JULIANNA

Today at school, I noticed that Shelly Stalls is keeping an eye on me. Yeah. I also noticed something. The only reason why she's been keeping an eye on me is to see if Bryce is going to walk towards me…. Or he's going to talk to me…. Or he's staring at me….

Do you want to know why I said that? I'll give you something. It's pretty stupid. She acts like she owns him. She doesn't. And why is she even keeping an eye on me when I am not doing anything to Bryce? She should be keeping an eye on Bryce not me.

You see, I may not be talking to him or walking towards him or staring at him but he keeps doing that. I perfectly knew why she has been keeping an eye on me. ME! She thinks that if I talk to him when he talks to me or stare at him when he stares at me, we will be in good terms. I mean, we will be friends. And I'd start having this crush on Bryce Loski again like when I was a kid. Since everyone assumes that he likes me, if we'd start being friends, Shelly will think that it's the chance that we'd be dating.

Correction. It's not going to happen.

I perfectly well know that Shelly Stalls likes Bryce Loski. He is handsome after all. Who can't fall for that? That is why she likes him. Because he's handsome. Well, if I were her I'd look at his personality AND attitude first before his looks. Some guys are hot or handsome. But their personality and attitude…. Bad. And other guys are not that handsome. And they're nice…. I'm not saying that there aren't guys who are handsome and at the same time good and guys who doesn't look that handsome and bad. There are.

For one thing, I thought Bryce would continue being a jerk to me. Trying to avoid me. Trying to throw away my eggs again when I give him a carton. Oh. No. I'm not going to do that ever again. No way is he going to throw away something that could have been a hundred dollars when sold.

Shelly Stalls is everywhere for me. Where ever I am, she's right there. Creepy, I know.

Darla and I have been eating together and walking together since we met. She's my bestfriend. And this afternoon at lunch time inside the cafeteria, we were sitting on our table, ready to enjoy the food when Shelly walked towards us from her table and sat down with us.

"Juli, I would just like to tell you that you are invited to my -"

"Birthday party, I know. Who doesn't anyway?"

"Well of course, only my friends are invited."

Friends? Seriously? We're not even close. How can we be friends? Me and Darla were looking at her like she's the super mean popular girl here.

The thing is, she's not. She's popular all right. But not that popular. She's even nice. But not to everyone. She acts like she's the mean girl here. I'm not scared of her.

"Is there something on my face?"

We didn't notice that we've both been staring at her for a long time. Darla and I snapped back to ourselves when she talked.

"Am I talking to air? Juli looks like she's not here."

"What? I'm sorry. I didn't hear you."

"Like you were paying attention to me before."

"Excuse me?" Darla asked with a cold look.

"I'm just saying that I'm having a party and everyone is invited. And the everyone also means 'my friends' only."

"I thought everyone, as in everyone were invited?" Darla interrupted.

Shelly stopped blinking for a minute and eyed Darla before she said, "Surely, you have no idea that I'm not the girl who invites everyone who can ruin my party, right?" in a cold voice.

We sat there not talking to each other, ignoring the cold food. Just as we were about to say, "Can you let us eat in peace, Shelly?" she cleared her throat and smiled at us.

"So Juli and Darla. Since you are my friends, how about going to my party?"

"We'll think about it." I say before Darla gets to say something first.

"Great! Hope you'll be there because we will have a lot of fun!"

After that, she stood up and walked away. I was supposed to hold my spoon and eat the gelatin on my tray when I can feel Darla staring at me with a cold face. I turned to her and stared back.

"What?"

"Nothing." She lied.

"Oh come on, Darla. I know there's something."

"'We'll think about it'? Couldn't you just say no?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You told Shelly that we'll think about going to her party!"

"What's wrong with that?"

"You could've just said no. Easy."

"Then we'll tell her no."

"Juli, you change your mind. What I mean is, you can't just say 'We'll think about it' 5 seconds ago and now you're trying to say 'No.' You're not thinking about it."

"Do you want to go?"

"It's alright if I don't go. If you're going, then have fun."

"What's wrong, Darla?"

"Nothing."

She's lying. I can feel it. I'm not letting this pass so I kept asking.

"Fine! If you're going to go, that means you'll be able to see Bryce."

"I'm not going to talk to him, am I?"

"I know you're not…. The thing is, I can actually feel that you still have this feelings for Bryce. If Shelly kisses him in front of you, what would you do? Run away crying?"

This is about Bryce again. For goodness sake, I don't have feelings for him anymore. It's history! My temper is rising so I just ate the gelatin before saying something to Darla.

"Darla. How many times do I have to tell you I am not into Bryce Loski anymore?"

This got a little louder because when I stopped, I realized that everyone in the cafeteria was looking at me. Including Shelly Stalls who seems happy about it. I hate her for that. It's a good thing Bryce wasn't here. She would have to keep an eye on me again and it gets me irritated.

I can prove to Darla that I don't have feelings for him by going to Shelly's party. It's the only way I can prove to that she's wrong for once. I made a deal.

"We both go to her party. If that happens and I run off crying, then…. I'll give you 5 dollars."

"No money, Julianna. I can think of something."

"What?"

"I'll tell you after what happens."

"Alright. If I don't cry, then you have to say that you're wrong about what you just said and I'm right. Deal?"

"It's a deal." We shook hands and smiled at each other.

I'm ready to prove to her that she's wrong.