9. It all started when

MICHAEL

I learned a lot in the first week of school. I learned that I have a new nickname which was awful considering it was called MC. Come-on! Did I tell you how much I hate nicknames! I learned that girls in NYC are very out going and by now you know that I am faaaar from out going. I learned that I hate people treating me a certain way because of the way I looked. I never knew this about me before because back in Washington, I did not have this kind of attention. People back there realized that I'm just another awkward guy very early on. I wasn't good at sports or flirting and I realized that girls like such sort of boys rather than boys like me: who are nerdy, awkward and useless. I learned that David has a lot of friends and David was infact a very good guy and an excellent gym partner. I learned that hitting the gym requires more discipline and commitment than I initially thought. I also learned that I might've become the new favorite of most of my teachers and the last thing I learned was also the thing I wish I didn't; Elizabeth has a ... er, reputation here. She was either considered a trophy or trash. Over the week I've learnt that Elizabeth 'had a thing' with more than handful of guys and I didn't know how I felt about that. I'm not being judgemental or anything but it made me feel mad, awful. One third of the boys in school were slut shaming her and the other third were determined to do anything to get into panties. Then comes the middle third,the section of guys who worship her. Literally. Won't believe me, here's the stuff I heard that will definitely change your mind

"Dude, The other day she stood right infront of me in the line , in the cafeteria and it was the best day of my entire life. Her ass looked even more good upclose. And man she's even taller than she looks up close. Her posterior is stored in my spank bank forever"

" She called me by my name today, in art , I told you taking art for her would be totally worth it"

" Go check her out, she's in the cafeteria.She's wearing a dress today and her legs look amazing, yes , you're welcome"

Those were very few pg13 comments that fell into my ears. After Monday's awkward conversation, Elizabeth and I didnot talk at all. That gave me the time to observe her. Get to know her from a distance. According to my observations

1.Elizabeth is very anti social, she goes out of her way to avoid conversing with anyone. I liked that about her wierdly.

2. She was either a very very quiet person or moody. I would only know which one of that is true once I get to know her and since that doesn't look like it's gonna happen ever so yeah.

3. She always looks like she's in deep thought. Like she was living in her head. I did catch Isabel yelling at her to pay attention many times this week.

4. She always eats the same food milkshake and a salad and she always sits at the same place.

5. Elizabeth has an hour glass figure. She's literally perfect.

6. She never wore heels(not that she needs to) and hair is always tied up. The only time she let her hair down was when she was washed her hair I guess. I know this because we shared English together and it was the first period and she was late and hair was still damp and she walked right past me. She smelled divine.

7. She had a great sense of style. Even though what she wore what were considered basics by the other girls ( all thanks to David I had to hear girls bitching about other girls during lunch)she looked great in all of them, they suited her body very well. Hell, she would look great even if she wore a potato sack!

8. She was great at art and french. I knew this because it seemed like it was common knowledge at school. Everybody knew she was great at art and spoke french.

9. For the above reasons, many people assumed she was french. I didn't have the balls to ask her or my mom about it so I'm gonna let it slide.She always escapes PE. More precisely she charms her way out of PE. So she's not very athletic. I loved that too!

10. She's failing in math and biology. I don't share biology with her but I did overhear our professor warning Elizabeth to focus before our period started.

