Beeeep! Beeeep! Beeeep! Beeeep!

My eyes cracked open with Sophie's alarm blaring to see her asleep in front of me with a small smile. 

Beeeep! Beeeep! Beeeep! Beeeep!

A big yawn snuck up on me as I stretched out.

Beeeep! Beeeep! Beeeep! Beeeep!

I took out my phone to check the time.

7:16 AM

I sat up on the spot when I saw we only had fourteen minutes before school.

'Sophie," I said, shaking her awake as the alarm kept going.

With half closed eyes, "What?"

"It's seven-sixteen."

She stared at me as she processed it. When it clicked, she rolled out of bed as fast as I've ever seen her and rushed out of the room. Only poking her head back in to ask me, "Do you need to go check on your plants?"

"There's not enough time. I'll ask Dad if he can before work."

She muttered an 'alright' and shot back down the hall to the bathroom.

I got my things together and texted Dad.

 

To Dad:

7:17 AM: I overslept and dont have enough time to get home take care o my plants. Can yiu water them before work please?

 

I sent it with the typos and rushed to the second bathroom with my clothes.

It didn't take long before I was ready, but Sophie was waiting for me when I got out.

"You ready to go?" she asked.

"Yeah, I just need my bag." I headed upstairs and paused for a moment.

 

Am I really going to bring the ball to school with Kendall? Maybe I should go home to keep it safe. But I'd be really late for school.

 

"Are you ready yet?" Sophie called out.

 

Mom and Dad will be pissed at me if I skip that much school.

 

"Yeah," I called back.

 

If I don't piss off Kendall, then I should be fine...

 

"Then come on already. We're gonna be late."

I grabbed the bag in a hurry and headed out to her. "Sorry. Let's go."

She grabbed my hand with her usual grip, and with a smile I squeezed back as we jogged down the sidewalk together. 

I still wanted to shout I had a girlfriend, but I held back for Sophie's sake. 

"Do you want to hang out again after school? Just the two of us this time," Sophie asked.

"I'd love that."

I've never been lovey dovey before, but I couldn't stop being amazed at how this felt. It was like this big train of joy hitting you and makes you think of nothing else. Apparently to the point it made me a fucking idiot, since it was only when we got to school that I realized I could've just left the ball at Sophie's. With a quiet sigh, I did my best not to let it bring me down, but I'd need to be careful today.

Once we made it there, I took out my phone. "Two minutes left," I said. Along with a text from Dad.

 

From Dad:

7:24 AM: I will, but you need to be more responsible with your time. 

 

Couldn't argue with that.

We pushed our way in through the front doors and into the crowd. “Surprised we actually made it,” Sophie said as we walked deeper in.

“Yeah, but I gotta get to class. I'll talk to you after school.” I was just about to walk off when a voice came from the side that made my shoulders slump.

“That's if you're not spending after school with me.”

 

Please just get this over with.

 

Kendall popped up out of nowhere as if to crush everything that was going right again. What made it even worse was Sophie stepped up to her like they were going to get into a fist fight right there, but I wanted to at least try to speed this up. “Can we just get to class already?” I asked, but both of them stayed put and the best I got from Sophie was, "No."

I went back to drowning it out until Kendall came up to me and said something that made no sense at all.

"And you. Tell Sarah to stop babying you."

"Who's Sarah?" I asked.

“Sarah- Sophie- Sammy- I don’t care what her name is. Just tell her to stop butting in where she’s not wanted.”

Sophie pushed in again, but how the hell did Kendall not know her name? She's known Sophie as long as she's known me. That was just- wow.

Kendall slapped me on the back as I was lost in thought and finally walked off. Only to have Sophie ruin it by grabbing her shoulder to keep her here as they went at it again.

“Sophie,” I said, “People are staring. Can we please just go?”

The two of them looked around and it finally got both of them to stop and for Kendall to walk away.

"I have to get to class," I said, already walking off, "Talk to you later."

Sophie waved me off to a day that seemed like it'd be crap with Kendall around, but I realized something that was way off as classes went on. Kendall didn't do a single thing to me in every single morning class we had together.

She looked at me a lot, but didn't say a word.

I had no idea what to make of it. Nothing happened that would make her want to leave me alone, and Sophie would have said something if she tried to stop her.

When the lunch bell rang, I got my food and sat down like normal.

"Hey there." Sophie sat next to me with a big fat smile.

"Hey," I said, looking over at Kendall to see her just sitting there.

The others sat down one by one in their usual spots like everything was normal, which made this even weirder.

"You okay?" Sophie asked.

"Yeah. It's just Kendall hasn't done anything to me today. At all. And it's creeping me out, but she's leaving me alone." I scratched the back of my head. "Did you do something to her?"

Holly silently looked at me.

"If I did then we'd both be suspended," Sophie said, "Maybe she's up to something?"

"I don't know."

Holly kept staring, so I asked, "You need something?"

She looked at Sophie, "How long are you going to wait? Tell us what happened already."

Sophie's smile beamed as she rocked side to side in her seat.

