Typical

Chapter 3

Approaching the doors to the school, Josie smiled a thank you as Peter opened the door for her. It was a chaotic zoo inside, ten times worse than yesterday. For a second, it sent a shock of fear to her stomach.

The scene was intimidating.

Peter saw this hesitation, so helping her out- he knocked his shoulder into hers and sent her a smile. "It's not as bad as it looks, I promise. Come on, I'll go with you to your locker." 

Nodding, Josie followed him as they weaved in and out of the students. Back and forth shouts and conversations filled the world around her. She flinched away from some of them- but overall the girl held her ground pretty well.

It wasn't until another boy came up to Peter stopping them in their tracks. "Hey, Penis Parker, where you going? Gym class is that way."

Josie noticed how upset Peter got in his presence. "Not now Flash."

"Oh come on Parker, let's go together!"

"Just leave me alone dude."

Flash was about to come back with some smart comment, but Josie stepped in first aiding the only friend that she had at the moment.

A girl at her locker had set down her Starbucks cup of coffee, and from behind Peter Josie quickly grabbed it and glided around the scene. Peter was to focused on Flash to see what she was doing. But moving through the crowd of people, she had elegantly spilled her coffee over Flash's shoulder and down his front.

It made him jump, scream, and turned towards the mob of people moving behind him. To dispose of the evidence, Josie dropped the cup to the ground and separated herself from the crowd and towards the lockers on the side of the hall.

Peter's face turned into a smile before looking behind him to catch her stare. However, seeing she wasn't there, he scanned the scene shocked to see her ahead of them standing on her own waiting for him. She had a smile on her face, and coffee all over her hand.

Quickly, Peter abandoned the wailing Flash and took her side. "Did you do that?" He laughed.

Licking her finger which was full of hot steaming coffee, she chuckled. "He seemed like a jerk. But it's vanilla bean, want some?" She lifted her hand towards him.

Laughing again, Peter pushed her hand away from his face and continued onwards with her by his side.

Together, they reached her locker and surprisingly, it was next to his friend Ned's. So, Peter wasn't shocked to see him there. "Hey Ned."

Turning with a smile, Ned ignited seeing his best friend. "Hey Peter- who is this?"

"This is Josie, she's new here."

Ned and Josie shook hands. "You can call me Jo."

"Jo?" Peter rose an eyebrow.

Brushing back that annoying piece of hair once more, she smiled. "To boyish for you?"

"No." He shook his head. "I like-"

"Pete, look!" Ned hit his friends chest pointing towards the end of the hallway. There, a girl was up on a ladder. She was pretty, Josie had to admit. Her long legs were the perfect skin tone, long hair trickling down her back, and slender body stretching to hang up a banner for prom.

Averting her attention back over to Peter, Jo could practically see his tongue hanging out of his mouth.

She didn't know why, but there was a churn in her stomach and a burning in her chest. It was dim, but it was there.

So, opening her locker on her own, Josie left the boys to swoon. "She's never going to like you dude." Ned whispered to Peter.

Defeated, Peter nodded. "I know.."

One by one, Josie placed her books into her locker. "Why don't you try talking to her?"

Both boys snapped back looking to her. "Liz is the most popular girl in school Jo." Ned literally attacked her. "That would be social suicide!"

Without looking at them, Jo rolled her eyes. "If you're that afraid, don't do it in front of the entire school then. What she in, like clubs, sports?"

"Already tried that." Ned continued. "We're in the academic decathlon."

"Oh really?" She sent them a look. "And?"

Leaning against the locker next to hers; Peter joined in now. "What do you mean?"

Josie laughed. "You still haven't talked to her?"

"Not like-" he shrugged. "I don't know, not like that."

Grabbing the books that she needed, Jo threw her backpack over her shoulder and handed him the one he let her borrow. "Girls aren't an equation Peter. Start by being their friend, and when you talk to her- talk about her. Girls like that. Even if you're just saying hi."

Taking in what she said, Peter nodded. "Okay, should I go now?"

"No!" She put on both straps. "That would be weird considering it looks like we've been plotting something for the past eight minutes. That-" she closed her locker and pushed both the boys in the opposite direction of Liz. "-and you missed the fact that she's already looked over here twice."

================================

Ned and Peter were there all day. Between each of her classes, one of the two made it a point to help her find their next class. It was one of the sweetest things she had ever experienced.

During lunch, she finally got to see just how separated their school actually was. There was the jocks, the nerds, the cheerleaders, the suck ups, the goths; everything every typical high school consisted of.

Then however, there was those three.

Jo, Peter, and Ned all kept to themselves right in the middle of the lunch room. Nobody ever paid attention to them, nobody but Flash.

The guy always wanted to make life hard for Peter and Ned, and Jo didn't like it.

So, any chance she got, the girl scared Flash off the best that the could. The most recent one involving her warning him that his fly was down in front of a large population of pretty girls.

It made Peter and Ned like her even more.

Reaching the end of the day though, Jo was at her locker alone stuffing in every book that she needed for tonight's homework. She wouldn't mind this school, she knew it. The whole popularity aspect didn't matter to her, she had much more important things to focus on outside of school.

"Hey, Jo." Peter suddenly greeted her with Ned at his side. "We have to meet with the decathlon team for like an hour, but then my aunt May said she would come pick us up after. I asked her already and she said that we can drive you home too if you want."

Blinking hard, Jo brushed he strand of hair again and licked her lips. "Ugh, that's okay- I should probably be getting back-"

"You know that you'd still get home faster than if you walked. Anyway, it's a Friday night, it's not that safe to be walking back alone."

Taking in what they had to say, Jo sighed. "Alright, fine."

"Yes." Ned celebrated. "You can see how deadly the decathlon really is."

Jo chuckled and followed the boys towards the room for the decathlon.

Inside though, she was constantly debating just what excuse she would use when she met his aunt May. They would ask questions about where she lived, why she lived there, and how.

So, she needed an excuse.

Finding one was her biggest problem.