Concrete Angel

I woke up at 8. That's what Joey's flashing clock said as I rolled over. It was Saturday. Why was I up so early? I slowly sat up to see that Joey was not in his bed. I didn't hear any movement in our room. I slowly made my way to the bathroom. When I looked in the mirror, I saw a sticky note posted on it.

Izzy,

Today's the day. Get breakfast and meet me in Mrs. Hutto's room.

Joey

"Oh, crap." I say hitting my head. I quickly shower and get dressed. I happened to forget that today was speed-dating. I didn't think too many guys would show up but I wanted to hurry up and get it over with. Joey and the guys must of went down early to set up.

"Where is everybody?" I mumble to myself as I walk out of our building and towards the cafeteria.

It was strange. Normally there were guys roaming around, even if I never saw any in my building when leaving it. There were some when I went outside. Where were they? I walked into the cafeteria to find it completely empty. I slowly walked to the lunch men (yes even the lunch people were men) and they handed me a plate before turning back to their work. I went to our table and slowly ate, waiting for someone to come in. Anyone. The cafeteria was never empty. Ever.

"Elizabeth!" a voice yells and I look up to see Jake running toward our table.

"Jake, where is everybody?" I say as he falls into a seat next to me.

"Where do you think?" Jake says rolling his eyes at me.

"I dunno. I'm completely confused." I say taking a bite of my food.

"Hurry up." Jake says and I glare his way.

"Why?"

"Cause I'm going to show you where everyone is."

"Fine." I say quickly eating. I fill my stomach quickly and throw my trash on the way out.

"This place is so empty..." I mumble more to myself because Jake was a good twenty feet ahead of me.

"Wait for it." Jake says hearing what I said. He opens the door to the building where most of the classrooms were. My mouth dropped. It was so packed that we couldn't even get in. This could not be all for me.

"We already started, you know with the first round. Cause we figured it would take forever." Jake says and I nod slowly.

"How am I supposed to get in?" I say staring at the wall of boys in front of me.

"Follow me." Jake says and I do as I'm order. We go to the back of the building to find that it was just as crowded. Jake swears under his breath and mumbles something about it getting more crowded.

"Isn't that the window to Mrs. Hutto's room?" I say smiling at Jake in a mischievous way.

"Yes it is." Jake says his grin growing.

"Give me a boost." I say and he lets me get on his back. Mrs. Hutto's window was up a little bit. I tried to push it open but it was locked. I told him to lift me higher and he did as he was told. I could see into the window now. Joey and the other guys were sitting at a table talking to guys. One by one guys were leaving the room. There were about five standing against the wall looking around. I banged on the window until Joey turned around and saw me. He motioned for the guy he was talking to, to leave. I laughed at the guy's annoyed face as Joey opened the window. It was high enough for me not to be able to see into it without Jake's help but not too high where Joey couldn't get a chair and help me inside. I fall into the window, with no grace and send Joey and myself tumbling to the floor.

"Sorry." I say laughing.

"About time you got here." Joey says as I climb off of him.

"Someone let me sleep in." I say nudging his arm.

"Well, if that last guy was your soul mate; too bad. Cause he only got to answer the first question." Joey says laughing at Jake who had manged to jump up and grab onto the window sill.

"Jake, you need some help?" I say looking up at him. He got one of his legs thrown over the sill and soon he fell onto the floor beside my feet.

"You so owe me for this." Jake says rubbing his body as he went and took a seat at the table.

"So you're over there." Joey says still chuckling about Jake. I went to the table that he pointed to and saw that there were a clipboard with five names and numbers. I called the first one looking around and a black haired guy walks up. He was about six foot. I looked up at him and smiled motioning for him to sit.

"Hi, I'm Cal." he says and I notice his voice is unnaturally high for a guys. I smile and introduce myself. We get to talking and within five minutes of his ten, I want to shoot myself.

"I'm sorry, Cal but I don't think this will work." I say finally throwing my arms up dramatically in the middle of his speech about how we should all be prepared for 2012 because everyone is going to die then.

"I guess people just don't appreciate someone caring about their safety." He growls and I roll my eyes picking up my clipboard and crossing his name off before placing it back on the far end of the table. My line now had nine people.

"Hey, I'm Brad." The next guy says walking right up and sitting down. He was a cutie. Brown hair with the eyes to match.

"Hi Brad." I say smiling brightly. He looked promising.

"So you see, cats are amazing." Brad said his face full of amazement while I mentally kicked myself repeatedly. It's only been three minutes.

"Brad, go." I say taking the clipboard and crossing through his name too.

The next five people all looked kind of cute but all had the worst weird habits. One swore he had been kidnapped by aliens, another said that he just wanted to get laid. The worst part was that the line just kept growing. I saw a ton of guys get sent away by the boys but my line was growing and theirs never seemed to end. Shoot me now.

"Bad time?" a voice says taking a seat across from me. I lift my head from the table to find myself face to face to a major hottie. Blond hair with beautiful green eyes. I smiled at him.

"Horrible so far." I say rolling my eyes.

"Maybe your luck will change. I'm Dean." He says shaking my hand.

"Maybe." I say smiling. He was the only one so far to last the full ten minutes. From what I could tell he didn't believe in aliens, hated cats, and was not looking for a night of fun.

