Miss Fake

The door of the cafeteria opens, letting five persons in. Immediately, nothing around me matters. My stare fixes on the guy in the middle. I can’t even hear the girl next to me, who I was chatting with. He enters, laughing, perfect dimples appearing on his cheeks. I melt in front of this perfect view. He shakes his head, still laughing from what just said the guy on his left. His blond hair follows perfectly the movement, just long enough to fall on his eyes. With a charming movement of hand, he pushes them back on his head, and head toward his favorite table. In school, we all know that it is his favorite place, and we always all leave it free for him and his friends. Consequently, my friends and I chose our table to have the best view of him. He keeps talking with his friend, ignoring all the girls who, like me, are staring at him intensely. I sigh, charmed and sad to not be able to be by his side all the time. Fingers snap in front of me, coming from my right. “Earth to Skyler? Are you there?” My friend Nina asks and waves her hand in front of me as I keep quiet, not looking away from my prey. “He is perfect,” I murmur. “We know, you say that all the time,” she answers, faking annoyance, but I know she thinks the same as me. Bryan Lock, the captain of our football team is the most popular guy at school. He is good-looking, gentle, good student, athletics. This guy doesn’t have a single flaw. He is accessible for a popular, even though, it seems impossible to enter his group of friends. They are going to laugh with you and chat, but it doesn’t feel like they really include you. I thought if I became popular, I would be able to reach him, but it feels that there are kilometers separating us. I fell in love with him three years ago. Before that, I used to be like these girls who watch from afar, admiring his look, but nothing more than physical attraction. My perception of him changed the day I was attacked by a wolf. I was running in the woods, near our town, like usual, but a wolf came out of nowhere. Bryan, who happened to be running as well, saw me and protected me. He shielded me with his body, while I was paralyzed with fear. The wolf jumped on him, and he punched him. For his age, he was already well built, and sportive, making the wolf fall on his back. The animal left running, and Bryan helped me go back to my home. Since that day, I’ve made every effort possible to make him like me. I changed the way I dressed, I learned how to put makeup on. I went to every party, got close to the girls who were popular at that time. I learned how to charm guys. I started cheerleading since he was on the sports team. I studied hard because he was a straight-A student. With a lot of effort, I became the most popular girl. But nothing seemed to have work, yet. I am not giving up so easily, and he will see that I’m the perfect match for him. He never dated, even though he could have any girls he wants, and I know that when he will be ready, I’ll be there for him. I take out a small mirror, that I always carry around in situations like this. I fix my hair and verify if my makeup is good. I smile at my reflection, feeling beautiful. “Sky?” Nina asks, waiting for an answer. “Mmh?” I reply, confused, as I didn’t hear a single thing they were talking about. “We were talking about Bryan’s party this Friday.” At the mention of Bryan’s name, a huge smile appears on my lips. “What are you going to wear?” “I don’t know, I want something new…” I trail off, thinking about my outfit in my closet. I have some pretty dresses, but I already wore them at previous parties. I want to look gorgeous since Bryan isn’t doing often parties. “Yeah, that’s what we were also thinking. So, shopping after class?” I nod happily, thinking about a cute outfit I saw last time, and I regretted not buying. I breathe out, calming me and my heartbeat, which was racing. “Wish me luck,” I tell my friends, standing up, winking at them. Nina gives me a thumb up, smiling confidently at me. “You go, girl!” Addison encourages me while Rachelle smiles at me. I walk toward Bryan’s table, feeling some stares at me, making me confident in my looks. “Hi, guys!” I say with a big smile. They smile back at me, stopping in their conversation. “Why the flower of Ravendale would be coming to mere humans like us?” Nathan asks, with a charming smile. I chuckle, giving him a shy smile while putting my hair behind my ear. I know that works every time, and I see him exaggeratedly putting a hand on his chest while moving back on his backrest, like he received an arrow on his heart. “Bryan,” I start and I hear Nathan mumble a Bryan, lucky bastard, but we both ignore him, pretending we didn’t hear, my gaze not leaving his magnific blue eyes. “We were given an assignment in chemistry for next week, and we were paired up together. It seems quite easy, but we should still work on it. When are you free this week?” I ask innocently. We weren’t paired up together randomly. Since I had my eyes on him and realized he was crazy good at school, I worked hard to match him. I try also to be liked by teachers as he is. I bootlicked all my teachers, being the perfect model student, offering to help them after class. When I heard we will have an assignment in chemistry, I went to my teacher after class. I know he prefers to choose groups, to avoid fights, and I