This Girl

Chapter 25: What am I? A mole?

Come to the mall with me?

Its a text from Bubbles. I reply quickly.

When?

Now.

Why?

I wanna buy you something for Christmas!

Ok, meet me there in ten?

Yup. I'm bringing Kate, Meghan and Chloe too!

I shut off my phone and stow it away in my bag, making my way out into the car park and driving to the mall. 

When I arrive I see Bubbles and the others waiting against Meghan's car. I walk over, putting my keys back into my bag and waving. Meghan runs up to me first, followed by the others.

"NATALIE!" she screams, a foot away from me. 

"Yes?" I ask, raising my eyebrows. 

"Alex wrote a song for you!" she yells.

"What? No he didn't," I say, taking my phone out of my pocket when I hear a familiar buzz. I unlock it and see another text message from one of Amanda's minions. 

Stay away from Alex, loser,  he doesn't want you. 

I shut my phone off again, not even bothering to block the person, I know Amanda will be using another account next time. Even though Amanda is only in my AP calculus classes, she's not in any of the other ones with me, though she does have the smarts for getting into people's heads. 

"He so did!" Meghan brings me back to the present. 

"He did not! It was our music assignment and the only catchy songs are the loved up ones so that's what he wrote," I say, shrugging and throwing my phone into my backpack again. 

"HE!" Bubbles shouts, standing next to Meghan. "He wrote it about you! You'd be blind not to see that, Nat!" 

I shake my head and we start walking into the mall. "So what are we buying today, my friends?"

***

"Try the red one."

"No, the blue!"

"What the hell? The ORANGE!"

We're all arguing about Bubbles' dress for homecoming. Bubbles turns to me. "You decide, Nat."

"I'd say either the yellow or pink," I tell her. She nods.

"I'm going with yellow," she goes back into the dressing room to take the sparkly yellow two piece dress off the hanger while the other girls complain about this decision. 

We wait outside while Bubbles pays for the dress. When she steps outside we walk to the food court and plop down. I buy some sushi and a Fanta and sit down. 

We begin discussing our Christmas plans when a large group of girls, mostly blonde, walks in. I roll my eyes immediately when I see Amanda at the front of the crew. She spots someone sitting in the food court at one of the tables. The groups stalks over to the girl seated. The person has their back to me and all I can see is the girl's dark hair and blue blouse from where we sit two tables away, hearing every word of the discussion. 

"Hey nerd," Amanda smirks, stopping in front of the girl, who looks up from her laptop.

"Hi Amanda," the girl says. I recognize Glenna's voice. 

"And where are your friends?" Amanda asks in a fake-sweet tone.

"Um..." Glenna starts but Amanda cuts her off.