Love, Ali

Chapter 4

By the next day, the whole school was already talking about Luke and Kayleigh's breakup. It was even on the school newspaper! I didn't know people even cared about these kinds of stuff. But then again, the two most popular kids in school broke up and that's the kind of in depth story I'd be interested to read about. Which is why, I wrote an article about it for the school newspaper. Sure, you can call me devious but I didn't contribute to the newspaper for a month and I had to or else I would lose my spot on the journalism team.

My article was so good that it earned the headline spot surpassing Connor Qualls' supposed-to-be article, "Lunch in the Cafeteria: Friend or Foe?". Who wants to read about the lunch the school's feeding us anyway? We all know it's bad but no one, especially not Connor, has to elaborate on why.

When I pass by the newspaper stand, I smirk. And when I lift my head up and look straight ahead as I walk, I notice that everyone's reading my article. I just hope they know that it's my article. I just hope they can see my name printed below the title.

I sigh then I scowl when I see Kayleigh and her pink posse walking towards me. On Kayleigh's right is Skye Jackson, the shortest in the group who has the whitest teeth and most flawless skin and on her left is Brooklyn Nutting, the tallest in the group who has the shiniest hair and the sparkliest eyes. But Kayleigh doesn't like competition so she's overshadowing both Brooklyn and Skye. Pathetic, isn't it?

As they near me, I start to get nervous. But I don't let Kayleigh know that.

"Alison." She says.

"Kayleigh." I say.

We have a stare down. My eyes start to twitch and the feeling burns but Kayleigh blinks first.

"Ha," I grin, evilly. "What does the most popular girl in school who's just been dumped by her superstar boyfriend allowing 'talk' to float around the school that will probably lead to her popularity reaching an all time low, want with me?"

She takes time to process what I just said because her brain can only hold two or three things at a time, exaggeratedly speaking.

"I heard you made plans with Luke after school today." She says, sighing after ever word.

"Oh, you heard."

I don't know what she's talking about.

"Something tells me you don't know what I'm talking about." She flips her hair back and smiles. I just want to slap the 'pretty' off her face.

"Because I don't. You're clearly making this up."

"Am I?"

At first, I tell myself that she's lying. Yesterday on the football field, Luke and I only talked about hanging out. He didn't confirm any details. But when I see Luke walking to where I am, I take back what I said.

"Alison, right?" He says.

"Yeah, that's me."

Kayleigh gets so annoyed so she burst through the hallway yelling at everyone. The funny part is, Luke ignored her when he approached me.

"I know there's been talk around the school about me planning to ask you out,"

"Actually, you already asked me out. You just didn't give me the details."

"That's exactly why I'm here," he smiles. My cheeks turn red and my heart starts to flutter. "Alison, do you want to go out with me today after school at the smoothie place down the street?"

My face flushes. Currently, my mind is floating right above my head so I can't think straight at the moment, but I just quickly throw my answer out at him and smile.

"Yes!"

He runs his fingers through his smooth, dark brown hair, and does the boyish half-smile. It gives guys the mysterious and cute factor that most girls try to find in them.

After Math class, where I had to be watched 24/7 by Mrs. Quisenberry, I immediately walked down the street to the smoothie place Luke told me to meet him at.

When I enter the restaurant-like shop, the first person I see is Luke. He's sitting in a booth, constantly checking his watch.

I walk briskly to the booth and take a seat.

After a long conversation about how stressful it is being him and after three rounds of strawberry-vanilla smoothies, we finally decided to call it a day. In all honesty, I wasn't even paying attention to what he was saying. All I did to make him think that I was actually listening was, nod, smile, and say 'okay' from time to time.

He offers to drive me home and I accept. Luke is so sweet. He may be a little conceited but he's sweet.

"I had a great time," he says before I exit the car. "Hope we can do this again some other time."

He asked me out on a second date!! Well, not entirely, but he did.

"Yeah, I think we can." I reply.

We just sit in his car, parked in my parents' driveway for a little while longer before I decide to actually go home.

When I get inside my lovely, yet creepy--because of all the owls my mom carved, displayed in every corner of the house--home, I can't help but replay everything Luke and I talked about in my head...actually, what he talked about. I didn't really talk that much. All I was doing was glazing into Luke's sparkly green eyes. His eyes are like magnets that draw you to him. And if you look at them too long, you fall into a trance of mixed emotions.

Could I actually have been right this whole time? Was my dream of ever becoming a jock's girlfriend about to be a reality? If that's the case, then I really need to look good when I go to school tomorrow.