The next week, we were all in PE class when the gymnasium doors loudly opened, garnering much attention.
I'd been sitting on the ground, stretching with Elias, Malcolm, Andre, and Chelsea. After getting closer with Chelsea and introducing her to the guys, the five of us had become a friend group of sorts. Speaking of, Chelsea was in the middle of explaining the important difference between leggings and tights, when her mouth suddenly dropped open.
"Woah, who's the new guy?" she dramatically gasped, sitting up straighter.
She wasn't the only one who seemed phased. A number of people in our class began to whisper and gaze in interest at whoever had just arrived in the gymnasium. Confused, I turned around. Although, a smile of realization quickly dawned on my face.
"Ben, over here," I raised my arm, beckoning him over.
"You know him?" Chelsea squealed in bewilderment.
"Ben?" Andre repeated in confusion.
"Who's Ben?" Elias darkly spat.
"I don't like him," Malcolm promptly decided.
I ignored their remarks as Ben made his way over.
"Daisy, hey," he warmly greeted me.
"Hey, I didn't know you were in this class," I cocked my head to the side.
"I had issues with my timetable, so I had to move some classes around," he grinned.
"Cool," I glanced at everyone, waiting for them to introduce themselves.
Chelsea's mouth was slightly agape, still reeling at how attractive Ben was. Meanwhile, Elias, Malcolm, and Andre stared at him with unfriendly looks. I was quite dismayed by their hostility.
"These are my friends, Malcolm, Andre, Chels, and Ellie," I decided to speak up.
"Nice to meet you guys, I'm Ben," he stuck out his hand, though awkwardly put it back down when no one grabbed it. In an attempt to make conversation, he glanced up at Elias. "Wow, Ellie, you're the first person I've ever met that's taller than me."
"It's Elias."
"What?" Ben faltered.
"My name is Elias," he repeated, eyes boring into Ben's soul.
"But Daisy just saidâ"
"I know what she said," Elias coldly interrupted.
A knowing look dawned on Ben's face, and I wasn't quite sure why. Suddenly, the PE teacher blew his whistle.
"Alright folks," Mr. Martins barked, "we're gonna be playing badminton today, so everybody partner up! New guy, come with meâI'll fetch you a uniform."
Ben cleared his throat before following after Mr. Martins. Meanwhile, I rounded on the others.
"What was that?" I demanded.
"What?" Andre frowned.
"You guys could've been a little nicer to the poor guyâhe's new!"
"Sorry, Daisy, but I don't trust him," Malcolm skeptically crossed his arms.
"You don't even know him."
"Sure I don't, but he's a teenage boy."
"So are you."
"Precisely, so I know exactly how they think," Malcolm smugly replied.
I rolled my eyes. "Stop acting all protective."
"I can't help it, you're like a little sister to me," he shrugged, before his eyes lit up, "hey, that's it! I've finally found a nickname for you. Little sis!"
"But I'm older than you..."
"Tomato tomato," he smiled, "anyways, I'm gonna go partner up with Lacey Davidson."
"I heard her boyfriend cheated on her this weekend," Chelsea noted.
"Exactly," Malcolm smirked, "what better time to slide in than now? She needs someone's shoulder to cry on."
I snorted as he smoothly made his way over to Lacey, before glancing at the others.
"I'm gonna partner with Andre," Chelsea grabbed Andre's arm and flashed me an innocent smile before quickly pulling him away.
"That was weird," I murmured before glancing at Elias. "Guess that just leavesâ"
"Hey, Elias."
A sultry voice caused the pair of us to turn around. I wasn't even surprised anymore.
"Wanna partner up?" Heather questioned him with a fake shy look. Her friends stood behind her for encouragement.
Elias appeared almost amused. "I'm not sure if your brain is damaged from the amount of times you've bleached your paper thin hair, but let me just make one thing clear: I can't fucking stand you, Heather. So no, I don't wanna partner up."
I covered my mouth in pure shock. Heather turned beet red in humiliation, as eavesdropping classmates began to giggle and point at her. Even her friends appeared as though they were mustering laughs.
"W-W-Whatever," she stammered, before shoving past her friends and storming away.
I looked up at Elias.
"Too harsh?" he casually questioned.
"Not at all," I quipped, suppressing a smile.
"Good. I'll go grab us some rackets."
After Elias fetched us some badminton rackets, he tossed mine over to me. However, I wasn't able to catch it, and it fell to the ground. We both bent down at the same time to pick it up. My hand gently grazed his, and we both froze as an electric spark occurred. For a moment, it appeared as though time had gone still.
