Hating Miss Popular by Kenzhie A. (free ebooks romance novels .TXT) 📕

"It's OK, sweetie." Cole smiled at her. I don't know why I feel annoyed at Carol all of a sudden. "Well, guess I have to wash up and change." He said and left.

"Plan number one, Success!" Carol clapped and ran away excitedly before I can even stop her. I kinda changed my mind, but I don't know how to tell them. I will look weak to them if I say that I suddenly feel guilty. I didn't have enough time to debate between my conscience and my pride when a sudden commotion erupted from the girl's rest room. Patty looked pale as Cole trapped her on the wall and giving her a dangerous look while she's holding his shirt on her hand.

"What's going on here?!" Principal Johnson roared as he cut through the crowd of onlookers. I saw Patty dropped Cole's shirt and cried.

"Mr. Johnson, please get him off me. This guy is harassing me..." Patty sniffed.

"What?! You lying bit---"

"Mr. Harrison, please let go of Ms. Adams." Principal Johnson commanded grimly. Cole let her go, but still stares at her gravely. Patty squirmed and looked at me for help, but at the moment I was too shocked to react. Shit! This is a real mess... "You two follow me in my office." I saw Becky staring at me, but when I caught her staring, she instantly lowered her head. I didn't bother about her since I have a bigger problem at the moment.

====####====

"This was not in our plan!" I yelled at Patty. She's crying like a baby in front of me. Cole got suspended for a week because of what she said. Our plan was just to make a silly prank by stealing his clothes and make him go out of the shower room without clothes to embarrass him. That's all, but Patty failed and was caught by Cole and the stupid girl made a commotion that led to his suspension.

"Hey Syd, give Patty a rest. She just got scared and isn't it good that he got suspended? Isn't that what you wanted since he bothers you a lot?" Lucy said calmly and it struck me. She's right. Why am I so bothered? I hate him, don't I? I sighed indignantly.

"Fine. I'm sorry. Let's not talk about it anymore."

We went to our respective classes forgetting about the incident or the right phrase is trying to forget but I couldn't. I felt guilty for the first time. I saw Cole and I was about to talk to him when Harry wrapped his arm around my shoulders.

"My Queen! You really are a mean minx, but I loved what you did to that cocky bastard. Got what he deserved. If you'd told me, I could have helped you, but guess you can handle it on your own." Harry ranted, but I was looking at Cole who's staring at me blankly. Is he mad at me now? What kind of dumbass question was that? Of course he is after hearing what this big-mouthed Harry has said! He just walked passed us and didn't look at me again. I removed Harry's arm too harshly and walked off.

"Hey!" I heard Harry called, but I ignored him.

=====####======

I'm at Samantha's party right now but I couldn't seem to enjoy. I heard a buzz from my iPad so I took it out and was appalled as I received another email.

From: Someone hating Miss Popular

Subject: I know what you did bitch!

T0: Sydney Wood

I WANT YOU TO DIE SYDNEY WOOD!!!

I looked around immediately, but everyone seem busy drinking, dancing, and enjoying themselves.

Who the hell is sending me these frigging annoying emails?!

=====####====

###############################

Do you like this chapter? Please comment. That would mean a lot. Thanks!  :)

I woke up a bit early today, or rather, I didn't sleep at all. Jacque will be hysterical if she sees my dark circles and gigantic eye bags right when I'm about to have a photo shoot. Well, nothing can beat a professional eye concealer from a trusted brand, I hope so. The reason for this dreadful, sleepless night is that my frigging conscience is bugging me for getting Cole suspended and I am more bothered by the thought that I am bothered by it. I'm not supposed to feel any remorse about such petty things. I did a lot of awful stuffs to other students before too, which led them to drop out of school. So why am I having this kind of turmoil? The worst part is, the fact that I'm feeling this strange emotion toward a guy and a cocky guy at that. I shook my head excessively, thinking that all the crazy thoughts will disappear but to no avail. I decided to get up and do some cardio workout. I usually jog around this time, so I might just do the usual routine. I washed my face, then changed my silk sleepwear into black sweat pants and blue hoodie over my white sleeveless fitted blouse. I grabbed my running shoes and went out to jog. It's still a little dark since it's just a quarter to five in the morning. I headed Northwest on East 64th Street to Madison Avenue, then after some time, I turned right onto 5th Avenue. I made another turn to the left onto 65th Street. I felt exhilarated for running about 7 minutes or so. Then I felt something seems strange, like someone's following me. I stopped and looked around, but there's no one around. I stared at the dark alleys, but I can't see anything. It's eerily quiet. I shivered at the thought that maybe there's some psychopath lurking in those scary dark alleys, just waiting to pounce on me. I ran again, this time more faster toward Central park. My heart is beating fast and I'm almost out of breath. I felt relieved when I saw there are some few people around doing their early exercise. I slowly stopped and squeaked when someone grabbed my shoulder.

