The Nerdy Girl (White Oak Creek High Book 1)

  The Nerdy Girl

  Have you ever been called a name by the kids at school?

  Die nerdy girl was painted on my locker room at my old school in bright red lipstick.

  The whole sticks and stones thing were lies. Words can hurt you and they do.

  My twin brother, Tyson is the golden boy with the rocket arm. He will go places they say with an arm like that. My parents feel that way. His adoring fans. His friends. He’s popular while I am not.

  Until we go to our new school where I meet Cal, tight end for the same team that my brother is now quarterback.

  Cal is the boy every girl dreams of dating.

  Why me?

  Why did he choose me?

  He says I’m sweet.

  He loves my beautiful, blue eyes.

  He likes that I’m different.

  All those things will lead up to me being bullied at my new school because being different isn’t likable by the popular group.

  Being different will almost cost me my life.

  What will save me though is Cal’s love. In the end, the days of hearing his voice will bring me back to those I love.

  The Nerdy Girl

  By

  Lee Wardlow

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used factiously. Any resemblance to actual events, or persons living, or dead is coincidental. The suggestion or actual use of a business or place is used only to further the author’s story not to promote them.

  This book cannot be copied, shared or distributed on any website or in any other way to anyone or anything without proper compensation to the author or express written consent by the author. It is illegal to pirate books.

  Don’t be a pirate.

  Copyright © 2019 by Lee Wardlow. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, redistribute, or transmit in any form, paperback or digital or any other feasible means possible.

  Dedication

  To everyone who has ever been bullied.

  It’s a tough road to go being a kid. I remember those horrible names. Feeling left out, broken and hurt. I just wanted to be like my older sister the cheerleader who by the way is nothing like the cheerleaders in this book.

  Why can’t everyone just be kind to each other? Teach our children to be kind as well? It’s not so hard really.

  Chapter 1

  The new kid in school, that’s me. I hated my dad for taking the job that put me here. I hated my twin brother Ty for not wanting to walk in with me on the first day because Ty was too cool for me.

  We weren’t like other twins. We weren’t close anymore. Ty became popular in seventh and eighth grade when his athleticism which Dad says came from him took him to State.

  He played first base in baseball. He was the quarterback of the team in football. Here we are sophomore year, turning sixteen soon. Ty’s going to be even more popular; the pretty, boy in the new school. I watched the girls’ heads turning as he passed by them while my brother was oblivious.

  Dad had dropped us at the corner by the sidewalk, late for work. Ty climbed out and rushed ahead. The rubber soles of his white sneakers crashing against the concrete as he made his escape from me, his sister. The shy twin. Not outgoing at all. The introverted, nerdy girl with square glasses afraid to smile.

  His blonde hair was perfect in every way. He was tall and beginning to build muscles from working out with our father who pushed and pushed Ty to be something that I thought Dad always wanted to be. Ty was almost as tall as Dad at six feet even. I was five feet ten. We were not small.

  Our mother was tall too. I was lanky where Ty had begun to fill out. While I was done growing, my twin was not. I wrapped my hoodie around me and peeked over my shoulder at Dad’s retreating car wishing and wanting to be anywhere but here.

  I let the tip of my ponytail slide between my fingers and cascade down the front of me wanting to hide my face behind it. Where Ty was blonde and looked like Mom, I was dark haired and looked like Dad. Our eyes were the only similar feature, icy blue. We were fraternal twins as different as different could be.

  My brother disappeared inside, and I followed the path that he had taken. I pushed my glasses up my nose and pretended that the other students weren’t looking at me with as much curiosity as they had Tyson, as I made my way to the front door.

  I slipped inside and saw the office to the right. I also saw the back of my brother Tyson Andrew Gardener the second. He wasn’t a junior. Dad wouldn’t have a junior but that is exactly what he was. Dad’s clone if not in looks then in personality, while I was the misfit of the Gardener family.

  I wasn’t sure where I belonged in my clan. Mom was tall like me and willowy but where I saw myself as plain my mom was beautiful. She was athletic like Ty and Dad. She played tennis several times a week to keep her figure and she made several trips to the salon for one of her many treatments. Facials. Mani, pedis. Hair coloring to keep her blond perfect not a gray in sight for Kat Gardener.

  Dad was All-American in football in high school, but he wasn’t good enough to make the college teams. In Ty, he saw potential. He saw height, and a rocket for an arm that would get Tyson on a college team where Dad wasn’t just quite good enough.

  Ty was a solid B student. I was a straight A student with a four-point grade point average. I wanted to take college courses starting my junior year. Mom said, “That’s great honey.” Then she turned to Ty to listen to his latest accomplishment on the field of sports.

  Was I neglected? Hardly. I had everything money could buy. Was I ignored? Sometimes. My brother was the golden child while I was the bookworm. Not so much appreciated in the Gardener fam. Glory came with blood and guts on the athletic field. I had no athleticism. Not a drop. Ty got it all.

  Tyson was checking in, so I waited. Better to not piss him off by standing so close that people might think we were related. I waited in the hall until he was finished.