know that I am one of his favorite students. I came to him, looking sad, explaining that last time, I was paired with someone who left all the work on me, and I had to do it all alone. He looked at me with pity and promised that he will be careful with the next one. I let it slide in the conversation that I did a project with Bryan in another class, and it went very well, as he is also a good and serious student. The next day, when he told us our group, I was paired with Bryan, and I couldn’t stop smiling that my plan worked. “This week will be difficult,” Bryan starts, scratching his neck uncomfortable. The thing with Bryan is that he is very busy. I don’t know exactly why, but he and his friends often take days off, and the school seems to be okay with it. When we ask him, he always answers vaguely, saying he has to help with the family business. I don’t exactly know what is the work of his parents, but he is crazy rich. “Oh, but don’t worry! I won’t leave you to do it alone!” Bryan adds quickly when he sees my expression sadden. I smile internally, with a bit of guilt because I know that if I acted like that, he would reassure me and do what I want. “When is the assignment due?” “Tuesday.” “Let’s work on it on Monday? I have so much to do until the end of the weekend,” he explains vaguely. I nod, smiling, trying to cover my deception of having to wait until Monday to work alone with him. “Let’s keep in touch, I might not be able to come back to school this week,” he adds pointing at his phone. I feel butterflies in my stomach, knowing that I am going to be one of the only girls who will be in touch with him for a few days. He usually never replies to texts, but if he is the one offering me the possibility, I won’t refuse. Even though he is going to answer only work-related texts, it’s still a good thing. “Sure! Anyway, I’ll see you all on Friday then!” I say, smiling at them all, knowing Bryan doesn’t like people who treat his friend badly and get overprotective over them. They smile back at me, and I smile internally, knowing that the way to gain Bryan’s heart is getting the approval of his friends first. “I’m also available if you need help with your assignment, princess,” Nathan says with a seductive smile, showing me his phone, while I was leaving their table. I thank him, smiling brightly at him. “Assignment or anything, by the way”, he adds with a wink. I chuckle, looking amused by his jokes, while I internally curse him to try to seduce me in front of Bryan. If only Bryan would act this way with me, I’ll be in heaven. Or at least get jealous. Even a small reaction would make me the happiest girl on earth. “She is so freaking cute,” I hear Nathan says to his friend, while I am getting away. I hope Bryan would comment, but he doesn’t say a thing, and I’m getting too far to spy on their conversation. I reach our table, taking my stuff to leave. “Argh, Sky! I wasn’t done!” Nina says, annoyed. “I don’t want to be clingy, and he must feel my absence to notice my presence,” I say with a smile. My friends follow me out, and I force myself to not look in his direction. I feel Nathan’s stare, but I don’t care about him. How amusing would it be if it was Bryan’s stare…  Once we are outside, Nina turns to me, excited. “How was it? Did it work?” I turn to her, clearly thrilled, and grab her hands in mine to show how excited I am. “Yes! We are going to work together on Monday!” “That's just work though,” Rachelle says with a smirk. I’m too happy for her remarks to affect me. “You are just jealous Riri,” I say with a superior tone, an arrogant smirk on my lips. “And… he said we should stay in touch this week!” Nina screams, excited for me. “After the dress we are going to find you, he won’t take off his gaze from you,” Nina says, wiggling her eyebrows. I laugh, and jump around, too excited to calm down. In our world, a study session with Bryan is extremely rare, and I intend to turn it into a date. “I should ask him to study in a coffee shop? And then we can go to the restaurant together, or watch a movie if we finish early…” I imagine, hoping that it will become reality on Monday. “Or you could go to his house… imagine, you, the prettiest girl of Ravendale and him, the hottest guy, alone, in his room…” Nina comments, making me dream. “Damn… I definitely need a new outfit…” I start, wanting to look good on Monday, “and new underwear,” I add with a giggle. Nina punches me gently on the arm, laughing with me. Addison laughs with us, saying how we should skip this afternoon to have more time for shopping. Rachelle, on the other hand, looks at me with anger. When she sees that I spot it, she tries to cover it with a fake smile, and I smirk arrogantly at her. I know she is in love with him too, and that she is hanging out with us because we are the closest to Bryan and his group. I allowed her in our group only to keep her close, she is beautiful and cunning, and I rather have her as one of my minions than as an enemy. Nonetheless, I’ve never really integrated her completely in our group, we mostly hang out the three of us with Nina and Addi, but she doesn’t care, staying with us uniquely for the appearance. We attend the first class, and when we know that Bryan isn’t coming for the afternoon class, we decide that it isn’t worth it to attend it as well, and leave in Nina’s car to the shopping mall.