Chapter 4

I can't believe its already Friday. The day of the dreadful, yet quite exciting I must admit, pool party. After three days of humiliation and name calling of "Freak!" and "Retard!" we have finally come to this one remarkable moment. Though they have good reason to call me those names because who has ever heard of a healthy, average, seventeen year old girl getting hit by the most softest verb ball known to mankind and getting knocked out. So really I don't blame them. Though I seem to be quite popular because of the name calling which is making me uneasy since I'm always in the background. Hiding in the corner with my black hoodie and iPod on full blast.

I generally tend to always wear my black hoodie, dark blue jeans, converse, and my hair up in a pony tail, but right now I'm thinking opposite. Should I shock them with a dazzling green, bareback dress my mom bought for me ahead of time for my graduation with my close toed white heals that are totally gorgeous. Or should I wear my mini skirt that my grandma bought saying, "I saw these in Macy's and well... just live a little Steph," and winking at me with such a mischievous smile I don't want to know what she was thinking, with my halter top and some cute sandals. There are so many choices in so little time. I have no clue what I'm going to wear because really this night can go so many ways.

After a good fifteen minutes of meditating on which outfit to wear while sitting yoga style and closing my eyes in front of my closet, I have come to the conclusion! I will.... BE NORMAL, but not completely normal. I shall spice it up with my awesome skills of outfit picking. I put on my dark blue skinny jeans that amazingly good on me considering how skinny I am. Then I get my bright green long sleeve shirt and a white cammy to go under. Instead of my usual black hoodie, I take my light blue zip up jacket... Which has a hoodie... Also I wear my bright green converse to tie it all in and BAM! There we go baby! Total awesome-ness!

Phone... Check. Outfit... Check. Money... Check. House keys... Check. Hair... Nope. I run over to the bathroom. I check my hair real quick and find that a whole patch of hair is tangled in a knot. I sigh loudly and make annoyed noises while trying to find the brush. Where is the brush? ...Can't find brush... "Mom!" Then there's complete silence in the house and not even one little peep from my mother. Where is she? Great. First I lose the brush, now her too. I head out an a search for my mother around the house but come up empty. Oh god, I can't deal with this now. I check my phone to find that Tony will be here in less than ten minutes. So instead of bothering with my hair I pull my hoodie over my head. I check to make sure everything is perfect in the hall mirror. Any second Tony is going to pop through that door taking me to a pool party. Any minute now...

(15 minutes later)

Here I am gaping at the clock in complete horror because most likely he forgot. I am sitting on the couch, too nervous to put the T.V. on. So instead I have the great opportunity of staring at a lonely clock (Or is it just me that's lonely?) waiting for a pathetic looser who stalks me and made a big deal in P.E. about knowing my name. Like he was under some kind of... Incantation and was so compelled to... Kiss me... Why would someone popular want to kiss me? Why Tony of all people? Also the way Ricky seemed to be enjoying every minute of it didn't seem all that normal either.
Knock, Knock, Knock.
OK, relax Steph. Its just a really dumb pool party for poor pathetic popular kids who mostly spend their lives partying and getting drunk and partying some more. Its only Tony. A freaky dude who likes you and needs a life. OK Steph.. See?

Just as I get relaxed and chill and have this sort of this-is-dumb look on my face I open the door to find Ricky right in front me and all that worry seems to come back. Jesus hes gonna make fun of me the whole way there. Then I really look at him and he has these khaki shorts on with a blue short sleeve over his white long sleeve and it makes him look, dare I say it, kinda cute. Though his hair is perfect, sticking up in all the right places. I don't even notice that hes wearing black converse til' he leads me to the car door while opening it for me while I hop in, not even saying one word of why hes here and Tony's not.

I'm kind of skeptical if I should ask him why hes here. Not to be rude but Tony was supposed to pick me up in the first place. He gets in the drivers seat with an annoyed look in his eyes. He turns the radio blasting it on full volume and when I hear the song being played I start to hysterically laugh while he starts fumbling with the stations. He turns the volume back down and I notice the smallest flicker of violet in his eyes. I blink real fast, trying to decipher if I saw correctly. He looks at me and says, "What? Who doesn't like Hot N' Cold by Katy Perry? Its got a really sick beat." I can't figure out if hes just kidding or if hes completely serious. So when he turns the station to I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho) by Pitbull I just assume he was serious. So I stop laughing and try my hardest not smiling so mockingly. I focus my gaze on the trees passing me outside the window. Then the song sings, "Mami got an ass like a donkey, with a monkey, Look like King Kong," I start to really laugh to where my eyes are crying and bawling to where I can't stand it. I start slapping my knees and trying to wipe the tears. I can't believe how ridiculous these hip hop/rap songs are. Ricky just keeps driving, ignoring my laughter. He must really like this music. He gives me a rude look and says, "Knock it off. Its a good song." I smirk. A good song? My buttocks, that song is not good. When he looks at me i see his eyes are violet again and he starts laughing too and hes crying as much as me and soon as I thought he was actually liking me his eyes turned back to its blue and he just stopped. He seems so completely annoyed with me again. I really don't understand him. Hes got some serious problems but his eyes... I was so sure they were violet.

