The New Girl

4

Jealousy and Surprises

The students of Durmon Academy, when they were done with classes for the day, had plenty of choices as to what they could do. They could go really anywhere on the school grounds; they could go to the library, to one of the sports fields to either watch or play a game of baseball, softball, basketball, lightweight and heavyweight football, tennis, or archery. The kids could choose to go back to their dorms, or they could even leave the school grounds and invade the little town that Durmon is placed on the outskirts of.

One day, the last bell of the school day rang, and Alexa found that she was free of homework. She was a fast worker and had finished all of her homework during class. She offered to wait for her friends (they had talked about all going together as a group into town), but they insisted that she go ahead.

“We’ll catch up,” Kelsey assured Alexa. “It’s not like the town’s very big!”

So Alexa grabbed her denim jacket and her wallet and walked off the school grounds into the chilly October air. She loved this time of year- everything was so beautiful. The trees were at the height of gorgeous, each one a different fiery shade. Most of the leaves were falling, and when people walked through the cloud of leaves, they seemed to just disappear. Everything was so breathtaking. The little wooden shops were all different pretty colors- sea green, pumpkin orange, deep earthly brown, and a dark red building with dark green trim- everything was so gorgeous. From day one, Alexa had loved the quaint little village that the students of Durmon had the pleasure of being able to see.

Alexa was so preoccupied with drinking in the sights that she almost ran into a short figure in a black Puma jacket. It was only when she was about to apologize profusely to the person she almost knocked over did she realize that she had almost run into Bradley.

“Oh, hi Bradley,” she said. “Sorry, I wasn’t really paying attention to where I was going.”

“It’s okay,” he grinned in that adorable little boy grin he had, “I wasn’t really paying attention, either. Well, uh, I gotta go. I’m meeting someone.”

“That’s cool. Well, see ya.”

“Yeah. See ya, Lexi.” He hurried off.

Curious, Alexa quickly crossed to the other side of the street and pretended to window-shop, watching Bradley in the reflection of the window the entire time. She did this for several minutes, in front of several different stores, when finally the mysterious person Bradley was to be meeting appeared. Bradley was standing in front of a little café on the corner when, from the street that Alexa couldn’t see, came a girlish figure. Alexa couldn’t see her very well, but what she could see was a light, silvery-brown ponytail to her hips. Leah! That’s who Bradley’s meeting! Leah Perris! Alexa was super jealous. She got chills whenever Bradley was near her. She loved seeing him smile and hearing him laugh. Her heart pumped in overdrive whenever he said anything to her. Alexa watched in jealous horror as Bradley and Leah embraced, and then kissed.

Just as the sun was beginning to set, the Girlz found Alexa. The clock tower chimed a deep, resounding five when the other six Girlz caught up with Alexa, who was sitting on one of the wooden benches on the sidewalk. She was sitting right across the street from the little corner café that Bradley and Laura were in. The seven Girlz spent the rest of their evening checking out the many stores and shops in the little town while the others told Alexa about the school dances, which took place on holidays. There would be a Halloween dance, a Winter Holiday dance, and a Valentine’s Day dance. They were dances where you could go solo, with a partner, or with a group of friends, and only the Valentine’s Day dance was a fancy, get-dressed-up-type dance. Alexa thought they sounded like so much fun; she could not wait for Halloween!  

 None of The Girlz got asked to the Halloween dance, so they all went in a group. A boy named Liam, who Alexa knew was in Durmon Thunder, the school choir, and who was a very good singer, asked Lissy to go with him, but she didn’t really want to and said so. Every day leading up to Halloween, he managed to catch her in hallways and literally beg -I mean, on his knees begging- Lissy to go with him. Eventually, the Girlz made a joke out of it. Alexa still thought he was a really good singer, and was a tiny bit cute, but he was too please, please, pretty-please; he didn’t really respect Lissy’s decision.

