened and her head whips to the other end of the table to see the gangly boy over yonder give a little wave with a braces-filled smile.

"Aw, he's so awkward. Clara what do I do?" She looks so distraught. This is why I never know what to do with Van. She loves to have fun, but she couldn't hurt a fly even if her life depended on it.

"Look away. It will only get worse."

"But Clara, now that you said it, I feel like I should talk to him or something. Sort out his feelings-"

"Van, do you find the guy attractive?"

"Well, not-"

I cut her off. "Then let it go. Once he realizes you don't share the same ideas for the future he will go away."

She nodded. "Okay Clay."

"At least that's better than Larry," I said to her, trying to lighten up her mood. She always felt so bad after rejection.

It wasn't hard to see why a guy would find Van attractive. She had dirty blonde hair and brown eyes, and a smile that drew everyone to her. I don't know why she hid herself behind beanies and was so shy. Van was pretty unstoppable.

She smiled. "Well I needed a boy's name for you, since you call me Van, I mean that's a car and I'm pretty sure a guy in my chemistry class has the same name."

"Okay, so we are both men. Worse things could happen right?" I cocked my head to the side, knowing she would get confused. Van was really such a blonde sometimes.

"Clara, I am not a boy just because you give me a boyish nickname."

I laughed at her and then remembered she was supposed to be telling me something. "What were you telling me?"

Van lit up, remembering suddenly. "Well, before I realized you weren't listening to me, as usual-"

I scoffed. "Come on Van, I always listen to you, I just was kind of...daydreaming?"

She didn't appreciate me at the moment, but I couldn't really blame her. She sighed but went on with what she was saying. "I was just saying how ever since Nick-"

I seethed, and cut her off for the billionth time. "Don't say that asshole's name. He doesn't deserve to be given one."

She slapped my hand. "Oh my god just give me a second to finish, you hormonal woman. I was just saying that ever since you became single again, you and I haven't done something fun, you've been sneaking off by yourself doing who-knows-what, who-knows-where."

I smiled. "I've been planning."

She raised her eyebrows at me, intrigued.

"I'm getting revenge. Wanna join?"

She smiled the same evil smile I did.

"When do we start?"

>>><<<

If I were to be honest, I was excited. Too excited.

"Clara, are you sure this is going to work?"

"Van is this really the time to be doubting me?"

"Um..."

I hit her lightly behind me. "Shh...he's coming!"

There were definite perks to being Nick Seldridge's ex-girlfriend. For instance, I knew things about him many others did not have the privilege of knowing.

Like how he was really scared of robots.

I had to control my urge to evilly laugh like the Wicked Witch of the West.

This was perfect.

Three days, and with the help of Larry, thanks to Vanessa's beauty and charm, as well as her agreeing to go to his house to look at his robot collection, (I now owe her a movie date with all the food she can eat). But most importantly, my plan was ready to begin.

Another great thing about being Nick Seldridge's ex-girlfriend, I knew that he always jammed his locker because: "Clara, if I don't need to put in my combination I get to spend that extra time with you."

Aw, how sweet.

The days of me believing his cheesy crap were long gone.

His locker was at the end of the hallway, and we could see him perfectly from the alcove where we were standing, pretending to idly be drinking from the water fountain. From where he was he couldn't see us.

He didn't see us as he walked by; the hallway was pretty crowded since we had about ten minutes until classes started.

His dark brown hair was shorter than it used to be, like he had buzzed it a month ago and his hair was starting to fluff again. I used to like when it was messy and no matter how he combed it, it didn't do his bidding. I used to run my hand through it and say, "Perfect."

Stop. Stop right now.

He got to his locker and then screamed, like full-blown bloodcurdling deafening scream.

Van and I started snorting and covering our mouths like the fools we were.

The hallway was practically silent, and you could hear the echo of Larry's beautiful invention.

"Nic-o-las. Watch. Out. Nic-o-las. Watch. Out."

Van hit into me as we were trying to stifle our laughter, and I fell into his line of sight.

Crap.

The hallway started moving around again, but Nick just stood there, staring at me with an expression on his face that I didn't really understand.

His arms were folded across his chest. I did the same and stared straight back.

Oh yeah. It's on buddy.

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-Katie