11. And she never smiled, not even once.

To say I was attracted to Elizabeth would be an understatement. I was drawn to her, like a magnet. I was hyper aware of her presence anywhere and everywhere. I just wanted to know more about her, look at her , talk to her but nope. That didn't happen. Lunch was when David introduced me to all of his friends , meaning all of our class and some people in jr class as well. We sat at different tables each day but the table I wanted to sit at was Elizabeth's. Wherever I sat, I looked out for her and surprisingly I had a direct line of sight at each and every table. Most of the time she looked bored but her poker face made it very difficult for me to decipher her moods. It was as if no one knew what was going on in her head. I wonder what she was always thinking about. On Wednesday we sat at this cheerleader squad table and the head cheerleader had her hands all over me. Now I'm not a very touchy feely person and skin contact is not something that comes naturally to me. It came very naturally to David and apparently Rachel, if that was what her name was. There were too many women at that table so forgive me if I can't keep up. On that day Elizabeth looked extra moody and she was staring into space sipping on her milkshake. I don't think she paid an ounce of attention to Isabel. Poor Isabel. It must be very frustrating for her. I wonder what was going on in that head of hers and that's when she abruptly raised her head to look at me. It was so instantaneous , I absolutely did not see that coming at all. So I ducked my head down immediately. Did she know I was staring at her, wait how did she know I was staring at her? You only know someone's looking at you when you are aware of their presence. I was sitting in the opposite end of the room. Was she aware of me the whole time? It only drove me even more crazy.My head was full of Elizabeth, it was storing tiny bits of information in various folders. Now slowly she was infiltrating my heart now that head is full. She was the only person I thought of. What would she be doing now? I've never thought about a person this obsessively before. Not even when I had a crush on someone. All my thoughts of her were thwarted by two assholes over the week; Sebastian Monroe and Liam Debucky. Apparently Sebastian and Elizabeth had a thing. She was his trophy. Seriously Sebastian? Definitely can do better. I mean the guy doesn't even know basic trigonometry. He followed her around like a dog and the Liam guy , don't even get me started. He left love notes! How old is he? 3? not surprising , he was acting like the kid he was. Now I've learned that Elizabeth had boys falling at her feet ever since she started here. Apparently one guy literally did fall at her feet. I wanted to see the look on her face when that happened. It would've been hilarious. I hated both of the guys going out of their way to trouble her and I wasn't the only person. David seemed as pissed if not more than I was. That's when things started getting confusing. I didn't know if David had feelings for her but he sure acted like he did. Unlike the coward like I was he went and talked to Elizabeth about it. Now he could get anything get done with the influence he has. But I didn't know if he looked at Elizabeth as a friend or something more and I didn't want to know the answer to that. I didn't know what to do with all these thoughts and feelings. I usually shared everything with mom and asked for her advice on things I didn't have a solid opinion over but I've decided that whatever happens between me and Elizabeth strictly stays between us. I don't want to pull all the people I love and adore and jeopardize all the relationships I have considering there are only a handful of them. So I exercised a lot and focused on my college applications and essays. I've already done everything that needed to be done back in summer itself but I don't know what else to do. I can't keep thinking about Elizabeth especially when I know she doesn't even acknowledge my existence. We share two classes and not once she smiled at me or greeted me in any way. Okay she doesn't do that with anyone but I don't know why I thought I would be different. It was Friday already and I don't even know how the week went by. I was having my breakfast in peace when mom decided otherwise.

"Michael I invited Elizabeth for dinner tonight as she's living all by herself over the past week. Will you be okay with that?"

Will I be okay with having Elizabeth for dinner? I don't know I have no idea..

" Why was she living by herself?"

Mom looked like she regretted having said that.

" All you need to know is that, her mom is not around much, okay, don't talk to her about this , she's sensitive about it"

So Elizabeth is sensitive about a lot of things, especially family.

" Okay, pick her up from school and come straight home"

Now that made me almost choke on my sandwich. What does she mean pick her up?

" Doesn't she have her own car?" A Rolls Royce to be precise.

" She does but I thought since you are there, why have her driven around you know? If it's not okay with you,-

" It's okay mom, I'm gonna ask her first though"

" Oh don't worry I told her" She was okay with all this? She probably couldn't have said no to mom. It's difficult to say no to her. I hope it goes smoothly unlike Monday and I hope I keep my thoughts to myself and not have a brain to mouth dysfunction.

I was nervous the entire ride to school and through the first couple of periods. We did not have any classes together that day and I did not know how to talk to her. Is she gonna talk to me? I really don't think so. Before I knew it the lunch bell rang and that only heightened my nervousness. I didn't see Elizabeth anywhere before or in between classes. So when I spotted her in the cafeteria in her usual seat, i took a double take. She was wearing a floral print dress and sipping on her milkshake, as usual. She looked stunning. The dress had a V neck that showed off her beautiful collar bones and long neck. She wore dangly earrings and hair was down. Of all days today had to be that day.

" Having a crush, Carter?" David snickered. What? Was I that obvious?

" Um no, I'm just figuring out how to talk to her" I mumbled.

" I don't understand "

" Mom invited her over to dinner , I'm supposed to tell her that "

" Then go talk to her man, what's the deal" easy for you to say

" I don't think she likes me, after Monday.." I trailed off

" Dude, taylor doesn't like people period. Don't let that stop you from getting to know her okay, she's a good person" he said reassuringly.IsDavid pushing encouraging me to pursue her? I've officially gone crazy if I was thinking that.

" Shall we sit at my favorite table today?" He's making it easier for me. But why?

