Song of the chapter - Invisible by 5 Seconds of Summer

The hallway between my first and second period class was crowded. So crowded, in fact, that I wasn't able to get to my locker, which was smack in the middle of the hallway. For some reason this hallway was like a magnet for the populars, the jocks, and the random students just trying to get to their next class on time. The populars and the jocks ( oh who am I trying to fool, they were one and the same) had no such need. They went to class when they felt like it.

The random kids mixed in were just trying to get to their lockers without getting a death glare from someone who thought the world revolved around them. You should have seen the timid looks and wimpy "ahem, excuse me's" that those poor kids were attempting. Kinda pathetic actually but, what's a sad random to do?

I was none of the above. I was a nobody. I was neither seen nor heard by the rest of the student body. I was basically invisible. I had a small group of friends that I hung out with but other than those four people, no one even knew my name.

This was not for lack of trying. I was not shy. I tried making conversation with my classmates, whoever ended up sitting next to me. I didn't have any trouble talking to whoever it was, cheerleader, socialite, player, goth... It really didn't matter.

And they would engage me in conversation too. They asked and answered questions and laughed along with me, well not the goth. She just stared back with a blank expression. But the second I stepped out of the class, I ceased to exist. They looked past me in the hallways, didn't wave back at home games. And one guy even started calling me by the wrong name. For a year. And thought that wrong name(Sally. I really didn't look like a Sally) was my actual name.

And "Mr. Sally", which was my nickname for him, was standing in front of my locker on this particular day. Of course I didn't call him that to his face.

"Yo, Dylan? Would you mind getting out of the way so I could get into my locker?"

"Huh? Did you say something, Sally?"

See. At least he kinda knows who I am. "Dylan, I have told you repeatedly that my name is Mallory, not Sally."

"Are you sure?"

Oh for heavens sake! "Pretty sure, yes. And, my locker?"

"Yeah, yeah. In a second."

The guy must have a couple of screws loose. I think the whole school must be missing some important gene or something. Why can't anyone remember who I am?

I had no idea why this was the case. I was not weird. And yes, weird is a relative term, but really I wasn't in any way weird. I was totally normal. I did my homework, went to class on time, followed the school and class rules, and even went to all the major social events the school offered. Well, the ones that didn't require a date.

I wore the same clothes that everyone else wore. Nothing too trendy, but I wasn't like the girl who only wore long skirts and turtleneck shirts, with hair down passed her hips. Or the guy who wore a kilt every Thursday(seriously, why Thursday? It made no sense). There was even a girl that wore a cape to school. Everyday. They called her cape girl. I was a little jealous of cape girl. At least she had a nickname people remembered.

I spoke up in class, I raised my hand and often had insightful comments to make in the discussion. Maybe that was my problem, insight. I could read people like a book, "reading their mail" was the term I used. I knew pretty much everything about a person just by watching. It wasn't some paranormal gift or sixth sense. I just understood body language. I could read between the lines.

For example, Mr. Sally was avoiding his ex-girlfriend, Mia, by hanging out in the hallway. I knew that for two reasons.

1. The school gossip train left the station the second he dumped her the Tuesday before. That train also carried the news that he dumped her for a cheerleader named Cailie.

2. As he leaned against my locker, his eyes were darting back and forth to both doors, on the look out no doubt.

Yeah, you couldn't fool me. That was probably it, the big reason I seemed unnoticed. Nobody wanted me to read their mail. Nobody wanted me to know their fears, the things they kept hidden from everyone else. And let's face it, this was high school, everyone was hiding something.

Even me. For the most part I had been an open book with nothing to hide. At least I was before the whole Tyler situation. And we'll get to that soon enough.

It was almost the end of the first semester on that particular Thursday. Finals were the next week and then we had a day off for teachers to put in their grades. It was review week and I needed my notes for my next class. Mr. Sally needed to move, and I wasn't waiting any longer.

"Okay, buddy, get moving. I need my notes."

"Sure, whatever Sally."

Ugh! Jerk.

With my notes in hand, finally, I noticed that the hallway had mostly cleared out. And if I didn't hustle I was gonna be late. Not happening. So I ran.

My schedule was pretty good. I had my most difficult classes first, Pre-calculus, Spanish, English Lit. Then the rest of my day was easier, Dance, lunch, Chemistry and Government. I know what you're thinking, chemistry easy? Well, yeah, it just kind of makes sense to me.

Anyway, my teachers were fine, I was learning what I needed to I guess. But I was relatively sure I would forget most of it as soon as the test was over.

Senora Gomez didn't like tardies so I was glad when I got to my seat before the bell rang. That was close. Class started and I spent the next 50 minutes reviewing notes on verb conjugation hoping to remember which ending went with which tense.

Tedious. But this is the life of a high school junior whose whole focus was grades, getting stuff out of her locker without too much hassle, and trying to be noticed in a good way.

The last couple minutes of class I tried to talk with the goth girl who sat next to me. "Hey Gina, how's your studying going?"

Nothing. Crickets.

"Um, is there anything you need help with?"

She looked at me like she was looking right through me. Okay, time to read her mail...

Gina had been a really quiet kid in middle school. But once she hit high school she started hanging out with all those kids who wore all black. Then she died her hair black and took on that sad, depressed personality they all seem to have. But something told me it was all an act with her to blend in.

"Okay, well if you need to practice verbs, just let me know" I said with a smile. She just rolled her eyes and went back to her notebook.

So much for connecting with my fellow classmates.

It was time to move on to English Lit. I have to say that it was by far my favorite class. And there was one reason: Luke. Luke was my obligatory high school crush. Well, my crush for junior year.

