THE QUEST FOR COOLNESS BEGINS

10 FEBRUARY, WEDNESDAY, BEFORE HOMEROOM

You know how sometimes it feels like, just for the moment, the stars and planets were perfectly aligned just for you? Today I felt it while on my quest for coolness.

It wasn't just my schedule this week that was packed with opportunities to be a cooler teenager, what with Vday happening and all. When I opened up the next volume of manga, the side story was about how the male protagonist (the unbelievably hot guy who was also a model and stylist, heir to a fashion company, and student council president) tries to set up his friend for a practice date with the female protagonist (the amazingly strong but plain girl who wanted to be cute).

Because the girl said her ideal type was "someone cool", the male protagonist went to all the trouble of coaching his nice-guy good friend on the art of being cool. This included tips like being good at a sport (his friend was good at baseball, so that was a good first step), being tall, getting the right haircut, getting a ear piercing (or faking it with a clip on), wearing his uniform in a certain way by adjusting how his shirt was tucked in and his tie was worn with the collar of his shirt open wide enough to show off his collar bone, which the male protagonist insisted that girls found sexy. (Really? But what was sexy about a bone? Omo)

But the most important part was the lesson on how a cool guy should not laugh out loud, or raise his voice, or even talk very much. They shouldn't even move all that much. Instead they should hold their bodies in relaxed poses which the male protagonist demonstrated for his friend.

And on a date, whatever their girlfriend talks about, they should just nod coolly. Maybe make a one liner if they had one. If she gushes or gets excited, if she made him smile, he was supposed to comment very monotonously, "Cute."

He was in no way allowed to get excited with her, or talk excitedly, or get worked up, or into an argument with her, or laugh out loud or in any way get sucked into the activity they were doing. That would ruin his cool image.

For example, if they were at the amusement park, he should behave as if he was there against his will. If he should ride on anything, it was only to humor her. If he was to play any of the games, it was only to win her the prize. And if he should enjoy himself, he should only say at the end of the date that he "didn't dislike" the amusement park.

WTH. LOL.

Cool guys!

Hahahaha. This was all very funny to me. I had never read anything so ridiculous in my life. Who ever went to an amusement park to not have fun?

Omo... Was this what I wanted to be?

Who acted like that anyway? So stupid, but highly entertaining.

It was at this point that Liam, Henry, and Marcus came into the classroom. This wasn't normal, because while Henry and Marcus were always together, Liam was usually wherever the football was.

Plus they were early.

I watched as they entered. Elena, the only other person in the classroom had looked up wide eyed at their entrance, and then quickly back down at her magazine.

I wondered what they were up to.

Marcus gave me a half smile and raised his hand in greeting. Henry smirked and sat back in his seat. Liam nodded a polite bow to me and turned Jasmine's chair around to lean over the guy's desks.

And then they proceeded to discuss something in a volume I would have to strain very hard to hear. So I didn't. But I didn't look away either.

The guys paused, looked at me, laughed lowly and continued their discussion. Whatever. I knew how to mind my own business.

I looked back at my manga.

And then I looked up at the three guys. And then I looked at my manga. Could it be? That these three were cool guys?

At this point, I felt like I had uncovered their secret. If Henry and Marcus and Liam were in this manga, they would be the cool guys.

Hahaha.

The cool girls entered at this point.

Do you see what I mean by the planet and stars aligning? It was as if coolness was revealing itself to me, one step at a time. I swear, although now that I am writing this, the notion was as ridiculous as the manga, BUT atm, it was real.

"Homework." Krystal demanded as she sat herself in front of me.

She was chewing gum, which wasn't unusual even though it was against the school rules. But today it smelled like a very different mint. It only took my wolf a split second to place it. It smelled like Ben's breath. It honestly did. Same sugarless minty gum.

I took out my homework without a word.