"Yeah sure"

" Do you have a favorite table yet?"

" Yes the triple S, " the triple S also known as Shawn , Seth and Seb ( not the one I hate) is a hardcore geek table. We share our love for math, Ironman, star wars among various other things. Needless to say David doesn't like that table very much and I do.

" Dude., You're such a geeek"

As soon as we approach her table , Elizabeth's tilts her side to one side as if she's studying.

" Hello ladies" David said smoothly

" Hello boys" Isabel replied cheerfully.

Elizabeth just sipped on her drink.

" Where are your manners Taylor, not gonna welcome us"

That only earned him an eye roll. Wow she was having a sandwich today.

" Liking school Michael?" She surprised me by speaking directly to me.

" Yeah so far, so good"

" I can't believe you're in Professor Well's good books already! " Isabel was visibly angry. Professor Well takes bio and she has a way of testing people.

" Come-on Isabel she's good, better than the one I had back in Washington" I said as a matter of fact.

" You can call me belly, I might hate you but I'll not deprive you of my nickname"

" Do you seriously like being called belly?" I was completely caught off guard by Elizabeth's laughter. Wow. So she did laugh. Her pearly whites blinded me for a second. She looks so beautiful when she laughed. It looked like the entire cafeteria was lit up for a second.

" I know right, that's the first thing I asked her too" she replied wiping her tears. She clutched her stomach and continued laughing.

" Ignore her outburst, it happens from time to time in completely odd situations that are totally not funny" belly said

" I agree " David chimed in.

I don't fucking care. If this was how she looked while laughing, she should definitely do it more.

" Sense of humor is always subjective" I interjected.

That earned me a smile from Elizabeth

She proceeded to eat her sandwich.

" I'm team Michael belly, he's gonna dethrone you for sure now" she said while eating. That made Isabel stop hers.

" Oh my god Liz why would you say that, you know I'm touchy about it" It only made Elizabeth laugh more. I thought she was gonna choke

" I'm not gonna dethrone you ... er, belly"

Elizabeth did choke. Her face got red like a tomato and tears were streaming down her eyes. I immediately unscrewed my water bottle and offered it to her.

" Good for you, you deserve it Lizzy for making fun of me"

Elizabeth gathered herself and drank the water I offered.

"Thank you Michael"

" Yeah no problem" David and belly started talking about college essays and I figured that was the time to talk about dinner

" Hey -

"Hey-

We both started talking at the same time and laughed about it

"You first-

"You first-

Wow.

" You go first " I told her

" It's about dinner tonight, surely your mom must've told you,"

" That was what I was gonna talk about too, she did, you wanna drive over there or"

" Anything's fine, let me know "

"Yeah sure!

She resumed eating but I wanted to talk to her real bad

"You ser-

" What is wrong with you, you were fine with doing it once , why not now? it's not like you have a reputation or anything, you bitch!" Sebastian's words interrupted what ever it is that I was gonna say. That son of a bitch! How dare he? I wanted to beat the shit out of the guy. Beside me I saw David ready to take the guy out as well.Elizabeth did not react, she didn't even flinch, she chewed her food, swallowed it still up , looked directly into his eyes and said

" Listen you mother fucker, talk to me like that one more time and I'll cut your tiny dick & chop it up into pieces understand. You think can talk bullshit to me? Huh? You want to me to tell your parents about the nudes you have in your phone? How old was she? 15 ? I'll make her sue you for child pornography you dumb prick. You know what I'll take it upon myself , what do you say? You sure do know that my last name is faaaar better than yours right?"

" And mine too" David added. His knuckles were turning white at this point.Elizabeth cocked her brow. Both belly and I were too shocked to say anything.

" Get lost loser " Elizabeth shooed him and yelled

" And next time last atleast 10 seconds" as he left.The entire cafeteria bellowed.

She tore him down. Sebastian Monroe was so dead and she did it all by herself. I like her even more now. David and Elizabeth hi-fied each other and laughed.

" That was great Elizabeth " I managed to say but in my mind I was still plotting ways to kill the guy.

" You can call me Liz, Lizzy whatever" she said taking the sandwich in her hands.

" Can I call you El? " I don't know why I asked that but ever since I knew her name I wanted to call her El.

"Sure Michael" she said with a smile. My poor heart is going to burst if she continues to smile at me like that.

" Did he really have a tiny dick?" belly seemed to recover from shock and we all laughed.