[So in the picture...are they holding hands or letting go?  You decide. ;) ]

Twenty

So What If I'm Popular?

Quinn's POV

I had to wake up at five AM the next morning in order to struggle bleary-eyed through my homework, but once I'd had a cup of Starbucks coffee at Vanessa's urging and was in the car with them on the way to school, I felt refreshed and better than ever.

Much to my stepsister's credit, I had woken up with my hair all in one piece, and her friends' kindness had continued through the morning as we'd eaten breakfast, done our homework, and got in the car to go get coffee on our way to school. I remembered how Julia and I had used to scoff at the girls who had walked around Providence Prep holding their coffee and eagerly bragging about how many cups they'd had that day. I definitely wasn't going to become addicted to caffeine, and I definitely wasn't going to become one of them.

But how long would I hang out around Vanessa before that all started to become natural to me?

Despite Kenzie's urging to borrow a pair of Vanessa's ankle strap heels, I had stuck with my Converse and was now staring down at them self-consciously as I compared them to the shoes my new friends were sporting. Sara caught me staring and said jokingly, "We tried to get you to switch, Quinn!" She nudged my sneaker-clad foot with her chunky heels and added, "Don't worry, we'll convince you some day."

I wondered if I even wanted to be convinced. Somehow, I hadn't expected my summer makeover to go this far.

When we pulled up at school and Kenzie swung into her reserved parking lot, the girls all immediately lowered their sunglasses over their eyes. I'd dug out my pair the previous night and this time, I followed suit, standing between Vanessa and Kenzie as we strode into the main building.

The first person I saw was Julia, who saw me giggling at something Sara was saying. She widened her eyes at me and said, just loud enough so that I could hear her, "Look who's trying to fit in now."

I twirled my ring around my finger in nervous habit and walked right past her, refusing to acknowledge her when she couldn't think of anything nicer to say. Unfortunately, I had only just made it to my locker when I was confronted yet again.

"Quinn?" asked Cody, coming to stand right in front of me and blocking my path. "Can we talk?"

I adjusted my sunglasses on top of my head and pursed my lips, glancing sideways at Vanessa. "I guess," I said. "What's up?"

He tilted his head sideways, gesturing for me to split from Vanessa and her friends, and I reluctantly followed him as he headed down the hallway and came to a stop in a quiet, unoccupied corner.

"How about you tell me what's up, Quinn," he said once he'd turned back around to face me.

For a second, as I looked at his wide brown eyes that were filled with confusion, I thought that maybe this was some kind of practical joke. Last I'd checked, we were on good terms--or okay terms, at least--since we had made up yesterday. Had he suddenly decided he hated me again?

"Sorry," I said, clearing my throat nervously, "I have zero idea what you're talking about."

He reached up and yanked the sunglasses off of my head and then studied the label; I realized a second too late that they were designer and he'd thus get the wrong idea about them. "You're changing, Quinn," he said roughly, shoving the sunglasses back at me.

I jammed them back on my head and glowered. "And you haven't? Come on, Cody. The gelled hair? The Vineyard Vines? You're acting in movies, for goodness sakes."

"At least my personality isn't changing and I'm not turning dimwitted," he shot back.

I just gaped at him for a few seconds as my jaw literally dropped. "Are you telling me that just because I'm trying to be friends with my step sister, I'm turning 'dimwitted'?" I demanded, making air quotes. All Cody and I seemed to do lately was fight, and I hated that, but I couldn't seem to stop it. He was always the one who started them, anyway. "For your information, I'm only hanging out with them because Julia isn't speaking to me, which is entirely your fault."

"How is that my fault?"

"She thinks you like me and not her," I said, not even bothering to think before I spoke. Cody needed to get his life together, anyway, and maybe hearing someone lay it all for him would clear things up for him. At any rate, I needed to vent to someone. "She won't talk to me because we're French partners and she thinks you flirt with me too much."

Cody's eyes were narrowed. "She's right. I do flirt with you too much, considering you're turning into one of them." He seemed to notice what I was carrying for the first time and extended his hand. "And hand me that freaking coffee cup right now."

