Chapter Four

NJ is being so annoying. He keeps on saying that I am being unfair to him, that's why he's so pissed off. He keeps on insisting to reveal our friendship to other people. I don't get why it was such a big deal to him; about showing that we're friends to other people. I don't think there's something wrong with hiding our friendship, right?

Also, he keeps on insisting that I like Thomas Anderson more than friends. What's up with him? But I must admit that I'm really being quite unfair to him. Okay, so I think a proper explanation is needed here.

I'll begin early in the morning. I was busy preparing in my room for a new day in school. I was tying my curly hair in front of the mirror when my door suddenly opened which made me jump in surprise. And as the door opened, a certain familiar guy came barging in and that guy was no other than NJ.

"What the hell are you doing here again?!!" I reacted as soon as I realized that it was him.

He just stared at me in disbelief and said, "What the hell are you wearing?! Change your clothes!" he commanded.

Placing my hands on my hips, I scowled at him. "Why would I do that? I like my outfit, you know? What is wrong with this?" I asked, looking at myself. Why do other people dislike the way I dress up?

"Can't you wear normal clothes?! I mean, seriously? A pink floral leather jacket with a dark pink Hello Kitty printed t-shirt inside? And polka dots mini skirt with knee-high striped socks and brown boots?! What kind of get-up is that?! It's . . . it's just not right! And can you not wear a huge ribbon on your hair?! It doesn't look good! You looked horrible! You looked weird!" he said.

Is he a fashion consultant or something?

"Thank you very much for the insults." I said sarcastically and then crossed my arms together. "I'm not gonna change whatever you do!"

Without any word, he shoved past me and headed to my wardrobe to pick my attire himself.

"Then I'm not going out unless you agree to change your weird outfit," He said as he began rummaging inside my wardrobe for a "better and normal outfit"

"What do you think you're doing?" I said and rushed towards him to pull him off my wardrobe.

"What else? Trying to help you become a decent human being," he said. "Hey, you must be thankful that I am trying to help you with your improvement. Aren't you ashamed that other people were helping you even when you were not trying to help yourself?"

"That's not it! My style is just different from yours. Is it really required for me to follow society's style?" I pointed out.

He ignored me and continued rummaging through my wardrobe. "Can't you see what time it is? We're going to be late, y'know? So you better change your weird attire so that I'll let you out." he said as he handed me over a new outfit.

My pink leather jacket, plain white sleeveless for the tops and fitted jeans for the bottoms.

I stared in disbelief. "You really expect me to wear that disgusting outfit?!"

"Are you kidding me?!" he answered. "This is like the most decent outfit a girl could wear!"

I stubbornly sat down on my bed and refused to follow him. "No thanks" I smirked and said, "Just so you know, I don't really care if we get late or absent, you know? How about you? Knowing you, I bet you hate being late, right? Or being absent"

He just gritted his teeth and sighed in defeat. "Fine! You win! But only for today" he said and finally opened the door. "Let's go! We're gonna be late"

"Sorry but I'm not coming with you" I said. I don't want to be seen with a popular guy, y'know? To my surprise, he suddenly lifted me up and carried me on his shoulder as if I were a bag of sacks!

"H-Hey! Put me down! Put me down!!" I demanded while hitting his back. Good thing I was wearing shorts inside or else, he'd see my underwear and I don't want that to happen.

But he just ignored me. When we finally got downstairs with me on his shoulder, NJ told my mother and sister that we're going to school. I asked for my mom and sister's help but they just ignored me. Why are they always siding NJ? I'm their family! So why? I just don't understand.

He then put me on the front seat and buckled me up then he hopped on the driver's seat and drove the car, heading to school. What are people gonna say when they see me coming to school with him? What if they think that we're together as couples? What am I going to do? I was pissed off at him so I gave him a silent treatment the whole time. He kept on talking but I just remained silent and ignored him instead until we finally reached the school.

As soon as we reached the school, I hopped out and didn't wait for him and while I was walking heading to our classroom, I could feel their eyes on me. And this is what I've wanted to avoid - people's attention. I just really hate it and it makes me really uncomfortable. So, I keep my heads down as I walk towards the classroom. Suddenly, I didn't notice that someone's on the way so I ended up bumping into her.

Well, in my case, accidentally only but to her, I knew that she bumped me on purpose. I've got a bad feeling about this. I've seen this kind of scene many times in the books I've read and TV shows I've watched and it was too cliché if you ask me. Wherein the girl would yell at the girl who just bumped into her or something like that.

I was about to apologize when she suddenly said, "Oh, I'm sorry! Are you alright?" Well, that was a surprise. I looked up and saw the blonde pretty head cheerleader, Camille. I didn't expect that she would say sorry. So, does that mean that she didn't bump me on purpose? Does that mean that it was an accident?

"N-No, I should be the one who's apologizing. I-I mean, I am not looking in the way," I said shyly. She's so pretty! With her crystal blue eyes and that perfect shaped nose. She has blonde wavy hair that reaches until her waist and she got curved on the right places.

"Hey, Camille! Let's g -" the girl who just called her stopped talking and looked at me in disgust when she saw me talking to the blonde cheerleader, Camille. "Ew, why are you talking to that nerdy? And what the hell is she wearing? So disgusting!" the girl who just called Camille said while looking at me as if I have some kind of girl who has contagious disease.

She reminds me of my first encounter with NJ. He has the same look as this girl. This girl is a good looking one too. She has red hair which reaches her shoulder and she's currently wearing a cheerleader uniform and holding a baton. Seems like she's in the middle of practice and is going to call Camille before seeing me.

