Do you say anything other than cool.

Chapter 7: Do you say anything other than cool.

Stephen looked at herself in the mirror, surprised by the transformation. Hannah walked to her side and gently placed her hands on her shoulder. "Are you ready to be my woman on the inside?"

"No, for sure no," Stephen said as she tried to adjust her beret.

"Stephen, it's going to be fine. My initial life has been a chameleon," Hannah said, looking at her in an assuring way. "Sometimes you have to pretend to be someone else to get what you want."

Stephen looked at her. "Don't you ever worry that you'll lose yourself?"

"Don't be dramatic. All I'm asking you to do is disassociate from your body and be someone you're not so these popular kids will invite you to be in their group."

"Are you in therapy?" Stephen said, looking at her worriedly.

"God, no way!" Hannah replied with disdain.

"Cool." Stephen said. "Oh, and we're not concerned that NK will not realize we're manipulating him?" Stephen said, one of her eyebrows shooting up.

Hannah looked at her like she knew nothing. "Narcissists are too busy thinking about themselves to realize they're being played," Hannah said, adjusting Stephen's skirt up while Stephen glanced at her before dragging it down again.

Getting a girl's attention requires weeks if not months of work. But according to Hannah, getting a boy's attention requires walking in front of them once looking vaguely slutty, Stephen thought to herself.

She entered the garden, which Hannah told her that NK and Nick would definitely pass by two o'clock to flirt with the girls. She passed them, walking with a deliberate, slightly provocative air, her aura calm, her pace in check.

While NK and Nick were passing, they sighted a girl a meter away from where they were walking.

They stopped in their tracks with shock. NK looked at the guy by his side, whose hair was coiled black then pulled back. Nick's green eyes looked at NK curiously.

"Whose that? Is she new?" NK asked, watching the girl walk with an aura making the remaining girls there feel understated and transparent.

Nick looked at him. "I don't know, but she's making that uniform work."

The both of them looked at her as she walked away. Nick saw NK smiling curiously. He gently hit him. NK just used his hand to push his hair backwards then continued walking while Nick chuckled as he followed him.

Hannah stepped into the garden, her eyebrow furrowed as she hated every step she took into the garden filled with green plants all over.

Hannah sighed. Green isn't even my favorite color, and farming was definitely not on my second-year book list, but neither was being a social pariah, she thought. Then she walked into the farm gracefully. She put on the uniform required for young farmers – just a green top and the junk suit. She pulled her hair into two ponytails.

As she entered, she sighted a girl who was gently adding fertilizer to the soil. She smiled as she stepped closer. Priea was an easy target. And Hannah was definitely incredible with new people, she thought.

She stood at the girl's back. "Priea?"

The girl turned around, her blonde hair long and not even bothering to be pulled back.

Priea looked at her. "Yeah, we've met before. You called me a human Birkenstock."

"Cool," Hannah smiled at her. "I just want to say I'm so excited to be working at the farm. I've always been intrigued by what you do here."

Priea just looked at her, astonished. Priea glared at her. "You should talk to Andrew. He is in charge of the uh... volunteers."

"Oh, um, I actually, I was hoping I could learn from you, you know, farm queen?" she chuckled.

"Yeah, I'm busy planning the menu for the ring ceremony," Priea said as she picked up her tools from the ground. "And you, for the record, ass-kissing is not going to get you anywhere on this farm. It's honest work," Priea said as she turned to the guy at the other side of the farm who was changing the pot of the flowers. "Hey, Andrew," Priea called. The guy turned to look at the two girls standing and looking at him. "Show Hannah the ropes."

Shoe-faced, veggie motherfucker, Hannah cursed in her mind as she walked to where Andrew stood.

Meanwhile, NK was trying to get the attention of Stephen, who sat on the pavement of the window reading a book in which she hid her phone.

She was in the school library, which was incredibly huge. NK came to sit by a chair a little bit close to where she sat.

She noticed movements from NK, then she texted Hannah: What do I do if he talks to me?

"You can only say 'cool,' and you can say it three times," Hannah replied.

She glanced at NK, who showed her a book. "I love Salinger," NK said, tapping the book.

Stephen looked at the book and then at him. "Cool," Stephen replied.

"I studied him at Yale," NK said.

"Cool," she answered him again.

"I just did their literary arts summer program," NK said.

"Cool," she also answered him again.

NK glanced at her with a smirk. "Do you say anything other than 'cool'?"

"So cool," Stephen replied as she continued reading the book she held. NK just looked at her with interest.

Hannah looked at Andrew. She had a lot of questions, but she decided to take it slow on Andrew before he noticed anything weird. She looked at Andrew. "So, Priea is cooking the ring ceremony dinner?"

Andrew turned to where Priea was walking into a barn. He then turned back to Hannah. "Yeah, it's going to be her big break in the culinary world."

Hannah turned to Andrew. "What is that?" she asked while looking at Priea trying to open the door of the barn.

Andrew looked at her. "It's a greenhouse. Clearly," Andrew said in an obvious tone. "It's where Priea... her special crops... flies them in from all over the world."

Stephen sat in the "calm your mind" parlor. It was huge, with lots of chairs and food and drinks. She crossed her legs and was pressing her phone.

NK and Nick walked in and sat in front of her.

Stephen didn't even bother to look up. She continued what she was doing like no one was watching her.

"Who are you chatting with?" NK asked her, intrigued by the concentration and the way she was focused on her phone.

"My ex-girlfriend is mad that I hooked up with my ex-girlfriend."

NK looked at her, surprised by what he just heard. He breathed in and out, then he stood up from his chair. "Can I see your hands, please?"

She sighed, holding her hand a bit forward. She looked at him. "Is this okay?"

He nodded. "I'm having a um... party this weekend." Hannah just looked at them from up where she sat; she could see them vividly.

"It's a little pre-homecoming celebration," NK said, writing the address on her palm. He looked at her. "Make your exes jealous."

Stephen looked at him. "I'll think about it."

He got up, walked over her leg. "Cool," then he walked out while Nick got up. He looked at her in a flirty way, his cute charming aura. He leaned closer to her. "Just don't think too hard." He walked a little, then turned around to her again. "Bring your swimsuit floaty; it's gonna be lit." Then he walked away.

Stephen looked up to see Hannah cheering silently. She smiled as she cheered also.