"Hey, lovebirds, now is not the time!" Mr. Martins blew his whistle at us.
Elias appeared unfazed by the accusation, whereas I felt quite flustered and promptly scrambled up.
Other classmates had been watching the pair of us in interest. In particular, Ben, who was now in full uniform, had a bit of a longing look on his face. However, a brooding glare sent by Elias caused him to flinch and look away.
"You wore your shorts," Elias lowly realized, eyes analyzing my slender legs which were on display.
"What? Oh, yeah, I got sick of Mr. Martins nagging me every day," I said. "Plus, a certain someone helped me realize that my scar isn't ugly like I thought."
"Oh, really? Who's that?"
"I forget his name, but you can't miss him. He's about yay tall, always has horrible bedhead, and kinda has anger issues."
Elias hummed. "Doesn't ring a bell, but he sounds hot."
I laughed and nudged his shoulder. He cast me a radiant smile, and it caused my heart to beat just a little faster.
Several badminton matches later, Elias and I found ourselves high-fiving, as we'd just won against yet another pair of opponents. In fact, we hadn't lost a single match.
"We make a good team, D."
"Agreed," I panted, before wiping at my forehead. "Jeez, I've sweat off my concealer."
Elias stared at me thoughtfully.
"What?" I asked.
"Nothing," he blinked, before thinking better of it. "Can I ask you something?"
"You just did."
His left eye twitched.
"Sorry, go on," I unapologetically grinned.
"Lately, you've been dressing different from how you normally do. Why is that?"
"I'm not sure," I admitted. "After the break, I wanted to feel a bit more confident, and so I tried making changes to my appearanceâwearing crop tops, putting on makeup, getting my nails done... don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with those things. But if I'm being honest, I felt a lot more comfortable with myself before."
"It's your body, you're in charge of what you do with it, Daisy," Elias sincerely replied after a moment. "Just know that you're beautiful both ways."
"Do you really mean that?" I softly questioned.
"Of course I do. I'm a lot of things, D. A liar's not one of them."
My stomach fluttered. There he goes again, flattering me with his words like it was nothing. I looked up at Eliasâreally looked at him. His disheveled brown hair, his dark eyes, his razor-sharp jaw, his broad shoulders accentuated by the gym shirt. He was admittedly striking, a feat that everyone else at school had long since acknowledged. And yet, despite all the attention he received, I'd never seen him talk to other girls. For some odd reason, the thought of that made me feel happy.
"It's strange. When we first met, we couldn't stand each other."
"And now?"
"Well now we're friends, of course," I playfully replied, much to his disdain.
His eyes darkened. "What did I tell you about calling me that?"
"I don't get it. Why do you have such an issue with me calling you that?" I slightly whined.
"Because I'm not one of your little friends, D," his voice dropped an octave.
I frustratedly crossed my arms and took a step towards him. "What exactly are you then?"
A tense silence ensued as we narrowed our eyes at each other. Luckily, Mr. Martins blew his whistle, forcing us to peel our gazes away.
*****
"Daisy, did you hear?" Chelsea excitedly squealed in my ear in the changeroom. "Since I got kicked off the cheerleading squad, a new spot opened up. They're having tryouts next Tuesday."
"So...?" I trailed off, wondering where she was going with this.
"So, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" she was practically jumping in excitement.
"No," my eyes widened once I caught on, "not a chance."
"Come on, Daisy, could you at least think about it? It'd be hilarious to see the look on Heather's face if you actually made the cheer squad."
"Hmm. Not gonna lie, it'd be pretty sweet revenge to corrupt the cheer squad, but there's no way I'd make the team."
"Why not?"
"Well, for starters, I've got the athletic coordination of an infant," I snorted, "besides, are you forgetting who the captain is? Hint hint, her name rhymes with feather."
"The captain doesn't determine who's on the team. Sure, they get a say in it, but we all know the coach is the one who makes the final decision."
"The answer's still no," I said, "cute idea, though."
Just as I closed my locker door, a shoulder harshly collided into mine.
"Oops, sorry Crazy," Heather smiled, "couldn't see you with that mop on your head."
"It's called braids," I spoke in disbelief, "are you blind?"
"She's not blind, just racist," Chelsea scowled at Heather, flipping her off.
Heather's expression dropped and she huffed at the two of us before sashaying away, unable to think of a witty comeback.
