All That Glitters

Braylen walked into the doors of her high school with her head held high and immediately felt the stares; there were underclassman staring at her like a god-like figure, there were girls staring maliciously and boys staring like dogs, but she didn't understand the obsession with her. Braylen only knew she was popular because her cousin was popular, they didn't hang out with the snotty popular girls or the meathead jocks, they were their own branch.

"'Sup Braylen!" A football player shouted out with a less-than-subtle head nod and she smiled politely at him. She liked to think about things in the hallways, just tune everything out and think about whatever little thing popped into her head. That was what happened this morning, she started thinking about how if people actually cared so much about their social standing in high school, which only lasted four years it'd never occurred to her why people did.

She kept thinking and walked through the hallways on autopilot, knowing exactly when one hallway turned into another, she glanced down for a second to see a scuff on her shoe and before she knew it she'd bumped into something hard. "Oh sorry," she said with attitude coming out, completely unintentional of course and was met with a pair of familiar green eyes. She couldn't place why they were familiar, in fact with a school of two thousand kids, she had never even seen this one before.

"Braylen Huntington, right?" He asked with a cool guy demeanor, pointing a finger at her with a smirk on his lips. Now she was curious as she nodded, raising an eyebrow and racking her brain for anything in her past pertaining to the tall, lanky boy in front of her. "Congratulations," He smiled.

"On what?" She asked, a flirtatious smile starting to creep on her lips. She wasn't going to lie, in the massive amount of time she'd spent in her head day dreaming, she'd dreamed about this; accidently bumping into a hot guy and realizing he was the guy of your dreams. It couldn't be helped that her expectations rose.

"On getting to touch what most girls only dream of touching," He smirked and just like that her expectations of this boy crashed and burned all the way to the floor. She narrowed her eyes at him, then realized where she knew him from. Of course she'd seen him in the hallways a couple of times, but she'd known his reputation quite well. John O'Callaghan, the "big man on campus", who somehow had all the girls wrapped around his finger with a single crooked smile. Braylen, however, wasn't impressed. He didn't do anything with his life besides party, he was cute, but he wasn't that cute, and his ego practically filled the hallway.

She looked up to see his eyes on her, all over her. They were giddy like the eyes of an older brother who set up a prank for a younger sibling, waiting for a reaction. All Braylen did was smirk and sigh before over-dramatically and curtly saying, "Hmm, a high school boy with an overinflated ego, how cliche."

She saw his eyes register what she had said to him and his face drop, just like that her day got better as she stepped around him gave him one last smile and kept walking to her classroom. The halls were beginning to empty and she sighed realizing she would probably be late and get a detention since Mr. Burns did not like a single thing about her existence. She took a sharp breath and turned into the classroom right as the bell rang loudly.

"Oh Miss Huntington, late again I see. I believe that makes five so here you go, detention today after school," He smiled, it was almost sadistic how much pleasure it brought him to see the disappointment from a detention slip.

"I was barely late, I-" Braylen tried to argue before another person came through the door and everyone's eyes shifted to a guy holding a pass in his hands giving her a smile.

"I don't want to hear your excuses Miss Huntington, you know my five tardy equals a detention policy quite well and if you need to read the syllabus again, there's a copy in the resources corner," He shooed her away and she groaned wondering what else life was going to throw at her today. Plopping down in the seat next to Miranda Wilkens, who was the smartest girl in the whole school; it meant that Braylen was getting an A in this class because Miranda spoke aloud during tests, so all Braylen had to do was listen.

---------

"What up, Bray?" Sterling Brady called out as Braylen left the lunch line filled with too many kids to go to her typical lunch room table. She prayed for Friday to come simply because Seniors had off-campus privileges and she didn't have to smell like french fries after lunch. Braylen flipped her hair over her shoulder before sitting down next to the baseball player and small-talking about their days and what happened.

"Babe, just I want to sit with my friends for once," Caitlin's voice could be heard causing everyone at the table to turn and see a skinny blonde pulling a tall boy with a mop of red hair behind her. Braylen let out a soft laugh and knew her boyfriend didn't stand a chance in this argument. "You know Braylen! You know Sterling, so why are you being such a pussy! Oh see they're all looking! Jared Monaco, you come sit with us right now!" She spoke slightly louder than her normal voice when she was upset, but Jared was quite conscious of people eavesdropping and was arguing back in a whisper so he couldn't be heard.

Like clock work, a few more words were exchanged then Jared sighed and walked up to the lunch table plopping down across from Braylen and Sterling with an awkward smile on his face, his shoulders hunched with defeat. "Hey Braylen, hey Stirling, what's up?"

"Nothing, just stuck in this hell hole," Braylen shrugged before Stirling started cackling about Jared complaining about Caitlin while another person came up and talked to her. Braylen tuned them out, she knew her cousin could be a bit of a handful, but she didn't need to hear about it. Instead, she pushed her salad around with a plastic fork, trying to find her appetite that as of late had dwindled to nothing.

"JohnO! What's up, bro?" Sterling yelled loudly, ripping Braylen from her la la land mentality and back to reality, where Caitlin and Jared were bickering softly and Sterling's attention was on a tall boy behind her. When she turned around, she frowned immediately realizing it had been the same one she'd had an unfortunate encounter with earlier.

"Nothing, same old fucking shit. I got way too wasted this weekend, I don't remember half the shit that went down," John laughed lightly, almost sounding like a stoner with how high his voice got with disbelief. Braylen raised an eyebrow, not because she was against partying, just people that were stupid about partying and the boy standing behind her was exhibit A. "Oh fucking McIver gave me a detention today so I might miss practice," He said before shaking his mop of light brown hair out.

"No way, fucking Bray has detention too," Sterling said before Braylen's eyes opened wide. She did have detention and all seniors were placed together for detention in a vacant lecture hall, she hoped he wouldn't press on, but of course right as the thought crossed her mind Sterling pressed on. "Have you ever met Braylen before? I mean everyone knows her, but she's way cooler than the rumors."

"What rumors?" Braylen narrowed her eyes at one of her best friends, she loved him to death, but he was a bit of an empty shell.

"I have met Braylen before and I must say she was quite rude, but in a funny way I guess," John kept talking to his teammate ignoring Braylen's question, which ultimately led to a flare of insecurity as she tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. Even when she scanned the cafeteria she could see people's eyes on her.

"Sounds like Bray, but she's a cool girl," Sterling laughed with a jovial smile on his face. "Dude, you should come chill with us after school at my house! Always a good time, right Bray?" Sterling asked, before looking to Braylen for confirmation. It was true, they always did have fun there, but she wanted to know why he was inviting some douche bag to their fun time.

"Yeah, it's a good time for sure," Braylen smiled weakly before looking at her food, still oddly disgusted and took a sip of her chocolate milk instead knowing that she would probably faint by the end of the day if she didn't.

"Alright, well I can't say no to a good time, I'll text you when school gets out out, bro!" John said before stopping to think. "Actually I'll see Braylen in detention so I'll figure out what's going down," He smiled reassessing the situation. He turned to leave after giving Sterling a weird handshake and nodding his head at Braylen, as if she was expected to swoon. She sighed wondering why her hell was going to be extended past 3:30 today.