Skinny

Why She Wants It

Chapter Nine:

I walked out of my last class and headed towards the exit of the school.

"Garcia," she yelled at me. What did she want now? I turned to face my nemesis.

"Overton," I said in response.

"I hear you want to be Miss Popular. So who is it?"

"Excuse me?"

"Who are you trying to get with?" She was getting closer to me. Now, we were only five feet apart.

"Who said I needed to date one of the Argonauts to be popular? I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not like you. I'm going to earn my popularity, not hijack it, been there and done that. I have to go. There are people that matter that I need to visit."

I turned and walked away. I knew she was following me because I could hear her friends trying to stave her off from doing so. I made my way outside as other students would say hi or just gawk at me.

I never knew that being the center of attention would make you so shy. I was starting to regret my decision to become popular, but I couldn't give up now. I just couldn't. I was doing this for me. It was a temporary goal, something I had set to meet before I graduated from this awful place that had tormented me for so long. If I could just focus on doing this one thing, then maybe I would be okay until the last day here.

I reached my bike with Alicia right on my tail. I mounted it and waited for her to speak. When she didn't say anything, I began to get aggrivated.

"What do you want, Alicia?" I said, letting the annoyance seep into my voice.

"Why?"

"Why do I want to be popular?"

"No, why do you want to earn it?" She seemed genuinely curious even though her bitchy attitude was still there.

"You wouldn't understand. You've never been bullied and tormented like I was. I'm doing this for all those people that never got to do it for themselves in high school." I told her putting my things in my bike pack, "I'm doing it for the chunky girls that never had the will to lose the weight and for the nerds that were picked on because they were too smart; for everyone that has ever been lied about. If I don't do it for them, then I'm no better than you." With that I started my bike, put on my helmet and drove off.

*************

Caleb's POV:

I couldn't believe that was her reason to be popular. I called Reese and told him everything I had heard her say to Alicia.

"Well, that's an interesting development. I guess it makes sense. It's like she's getting redemption for everyone who's ever been bullied, ever," he said.

"That makes sense. So what are we going to do?" I felt empathy for her and I just wanted to make her dream come true. Man, I was getting soft. I had to find a reason not to like her. Reese's voice interrupted my reverie.

"We aren't going to make it any easier. She deserves better than that. We'll make her work for it, like she wants," was his brilliant idea.

I guess he had a point. If we made it too easy, she would know something was up. I guess we would have to find ways to halt her ascent to popularity.

~~~~~

"How about we get Alicia to dump food on her at lunch?" Mason happily suggested.

"We can't have her start bullying her again. We could always..... man, this is hard. If Andrew dated her, then no one would take her seriously," Reese said.