LABELED: A Veruca Story
Chapter Three:
A Bulb Just Got Lit
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There he goes again. He sashays - that's really the perfect term - on the hallway. There's no denying he has the looks, but it's not him that interests me. Nor is that the thing that interests me on him. I'll leave that to Kate, Miranda and Lizzie, who seem to be so transfixed on them they can't see the shallowness of it all. I mean, can't they just see? Ethan's not into them. Plain and simple.
But then again, maybe not. As I go inside our literature class, where he sits behind me, I am greeted with his nod, matched with a smile and a polite greeting of "Morning, Veruca" once he's greeted all the others. Even with him, I notice I'm the last one to be greeted. Beats not being greeted at all? I think not.
I let my eyes gaze on him, and I become lost in my thoughts as I nibbled my pencil. He's nice. He's good looking, as I've said earlier. He's a gentleman, and he's quite well-off.
However, just like me and pretty much everyone around us, he's been labeled too. Ethan Craft, good looking dumb guy.
In the same way that Kate is pretty and popular and that I am ugly and an outcast, Ethan Craft is a hunk and a jock. That's just how it is. Junior high expects us to act a certain way and that's how Ethan should act. Which why, even though I know he is not my type of guy, I like him. The one thing he has that all the others don't is that he doesn't have any pretensions.
"Hey," he says, startling me. The period had just ended; I didn't notice the time. "Class's out." I take a look around and notice I'm the only one left, besides him of course.
"Uh, thanks." I mustered, feeling slightly embarrassed. First, it was Kate basically telling me to get lost this morning in the gym when in fact she was the one who asked my company, and now, I've got Ethan making me late for second period, AND being the one to notice that I was absent-minded. Great.
He smiles at me as I go on my way out. "Hey, you okay?"
Before I could answer, Kate pulls him off to the other direction. He shrugs and manages to say, "Later" before I could even reply.
The way I see it, Ethan's the person whose the most decent to me - he isn't a snob like Kate, nor is he kind of a fake like Lizzie. He's just him, which makes me think for a while.
Maybe, just maybe, I won't include him in the plan.
My eyebrows meet, and my mind is lost in deep thought.
Scratch that. I *will* include him in the plan, for Ethan Craft has one thing that I have, that unintentionally, he's been using against me. His perfection. The other thing his label has that my label doesn't.
My insecurities have flared up and my decision has been made. Probably if he doesn't allow Kate to cling to him every possible second, I would have reconsidered - a lot, but that's not happening. Nor will he have a chance ever.
By association.
I could harm someone by association, and just shrug it off as one of those, "I didn't want to, but I had to" type of things.
Yeah, I thought as I sat in my Social studies class, where Ethan was too. It was the one class where most of the people in my list, in fact all of them - Kate, Lizzie, Miranda, Claire, Parker, Gordo, Larry, Danny - were with me. This mere fact even adds more fire to the fuel that is my plan.
I take one good look at Ethan, who was busy studying the clouds outside the window.
He doesn't even know he's going to get it. Pity.
Oh, wait a minute. I don't have that.
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There he goes again. He sashays - that's really the perfect term - on the hallway. There's no denying he has the looks, but it's not him that interests me. Nor is that the thing that interests me on him. I'll leave that to Kate, Miranda and Lizzie, who seem to be so transfixed on them they can't see the shallowness of it all. I mean, can't they just see? Ethan's not into them. Plain and simple.
But then again, maybe not. As I go inside our literature class, where he sits behind me, I am greeted with his nod, matched with a smile and a polite greeting of "Morning, Veruca" once he's greeted all the others. Even with him, I notice I'm the last one to be greeted. Beats not being greeted at all? I think not.
I let my eyes gaze on him, and I become lost in my thoughts as I nibbled my pencil. He's nice. He's good looking, as I've said earlier. He's a gentleman, and he's quite well-off.
However, just like me and pretty much everyone around us, he's been labeled too. Ethan Craft, good looking dumb guy.
In the same way that Kate is pretty and popular and that I am ugly and an outcast, Ethan Craft is a hunk and a jock. That's just how it is. Junior high expects us to act a certain way and that's how Ethan should act. Which why, even though I know he is not my type of guy, I like him. The one thing he has that all the others don't is that he doesn't have any pretensions.
"Hey," he says, startling me. The period had just ended; I didn't notice the time. "Class's out." I take a look around and notice I'm the only one left, besides him of course.
"Uh, thanks." I mustered, feeling slightly embarrassed. First, it was Kate basically telling me to get lost this morning in the gym when in fact she was the one who asked my company, and now, I've got Ethan making me late for second period, AND being the one to notice that I was absent-minded. Great.
He smiles at me as I go on my way out. "Hey, you okay?"
Before I could answer, Kate pulls him off to the other direction. He shrugs and manages to say, "Later" before I could even reply.
The way I see it, Ethan's the person whose the most decent to me - he isn't a snob like Kate, nor is he kind of a fake like Lizzie. He's just him, which makes me think for a while.
Maybe, just maybe, I won't include him in the plan.
My eyebrows meet, and my mind is lost in deep thought.
Scratch that. I *will* include him in the plan, for Ethan Craft has one thing that I have, that unintentionally, he's been using against me. His perfection. The other thing his label has that my label doesn't.
My insecurities have flared up and my decision has been made. Probably if he doesn't allow Kate to cling to him every possible second, I would have reconsidered - a lot, but that's not happening. Nor will he have a chance ever.
By association.
I could harm someone by association, and just shrug it off as one of those, "I didn't want to, but I had to" type of things.
Yeah, I thought as I sat in my Social studies class, where Ethan was too. It was the one class where most of the people in my list, in fact all of them - Kate, Lizzie, Miranda, Claire, Parker, Gordo, Larry, Danny - were with me. This mere fact even adds more fire to the fuel that is my plan.
I take one good look at Ethan, who was busy studying the clouds outside the window.
He doesn't even know he's going to get it. Pity.
Oh, wait a minute. I don't have that.
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