When I got home, I stayed in my room, and did nothing. My Father had gone somewhere to help a friend and he took Lucky with him.

Maybe someone set him up… No, I've already gone over all that. Maybe he knew me in a past life? Whatever the case, I'm not going to believe him. One day, ONE DAY and we barely talked. He doesn't even know how to spell my last name. Does he even know my last name? Ugh, I can't process any of this! I need to call someone to talk it over. Maybe I can just tell mom? No, she wouldn't understand. Let's see.

I walked over to our kitchen, where the phone was. I picked it up and began remembering all of my friend's numbers. I decided to call Derrick, one of my all-time best friends since kindergarten. The phone rang three times, and then his mother picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hey, this is Maria, can I speak to Derrick?"

"Oh sure sweetie, let me go get him."

She put down the phone, but I could still hear her. She took a few steps away, and then shouted, "Derrick, Maria's on the phone!"

I assumed she was yelling up her staircase, since that's where his room was. I then heard a 'what?' and then footsteps hastily making their way to the phone.

After a bunch of static, I heard his voice.
"Maria?"
"The one and only."
"Oh my god! Why haven't you called sooner? I thought something bad happened to you!"
"Well… That's sort of why I called… I hope that's okay."
"Yea, of course. But what happened?"

"Nothing too bad, but. First, can you make sure you're alone? I don't want your mom to see your reactions to what I say."
"I am walking up the stairs as we speak."
"Okay, thanks."

I heard more footsteps, then a door open and close.

"Okay, what's up?"

"Well, today was my second day of school. Everything was going great for me. I had made friends, and there was already a rumor going around, but I'll tell you about that later. Well, anyway, there's this guy who has this crazy ex-girlfriend, right? So I'm trying to keep my distance, and all the sudden someone asks him if he likes me. He says he doesn't know, and I'm starting to worry. My hearts beating faster and everything.
So class ends, and as I'm walking to second period, he jumps up behind me and stops me. He then gives me his whole theory on love, proceeding to confess, saying he's like, IN LOVE with me, and I don't know if I should act like it never happened, confront him, or just ignore him."

After I stopped talking, I heard Derrick's steady breathing.

"Well…. I think…Maybe….-"
"I need complete sentences her Derrick."

"I don't know what to say, I mean, can you really blame the dude? He has a crazy ex, he probably need to get away from her, and when he saw you… Maybe he just, maybe he was lost for words. Maybe he actually likes you."

"Oh please, don't tell me you're on his side."
"I'm not, it's just, maybe you're just being down on yourself, thinking he can't possibly like you."

"But that's the thing, he CAN'T. I've known him for one day. He knows nothing about me, nor do I about him. I mean, even if it's just for the looks, he can be in love with me, it's all just too stupid."

"It's because you have that look to you. You emit mysteriousness, leading people to think there's more to you."

"There is more to me then my looks, and that's why you have to GET TO KNOW ME. You can't do that in one day. You can't do that in seven hours. You can't. Derrick, you've known me for around eight years. There's still things you can't understand about me. There's still things my mom doesn't know about me. Hell, you know more than her."

"Maria, you don't have to know everything, you just have to know enough."

"And what's enough, just the good stuff? Because trust me, it took me quite a while to know just enough about anybody. They need to show you how bad they can be before you know enough."

"But you're not bad!"
"I'm not good a keeping secrets."
"That can be good somehow. That's how you got me and Angie together!"
"But-"
"Enough. Stop trying to find the bad in everything."
"But then I'll be easily deceived."

"Trust me; you'll miss out on a lot if you keep this up. Remember all those slumber parties you didn't go to because you were afraid they would prank you? Or you would learn something you didn't want to know? You're giving yourself an excuse to be lonely. I know you. You don't want to be lonely."

"All right, well… Thanks for cheering m up, Derrick. It's been nice talking to you."

I didn't want to hear what else he had to say. I hung up right away. I walked backed up to my room. In my opinion, I couldn't really turn to anyone now. I was alone in this situation, which really, wasn't a big one, but now everything seemed just a little more awkward.

I wrote in my journal that night. Most of it had absolutely nothing with what I was dealing with, but I had to write.

If good is what we aim for, and we know we've done wrong… Do you expect us to let go, and act as if we're strong? If lying is a sin, but is very easy to hide, do you suppose there are other ways to let us protect our pride? Your rules are based on faith, and so we can't pretend, to forget the ones we let down, and the hearts we could not mend. Some worship you with glory, hoping you would give in. But to be fair, and to stand back, you never let them win.
If victory is a word to make us feel complete, then at the end, when it's all over, do we hear the word triumph? Or is it just a phrase that passes, until the day we meet….

