Accidentally on Purpose

Chapter Three

"Really?" Gina chuckled, making a turn to my street. "Why would they high-five you?"

"I think some of them kinda hate Jonah and they were happy that I ruined his shirt. Well I guess it's stupid too, but whatever."

"So basically, the only person who's gonna bully you from now on is, thankfully, only just Jonah."

"Maybe... maybe not." We pulled up in front of my house, so I unbuckled my seatbelt. "There's a chance that he wouldn't even acknowledge what happened anymore. After all, he did get his little revenge on me," I said, pointing at my hair.

She tilted her head. "So, are you gonna give up?"

"Nope," I told her cheekily, opening the door and getting out of the car. "I'll find some other ways to annoy him if what happened today didn't work. See you tomorrow!"

She did her oh-my-god-my-best-friend-is-so-stupid-but-I-guess-I'm-supposed-to-still-love-her-anyway kind of sigh and shook her head before waving and driving off home.

I turned around and walked up to my front porch, unlocking the door and slamming it open. I took a deep breath before exclaiming that I was home, and then immediately locked myself in my room. After throwing my bag onto the ground and changing into my comfy sweatpants and loose t-shirt, I jumped into my chair, twirling myself in front of my study desk.

Okay. It's time to build up Plan B.

[]

I got a lot of stares when I stepped into the school building the next morning.

More specifically, my hair got a lot of stares today.

Maybe it was because my old hair, which was literally the whitest, palest, shade of blonde, had always been my, what do you say it, trademark. I wore my hair like a crown, and never really played around with how it looked until now, which might shock a lot of my classmates.

Talking about shock, my family was in for a shock when they saw my new hair last night.

I had expected my mom to have a mild heart attack once she saw my hair, but she just kind of gaped for five minutes until she shook her head and told me sternly, "Next time you're gonna dye your hair, tell me first so I can prepare myself. Thank god that color looks good on you. I don't know what I'd do if you came home with a corn yellow color hair."

My dad just stared in silence until he finally murmured, "I remember when your mom dyed her hair a similar color... sure it did look good on her too." My mom smacked my dad in the back of his head and blushed, and I had a guess that there was a story behind that that I didn't really wanna hear.

My little brother couldn't care less, but for a moment he kind of didn't recognize me until his mouth formed an "O", and then he went back to happily munching on his spaghetti even though my mom had specifically told him not to start eating until I sat down.

I shrugged at the attention, and I pretended to be subtly playing with my hair before putting it up into a ponytail. I walked to my locker, shook my head so my hair would sway a bit, and got the books I needed before turning around in a swift motion, so my hair would sway again.

I approached Gina, who was at her locker. When she saw me strutting down the hallway as if I was walking on a fashion runway, she laughed. "Look at you, little Miss Redhead."

She glanced down at a pair of heeled boots I wore—I couldn't help it, the rebellious side in me was burning up due to the hair—up to the eyeliner that I wore a little bit bolder today that brought out my big, pale blue-green-gray eyes (sorry, my eyes had the tendency to change their colors whenever they liked). I couldn't help but put my hands on my hips, pretending to pose for her until she cracked up laughing and pushed me lightly.

"So how's it going with Operation Bite the Apple?" she asked slyly, holding two thick textbooks against her chest as we walked along the hallway.

"Operation Bite the Apple?" I said with a chuckle. "That actually sounds clever. I'm just going to see where yesterday has left us, and then decided from there, I guess?"

"Have you got anything planned?" she asked curiously, and I was almost confused as to why she cared about this—she'd been so against my brilliant plan from the start—until I realized that it's just best friend duty to pry all of your secrets. Not that this was a secret to her, but oh well.

"I actually have two plans, in case the former didn't work."

"And what are those plans?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," I told her. "Let's just wait and see."

"Oh, yeah," she said, bobbing her head up and down. "I have a feeling that I'm gonna have something entertaining to watch today."

"I'm gonna be the one who ends up laughing my ass of at your face once he asks me out."

"And I'll be sitting here waiting for my grandbabies to be born because trust me, that's how long it will take."

I gasped, faking an offended expression. "You have so little faith in me."

She shrugged. "Then I guess it's just your chance to prove me wrong." At that, she winked at me before turning left to where her classroom was, leaving me abruptly stopping in the middle of the hallway until somebody bumped into me, making the books I was holding fall to the ground.

"Geez,"  I murmured, instantly bending down to collect my things. The person I bumped into—who was a guy—did the same, and when we were both crouching in front of each other and finally looked up, we both paused. And then he scowled while I blanked out for a nanosecond just to grasp the fact that oh my holy shit I just bumped into Jonah Gibbs again and this was the second time in this week only (we're just gonna ignore the fact that the first encounter was planned out but whatever).

Once he realized who I was (hence the scowl), he abruptly let go of my books he had just collected, making it drop to the floor with a soft thud that jerked me out of my nearly-drooling state.

I scowled back (even though all I wanted to do was squeal at the fact that oh god he had just helped me collect my books that was scattered on the floor!!!), snatching the books he'd just dropped and standing up as he did the same. I eyed the earphones that he'd just pulled out of his ears, the music still blasting out loud, and then remarked, "Okay, now this time it was clearly your fault."

He fixed the strap of his bag on his shoulder, and shifted his weight to one of his legs. His eyes stared down at my five foot six physique, until they finally fixed on my hair. The left side of his mouth turned up just barely, and he said, "I didn't realize that the soda left that much stain on your hair."

My jaw dropped to the ground, because he had just insulted the source of my newfound confidence. To hide the fact that I was offended, I scoffed. "At least it actually looks good on me."

One of his eyebrows lifted as he replied, "Who said red looks good on you?"

And then he proceeded to left me gaping as I stood there in the middle of the hallway.

Oh boy. This guy would surely be the death of me.