Wish I May, Wish I Might

Chapter 3

My day meandered and continued until I found myself in the library during resource period, the free hour before the final bell was to ring, releasing us all from our temporary cinder block prison. Or at least, those of us that didn't have extracurriculars. I would have to be there until later, thanks to the softball tournament tomorrow. Mariana, the coach and undoubtedly the best teacher in the world, would probably let us go earlier than the scheduled time because she would be so confident in our victory tomorrow. Part of me felt bad about my accidental wish last year that I would win every softball tournament I played in, and not just for the obvious reason that I'll explain later, but because I didn't want Mariana to feel like she had peaked after two tournament wins in a row.

While I really only had one friend that I would do things like binge-watch all three extended cuts of the Lord of the Rings movies and get ice cream with, Cash, there was a revolving cast of characters that the two of us found ourselves hanging out with. A lot of them were sporty people - Cash's buddies from the football teams and their way-too-smart girlfriends, a lot of whom I knew from AP and Honors classes, that switched up on a bimonthly basis and some of the boys and girls from the softball team - but there were a fair amount of fellow nerds and drama geeks and whatever. Looking back, there were a lot of stereotypes all meshed together. Cash was popular, popular enough to have been on prom court the year before, and that made me popular by extension. And also made me the senior class's most eligible bachelorette in the eyes of the single boys on the football team, who seemed to think that as long as you weren't dating someone, you were available.

Basically, I'm asking you to excuse my sharpness and annoyance in this high school. I was beyond sick of this daily grind by the time we're zoning in on my high school career.

The fact that I am not going to name any of these people should give you a general feeling of my attachment to them. I was sitting at one of the tables with my feet on the desk, re-reading Gone Girl for the second time and feeling incredibly stupid for not guessing the plot twist the first time I read it. I was more a passive reader and audience member. And a passive person, I suppose. I never wanted to be in the front seat of anything, I just wanted to sit back and enjoy the show. I guess you could say that was the root cause of all my problems. Or some of them, at least.

My phone buzzed in my bag, drawing me out of my book and going to grab my phone. "It's Friday," one of the beefcakes from the football time that seemed to always think that the cutest way to flirt was to make fun of and annoy the girl of their interest, said. "Why are you even reading?"

Another annoying thing about some of these football players: some of them just don't get that there are girls that don't want to get with them. So clearly, I was a standoffish bitch who, if they annoyed me enough, would eventually get with one of them.

One of the other members of the wolf pack snorted. "Yeah, besides, everyone knows that like get an A on, like, everything."

Cash stopped regaling one of our clique about his mysterious sudden total grasp of Calculus. ("It was like I just knew everything all of a sudden! It was like magic!" I had to roll my eyes.) He gave me the look that every girl/boy BFF pair knows: the should-I-step-in,or-do-you-got-this look. I nodded, showing that I do, in fact, got it.

I bookmarked my page and pulled out my phone. "I happen to enjoy reading," I said. "It's a great way to exercise the brain. You two should try it sometime."

A couple of the nerds and geeks in the group laughed at this. Like I said, it was a weird group of people. Cash and I bring everyone together in the weirdest way possible. I mean really, what jocks hang out in the library during resource period, sitting within one table of the theater nerds? It's like LinkedIn connections up in Apple High.