I walked along the hallway, trying not to be seen. That's easier said than done for someone who looks like me. N-not to say that I'm pretty. How vain would that sound? No. I mean...well, first off, I should probably tell you my name, huh? My name is Elizabeth Lovett. Not Lizzie. Every girl I know with the name Elizabeth seems to go by Lizzie. Or Liz. People who actually know me call me by my name, or Beth. I live with my dad and eccentric older sister Jack. Her real name is Jaqueline, but don't tell her I told you that. She lives with us while she's going to some beauty school. My best friends are Abigail Jones and Jeremiah Campbell. AJ is cool. Not the kind of cool that everyone else sees, but the kind of cool like she's okay being the only girl on the field hockey team, and she knows every line of all three Lord of the Rings movies by heart. Jeremiah...he's a sweet guy. We were pretty much raised together. He lived next door to me my whole life. He's pretty much my big brother.

I was looking for said best friends when I went sprawling to the ground. I dropped my books in an effort to catch myself, but that failed miserably. All I managed to do was make my fall look more fantastically embarrassing. My hand slipped on the book, making it shoot out from under me. Instead of catching myself like I was trying to, my face ended up slamming into the floor. My glasses had flown off of my face as well. Typical nerd fail. Everything was blurry to me. I guess it was a good thing. I couldn't see everyone's faces. I could sure hear their laughter, though. I felt my face burn, and hung my head so my hair could hide it. I am unnaturally pale, so when I blush, it's painfully noticeable. Not like AJ. Her dark complexion made it impossible to tell when she was embarrassed, unless you knew her. Which, I did. I looked around the floor, trying to locate my glasses. I felt like Velma from Scooby-Doo. Just wait, I thought. They're right in front of you, and you won't even notice. I felt a hand on my back and I turned around to see the blur of Jeremiah. I had lost my glasses often enough to know what he looked like out of focus. He gently slid my Ray Bans up the bridge of my nose. "Hey there," he smiled sweetly.

"Hi," I replied quietly. I looked up as Regina Grey started cackling like the witch that she was.

"Maybe you should watch where you're going. I thought that's what those ugly things on your face were for," the "it" girl teased. Her two lackeys started laughing along with her. Like always, Melinda and Francis agreed with everything that Regina said. I kind of felt bad for them. Those two girls would never realize how empty their lives were.

Jeremiah glared up at her. "Maybe you should watch where you stick your foot out, you little bi-"

Regina's eyes widened as Jeremiah started to insult her. Abigail, however quickly intervened. "You know, I'm always telling her that she needs to get a new prescription. Elizabeth is so clumsy." Regina's cold grey blue eyes flickered to Abigail. They scanned my best friend in disgust before they rolled back into Regina's head. She tossed her perfectly wavy blond tresses over her shoulder as she stalked away, Melinda and Francis hurrying on her heels. Jeremiah shook his head at AJ's back as he gathered up my books. We shared a look. We both knew that she was desperate to be popular, which was why she tended to try and placate Regina whenever she could. Jeremiah stood up and offered me his hand to pull me up. I gratefully accepted his chivalry.

"Thanks, J," I thanked my friend almost silently. The only time I really talked was if it was just Jeremiah, Abigail and me. Course, I talked around my dad and Jack. Jeremiah smiled and wrapped one of his long arms around me. I was almost even with his chest. "Hey, I grew," I smiled. Jeremiah just laughed.

"How's the forehead?" He asked, lightly brushing the hair out of my face. I winced slightly. That was going to be a lovely bruise in the morning.

I shrugged. "I've dealt with worse." Jeremiah nodded. He knew full well what I had dealt with in my life.

Abigail fell in step with us as we walked to my locker. "So," she started in with a smile on her face. "Do you have any plans tonight?" The way she tried to bite her lips together to stop herself from smiling, I knew that AJ wanted something.

I sighed. "No, but I'm sure that you have some for me." Abigail smiled.

"Actually, I do. We're going to a party tonight!" she exclaimed excitedly. My eyes widened as I shook my head.

"Uh, no. No we most certainly are not going to a party," I declined. Abigail would not be deterred. As I put my books away, Abigail started pleading.

"Oh, come on, Beth. It'll be fun. Everyone's invited," she tempted. I shook my head, wondering how I ended up with such a social-climber as a best friend.

Jeremiah rolled his eyes. "Abigail, you know full well that when the flyer says 'everyone' it means everyone except for people like us," he said gesturing to the three of us.

Abigail frowned. "I don't understand why you two don't want to go," she said exasperatedly. Did she not know who we were? We were the kids that got straight A's, got love from all our teachers, never got grounded and had no social lives to speak of. Well, Jeremiah and Abigail could have been better off if they hadn't chose to hang out with me. I wasn't exactly the poster girl for normalcy. My eyes were two different colors-one dark brown, almost black, and the other a pale grey-my bottom lip was slightly bigger than my top one, and my hair was a dark purple with two white streaks in the front. I looked like Rogue from the X-Men on an acid trip. Of course, my sister assured me I looked "killer." Back to that thing about my sister and her eccentricities. Jack goes to beauty school, right? And you know how to get all the credits, the students have to practice what they learn on someone? Well, I am my sister's guinea pig. My hair is actually a nice, ordinary nut brown. Perfectly generic, and so allowed me to fade into the background, so long as no one looked at creepy eyes. But, I love Jack. And she asked me...so I said yes.