"K well here we are. Get out of my car freak." I jump out so confused and baffled. I can't believe this guy. I look at the house and I start to proceed to the front door when he yells at me and says, "How 'bout we try the gate huh? That leads to the pool... Get my logic?" I stare at him. "That is rude. Where are your manners? Stop acting like the biggest jerk on the planet and get your ass over here and be a god damn gentleman. Get my logic?" the violet comes back and his eyes look so amused and his mouth forms such a shiny, white grin that says so much and in a flicker its gone and hes standing next to me saying something unintelligible under his breath while frowning and all the while his blue eyes gazing at his car. So I knock on the door, and sure enough a short blond girl with a jean mini skirt, and her bikini top, answers the door and smiles. She waves us through and tells us soda is in the kitchen and the pool is in the backyard where we'll probably find everyone. Well duh the pool is in the backyard. Would it be on the side of the house? Jeez she takes me as a dumb chick. Thanks lots Blondy.

As Ricky and me proceed to the backyard, me taking glances around the house that is pretty nice actually. When we reach the backyard he totally ditches me running for the boys near the hot tub. He just takes his shirt off and shoes and jumps right in, splashing everyone in the hot tub. I look around, feeling completely useless and stupid for even coming. I don't even know anybody.

When I spot Tony in the corner of the pool laughing with a bunch of his "buddies" I decide to walk over towards him and ask why he didn't pick me up. Then these prissy little foo foo blond girls. All wearing the same frilly bikini except with different colors start walking towards me, whispering and smiling while inspecting me from head to toe. When I turn around, I see brunettes wearing the same bikini as each other also wearing different colors and doing the exact same thing as the blonds. That's when I really start to freak out. I start walking faster, hoping they might move considering my rush, but they don't seem to be wavering or concerned about any rush I might be in.

They keep coming at me with their heals still on and that only makes me question, 'who wear's a bikini with heals on?'

When I finally confront the blonds they continue staring and smiling and whispering. I feel so self conscience. The leader of the blonds, or who I'm assuming is the leader, with her pink bikini and white heals proceeds toward me even closer. Her face is so close to mine, but her eyes are so accusing I feel like cowering in the bush next to me, and let me tell you, I'm really considering it. She smirks when she notices how I keep longing to jump in that bush. Then she says, "You need a new look. This long sleeve thing and jeans and converse and this horrible hoodie is so not going to happen. Lose it. All of it. Come on you need a serious make over girl." When she smiles encouragingly and leads my back towards the house I feel welcome. By a slinky blond... Still better than nothing. As they lead me to the bedroom upstairs they close the door and lock it. Three of them start rummaging through the closet looking for God knows what. the leader seats me down in front of mirror on a white swivel chair. She rips off my hoodie and I hear seven amazed gasps all around me. The leader says, "Oh... My... God... You seriously need a major make over. My name is Briley by the way. This is Bianca, Veronica, Chrystal, Shayla, Kathryne, and Rachel." I nod. Theres no way I can remember all these names, remember later, make over now. Oh god. I hope I don't turn out to look like them.

Briley smiles at me and says, "You are gonna look amazing, trust me." She turns my face away from the mirror. "No peeking," she winks at me and holds her grin.

Here it goes. She takes the brush and starts stroking my hair until it gets to the knot and its an all out wrestle with my hair. I cringe in pain. This is not what I wanted.

When shes done she starts panting softly and I try smiling but she seems too annoyed to care. When she asks for the mascara everyone hovers over me and I get all nervous and sweaty again. "OK who ever you are... I don't even know your name and I'm doing you a huge favor. You so owe me. Now close your eyes," Briley says in a whisper. I close my eyes and I start to drift. Is this the beginning or is it the end of a seventeen year old girls life? I'd like to think it just started, but who knows? So I dream of a life where I can just be me without girls like Briley over concerned about my hair and what I'm wearing. For gods sake can't I just be Stephanie?