'Should I take the fourth one? I don't think I should…I already have a lot of homework on my hands and my mother wants me to start writing to her again…Perhaps if I skip some of the English Honors Society meetings, I can make time to read…maybe expand my reading time and keep to my club schedule… '

I stood there in front of the shelf, thinking over my choice between taking Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire or leaving it for the next time I came to the library. Eventually, I decided to take the book. I took it from the shelf and tucked it into my arm with the rest of the series. Normally, I only take two or three books from the library, but today I took four. I saw the entire Harry Potter collection sitting on the shelf while I had been skimming through it and I had to have them. I knew that I had already read each of them a million times before, yet I could not help it. I enjoyed reading about Harry and all his adventures on his task to defeat Voldemort. It gave me a reason to escape my reality and dive into a fantasy world where I wasn't "Pizza-Face" or "Pantie-Stain" or any of the horrible names the kids at school call me. In my world, I was Beth Costigan, a super-intelligent, pretty, amazing girl that all the guys loved and all the girls envied. I was supreme ruler. I was someone in my world, whereas here, at Bullworth, I was nobody. I was a quiet, little, insignificant little nobody who no one paid attention to unless something humiliating was about to happen.

I did not really mind, believe it or not. Yes, it was annoying having to pick spit wads out of your hair or being careful when you go to your locker, but for the most part, people left me well alone. I think it is because I'm a girl, and in a civilized environment, you do not touch girls in a harmful way (even here at Bullworth we have some kind of boundary). However, I have experienced a little bit of hostile contact in my few months here at Bullworth. The cheerleader who is three doors down from me in my dorm always bumps into me-rather harshly-whenever she passes me on her way to the bathroom in the morning. In Gym, the other girls either hit me hard with the ball in dodge-ball or trip me while we're doing laps on the field. I know I should try to do something about it, but I don't. It will only cause trouble, and I cannot be expelled.

My mother would kill me if that happened…

"Hey there, Beth…"

I looked to my right and saw him. Gary Smith. He was a kid in my English class and also a sociopath (from what Algie told me). He was tall, slender with short brown hair, deep brown eyes and a scar running across his right eye from eyebrow to cheek bone. Naturally, I did my best to ignore people like Gary, since they brought nothing but trouble, although when they are standing right beside me, it is a little difficult. Also, I had to admit, Gary was good-looking. His eyes were the kind of that sparkled whenever the light shined on them; his skin was a flawless light color that glowed in the dim lights of the library, and not to mention, his smirk sent shivers down my spine. Noting all these features in my head made keeping my eyes on the book in front of me it all the more complicated. Timidly, I shifted my head towards him.

"Um, hi…Gary. Wha-What do you want?"

"Nothing, just a few minutes of alone time with you…"His voice sounded casual as he inched closer to me, the smell of his cologne light in the air around us.

"Why?"

He gave a soft chuckle, and then gently turned my face to meet his own. Gary Smith's eyes were the most beautiful shade of brown. Seeing them clearly than I had before, they were not your ordinary, dull shade of brown, but a lively, much vibrant color. They had a mix of hazel with a twinge of green around the pupil. His eye lashes were not as full as most, but they curled up to brim his eyes rightly. I had never seen eyes like Gary's eyes. Not even supermodels had eyes like these; I don't think any artist could picture those eyes the way I did. I found myself caught in them before I even noticed Gary's smile widen.

"Because I wanted to give you this," He pulled a small purple violet from behind him and presented it to me. "I saw it and it reminded me of you."

"Um…thank you."

I took the flower and turned it in my fingers. I recognized it as one of the flowers in the gardens around the school. The petals were slightly squished from being in Gary's back pocket, but it looked healthy nevertheless. No boy had ever given me a gift before. They usually ignored me or made fun of me when they saw me. I was not unhealthily skinny like the cheerleaders, rich like the preppies or skanky like the greaser-slut. I was nobody, like I had clearly stated before. Nobodies like me never get noticed by boys, since there was nothing to make us stand out from the rest of the crowd. I did not have overly-large breasts or a shopping-mall sized backside; my eyes were a typical sea-green and my blonde hair was always tied up behind my head because it was too untamed to leave down. So, naturally, boys walked passed me most of the time. Having a boy-even Gary-give me a flower made me feel happy. Special, even.

