Weightless {4}

Josh was cool about this. He played it quite well, actually. Too well. He was cool as ice, sliding out of his seat and walking toward the three girls who now were standing beside our table, where Valerie sat. "Girls," he began, as the crowd in the cafeteria watched the drama that was to unfold. "I'm not the one woman type of guy, you all should know that."

"But which one of us is the one you want to stay with?" The cheerleader questioned.

"I love all of you," Josh replied smoothly. The words were simply rolling off his tongue, as if rehearsed. 

"We just want you to be dating one person though," Valerie chimed in.

"Like I said, I'm not a one woman guy. If you guys can't take that, which you all clearly can't, I guess I'm breaking up with all of you then."

Valerie scoffed, disgusted at him and rolled her eyes. Josh just smirked at her, shaking his head and turning on his heel. He walked swiftly back toward his table, as if none of this really happened. He was such a player. He just broke up with three girls, all at the same time. He pulled over a brunette cheerleader that was passing by and had her sit on his lap. The three girls, his now ex-girlfriends, watched him as he groped her bare legs and she giggled in his arms. What a fucking asshole. God.

"You guys can do much better than him," I announced to them, who continued to eye him, dumbfounded. "He doesn't deserve girls like you."

"I guess you're right," the cheerleader sighed, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Screw him." She walked away from us and toward the crowd of cheerleaders at their own table. The other girl walked away, as well. Valerie stared down at her food.

"He dumped me," she cried.

"He's not worth your time, Valerie," I urged her, hoping she wouldn't break down just because Asso broke up with her. I turned to see Farro still playing around with that brunette. I scoffed. "Look at him," I began. "He's an was an ass to you guys and he's now showing off by touching that cheerleader over there."

"Don't point it out!" Valerie wailed. She let out one long sigh. "Oh whatever," she groaned, giving us another eye roll. "Farro is a bastard."

"Oh, I forgot to tell you guys, Hayley and I made up a nickname for him. Asso." Nicole announce to them. They cocked their heads, thinking about the name. "Asso?" Cara questioned. Nicole just nodded. "Asso...could work. It definitely fits," Valerie added. Her tone was still icy and annoyed, but she'd get over Josh.

"This first day of school has been really interesting," I said, opening a new topic of discussion. "I managed to meet you guys and learn about the ass of the school."

"Ha, I know right?" Valerie replied, eating out of her pudding cup. The girls and I finished our lunch just in time, for the bell rang right after all our trash was thrown away. "What class do you have next, Hayley?" Nicole asked me.

"Foods, I know it's pretty stupid but I like to cook," I said.

"We have foods together then," Cara said, motioning over to our whole group. "Nicole and Val have it too."

"Josh, too," Valerie added, with a flip of her brown hair. "Unfortunately." 

"That would be my fifth class with him today," I sighed. The girls' heads turned toward me as we walked down the hallway. "Fifth? Really?" They asked, disbelieving me. "Yeah," I agreed. The girls and I walked to a classroom outside of the school building, the Foods class. It was very unfortunate Farro was in this class. I had enough of him. It was bad enough he was in P.E., but in one of my electives classes? Where I should be having fun? I sighed to myself as we walked into the door.

The Foods class was nice, there were circular tables toward one side of the room and the kitchen on the other. The students took their seats, settling down from that Farro-filled lunch.

"Hey guys," Ms. Kendall, the foods teacher, greeted from her front desk. She began writing on the board. "We'll be making cookies today," she said. Ms. Kendall looked very young, around her early twenties. She had bright blond hair and a slightly pointed nose. She even dressed like a college person would, but it was obvious this girl was graduated. "Josh dated her," Valerie suddenly whispered to me, as we watched Ms. Kendall write on the board. I would have freaked out at the sound of this, but this wasn't the first time I had learned about Farro and this news was expected. So, naturally, I said, "Really? When?"

"Last year. I heard they dated for like, two weeks and he broke it off, of course. I wonder what they did."

"I do too," I agreed. I saw Farro eye us, sitting with his two friends Zack and Derek. I didn't want to make eye contact with him. I didn't want to seem interested.

