Magnetic

Chapter Seventeen

I woke up to the smell of my favorite breakfast: french toast. It was enough to make me climb out of bed and make my way downstairs, where my father was at the stove, placing the french toast on a plate for me.

"There you are," he said, placing it on the counter in front of me and planting a kiss on my forehead. It took me by surprise for a minute, since we still hadn't been on the best of terms lately. "Happy birthday."

"Thanks," I said as I grabbed a fork and knife from a drawer.

"Big plans?" he asked.

I sat at the bar area and cut my breakfast in half, then in fourths, down to eight pieces. "Paisley, Gage, and Brady are coming over later, I think. Nothing's been set in stone yet."

"Just let me know," he told me, shutting off the stovetop. "I'll probably be at work all day today."

After my father and I had had that talk, he had cut back on his work hours. Of course, it looked like he was working like usual, but I knew there was nothing I could say about it. There was really nothing that I wanted to say about it.

~~~

The school day was your typical Wednesday, nothing special. Because I still qualified as the "new girl" and didn't socialize much with people other than Brady, Gage, and Paisley, I wasn't told "happy birthday" by many. Back in New York, it would've bothered me, but now, not so much. They didn't know me.

Gage had brought a cake to school for lunch. And it wasn't just large, it was humongous. He had picked it up in the morning from a bakery downtown and kept it throughout all his classes to give it to me. Probably Aunt Kristy's idea.

On the top of the cake, spelled out in pretty pastel-pink frosting was, "Happy birthday, 'New Girl' Nicki". I laughed out loud when I saw it, since that was how most people at West Cliff High School labelled me.

The four of us couldn't eat the whole thing, and since Gage didn't feel like carrying it with him for the rest of the day, he donated the remains of it to a table full of popular seniors who had been eyeing it the entirety of our lunch period.

I didn't recognize anyone at the table except for Trent Loggens, who called out, "Happy birthday, Nicki!" when the cake reached his table. I wasn't really sure how he knew me by name, except for that one night when Brady took me to Little Cappuccino. But I hadn't talked to him at all; I just sat at a table while Brady went up to him to order our drinks.

My name was still on the cake. Oh.

Paisley's face had flushed a bright red when Trent had talked to me and turned away from his table so he wouldn't see. I had never seen Paisley talk to him before, though; as far as I knew, she had always just liked him from afar.

~~~

I felt a serious case of déjà vu when I reached the drama room and Alexander was in the empty seat next to mine. Not this again.

"A little birdie told me that today was your birthday," he said, leaning back in his chair so only two legs of it were touching the ground, something that he did constantly throughout class, driving Mrs. Dunbar absolutely crazy.

"Who would this birdie be?"

"Paisley." He blushed. "She told me in pre-calc today. Said she was going over to your house and that her and two seniors were making you dinner. Well, happy birthday."

"Thanks," I said. I wasn't aware that they were making me dinner. A nice surprise, since I was usually the one to cook for them.

I wasn't even in my seat yet when Alexander grabbed my forearm and maintained some creepy eye contact with me. "Have you talked about me to her yet?"