How To Win A Guy In 30 Days

How To Disappoint

Vanessa ambled through the corridors of St. Agnes Academy with her usual gait, quick and vigilant. But the ear-to-ear smile spreading over her face was brand new.

"Good morning," a sophomore girl greeted.

Vanessa smiled. "Morning." I hate you.

"Good morning Vans," a senior student said as she passed by.

I hate you too.

"Morning Vanessa," another girl shouted from the other side of the corridor.

Vanessa nodded, in a form of greeting. Oh, I hate you too.

She spotted Marly who was grudgingly dumping a stack of hardcover files into one of the many drawers that lined the creamy wall adjacent to the Principal's office, pushing back her glasses that had slid to the bridge of her nose. Vanessa stopped a few metres from the office, bouncing on the heel of her shoes as she patiently waited for her friend. After an epoch, Marly joined her, question marks hanging on the crease lines of her forehead. "You got laid?"

Vanessa's blue orbs widened a fraction. "What is wrong with you?"

"I was going to ask you the same question." She shrugged as they stopped by the lockers. "What is wrong with you? You even said 'morning' to a sophomore student." Marly shuddered for effect.

"Vans!"

Vanessa felt a familiar pair of long, slender arms encircling her neck.

*

By the end of school, she decided that she had woken up from the right side of her bed. She walked out of the last class, calculus, with a broad smile on her face.

"Lemme guess," Marly said as she joined her hyped friend. "A for the test?"

"A+," Vanessa squealed. "Just imagine dad's reaction?"

Her mind immediately flew into the world of unaccomplished dreams. Her father would kiss each of her fingers, shower her with praises and take pride over her unique intellect. "Yes, Vanessa, you are free." Her father would sign the negotiations' document blindfolded and Vanessa would be-

"-still kept as a refugee in her own house," Marly completed, bored.

Like a balloon being bursted with a pin, her dreams vanished with a poof.

Vanessa narrowed her eyes playfully and instead of sprouting something sarcastic, as she would have done on any normal day, she gave her worried best friend a toothy smile.

"You're creeping me out." Marly's face scrunched in part worry and amusement. It was a rare chance to find a smile adorning Vanessa, let alone the prevalent hyperactiveness.

They walked out of the school premises, Vanessa skipping to her white Bmw like an excited child.

Marly frowned at the 'masculinity' inside the car: deodrants, shaving cream, gel, hair wax- "Toothbrush?"

"Spare ones," Vanessa shrugged. "In case he runs late to work."

"You should get yourself a car," Marly put back the toothbrush that she had taken to inspect inside the cabinet, grimacing.

"My brother doesn't mind," Vanessa said. "It's not like dad will buy me one anyway."

"Well you can't complain without asking."

"Been there. Done that." Vanessa added, "Multiple times."

It was true that the legal owner of the car was her brother. But ever since she had gotten her driving licence, the car keys had miraculously ended with her. Besides, Alex didn't mind her taking his car as he had a way cooler police car.