"The ingredients are pretty easy to mix together, so I'd like you guys to work in groups of four and create your cookie batter. You can make it simple sugar cookies or chocolate chips. That you guys will have to decide on your own. So get to work!" Ms. Kendall smiled and began working with her laptop as the class rose from their seats and walked over to the kitchen. It was a large kitchen, with four kitchen islands with its own oven and set of supplies. "Here," Nicole said, handing me a white apron. The girls began working on the batter.

Ms. Kendall had suddenly walked up to me while my group was mixing their batter. "Are you new in my class?" She asked me. I nodded back at her, telling her I didn't want to introduce myself.

"No, I wasn't going to have you introduce yourself," Ms. Kendall began. "I just noticed you looked new here and wanted to say hi."

"Oh," I replied. "Hi, then."

Ms. Kendall chuckled sharply. "Hi," she said. She walked away.

"So how's the batter going, guys?" I asked. "It's just about ready. We're already making it into circles and placing them on the tray," Nicole replied. The girls did as they said, placing the chocolate chip cookie dough on the cookie baking sheet.

"Want to put it inside, Hayley?" Valerie offered, handing me the pan. I nodded and opened the oven, but right as I leaned down to place the baking pan in, I felt a strong slap on my ass. My head then turned suddenly, glaring toward Farro who was howling in laughter. His friends joined in and they were hushed by Ms. Kendall. "Oh my God," I heard Nicole say. I set up the oven and turned to them, who now exchanged excited glances at each other. "He's into you. Phase two..slapping the ass..touching the body..you know the stuff."

"Hell no," I protested.

I didn't buy this. He couldn't be.

"Asso is into you and you know it," Cara told me. The girls had suddenly gathered around me. "He's targeting you."

"No he's not," I protested again, this time my voice a bit whiney. It's not like that was my fault, I couldn't have this guy like me.

"Just think about it Hayley; you can get close to him, talk to him, go to his parties, that stuff. And then when he finally asks you out you can break him apart. Show him how much it hurts to have his heart broken. You'll dump him when he's madly in love with you. That will teach him a lesson, alright."

I couldn't believe my ears. I was in no way capable of doing such a thing. These girls must be out of their minds.

"You guys are crazy," I said, speaking my thoughts. "You think that I can do that?"

"Oh come on, Hayley. You're pretty, cute, someone who looks vunerable and innocent. Farro preys on girls like that," Nicole told me.

"Yeah," Valerie joined in. Her expression was priceless. She was quite excited for whatever she had planned. "You're obviously the type of girl he'll think he can get easily. You're the girl who's going to break him."

"You guys are so funny!" I let out, surprised that my voice got all high. "So, so funny."

"We're not kidding," Cara said. All the girls suddenly wore serious expressions on their faces. Right then I knew they really meant every word.

"No. Not me. I can't just...no! Pick someone else," I begged. Nicole sighed. "Hayley, please? You're the perfect type of girl for the job. Imagine how awesome it is to see his face when you break up with him."

I avoided their gazes and looked toward the oven. The cookies should be done by now. I opened the oven, peering into it quickly and inhaling the scent of freshly baked choclate chip cookies. "You're stalling," Cara said. 

"I'm thinking," I replied quickly, placing an oven mitt on my hands and pulling out the tray. Yum. 

"Make up your mind before I explode," Cara urged me, all the girls' gazes still fixed on me. I sighed. Defeated, I turned to them and nodded. "I do want to hurt him," I began. "But I don't want to hurt myself."

"How the hell would you hurt yourself, Hayley? We promise you won't end up in bed with him or whatever. We'll go with you to the parties, kind of like supervision. We'll be there every step of the way," Valerie told me, but the obvious happiness in her voice was too hard to ignore. All the girls nodded along with her. 

"So you accept?" Nicole asked. 

I sighed again. "Yeah, I accept." 

"Yessss!" The girls squeaked, about to jump up and down. I rolled my eyes, half smiling. I leaned against the kitchen island and chewed on a cookie. The girls turned to look at me in unison, and I swore I saw the sparkle in their eyes. "You're going to break him, Hayley. You'll teach him that lesson. You'll dump Joshua. Neil. Farro." 

Eh, it's an alright chapter. Comments, anyone? :)