Each year had been a different crush but they'd all had somethings in common. Completely adorable, athlete, sought after by most of the females on campus, and had no idea I existed.

Freshman year was Jason. He was on the basketball team. Just gorgeous with dark brown hair cropped close and muscles for days. I was a sucker for biceps. His eyes where a delicious shade of chocolate brown. He had those chiseled features which made him model worthy. Oh, and he was a junior but he was in my freshman algebra class so, not that bright. I thought I could connect with him by helping him with his math. I offered to study with him once but he just looked at me like I had grown three heads.

What can I say. I admired him from afar for the entire year, daydreaming about what it would be like to date him.

Sophomore year I decided to be more realistic. No more upperclassmen, I would stick with sophomores. And I picked a sport that was less desirable, water polo. Don't get me wrong, it's a tough sport but on the spectrum of high school athletics, it wasn't at the top.

So that year I drooled over Bryan. Tall, sandy blond hair and blue eyes the color of the deepest part of the ocean. He wasn't as buff as Jason but his biceps were still swoon worthy. He was in my Spanish class. I was more successful talking with him, in class. He even worked with me on one of the class assignments. But outside of class it was the same story, Mallory who?

Yeah, I daydreamed about him too. I would imagine going to Homecoming or to the movies with him. What would he wear or say? Those were the thoughts that ran through my mind when I wasn't busy thinking about schoolwork.

Did that make me weird? I figured it just meant I was lonely and hey, what high school girl without a date isn't lonely. So really, not that weird.

Anyway, junior year was all about Luke, that was until the Tyler situation came about. Luke, as I stated before, was in my English Lit class and he was also a junior. He transferred to my high school during the middle of his sophomore year so I thought he might not have such a hard time remembering who I was outside of class. New gene pool. And I was kind of right. Early in the semester he agreed to work on a project with me and we had to meet in the library after school to get it done. So he remembered me at the library, but other than that, not so much.

Luke played football. He was one of the defensive guards (or something like that, not so great with the football positions). So he was really buff and spent a ton of time in the gym after school working out. He had light brown hair that was a little scruffy but not too long. His eyes were hazel and he had a really nice smile.

I did the same thing with Luke that I had done before: daydreamed about being his girlfriend.

It really was a great relationship in my head.

Ok, I guess I was a little weird but could you blame me? It's hard being forgotten all the time.

So over Christmas break of junior year I made a decision, no more daydreaming about these boys at school who had no idea who I was. I still enjoyed being in class with Luke. He was really cute, and he was a nice guy. He just didn't notice me much.

So onward it was. I was successful in eliminating my daydreams about those boys. But I'm pretty sure that had a lot to do with the Tyler situation.

English lit was good that day. We were reading a dumb book about some kid named Billy who was a sailor. Pretty boring, definitely not as interesting as my Wattpad books. Luke said hi, which gave me a little smile.

After my other classes, I met up with my friends for lunch. We sat on the grass by the band room. There was a huge lunch shelter instead of an indoor cafeteria. Our city has mild weather so we could eat outside everyday. The shelter was mostly for the randoms. The populars and the jocks mostly went off campus for lunch. The goths ate in the hallway. I guess they needed to avoid the sun or something.

That left us 'nobody's' who ate near the geeky band room. And none of us were in band. My four friends were Judy, Stacy, Robin and Christy. The first two were sophomores and the last two were seniors. I didn't really connect with kids in my class. But these girls were my besties. They had my back. They were my ride or die.

We sat on the grass talking about whatever came to mind. I liked that they weren't completely obsessed with how they looked or typical girl drama. None of us had boyfriends so we were all in the same boat. Every one of us had some crush or another, and we did talk about that. But there was no way I was talking about how I daydreamed about them. I mean, if I knew for sure that they did it too, then maybe. But at that point, no way.

"Hey Mallory, do you want a ride home today? My mom let me drive her car to school because she stayed home from work sick today," Robin asked. She lived a block away from me so it made sense for her to offer me the ride but not Christy or Judy. Those two lived on the other side of town.

"Nah, I'm good. I like the walk, gives me exercise." Truth be told, I loved walking home. It was my time to deal with the Tyler situation, so there was no way I was giving that up. Unless it was raining or something.

"Are you sure?" Robin looked at me like I was a little crazy. I guess I was a little weird. Dang it!

"Yeah, I'm sure. Next time maybe." Well, I had dodged that bullet. At least for that day, but even then I had the feeling it was going to come up, eventually.

We finished our lunch and headed to our classes. Because I was in different grades than my friends, I didn't have any classes with them. It sucked, to be honest. I had a hard enough time as it was having people remember me. It would have been nice to have a class with someone who knew me "in the real world" like these girls did.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. As I made my way off campus to start my walk home, aka the best part of my day, Robin drove by in her car.

"Last chance! You sure you don't want a ride, crazy?" She laughed as she asked.

"Yup. Hit me up next time, kay?" Although I was pretty sure there wouldn't be a next time. Robin's mom never took sick days. This was a very rare occurance. Her mom was a total workaholic, and like me, Robin went home to an empty house after school and didn't see her mom until about 7:30 each night. It's a good thing Robin was pretty responsible. That kind of freedom with a messed up kid could really spell trouble.

"Whatever, you know this won't ever happen again. See ya tomorrow!" See what I mean?

So, now I can deal with the situation in peace and quiet.

^^^^^

So, any thoughts on who Tyler is and what his situation is? Comment with your thoughts, I'd love to hear them.

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Thanks so much for reading this! This story has slow updates. I am currently (January 2018) working on a playlist and a cast to help motivate my writing. If you've got suggestions, let me know!!

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