I turned towards Chelsea with a resolute face. "On second thought, maybe I will try out for the team..."
"Oh my gosh, are you serious? Yay!" Chelsea clapped her hands as the pair of us began to exit the changeroom. "Moving onto what's important, what's up with you and Elias?"
I was taken aback by the question, and peered at her incredulously. "Nothing. Why do you ask?"
"No reason," she hummed, a bit of a knowing look on her face, "but he looked so angry when Ben showed up. It was almost likeâ"
"Don't be ridiculous, there's nothing going on between us," I insisted, utterly flabbergasted by the mere suggestion.
"Interesting, interesting," she mused. "First stage: denial."
"Hey, I heard that!"
"Good, you were meant to."
I hit her shoulder, causing her to yelp in pain.
"Daisy, stop hitting Chelsea," Malcolm droned without looking up from his phone.
Of course, the boys had been waiting for us outside of the changeroom. Without skipping a beat, they pushed off the wall and joined us in our journey down the hallway.
"I thought it was Little Sis," I playfully replied.
"Y-You remembered?" Malcolm's blue eyes began to water as he dramatically clutched his heart. "I knew you secretly cared about me!"
"Aww!"
"Stop crying, Malcolm, people are looking!"
"This is officially weird," Elias interrupted the sappy moment with a roll of his eyes.
Malcolm made a move to engulf me in a hug. I flinched at the abrupt movement, which thankfully, no one noticed.
Actually, scratch that. Elias was staring at me with a dark, inquisitive look on his face. Crap. He didn't even have to say a word for me to know that he was overanalyzing my strange reaction in his head.
I looked away from his probing stare, afraid that he was somehow going to read my mind and know exactly what I was hiding.
Pulling away from Malcolm, I cleared my throat. "I'll catch up with you guys in a sec."
I left no room for inquiry as I walked over to the opposite end of the hallway, exactly where Ben had been standing and watching me.
"Hey," I approached him with a smile.
"Oh, hi Daisy," he shook his head out of a daze. "Jeez, I must seem like some stalker, watching you like that."
"Don't worry, I'm used to it," I joked, "anyways, would you like to join me and my friends for lunch?"
"Thanks for the offer, Daisy. Normally, I wouldn't say no to a pretty face, but I'm afraid your boyfriend would kill me if I said yes."
I ignored the indirect compliment and gazed at Ben in confusion. "Boyfriend?"
"Yes, the one that's built like a professional athlete and is giving me a death stare as we speak," Ben shivered.
I followed his line of sight, which, to my surprise, lead me directly over to Elias.
"That's not my boyfriend, silly," I incredulously laughed, "that's just Elias."
"Oh, really?" Ben looked surprised. "My bad, I just thought... you know what, forget I said anything."
"Okay," I uncertainly said. "I'm a bit curious, though. What made you think we were together?"
"It's hard to explain... it's just in the eyes."
"The eyes?"
"Yes, the way you look at each other," Ben said.
I had no clue what nonsense he was talking about, and so I merely shrugged it off. "Okay... anyways, I should head back. Looks like they're waiting for me. I'll see you around, though!"
"Sure. Goodbye, Daisy," Ben waved.
I waved back before turning around and making my way back to my friends plus Elias.
Malcolm swung an arm around my shoulder, meanwhile Chelsea and Andre led the way in front, chattering about whatnot. I found myself unable to tune in on the conversation, for my mind kept wandering over to Elias.
It was almost comical how many people thought we liked each other. Sure, we spoke quite often, he made me smile without even trying, and he knew things about me that no one else did, but still, the fact remainedâwe were nothing. Hardly even friends.
I glanced behind me at Elias. To my surprise, he'd already been looking at me. We immaturely stuck our tongues out at each other before grinning and looking away. After this, a simple question rang throughout my head.
Are friends supposed to make your heart beat faster?
*****
QOTD: how many steps in ur skincare routine?
AOTD: three
Hey guys, sorry for the late update. My life has been crazy this past week you would not even believe. First off, I got in an argument with a close friend of mine so now we are no longer on speaking terms. Second, I have a date with a cute boy next week and I'm so so so nervous. Third, I have my driver's license test in a few days and I'm really scared. Fourth, school and work have been kicking my butt as always.
The joys of being a teenage girl. Anyways, how have you guys been? I'm always here to talk!
I will try to have the next update out this week, but no promises!
Love, Emmanuela
03/27/2023