Rhonda made her way through the halls and savored the looks that she got from her peers. She was only a sophomore, but she felt as if she had already made her mark as the school's princess. As cliche as it sounded, all the guys wanted to date her and all the girls wanted to be her.
"Hey Rhonda!" a familiar voice called out from behind.
Rhonda turned around and flashed a stunning smile. "Good morning, Nadine!" she said cheerfully. She was in a good mood lately especially because homecoming was in a few weeks and she had already been showered with hundreds of homecoming asks.
"Did Logan ask you to the dance yet?" her blond best friend asked.
"Yeah, he did. But I told him no," Rhonda answered simply.
"But why? I thought you guys were a thing!"
"Because, Nadine, he asked me via text and a guy who does that isn't worth my time," Rhonda said, rolling her eyes. "Anyhow, I might just end up going stag anyways. I don't know if I want a date slowing me down."
Nadine chuckled. "Oh Rhonda. If you say so."
The two headed off to their first class which they happened to have together. Nadine was talking about how Peapod had asked her out and she was really excited. Rhonda was happy for her best friend. Peapod and Nadine had a thing since elementary school, which was unbelievably cute. Actually, now that Rhonda thought about it, a lot of the P.S. 118 kids had paired up. Phoebe and Gerald, obviously were a thing as they had always been since 4th grade. Stinky and Lila had finally started dating their freshman year, and only because Lila had the guts to ask him. Harold and Patty were technically not together yet but everyone knew they were a thing. Eugene and Sheena had been going out since middle school, much to everyone's surprise as they all thought he was gay. Heck, even Helga and Arnold were together! Who would've thought?
Rhonda sighed as she thought about her long-time classmates. She, herself, has already gone through multiple relationships that had all gone down in flames. She had dated stupid players who had cheated on her, dumb jocks who couldn't tie their own shoes, and creepy perverts who were only interested in having sex. Where were all the nice guys? At this rate, she might even consider going out with... Curly. She shuddered at the thought.
She sat down in her seat which was unfortunately, across the room from Nadine's seat. The only other person she knew in the class was Sid who happened to sit next to her.
"Hi Rhonda," he said with his goofy smile. He had grown a lot since elementary school. He still wore a green cap and a leather jacket, but he had grown to be taller than Rhonda who was already 5"6. He also had gotten more handsome and was quite popular with the ladies.
"Morning, Sid," she said, returning his smile.
"Figured out who you were going to homecoming yet?" he asked casually.
"I've decided to go alone," she admitted.
"What? What happened to Liam?"
"Logan," she corrected. "And he turned out to be a loser."
"That sucks," he said, leaning back into his chair. "Maybe we should go together. Though I already told Irene I would go with her."
"Irene Sandoval?" she gasped. "She's like way out of your league! No offense."
Sid chuckled. "None taken."
"You definitely should go with her! I'd be fine on my own!"
"Oh... if you say so," he said. It might have been her imagination but he sounded somewhat disappointed.
Before they could talk about anything else, their teacher began to start the class.
Mr. Wallace, their teacher, was really boring. It wasn't his fault really, as math was an incredibly boring subject, but Rhonda could not help but let her mind wander off instead of learning about the area of a parallelogram.
An hour later, class had finally ended and Rhonda sighed with relief.
"Rhonda, did you take any notes? Because I totally zoned out," Sid admitted as they were leaving the classroom together.
"Uh..." Rhonda said, shyly, not wanting to admit that she had zoned out as well.
"Well, let's hope that Nadine paid attention because I think we have a test this Friday," Sid chuckled in response.
"Ye-"
Rhonda was stopped as she saw a hulking figure that was standing outside the classroom door. "Yo Rhonda, babe. Are we going to homecoming together or not?"
Rhonda rolled her eyes. "Not, because somebody had the audacity to ask me with only a lousy text message that read 'Homecoming?' that's why!" she scolded the football player.
"Fine," Logan puffed. "I'll just ask someone else to homecoming, bitch." He then stormed off to who knows where.
"Boy howdy, what's his deal?" asked Sid, who had witnessed the entire scene.
"He's dumb and that's why I'm not dating him anymore," said Rhonda.
"His loss, really."
"Thanks, Sid."
Sid had wanted to sit with his friends Stinky and Harold for lunch, but Irene had dragged him over to a separate table to talk about homecoming. He tried to argue that homecoming was a long way from now and that they could talk about it later, but she wasn't having any of that.
"So, I was thinking that I was going to wear a scarlet dress because it really looks good on my skin tone. So you'll probably have to wear a black suit with a red tie or bow tie or something. But just in case, just wait for me to text you after I go shopping to know what to wear," Irene droned on and on.
"Uhhuh, whatever you say, babe," Sid would say at random intervals to act like he was paying attention. The girl was fucking hot, but she was also fucking boring too.
He wondered what Rhonda would be wearing to the dance. She would look good in anything, though red was definitely her color. He had liked her since elementary school, but never dared to say anything. Instead he tried to date as many girls as he could, but none of them compared to the princess herself. If Irene was out of his league, then Rhonda Wellington Lloyd was in another universe. He had decided to just be her friend. Who knows? Maybe ten years from now if she hadn't married a billionaire yet, he could swoop in and ask her out. But for now, he would be there for her as a friend.
"Are you listening, Sid?" a voice interrupted his train of thought.
"Huh.. yeah.. you were deciding between wedges or heels," he guessed.
"Oh, right. Thanks. So wedges are totally cute and more comfortable but heels will send a bolder message..."
