~INVISIBLE~

BY CREASSYA
 

This is my Hearts Of Gold series. This takes place when the gang is in high school. Chandler and Joey are two of the most popular guys in school, Monica's fat, Rachel's also popular, Ross is his usual self, and Phoebe is a little weird, as always. Throughout this series, I'll take you through their adolescent years, and up into adulthood. I'll also take you through the journey of love between Chandler and Monica, so sit back and enjoy the series:)
 

Monica sat in class daydreaming about nothing in particular, when he walked in. Chandler Bing. Her eyes followed him as he took his seat in the back of the classroom. As soon as he sat down, she turned back around so that he wouldn't notice her staring at him. He was popular, and absolutely gorgeous. She was in class with him for six months, and he didn't notice her. All the girls were after him, and he was dating one of the most popular girls in school. She sat quietly as the room filled with students. A couple of the guys who were on the football team walked to the back of the room where Chandler was sitting, and began having a conversation with him. They often sat in the back of the room and joked around until the teacher entered. When the late bell rang, a substitute came into the room and took his seat at the teacher's desk in front of the room. He explained that their regular teacher would be out for the next three days. He introduced himself to the class and began handing out dittos. Monica immediately started doing her work, while the rest of the class carried on conversations with each other.

After a half hour passed, Monica turned her head around to look in Chandler's direction. He and two other guys were laughing about something. His smile was hypnotic and she couldn't help staring at him. The girl who was sitting behind her noticed, and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Monica, stop drooling."

"What?"

"I said, stop drooling."

"I'm not drooling."

"Oh no, then what's that on the floor?" Sarah asked.

When Monica looked down, Sarah laughed.

"That wasn't funny." Monica said with smile.

At lunch time, Monica and Phoebe sat at their usual table, waiting for Rachel to show up. As she searched around the cafeteria for Rachel, her eyes laid upon Chandler's face. He came into the cafeteria with Joey. Chandler was on the baseball team, and Joey was on the football team. They were only sophomores, but everyone in the school knew them. Joey had a lot of girlfriends, and so did Chandler. He wasn't a heartbreaker like Joey, but he never stay with the same girl for more than two months. She watched him as he walked over to his friends and sat down. Phoebe looked at Monica and smiled.

"Mon, have you even spoken to him before?"

"What? Why?"

"You're eyes follow him where ever he goes."

"That's not true."

"Monica, this is me, your friend Phoebe. I know you like him."

"I do not."

"Fine deny it all you want."

"Deny what?" Rachel asked sitting down.

"Nothing." Monica said, looking at Phoebe.

"Come on, tell me."

"We were talking about how much she looooooves Chandler." Phoebe said laughing.

"I do not!"

"You do stare at him a lot."

"Guys, stop it."

"I know him. I could tell him that you like him."

"Don't you dare!"

"I'm just kidding." Rachel said with a smile.

"He would never look at me that way."

"Why wouldn't he?"

"I'm not exactly the type of girl he goes out with."

"So." Rachel said.

"And, I'm not exactly the size of the girls he goes for."

"Monica, don't start with the weight thing again." Phoebe said.

"C'mon, can you picture it, me, the fat girl, going out with the most popular guy in school? He doesn't even know I'm alive."

"Isn't he in your English class?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah, but he still doesn't notice me. I don't even think he knows my name." She said looking over at him.

"C'mon, he knows your name." Phoebe said.

"Whatever." Monica said.

While walking to her locker after lunch, she noticed Chandler and his girlfriend kissing in the corner of the staircase. She quickly turned her head away and hurried to her locker. She gathered her books that she needed for class and rushed off. She couldn't understand what Chandler saw in Cynthia. Sure she was pretty and popular, but she had no character. She was loose, and flirted a lot. She was also bitchy. She didn't understand his taste in women, but she knew that Cynthia wouldn't be around for too long. Chandler wasn't the type to stay in a relationship. One minute you see him looking happy with a certain girl he's with, and the next minute, he's not with her anymore. She took her seat in the middle of the classroom and put her head down on the desk until the teacher was ready to start.

A couple minutes later, she lifted her head up when the teacher told the class to turn to certain page in their text books. She had a difficult time following the lesson because she was thinking about Chandler kissing Cynthia. She wished that Chandler would at least speak to her every now and then. She was sure that he wouldn't notice a fat freshmen. It was easy for Rachel. She's a freshmen too, but she's still popular. She's pretty, and she's a JV cheerleader. Monica and Phoebe didn't have it so easy.

When Monica arrived home, she went straight to her room. Phoebe and Rachel went out for pizza with these two guys after school. They invited her to come along, but she didn't want to feel like the fifth wheel. Instead, she sat in her room looking out the window. Deep inside, she wished that she was a completely different person. When she looked at Rachel's life, everything was perfect. Her family had money, and Rachel got whatever she wanted. Sometimes she wondered why Rachel even hung out with her. Seeing Rachel and Phoebe getting asked out by guys depressed her. People always tell Monica that she's pretty, but she doesn't believe them. She often times felt like a loser, a nobody.

She was grateful for friends like Phoebe and Rachel, but she didn't understand why they liked her. She didn't tell them about her crush on Chandler because she thought that they would make fun of her, and mention that he was out of her league. She was a little surprised when they didn't. They invited her to a party, but she declined. The guy who was throwing the party was rude and arrogant. She figured that if she showed up at the party with Rachel, he would say something obnoxious and hurt her feelings. She didn't want to go through that, so she decided to stay home. Monica was so deep in thought, that she didn't notice Ross standing in the doorway.

"Mon!"

"Oh, sorry."

"What's with you?"

"Nothing. Why?"

"I was calling you, and you didn't hear me."

