Lost & Insecure

Three - One of Those Girls

"Ed! Are you ready yet?" Dana called upstairs to Eddie, who was taking forever to get ready – rather, he was taking Dana's definition of forever to get ready. She groaned when there was no response, although she only gave him a few short moments before calling after him again, "Eddie!" She whined with as much projection as her vocal cords would allow.

Dana heard a loud thud come from Eddie's room upstairs, followed by a muffled voice calling back to her, "I'll be down in five minutes!"

Dana rolled her eyes involuntarily, and checked the time on her phone. She shook her whole body as if to shake away all her nerves before calling back up to Eddie, "Edgar Matthews, we don't have five minutes!" She scolded him like a misbehaving toddler. Fortunately for Dana, and parents everywhere, the toddler scold had a way of working for children of all ages – even teenagers.

Eddie ran downstairs, pulling his shirt over his head. He managed to flail his head into one of the armholes and requested Dana's assistance fixing his mistake. He was thankful she lent him a helping hand as opposed to scolding him. She did, however, yank his shirt completely off of him, causing him to shutter in response of the surprise vulnerability. Dana threw his shirt in his face and handed him a package of Pop-Tarts. Eddie accepted the Pop-Tarts and sighed, slouching his shoulders forward, "This is breakfast?" He moped, "They're not even toasted." Eddie pulled his shirt back over his head – this time pulling his limbs through all the correct holes – as Dana guided him through the garage door. "I hope you're happy," he mumbled. "Now I'm not going to look as good as usual. And for the first day of school? Well this is a crying shame, I tell you. Honestly I think this might be a crime. Depriving the world of my full potential? Striking down one of the world's finest with no hesitation? No qualms? No regrets? Not even a single-"

"You always look the same to me, hon." Dana cut him off, not caring. "You said it yourself, it's the first day of school. You can't be late." She made her way to the driver's side of her car, hitting the button to open the garage door on her way down the short steps.

Due to the amount of boxes still piling up along the sides of the garage, Eddie had to wait for Dana to back the car out into the driveway before he could climb into the passenger seat, so he made his way outside and stand patiently waiting. "Why just me? Why not 'we'?" Eddie asked, catching onto her specific choice of pronouns.

"Because you're more important right now," she answered abruptly and slid into her driver's seat as quickly as possible.

"Why am I more impor-" Eddie's words were cut short by the slam of the car door. He threw his head back dramatically and pouted, making a show of it and hoping Dana was watching through her rearview mirror. As he readied his voice to whine, Eddie looked up and saw Katie across the street. He perked up, happy to see a familiar face. "Hey, Katie!" He waved. Katie looked up, sending Eddie a half sincere wave, and the kind of smile you give when you pass a stranger on the street, before getting into her boyfriend's car and leaving. Eddie lowered himself into Dana's car, which now sat beside him in the driveway. "That awkward moment..." He began.

Dana attempted to seem sincere to her cousin, but her unwillingness to care took priority over her false sincerity as she spoke. "Sorry Ed, I guess she's one of those girls." Eddie cocked an eyebrow at her, questioning her without speaking. "You know," Dana explained, backing out of the driveway, "too cool for us girls. The stereotypical popular girls that you hear about it in bad high school dramas."

"You don't even know her, D." Eddie's eyebrows furrowed, wanting to give Katie the benefit of the doubt.

"Don't have to." Dana responded shortly, pushing sunglasses onto the bridge of her nose with her free hand.

"Can you just stop being bitter all the time?" Eddie shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"I'm not bitter, I'm honest." She shrugged. Eddie didn't attempt to refute her statement, and remained silent for the continuation of the car ride to school. Dana turned the volume up on the stereo, unbothered by Eddie's silence. The two soon found themselves in their new school, looking at a homeroom chart to investigate where they were supposed to go. "That's weird..." Dana said, inspecting the chart.