When I woke up in the morning, I was glad it was Friday. I didn't want to go to school. Something was telling me I didn't really belong there. Maybe Karly was just getting in my head.

I slowed my way on the bus and to Charlie's seat. She wasn't there. I thought I could tell her about it, but I guess everything happens for a reason. When it was his stop, Karly was first. Unexpectedly, she sat next to me.

"So I heard you were trying to get along with Nathan. I thought I made it clear he wasn't interested."

"I'm sure the only clear thing was his confession. That HE made. I did nothing, your accusations are wrong."

"Well, stop whatever you're doing."

"Why?"

"You wouldn't want me as an enemy, would you?"

"I've had worse. The only thing you can do is bore me with your obsession over your ex-boyfriend, who apparently, is the only one trying to move on."

"Whatever, you're not worth my time."

"What a shocker."

She fled from my side to one of her friends near the front. When everyone was getting off the bus, I bumped into him. Unintentionally, of course.

"Sorry, you can go first."

We both got off with a thud, and he turned and stopped until I was at his side.

"Been spacing out much?"
"You know me. Oh wait. You don't, never mind."
"Ouch. So what was Karly trying to say this time?"

"That you touch yourself at night thinking about sexually promiscuous succubus demons. Quite the imaginative one, you are."

"WHAT?"

"Oh, sorry, did I say imaginative? I meant idiotic. And she was 'warning' me about her becoming my rival."
"Why are you being so damn mean to me?"
"Am I?"
"I'm serious! I've done nothing!"
"I'm cold, and sour."
"If that was true, you wouldn't have said sorry when you bumped into me."
"I never said sorry, your being delusional."
"Look, if you're trying to get me to dislike you, it's not going to work."
"You say that now, but you haven't seen everything I can do."
"Can't wait."

I walked passed him and rushed to my locker. I grabbed some books, and walked to first period. Storm was sitting in one of the corners, with her brother.

"Hey, Maria! Come sit over here!"

I looked at Todd, and he was avoiding eye contact. I walked over to sit, and faced him.

"Do you dislike me?"
"People think I do."
"Is it true?"
"I don't know, it's not a public topic."

I gave him a weird look, and I knew he purposely said those exact words. He was there when everything happened the other day. Storm twitched her pupils between the two of us, and then she giggled.

"Someone is being jealous. Todd, do you like her?"
"Okay, ENOUGH with people asking other people is they like me or not!"

Storm laughed, and Todd… Todd never really made any expressions.

"Oh hey, Maria, are you going to the bonfire? They have one every year."
"Who's 'they'?"
"Courtney Falcon and her family."
"Who's Courtney Falcon?"
"She's the one who was the queen bee before Karly."
"What happened?"
"I'll tell you later, class is starting, SHHHH!"

Class, as always, went by fast. We were assigned our homework, pretty much none of us actually worked on it, and then we left.

Storm ended up not mentioning it second period either. She waited until lunch, where we had all the time to talk. As we were walking to the cafeteria, I bumped into Charlie.

"Hey, why weren't you on the bus this morning?"

She gave me a tired look. "My alarm didn't go off."

I gave an 'oh' face, and her, Storm and I walked to lunch together. We met Todd at a table, and he looked displeased as I sat down across from him.

"So, anyway, what happened was that Karly, Courtney, and Nathan were all the most popular kids in school, and then there was this dance. But the dance was on the same day as Courtney's party. Karly was the one who planned the dance."

"Sooo, did they cancel the party?"

"No, they didn't do anything. They just waited for the two events to come up. To them, it was pretty much a contest to see who can have the most guests.
Back then, Courtney was swooning over Nathan, and he hadn't started going out with Karly. Courtney thought she pretty much had him; so of course, she invited him to the party. When time came, they were both waiting at their places. Courtney had the most guests in the end, but that didn't matter."

"Wait, what?"

"Let me finish. Courtney started feeling bad for not being with her friend and was worried because Nathan wasn't there, so she drove to the dance, hoping to pick up Nathan at his house on the way by, and bring the trio to her house.
Well, she got to the dance, and she saw her prince dancing with Karly in the middle of the dance floor, mid-kiss. Nobody else was there, just the two."

"So… Did Karly plan this?"

"Yuepp. Anyway, she broke their romantic silence by saying something along the lines of, 'You knew I liked him' and Karly simply replied with, 'This is what you get for not letting me have the spotlight for once.'"
"So Karly was just jealous."
"Exactly."