"What do you want Ross?"

"Are you going to that party tonight?"

"No."

"Well, I'm going. Rachel's gonna be there." He said grinning.

"How nice for you."

"Are you sure you're okay?" Ross asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Okay." Ross said.

When he left, Monica went over and sat on her bed. She wanted to do something. She was bored and unhappy with her life. She wanted to party, but she was extremely self conscious about her weight. She wondered if she'd be fat for the rest of her life, not knowing how it feels to be in love with a guy who loves you back, being able to walk up a flight of stairs without running out of breath, and if she'd ever feel good about herself. She often pondered these questions when she was alone with her thoughts. Feeling lonely was depressing, and she hated it.

A few weeks later, Monica was walking down the hall with her head hung low and wasn't paying attention to where she was going, or who she was about to run into. Within seconds, someone had hit her, and her books went flying. Monica blushed when she realized that she had run into Chandler.

"I'm so sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going."

"It's okay." He said walking off.

He kept looking back at her as he slowly walked down the hall. She didn't notice because she was knelt down with her back to him picking up her books. He felt bad about leaving her there to pick up her things by herself, so he went over to help her.

"Here, let me help you." Chandler said kneeling down beside her.

"Thanks."

Chandler helped her gather her things and stood there for a few seconds. She was making sure that everything was in place. She felt so down, that she didn't even notice that Chandler was staring at her with a concerned look on his face.

"Monica, are you okay?"

"What?" She asked in shock.

"Is something bothering you? You're not mad at me for knocking your books out of your hand are you?"

"Oh, no. I'm not mad at you. It was my fault. I'm just having one of those days."

"Oh. Well, what class are you going to?"

"History."

"Well, since you're having such a bad day, I'll carry your stuff for you."

"But won't you be late?"

"It's all right." He said taking her books and papers from her hand and transferring them into his.

Monica strolled down the hall, with Chandler carrying her books, and felt a surge of power. She was surprised that he knew her name, and even more surprised that he came back to help her with her books and held a conversation with her. Once she got to class, he handed her her books, and made his way back down the hall. Just having him walk her to class, carrying her books, made her day. For the longest, she felt that she was invisible to him, but that wasn't true. She just felt invisible. It felt so good to be near him, that for a few minutes, she had forgotten that she was fat. Phoebe walked over to her smiling.

"So, I see you got Chandler to walk you to class."

"I didn't get him to do anything, he volunteered."

"I think he likes you."

"Oh please. There's no way that's true. He has a girlfriend, and....

"Don't even say it. I know what I'm talking about."

"Whatever Pheebs."

Phoebe went back to her seat when their teacher returned to the classroom. Monica looked over at Phoebe, who gave her a thumbs up sign. Monica smiled and shook her head. She knew now, that whatever would happen later that day, couldn't top Chandler carrying her books to class for her. Not only did he make her day, he made her week.

A week later, while she was in English class doing her work, she heard Chandler's friends making jokes about her weight. She felt like getting up and leaving the room. She also felt like crying when one of the guys threw a bawled up piece of paper at her.

"Guys, stop it!" Chandler said.

Everyone in the class turned to look at him except Monica. She was on the verge of tears.

"What's gotten into you man?" Jeff asked.

"Nothing. I just think that was mean."

"What's going on back there?" The teacher asked them.

"Jeff threw a piece of paper at Monica." Sarah said.

"Jeff, go pick it up, and don't throw things at people, especially in my class."

When Jeff went over to Monica's desk to pick up the piece of paper he's thrown at her, she covered her face with her hands. She tried hard not to cry. She didn't want to give them the satisfaction. She felt like crawling into a hole, and it seemed as if class had been going on for hours after the paper incident. As soon as the bell rang for class to be over, she hurried from the classroom.

When she got home that day, she sat in her room feeling sorry for herself. She was a little surprised that Chandler came to her defense, but his friends really hurt her feelings. She was getting sick of people making fun of her weight. They didn't realize what it was doing to her inside. She stood up and looked at herself in the mirror and hated what she saw reflected there. She went over to the window with tears forming in her eyes and stayed there for hours. She felt like locking herself in her room for the rest of her miserable life. She didn't even feel like eating when her Mom called upstairs for her to join them for dinner. Instead, she just sat at the window thinking about how much better her life would be if only she could lose weight. She knew that she would definitely get respect if she were thinner. When the phone rang, she didn't answer it. She didn't feel like seeing or talking to anybody. Hours later, there was a knock on her bedroom door. When she went to answer it, Phoebe and Rachel were standing there smiling. She let them in, and went back over to the window.

"Mon, what's going on? We've been trying to call you to see if you wanted to come to the movies with us." Phoebe said.

"I don't feel like going anywhere."

"Why not?" Rachel asked.

"I just don't feel like it tonight."

"Monica, we heard about what happened in English class today." Rachel said.

"Sarah told us."

"Great, I suppose the whole school knows about the popular guys picking on the fat girl."

"Monica, why didn't you tell us?" Rachel asked.

"Because, it's embarrassing. You don't have to go through this. You're popular. Everyone loves you."

"Monica....

"You could go out with any guy you want. They don't pick at you."

"I can't have every guy I want Mon, that's ridiculous."

"Monica, we're here for you. Don't let people like that get the best of you. They may be popular, but they're jerks." Phoebe said.

"That's right. We still love you, no matter what your size is." Rachel said.

"Thanks guys." Monica said smiling.

Phoebe and Rachel got up and hugged her.

"Now, let's go to the movies!" Phoebe said.
 
 

WE TAKE A LOOK AT CHANDLER'S THOUGHTS IN

EMOTIONAL ROLLER COASTER