Chapter Five

       “Elle, how are you?” Gina uncharacteristically asked, stopping me in the hall on my way to a free period, which I was planning on spending in the library with Nick and John.

       “Sore,” I said, rubbing my leg. I had just gotten out of a math class, where we had a big test. I was at a table with John, and he was directly across from me. He thought it would be “funny” to kick me in the shin multiple times, until I finally got agitated. I ended up kicking him pretty hard in the knee.

       “That’s too bad. I really love your pants! Are they True Religion?” she asked in regards to my jeans. In this world, filled with brand obsessed rich girls, if someone notices what brand your clothes are, it’s considered a “compliment”. I never understood it, and always thought it was pretty dumb.

       “Umm… yeah,” I said, trying to figure out her angle. She was acting strangely nice to me.

       “Cool! We need to talk!” she smiled.

       “Where’s Rosie?” I asked, noticing her partner in crime was nowhere in sight.

       “Paris...” she grumbled, rolling her eyes.

       “Uh huh. Look, I really don’t have time to talk now, sorry,” I said, turning to go. She grabbed my wrist, restricting me from leaving.

       “No! Look Elle, we may not get along very well, and maybe we never will, but there’s something you need to know!” she said, trying to look me in the eyes.

       “Let go of my wrist!” I yelled. Once she did, I started to walk away.

       “Where are you going?” she demanded.

       “To the library,” I said, instantly regretting the fact that I had stupidly revealed my next location.

       “I’m coming with, and then I’ll tell you,” she said, catching up to me.

       “No thanks.”

       “Sorry, but Elle, you really don’t have a choice,” she said.

       When we got to the library I saw Nick and John sitting at a table, and I wanted nothing more than to go over and join them. Alas, Gina pulled me into one of the countless rows of books, not allowing me to escape. She sat down on the crimson carpet, and motioned for me to come join her. As much as I didn’t want to, I did so compliantly.

       “It’s about Phillip,” she finally said.

       “Yeah, you've made it your mission to ruin his life, I get it,” I rolled my eyes.

       “Whatever. I’m not trying to ruin his life, I’m trying to make it better, by adding me to it,” she justified.

       “I honestly wish you could hear yourself talk sometimes...” I laughed.

       “Jillian wants to go out with Phillip!” she blurted out, concerned.

       “Jillian wants to go out with Phillip?” I repeated.

       “Yeah. Let’s just say that I made Jillian mad, and now she wants to wreck my life!” she over exaggerated.

       “Like you’re doing to Phillip?” I inquired.

       “You don’t get it! She knows that I like Phillip, so now she has openly declared war! You know that she won’t stop until she gets him to go out with her!” she exclaimed.

       “You won’t stop until you get him to go out with you!” I said, the volume level of my voice probably too high for the location that we were in.

       “Elle, would you rather have a worthless piece of slutty trash, or a nice, good girl chasing after him?”

       “Which one were you?” I asked. She was seriously asking for that one.

       “Haha. No, seriously, we need to keep him away from Jillian!”

       “Oh that’s so cute! You think we means you and I! No,” I said flatly.

       “Elle, think about it,” she begged.

       “Okay, fine; Jillian should be going out with jerks, players, and bad boys, not Phillip.” I began reading titles of books that were across from me, considering the fact that the conversation I was stuck in was stupid.

       “Exactly! So, are you in?”

       “In what?” Gina was getting on my nerves.

       “Oh never mind! Just are you in agreement, that she shouldn’t date him?” 

       “I’m in agreement that neither of you should date him,” I said, smiling as my eyes glazed over the spine of one of my favorite books of all time: To Kill A Mockingbird. The detail in that book was incredible. The words practically came to life. Also, I loved the fact that it was based around a strong, female protagonist. I it read for fun when I was in sixth grade, and was then told two years later, in eighth grade, that the class would be reading it, and enjoyably read it again.

       “Whatever. Oh, by the way, do you remember Ryan; he threw the party the other night?” she questioned, doing something Gina rarely did by talking of someone other than herself.

