"Psst. Psst. Allie?" Kinsy whispered again.

"Kinz, I am trying to take down notes here. So, shut up!" I muttered, annoyed.

"Hey, why do you think he gave you that nickname?",she ignored me and continued," I mean do you think he would have noticed you? Oh wait! Eeep. If he noticed you, then he must've noticed me too 'cause i am there with you practically 24X7. Oh em gee! I knew I should've been putting more make up. And if he noticed you with your clothes like these-"

I glared at her.

"I mean you wear good clothes. No, scratch that, you wear awesome clothes. It's just tha-"

"Oh shut up Kinsy. Seriously? Can you just let me finish this day in peace and not gush over what happened earlier? They're just a bunch of losers," I said turning back to my writing. I mean for the past three periods, I have been listening Kinsy rant about Aaron, his good looks, his clothes, his six-pack abs, his nick name for me and god knows what all! And not to forget the glares I was receiving from the fellow females too. Oh God! It was just a stupid name he called me!

Ugh! Curse you Aaron!

She gasped loud. And when I say loud, it meant that the whole classroom heard it.

What proof do I have of that? Well, all the heads in the class snapped to us. And what did I do? Panic! Something everyone does when they get attention. Not.

My head started feeling a bit fuzzy. Not twice in one day, please. Nerves swallowed me as I felt the scrutinising gaze of people.

It wasn't that all of them were staring hard. I mean for all I knew some of them just glanced at me. But did it stop the nerves from going into a frenzy? No.

My legs began shaking slightly and I could barely look up.

"Is there a problem Ms. Bent?" Mr. Larry asked.

"Uh, n-no sir. I, uh, am s-sorry" I stuttered. It sounded as if someone had choked on their own spit.

With another glance, he resumed his lesson.

I could stand up to as many Shellys there could be, but attention? uh no thanks.

I heard some snickers from behind me. I turned around to see Shelly with a smirk plastered on her face. She flapped her arms like a duck and mouthed "chicken" which led everyone to break into laughs.

I ignored her, even though I was embarrassed to a height that crossed Mt. Everest.

I didn't choose to be like this. But if life gave you choices, wouldn't everyone be too perfect to themselves?

After some time, the bell rung and I rushed out of the class. I ran into the nearest washroom and took deep breaths. Kinsy rushed into the washroom too.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Yeah. Don't worry"

"By the way, he is NOT a loser," she huffed. It took me a minute to register what she was saying. Loser? Oh yeah, she was talking about what I had said about Aaron.

I rolled my eyes,"Yeah, whatever"

****

The rest of the school time was exhausting. I had continuous periods today since one of my teachers decided to take an extra class.

I huffed and puffed my way out of the school to the bus stop. Kinsy couldn't drop me because of her extra calculus class. The bus arrived within five minutes and after fifteen minutes of waiting, I reached heaven aka home.

"Hey mum? You home?," I called out as I dragged myself to my room. My room was located on the first floor towards the end of the corridor.

Our house wasn't a mansion, but wasn't too small either. I was glad that at least I had a place which I pulls call my home.

My room faced the back lawn and the pool. The whole wall was replaced by sliding doors which led into the balcony. The walls were creme in colour and had beautiful swirls in caramel colour. The light wood coloured furniture complimented the surroundings quite well.

In short, I loved my room.

"In the kitchen," My mom answered. My mom and dad were both successful lawyers and I loved them to death.

"I am going to bed, mom. Had a long day" I shouted back.

The moment I reached my room, I threw my bag on the floor and fell on the bed. And before I knew, deep slumber consumed me and I went into the land of unicorns and rainbows.....

"Woohoo," I yelled at the top of my lungs while riding a unicorn who was chasing the red and green butterflies. I was having a lot of fun. I soon got off the unicorn and went towards the tree made of candy. Instead of fruits, there were lollipops hanging from the trees.

I playfully jumped to grab one but the tree seemed to sway away. I tried again but ended up falling on my butt. Suddenly, the candy-filled trees were replaced by jet black tree trunks with their branches dried out.

I heard laughter from behind. Shelly was laughing along with Aaron and the other popular group.

Aaron.

Suddenly she came up to me and just when I thought she was going to hit me, she raised her hand and poked me.

Wait, what?!

Poke.

Poke.

Poke.