  Then he turned and our eyes met for the briefest of seconds. Ty skirted around me without acknowledging me when he exited the office. I could say that it didn’t bother me, but I would be lying. It hurt when other kids bullied me for being a nerd. It crushed me when Ty pretended that I didn’t exist.

  I went into the office and gave the lady behind the desk my name. “Abigail Gardener.”

  She looked over her glasses at me then she looked at the door that Ty had just vacated.

  “We’re twins,” I explained.

  “You look nothing alike,” she declared.

  “Fraternal,” I said as if that explained it all. It explained nothing. We had shared a womb for nine months. Ty and I were close until seventh grade. He was my big brother if only by thirty-seven minutes. Then nothing. Our relationship ceased to exist, and I still didn’t understand why.

  Two years later, here we are in Podunk town Ohio where I know no one. I missed my old friends. My grandparents. We left everyone behind. Tyson will be fine. He makes friends wherever he goes but me? I’m worried about me. What will happen to me?

  Chapter 2

  Mrs. Collier, the secretary in the office had given me a schedule and a map to follow. First period was English. I had only one class with Ty. Last period gym class. Now, of all the classes to put me with my athletic twin brother, gym class was not the one where I wanted to be with my athletic twin. The gods were playing a joke on me.

  I sat in the middle of the room in English. Not the front, not the back but the middle. Kids looked at me and I smiled and lowered my eyes. I can’t say that the smile was returned. I was a freak, an oddity in the school. Not really but I felt like one.

&nb
sp; A big kid, taller than my brother slid into the seat beside me and leaned over. “Hey gorgeous, what’s your name?”

  I blinked a few times and looked around. He couldn’t be talking to me.

  “I’m talking to you, beautiful. Behind those glasses are some amazing eyes,” he whispered.

  “I’m Abby,” I said keeping my voice low.

  He smiled and kept staring at me. I was sure this was a prank. “You’re new. No duh, you’re new. I’m Cal,” he said, extending his hand to me. I stared at his long fingers that were beautiful, tanned and strong. I took his hand and shook it.

  “Nice to meet you.” Mom had taught us manners if nothing else.

  “I think I’m going to like English this year. I bet you’re smart.” He was eyeing me up and down. “Want to tutor me?” Cal asked.

  School had just started. How did he know he needed a tutor already? I didn’t get to ask that question because the teacher called order in the classroom and Cal had to face front and stop talking to me.

  I was going to like this English class. Miss Hillard was young and interesting. She was starting the quarter with creative writing. We each had a writing journal that she passed out walking up and down the aisles between desks as she handed each of us a book.

  We could also put impromptu poems in them. Some writing assignments were inspired and some we were given free reign to write whatever came to mind. I liked being creative, so this was going to be a fun class for me.

  Miss Hillard stopped in front of the class. “First assignment for your writing journal. Write an essay about yourself. Complete honesty about who you think you are and what you want to be. Only you will read them.” She slipped onto the edge of the desk. “Some assignments I’ll ask you to read aloud, but some will always remain private. Get started.”

  I chewed on my pencil. I was fifteen years old. What the hell did I know about myself?

  I’m Abby Gardener.

  Tyson’s sister.

  Tyson and Kat Gardener’s daughter.

  I started with the easy stuff. I realized that I always started with Tyson. I would always be his sister first before anything even if he chose to ignore me.

  I moved here to White Oak Creek, Ohio this summer. Today is my first day of school in this new town. I was scared walking in here this morning. I wanted to walk in with Tyson, but I knew he wouldn’t like it, so I stayed behind him.

  I miss my brother, not physically because I see him every day but mentally. We used to talk every night after showers. We would snuggle in one of our beds and talk when we were younger. What had happened to us during school? What was going on in our lives. Ty was my best friend. Now, I don’t exist in Ty’s world. I want to exist again. I miss my brother.

  So, who am I?

  I’m creative and a nerd. I love to write and read. I write stories in my own private journal at home. I also write stories on a teen fantasy website called TheDystopian.com. No one, but my Grandma knows about those stories.

  My grandma gave me my love of books as a small child when she used to read to me. Last year, she lost Grandpa. Mom wanted her to come with us to White Oak Creek, but she refused. Her life was in our old town, Hillsdale where her friends were. She told Mom she would miss us, but she promised to visit us in White Oak Creek. It was an airplane ticket for her, but she didn’t care if she got to see us several times a year.

  I am a disappointment to my parents. My brother is the one that makes them proud. No matter how many A’s I get it doesn’t get their attention because I can’t hit a tennis ball. I can’t throw a baseball. I can’t throw or catch a football. I’m not their athletic child. That’s Tyson.

  I accept what I am to my family because I know that someday I will be more than they think I am. I want to go to college and take journalism courses. I want to write as my career. I’m not sure where that will take me yet, but I know I want to be someone not hiding behind my glasses afraid of the world.

  Someday, I want to find my voice.

  The bell rang ending first period. I closed my journals and put it inside my backpack on the floor and grabbed it up slinging it to my shoulders. Then I got up and headed down the aisle.

  “What’s your next class?” Cal asked leaning over my shoulder so he could whisper in my ear. His breath was warm, and his voice was deep. I almost shivered in response.

