Deconstructing the Nerd Ch. 01

At about 7:30, she grabbed the books and binders she needed and walked across the hall. Cassie's door was half-open. From what she saw, the suite looked exactly like hers in size and layout, but there was definitely a different vibe. Reema normally kept her room quiet; Cassie, as Reema noted every time she walked by, had some music going - loud indistinguishable hip hop, to be exact.

She considered whether to knock, or walk in, or just call inside. She tapped the door and meekly said, "Hey, Cassie? It's Reema..."

Moments later, she saw the socialite walk toward to invite her in. She changed her clothes. She was now in her familiar tiny denim shorts and a tight white tee that rounded over her modest chest. Her hair swung back into a ponytail. Her makeup still remained, though. It was a more casual look, but Reema knew enough that casual for Cassie was probably dressy for herself. Reema was still in her baggy grey sweatshirt from earlier the day. Why would she need to change?

"Hey, didn't expect you so early," Cassie smiled, leading her classmate into her abode. "I warn you now that I haven't really tidied the place."

"Oh, that's alright," Reema assured her. For a moment, it flashed in her head that perhaps she wasn't as high maintenance as she expected her to be.

Entering Cassie's room, Reema figured out more about this girl. She first noted the music blaring from Cassie's computer. She didn't recognize it, but it sounded good. Perhaps too loud though. Reema would never be able to work with that going in her ear.

Her bedroom smelled really nice actually. Her own didn't have this much character yet. It was scattered with clothes, but in no means a mark of a slob. If anything, it was of a shop-a-holic. All name brands, bold colours, and fancy styles...Reema did not understand how anyone could make shopping a recreational and chronic thing. A look on the dresser produced various makeup items and nail polish bottles.

"Let me just turn this down," Cassie said, pressing and holding a button on her laptop. "You like Macklemore?"

Now with the ability to hear and talk to each other comfortably, Reema frankly responded, "I...haven't really heard him, actually. I kind of like more poppy stuff."

"Can I get you something to drink? Beer or something?"

"Actually, I don't drink," Reema declared.

"At all?"

Reema thought it was odd and a bit unprofessional that Cassie was offering alcohol when they had some serious work to do, but she said nothing. "Do you have water?"

"Coming up," Cassie obliged, offering her an Aquafina from the mini-fridge beside her desk. Reema set up her things and then Cassie positioned herself beside her, setting her own tall glass down on the desk. "OK, like, how should we do this?"

She couldn't tell for sure, but there was a good chance it wasn't just Coke. She took the lead, informing Cassie of her initial thoughts of how to approach it. Going over the assignment sheet, she grabbed a highlighter and singled out the important bits they needed to address. Cassie's phone blew up with alerts that broke her concentration. She was a popular woman, Reema supposed. After the third time, Cassie picked it up and turned off the sound. "Sorry, people wanting stuff," she said.

"That's OK," Reema replied.

Reema was so focused on the page and making an outline that she couldn't see Cassie studying her instead of the assignment. She couldn't take her eyes off those fat lips as she spoke. They were big, dry, and lacked any colour. There was also a tiny mole above the right corner of her mouth. Her cheeks were just blah...no colour, no definition.

"...What do you think about that, Cassie?" Reema asked, looking up and over to her.

Cassie shook herself from her half-attentive state and smiled, "Yeah, that sounds really great. I think a critical analysis would be great, too. Professors are going to want that now in university."

"Hmm, yeah, that's a good idea," Reema seemed to agree, getting to work. She then opened up her laptop and started formulating thoughts into sentences and arguments. Again, she didn't see Cassie watching her as she worked. She wasn't eyeing the new words on the screen as much Reema's fingers and her unstyled nails hitting the keyboard.

Drinking from her glass, Cassie then asked her, "So, where'd you go to highschool?"

"Applegrove Secondary. It's just outside the city."

"Oh cool, I went to Pine Crescent High School. It was in a tiny town. You seem on your game about school stuff, though. You must've loved it there, huh?"

"Yeah, it was a really great school," Reema said with genuine belief. "I kind of miss it already. My friends, the teachers, the classes..." Cassie somewhat expected Reema to stop there, but she sort of went on and on about not the social side of highschool, but the academic stuff! She mentioned a boyfriend and some friends, but she really focused on her classes and her extra-curricular science and technology clubs. How could someone be into school that much?

"Yeah, I miss my friends too. They used to call me the 'Blomshell'. Imagine that, eh?" That got Reema laughing too. Genuinely curious about this relationship she was in, she asked Reema, "Where's your boyfriend go?"

