Her Mysterious Ways

Chapter 10: Party Hardy

_____________

"Hey not Andy." I said to Andy, who was again scribbling things in that stupid notebook.

"Hi." She answered, not looking at me.

"Do you maybe wanna go do something after school? It is Friday." I wiggled my eyebrows and hoped for a good answer.

"I'm sorry." Her notebook closed and she looked up at me. "I can't do this." She stuffed her notebook in her drawstring bag and left, leaving behind her pen and a question of what was wrong.

"ANDY WAIT!" I yelled to her back.

She didn't look back.

I decided that she needed a moment to herself, so I sat at the empty lunch table. That's when I noticed all the people staring. Then I clued in. I was sitting with Andy and she wasn't popular and it seemed that she had no desire to be. We were almost opposite, but, we did have one thing in common. We didn't tell people about our pasts.

The whole time I had known her, which wasn't long, she never said anything about her home or her family or anything. She didn't even mention it. It was almost not normal, because she had no problem accusing me of being rich, but she never told me about her. I didn't even know why. I barely even knew her, actually. She was so dark and mysterious that you just couldn't get to know her without uncovering every secret or thought she ever had. All I knew was that her name didn't quite fit her and she was awful quiet about herself. It was my job to get to know her.

I grabbed the pen and left.

~

~

"What the hell are you doing Cole? You know what I told you. Everyone's talking about you and Miss Freak Girl." Tristan lectured.

"I know I know. I just... she... she's sorta cool and she's really pretty and yeah." I admitted. All of the popularity shit was getting on my nerves.

"Well, you're stupid. Chloe is like totally in love with you and she's captain of the volleyball team. Then there's the whole cheerleading team and not to mention the rest of the school. You can have anyone you want, Cole. Just come to my party tonight, okay? You know when it is. Then you can be around all of the right girls for you and it'll set your mind straight." He assured me. I thought about it. Gracie was going for a sleep-over so that wouldn't be a problem, and my grandma could just phone me if there was a problem.

"Well, I'll go, but I will not get set up with any girls, okay? This will we a set up free party, okay?" I had nothing better to do, and the farmers market wasn't until 10 o'clock the next day, so I figured everything would be fine. I wansn't planning on getting drunk or anything.

"Okay. As long as you're not with that Andy girl, everything's fine." Tristan snarled then walked away. That guy had to get all of his popularity tips from movies or something, because it was not how I saw things, but I had to follow them, so I was stuck.

"Yeah," I yelled to Tristans back, "Nice talking to you too!" Why was I always talking to people's backs that day? Oh right, because I was an ass.

~

~

~

When the day was over, I went home to get ready for the party. I wanted to look at least approachable for the miniscule chance that Andy woud show up, even if I knew that she would never be caught dead at a party like this.

"So Grandma," I instructed, "Gracie is at a sleepover so she's not coming home. I left a note right on the stand that she won't be coming, okay?"

"Who's Gracie?" She asked in confusion. I was speachless. How could she forget Gracie? I couldn't go if she didn't remeber Gracie.