"Like Mrs. Montgomery said," Javier muttered as he picked up his backpack off the ground. He kept his eyes on the ground as he turned away from me. "Just think about it."
And just like that, he became another blur in the sea of students in the hallway.
Eleven
Eli
"Ithink you should do it!" Kailey exclaimed.
I had just told my friends about my sudden calling into the principal's office and the request from Principal Montogomery to participate in the academic competition with my enemy.
"I don't know," I drawled. "I'm not sure I can take the embarrassment if I lose."
My last loss had me bawling my eyes out in front of the whole damn school and some random strangers at the park. I wasn’t sure I'd ever recover from that embarrassment.
"Dude, you’re literally the smartest person I know. And this time if you lose, you'll losewithJavier, nottoJavier," Ricky said in assurance as he put a comforting hand on my shoulder.
My head jolted back and I squinted. "What does this have to do with Javier?"
"You only ever seem to get upset when you lose to Javier. I mean—you get upset when you lose to anyone, but youreallyget upset when you lose to him."
"Shut up," I mumbled. I refused to admit it but I knew he was right, but we all knew that was true. It was just something about losing to him that really irked my nerves.
"Anyway…" I used the pause in conversation to change the subject. "Guess what I found.”
“A life?” Bella quipped, a cheeky smile on her face.
I pressed my lips into a straight line and rolled my eyes. “A party for us to go to.”
"Hell yes!" Bella squealed. "I’ve been waiting for a chance to wear one of my new outfits."
"Wait, party? When, where, and whose party?" Kailey asked frantically. Kailey was not one for impromptu plans. She was most definitely a planner and needed things to be organized.
"My sister’s boyfriends," I said with a slight smirk. My friends’ eyes widened in surprise. “I saw him advertising the party on Insta.”
"Uh, Benji as in the guy who the twins forbid you to talk to?" Ricky asked as he readjusted his legs into a crisscross position.
I nodded and then lifted up a pointed finger. "They don't 'forbid' me from doing anything or talking to anyone. I'm my own person."
Easton and Emerson had never let me be near their friends. It was like I had some contagious disease, and they were afraid I’d spread it, so they forbade me from even looking in their friends’ directions.
I remembered back in fourth grade I met a girl. We quickly became friends because she liked to share her animal crackers with me, and in turn I'd let her cheat off of me during tests.
Well, our friendship lasted for about a month tops. That was because Emerson happened to be friends with the girl too, so when she found out the girl was friends with me, she was furious. She screamed at me, trying to explain that her friends couldn't be my friends because it "wasn't right.” The girl never shared her animal crackers with me again. Emerson was a scary girl, especially in the fourth grade, so I can see how she scared the girl into ending our friendship.
I didn’t remember the girl's name, I don’t think I ever actually knew it. I just knew her as the girl who shared her animal crackers with me. What I did know, however, was that she transferred schools in the middle of sixth grade for some unknown reason. It was the last time I saw the Animal Cracker Girl.
That was just one of a few times that my siblings acted like the world was ending because people they associated with did not automatically hate my guts.
So, it was shocking for my friends to hear me willingly insert myself around Benji. If the twins spotted me there it would cause a lot of drama between them and I. Thing was, I didn’t care at that moment. Benji was probably the only one of my siblings' friends that didn't act like I was an irrelevant NPC despite my siblings' protests. Out of all their friends, I liked him the most.
Also, a party was a party.
"When is it?" Kailey repeated.
"Tonight."
"And you're just now telling us?" Kailey let out an incredulous laugh.
