Aleena

God she hated the boys in her school. They were all so-weird. And ugly. Weird and ugly, that was what she had to work with.

Oh well, at least she had the weekend. But of course it was supposed to snow, like, five hundred feet, keeping her stranded in her stuffy old house. Funny, isn't it, that the big storms always wait until the weekends. They can never arrive sometime during the week, so that maybe everyone could have at least one day off from the jail cell they called a school. Yeah, well, that was Nebraska for you. Punishing anyone and everyone who was unwillingly born and raised in the miserable state.

Aleena May Krypants stood on the side lines of Jackson Highs stuffy old gym,with the B team, watching the Jr. High boys and her fellow A teamates running back and fourth in a game of basketball.

Aleena herself was totally opposed to the whole boys vs. girls scrimage from the very beginning. It was stupid. It was obvious the girls would lose. Not that they were bad or anything, but the boys were simply better. It was just another way for the world to embarass her. She didn't deserve to play on B team, even if it was just half the time. Being 5'8 with extremely long arms and legs, she was fully capable of playing A team. All the time. But Mr. Dancy, her basketball coach-who was also her volleyball coach- didn't see that. She would just have to find some way to prove it to him. Although, she was running out of ideas. Nothing she did seemed to work.

"Krypants, you're in for Catlyn." Mr. Dancy turned and nodded for Aleena to sub in immidiately.

"Great," Aleena muttered under her breath.

She jogged slowly to her position under the basket as her long time friend, Andy Purke shot a free throw. There was no way she was going to box out Skyler Brenson. Not only was he king of the Jr. High freaks, there was also a rumor going around about him being gay. Aleena didn't doubt it.

Right as Andy was about to make her second shot, Mr. Dancy and the boys' coach, Mr. Harrison, blew their whistles and motioned for all the thirteen and fourteen Jr. Highers to go dress out.

As Aleena entered the locker room, she pulled off her practice jersey and paused in front of the mirror to examine herself.

She was evenly tanned, with long brown hair down to the center of her back. She had eyes that were sometimes green, and sometimes blue, and full pink lips.

She wasn't completely unfortunate looking, she knew. She was only 13, and should have been in 7th grade instead of 8th, but people often told her she could pass as 16 or 17. She was fairly content with her body from her belly button on up, it was the rest of her body that she couldn't stand.

She didn't necessarily have a flat stomach, and she was extremely pear shaped. Like and hour glass. Her thighs and butt weren't fat, but certainly not as small as she would have liked. She knew she wasn't fat, but a few pounds lighter and she would look fantastic. Maybe like Lindsay Lohan, but with darker skin and no freckles.

If she could trade lifes with anyone in the whole world, it would be Lindsay. Not only did she idolize her for her beauty, she was absolutely facinated with the whole Hollywood lifestlye. Aleena had always wanted to be an actress. Mainly, she figured, because of her love for movies. The only thing she loved more then movies were books. Which, is why she figured she loved to write. She always saw her life as a book. Like she wasn't really living it, but reading it. She loved to leave everything around her and escape into a world where anything could happen. She could be anything she wanted, because she had the power to create it. Kind of like Lindsay Lohan in I Know Who Killed Me...

"Hello. Earth to Leena." Sara Ketcher, one of Aleenas best friends, shook a hand in front of Aleenas nose, breaking her away from her thoughts.

"Huh?"

"You okay?"

"Yeah, why?"

"You just looked like you went away there for a second. Is something bothering you?"

"No. I'm fine." Aleena forced a smile. "I just spaced off for a second."

Sara returned her smile. "Ha, okay."

But the truth was, she wasn't fine. In fact, she was far from it.

She didn't have a bad life or anything. She grew up in a small town where the population sign read 315. She lived in a middle-class home with only one sister. Her parents were still together. She had a lot of friends, did well in school, and was an okay athlete. It was the love part of her life that was troubling her.

She'd only had one boyfriend before. His name was Chad and he was from a small town aobut nine miles away from Jackson.However, the relationship ended around two months ago. Mainly because Chad was starting to bug Aleena, and she was ready to move on to something new. Since then, there had been three new guys.

