• As mostly everyone knows, popularity is not what people think it is.

    To the not-so-popular the concept of being popular is either to be lusted after, in which nothing you ever do is good enough for said popular people or you are good enough, just not noticed. Or popularity is something disgusting, a dilusion people have despite the fact that very little of the class/school likes these people. Either or - popularity is a far-gone world where they dare not tread.

    To the popular people, each day is a struggle, being forced to be something you're not - or being constantly reminded of the person you have turned out to be. It's hard to look in the mirror each morning, because if you're not perfect, you're nothing.

    As I stood now, at this point in my story, I had no way of knowing the populars views. I was stuck in the 'lusting after popularity' group and thinking that every day for them was heaven on a platter.

    French lessons were reminders of how I was so far away from popularity - too far away, I thought, to have any chance. I gazed at Cherry - the icon of sheer popularity - adoringly, wondering why I couldn't be like her while knowing perfectly well why not. My plain looks, plain life, plain personality made me completely unknown. Pupils would chose everyone in PE before me - not because I wasn't good - but because they didn't want to go through the minor embarrassment of asking what the hell my name was yet forgetting it the next day again. It was in one of these PE classes that I first talked to Cherry, though I don't know if it really counted...

    She was picked for a team leader in baseball - a favorite of mine. She was last to pick and ended up with me. She shook her short hair, ruffling the layers and rose a plucked-to-perfection eyebrow at me, pointing a manacured finger in my direction. Her voice hit me like a crashing wave, making my eyes water quickly and making me blink before I could speak in return. "What's your name?"

    The question and answer was simple, I would have looked the most stupid person ever, seeing as I couldn't seem to remember my name. I eventually stuttered it out, "Rosie...". My too-long near-black bangs hung in my eyes, obscuring thier dull color from her. She seemed to vaguely take this into account before - like everyone else - she found something much more interesting than I was. I took this to mean I was in her team - not that she had much choice.

    Iin our semi 'group hudle' Cherry was having to make decisions - where everyone was going and if we had any tactics. Though the girl was a natural-born leader of people, she wasn't when it came to sports. She simply asked people where they wanted to be, everyone told her - no one wanted to pitch. "We need someone! C'mon! Ugh...what about you...Rosie?" My own name made me jump. I was pretty sure this was the longest someone had remembered my name for - besides my family. I nodded slowly - I could pitch, I was good at it but I didn't want to say anything. Attention was not what I wanted.

    I stepped up. The ball was warm in my hand, I gulped loudly. This was the first time anything I did mattered in PE. The first person up to bat watched the ball as if I wasn't there - everyone did. It wasn't that there was anything particuarly interesting about what I held in my hand - it was the holder that was utterly overlookable.

    I made my movements discreet - anything more then I would upset the balance put on me. My arm wound back quickly and my wrist flicked out. Sooner than the batter blinked the ball was safe in the glove behind her. I smiled cautiously as the ball was passed back to me. "Strike one!". I did the same with the next ball - it was the same reaction, "Strike two!". Repeting my movement the ball soared into the glove behind, "Strike three! Batter out".

    My team high-fived and whooped behind me like it was their great achievement. No one congratulated me, I don't know what I would have done if they did...

    The rest of the game passed like this. I got the whole team out. One person hit a ball, but it was a straight shot that I caught before anyone moved. Out team won easily - the batters on our team didn't have to have much skill. A clear victory left my team cheering and laughing openly at the others, Cherry at the helm, steering us away - laughing off any comments flicked at her. Once her gaze landed on me - or I thought it did. At the time I thought it must have been someone ehind me who she smiled slightly and winked at so I didn't smile back. I kept my gaze down and changed in the corner with no one to bother me.