Disclaimer- I've run out of witty way's to inform you all that I'm not S.M. Tis a sad day, indeed.
Chapter 13- Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either. Just pretty much leave me the hell alone.
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"I'm sorry!" Ally exclaimed for the seventh time since I got in the car.
I had been spending the whole night avoiding her calls and text messages. When given time to stew in anger over the whole driving home with Jared thing I've done what any other girl would do.
I've found someone to blame.
The way I see it if Ally hadn't driven off without me I never would have had to subject myself to a twenty minute drive with Jared, probably feeding into his whole stalking addiction even more in the process.
Do you have any idea how much ignoring I'm going to have to do to make up for this?
"You're the one who made the rule!" Ally shouted in exasperation when I ignored her seventh apology since I've gotten into the car.
Oh, great. Like I want to have that thrown in my face.
I snorted, "Since when do you listen to me?"
Ally shrugged, apparently pleased I was speaking with her again, even if it was rudely, "I couldn't wait. Tiffany and Sara were going to kill each other and since we didn't exactly have you there for comic relief I figured it was better if we just left."
It was true that all through out Ally's and my battle Sara and Tiff had both been steadily ignoring each other. Until, of course, they were mentioned.
Sara spoke up, "If Tiffany would do something wild and different for a change and actually act like an adult then we wouldn't have been 'almost killing each other'."
Tiffany just huffed and looked out her window, a sure fire sign that she had run out of arguments yesterday while I was coming up with ways to off my chemistry teacher. And really, what argument could she ever have? It's Paul who's suddenly tracking Sara's every move, not the other way around.
"So, how did you get home anyway?" Ally asked after a few minutes of suffocating and turning blue from all the angry tension that filled the car.
"Jared gave me a ride." I said, not looking at her and awaiting her reaction.
"What?!" Ally gasped.
Tiffany came out of her huff and looked back at me, "Seriously?"
Sara's face donned a look of shock, "Excuse us?"
I threw my hands up in exasperation, "Well, what did you all expect me to do?"
"Walk home!" Sara said, like this was the obvious solution.
"It was going to hail." I reminded her.
"You could have called one of us." Tiffany said.
"It was Ally's homework time and you all can't drive, in case you forgot."
The car lapsed into shocked silence for a few minutes. Surprisingly, Ally was the one to break the silence. Even more surprisingly was what came out of her mouth.
"So, what? Are you guys friends now?"
"God, no! Why the hell would you go and think something like that?" I asked, honestly shocked.
I can think of about a million things that would happen before Jared and I would become friends. Pig's flying, hell freezing over, Paul passing math class…
"It just seems a little bit odd is all," Ally went on to say, " I mean, you hate his guts yet you're willing to get into a car with him? What is that?"
"That's desperation, not friendship! Jeez!" I flung my hands up in annoyance and glared at the back of Ally's headrest.
I wonder how hard I'd have to concentrate to make laser beams shoot out of my eyes.
"I don't know, Kim." I slowly turned my head to face Tiffany, my face blank with shock and all thoughts of cool death ray vision abilities shattered, "I think you may be going soft on us."
"Excuse me?" I said, being sure to implement my creepy you-don't-know-for-sure-whether-or-not-I-would-kill-you voice.
Sara, who was apparently left unaffected by my voice of doom, backed up my other two so-called 'friends', "You did call him Jared. What ever happened to 'The Bastard" or 'Ass-Face'?"
"Ass-face is your term of endearment for Paul, if you'll recall." I reminded her, "And I am by no means 'going soft'."
We lapsed into silence, while I contemplated whether or not having friends was really worth all the hassle before Tiffany broke the tension. She always hated the silence.
"Well, alright then." She said cheerfully, "So nothing's going on?"
"Nothing is going on." I repeated adamantly.
Tiff nodded contentedly and Sara pulled a protein bar out of her bag and started to look through the nutrition label, both having lost interest in my nonexistent relationship with Jared.
Ally, however, watched me in the review mirror the whole way to school.
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"Kate!"
I banged my head against the cool metal of the locker doors in the vain hope that perhaps the high whiny, bird-like voice was just in my head.
No such luck.
I turned around to see Amy Fink slithering my way, her lap dog trotting not far behind.
I mentally drew a leash in between the two of them for shits and giggles.
I rotated back to face my locker and continued to pull books off of the high shelves. They always gave me the highest of the school lockers, along with most of the basketball players, due to my lumberjack status.
Tiny little twerps like Amy, however, had the bottom lockers. Not that she minded, of course. This meant she got to bend over frequently, earning herself the attention of every heterosexual male in a half mile radius. If there's one thing Amy loves it's attention. Well, attention and hair spray.
"Oh, god. Not you again." I groaned, as I slammed shut my locker door and turned around to face the she devil waiting impatiently behind me.
"I don't understand it." Amy said snidely, putting one bony hand on her scrawny jutted out hip bone.
"Don't understand what? How ice is made?" I guessed.
She chose to ignore my little slight and kept speaking as if I hadn't said anything, "I thought I told you to stay away from Jared."
Behind her Shandra nodded her head like the bobble head she shared an iq with.
"And I thought I told you laxatives didn't count as a meal. I guess we've both been ignored." I said, and slid past her and through the door to the restrooms that were stationed by my locker. Very handy in times of emergency, I can assure you.
Amy and Shandra both followed me in, shooting rude looks towards the freshman girl who was touching up her make-up in front of the mirror until she scampered out the door, leaving us alone.
Great. No witnesses.
Shandra spoke up before Amy could do so, "We heard you got a ride home from Jared."
In front of her Amy huffed, obviously annoyed at having her lines stolen by her pet puppy.