The story made it seem like Courtney wasn't such a bad person. "I'll go. When is it?"

"Tomorrow night. I can come over to your house so we can, y'know, do girly stuff like getting ready for the party."

Storm always looked like she was ready for a party. Anything she wore was her best outfit. Although, I would love to see her in a dress. She looked at me, and as if she read my mind, she blurted out,

"I'm not wearing a dress."

I laughed, in a scared way. Charlie then all the sudden jumped in on the conversation.

"The bonfire? I'm going to. So we all, except Todd, go over to Maria's place at five tomorrow?"
"Sounds good, Storm, when does the party start?"
"Around seven."
"Nice. Oh, Todd, are you going?"
"Parties aren't my thing."

"They're not mine either, but recently, a friend of mine said I shouldn't purposely miss out on things, so I'm saying it to you now. Come, it'll be fun. I mean, you'll get to hang out with us."

"YEA, and we're COOL."

It seemed like storm said that a lot to her cousin. He sighed noticeably, and then looked at the three of us. We were all staring immensely at him. I was probably the only one staring at his fluffy hair though.

"FINE, I'll go."

We all smiled, and then began eating. The food really was greasy. I had forgotten to buy something at the store this morning, so I had to bear with myself.

I heard footsteps from behind, and a tray slammed down at my side. I looked to see who it was.

"Hey guys... I just overheard you talking about the bonfire tomorrow night. You all going?"

Everyone nodded at him without words. Todd then spoke up.

"Nathan, you're making this awkward for us, obviously, we don't want you here. Why not hang out with people who are within your league."

"Is that an insult... or a complement?"
"Whatever you want, just sit down somewhere else."

Nathan still sat down right next to me, and then everyone else left, leaving me behind. I could have left, but I felt stuck. I looked over at Nathan, and he was staring at me.

"Sooo…. What's up?"
"About the party….. Do you want to go together?"
"Oh, my and the girls were planning to go together."
"And does that mean if you wouldn't have made plans with them, you would go with me?"

"I don't see the harm in that. Although, everyone would see us as a couple. I already have Karly on my bad side. Oh, speaking of her, we were just talking about her and Courtney. Are they still on bad terms?"

"Ah… No. Courtney backed away from the spotlight ever since then. Even though she still has the party every year, no one really talks to her."

"Did you ever like her?"
"Maria, you… really don't want to bring up me and liking someone in the same topic, do you?"
"Right, no, I don't"

There was a long silence after that. I wondered if Nathan was hurt by what I had said.

"I… Take back everything I said about you."

I nearly choked on whatever I was drinking. "Kcqa… What?... I mean… Why do you say that?"

"I kinda want to start over, not the way we were, but as friends, really. Whaddya think?"

The way he said it made me feel like I was getting dumped. It made my chest hurt. I tried to sound as composed as I could.

"I um… As long as you don't make a move on me, I guess."

He smiled. God. His smile. I was drooling. Then, from somewhere deep inside me, a monster screamed, "MAKE A MOVE ON ME!"

I choked again at the thought, but I wasn't at all disgusted with him, I was disgusted with myself.

"Are you okay, you've been… choking on stuff a lot."

"I'm fine. I'll uh… Talk to you later."

I grabbed my tray and got up, threw the remaining food away, along with setting my tray where the other dirty ones were, and swiftly paced my way out of the cafeteria. I caught up with the rest of my group. They all looked at me, except Todd. He grimaced and snorted at me. That's attractive.

"So, How far did you go?"

This time, I didn't have anything to choke on. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"There's obviously chemistry between you two. What happened?"

"I just… I asked him about Courtney."

"Then to the dance?"

"No! I'm going with you guys!"

"Awe, I feel loved."

Storm was really complicated. Charlie laughed along with her. Todd did nothing. At least my old friends… all my guy friends, acted like they cared. The rest of the day, I started getting more comfortable with the school; people started remembering my name, which could only make it easier for more rumors. Instead of "The NEW GIRL." I was now, "Maria, the new girl." Baby steps, progress.

Charlie skipped the bus ride home. Storm sat with me, and we listened to songs on her iPod. She has a nice tasted, but of course, I knew that the second I met her.

When I got home, I did my usual routine, homework, food, Lucky, homework, journal, bed.

I was laying in my bed, staring at the spec of moon my window revealed to me. It was finally night time without rain. I hoped the good weather would continue. Before my eyes fluttered me off to dream land, Lucky cuddled up closer to me, and I felt like life was getting better. I fell asleep with a smile on my face.