“Hey! It's me, Syd. Chill.” I heard Harry's voice. I stopped struggling from his grasped and calmed myself. I glanced at him, feeling a bit embarrassed by my strange behavior. There are a few people staring at us, looking curious and some are a bit concerned about me. But they continued on their exercise again when Harry gestured that we're good and I nodded.

“Harry.” I breathed. “I'm sorry about that. I'm a bit edgy today. Didn't sleep well.” I said, smiling to hide my nervousness from earlier. Maybe I'm just imagining things because of lack of sleep and probably because of those emails I've received lately.

“Something bothering you?” He asked with a curious look in his face.

“No. Just lack of sleep, I guess. I'm thinking of some crazy things.” I lied half of it. It's true that I lacked of sleep that's why I'm on edge, but I didn't say the reason why I'm sleepless. Anyway, it's kinda complicated with some crazy stuffs about my weird feelings toward Cole and the threats that I've received lately, all mixed together is driving me nuts.

“I see. Well, crazy stuffs happen all the time.” He said with a shrugged. Then I realized, what's he doing here?

“What are you doing here, anyway?” I voiced out my thoughts and eyed him surreptitiously.

“I'm taking my morning run, same as you. Obviously.” I rolled my eyes at hearing him speak with his usual arrogance. Rich kids are born to be arrogant, I believe. If not all, I dare say, almost.

“Isn't your place kinda far from here?” Harry lives on Grosvenor street, Douglaston in Queens and it takes about 30 minutes or so by car to here. I wonder why he has to go here just to jog.

“Nope. I moved around here just yesterday, a few blocks from your place, I guess.” He gave me a smug smile.

“Are you following me?” I asked suspiciously, making him chuckle.

“As much as I love being near you, My Queen, I'm not that desperate.” He said cockily.

“Then, what a coincidence. Welcome to the neighborhood.” I jested sardonically and started running again. He joined me while laughing. Clearly, I'm out of my mind. I even suspected Harry as the one following me like a stalker a while ago. Harry was right. He's not that desperate to go to that extent of following me. Upper East side of Manhattan is a good place for rich people like us and near our school. What could possibly be the reason aside from that? Though I'm still a bit suspicious about him.

“Actually, my dad lives around this area. I'll be staying at his place for awhile. Got into a fight with my mom.” He confided coolly.

“Oh.” That made me erased his name on my stalker slash psycho list. I knew about his parents, same as mine, had divorced, but as for him, just last year. So, I kinda sympathized with him. “Let's run to that and blow off some steam.” He laughed in response and outran me. I just smiled. Maybe Harry is not that bad. Well, as a friend. Only as a friend. I hope he'll not press on. After half an hour of running around Central Park, we decided to go back. I'm glad Harry was with me. The strange feeling of someone following me, disappeared as well. Maybe, whoever was following me got scared when that person saw Harry. He's a big and muscular guy after all. That is, if I was really being followed.

“See you later.” He said and ran towards the Northwest on East 80th street. I scanned the area just around my place to make sure no one is following me before I went in. I checked my sports watch. It's just six. Jacque must still be asleep. She usually wakes up at six-thirty. I climbed the stairs to my room on the third floor and had a quick shower. My first class starts at seven-thirty. It's still early. I still have plenty of time to prepare and Manhattan High is just a 9-10 minutes drive by car, depending on the traffic, of course. I got out of the shower after twenty minutes and went to look for something to wear in my dressing room. My mom sent some new clothes from High Society for me to use and endorse. As one of their models, my mom obliges me to wear HS collection. Well, I'm not opposed to it as the clothes my mom and her junior designers make are pretty good and classy. It's also the reason why my mom chose, Manhattan High. It's a private school, but it doesn't have a school uniform except for PE class, so I can promote HS clothes, which is very effective by the way. A lot of girls in school are using what I'm wearing. Manhattan High caters to rich students even celebrities and that's a good place for business. I decided to wear the white bustier crop top. I placed a sleeveless single breasted denim vest with a turn-down collar over it and a coral skater skirt which the hem didn't touch my knee. Then I went to my shoe cabinet. I picked my recently bought Christian Louboutin flats with Swarovski crystals.