The girls sat around my desk. There was an initial flurry of taking out papers and stationary, returning of various personal items like a stapler, a magazine, and a hair tie. Further movements and mild squabbling over who got which homework first, but because we were well practiced, everyone settled down quickly and they were soon copying homework and exchanging tips and gossip.

I looked back at my manga to find my page.

"Congratulations, your Liam is now officially the coolest guy in our school." Leia said as she copied in the answers for her multiple choice questions. Questions like this was the easiest to copy, you copied a few questions and randomly pick a different answer for one or two of them to differentiate it from the others.

"He's not my Liam." Jasmine answered somewhat huffily.

"Look Jaz, you need to wake up. Harvey is never going to be your boyfriend." Krystal said, "He's way out of your league."

"That's what my friends at Middle School said about Liam too." Jasmine argued.

"And now that you got him, you don't want him?" Zara scolded, "I thought you were totally into him."

"That was before Harvey." Jasmine said.

"No," Kyrstal interjected, "That was before Liam fell for you."

"Liam didn't fall for me. He just asked me for one date." Jasmine shook her head.

"Oh yeah, then why is he always following you around even though you clearly rejected him?" Leia asked, a little too loudly. I cast a quick glance to the guys. They didn't look like they heard, but they often acted that way too so it's hard to tell.

"Yah, and he's always watching you like a puppy dog." Zara pointed out.

They were seriously too loud. I cast another fugitive look at the guys who were coolly still in their own discussion.

"Stop looking over to them, Zammi." Krystal scolded me now, "Or they'll know we are talking about them."

I'm sure they already knew. In fact, I'm sure they could hear us quite clearly if they kept talking at this volume.

Jasmine didn't seem to realise though. She just shrugged, "Liam and I are just friends."

"Jaz, I think you have a problem." Kyrstal decided to counsel her, "You might want to read this magazine."

I looked at the magazine Kyrstal had proffered to Jasmine. The bold words in yellow asked, "WHY DO I KEEP CHASING UNATTAINABLE MEN?"

I worked to not laugh out loud at that. Wth did that even mean?

"I don't have a problem." Jasmine tried to defend herself.

"Yes, you do." Krystal insisted, "You spent years liking one guy and once he asks you out, you lose interest and like another. You just like the idea of liking someone from afar, but once they return your feelings, you get scared and start liking someone else who is even more unlikely to return your feelings."

Woah...that sounded deep. I had no idea what she meant though.

"There's no shame in that." Krystal continued, "It's fun to have someone to fantasize about, but in reality, guys aren't like those in the manga. It's okay to crush on cool guys but you need to live in your reality too. Liam is a good guy. You should accept him."

"Yeah, before another girl comes along and takes him." Leia added, "He is the coolest guy in school, that's a really good catch."

"He's not as cool as Harvey." Jasmine pointed out.

"Jaz," Krystal had her firm lecture tone on now, "At least half of the guys at Zammi's party were cooler than Liam."

"Yeah, it's like Zammi's pack is made up of cool guys and beautiful girls." Zara sighed, "Like stepping into a movie set."

"Even the older guys were kinda hot." Leia admitted, "Like Flynn. Too bad he's married."

Omo. What? Flynn? But he's really old! Like he's a mated adult old!

"Leia, I thought you promised me you wouldn't look at older men anymore!" Krystal said.

"I know, but I was only looking." Leia protested.

"It's not anything like what you said!" Jasmine tried to explain now, "I just really like Harvey right now."

Krystal shook her head, "No Jaz, you like Harvey's coolness. I admit, he's really cool. But Liam's cool too. And you should take what you can get."

"I'm not settling for second best. When I get a boyfriend, I want to be able to feel like he's the coolest guy around." Jasmine said then.

"There's no such thing."

The girls stop and looked at me. Oh, did I just say that out loud?

"Cool guys are just guys you happen to see doing something cool. Like even Henry has his cool moments, and you know he's not cool." I tried to explain.

