Loving The Jerk Who Might Have Feelings

I awake with a start as my alarm goes off. It’s six. Ugh.

I head to the restroom and take an extremely long hot shower, scrubbing my body roughly and washing my hair thoroughly. When I get out, I pat myself dry and wrap the fluffy white towel around me.

Then I get my make-up bag and spread out everything before me as well as all my hair products.

First I blow dry my long chocolate brown hair and straighten it, adding a bit of silk-oil so it can shine. Then I lay down a bit of foundation on my face, followed by some shimmery powder and pink blush. I outline my eyes with a small bit of smoky-black eyeliner, but not so much that I look like a deranged raccoon, then I curl my eyelashes with the eyelash curler and add a generous amount of mascara.

I finish off with my favorite shade of violet lipstick and glittery pink lip gloss, which subsequently matches the stupid uniform.

I sigh happily as I look at my results in the mirror. Ah, aren’t I the prettiest girl ever?

Then I go back into the room and change into the school uniform. It’s absolutely ghastly. A white button-up shirt with a purple neck-tab, a long plaid skirt colored with various shades of purple, knee-length black socks, and purple flats.

I look like fucking Barney for God’s sake.

When I find the purple beret that goes with it, I literally die inside. I groan, grab my pink Prada bag,(it has my schedule inside as well as a notebook and pen) and turn around quickly, meaning to go out the door.

Then I realize that my new roommate’s still in bed. What the hell?

“Hey, dude?” I shake her but she doesn’t wake up, “GIRL THAT I DO NOT KNOW THE NAME OF!!” She groans, “It’s Lilith, now go away”

“Lilith, WAKE UP!” I yell in her ear.

She sits up with a groan, “What the hell, man?”

“Ugh, hello, we have class in about fifteen minutes??”

She blinks at me already falling asleep again, “You’re point?”

I grimace at her.

Lilith rolls her eyes at me, “Look I’m taking today off okay? Leave me alone!” then she goes back under her covers.

I roll my eyes and head out the door, fine then.

I’m already three quarters of the way to Joy’s dorm room when I realize that I’m going to be surrounded by people I do not know and they’ll probably stare and talk about me all day long.

I shiver, in a pleasant way.

_____________________________

I sigh thankfully when the bell for lunch rings. I get my purse and go out the door with the rest of the students. So far I got lost five times and in one of those I ended up in a boy’s restroom. How? I do not know. Not to mention I had nearly all my classes with that Lilith girl (who showed up halfway in second period) but none with Nate or Joy.

“Hey, Athena!”

I turn around. “Oh my god, AJ?”

When he reaches me he smiles. Damn, I’d forgotten how hot he really was. Even in the stupid uniform. Instead of the plaid skirt, he had black slacks, and instead of the neck-tab he wore a purple jacket and black tie with a lavender button-up shirt underneath.

“Yeah, wanna have lunch? I have it this period too; the caf is up on the third floor but we could go outside, they have tables there too”

“Nah, I rather go to the cafeteria” I smile, “I wanna be in an air conditioned place while I eat”

As he leads me to the cafeteria we chat a bit. It turns out we have our last period together; U.S History; which is,incidentally, taught by none other than my gracious father.

The cafeteria is really big, “Is it like this in the middle school, and elementary buildings?”

AJ smirks and shakes his head, “Nope, ours is the biggest, oh, and our chefs are the best in the country. I even heard the head cook quit at The White House when they offered him a job here”

I blink at him, “No wonder you have to pay a lot to get into this place”

At that he grimaces as he leads me to a booth, “Not everyone has to pay the full tuition, the barbarians that live over at Lincoln’s Pass get a discount just because their school burned down and they have nowhere to go until they rebuilt it. Which my dad says might not happen soon because the government doesn’t care”

I blink; I hadn’t seen this side of AJ. I mean I’m one of those barbarians apparently since my mom gave our old address of grandpa’s house plus she told me that teacher’s get discounts. But I shrug that away; I mean AJ has a right to be angry, “Yeah, I see what you mean” I half-lie. I wasn’t about to tell him the truth about me.

“Anyways” AJ shrugs, “I don’t feel like eating, do you? I’m too excited to finally see you again, to even glance at the food”
I giggle flirtatiously.

Just then Joy comes by. I blink at her, silently telling her to leave but she doesn’t listen, “Athena! You will not believe who I just found!!”

“Er, Joy, um can we talk about this later?” I ask as AJ looks from her to me confused.
“It’s SKITTLES!!”

My eyes widen. What?! No way, it can’t possibly be... but the look in Joy’s surprised face confirms my fears. I sigh, “I’m sorry AJ, I’ll be back in a moment” I climb out of the booth and lead Joy to a corner of the cafeteria that AJ can’t see.

“He-he was at the other end of the cafeteria when I came in” Joy stutters as I tremble. Joy is almost never upset.

I feel an urge to scratch my arm as my head twitches to the side. “Oh my god, why is he here? I-I thought he went to, like, jail, I mean—“

Joy is shaking her head, “I dunno, but he’s definitely here. He was talking to that girl that took us to our rooms. Samara!”

I’m not sure if that’s what she had named Stacie, or if it was a type of curse, like, “Damn!”, but I honestly couldn’t care less”

“Do you want me to go tell Mom?” Joy asks.

“NO!” I exclaim, not able to think clearly, “Now I need you to do me a favor, I’m not ready to deal with is, so just don’t tell anyone; I just want—I mean can you just—?” I say in a rush letting my emotions flow free, momentarily, from the dam I built to keep them in.

Joy stops me with a nod, “Say no more, I will be as stealthy as a cat” then she tiptoes off humming the Pink Panther theme song.