He was Hot, I was Not!

"That was weird," Kayla thought to herself. "Why didn't Stan talk to me?" He looked mad? Was it that prick Matt? I wonder what he told him."

"So anyway, Kayla," she belatedly remember Kenny had been saying something, "I was wondering if you would like to go out with me after the game Friday night?" he finally finished.

Kayla had to concentrate on what Kenny was saying, she was still wondering what was going on with Stan. Did he even see me? Did he hear me call him? Maybe he didn't recognize me without my glasses.

"Wait," she wondered looking at Kenny, "Did he just ask me out? And why?"

"Umm, I dunno Kenny, I think I'm busy Friday," she told him as she realized he was waiting for an answer.

She didn't want to be mean, but she just wasn't interested in Kenny that way. They had a lot of classes together, and for some reason she couldn't figure out, he had been following her around all day. Now he was asking her out. WTF???

Then she spotted Paris. She really needed to talk to Paris. She had kind of unintentionally broke the "unspoken rule among friends" by messing with Stan, and she needed to make it right.

"Well if your plans fall through, let me know," Kenny continued.

"Oh yeah, I will," she replied. "Excuse me Kenny, I have to go talk to a friend," she said.

"Yeah, sure," he said. "But could I get your number before you go? I'd like to call you?"

In a hurry, she quickly and unthinkingly gave him her number.

There was only one way to bypass the unspoken rule among friends: you have to make sure that your friend is absolutely NOT interested in a guy before you go after him, or make sure that if they were interested in them that they are absolutely, positively done with them before you make your move. She was thinking about this as she walked over to talk to Paris.

"Hey Paris" she got straight to business. "Do you remember Stan Larkin? You told me you thought he was cute. Are you interested in him?" she asked Paris as she caught up with her.

"Kayla!" Paris was happy to see her friend, "I'm so glad to see you. I'm having a toga party Saturday night and I want you to come," she said. Then "Wow, Kayla you look gorgeous!" Paris exclaimed noticing Kayla's new look.

"Thanks," Kayla blushed. Coming from Paris she knew it was a sincere compliment. Paris was a good friend.

"Oh Stan, yeah, you were asking me about Stan, right?" Paris continued. "Yeah, well he is a cutie, but I'm dating someone else, I'm not interested in him," and then "Are you interested in him Kayla? Paris asked putting two and two together.

"Well, yeah, kinda," I told her. "I hope you don't mind?" it was kind of a question.

"No, not at all. Go for it girl" said Paris, "but be careful Kayla, Stan is kind of a player, don't get hurt," she warned as she walked away.

"Whew," I felt much better after telling Paris how I felt. I wouldn't want anything or anyone to jeopardize our friendship. She has always had my back, and now I didn't have to feel guilty about liking Stan.

Lunch was next and I remembered that I was supposed to sit with Charlene. I really wanted to talk to her now. I had saw her talking to Stan earlier and I hoped she hadn't told him anything. She didn't know much anyway, but if she told Stan that I had told her I liked him, Stan might think I had confided in her and let something slip out. So I had to find out what they were talking about.

I saw Charlene and her jockette friends as soon as I walked into the cafeteria. Charlene motioned for me to come sit with them. I got my tray and walked over to their table saying "Hi" to all the jockettes. I knew a lot of these girls, some of them I had classes with, and some of them I had went to elementary or middle school with. But high school was a whole other beast. When we all got to high school, we all kind of went our separate ways...peer pressure among other things. It just wasn't cool for jockettes to sit with a nobody like me, so I was really surprised to be sitting with them today.

"Kayla," Charlene began in a strange voice, "I'm going to the game with Stan Friday night."

I laughed thinking she was joking. She knew I liked Stan. She was my friend, she wouldn't do that, according to the unspoken rule, she COULDN'T do that.

"No you aren't," I said still laughing. I knew she was teasing me because she knew I like Stan.

"Yes, I am," she said in an ugly voice staring pointedly at me. "You think you're something special with your new look? Like I can't date someone like Stan? Like he wouldn't be attracted to me? Well I am going out with him," and she might as well have said, "and there's nothing you can do about it," but she didn't--it was understood though.

All of the other jockettes looked at me to see my reaction. I looked at them, they weren't laughing, and then I looked at Charlene--shocked. I couldn't believe she would do this to me. Why was she doing this? I could tell by the looks on some of the other jockette's faces that she wasn't lying, at least they had the decency to lower their eyes in shame.

I guess she thought I was laughing at her when I said, "No you're not," I wasn't laughing AT her, I just thought she was joking because we were friends for so long and I didn't think she would do something like that--she knew the rules. I think she took it the wrong way--like I thought I was better than her or something. I felt horrible because that's not what I meant. But then again I started thinking, if I were the one who had started this feud, or whatever it was, why did she come over my house when I hadn't seen her in ages?

That's when I realized that the BITCH had set me up! Everything she had done was deliberate: coming to my house after so long, finding out who I was interested in, and then going after him. To top it off she had to put me on blast and humiliated me in front of all the jockettes--on purpose! What a cold-blooded bitch. Charlene had not only broke the code of friendship, she had stomped on it and kicked it lifeless! Obviously she wasn't my friend. Why I didn't know. Right now I didn't care why, I was SO through with her.

I hadn't ate much of my lunch, and now I wasn't hungry at all. I stayed there at the table with the Jockettes for a few more minutes in an attempt to save face by showing them that I could care less; that's what I wanted them to think anyway. When I felt enough time had went by, and when thankfully someone started to talk about something else, I got up, dumped my tray, and left the lunchroom on the verge of tears.