  I glanced up and behind me. “History,” I replied. My own voice trembled. He unnerved me. He was taller than me by at least four inches. Unusual for boys my age.

  “What’d you know, that is where I’m heading too. I’ll walk you there.”

  Chapter 3

  The last class of the day was gym class. The last thing I ever wanted was to have gym class with my brother, the star athlete.

  First thing we did was run laps. I hated running laps. I pulled my long hair up into a high ponytail, so it wasn’t laying on my neck. Then I ran. After the third lap around the gymnasium I had a stitch in my side.

  Sweat poured down my cheeks and dripped onto my shirt. Tyson passed by me. He didn’t appear to be sweating at all, that shithead. He was used to running because of football and baseball but he could at least sweat.

  Then he appeared beside me, slowing his gate. Cal smiled. “Not a runner,” he suggested.

  “What was your first clue,” I huffed.

  He chuckled. “You can do this,” he encouraged me.

  I rolled my eyes at Cal. He didn’t know me very well.

  “You have the most amazing blue eyes. They are so pale in color.”

  “Thanks.” I replied while struggling to breath. We had at least five more laps to go. I wasn’t sure I was going to make it. That stitch in my side was getting worse.

  “We could walk a lap or two,” Cal suggested.

  “Nope,” I declared. If Tyson was running every lap, then so was I.

  “Okay, I’ll just run with you.”

  I glanced at him. “Why?”

  “Because you’re cute. I like you.” He smiled revealing dimples that I hadn’t noticed before.

  “Why?”

  Cal frowned at me. “Why what?”

  I sighed. Really, I just needed to breathe, and the sigh was my way of catching my breath. “You must be one of the athletes.” He wasn’t breathing hard at all. Running came naturally to him.

  “I play football,” he agreed.

  “So does my brother,” I informed him. “Athletes don’t mix with my kind.”

  Cal appeared offended. “Now that is just hurtful,” he said.

  I rolled my eyes at him again.

  “I’m an equal opportunity kind of guy. Besides, I told you, I like your eyes.”

  I focused on running, making the last four laps. Not the ache in my side that was a burning fire now. The pain in my legs or my ankles that were feeling like they wouldn’t make it another lap around the gym.

  Then it happened. My clumsy nature took over as it always did. I stepped on the edge of my shoelace. I felt it trip me and could do nothing to stop the forward motion of my body. With a hard thud, a humph and a groan from me I sprawled across the gym floor.

  “Are you all right?” Cal asked, concern lacing his tone.

  I wanted to cry but that would make my humiliation worse. One ankle was hurting worse than the other one because I twisted it when I stepped on the shoelace.

  My chin was throbbing painfully and would most likely be bruised from where I hit the gym floor. Several people were congregating around me. I recognized one pair of shoes that ran by me and kept running.

  “Break it up. Break it up. Get back to your laps,” our gym teacher, Mr. Hill snapped. Other kids who were waiting for me to acknowledge that I was okay moved on. “No show here.”

  I turned over and sat up. Cal turned my head towards him careful not to touch my chin. “You busted that chin good,” he said. Then I saw the blood when it dripped on my shirt.

  Wonderful.

  “You’re bleeding,” Mr. Hill said.

  Our gym
teacher was observant if nothing else.

  “Anything else hurt?”

  “My ankle,” I replied. “I twisted it when I stepped on my shoelace.”

  Tyson passed again. Not stopping to see if his sister was okay and I wanted to throw something at his head. Maybe it would knock some sense into him.

  “Can you stand?” Mr. Hill asked.

  “I’ll help you,” Cal offered.

  His hand touched me intimately. By intimately I mean no boy’s hand had ever been around my waist lifting me from the ground. I tried putting weight on the twisted ankle while blood continued to drip on my shirt. I took a step and the ankle buckled.

  “Nope, not happening,” Cal replied. He lifted me in his arms. One arm around my back and one beneath my legs. Our teacher raised an eyebrow at him.

  “Take her to the nurse. She’ll call the parents. She might need stitches,” Mr. Hill informed Cal looking at my chin. It was like I didn’t exist.

  We met Tyson on his last lap. One would think my own brother would stop running when confronted at seeing his sister covered in blood. I was a mess by then. He ran past me and Cal. A girl stopped and opened the heavy, metal gym door so Cal could carry me through it.

  “Isn’t Tyson Gardener your brother?” Cal asked. He wasn’t even winded carrying me. I wasn’t a light little thing either. I was lanky but not small.

  “He is my twin brother,” I replied.

  He clucked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “I have five sisters and one brother. I have to admit that those sisters are a pain in my ass, but I wouldn’t just keep running if one of them was hurt.”

  I laid my head on Cal’s shoulder. I didn’t think that he minded even though I was now bleeding on him too. What could I say to that?

  **

  Dad was the one who picked me up at school. Mom couldn’t be reached. He wasn’t happy that he had to leave work but since I was bleeding all over the place and had at least a sprained ankle it couldn’t be helped.

  He kept looking at me sideways and shaking his head. The nurse had given me something to hold against my chin. A cloth covered bag of ice that was now red with my blood.