I groaned, rubbing my eyes and focussed on my surroundings. Wait, was that a dream?

I guess.

Poke.

Poke.

Wait, who is poking me?

"AAAAAAAAAAAAH" I shrieked as I saw a human figure on my bed. I grabbed the nearest thing (in this case, my pillow) and started attacking that person.

"Jesus woman! Calm down, its just me" a male voice yelled.

Me? Who me?

"I don't know anyone named Me. Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?" I yelled, continuing to hit him with the pillow. Yeah I know what're you thinking. Apparently this was me when all my common sense abandoned me.

That is, every type of sense that is common to man, left me when I panicked.

He grabbed the pillow and threw it away.

"God Allie! It's me"

"A-Aaron? Oh god! You scared the living bears out of me!" I let out a relieved sigh.

"Who else woud you think would come here and poke you, nerdy?" he said making himself comfortable on my bed.

I again hit him with the pillow.

"Ow! What was that for?" he whined like a three-year old.

"That," I hit him again," Again was for giving me that stupid nickname. I mean, what kind of a nickname is 'Nerdy?"

Aaron pouted and folded his arms across his chest.

This ladies and gentlemen was Aaron Pelt, the most popular guy in school and my best friend.

"Hey! That is not a stupid nickname and that was the only thing that came in my mind. I mean do you want me to call you by your 'original' name Muffin? I mean I could totally if you-"

"NO. Nerdy is bad enough, Candy"

Aaron had been my best friend since KG, but no one, and I mean no one here at Gradient High knew that. Not even Kinsy. Kinsy had met me just two years back and we became pretty good friends. I'm close to her, but not as close as Aaron.

We were forced by circumstances and situations to opt for different paths but I don't regret it since I know no matter what happens, this idiot will always be there for me.

And as for the nicknames, we call each other by whatever we like to eat the most. He like muffins (no one else knows that) and I love candy.

"Candy? Oh come on! I thought you were over that name by now! You think this," He pointed towards his body and abs," looks like candy?"

I rolled my eyes. "I am never forgetting that name and since you gave me a new name at school, you might as well get used to this."

"Aww man. Not fair. Besides its just a nickname"

"Just a nickname? JUST A NICKNAME? Do you have any idea how many death glares along with non-stop lectures from Kinsy regarding 'how lucky I am to be given a nickname by THE Aaron Pelt' have I been receiving?" I asked incredulously.

My life was becoming a walking clichè as if everyone was expecting the oh-so innocent nerd to fall for the popular guy and live a happily ever after.

The only missing thing was the part where Shelly supposedly had to cheat or something to end things with Aaron. And then the falling in live would start.

But here was the plot twist. Shelly, no matter how brainless, dramatic, possessive, over bearing, infuriating, irritating.....okay maybe I should stop now. Anyway, my point is that even though she was all of the things above, I knew that she was not a cheater.

She just had a major problem of judging people and looking down at them. She just needed to calm her insides and not treat people like garbage.

"Well, you can't blame them. You see, everyone's got a crush on me" He said smirking.

"Not everyone" I huffed

"Yeah. Of course, others love me"

"Nope. I hate you"

"Aw, you love me"

"I don't"

"Yes, you do"

"Don't"

"Do"

"Go to hell!" I folded my arms across my chest.

"Please don't be mad at me, Muffin. What will I do without you?" he held his chest and feigned hurt.

I rolled my eyes. Dramatic much?

"Oh come on"

I ignored him and busied myself with dusting off the non-existent dust particles off my side table.

"Okay. Fine. I'll watch one of those idiotic chick flicks with you this Friday night instead of going to Jared's party"

"One?"

"Okay. Fine! I'll watch chick flicks with an 'S' with you"

My eyes lit up. It was actually very hard to convince Aaron to watch one chick flick with me, let alone the plural. Plus he is sacrificing a party night for me. What else can one ask for?

"Okay. Fine" I answered.

"Hey, not even an 'I love you so much and Oh! you're so hot Aaron'?"

"Okay, I love you a lot, Candy" I emphasized on 'Candy'.

"What about the second part?"

"Want me to get mad again" I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Uh, no thanks. One day of chick flicks is enough for me" He shuddered and I laughed. He was adorable under that oh-i'm-so-popular-and-conceited façade which he displayed at school.

This, dear people, was my lovely best friend!