Opposites attract

Cheese fries and Chris

"You look too serious. Come on! Be more playful!"
I awkwardly raised my hands up and fake smiled. "Blakely" Emma said dryly.
"What? I'm trying".
"What's your favorite quality about yourself?" Emma asked.
"My brain?" I suggested.
"Yes, but everyone already knows that side of Blakely. We want them to see a completely different side to you, one that they'll actually like".
"Hey!" I frowned.

Emma snapped a photo while I was frowning then cringed at it.
"That's mean" I mumbled.
"Tell me something people at school haven't seen much of you doing".
I thought about it for a while then I remembered Lucas' comment about me laughing.

"Laughing" I answered.
"Okay, laugh!"
"I can't just laugh on cue" I rolled my eyes.
"You are not making this easy" Emma sighed before doing weird dances and attempting stupid jokes.

"That was just sad" I said shaking my head.
Emma's irritated frown turned into a wicked smile, "you're a natural Blakely! You were borned for this!"
I cracked up straight away and Emma started snapping, she was laughing too as she took the photos. The whole shoot was a lot more fun than I expected.
"Thanks for doing this for me" I told Emma.
"Thank you" she smiled, "at least I get to put all my political research for captain into good use!"

I ended up spending the night at Emma's. I had to borrow some clothes from her the next morning for school. Her style was very different from mine, more lazy. She usually wore a long shirt or sweat shirt over a pair of tights or cotton shorts.

The best thing I could find for me was pair of black loose fitted shorts, a grey long sleeved shirt and a pair of doc martens. Everything else would've made me feel either too hot or like going to bed.

I drove to school and unlike the day before I made sure to park at the back of the school so I could avoid Alex, Chris or any of the others.

"Is this really what it's come to?" Emma asked getting out of the car, "using the back entrance at school to avoid people?"
"I guess it is" I nodded, "you should've seen them yesterday, they followed me and talked to me as if we were friends or something".
"Little do they know I'm the only friend you ever had and ever will have" Emma smiled.
"Little do they know" I nodded with a laugh.

We managed to avoid them all morning. They didn't even notice me in socials because they were too busy being disruptive. By lunch I had successfully managed to avoid every single one of them.
I was standing in line for cheese fries when my streak was broken.

"Cheese huh? I thought you were vegan".
I frowned and turned around. Chris was standing there with a basket ball in his hands and a smile on his face.
I ignored him then turned back around. I found responding only made things worse.

"Cause you're so skinny and all" he added, "out of curiosity how many meals do you have a day?"
I shrugged without looking at him then moved up with the line.
"Why do you only talk when you're mad, can't we just have a normal happy conversation?"
A normal happy conversation with one of the guys who'd bullied me for a large chunk of my life. Not likely.

"So what did Lucas want yesterday?" He asked.
I shrugged again.
"Why aren't you responding? Damn, what have I ever done to you?" Chris asked.
I turned around and stared at him with an 'are you kidding me' expression.
"I mean despite calling you shrimp and teasing you for around 5 years of course" he smiled.

"Why are you all talking to me all of a sudden anyway?" I mumbled.
"Cause we only just found out you're capable of talking!"
"Right" I nodded moving up.
"Plus, I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty impressive seeing you stand up to Adren" he smiled.

"Isn't that your girlfriend?"
"I guess" Chris shrugged, "but she's a bitch".
I raised an eyebrow and he just laughed, "everyone knows it, it's not just you and your friends...or rather, friend".
"So...why are you dating her?" I asked nervously. "Cause she's hot" he shrugged.

"Of course" I sighed. That's all that really mattered to the guys at my school.
"I mean, I like other things about her, like, she's funny sometimes".
I nodded, "the only jokes I've ever heard from her are the ones that are at the expense of someone else".

"You really don't like us do you" he mused.
"Yeah" I wasn't gonna lie.
"Well, I guess that's fair enough" he laughed.
I nodded. I was finally at the front of the line which meant I was almost free from this weird conversation with Chris.

"Can I get cheese fries and a bottle of water please?" I asked the cafeteria lady.
"Yep, that's $5.90"
I handed her a $10 note and got $4.10 back. I tried to rush away from Chris before he could continue the conversation, but he followed me after ordering and sat at the table with Emma and I.

"So what's your name?" He asked me.
"Blakely" I sighed.
"Wait really? That's a nice name" he smiled.
"That compliment doesn't really make up for the fact that we've been going to school together for nearly 10 years and you still don't know my name" I mumbled.
"Yeah" he nodded, "sorry about that".

I looked at Emma who looked just as surprised as I felt. I'd never heard the word sorry come out of his mouth before. That was definitely surprising.

"I just don't understand why you're being nice to me all of a sudden" I sighed.
"Have I really always been that bad?" He asked. "You've been awful to her!" Emma exclaimed. I could tell she'd had enough of his foe kindness.

"You cut her ponytail in 7th grade, put fire ants in her lunchbox in 8th grade, made your ancient history speech about how her lady parts could be an ancient artifact in 10th grade, and this year you've been the worst! I'm really over you guys talking to her like you're friends with her all of a sudden. Just go back to being the assholes that you are!".

Emma must've been a lot louder than she intended to, because when she looked around she realized to her absolute horror, that almost the entire cafeteria was staring at her.

"You both talk" Chris said raising an eyebrow. He didn't seem to mind the eyes on him at all. Way too much attention had been drawn to Emma and I in the past week. We both just needed to settle down, and go back to being invisible.