Guy number one. His name was Kade. He was Charles-Andys boyfriends- friend. He lived in a town called Arnold, about fourty-five minutes away from Jackson. He was around 6 feet with dark hair and long eye lashes. He had the prettiest green eyes Aleena had ever seen. He was, however, a 10th grader. Aleena figured he wouldn't want anything to do with an 8th grader, but one night a while back, he and Aleena went out to the movies with Andy and Charles, and he seemed to like her alot. Or so she thought. During the show they cuddled, and Kade couldn't stop holding her hand. And when Aleena asked him what he thought of her, he told her he liked her alot. Liar.

A few weeks later, Kade stopped calling and texting Aleena. She then learned he was seeing another girl from another school.

Guy number two, was Zack Laymer. He wasn't all that new though. Aleena had known him for about a year. She met him when he started dating Sara. Zack was 5'11, with long curly blonde hair, and big brown eyes.

He and Sara didn't last too long, and a few months after the relationship ended, Aleena and Zack began to talk on a regular basis. At first they were just close friends, but it wasn't too long before Aleena developed a crush. They went to the movies, and hung out at Aleenas house. They always had a good time together. Laughing at stupid things, and making the dumbest jokes. The best part about it, was that it wasn't ever awkward. They never didn't know what to say, or how to act. They were just themselves when they were together. They never held hands, or anything like that, but Zack was shy and Aleena was sure he felt the same way about her as she did for him.

Months went by and the friendship never evolved into anything more. Aleena was beginning to get frustrated. Too afraid to talk to him herself, she asked Andy to talk to him for her. All Zack said was that he didn't know if he liked her.

After that, Aleena and Zack talked less and less, while he and Andy talked more and more. Eventually, he asked Andy to be his girlfriend, and she said no, mainly to be a good friend to Aleena.

Aleena forgot about Zack when she started dating Chad, but the second they broke up, they started to talk again. But Aleena didn't want the same thing to happen as before, so she forced herself to just think of Zack as a friend.

Guy number three. His name was Cole. He too, was Charles' friend. Aleena didn't know much about him except that he was 5'8, in 10th grade, liked sports and shared a phone with his sister. They were supposed to hang out a few weeks ago, when Charles came to see Andy. But, something came up and the boys ended up not being able to go.

This weekend, they were all going to go to Andys house to watch movies and hang out. Well, that was the plan anyway. Aleena was excited to meet someone new, but had enough bad experiences to know not to get her hopes up.

The eighth period bell sounded, alerting all the students that school was out for the day. Aleena grabbed her bags and headed for her locker. On her way out of the locker room, she ran into her best guy friend, Ethan. People often thought that the two liked each other, because they were always together. But the truth was, Aleena just enjoyed Ethans company. He was really funny and always made her laugh. They were more like brother and sister then anything else. Ethan didn't play basketball.

"So, how was basketball practice today?"

Aleena just rolled her eyes. "Don't ask."




Aleena layed on her bed, watching her sister do her make up for a date. It had been a week since her basketball nightmare, and life hadn't gotten any better. It was two days into Christmas vacation, Sara and Andy were both with their boyfriends, her sister Mandi was getting ready to go see a new movie with her newest beau, Kyle, and his whole entire family, and Aleena was laying under the covers, in her sweats, without the t.v. on.

"Are you sure you don't want to go?" Mandi asked, not bothering to turn her head from the mirror.

"Yeah, I'm sure. I mean, why would I go?"

"Yeah, it would be kind of weird. But if you really wanted to, I'm sure it'd be fine."

Mandi was right. It would be extremely weird. The only reason she was even considering going was because earlier she'd heard Mandi and Kyle talking about how Kyles 16 year old little brother was going.

"No, it's okay. Hey. have you ever met Kyles little brother?"

Mandi grinned. "No. But I'll let you know if he's cute or not."

"Okay."

Mandi started laughing. "Wouldn't it be weird if two sisters dated two brothers?"

"Yeah. But I'm sure that would never happen."

She must have knew that Aleena was referring to the lack of love in her life at the moment, because Mandi gave her a look that said 'Shut up, you're gorgeous.'

"What?"

"Kyle thought you were my older sister."

"So?"

"What do you mean so?"

"So it doesn't matter."