       “Yeah,” I said, seriously considering the possibility of pushing a few books off the shelf, and hitting Gina in the head with them.

       “Well, he likes you.”

       “First of all, how do you know? Second of all, why do you care? And third of all, please stay as far away as possible from my life,” I said.

       “He wants to get to know you. Oh, and don’t worry, I don’t care about you, I care about Ryan.”

       “Whatever,” I groaned, getting up and resisting the urge to knock Gina out with one of the many enormous dictionaries near us.

       “I’ll tell him to call you!”

       “Please don’t.”

       “So, I’ll tell him you’re interested too!” she said. I rolled my eyes, walking away.

       I quickly joined John and Nick and slammed my binder down too loudly. Nick looked up and smirked at me “Have a nice chat with our dear friend, Gina?”

       “No, actually, I didn’t.” I sat down next to John, and kicked him in the knee a second time just to make sure he got the message that math class wasn’t fun for me. In response, he smiled.

       “What’d she want?” Nick asked.

       “She wanted to tell me that Jillian wants to go out with Phillip, and that we should stop her, and that that Ryan kid likes me.”

       “Sounds like a very productive heart-to-heart conversation,” Nick laughed.

       “Well, I feel bad for Phillip and all; I mean, Jillian should totally be going out with a jerk- like Nick,” John said, casually putting his arm on the back of my chair.

       “Or a tool- like John,” Nick said, not sounding the least bit offended.

       “Okay! Please stop!” I said, not using my “library voice”.

After school, once I had gotten home, I got a call from a blocked number. Being the smart person that I am, I answered it.

       “Hello?” I said.

       “Hey Elle, it’s Ryan, from the other night,” Ryan greeted.

       “Oh, hi,” I said, surprised that Gina had actually followed up.

       “So, I was wondering… do you maybe want to go out sometime?”

       “Uh… sure?” I said, unsure of what was about to unfold.

       “Okay, cool. What are you doing this weekend?”

       “Not really sure.”

       “Oh. We should go to Andy Parker’s party together, after the football game,” he suggested.

       “Okay,” I agreed. I had been invited to the party this weekend, but I wasn’t a hundred percent sure who Andy Parker was, though I was pretty sure that he was on the football team.

       I hate football. Really, with all my heart, I hate it. I go to most of the football games, because both Phillip and John are on the team; so it's like a support thing. I was planning on going with Kara and Nick to the game, and then going with them to the party, but I suppose going with Ryan wouldn’t be all bad.

       “So, we’ll go after the game?” he asked, his voice filled with anticipation.

       “Yeah,” I said.

       “Chill!” he said, taking a sigh of relief.

       “Uh huh. I have to go, but bye!” I said, hanging up, and adding him to my contacts.

       Ryan. What is this kid’s deal? Why is he interested in me? He didn’t even know me.

       Seconds later, I got a call from “Regina George” as I put in my contacts, or Gina. When I saw the movie, Mean Girls, I instantly thought of Gina, so as a joke I changed her name in my contacts. Kara thinks it’s funny, but people like John, who haven't seen the movie, don’t get it. 

       “Did he call you?” she snapped.

       “Why are you calling me?” I asked.

       “Because I wanted to follow up on the fact that Ryan said that he’d call you! So did he?”

       “Uh, yeah. I have to go,” I said, hanging up abruptly and going back to my homework.

       “Who was that?” Jordan said, wandering into my room.

       “Gina,” I said, rolling my eyes.

       “No, who were you talking to before that?”

       “That Ryan kid who threw the party the other night.”

       “Cool. Is he your new boyfriend?”

       “Nope,” I said, wondering what I could say to Jordan that may just tick him off more than the whole boyfriend thing.

       “What did he want?”

       “Nothing,” I muttered.

       “Elle, tell me.”

       “Look, I understand this is your way of being the over protective big brother and all, but just let it go right now!”

       “Fine,” he said, putting his hands up and surrendering without a fight. He left my room, and I was in peace for the rest of the evening.