He didn't exactly say "freaking".

"I don't appreciate your language," I said snappily, taking a long and extremely over-exaggerated sip of my coffee. It burnt my tongue and I tried not to choke. "And you don't control my life, Cody Marlett. You've got a girlfriend, so act with some dignity please. You shouldn't go chasing after other girls."

"And I assume you're doing all of this to impress Andrew Summers?" He extended his arms out when he said "this", as if "this" encompassed my outfit, my coffee, my hairstyle, and even the designer sunglasses perched on top of my head. "Do you really think he'll keep dating you if you hang out with Vanessa? I know he's not dating you because he cares, Quinn, and I'm determined to find out what his screwed up motives are."

"Because you're jealous." I said this with one eyebrow raised the way Kenzie had taught me the previous evening, running my fingers through my hair (straightened this morning) for emphasis. "Why the heck are you jealous, Cody?"

He stared at me as if he were seeing me for the first time. "You tell me, Quinn."

"I'm asking you!" My voice got higher pitched me every octave, filled with frustration. Fighting with him all the time was seriously starting to wear me down, and as much as I wanted to be his friend, I didn't know how much of this I could handle.

This time, when he met my eyes, he looked defeated. "I don't know," he said, leaning back up against the wall and shoving his hands in his pockets. "You used to be amazing--so bright and cheerful and brilliant, but you were always so nice to everyone that you didn't seem to be stuck-up at all. Now look at you."

I chewed down on my lip as he continued. "I watched you all freshman year, Quinn. I stayed by your side no matter what, because I really cared. I was there when you flipped your lunch tray on the staircase all over that senior and Andrew Summers was there and you burst out crying, remember that? How I helped you clean everything up and then you were so embarrassed you skipped science class next period?"

"How is that even slightly relevant?" I asked, my cheeks flushed because he'd brought up one of the many humiliating episodes that encompassed my dreadful and thankfully long over freshman year.

Cody continued to stare at me. "I was always there for you all last year and then over the summer, all I did was think about you. And then when I saw you on the first day of school this year you looked so beautiful you took my breath away."

I squeezed my eyes tightly shut, trying to block this out. But no matter how many times I kept telling myself that he'd learned these dramatic words from his movie scripts, and that he meant none of it, I couldn't make myself believe it. Why else would he have stuck with me for over a year, no matter how much of a fool I made of myself because I was constantly trying to impress Andrew? It made him desperate, but it also made him very, very loyal.

Evidently immune to the fact that I was trying to ignore him, Cody continued. "This year you've changed, Quinn. It's not just your new haircut or the clothes you wear or the way you do your makeup. It's your personality, and that's one of the things I liked most about you. Quinn?" He paused. "Please open your eyes."

Reluctantly, I opened one eye after the other so that I was forced to look at him again.

"I liked you last year Quinn, and I liked you all summer, and I still like you now. A lot."

My gape now was even larger than it had been before, and my jaw actually started to ache as it hung open before I had time to properly recover. "That's impossible," I said.

He took a step closer, his head tilted questioningly. "And why is that?"

"Because no guy sticks with the same girl for a year and a half, especially if she doesn't reciprocate." I refused to point out that I had liked Andrew for a year and a half, because it was different with girls. We didn't like guys just because they were hot (even though Cody seemed to care an awful lot about my personality), and we also didn't move on from them just because they didn't like us back (even though Cody wasn't doing that, either).

I exhaled loudly and leaned back against the wall, mimicking his pose, so that I was still studying him as he said, "Actually, I have, so I'd watch what you say."

"You don't mean anything you're saying right now," I said, taking another sip of coffee. The drink had cooled off so much that it tasted disgustingly room temperature. "Come back and tell me that in a few weeks if you mean it. And anyway, you're dating Julia. Get that through your head, Cody."

Then I whirled around quickly so that my sunglasses flew off of my head and crashed against the floor, and I had to sacrifice my dramatic exit in order to pick them up and examine the damage before going to my locker. Mom would definitely kill me if she saw the jagged crack running along the top of one of the lenses.

