69Chapter 2: Second Day of School
I was walking to school because Jeanna left without me again. By the time I got there, I was almost late. I ran to my locker and started to pack my things when Mark came over with his friends. Mark was the little brother of Jeanna's beloved boyfriend, Jason. She wanted Mark and I to be the bestest buddies ever, but that didn't happen. Mark was too popular to be seen with me. Much like her.
"Hey Aaron, how's the non-existent life working for ya?" Mark laughed and his friends soon joined in.
"About as good as your non-existent brain." They stopped and glared at me. Mark stepped forward and knocked the books out of my hands.
"You best watch your tongue you useless piece of garbage." They laughed again and the bell rang in the background. "Well looks like you're late and I'm the hall monitor." He handed me a detention slip and left laughing with his friends. I groaned and ran to class.
"So nice of you to join us, Mr. Fuller. Why don't you take a seat?" Mrs. Garrol said. I sat down, aware that everyone was staring at me. I tried to concentrate on my work, but I could feel the entire class's eyes on my back.
"Mr. Fuller, may I have a word?" Mrs. Garrol said, so I waited after class and went up to her desk nervously.
"Look, if this is about me being late for class, I'm really sorry. If it helps I got detention from I guy with about half a brain cell and two tons of muscle..." I knew I was rambling but I hated talking to teachers by myself, it was just so awkward.
"Mr. Fuller," Mrs. Garrol held up her hand to stop me, "This is not about your tardiness to my class. I wanted to talk to you about your performance in my class." I tried to think back, but physics was my best subject. This was one of the only classes I had an A in.
"I was looking over your grades and I realized that you have the highest average in the class. I was thinking of putting you in a higher class, but I think I want to see how you finish the semester first." I was shocked and excited. Being better at something than Jeanna ever was. She barely passed physics, and I was getting into a higher class. Everything seemed more bright and happy throughout the day.
I was almost skipping through the halls by the end of the day, then I remembered that I had detention. I walked toward the detention room and became more depressed by the second. I pushed opened the door and realized that all the people who I tend to ignore were inside. Lucky me.
Every bully from every year of my school life was in there. Ranging form Erik, my kindergarten bully (He stole my chips everyday, except when I didn't have some. Then he stuffed my sandwich down my pants) to John from sixth grade (He stole all of my lunch money and homework. It got to the point where I did my homework twice just cause I knew he would take it) and of course Mark (How he got into detention I have no idea, he's the favorite of every teacher in the school). Yeah, my life sucks.
I tried to lay low, but as my luck would have it Mark spotted me. He walked over and stood right next to me, trying to be aggressive. I just tried to ignore him.
"Hey, how's everything loser. Liking the detention?" He was grinning happily at me. Like he enjoyed the fact that I was so screwed. Some people turned to look at us but didn't comment. I buried my head in my book and tried to read while waiting for the teacher to come in. Finally Mr. Carsol came in and walked to the front of the class.
"Hey everyone," Mr. Carsol said in his really squeaky voice, "I am sure you will behave when I leave the room to do some very important things." All the kids nodded and rolled their eyes. I was doomed.
I walked home with a nice black eye on my face. I was hoping to get home without causing too much of a scene, but when do things ever go my way.
"What happened to your face?" My dad asked when he saw me, everyone was sitting in the living room waiting for me. I silently debated between lying or telling the truth. If I tell the truth I can get Jeanna in a lot of trouble but then Dad will call the principle and I'll be known as a fink. If I lie my parents call me stupid and I get grounded, I stuck with a lie.
"I got hit in the face with a baseball when I was walking to Wawa." I got a long talk about calling before I go anywhere and got grounded fo a month. Although it didn't matter because I never go out, my parents still find it a great punishment. I nodded and ran upstairs to my room. I logged on to the computer and started playing Quests.
I've been playing for three hours when KillBill4049 asked the question I was really dreading. The worst part? It was only three words long.
KillBill4049: want 2 meet?
KillBill4049: at the quests convention in philly
Gamefreak5967: idk let me sleep on it
KillBill4049: kk tell me soon
Then he logged out, I didn't know what to do. I did want to meet him and meeting at the convention seemed safe. I still wasn't sure though, after all I learned from school about online predators I was really cautious. Though I'm sure I would be okay as long as I was really careful, I decided I would go. If I started to sense something about him, I would leave. Simple as that.
I told my parents that I was going to the mall. They completely forgot about my punishment, they were just excited about the fact that I was going out somewhere. Somewhere I could potentially make friends. Jeanna made me where jeans and a nice tee shirt. I insisted on wearing a hat that had a smiley face on it. That's what I told Bill I would wear.
I had to take the bus to the convention, when I walked in I was so excited to see other losers. They were even dorkier than me! You could not imagine how happy I was in being one of the "cool" dorks.
"Hi, I'm Lauren and I am your host for today. If you have any questions you can come to me." She smiled at me, but I could tell she hated her job. With straight brown hair and pretty blue eyes, she was an obvious model type. I smiled back at her and turned to walk away. I walked towards a desk when some man came up to me. He was large and a bit smelly, knowing my luck he was KillBill4049.
"Hey cutie, wanna go somewhere quieter?" I almost threw up. I shook my head and tried to walk away, he caught my arm. "Don't worry baby, I don't bite." He smiled and looked me up and down.
"I, um, have to go..." I mumbled and started to move away, he wouldn't let me move away. I started to pull my arm, he refused to let go. He started to smile and pull me away. Now was the time I really wish I worked out.
"Hey, let him go," Lauren was there in a second and angry. He smiled as he looked her up and down too.
"Oh, how about you take me somewhere quieter gorgeous?" He smiled at her and she gave him a caustic smile back.
"Yeah, let me call security to bring you somewhere real quiet," she raised an eyebrow and he let go, muttering something under his breath. She turned away from him.
"Hey are you alright?" She looked at me with eyes full of concern. I looked at my wrist and shook my head a little. Then turned back to her.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks, you know, for that," I nodded my head at the man. She smiled at me lightly.
"Trust me, I know guys like that only too well," she looked back at him in disgust, then turned back to me. "So you play this Quests game?" she smiled at me.
"Yeah, sort of, it's fun," I defended quite lamely, she laughed.
"Well, I don't know anything about it, but if you say so. As long as it makes you happy," She led me to the concession stand. "Pick out whatever you want," she inclined her head toward the chocolate.
"I can't let you pay for it," I felt bad enough for misjudging her. I didn't want to feel bad letting her pay too.
"Silly, silly boy, I'm not going to pay," she looked at me and wiggled her eyebrows. Then turned out to the crowd and walked toward someone. She tapped some loser on the shoulder and started talking to him. Soon she led him to the concession stand and looked at me. I quickly looked at the assortments of candy and pointed at a Hershey's chocolate bar.
"Do you mind getting me one of those?" She asked the dork and batted her eyelashes at him. He nodded too excited to speak and paid for it. She smiled at him and took the chocolate bar. He snorted and stared at her, expecting something.
"Well, thanks so much," she said, and he nodded and walked to some of his other geek friends. She handed me the bar.
"So, what's you name?" She asked me as I began to eat the chocolate bar. I let the chocolate melt in my mouth before answering.
"Aaron Fuller, nice to meet you," I held out my hand, she took it.
"Lauren Concord, pleasure," we hung out at the concession stand and just talked. She was laughing at my stories as I laughed at her expressions. It was almost like having a friend.