"Stop it, Scarlett!" Camille told her then looked at me and smiled. "Oh, sorry about that" then, I saw Scarlett rolled her eyes at me and turned her back and finally walked away, leaving the two of us behind. I just let out a sigh at the attitude she showed.

"Just ignore Scarlett. She's just not in the mood." Camille told me and smiled at me apologetically. "By the way, I'm Camille Holland, the head cheerleader," she introduced.

"Yes, I know," I answered. "O-Oh, I-I mean, my name is Beauty Smith, just an average geek girl in this school." I introduced myself and smiled.

"Yes, I know you," she said. I gave her a confused look and when she noticed the confused look in my face, she continued speaking. "Everyone knew you, actually. After all, you're Nico's buddy, right?"

"So, just because I'm his buddy, I suddenly became popular?" I muttered and sighed. "I don't actually like it. If only I could change partners, I'd already have done it by now."

She was about to answer when I saw NJ in the corner of my eyes. He was walking towards my direction.

"A-Anyways, it's nice to meet you, Camille but I have to go now because I still have class. Bye!" I said and quickly ran, heading to the classroom.

As I stepped inside the classroom, I felt a cold splash of water spilled into my head which caused everyone to burst out laughing. I gritted my teeth, trying to control my temper.

"Hey, nerdy! Need a shampoo and conditioner?" One of my classmates teased and then laughed but I just ignored him.

Anderson walked up to me and handed me a face towel which I didn't expect. "Hey, you okay?" he asked in a concerned tone.

But I accepted his towel anyway and wiped my wet hair. "Um, yeah. Thanks" I answered. He smiled at me and turned to our classmates. His smile disappeared and was replaced with a serious look.

"Now, who set this trap?!" he asked, raising his voice. They just exchanged looks and didn't answer. When no one answered, he yelled which made me step backward and same as with my classmates.

"WHO?! TELL ME?!!" he yelled again.

"H-Hey, um, please stop it. I-I really don't mind. I mean, this is not a big deal so calm down, alright?" I said, trying to calm him down.

He looked at me and said, "No! It's not okay! Why are you letting them do that to you?!" using a loud voice.

Then a new familiar voice suddenly spoke up. "Why are you yelling at her?" NJ asked seriously. NJ then looked at me and furrowed his eyebrow when he saw me all wet but suddenly smirked.

"Looks like you finally realized that you stink, that's why you took a bath. But there's a place called the bathroom, you know? So next time, take a bath inside the bathroom!" he teased and laughed which caused my other classmates to laugh as well aside from Anderson.

I clenched my fists and glared at him. I really want to wipe off that annoying smirk on his face so badly! But I just ignored him, anyway. I turned my back against him and walked towards my seat and slump my stuff on the floor and took a seat. I placed my chin on my palm and looked outside the window. Why does he always piss me off? Also, he said that he wanted me to be his friend so why did he laugh at me instead of helping me? I don't understand why nice people like Thomas Anderson are friends with a guy like NJ. I just can't accept it!

"Hey, you okay? Just ignored Nico, alright? He's just like that" I looked at Thomas Anderson and saw that he was smiling at me.

"You know what? I couldn't believe that a nice guy like you is friends with a guy like NJ" I said. When I realized that I called him 'NJ', I quickly said, "I-I mean Johnson"

He gave me a goofy grin and said, "Glad that you think I'm a nice guy" oh, that smile! I love his smile! He's just so handsome; more handsome than NJ if you ask me. His eyelashes are long and he has tantalizing crystal blue eyes. His hair was messy but he actually looked good on it and his teeth are perfectly white. And also, his dimples! I realized that I was checking him out when Thomas Anderson suddenly said, "Earth to Beauty? Are you listening?"

"O-Oh, yes? S-Sorry what is it?" I asked when I snapped out of my thoughts.

"I was asking if we can be friends," he said with a smile.

"Um, yeah. Of course . . . we can be friends, Anderson" I said, smiling back.

"Just call me 'Tom'. Alright? We're friends so stop calling me using my last name." he stated, smiling happily.

"Alright, Tom, then"

Since then, we became friends and became closer without hiding it from anyone. We even became partners in some subjects and I'm glad that no one's trying to kill me for befriending the popular Thomas Anderson - yet.

On lunch break, Tom and I decided to eat lunch together when our professor called Tom. So I just went ahead and waited for Tom at the cafeteria. While I was silently waiting for Tom at our table, NJ suddenly marched towards me and grabbed my wrist, pulling me with him somewhere. I tried removing his grip but he wouldn't budge.

"Hey! Let me go!" I demanded but he's just ignoring me. We stopped at the girl's locker and there, he began getting mad at me and accused me of becoming unfair.

"How did I become unfair?" I asked, glaring at him while crossing my arms together under my chest.

"Because you became friends with Tom and you're not even trying to hide it! But our friendship . . . you're hiding it! That's not fair!" he said.

"Jeez, it's not a big deal, you know? Why are you so worked up about it? And what's wrong with hiding our friendship?" I asked, sighing but again, he ignored me.

"If you don't want to reveal our friendship, then I'll be the one who'll show everyone that we're friends," he said and suddenly pinned me on the locker which made me gasp in surprise.

He looked closer to me and our faces were so close. So close that his nose almost touched mine and looked at me directly into my eyes. "And I'll show you that I'm a better friend than Tom," he whispered. I could feel my heart beating faster like crazy because of our closeness. I could feel and smell her warm breath. It smells like mint candy. I wanted to push him away but I'm feeling weak to do so. We're so close for like thirty minutes and I was so nervous and my mind went blank for a while that I completely forgot that I'm going to eat lunch with Tom.

And that's what really happened. But still, I was wondering what's running inside NJ's mind.