"Wow, you can speak. But can you roll-over?" I asked, feigning like I was impressed, and turned towards the mirror to check my appearance. While I'm not particularly vain, nobody wants to walk around with a booger hanging out of their nose or anything.
Shandra blinked, confused (and emotion that graces her face entirely too often, I'm afraid) and Amy quickly started talking before the attention could completely leave her.
"Maybe you don't know this, so I'm going to be nice and fill you in. Jared's mine. I don't know what he's going through at the moment or why he's suddenly shown an interest in you but let me assure you that it's fleeting. Sooner or latter he's going to see you for what you are, a nobody who's so obviously below his league. So why don't you just save us all a whole lot of time and trouble and just stop hanging around him. Okay?" Amy asked this last part cheerfully, like she was positive that I would immediately agree with whatever it was she had to say.
Wow, she's dumber than I thought. I didn't really think that was possible.
I turned away from my reflection in the mirror and took two steps toward her so we were almost nose to nose…well, nose to shoulder anyway.
"I believe we've been through this once before, but for some reason you don't seem to grasp the meaning of 'I don't like Jared'. I don't know why I'm surprised really. I imagine that there's quite a few words you don't grasp the meaning of. So, why don't we give this another try? Ok?" I made my voice go all high and cheery like hers did, "I would like nothing better than for Jared to suddenly fall right off the side of the earth. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be happening. So, if Jared up and decides he wants to stalk me and not you, well, that's not my fault and it's certainly not my problem."
Amy trilled out a high and squeaky laugh. Shandra, after taking a moment to catch on to what was happening, quickly joined in.
"Who is it that you think you're fooling? You're obviously playing hard to get, trying to catch Jared's attention. Well, I got news for you. I've staked claim. And if you keep interfering with Jared's and mine's relationship," She stepped closer and lowered her voice to a whisper like we were best buds sharing secrets about which boy's we liked or something, "you're going to regret it."
Amy turned and pushed through the door and back out into the hallway before I could make a retort. Not that I know what I would have said, of course. What, exactly, do you say when a girl who's about as big as your left leg threatens you?
Shandra stood and blinked at me for a moment, obviously confuse as to what had just went down.
"You better get going, Lassie. I don't know if your leash stretches that far." I said at the same time Amy's impatient voice shrieked from down the hallway.
"Shandra!"
Shandra, hearing the beckon of her master, quickly turned and bolted out the bathroom door.
Well, that was interesting.
While I can't say for certain, I do believe I've just been threatened by the cheerleading mafia. What happens now? Am I going to wake up with a severed Barbie's head in my bed?
I laughed to myself over the image of Amy and Shandra ninja-ing their way through my bedroom window in the middle of the night with a tote bag full of naked barbies.
Looking back on it, maybe I should have taken her threat a little more seriously. It would have saved me a whole lot of surprise latter on.
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"Kim!"
Damn it!
When did my locker become such a breathing ground for people I dislike?
"Jared," I replied, with considerably less enthusiasm.
Jared straightened up from where he had been leaning against my locker and moved to the side so I could dial my combination into the lock while he looked on.
"Do you need another ride?" I could tell he was trying not to sound too eager in his question.
He failed, in case you couldn't guess.
"No," I said shortly, pulling open the metal door and shoving my chemistry book on to an already crowded shelf.
"Ok, well…if you ever do just let me know." He shoved his hands into his pockets and shifted awkwardly from foot to foot. The motion looked odd for someone his size, "Maybe…maybe I should write down my number for you. You know, in case you ever need a ride and I'm not there."
"That won't be necessary," I said, slamming the locker door shut and starting towards the double doors that lead out to the parking lot.
"But maybe it's better you have it, anyway. My number, I mean." Jared walked with me, easily keeping up with my quickened pace.
Damn him and his freakishly long legs.
"I could just write it down for you," he continued as we pushed through to the outside of the school, "Just in case."
"I think that would be a waste of paper…and ink." I said rudely, looking around till I spotted Ally's car and making a bee-line towards it.
Jared started to look annoyed again.
Which of course, made my mood considerably brighten. I was still thrilled over my newfound ability to make him annoyed. Beets the hell out of cheerful and hopeful.
The whole constant sunnyness thing had been really getting on my nerves. I mean come on! Where's the negativity? A girl like me needs a little negativity.
"Why are you always like that?" He suddenly burst out, raking one of his large hands through his hair in exasperation.
"Always like what?" I asked innocently.
"So…so…cold." he concluded, seemingly happy with his choice of words.
Oh, look who suddenly can't handle a little rejection. I bet he's just so used to the girls swooning at his feet that he can't even comprehend my behavior.
Well, boo for him.
"I'm only rude too you," I told him, "…Well, you and telemarketers but that's beside the point."
"You're going to like me eventually." he told me.
I looked over at him, surprised. He sounded pretty sure of himself.
"Oh, you think so?" I asked, confused at his sudden change in attitude.
What happened to the annoyance? That was so much funner for me then this self-assured attitude.
"Oh, yeah." he assured me, "Everybody likes me. I grow on people."
I snorted, "Yeah? Well, so does cancer."
I speed up to get away from him and he stopped following me. When I glanced back to see his face he was frowning again.
Ah, got to love the annoyance.
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A/N- I've been getting a lot of reviews asking me if I plan on doing a separate story for Sara. Since I don't want to have to spend the entirety of this story trying to make sure I include enough Paul/Sara for you guys to get your fill I probably will write a separate Sara story when I'm done with this one if readers show a significant amount of interest. I'm not making any guarantees though.
If you don't review I'm going to leave severed Barbie heads in your bed while your sleeping. You've been warned. *makes intimidating squinty eyes*