That's the one thing I would change about me. If I care about someone, I'll do pretty much anything to make them happy, no matter how much I hate it. I have been to every midnight premiere for every Twilight movie so far, because Abigail loves the books. I read this one book about Abraham Lincoln because my dad thought it would give me a better sense of history. My hair is purple because I couldn't say no to my big sister's big brown eyes. And now, I was probably going to get roped into going to this stupid party. Abigail and Jeremiah could have been higher up in the food chain of high school if they had stayed away from me. J is tall and lanky; he could have totally been on the basketball team and lost his nerdy exterior. As it was, he really wasn't that bad looking. Shaggy brown hair, green eyes, not too pale but not to tan. And AJ? She's that perfect height for a girl, where she isn't a stump of a person, like me, and she's not too tall for guys. She has crazy curls that go everywhere, and round hazel eyes. She's on the field hockey team, which normally would get her some respect, except for her kind, insecure and brainiac personality.

Abigail snapped me out of my inner monologue with her hard stare. "What?" I asked innocently.

"Girl, did you even hear half of what I said?" She glared at me.

I shrugged and fiddled with my necklace. "Um...you want to go to the party, right?" That was about my extent of knowledge.

Abigail groaned. "Come on, you guys! It'll be great!"

"Abigail, I really don't want to," I said, trying to hold firm. I looked away from her puppy eyes, knowing that prolonged exposure would result in me at some awkward social gathering with a bunch of drunk and sex-starved teenagers. Most of which either thought I was a freak, or had no idea that I even existed. Yeah...sounds like lots of fun. I thought to myself.

AJ pouted for a moment before breaking out her winning smile. "I bet Seth will be there," she teased. I bit my lip and wrapped my fist around my necklace, hoping that would give some kind of strength of will. It was a white pendant with the silhouette of a raven on it. The edges had fancy silver curly-cues and it hung on a silver chain. I never did anything or went anywhere without it, and that was before my grandma died.

Jeremiah frowned, seeing me do this, and came to my defense. "AJ, just leave it alone. If she doesn't want to go, she doesn't want to go. Besides, that jerk doesn't care about her. No offense, E." Jeremiah added quickly.

I smiled. "No, it's fine, J. You're right. He wouldn't care if I showed up or not." Jeremiah was always looking out for me.

"We could have a party of our own," Jeremiah continued, relief that I wasn't upset evident on his face. "Movie night at my house? My mom will make your favorite..." Jeremiah's offer was very tempting, and much more appealing in every way than Abigail's.

Sensing that she was losing, Abigail quickly got in front of me. "You owe me." She stated.

"For what?!" I questioned.

AJ rolled her eyes. "Oh, please. Don't act like you don't remember," she retorted, her head moving all over the place like it did whenever she was mad at me. "We went and watched every single one of his games and meets last week." Abigail prompted my memory. As I realized what Abigail was talking about, my face burned like a neon sign. We went to Seth's football games and swim meet. Because I had the biggest crush on him.

"AJ, come on. That was a reasonable request. This...Oh, please don't cash in tonight! Anything else, I swear, but not this." I begged.

Abigail smirked with victory. "Oh, we're going." She stated firmly.

"Fine." I groaned. Abigail fist pumped and walked away to her car.

"Movie night tomorrow night to help you recover?" Jeremiah kindly offered. I hated parties. I hated crowds. I hated making awkward small talk with people who all preferred I would just disappear. I would need a movie night tomorrow.

"Yes!" I squealed gratefully, grabbing his arm with both my hands. "And you know what would be even better?" I asked shyly.

Jeremiah looked down. "What?"

I clung to my necklace and looked up hopefully. "If...you came with me?" It ended up as a question instead of a statement. Jeremiah groaned. "Oh, please, J? You cannot leave me alone tonight. You can't. We're best friends. You would never make me go through this by myself."

"You'll have Abigail with you," Jeremiah protested weakly, trying to worm his way out of going. I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, and she'll be off mingling with the Terror Trifecta," I countered. "You know that she's going to try and get in good with Regina." I held onto to J's hand as we walked to his car. It was his week to drive.

Jeremiah walked to the passenger side with me, opening my door and helping me climb up the step into his truck as he mulled over his thoughts. "I get to pick the movie," he finally said as I dropped my backpack on the floor of the truck. Before he could shut the door, I squealed in delight and jumped out of the truck, wrapping my arms tightly around his neck.

"Oh, you're the best, Jeremiah!" I said. Jeremiah wrapped his arms around my waist, holding me up. I could hear his soft laughter in my ear.

"Yeah," he conceded. I got back in the truck and Jeremiah walked around to the driver's side. This might actually be fun.