The Secret Life Of Nerds

Pa-toom. Pa-toom. Pa-toom. The basketball hit the floor again, and again until Penelope Violet, who demanded to be known as Viv, made the free throw shot.

"Yes!"

"Way to go!"

"Duuuuuudes! We won!"

As Viv's friends rushed around her, she was reminded again that she was the only girl on the rec basketball team, and this wasn't an official game. Nevertheless, she was excited she made the shot, and yelled along with her friends, and made fake condolences for the other team. They muttered that they only won because she was an Amazonian freak.

She grinned. She was an Amazonian freak. At five four, she didn't seem very tall compared to real Arizonians, but once you factored in the age, it made a difference. She was eleven. In sixth grade. She was tall, and growing; her shoe size was size nine and, surprise! Still growing.

She was on the basketball team (practiced with the boys; their workouts were harder), soccer team (ran five extra miles per day), track team (it was co-ed), and cross country (also co-ed). In short, she was a runner. For as long as she had remembered, she was a runner. She was one of the team, the guys saw her as 'one of the guys'. She really didn't care, since she had all the female attention she had at home, also, where else could you find friends where you could burp, scratch your butt, watch re-runs of famous sport games, and no one cared how you looked? Besides, she didn't have anything growing in her 'special places' (as her mother called them) and she looked like a boy, if you just hid her face.

She pushed back an unruly brown curl that escaped her ponytail, and grimaced. She wanted her hair long enough to put back in a high pony and just forget about it, but her sisters and mother always insisted that she looked better with short hair. 'You won't have to brush it as often', or 'It defines your cheekbones!' Psh. Whatever that meant. Next time, it's just a trim. No...layers or anything fancy.

"So...like, after we all shower and crap, we're going to meet up at the pizzeria, kay, V?" A sweating teammate, known as Luke, said before hitting the showers.

"Yeah, dude. See you there." Viv then gave an intricate handshake, and then also headed towards the showers. After showering, she entered the changing rooms at the same time as the girl’s basketball team- the team she was supposed to be on. She recognized a girl she was friends with.

Giving an almost insusceptible nod, she muttered "Hey, Keyaria, hows it going."

The black girl, who was almost five inches shorter then she was, responded, "Nothing much. The team misses your amazing free throws, but nothing much has happened."

Viv shrugged, and gave a friendly smirk. "I had give someone else on the team a chance to throw the shots. Besides, the guys don't need the glory, y'know?"

"Are you sure you aren't on the team just cause you like guys?" Slyly commented another girl, known as Celia listening in on their conversation.

Laughing, "I'm one of the 'guys',” Viv chortled, using air quotes, "And I doubt that anyone of them see farther then that."

"Are you sure?" The Celia pressed, seeming nonchalant.

Adding steel in her voice, Viv replied. "Yes."

Finally leaving, she added, "See you later Keyaria!" Whistling cheerily, she tried not to think of what Celia had said. Besides, who needs a boyfriend or anything...romantic at my age?

Walking in the warm September air, she looked and observed that the leaves were still green. That won't last. The fall was notorious in Connecticut, where the leaves dropped early and the snow fell late. True enough, a chilly breeze blew through, and Viv pressed her sports coat firmly around her. Underneath, she was wearing a jersey for Manchester United, for Christiano Ronaldo, the famous wing player. When Audrey had visited last year, she had the fortune to see three, three! Of their games, and in order to ease Viv's anger (It was both Viv's and Audrey's favourite England club team) she had bought her a massive amount of England jerseys.

Finally arriving at the pizzeria, Papa Bennie's, she spotted her friends. They were in the back corner, laughing, and waving around a salt and peppershaker. Shaking her head a little, she approached the table.

"Viv!" The shout came from the guy holding the saltshaker, Derek. His parents had emigrated from Japan two years before he was born, so he spoke Japanese and English fluently. He also seemed to look like a cat, and was charismatic. Viv also thought he had a small crush on her friend, Keyaria. They would be really good together...

"So, we ordered one large cheese pizza, one large pepperoni pizza, two servings of bread sticks, and, uh, yeah." Derek's announcement had interrupted Viv's train of thought.

Grabbing a chair for the table, she inquired, "Der, what are you doing with the salt shaker?"

Aaric, the guy who resembled Eric from the Little Mermaid, answered for him. "We were actually saying if Darth Vader was the pepper shaker, and if Force was the salt shaker, the pepper shake would totally kill everyone before the salt shaker would. The pepper shaker makes people sneeze and stuff, and the salt does nothing!"

"No way! The salt could go into your eyes and blind you! Or land in your drink, and ruin it!" Derek yelled from across the table.

"Pepper could do the exact same thing!"

"But pepper wouldn't dissolve in liquid!"

"It would get stuck in your eye and absorb the liquid and kill you!"

"Well, salt...." Pausing to think for a bit, Aaric finally said, "Salt isn't even the right colour! It's white! The force is black, because Darth Vader is black!"

"Actually," Viv, said, interrupting the amusing discussion, "Wasn't the actor who played Darth Vader white?"

Silence fell.

"Um, no?" Aaric uncertainly said.

"YES! I win!" Doing a little dance of victory, Derek cheered a little.

"Ah, shut up. The food's here!" Luke announced, his mouth almost watering as the best pizza in town was put in front of them. Within seconds, there was no talking. Just chewing and slurping.

After slapping down a ten, because it was the only thing in her wallet, said goodbye to all of her friends, saying that she had to be home by five. She started to walk out, and head home but was suddenly stopped, and a car pulled over.