At the Halloween dance, the kids were encouraged to dress up in costume. Lissy dressed up as a princess, and so did Kendall. They both looked the part. Alexa, Kelsey, and Maxi went as girl versions of the three musketeers.  Nia was a stereotypical nerd (not the Nia kind of nerd, in other words), and Lizzie had a very good costume: a second CeeJay, complete with stilts to make her tall enough and perfect CeeJay swagger.  All of the Girlz, and CeeJay himself, thought it was a hilarious idea. Alexa noticed that Charlie was his usual really, really realistic robot, which is what he’d always gone as since kindergarten. She also noticed that Bradley and Leah had gone together, and they were a bride and a groom.

Alexa definitely agreed that the dance was tons of fun, even though she had no date. The DJ (who was one of the teachers) played lots of awesome music, and there were colored lights and strobe lights and lots of refreshments. Alexa liked nearly all of the songs they played. They even played her favorite song!  All in all, it was a pretty fun time.

     

November fourth dawned, cold and clear. Alexa woke up excitedly. Today she turned fourteen! It was a Friday, so there was still school, but there would be a small celebration with the Girlz that night. When Alexa was all dressed in a white blouse and a purple-and-green plaid skirt and had combed her hair (she had recently taken to side-parting it, like Lissy, and now she thought she looked prettier), she went out to the lounge, where all her friends were waiting. As she closed her door behind her, she found that her friends had decorated her door with ribbon and streamers, and had taped their cards to it. Alexa hugged all her friends and then everyone went down the spiral staircase for breakfast.

When the school day was over and Alexa had put her stuff in her room, someone knocked on her door. Lissy came in. “Hey, Lexi,” she said brightly, “Happy birthday! Listen, the party is gonna be at that family-owned restaurant in town. We’ve reserved a spot for five o’clock. You better be there!”

“Okay, thanks,” Alexa said. “See you there.”

Lissy smiled, and it could have been the lighting or the angle, but the smile looked slightly mischievous. “See you there.” She left and closed the door behind her.

The town wasn’t very big, so Alexa had no trouble at all finding the restaurant Lissy was talking about. The clock tower was just chiming five o’clock when Alexa went inside.

“Durmon party?” the waiter asked, eyeing Alexa’s uniform. She nodded. “Right this way.” He led Alexa all the way to the back, where there was a huge section with lots of tables pushed together and enough chairs for nearly the whole eighth grade. No one was there.

“Umm, I don’t think this is right…” Alexa said to the waiter. Instead of him saying something, from under every table, there came a great “SURPRISE!” and all of her friends, boys and girls, crawled out. Alexa was so surprised and excited, that she thought she screamed. She wasn’t sure, though, because suddenly there was a huge amount of noise. Everyone was congratulating her, as if she had just won a marathon, and she noticed that, in the corner, there was a large table with an even larger pile of gifts on it.

When everyone had stopped congratulating Alexa and wishing her happy birthday, everyone sat down. Alexa was told that her seat was at the very middle of the combined tables, with Lissy on one side of her and Kendall on the other. Right across the table from her sat Bradley, with Alex on one side of him, and on the other side, Dominic. When everyone was seated, Alexa realized that every girl in the eighth grade was invited, and all the boys that she was at least sort of friends with had also been invited. Alexa figured that Lissy had made up the seating chart, because Alexa’s three crushes were sitting right in front of her.  

Waiters and waitresses came and took food and drink orders. While people were waiting for their food, Alexa opened her gifts. She got her first pair of skinny jeans, black ones, from Lissy, books from both Nia and Rachael, purple, high-heeled boots from Maxi, a silver rhinestone headband from Carter, a funky, purple-and-black necklace from Kelsey, thirty bucks from Lizzie, a soft and cuddly stuffed bunny from Kendall, homemade brownies from Anna, and The Daring Book For Girls from Megs. Among other things, she also got a cool, silver sequined hat from Leah, a CD from Alex, who had great taste in music and was an awesome singer, and twenty-five dollars from Bradley.

When the presents were all opened, and all the food eaten, before anyone left, Lissy went around with a piece of paper, getting everyone’s cell phone numbers and email addresses for Alexa. It was mostly a cover to get all of the boys’ numbers and email addresses because Alexa knew that Lissy was trying to get her a boyfriend. It was long after the party ended that Alexa realized that Charlie was the the only person who didn’t come.