I flopped down on my comfy queen sized mattress, the bed bouncing me up before settling down and rearranging to hug around the contours of my body. A sigh of frustration ripped through my throat, the strand of my long blonde hair blowing out of my mouth. I was being forced to stay in on a Friday night while all of my friends were going to a party at Janice Makowski's house. Janice was the head cheerleader, and therefore most popular girl in school. She was a pretty girl with auburn hair that cascaded down her back in perfect curls and and hour glass figure. Her eyes were the color of polished sapphires and her perfect lips were always turned up in a warm smile.
But like all the pretty popular girls, she was untouchable by people like me. Me, who had brown hair that was the color of poop, and always seemed like I had just rolled out of bed. The who dressed in baggy and boyish clothes and never wore makeup. The skinny twig of a girl who had absolutely no aptitude for anything that was even remotely related to sports. The only remotely pretty thing about me was my crystal blue eyes. I was the girl that anyone in the school wouldn't be caught dead with me. So, when the head cheerleader approached me at lunch on Monday, I thought that the world was coming to an end. That, or she had been possessed, which was an absolute possibility.
I sat at the table in the lunch room where I sat by myself all of the time. I once had people who would sit by me, but then my mother, who was the principal, tried to cut the cheer leading program because I was being bullied by girls on the squad. I had tried to tell people that I had no idea how she found out, but it wasn't going to cut it.
The courtyard became quiet as Janice Makowski, the head cheerleader, walked up to me. I slowly lift my eyes from the notebook where I was working on my creative short story for my AP English class. "Hey, your name is Ashleigh, right?" I stare at her, my eye calculating to try to see if this was a joke of some sort. Where was the pig's blood? She sees my hesitation and sits down with a warm smile on her face.
"Yea, my name is Ashleigh. What do you want?" She laughs slightly, and it sounds like a clear soprano note. Darn, even her laugh was perfect.
"I was wondering if you were coming to my party this Friday." I choked on my own spit, and fell into a coughing fit.
"Wait, are you serious? Wouldn't me being at your party ruin your rep?" She smiles at me and her pearl white teeth flash in the sunlight."
"I don't believe that you are all that bad. I don't see why there cannot be mingling between so called "social statuses". Besides, you are a pretty cool girl, and I've seen some of your work in my English class. Dr. Loreson always uses your work as examples of what ours should look like."
"Well, I wasn't given an invite. Never am." I look over and see the rest of the cheerleading squad shooting dagger glares at me. But when Janice looks over, they smile and wave and act all sweet and innocent. She turns back to me and they resume to shoot me daggers. "I don't think that the rest of your squad would appreciate you inviting the daughter of the principal who tried to cut the cheer leading program to your party." She sighs.
"Look, Ashleigh, I don't believe that you told your mom about being bullied by some girls on the squad. She was only trying to protect you and punish those who hurt her baby girl." I looked in her eyes and saw a hidden pain that lied just beneath the surface. But she quickly recovers and her smile is back to being plastered on her face. She slips me a card in a lavender envelope over the table. "Please at least think about it."
I nod and she smiles at me, getting up and skipping back to her squad.
I look over at the envelope, which now is on my desk. I look over as my mom walks in with a cup off tea. I sigh stubbornly and look up at the ceiling. She sat down next to me on the bed and sighed. "Asheigh, I know that you don't understand my decision to not let you go to that party but I-"
