Miss Complicated

Chapter 13

I wouldn't say I was ever popular but then do people ever say they are? I was never the main character in conversations and I avoided drama like it was the plague. That Monday at school everything changed. People were giving me strange looks and whispering about me. Girls I've never talked to before started to talk to me.

"What is going on with people?" I whispered to Kenzie as we walked to French class.

"Don't know. Don't care" Kenzie replied.

"Hi, Zara." A couple of cheerleaders waved and smiled at me as I walked past them.

"Uh, hi," I waved back awkwardly to them.

"Zara, you are the man!" Patrick cheered from down the hall with his annoying buddies. "I mean wo-man!"

I couldn't help but grimace from disgust. What the hell was going on?

Kenzie rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"There you are." Madison rushed toward us.

"Hey Maddie, what's going on?" I stared at her in confusion.

"Everyone thinks you slept with Amelia," Madison answered.

"What!" I shouted so loud that everyone in the hall turned to look at me.

"That's why all these girls have been saying hi to you," Kenzie stated. "They want what that slut had."

"That doesn't make any sense and stop calling her that," I argued.

"I agree with Kenzie," Madison said as she linked her arm with mine.  "Those pathetic girls are just trying to be like her and getting you is like some kind of status symbol."

"What are you doing?" I stared at our arms linked together.

Madison looked down at our arms in shock and quickly unlinked her arm from mine.

"Who's pathetic now," Kenzie said with a scoff.

"Sorry, didn't realize I was doing that," Madison said. She turned and shot Kenzie a glare.

"I wish I could skip French." This was one of the reasons why being class president sucked. I couldn't skip class. It was bad for my image.  The other reason was that I really liked Madame Mbaye and she would know if I wasn't in class.

"Why? You love French class." Madison looked at me like I was strange.

"Trying to avoid people," I muttered. I saw Alyson walk into Madame Mbaye's room with Olivia yapping away behind her.

"Forget about the bitch and focus on graduating, " Kenzie whispered to me as she walked past me.

"If only it was that easy." I walked with Madison as we headed into class together.

The desks were separated into two sections. One section was by the windows and the other was by the door. The desks were facing each other and the only thing that divided them was the empty pathway that Madame Mbaye liked to walk back and forth on as she told us some of her stories from living in the south of France. We didn't have assigned seats but due to comfort we always sat in the same spot. My seat was in the back of the room by the door. I don't know why I chose the seat, maybe because it was the farthest from Alyson. She sat in the first row of desks on the other side of the room. She was already at her desk. Her long straight brown hair was parted in the middle. It looked so shiny and soft. Ugh, why was I staring? 

Focus on school, Zara. That's the most important thing.  

Monique skipped into class and settled into the seat in front of Kenzie. "Hey girls."