Ugh.. could that girl talk and talk. "Oh! Sorry Irene, I just remembered something that I had to do, I'll text you later," Sid said, trying to get away as fast as he could.
"Okay! Bye! You better not forget to text me! We have a lot to plan!" she shouted out after him.
He didn't reply and dashed out of the cafeteria. He didn't have anywhere to go but he couldn't let her know that he was running away from her. Because he wasn't paying attention, he ran into a person and fell onto the ground.
"Watch it!" they had said.
"Oh.. sorry.." Sid looked up and saw that the person he had run into was Rhonda.
"Oh, it's okay, Sid. Are you alright?" she asked and offered him a hand up.
He took it and hoped that she didn't notice how nervous he was to be touching her hand. "I-I'm fine," he stammered.
"What were you doing, running out of the cafeteria like that?" she asked curiously.
"I was trying to get away from Irene... Ugh... I regret asking her to the dance."
Rhonda placed a sympathetic arm on his shoulder. "It won't be that bad. Besides, it must be lightweight compared to what I would do to my date," she giggled. "I would be all over them about what to wear and what corsage to get me."
Sid smiled. "But you're different. You're fun and don't make me want to stab myself in the ears when you talk."
"Please, you wouldn't last an hour with me if you were my date," she teased.
"I'd like to give it a try," he flirted back.
Then the two of them began laughing together. Man, this was why he was crazy about her. She wasn't as shallow and bitchy as everyone would have expected. She was real and funny and beautiful and interesting.
Suddenly, Irene had walked out of the cafeteria and had saw the two of them laughing together. "Sid!? I thought you said you had something to do... Is she your something?" she asked angrily as she approached them.
"Uh... Well... I..." Sid stammered, unsure of what to say now.
"Sid and I have chemistry together so we have to come up with a project. It's due next week so if you don't mind, we really need to discuss. He'll be all yours later, okay?" Rhonda lied, trying to smooth over the tension.
Irene seemed unconvinced but couldn't prove that she was lying. "I see... Okay, just let me know when you're done," she said, eyeing the two suspiciously. She then left to go wherever she was heading for in the first place.
Once she was more than an earshot away, Rhonda rolled her eyes. "Jeez..." she sighed. "Well I can't blame her. Most girls would freak out if they saw their boyfriends talking to me."
"I'm not her boyfriend," Sid scoffed. "I don't think I even want to be her date anymore."
Rhonda patted his shoulder. "Maybe you should tell her then," she suggested. "It's better to tell her now while she still has time to find another date."
Sid sighed. He didn't want to deal with that kind of confrontation but he really didn't want to deal with Irene anymore either. "We'll see..."
"Anyways, I promised I would sit with Nadine for lunch so I'll see you later," said Rhonda. She gave him a friendly wave and headed towards the cafeteria.
Finally Sid was a free man. He also went back to the cafeteria and went to look for his friends. He quickly found Harold and Stinky at their usual table. Arnold and Gerald also happened to be sitting there today.
"Hey guys," said Sid as he grabbed one of the few remaining seats at the table. "What's up?"
"Hey Sid. What are you doing here on the account that Irene was gonna talk to you about homecoming?" his best friend Stinky asked.
"Yeah! What happened to your GIRLFRIEND?" Harold shouted rather obnoxiously.
"What about you guys? Why don't you sit with your girlfriends?" Sid retorted, rolling his eyes. "Anyways, I'm thinking of not going to homecoming with Irene anymore."
"What?!" the entire exclaimed in shock.
"But Sid! You were bragging about how you were going out with one of the hottest girls in the school!" Arnold added.
"But Sid! It's Irene Smoking Hot Sandoval!" Gerald said at the same time.
"But she's just so much fucking work," Sid sighed to demonstrate how tired he was of the girl. "I'm better off going to the dance alone."
"Sid, if you do that, you'll be the only one of us who doesn't have a date on account of me taking Miss Lila, Harold taking Miss Patty, Arnold taking Miss Helga, and Gerald taking Miss Phoebe," said Stinky, rattling off the name of every P.S. 118 couple he could think of.
"Don't forget Sheena and Eugene!" chimed Harold.
"Why thank you, Harold."
"Well... Rhonda is going stag," Sid argued.
The guys all began to wiggle their eyebrows and smile. "Oh... that's what it's all about," Gerald teased.
"What?" demanded Sid.
"Nothing. We just think that maybe you still have a thing for Miss Rhonda," said Stinky.
"W-what?" Sid's face began to redden. "We're just friends!"
"Admit it, Sid! YOU'RE IN LOVE WITH RHONDA," laughed Harold.
Sid quickly covered Harold's mouth and prayed that no one in the room had heard him. "Shut up, Harold! Do you want the entire fucking school to know?"
"M-maybe I do have a thing for Rhonda. So what? Half the school does anyways! It's not a big deal and I'm not going to do anything about it so whatever!"
"I don't know, Sid. I think that maybe you should tell her. It'd be better if she knew how you felt. Maybe she would even feel the same way. It worked for me and Helga," advised Arnold the wise.
"Just because it worked for you and Helga doesn't mean it'll work for me!" Sid argued back. "I just... don't want to ruin our friendship over a stupid one-sided crush."
"Okay, we understand," said Arnold. "Come on guys, let's not bother Sid anymore about this and talk about something else."
Sid sighed with relief and appreciated that Arnold had changed the subject to respect his feelings. He was doing a lot of sighing today but it was a particularly stressful day. He also had to find a way to break it to Irene that he didn't want to go to Homecoming with her anymore... That was going to suck.