"Tell us what?" Vanessa asked as she leaned forward with Mark while Ben kept to his food.

I smiled along with Sophie, but unlike her, my face had to have been turning red.

"Last night I asked Robbie if he wanted to go out with me, and he said yes," She said as she put an arm around me.

Vanessa and Mark broke out into applause while Holly and Ben both just smiled and kept eating.

Vanessa held her hand out towards Mark, "Pay up."

"You were serious about that? I was joking around," Mark said.

"Were you two really betting if we got together?" I asked.

Sophie broke out laughing, "What was the bet? You should have let me get in on it."

"We bet if Robbie would be too frazzled to say yes when you asked him," Vanessa said, still holding her hand out.

"Wait, so you guys knew she was going to ask?" I asked as Mark gave Vanessa her money,

"They didn't," Sophie said, trying to hold back her laugh. "Holly knew though. I told her last night before you got there."

"Then how did they make the bet if they didn't know?"

"Seriously?" Sophie asked, "Even Kendall though we've been dating for a long time. 'Your little girlfriend,'" she said in a mocking Kendall voice, which turned into more of her laughing.

Leaning back, I realized she was absolutely right.

"Huh, well I guess-" I was cut off when an arm came up from behind me and grabbed one of my fries. I looked back and there was Kendall walking away. I immediately took a close look at my fries and dug through them when I didn't find anything.

Nothing was there.

"You should throw those out right now," Ben said.

That would be the smart thing to do, but there was nothing there and I wasn't going to lose out on food because of her.

"There's nothing there and it'll be fine," I said as I kept eating, "She probably wants me to think she did something to it so I'd have to throw it out."

Sophie put her fries in front of me. "Don't eat that, you can have mine."

"No," I said as I put Sophie's fries back on her tray, "She's already taken enough of my stuff and I'm not going to let her take anything else. These are mine and I'm going to eat them."

Everyone's looks made it fucking obvious they they were pitying me.

Fuck that, and fuck their pity. I sat there and ate my fries without a care in the world.

Everyone stopped talking while Sophie and Ben shot me concerned looks every now and then. It wasn't until Vanessa turned the mood around again, "So Robbie, how did Sophie ask you out?"

"She asked me if I wanted to form S.U.B.B.A.G."

"Super ultra best…" Vanessa said as she tried to figure it out.

boyfriend and girlfriend?" Mark guessed.

"Ding ding ding!" Sophie said, "I guess I need to come up with something new other than super ultra best if it's that easy to figure out."

The rest of lunch was spent talking about what happened last night, so it went by pretty fast. Even after lunch, Kendall still left me all alone. That was, until Shop class. The moment I walked in and got my chair, she came up to me. “Is that pile of shit the best you can do?"

Flinching, I picked up my chair and went to sit down. Why the hell would she wait until now to start when everything's been going well?

The moment I sat down, she was right there across from me. “Go sit somewhere else for once.”

“And miss watching you be a failure up close? Not a chance.” She leaned forward and put on her usual bitchy psycho smile.

“I don’t care about this stuff so I’m not going to be good at it,” I said.

“No shit. You’re terrible at everything. I bet you can’t even name one thing you’re good at.”

“Shut up and go sit somewhere else,” I said, still trying to contain myself.

“Come ooon, I’ll even help you out. You're too weak to do anything you need muscle for, so it can’t be that.”

My hands clenched the chair as I looked down, wishing I could just walk out and leave. 

“I mean it,” I said as my chest burned with frustration.

“Still need help? Alright, You’re too brain dead to do anything smart, so that’s out as well. And you’re obviously not creative at all if that pile of wood is the best you can do.”

I finally looked up at her. “I’m not stupid and I am creative.”

She tried to hold back her laugh, “You’re creative?”

My eyes went right back down to my chair. “I can play music,” I mumbled.

“Knowing how to play the triangle isn’t something to be proud of. Face it, you’re too much of a dumb ass to play music.”

“Shut up," I said as I gripped my chair tight and fought to hold off tears. “Just shut the fuck up already.”

“Aww Robbie, don’t cry just because you’re useless. Maybe you’ll cheer up when you hear what I did to your food.” She looked right into my eyes.

I froze and my anger disappeared. “What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything big.”

“Tell me what you-”

“I swapped a french fry from your tray with one that I licked all over. I also used it to clean the bottom of my shoe and stuffed it into the trash. So, you ate all your lunch, right?”

“Wha...”

“Ohhh, so you did. Was it good? Are you able to figure out which one it was?” She leaned forward. “Did it taste any different?”

“You-” I covered my mouth as a lump in my throat pushed up.

“Yes, Robbie? Oh by the way. I accidentally dropped it onto the cafeteria floor. Hope you don’t get sick.”

I shot up and rushed out of class with my hand covering my mouth, tripping over myself through the door. Mr. Roland called out something, but I was already gone.

Pushing into the bathroom and into one of the stalls, I hunched over and puked my lunch out.

"Are you okay in there?" A voice came from outside not long after.

"I'm fine! Leave me alone," I muttered between throwing up.

