“EWWW!” they shrieked.
Oh great…
“Did you get your backpack from the trash or something?” one of them said while laughing.
I hated them. Those girls were evil. They fed off of my imperfections because I wasn’t them. I didn’t have their straight hair, their designer shoes, or their beautiful glamorous bags.
“No I didn’t,” I tell them.
“Whatever, it looks like it’s from the trash.”
They walk away laughing. It sucks to know that I am considered a loser. Well, at least that is what I was called at school. Let me introduce myself, my name is Tianna Simone. I am sixteen and I attend Valley High School. My life could be described as lowkey, very lowkey. I am a part of the school band, math club, chemistry club and glee club. No, I am not popular, even though I think I should be. How I know am sure of this, is by what happened last week.
Everyone had been talking about this party for a couple months now. It’s an annual party that the upperclassman have, and that only a selective group of people plan. Since I was a junior, I was super excited to go. My friend Cassidy was also a junior so we were both excited that we could finally. We were thinking of getting matching outfits but we felt like it would be too over the top. Our main issue with getting into this party is that the glam girls had to hand you an invite. Cassidy and I knew that there was no way they were going to give us tickets if we looked like this… We decided that instead we would have to steal an invitation, so we decided to make a plan. Well, the popular girls have gym with us third period, so I was thinking that Cassidy could distract them by accidentally running into them, taking their attention away from their bags and I would grab two invitations and go.
The following morning, we were ready. Cassidy and I were determined to change everyone’s idea of us. We wanted to be the new popular girls. We wanted all the boys to love us and the girls to envy us. But that all changed when we realized one thing, today we had block periods, which meant that there was no gym. Which meant there was no gym. Great. Once again we failed our mission.
“I really wanted to go to that party,” Cassidy said.
Her shoulders were slumped and she had a huge frown on her face. She was really disappointed. Cassidy was a little bit different than me, she was more positive, more energetic, and the president of Math Club. I would call her the happier type. I like to be lowkey and not talk to anyone, so obviously we paired up well.
“Sorry Cass.” I felt kind of bad because I hadn’t thought through my idea very well.
“Maybe we jus--.” And at that moment, Cassidy knocked into someone. But it wasn’t just anyone, it was Elle, one of the popular girls.
Everything went flying from both of their hands. Textbooks and reading books smacked the ground and papers went flying. I rushed to help both of them and noticed that there was invitations to the party this weekend on the ground. I grabbed some of Cassidy’s paper and stole two invitations.
“I am soooooo sorry!” Cassidy said frantically.
Elle replied furiously, “Whatever you nerd, don’t touch any of my stuff.”
“I never meant t--.”
“Maybe you should watch where you are going next time, before you run into something far worse,” said another popular girl. They walked away looking at Cassidy and me with dirty looks. As soon as they were far enough, I started laughing and Cassidy got mad.
“What is so funny? They literally just chewed me out!” Cassidy said to me while punching me in the arm.
“Ow!” I shrieked, “You will never believe what I have!”
“What?” responded Cassidy uninterestingly.
“I got them!” I cried.
Cassidy was very confused and looked at me with a blank face. We sit at a table after we get lunch and I explain to her how I just got the invitations to the party. She was so excited and was grateful that she ran into the girl.
“What do we do now?” I asked.
“We have to go shopping for new clothes after school because we have to fit in at this party.” Cassidy responded.
We decided to meet by the benches, near the end of the school’s property, after our last class. I was happy for the rest of the day, and being able to know that I would finally go to my first high school party. Better yet, it was the biggest party of the year. I was walking to my last class period when Elle starts to walk my way with a harsh look. Oh no… I thought she might know that I took the invitations and is about to make a public humiliation of me. I started to break a sweat as she approached me as more fear traveled around my body. Once she had reached me, she asked me a question.
“Where is—“
“I didn’t take it!” I shouted. Scared that she would push me to a locker.
“What are you talking about?” she responded.
“Oh…nothing.”
“Anyways, I don’t know where your friend is but I switched my book with hers. So I need it back.”
“Oh she has economics right now.”
“Whatever. Just tell her that I want my book back by today or else.” And she walked away.
I took a big sigh of relief, she hasn’t noticed yet. I text Cassidy to find Elle and give her book back to her so that we don’t get in any trouble with her.
“Ugh…five more minutes.” I groaned to myself quietly.
“Yeah I know right.” A voice from behind me responded.
I turned around to see the quarterback of our school football team. His name is Derek. He is so dreamy and muscular. He was the most perfect guy ever except for the fact that he was dating one of the popular girls. It was annoying to see those two in the hall, always exaggerating their affection for each other.
“Yup.” I respond and then turned back around. I will never be with a guy like him.
The bell rings and I rush out of class. I go to the bench where Cassidy is waving for me to hurry. Once we get to the mall, we start shopping for some clothes. I don’t like to dress up so much, so it takes forever for me to find something “attractive.” Once we do find something, we go to the cash register to pay.
“$58.90 is your total.” I reach for my wallet and notice that I left it in my bag in the car.
“Oh shoot, can I go get my wallet, I left it in the car.” I tell the cashier.
“Okay, just hurry. I don’t want to make a line.”
I run to the car as fast as I could so that I don’t disappoint the cashier. As soon as I reach my car, I notice something tragic. Someone broke into my car, I look at the damage and notice that they took my bag and left nothing but shattered glass on the ground. I call Cassidy to come and she rushes to find me balling in tears. She looks at the break in, in astonishment. I look up to her and tell her that they took my bag, which had my wallet and the invitations in it. And so we sat there and cried until my mom came and picked us up. And that’s when I knew, that I wasn’t meant to be popular.