"Huh? But Henry is cool!" Zara said.

"What do you mean, he's not cool?" Krystal asked.

"Do you know something we don't?" Leia asked.

I blinked. He was? But Henry was just Henry...

"What so cool about Henry?" I asked instead.

"You're right." Krystal agreed after considering it, "Henry's more like the hot type."

"Yeah." Zara fanned herself with her hands, "He's so hot, I feel the heat just thinking about him."

The girls giggled at that.

Omo. Human girls were weird. Yeah, I've decided to chalk this to the fact that they were human, because I couldn't understand them.

"I prefer the cool type though." Jasmine said.

"Hm, I can't decide." Zara admited, "Can a guy be hot and cool at the same time?"

Like Bell. Bell was always blowing hot and cold. Hahaha.

"That'll kind of be like a guy version of Zammi." Kyrstal answered, "I think there are, but they're rare."

Eh? Me? Wait, I'm cool? I was almost hopeful.

The girls looked at me carefully now. I shrugged under their scrutiny, "What?"

"Yeah, Zammi likes to dress cute. But she's really more like the cool type." Zara agreed.

Who's dressing cute? I flared. The girls laughed.

"You know, you should just be yourself." Krystal advised me. She plucked out the heart shaped pin from my hair and put it down in front of me, "This is so middle school."

"I think it's cute." Jasmine defended me, "I would wear it."

"That's cos you're the cute type, Jaz." Krystal explained, "But see, Zammi's the cool type."

"Zammi, stand up." Krystal stood up then, "I can't take this anymore."

Was she calling me out to fight?

I stood up to face Krystal who swiftly undid the hook on the side of my skirt and folded it up a few times so that it ended above my knees now.

"I think you can make that shorter." Leia observed. Krystal folded in the belt once more. Then she tugged the shirt around my waist to cover the fold.

"The ribbon." Leia pointed out.

Kyrstal pulled it off, "I can't believe you button up your shirt to the collar. Isn't it uncomfortable?"

Not really.

Krystal redid my bow after deftly unbuttoning the first two buttons.

"Oh, you're right." Jasmine gasped a little, "This look suits you, Sam."

I couldn't see at all, since there was no mirror in the classroom. I looked down and tried to see.

Kyrstal looked quite pleased. Looking at her, I realised she probably just styled my uniform the way she styled her own.

Suddenly I remembered the manga. So this was the cool way to wear a uniform?

"You need to stop wearing velcro sneakers and carrying elementary school backpacks though." Krystal, ever the perfectionist pointed out.

"Wait, no!" Jasmine suddenly stood up too, "I changed my mind. I think I like the cute look better."

Jasmine rearranged the bow around my collar to make the bow part larger and the ribbons shorter. Then she clipped the heart pin back into my hair. She took out her large tooth comb, "I'm just going to do your hair."

The next thing I knew the girls were laughing. I felt my face flush. My hair was back up in two buns, like the way Savy did it on Sunday.

But that wasn't the problem. The problem was that my makeover had taken place in the classroom, and by now, most of the other kids had arrived and some of them had also come over to see.

Kyrstal frowned a little, "I don't know. I like cool better."

"What do the guys think?" Leia called out.

This was now super embaressing, I felt the heat burn my cheeks, "Don't look!"

The guys laughed. Grrrr.... I'm gonna sock them.

"Cute." Henry shrugged.

"Yeah, but Sam's probably the type that can pull off most looks." Marcus added.

"Yeah, but I like cute. The irony is amusing." Henry explained.

"True that." Marcus agreed and the guys laughed again.

"Her skirt is too short!" Terrence yelled.

"No it's not!" Zara yelled back, she stood next to me, "See, it's still longer than ours."

"Stop polluting her. Sam is a good girl. She's not the kind of girl who likes to show off her panties like the rest of you!" Terrence yelled.

Zara slammed the desk, "Nobody here likes to show off their panties you pervert!"