I'm wearing a pair of faded jeans, old sneakers, and black, over sized T-shirt. Nothing matches and my hair is a mess. I'm walking down the middle of the hallway and I can feel every pair of eyes one me. Actually, I can feel every pair of eyes on my eye, which is a wonderful shade of purple and brown. I'm not psychic, but I know what they're thinking. 'There's Paige, she went crazy yesterday.' 'She rubbed potatoes in Kayla's face it was great!' and, from a few new enemies, 'that shirt looks so bad on her.'
And I welcome all of this with a smile. Some think I should be embarrassed now, but they don't understand. I'm free! No more heels that hurt, no more getting up early for a full hour of make-up applying, no more scowling and being mean. I can be nice again, being cool means nothing to me anymore. I'm free.
I walk over to my locker and smile seeing the note written to it. The letters are written with a red marker and read very clearly, 'find a new place to sit at lunch, loser.' I let out a sigh of contentment and tear the paper off of my locker, fold it up neatly, and place it in my bag. I'll frame it when I get home. This is it, I'm officially out.
In class I was surrounded by snickers and whispered comments I couldn't hear but knew what was said well enough. In a week everything will be different, instead of 'she's nuts,' it'll be 'she's nice.' They'll all see, see how much I can change when I decide things for myself. From now on, I'll be who I am, not who I'm expected to be.
In lunch I find a nice table tucked away from everything, it's quiet and no one else ever sits there. I can eat my lunch in almost peace. I know the entire school is still talking about me, wondering what I'll do next. Maybe I'll set the school on fire, I bet that's what they're thinking.
"Paige?" a voice asks me and I look up to see Amy smiling down on me. Okay, well, Amy wasn't the last person I'd expect to talk to me, but she certainly wasn't the first. I smile back at her, and I can tell she's not sure if that's how I smile or not. She's never really seen me smile before.
"Hi Amy. You're conversing with the enemy, you know," I told her, looking over at the 'popular table.' Everyone sitting there was watching her. She sighed and sat down across from me.
"Yeah well, I've done it before and I'll do it again…" she told me. I smiled. I told you she was nice.
"So can I do something for you?" I asked her. She looked at me, again a little confused. I never said that with out a sharp sarcastic tone before. But, she deduced I was sincere this time and shook her head.
"No, I just. I wanted to make sure you were okay. After everything that happened yesterday, I mean…" she said almost nervously. I smiled and she was a little more at ease.
"Amy, look at them over there," I said and together we turned to look at her friends, "how many times have you seen any of them do anything genuinely nice for another person? Something purely unselfish? Not often, is it?" I asked her. She thought for a little, and shook her head.
"No, I suppose not…" she admitted, like the words tasted bitter in her mouth.
"I realized that I don't want to be like them anymore. I wanted to smile at people, I wanted to be nice. I wanted to be liked by people of actual character. What I did yesterday, I set myself free from them. For the first time in five years, I am okay," I explained. She nodded and smiled at me.
"I'm happy for you, then…" she said. I smiled and nodded. At this point, deep in Amy's eyes, she had a look where I could tell… she wanted to be free too. But she was in deeper than I ever could have been. He brother is part of that clique too. If she had done what I had done, he would have talked her back in. And if she tried telling him that she wants out and tries to explain why, he wouldn't understand. It's a widely known fact that Bright, isn't very.
Amy nodded her head to me, smiled, and stood up from the table and left, promising to sit with me in History class. I watched her smiling until she reached her table again. I watched them harangue her about how I wasn't her friend anymore, and talking to me would only hurt her. She didn't reply, she didn't even look at any of them, she just looked at one spot on the table until they were done.
As I walked out of Math class a skinny little boy named Arthur walked over beside me, a pad and pencil in his hands. Arthur was the star reporter of the school newspaper.
"Paige! Paige! A moment of your time?" he asked me. Smiling I turned to him.
"Sure," I said. He stopped short in surprise. Never had I spoken a word to him, and now I was given him a moment of my time. He cleared his throat.
"Well, I, I was just curious, well, the entire school is curious… what caused you yesterday to attack Kayla like that? On the record of course…" he said. I was about to respond when a thought occurred to me. I wrapped my arm around his shoulder and together we walked down the hall.
"Arthur, do you think if I wrote something about what went through my mind yesterday, do you think the newspaper would print it?" I asked him. His eyes widened in shock.
"Of course! You're our main story! But, we'd need it by Monday…" he told me. I nodded, smiling.
"Perfect. Monday morning I'll give it to you, okay?" I asked him and he nodded his head.
"That'd be great!"
"Good, good. Now, get to class, you don't want to be late. See ya Arthur," I told him leaving his side, and walking to my class.
It was perfect. I'd write an apology letter to the entire school. Everything I wanted to say to anybody, I'd say to everybody. A school wide apology, it'd be great. I'll start writing it after school. Well, after detention…
Detention, that day, ironically enough, was we (myself and the other detentionees) had to sweep and mop the cafeteria floor and wash the tables. Of all the kids there, I was now the most famous. I used to think, well, I used to pretend to think, that detention was just for losers, but most of the kids here are pretty cool themselves. A bunch of them actually congratulated me on telling Kayla off. Kayla has twice as many enemies then I did. A lot of kids told me they had been wrong about me, and was glad to hear it. I told them the same.
But not all aspects of detention were cheerful. Kayla was there, and I could see her frowning from the other side of the cafeteria every time someone congratulated me. Kayla has a long distance frown, perfected over a life time. But Kayla I could deal with, she didn't bother me that much. What bothered me, was that Ephram was there too. He didn't even do anything.
I was washing tables and he was mopping the floor, so I walked over to him. He moved the damp cloth back and forth over the ground, really doing nothing but spreading dirty water over the dirty floor.
"You shouldn't be here…" I said. He stopped mopping and looked up at me.
"I know…" he told me. I frowned and sighed.
"How long did they give you?" I asked him.
"Three days," he answered, beginning to mop again. I scoffed.
"But you didn't do anything!" I told him.
"I know…" he repeated, still mopping. I sighed and walked carefully over to him. He stopped mopping and looked at me.
"I'll talk to the principal tomorrow, I'll tell him you did nothing but help and that I have witnesses! I'll tell him that if you still have detention, I'll guarantee him an entire article about it in the next edition of the school newspaper!" I told him. Ephram looked at me, at my eyes, like he wasn't sure whether or not to believe me. I sighed.
"Look, Ephram, I know I've been bitch, but I've put that behind me. I never gave you a chance, so let me help you now. It's my fault you're here anyway…" I told him. He nodded finally and I smiled.
"Good! So tomorrow morning I'll talk to him!" I said beginning to walk away from him. My old sneakers slid on the wet floor and I yelped as I fell forward. Luckily, Ephram caught me by the waist and helped me back onto my feet. I turned to him.
"I'll go talk to him now…" I told him. He nodded, almost smiling.
"I appreciate it," he said. I nodded.
"No problem…" I said turning around again and slowly inching my way across the wet part of the floor. I swear I heard him laughing at me.