"I'll let you know if I want a second date." I say smiling up at him as he left. He nodded and waved goodbye.

I took my clipboard of crossed out names and circled his. That's one possibility if I actually decide to date. The guy who sat down across from me next had to be a joke. I looked up to see everyone of my friends watching me with a huge smile. I glared their way but put on a fake smile to the boy that sat next to me.

"Hi, I'm Sherman." He wheezed and I slowly let my smile fade. He had huge bottle cap glasses, with dirty brown eyes. His hair was a bright red that matched his face. He had a Alien t shirt and a book in his hand. I made out the title to be Aliens Are Actual. Shoot me now.

"Where are you from?" I ask nicely.

"Doesn't matter, do you believe in aliens?" He questions leaning towards me and I lean backwards. I could hear Joey and Scotty laughing at me.

"No I don't." I say firmly and I see his face fall.

"Oh, I understand. We can make you a believer." Sherman says his eyes widening in a creepy way.

"No, you can't. Time to go." I say pointing to the door.

"No, I have nine more minutes." Sherman says refusing to move. What could I say to the guy? I sigh as he takes a deep breath and starts lecturing me on why I should believe. I glare at Joey, who was the only one still watching me. I could tell he was half-listening to the boy across from him. Joey flashes a smile and wags his eyebrows. When my little timer beeped, I almost pushed Sherman out the door.

By lunchtime, nothing was accomplished. I ordered pizza for us and we kept on working. I had three guys, just three; that were maybes. That's out of thirty. This is getting crazy. I knew the guys had been through at least a thousand boys. There were 5000 in the school. I finally had enough.

"EVERYONE STOP!" I yell about one. Everyone quiets and faces me. I needed a bullhorn. I look around and laugh to see that Mrs. Hutto has one behind her desk. I get it and motion for the guys to make room for me in the hall.

"IF YOU BELIEVE IN ALIENS, LEAVE NOW." I say into my bullhorn and I see at least fifty guys leave.

"IF YOU HAVE MORE THAN ONE CAT AND ABSOLUTELY THINK THAT THEY ARE AMAZING, LEAVE NOW." another twenty leaves.

"IF YOU HATE BASEBALL, YOU CAN GET THE HECK OUT." I say and at least a hundred leave the building. I sigh trying to think of anything else that would get rid of a good amount of people.

"IF YOU ARE GAY, LEAVE." I say and I see ten people leave, why the hell would they come in the first place? Boys are stupid.

"IF YOU HAVE A GIRLFRIEND LEAVE." I say and roll my eyes as at least a hundred guys leave the hall. I knew some guys had to have a girl.

"IF YOU JUST WANT TO GET LAID, LEAVE NOW." I say and I count at least twenty leave out the back door and I notice a nice chunk of guys missing from the front hall. That had to be at least 500 down.

"IF YOU GET INSANELY JEALOUS AND ARE OVERLY PROTECTIVE, LEAVE NOW." I say and put my bullhorn to the side thinking intensely.

"OH AND NOW, IF YOU MAKE IT TO ME, YOU ONLY HAVE FIVE MINUTES. GOT A PROBLEM WITH IT? LEAVE." I say and I count at least ten more go. Thank goodness.

"Annoyed?" Joey says as I walk past him. I nod and see that my line was shorter than it had been when I got up.

"Hey hottie." a voice says as I sit down. I look to see Zack across the table from me.

"I'm not in the mood for you." I growl making it clear for him to leave.

"Well, don't I get ten minutes?" Zack says pointing to the timer.

"Five." I snap.

"I'm worried about you." Zack says quietly leaning towards me.

"Don't worry." I say confused.

"You obviously have something going on." Zack says in a hushed tone. He noticed things too much.

"Besides the fact that I have a bunch of guys outside who want to date me and you are wasting my time?" I snap rolling my eyes.

"Yes, besides that." Zack says watching my face closely. I'd practiced this. I knew how not to show emotion. I knew how to hide what I was feeling; pain or worry.

"You're wrong." I say slowly trying to act normal.

"I don't think I am. You want to tell someone about it. I won't say a word." Zack says slowly and part of me wants to trust him, which makes me worry.

"I don't trust you. And your time is up." I say pointing towards the door. He nods and gets up slowly watching me.

"Just a hint, you might want to yell that anyone with a Jonas Brothers t shirt should leave." Zack says and I look around confused. There were at least ten in my line. That sort of screamed close to gay to me.

"IF YOU ARE WEARING A JONAS BROTHERS T SHIRT, LEAVE." I yell into the bullhorn and I hear the door slam behind a group of people.

At about one in the morning, we finally finished. There were a good fifty boys that could be a nice boyfriend, but at this point I never wanted to date again. I slumped in my chair as the last boy left. He was a weirdo. Joey and the other guys cleaned up and stacked the clipboards up. I lay my head on the table and almost fall asleep. I hear Ron and Chris say goodbye and that they would take the trash with them. Jake and Scotty yell goodbye and something about dropping the clipboards off in front of our door. I was so out of it. I felt Joey shake me.

"Let me sleep here." I say refusing to move. I don't think I could at that point. Sleep was overtaking me.

Joey laughs and I feel him picking me up. I look up in his face squinting. I go to tell him to put me down but he just shushes me. I listen for once. Trusting someone for once in my life, I leaned against him and let sleep take over me.