Alvin's Hidden Life

Chapter 12: Brittany: Reputation Lost

The night before had gone perfectly. No problems, no hiccups. At least... not for me. I had to hope Alvin got Simon to believe I liked him. I was pretty confident that he could, but we were dealing with Simon, who could always be pretty hard to fool, almost impossible. Overnight I had formulated a pretty huge plan in my mind. I didn't know what had gotten into me, but at school I was going to make a huge sacrifice. Sadly it would probably cost me my reputation, but I had to appear like there was something seriously wrong with me. I had to become... weird. That would solidify my sister's beliefs and it would probably make Simon believe I liked Alvin that much more. Everyone knew that I would never sacrifice my reputation for anything. I knew that too, yet for some reason I was going to. Alvin really was a horrible influence. Maybe I should have listened to my common sense before going through with the whole thing, but it was too late to turn back.

After doing my makeup I decided to walk alone up to school. It was hopefully a great start to the day if my sisters didn't know where I went. All the way there I brainstormed things I could do to appear weird, which was a word I usually tried to keep out of my vocabulary. I was in a sticky situation, because I have to appear weird to most people, but to Simon, I have to appear like I have a crush on Alvin. I didn't want the whole school to think I had a crush, because at that point I might as well have come out and said we were dating. Ideas like waving at random people, tripping in the hall in front of Alvin, showing up late to class, acting nervous in front of him, and staring at him began to pop into my head. That will be a good list to get me through the day.

I walked into class and sat down. I was the only one in the room other than Ms. Smith because I was so early. I just sat there, put on my daydreaming face, and laid my chin on my fist. I figured I would even have to appear weird to Ms.Smith. I figured that if I waited for Alvin to walk in I could freak out and then act super nervous, but for now, I could just act like I was up in the clouds. I set up a few things on my desk that I could fling off when he came in. Then I sat there and started planning out the rest of the week in my head, but it wasn't long until, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Alvin walk in. Just like I had planned, I jumped in my seat and my pencils flew everywhere.

"Aaahhh! Oh... hey Alvin. Sorry, I was... was uh... just drawing a picture."

"Yeah... I can see that. Your colored pencils are all over the floor."

Of course the classroom was almost full because Alvin always showed up pretty late, so everyone saw me make a fool of myself. The whole class started laughing. I didn't have any paper on my desk, so it was pretty obvious I wasn't drawing. I started picking up the pencils with an embarrassed look on my face. I saw Simon rolling his eyes, and I could totally tell what he was thinking. He knew I had a crush, and he knew it was gonna be an awkward school day. Thankfully, Ms. Smith stepped in.

"Alright class, settle down."

Nobody settled down. They all just kept laughing at me.

"I SAID SETTLE DOWN!"

When she yelled like that, the class knew she meant business. It became dead silent, so I took the opportunity and dropped all of the pencils I had just picked up. If I was going to make people think I was a weirdo, I had to go all in, no matter how much I hated it. The sound of them hitting the ground in a silent classroom caused everyone to start laughing again. It was so embarrassing, I couldn't believe that I was actually going through with it.

"QUIET!"

I quickly picked them up and set them on my desk. As the bell rang, people were still snickering, but luckily it saved me from the worst of it.

"Okay, class, listen up! Today we are gonna start off with our presentation from Alvin and Brittany. Now I don't want to hear any excuses from either of you! You had all weekend to work on this!"