Thankfully there were no bullies near the bus stop. The other students treated Jennifer like one them. Which was to just ignore her as she walked to her seat. Jennifer let out a sigh of relief as she realized that the nerdiness was only internal. She had no stereotypical eyeglasses, signs of acne, interest in plushies or other niche subjects. If she grew up like this she was going to be weird adult, yes, but for a seventh grader it felt normal to have nerdy interests. What she was doing now was more quicky than anything. Was it wrong to study and have a good grades? Tough question. Her popularity at school had tanked but did it matter in the end? Was she that interested in cheerleading and being the popular girl?
Jennifer took her first steps into the unknown as she walked in the school halls. Still feeling unsure when the first bully would pop out and give her the beatdown of her life. But there was no one. The hall was full of normal students as they were as busy with their own stuff like she was with hers. She entered the class room. Placed her book of the table and quickly noticed that the first class's subjects were easy. Jennifer could ace every question and she didn't have to ask for help. She didn't want to get spotlight to herself so she gave an answer when she was asked to. Thing were looking promising. A very good start.
After the class Jennifer opened her backpack during the first recess of the day. She saw that she had one those sticker books with her. A nerdy thing to own but not that weird if she was being completely honest. Second oddity was that she had a sketchbook with her. It had cute animals, stick figures in different poses, memes and something in-between which she had all drawn by herself. Jennifer made another sigh of relief. She had nerdy hobbies but they weren't anything extreme like dinosaurs, trains or similar kind obsession towards a single thing. If she had to describe her current situation it was more of a 'nerd plus' or 'nerd light' than a full blown nerdy nerd.
"Thank god, I can still attend school normally." Jennifer sighed thirce in the same day and continued her school day. On the next recess she tested out her drawing skills and drew a cute raccoon on to her sketchbook. It didn't look that good but for a seventh grader it was better than an average student could have drawn which was something.
Jennifer was expecting bullies to gang up on her but instead she felt "normal". She was even admiting to herself that she liked things this way. A change of pace for her shallow lifestyle without any competition with popularity over meaningless things. Like her popularity was in the dead center. Some girls talked with her but weren't interested in her. Which meant that there was no gossip. Same with boys. They were not that interest in her as they went after the more popular girls. Which meant girls wouldn't pick on her as she wasn't hogging anyones crushes. She was short but not that short to be bullied over. During the lunch she was invited to the table with normal people in it. The conversation topics were about recent movies, games, TV-shows and similar type of things. Fashion, boys, make-up or other 'popular girl' topics were out of the window. Jennifer just nodded her head and agreed with the other girls at the table.
What an odd school day.
"Is this how normal people are treated? No conflicts, no meaningless banter over what make-up is the best or no fighting over boys. Everything feels so mundane, safe but at the same time... boring." Jennifer thought to herself as she was inside the bus once more.
Back at the home Jennifer noticed something odd happening with her mom. She looked same as she did yesterday. Then again her mother was in her thirties so it really didn't matter if she was thirty two, thirty three or even thirty four. She didn't care. Age was just a number. Jennifer asked from her mother what were they going to have for dinner and her mother replied by saying that it was lasagna day. Her mother boasted that she had made it all by herself. During the dinner table conversation Jennifer's mom explained in great detail how her mother still missed that lovely man she met on her first day of college. They were both freshmen and then her mother mentioned how she had quit school before her junior year. Thinking how much she wanted to study more and graduate but had to quit because of personal reasons. Jennifer nodded her head and let whole story go from one ear to another. Only concentrating on eating the lasagna from her plate as she had things to do. Jennifer feared that something bad was going to happen the next morning. Was this a prelude to something far more sinister? Only time would tell.
Jennifer excused herself from the table and went to her room. She sat on top of the bean bag chair as she weighted her options. Should she start doing her homework as it seemed to be the right path? Or should she go somewhere else instead? Or look at all the things she had in her room and pick something she was interested in? What was the correct choice?