24A/N: This chapter is longer than the first three, but it is Harper's story, and she is selfish. She wanted you guys to see her start her day, haha...anyway, from what a lot of you have told me, this should be an enjoyable chapter. Reviews always welcome! - Xerox
I reached over and turned off my alarm clock – 6:00 a.m. Why did school have to start so early in the day? I rolled out of bed and stumbled toward the bathroom down the hallway, turned on the shower, and waited for the water to get hot. I stepped in and remembered my plan as the hot water rushed around my body and brought me to life. Today I would speak to Devon and find out who or what he was interested in. I hoped silently to myself that it wasn't Sierra…or Maria either, for that matter. I didn't want to have any more work to do.
I stepped out of the shower, wrapped my towel around my body, and walked back down the hall to my bedroom, closing and locking the door behind me. I looked at my mess of a bed, fixed the covers, and sat down to lotion my body with my favorite vanilla honey moisturizer. If my endgame was Devon liking me, I'd need to look my best throughout the next few weeks – not that I ever looked anything less than gorgeous, but still. I let my towel fall to the floor and headed for my walk-in closet. For a minute I just stood there until I looked down and noticed the perfect shoes beaming up at me. I pulled the black, calf-high, three-inch leather boots out of my closet, slipped them onto my feet and zipped them up. I stood in front of the full length mirror on my closet door in nothing but the perfect boots and just stared for a minute, at how great I actually looked.
I took my cell phone off the charger and headed back to my closet to finish getting dressed.
"Send message to…" I said to myself while typing in Gina and Kristen. "Heels, pleats, no denim, classic colors." Gigi, Kris, and I have always had a system to make sure that even when we dress alike, we don't look too matchy. We set guidelines for the outfit of the day, and we each have our own set of colors that only we wear. Kristen wears a lot of blue and sometimes orange or yellow. Gina likes to stick to green, pink and purple. Almost everything I own is red. Black and white are free colors for the three of us, of course.
I pulled a red halter vest over my head and tied the bow in the back. As I straightened the lace-down back on my pleated white mini, my phone started vibrating. "Check," from Gigi, and seconds later, "Got it," from Kris. I threw on a white blazer and headed for the car. My mom was already waiting.
The ride to school seemed to take forever, but eventually I was standing in the front hall of Kennedy High, waiting for Kris and Gigi. I didn't actually mind waiting, though; I loved the attention. The freshmen pointed, and the senior guys stood in front of the trophy case like they did every day, and tried to be inconspicuous about checking me out. I looked up and saw Gina walking down the stairs towards me, and Kristen coming in the front door behind me. I always wondered how they did that – they always managed to show up at the same time. Gina was wearing white strappy sandals, a plain khaki pleated miniskirt, and a very tight green tank top. Kristen fell in line on my other side wearing black mary janes, a black skirt very similar to Gina's, and a blue crop top that said "Sweetheart" across the front.
If I thought I liked the attention before these two showed up, it was almost overwhelming once they were with me. We waited till the first bell and sauntered down the hall towards the chorus room.
I suddenly had a vision reminiscent of Mean Girls: Regina George blazing through the halls with her loyal Plastics a half-step behind her. I chuckled to myself. Rachel McAdams wasn't the first "mean girl" in high school, and she wasn't the last, either.
Gina walked into the room first, with Kristen right behind, and I followed. We sat down and ignored the fact that everyone in the room had turned to look at us – especially Maria, who had taken a special interest in pointing and making inaudible comments about us to her sidekicks. I nudged Kristen to tell her to see if Devon's attention was captured too. She nudged me back and tilted her head towards the door. He was standing in the doorway with his hands in his pockets, looking directly at me. I was so shocked that I forgot to smile, but looked down instead, and he lightly shrugged and walked across the room to his seat.
I sighed and looked in his direction to see if the damage could be rectified, but it was too late. Sierra walked into the classroom looking creepily like she'd gotten my morning text, wearing cowboy boots and a denim miniskirt with a plaid button-up shirt. There went Devon's attention again. Sierra looked at me and smiled; Kristen, Gina and I waved back.
As the class went on and we sang random warm ups about our mothers making us mash up our m&ms, I observed without observing and happened to catch the passing of a note or two from Devon's direction. Sierra got one; surprise, surprise. I'd have to walk with her again today and find out what it said. A few minutes later, though, I genuinely was surprised when a note found its way to my hands.
Christina, right? You and Sierra are friends? I want to talk to you after class, meet me in the front hall.
-D.
I stared at the note for about three minutes, confused about whether I should be happy he wanted to talk to me, or heated that he called me Christina. I passed it to Gina, who raised her eyebrow and scowled, and Kristen, who frowned at it and then hit me with the "look on the bright side" shrug.
I waited impatiently for the class period to end. When the bell finally rang I stood up calmly and left the classroom, Gigi and Kris close behind me.
"Christina?" Gigi whispered when we made it to the front hall. I didn't answer, but glared at her.
"Whatever, I'll tell him to get it right." I waved Gina off looked over my shoulder – nothing yet.
"You'd better," Gina snapped at me. "Don't go all dreamy-gaga cuckoo-bananas over the guy and forget to tell him your name is not Christina."
I frowned and pushed Gina away. She rolled her eyes at me and headed off towards the science hall on the other end of the building, while Kristen shrugged again and walked up the stairs for her english class.
"Christina?" Devon lightly tapped me on the shoulder.
I turned around and saw his perfect white smile and almost melted, until Gina's words flew into my head. I frowned at him and took a step back.
"My name is Christiana," I said in the most contemptuous tone I could manage. "Not Christina."
Devon's smile faded and for a minute he looked genuinely embarrassed. "Damn, I'm sorry. I thought -"
"Whatever," I cut him off and waved my hand in the air. "Sierra and I are cool, what do you want?"
He seemed a little put off, and didn't say anything for a second, as if he was afraid of getting his head bitten off again.
"Well I asked her out today…" He hadn't stopped talking but I didn't hear a thing after that. His words seemed to dance in circles in my ears.
"What does that have to do with me?" I snapped. "What, did she say no? You want me to convince her or something?"
He frowned again for a second, like he'd just realized I wasn't listening to him.
"No, didn't you hear me? She said yes. I just want you to talk to her for me, see what she really wants out of this and all that. She's really shy, so I don't know if she'll talk to me much. She's just so cute, though."
"Okay, that's enough, kid." I switched my books to my other arm and turned to walk away. "I understand."
As I took my first few steps down the hall, I heard her so-sweet voice coming down the hall.
"Oh, Devon?" Sierra had magically appeared beside him. I sighed in disgust as they smiled and walked down the hallway, hands locked together.