Cody didn't call after me, and I made a point of taking another enormous sip of my terrible tasting coffee just to annoy him before turning the corner--and running right into Julia.

"Hey Julia!" I said, realizing a second too late that we weren't exactly speaking. I'd felt so guilty about the conversation I'd just had with Cody that I had completely forgotten about our fight and the fact that she was jealous of me--which, now that I'd heard Cody's extremely skewed side of the story, was sort of reasonable.

"Hey, Quinn..." she said slowly, but at least she wasn't glaring at me antagonistically, so I took that as a good sign.

"Look, Julia," I said, looping her arm through mine and dragging her down the hallway in case Cody decided to come after me, "I've been thinking. Our fight was sort of stupid, you know? I mean, it's obvious that I'm totally in love with Andrew and I'd never go after Cody because he's your guy, even if he did happen to like me, which he totally doesn't because he really does like you..."

I trailed off, feeling too bad to lie anymore, and ended up braiding my hair instead. To my surprise, though, Julia actually smiled. "I know," she said. "I'm sorry that I accused you of trying to come between me and him. It's just, he's the first guy I've really liked, and I want it to go well. He did used to like you, and I was afraid that maybe he still did, but I know now that I should trust you guys. Why would you lie to me?"

I forced an extremely fake but bright smile that made me resemble a drowning fish when I caught my reflection in a stick-on mirror someone had pasted onto a locker. Since I had a sick feeling starting to brew in my stomach, I decided not to say anything else, and Julia gave me a quick "I'm sorry" hug before hurrying to Algebra II for first period.

"Hey!" she called back to me, turning around as if she'd suddenly had a wonderful realization. "We should go on a double date soon!"

That would only be the biggest disaster ever, but she looked so happy about it that I decided to deal with one problem at a time. "Sure!" I exclaimed, and she flashed me a grin before turning around and hurrying down a staircase. I stared after her for a few seconds, playing with the hem of my skirt, before turning around and walking in the opposite direction, towards my locker.

I couldn't win at anything. When Julia and Cody flirted, I felt nauseous at the thought of them liking each other, but now that Cody had admitted that he liked me, I felt even sicker. When I saw how happy Julia was with him, I wanted to be happy for her, but when I thought of Cody with anyone it made me sad.

And then Andrew. When I was around him I felt like I was on the top of the world, but he'd been acting so distant over the last few days. What was wrong with him, and why had he not even come to see me this morning? Rumors were already starting to fly around the school about us--maybe Andrew had confided to one of his friends about his hesitation and gossip had spread.

When I reached my locker, I swung open my door to reveal a bright pink Post-It note; I hadn't seen one since Andrew had asked me out.

Tsk, tsk, it read in loopy cursive. Someone's messed up, haven't you now, Quinn? Want to get back with your guy? He's probably concerned about you liking Cody, too. And what better way than to reassure him or your loyalty than a double date with Julia and Cody, so you can prove just how much you favor him?

Exhaling, I ripped the Post-It note off of my locker and shoved it deep into my backpack. It seemed like I'd be going on that double date after all.

Then I realized that I now had to endure a Chemistry class with Cody in my lab group, and that made things even worse. The last thing I needed right now was to spend more time around him and start to question my feelings for him and what he'd said. I'd told him again and again that we were just friends--when could he get the message?

But as I walked towards class, I started to wonder if maybe I was the one who wasn't getting the message. After all, I was having a hard time convincing myself that the way things were turning out was the way things were meant to be.

I took my normal seat in Chemistry, glancing over the worksheet that I'd sleepily filled out at five thirty that morning. When Cody sat down next to me a few seconds later, he mumbled a "hi" and then quickly started comparing our work. I bit my lip and turned away from him, angling my body towards the lab table next to us and pretending to be invested in a conversation two students were having about an experiment we were evidently doing in class today. The caffeine in my body was beginning to kick in, and my thoughts were starting to chase circles around each other, making me even more confused than I already was.

Who was I kidding? I hated coffee.

A/N: Ships? ;)