Alex went home that day in a trance. Did she just become friends with the most popular girl in school?
Her mom wasn’t home, so Alex grabbed some food from the refrigerator. She stuffed a spoonful of cereal in her mouth and grabbed her phone which was charging.
There was a notification.
“Hey Alex what’s up?” Trisha texted.
“Not much, just chilling. Wbu” Alex replied.
“Lol same. Yo we should go to the mall sometime!”
Alex never really liked to go to the mall – or really any place that required her to leave the TV or iPad. But Alex knew she couldn’t just say ‘nah I’m good’, because that was an offensive gesture to a popular girl. If you turned on them like that, you would be murdered the next day by her tribe of minions. Well, maybe not you, but your well-being and happiness would be murdered.
“I love the mall! We should totally go out sometime” Alex finally decided on.
“What about tomorrow?” Trisha texted.
Alex was about to say yes when she remembered that she was grounded for 3 weeks.
Ugh. She thought. What am I going to say to Trisha? She can’t know that my mom is so involved in my life!
“Tbh I would love to but I’m pretty busy with homework and stuff”
“Whatever with homework. tbh I just hire someone to do my homework for me.”
“Ugh I need to hire someone too. so after this week, why don’t we go?” Alex proposed. Her mom would probably forget about her being grounded pretty soon, and be thrilled for Alex to get off the couch.
“Yeah that would work! Well I gtg but I’ll see you tomorrow”
“Ok ttyl”
~ ~ ~
The next day Alex sat next to the popular girls at the cafeteria.
“So then, he was all like ‘I don’t like you anymore’ and I was like ‘you jerk’ and HE BROKE UP WITH ME!” Trisha cried out.
Stephanie just scrolled through Instagram nonchalantly. Alex just sorta looked at Trisha confused. Rita, another popular girl, had many break-up stories. “Oh my goodness, if you think that one’s bad, listen to this one!” She paused to make sure they were listening. Stephanie glanced up for a moment before she began scrolling again. “So there was this guy, and he asked me out. And I thought he was really cute – I mean he was really cute. But anyways, he asked me one day if I would come to his all-guys party, and I was like ‘ew, no.’ And then he got mad at me! He broke up with me right then and there!!” Her eyes were opened wide. She looked at Stephanie, Alex, and Trisha to see if they were impressed.
“Oh my goodness what a jerk!” Trisha said immediately.
Alex just smiled. Stephanie rolled her eyes but didn’t stop scrolling.
“What about you, Alex?” Trisha asked.
“What about me?” Alex asked, confused.
“Like, have you had any break-ups? Or like, if you want to talk about them.”
Alex blushed. “Well, honestly, I’ve never dated anyone before.”
Stephanie looked up. She looked at Trisha. “See, Alex has never had a boyfriend. Why do I have to?”
Trisha rolled her eyes. “Ugh, you’re impossible. It’s because you are popular. Alex will get a boyfriend soon, now that she is with us.”
Alex thought about that.
“Are there any guys you like, Alex? We can help you get any guy you like.”
Alex looked around. None of the guys were really as cute as the guys in the movies, but she did have a little crush on a guy named Brad. He was a soccer player. He was really nice and got good grades. And of course, he was cute.
“Well, I kind of like Brad.” Alex admitted.
Trisha squealed. “Consider him your husband!”
Stephanie rolled her eyes. “You just made a mistake Alex.”
“Shut up Stephanie.” Trisha said. She turned to Alex. “But first, we have to get you all done up. I’ll show you how do to your makeup, buy you some cute clothes, and teach you how to act cool. It will be so much fun!”
Alex smiled. It did sound fun. “Yeah sure, thanks!”