"No problem," Gary said, leaning against the shelf and staring at me. "I was just having a walk outside with Petey when I saw it in one of the bushes."

I looked behind him to see Petey, the small, thinner boy who followed Gary around like a lost puppy. He was too cool to be a nerd, but too nerdy to be cool, as I had heard other people say. Petey had been an outcast like me, and Gary had taken him in as a "friend". Perhaps Gary was doing the same to me…

"What made you want to give it to me?" I asked him, smelling the earthy aroma of the flower.

"The fact that I wanted this…"

Then he kissed me. Just like that. It was so sudden and fast; like it had been spontaneous. I was sure Gary had planned the entire thing (for reasons I was not sure of yet), but it did not feel like it. I suspected it was because I did not expect him to kiss me so quickly, and I was just feeling the after-effects of being caught off-guard. I had imagined not being sure of what to do when a boy kissed me, but in this case, I did. I heard a small thump hit the ground beneath me when my books toppled to the floor; Gary mumbled something to Petey about getting lost as he tried to deepen our kiss. We embraced almost as if it were natural for us to make-out in the middle of the library with all eyes gazing on us.

Gary pressed me against the shelf; wrapped my legs around his waist and began kissing me deeply. I felt his hands begin to roam my body…

"Bethany! Bethany? Bethany!"

The sounds of my frantic roommate, Eunice, woke me from my dream. For a minute, while I ignored her loud banging, I thought about my dream and the boy that had been in it. I would admit that it was the beginning of a very steamy dream, but why Gary? Out of all the boys at Bullworth, why would my dream-boy be Gary Smith? I thought about telling Eunice-once I opened the door-but then went against it. If I started telling her that I was having dreams starring myself and Gary Smith, she would start calling it a "sign" that Gary and I were meant to be; she would start urging me to talk to him or do something ridiculous to get his attention towards me. I would have to kill her if she did that to me…

Or take away her chocolate.

"Bethany! Open the door, Beth!"

Grunting, I climbed out of my bed onto the cold wooden floor of my dorm. I shuffled over to the door and opened it for Eunice. Eunice was a few inches taller than me, a couple hundred pounds heavier, and was considered weird by the rest of the school. I honestly did not see why. She acted like a normal person, spoke like a normal person, and did everything a normal person does. The only real difference was that she was overweight. While all the other girls were purging, she was engulfing down mountains of food to dull whatever insecurities or problems she personally faced. Being the person I am, I generally tried to treat her with respect, but sometimes that failed.

Shutting the door, I noticed tears were streaming down Eunice's deep blue eyes. I suspected name-calling had triggered this, as usual, but I did not jump to any conclusions.

"What's wrong, Eunice?" I asked her as she rushed to crash down on her bed.

"It's-It's Mandy! She-She said mean things to m-m-me and they-hey hurt."

Seeing her sob like this so early in the morning kind of annoyed me, mostly because she had woken me up in the middle of a nice dream and that this was something I had grown to live with for the past few months of living in Bullworth. I plopped onto her bed and patted her back, listening to her sob. A few weeks ago, I would have asked what Mandy had said exactly to make her cry so terribly, but now I did not really care much to do so in the first place. What really amazed me about Eunice, however, was that she tries to lose her weight. She constantly talks of dieting and going to the gym, but she just ends up gobbling down food anyways. I like the fact that she tries, though. Yes, she did have a long way to go, but with her positive attitude, I think she will do fine.

"It's okay Eunice. Mandy is just a mean person, and you should ignore her." These were the words I mumbled to Eunice as she cried. I did not what else to say. It was not as much awkward as it was tiring. "If it makes you feel better, we can go to the track after class..."

She stared up at me, her eyes puffy red and her sniffling. "Really? You'll come with me?"

"Yeah."

"But you hate running..."

"I'll watch."

Eunice and I then shared a smile with lifted my spirits a bit. The two of us were complete physical opposites, but I had the feeling that we were the same inside. I patted her on the back and the both of us rose up from the bed. I looked at the alarm clock next to my bed and read: '7:30 AM'. I groaned at the bright red numbers. I had been holding the small hope that it was not too late and that I could sleep for an extra hour or so before classes started. I guessed I was never going to get that chance now, especially since Eunice made it impossible. I turned to the wardrobe near my bed; grabbed a towel and toiletries, then uttered something to Eunice about taking a shower.

I was on my way to starting my day at Bullworth...How fantastic...