15 yrs. Old
I was sitting in the living room, notebook in hand, trying to figure out something to babble on about for an essay due in English the next day. I jumped a little when, through the living room's open doorway, I saw the front door start to open.
Danny peeked his head in and spotted me sitting on the loveseat.
"Hey Danny!" I said, glad for a distraction from the essay.
"Hey Emmy," he replied, grinning. He stepped into the house and motioned someone behind him to follow.
Huh?
He walked into the living room and sat on the armrest to the left of me. Following him came an unnaturally blonde girl. She stood next to him in her bright green high heels.
I knew from the moment our eyes met that we would not get along. Now, I'm not usually one to judge by appearances but I had a distinct feeling that I had already started to dislike her.
She was pretty- I'm not stupid enough to deny that- in fact; some might even say she was gorgeous. I was absolutely sure that she was the hottest girl in the grade- by guy standards anyway. Even though you could easily tell she really knew how to do makeup, she put on too much in my opinion. She had on tight-fitting skinny jeans and a loose, white blouse that made her look as if she just stepped off the runway. She looked fake, though. Her tan was a little too unnatural and I suspected that her nose wasn't real either.
We were complete opposites: me with my long, wavy, dark hair and her with her short, blond, a-line haircut, me with my fair skin and her with her fake tan. Her eyes were brown. It wasn't like Danny's eyes though, where I thought that if you look in them long enough, you might get lost. Her eyes were dull and flat.
It wasn't just her looks that I disliked right away, though. There was this air about her that said she was one of those girls that acted all nice but really thought she was better than everybody else.
When she first glanced at me she looked unimpressed but then that face quickly disappeared and her eyes tightened. I had no idea why, though- it wasn't even remotely "dolled up". In fact, I just had sweats and a tank top on and no makeup on at all. So I wondered why she started suddenly looking between Danny and I like I would suddenly… I don't know… do something.
I stopped scrutinizing her when Danny said, "Emmy, this is Desiree- my friend. She's a junior too."
Ha. Friend.
She certainly looked like she wanted to be more than friends with him. She walked over to the couch and sat down next to me.
Desiree brought her face a little too close to mine and said, "So your name is Emmy?" she sounded like she was talking to a three year old. I swear I saw her hand move, as if she wanted to pinch my cheek.
I decided to act like everything was fine, just like she was doing- even though we both knew we would never get along.
"No," I said pleasantly, looking into her eyes.
I saw her eyes narrowed a small amount but she kept up with the "being nice" façade.
"Well Daniel just called you Emmy," she said slowly, like I couldn't understand. "So I think that's your name." I could tell she was losing patience with me because her jaw was clenched.
I smiled again but this time it was real. Who knew that it would be so fun pissing of this girl? "I'm pretty sure that's not my name," I chuckled. I lowered my voice to a whisper and leaned my head closer to hers. "I should know."
It was clear that it was getting harder for her to keep her face looking pleasant. If she weren't facing Danny, she would have been sending me a full on glare. "Well then," she said, leaning back. "Would you care to enlighten me on what your name is?"
Not really, actually. Not at all.
"Emmaline… to you, that is." I replied with another cheerful smile plastered on my face.
Her smile disappeared completely and she stood up, walked over to Danny, and put a hand on his shoulder. She said, "Daniel, don't we need to deliver something?" it was clear in her voice just how much she wanted him. I wondered vaguely if Danny realized this. I suppose that I shouldn't have been surprised that she liked him, though- half of the girls in the school wanted to ask him out. He was rather popular and of course, extremely hot.
"Right!" he said, standing up. Even with her really high heels on he was taller than her, just like he was with me. "We came over here to give your mom a recipe but I wanted to let you meet Desiree too."
I wondered how in the heck he could have become friends with a freaking Barbie! I knew that she had to have some redeeming quality, though. Danny wouldn't become friends with a complete brat and I knew he had good judgment.
"Okay, well you have fun delivering that recipe!" I said with fake enthusiasm.
He laughed and walked over to me. He slid his arms around my waist, hugged me, and unable to resist, I hugged him back.
"Well," Barbie cut in, "This has been fun but we better go. Don't you think so, Daniel?" as she said this, she tugged on Danny's arm and effectively stopped our hug fest. It was almost like she was jealous. Well actually, I was almost positive she was jealous but she had absolutely no reason to be. It wasn't like I even liked him that way- we were just friends.
Danny gave Barbie a confused look but then nodded. "See you later Em," he said. He kissed my cheek and then walked out of the room with the Barbie following close behind.
"See you," I whispered to the empty room and flopped back on the couch, sighing, not yet ready to write an essay.