"Mr. Roland said I had to check on you."

"Just-" cut off by more coming up that I tried to keep down. When it passed, "Just leave me alone..."

"Come on man, I need to hurry up and finish my chair."

"I don't care!" I flushed the toilet. "I'm not going back."

"We have like thirty minutes of class still."

"Then I'm waiting here for thirty minutes."

"Really? Man, what did she do to you?"

I sat myself against the wall as my throat burned and tears covered my face.

Was that seriously why she left me alone the entire time? She just wanted to fuck with my head or something? Of course it was too good to be true. Why would she actually leave me alone if she wasn't trying something? And why the fuck was I so stupid to think eating those fries was a good idea? I brought my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. She's done a lot of stuff, but that was a whole new level of psycho for her...

A big chunk of time passed before he spoke out again, "I'm going to go back to class."

He left, and it would only be a matter of time before Mr. Roland came and got me himself.

Maybe he'll at least do something for once and keep us apart. I took a few more minutes before I got up and rinsed my mouth in the sink. Once I dried my tears, I shuffled back to class.

One step back into the room, and Kendall already had her eyes on me with an even bigger gut-turning smile. Like she was proud she completely fucked up my day. At least she was sitting next to Mr. Roland's desk and away from me, so I could finally just not have to deal with her. 

Almost as soon as I sat down, Mr. Roland called out, “Kendall, Robbie. I want both of you to come with me. We’re going to settle this.”

Sure, because why would I get a chance to just rest?

I pushed myself up and followed Mr. Roland out of class while I did everything to avoid eye contact with Kendall.

“Kendall, you sit outside. I’ll talk to you when I’m done with Robbie.”

She sat down and we walked into the room with a table and other meeting room stuff. He sat down behind the desk. "Have a seat."

I sat down like he asked.

"What's been going on between you two? I know she's harassing you, but why doesn't it ever get reported?"

"Because I'm dealing with enough crap," I sunk down in my seat.

With a sigh, "If you tell any teacher what she's been doing, then we can help you."

"Sure," I said as I rolled my eyes.

He rubbed the back of his head. "I'll admit we don't always handle it the best, but if you tell us, then we can do something."

"That'll just make things worse and she'd get pissed at me."

He leaned back in his chair as his hand ran from the back of his hand to his forehead. "Maybe she'll get mad, but it'll be for the best."

I stared at him as my shoulders tensed up. "Don't tell me what's for the best when we both know nothing's going to change even if I tell you."

His hand slid from his forehead to rub his eyes, "What if there was a way for us to get her to stop for good? Would you tell us what she's been doing then?"

"If you actually have a way then you'd have already done it if you actually cared, but you don't. You're going to do nothing just like every other teacher who knows she goes after me right out in the open."

His hand fell to the table and as he sat up right.

"I didn't do this because I really don't want to, and I won't need to if you just tell us, but it's really important that we get this settled."

I crossed my arms, "I don't believe you."

He looked over at the clock, "Okay. That's fine. Just do two things for me and I'll leave you alone. Alright?"

"Sure. Whatever."

"Alright, if Kendall bothers you on your way home, then just smile. She won't get anything out of it if you do, and if she asks you anything, then act like you don't know what she's talking about. Oh, sorry, but another thing. Tell her that you didn't tell me anything about what she did."

I actually laughed a little.

"Smile and ignore her? That's your big plan?" I got up and pushed in the chair as the tension in my shoulders spread to the back of my neck. "Thanks for the advice."

"If you do it then I promise that it will almost certainly work."

'Almost work' he said. I never imagined getting bad advice could actually make me want to punch my hand through a wall, but here I was. I didn't waste any more time on this crap and headed back to class. Still with Kendall's fucking eyes on me.

Several people looked at me as I walked back in, but I ignored them and went back to my seat to sit and do nothing.

Eventually, they both came back and Kendall sat at a table across the room, but something was off.

Kendall was shooting me looks. Not the looks to make me uncomfortable, or the ones that made me think she wanted to bash my face in. It was a look you'd expect from someone that was afraid.

What the hell happened? If she found out I told him, then she'd be beyond pissed.

Eventually as I kept looking at her, something special, but almost terrifying happened. She looked away from me.

What?

Kendall, the girl who'd stare at me no matter what for every situation imaginable for creepy amounts of time just looked away from me.

What the actual hell did he talk to her about?

No way did Mr. Roland actually have a way to get her to stop like that, but here she was, doing a one-eighty and acting like an entirely different person.

Was Mr. Roland serious? His advice was garbage, but if she was acting like this, then maybe I should do what he suggested, but that'd piss her off a lot.

My eyes went to my backpack with my meditation ball in it.

I needed to keep it safe, but if he was right about this, then maybe I could actually get her to stop for good.

Just imagine how proud Sophie would be of me when she found out I got Kendall to stop.

And I'd finally be able to not have to explain to my parents why I'm getting beat up all the time.

I could actually enjoy school again for the first time in years.

Everything could be fixed.

It was more or less decided for me at that point.

I'd do what he told me too the next time Kendall followed me home.