There was some pride in her voice as she told her, "Miguel? Western."

"Western, eh? Cool! I hear that's a really good party school," Cassie playfully winked. Reema tensed up at hearing that. She was about to mention that Miguel wasn't really into that stuff when Cassie touched her arm. "I'm kidding! Gosh, Reema! Seriously though...it's a really good school. How long have you been together? What's he study? I'm sorry...I'm annoying with the questions, aren't I?"

"No, no, it's fine," Reema assured her. She was a bit overwhelmed by the questions, but she liked that someone was taking interested in her. "6 years...He's in engineering. I'm actually going to visit him this weekend."

"Engineering, eh? Wow, I guess that's kind of cool. Totally smart people stuff," Cassie joked. Then she pointed at a half-finished sentence on the screen. "So, what were you going for here?"

As Reema explained her thought process and completed the idea, Cassie wondered about this girl. Sheltered upbringing, shy, bookish, hopeless social life, nerd boyfriend, vanilla all around, not so gifted in the facial features, the same old baggy and uninspired 'outfits' each week. She certainly didn't drink. What did she do for fun - Lord of the Rings marathons? There wasn't all that much going for this girl. She was at one end of the spectrum - the bad one.

"Hey, can you look at this passage and tell me if it makes sense?" Reema announced sitting back to offer Cassie a look at a muddled paragraph she had written.

Cassie scanned the screen alongside with her. While Reema focused on specific sentences on the screen while rationalizing her thoughts to Cassie, the blonde's eyes trailed down to her classmate's body. That sweatshirt really was bad, but it was concealing too. It made her wonder. She looked down at her hips and saw that through the fabric they, while not without some flab, had some shape to them.

"I feel like it's missing something..." Reema added.

"Hmm, yeah..." Cassie pondered aloud too. She turned around to look at the clock on her dresser - but not before briefly gauging the clothing on her bed. "8:50. Just leave it for now and let's take a ten minute breather. It'll come to us."

Reema concurred.

Cassie enthusiastically pointed her thumb back toward her bed. "Hey, I just bought a top on sale that I realized isn't quite right for me. I think with your skin and body it would look great."

It was a first for Reema - another woman offering her clothes and complimenting her body. She didn't have too many girl friends, let alone any girly ones. She didn't have sisters, and her mom certainly wasn't that person for her either. She certainly never had anything - good or bad - said about her skin tone. "I don't know, it's yours...you should return it."

Cassie looked at her sweetly. "I will. I just want to exhaust all my options before I make another trip to the mall."

Reema looked divided. "No, I can't. I don't think it will fit, anyways..."

"Just try it and see." When Reema didn't bite, she seemingly resigned. "Well, OK then, I guess I can't force you. Friends try each other's clothes, though. Excuse me, just gotta check something." She pulled out her phone and began to scroll through her missed messages and calls from the past hour.

Reema sat weighing her options. Something told her she offended Cassie, who was adamant they were friends. She did like Cassie, too. She looked back at the bed. The top was nice. It was a purple-ish spaghetti strapped, sleeveless top. It was nothing she had worn before, but when she thought about it, she wasn't totally against wearing it either. "Ok, I'll try it on."

"Awesomeness!" Cassie exclaimed, resisting a sly smile. She rolled back in her chair and swiped the clothing off her bed and put it in Reema's hands. "You know where the bathroom is, right? Same layout as your place."

Reema nodded as she stood. "Yeah. I'll be back," she announced, clutching the foreign top like it were infectious.

As Reema walked away, Cassie's intrigue about her grew. Her hips were wide, like she already noticed, and her thighs and ass cheeks were thick. There was genuine promise there.

In her bathroom, still armed with mixed thoughts about it all, Reema switched her sweater for Cassie's top. She didn't expect the neckline to go as far down as it did, but a part of her liked how the thin fabric itself felt.

She came back to Cassie's room with her arms at her side and her palms out, looking down at herself. "I don't think it's for me..."

Now on the bed, Cassie looked her up and down. A nerdy girl with a set of tits...who would have expected it? Cassie was struck by their size and shape...C cups easily, possibly Ds. Reema generally had a curvy and voluptuous form, including her legs and butt. While she didn't want to get too ahead of herself because Reema likely had never been by a gym in her life, she was officially titillated.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I'll take it back on the weekend."

Reema went back into the washroom and changed out of the sexy top into her casual and familiar sweater. When she came back into the room, she dropped it on the bed. "Sorry it didn't work out. I guess clothes don't like me."

