Becoming Somebody

Chapter 3 - Homecoming Princess?

By that Friday Taylor had given Charlie the rundown of how everything at Saint Peters worked, as well as who was who. First, her locker buddy was a Junior, he was a Varsity soccer player, and his name was Tony Duran. He was definitely one of the popular guys in his grade, someone was always chatting with him while he was at his locker. She had only run into him four times so far, but each time he smiled at her and said something flirtatious. She would respond back similarly, but because someone was always with him, it was hard to strike up a real conversation.

Second, the Senior boy from the bench Cassius Green was not a part of the "in" crowd per say, but he had his own crew of friends. They seemed to be the rebels of their class. She had already seen them pulling little pranks on people and starting mosh pits during lunch hour. Dean McDonald had to go over there at least once a day to get them to settle down. They seemed like a lot of fun to Charlie. While she had obviously met and exchanged flirtatious pleasantries with Tony, she had not yet said a word to Cassius.

The girls Alex and Jessica that she had met on the first day were the cute, popular Sophomore girls, aside from Taylor. Alex was on student council, and Jessica was a JV soccer star. Charlie could tell there were definite lines drawn between who was "cool" and who was not in her class. These kids had already spent Freshman year together, so the social hierarchy of the grade was established. But that didn't mean Charlie couldn't shake it up.

She decided to join the cross-country team because she had always been a fast runner. It was another step in her journey to being a Queen Bee. She knew she would have to be a part of clubs or teams. Her depression and anxiety in the past years had always made it hard for her to do stuff like that. Now she had a new outlook, and she wanted to be a joiner, in a sense. People didn't like people who didn't want to be a part of anything. So even if she didn't end up loving running, she would do it until she found out what else she liked to do.

She jogged along the set route the coach had told her follow. It was a couple miles round trip around the school, crossing through some parks and residential neighborhoods along the way. She breathed in through her nose, out through her mouth to try to maintain a good rhythm. She sensed someone jog up next to her.

"Hey, you're Charlie, right?" an older athletic looking girl said to her.

"Yeah, that's me," she answered a little breathlessly, obviously not in as good of shape as this girl.

"I'm Mary," the girl said. "I'm a Senior, are you a Freshman?"

"No, Sophomore transfer," Charlie said, eager to correct anyone who thought she was that young. She was about to turn sixteen in a month.

"Lots of people talking about you at school already, Charlie," Mary said, smiling at her.

Charlie almost stopped running out of surprise, but managed to keep pace with Mary. "What?" Her heart fluttered with excitement. Was her plan already working?

"Oh yeah, you've made an impression, even on some guys in my class," Mary answered. "Have you considered running for Homecoming princess?"

"Homecoming what?" Charlie asked, not knowing there was even such a thing.

"Princess, each grade has one. And then the Senior class has several, and then one Queen. It's called Homecoming Court, actually. Anyway, it looks pretty good on college applications, and since you seem to be the girl everyone's talking about, you have a good chance of winning."

Charlie had no idea that something like Homecoming Princess would be good for college applications. It made sense in a way, especially if it was something like Class President that you had to run for. Colleges liked student leadership.

"Wow you think so?" Charlie tried to absorb what the girl was saying. "Who do I have to talk to to put my name in the running?"

"No one, your class will just be asked to write down names for Prince and Princess, probably in the next couple weeks."

Charlie was confused. "So why did you ask if I was going to run?"

Mary smiled. "Cause a little campaigning never hurt anyone, right?"

"Got it," Charlie nodded. However, she had no plans of campaigning, the very thought made her skin crawl. It seemed desperate and weird. If people wanted to elect her, then so be it.

"Do you know any of the guys in my class?" Mary asked, continuing to jog next to Charlie, even though it was clearly slower than her usual pace.

"Uh yeah, some," Charlie tried to be nonchalant.

"Well, I know for a fact that Jake Michaels and Cassius Green think you're really cute," Mary said.

Butterflies hit Charlie's stomach at the very thought. Jake Michaels was a Varsity football player, that much she knew. He was a popular guy, no doubt. But to hear Cassius thought she was cute was a whole new level of exciting.

"Oh well that's cool," she replied, unable to keep herself from blushing.

"Just wanted to clue you in on some stuff, keep up what you're doing girl! Also, you should probably train on your own on the weekend. Coach is not gonna love if you clock in a slow ass time for our team at a meet," Mary said, before picking up her pace and effectively saying goodbye.

Charlie stopped running as Mary peeled off, finally unable to catch her breath. She put her hands on her knees and she leaned forward, feeling a cramp coming on. Maybe cross-country wasn't for her.