Cassie laughed. "Don't sweat it. We all have our interests." She tapped the bed and got Reema to sit down beside her. "What are yours, anyways? Do you have like a secret car hobby or something?"

"Um, no?" she confusedly laughed. "I don't know, I like to hang out, movies, read...you know, normal stuff."

Cassie nodded along, but deep inside, she was licking her lips. Her project for the year "I figured out that part you were struggling with, by the way..." Cassie said, rushing back to the computer.

Reema came in beside and examined the screen from a slightly hunched over position. Once again Cassie got a look at her breasts - or, at least, the faint outlines of what she now knew for sure were Ds. She couldn't help but think about the plans she'd have for them.

"I think that looks great, Cassie," Reema commented.

Cassie smiled. "No probs, Reema. Want to work at this for a little while longer and then pick it up next time we both have time? We do have a few weeks."

Reema looked at the time, and agreed it was good stopping point. "Sure. We gotta a lot done."

"A bunch," Cassie repeated. "We definitely make a great team! An 'A' for sure!"

Reema laughed at her enthusiasm. "I hope so!" She went over what they needed to do the next time they got together.

While Reema got ready to leave, Cassie let her know they needed to connect. "Oh! I'm going to add you to Facebook, K?"

"Sure. I will accept when I get back," Reema smiled.

"Awesomeness!" She looked at the clock in the corner of the screen. "Ooo, 9:45. You're going to like probably go to sleep or something now, right?"

"Yeah, early morning tomorrow," Reema confirmed as they began to walk out of the room and the dorm.

Lingering in the hall, Cassie sang, "Byeeeee..." and then watched as Reema went back to her place. She waved to Cassie a final time and then went inside.

She sat down at her computer again and looked over their work. It was a good night's work! As unlikely as they were, she and Cassie seemed to make a good team together. She made a few changes, editing grammar, and adding sentences here and there, but soon that turned into doing more of the assignment itself. She hoped Cassie didn't mind. She was just so eager with these kinds of things. Once she got going, she couldn't stop. She was always fine tuning - changing a word to avoid redundancy, expanding thoughts. It was the curious perfectionist in her.

After a while, she gave it a rest. Logging onto Facebook, she saw Cassie's friend request. Even though it had not been too long ago, she almost forgot about it. She accepted it and then viewed a few of the pretty girl's photos. There was a recently published image set of her having fun on a beach with a bunch of friends, wearing a bold white bikini that showed off her great abs and long legs. They all had their tall cans of beer and were quite open and rowdy with their consumption. Her friends were exactly the crowd Reema expected out of Cassie - the girls were obviously pretty like her, the guys were obviously cute. They were the mostly white clique-y crowd that very well could have been at her highschool.

Reema shook her head. She didn't get the kind of wild, drunk fun that was happening in the pictures. It reminded her of a time she and her own friends went to a beach one evening, though. No one was in their swim gear. There wasn't a drop of alcohol around either. They had a bonfire! They brought over a bunch of wood and tried making the biggest fire they could. A few of her friends in their diverse group kind of got carried away. Reema laughed to herself as she remembered thinking they were going to set the whole beach on fire!

And then her mind wandered to Miguel himself and what he was doing right at that moment. He was probably hovered over his desk and hard at work like she was. That's what made them so compatible. They were both so studious. They laughed about it too - how they were big nerds. It was still going to get some getting used to not seeing him every day, but it would be fine in the end. They were both realizing their dreams. That's what mattered.

Yawning, she went back to the assignment. She touched it up even more before her yawns got the best of her. Taking their cue, she decided to pack it in. She changed into her cotton flannel pyjamas, set her glasses onto the night stand beside her bed, and then climbed in herself. As her clock barely flashed 11:00, she drifted off.

Cassie returned to her bedroom. Turning up the music again, she browsed the internet for a little bit before a little red notification icon lit up on her Facebook page.

Reema Ahmed has accepted your friendship

She got right to work at stalking her photos. She saved a few and made mental notes about what she could do with the chubby nerd. It was like having a doll to play with. Or better yet, she was playing god - moulding her in her own image. Reema had many things going for her: despite her nerdy persona, Cassie knew she was also ambitious and set in her life. She was also naïve and inexperienced. And that would be enough to take advantage of the situation. When she was done, Reema would think differently, dress differently, walk differently, act differently...

Finally, Cassie stumbled on a few more pics of huge intrigue. It was of a scrawny looking Hispanic teen with bushy eyebrows and giant nostrils. This had to be Miguel. In one photo he wore the stupidest smile He held a big remote control to a robot he designed, which was posed in front of him. Cassie smirked. Reema genuinely loved him.