Chapter 3 #2
that was NOT the face you were making when he was sitting next to you
you like neeeeerds ?
Mary Heather:
yeah V i thought you were going to swoon
Kat:
“oh show me your books grayson pleeeeease”
“i want to be as uncool and stupid looking as youuuuuuu”
“maybe we can both dress like
we don’t know what sizes areeeee”
“let’s not have friends TOGETHER”
Me:
I was being nice. Don’t you feel sorry for him?
Jess:
i finished going through the draft
oh wow that’s a lot of texts
oh wow poor grayson you guys are brutal
I wished I could go back in time. Stay in the library. Sit silently in that ridiculously fancy car. Not let Kat and Mary Heather see the enormity of my crush.
I’d thought I was being so subtle!
I’d thought they were focused on their phones!
Apparently not.
Me:
Look I thought Grayson was cute last year, just like EVERYONE ELSE DID.
But this year his hair looks like someone took a hacksaw to it
His clothes look like he stole them from a Ken doll
And he can’t even use a tote bag correctly
How does someone not know how to use a tote bag??
Mary Heather:
let me go read jess’s changes
virginia do the proofreading
Me:
I will! Calm down, omg.
Kat:
deep breaths mh
it’ll be done on time
it always is
Mary Heather:
only because i drag you all to the finish line every week
virginia? proofreading?
Me:
OMG you’re the one who made us late this week
I’m reading now
Gritting my teeth, I went into Scrollr and looked at the draft, fixing some of the spelling and punctuation as I read.
It was a good review. Mary Heather knew how to draw you in with descriptions and praise.
To read about Seasonal Sweets’ winter offerings, you’d think Miss Joy was a fairy with magical food powers.
Jess’s photos were perfect, too, expertly placed to give the reader the sense they were experiencing the shop.
My heart gave a strange, uncomfortable twist as I fixed the final misspelling (“garanty” was underlined in red, but apparently no one had even tried to fix it) and closed the draft.
There were several more texts in the group chat.
Kat:
you obviously DO like him because you took that horrible photo
“ooooooh, grayson, you look so hot in that janky old jacket that doesn’t fit”
Jess:
i think virginia’s photo is good
i think we should let her try photography for our next review, actually
Mary Heather:
no one’s saying she can’t try, but we do have an aesthetic to maintain
Kat:
i’m just teasing her
it’s not a big deal
even though photography is totally your thing, jess, not hers, and she’ll never be as good as you
but teasing i swear
Mary Heather:
yeah, V you should practice …
just pick a better subject next time
They were still talking about this? I groaned and started typing. Fast.
Me:
Okay final words on the matter:
I’m not trying to take Jess’s place.
She’s the artist
AND I’m not trying to date Grayson.
Like I said I was being NICE when I talked to him in the car.
You know … last week I saw him watching the football team practice before the final game and I swear he looked like he wanted to cry
But HE quit
I guess he regrets that choice but it WAS his choice
Mary Heather:
everyone has to learn that their actions have consequences
Kat:
omg SPEAKING OF did you see Kelsey’s hair yesterday??
Me:
OMG yes! It looks like she cut her own bangs
Mary Heather:
they’re so uneven
Kat:
it looks like she used a lawnmower
Jess:
no one should cut their bangs with a lawnmower
or even with scissors tbh
it’s a cry for help
Me:
I want to fix her hair next time she falls asleep in class.
I mean why is Kelsey so tired all the time???
Have you noticed that?
She just falls asleep in the middle of algebra like it’s her private bedroom.
Kat:
I HAVE SEEN THAT!!!!
i think she has a parasite stealing her energy
Jess:
sometimes when i catch her sleeping i nudge her
like when she starts to snore a little
Mary Heather:
rollinggg
Mom knocked on the door but didn’t come in. “Lights out!”
I glanced at the top of my phone. It was nearly ten. “Fine!” I wasn’t actually mad, though. She’d given me a perfect excuse to escape this chat. For now, anyway.
Me:
See you tomorrow ?
I waited through the flurry of texts saying bye, then put my phone on the charger.
Uuuuugh. I rolled off my bed, slouched to the bathroom to brush my teeth and wash my face, and flipped off the overhead light when I got back in my room.
Zooms was already on my bed, shedding tortoiseshell fur all over last night’s pajamas, where she’d parked herself. Her yellow eyes shone in the dim lamplight as she meowed in greeting.
“Hello to you, too.” I fished different (cleaner) pajamas out of my dresser, changed into them, and edged under the covers. Then I slowly nudged Zooms to the side. For such a small cat, she took up way more than her half of the bed.
“Meow.” She slow-blinked at me.
I blinked back. Then I grabbed my phone and checked it for messages one last time. There was only one. From Jess. Not the group chat.
Jess:
your photo looks really nice
you should be proud
I bit my lip and looked at the photo again. It did look nice. Nowhere near as good as Jess’s work, but still, it wasn’t bad for someone who’d learned the difference between hue and saturation an hour ago.
“What do you think?” I asked Zooms, holding the screen toward her.
She put her head down and purred.
“Good feedback.”
The fact that Jess liked my edits made me feel a little better, but there was still a weird, sour feeling in my stomach. It probably wasn’t because I’d swallowed too much toothpaste.
Sometimes I got so sick of Kat.
She always made me feel like I had to defend myself. And Mary Heather—if she wasn’t joining in—just allowed it. Meanwhile, Jess barely seemed to register that it was happening.
This wasn’t the first time my friends had teased me about something.
Like, my cat having a funny name (Victoria and I had named her when she was ten and I was five).
Or the awful unicorn shirt my dad gave me last year and expected me to wear, like he thought I was still a baby. (I had worn it. Once. Never again.)
But none of that had felt … like this. They’d been relentless.
Maybe it was so upsetting because Grayson actually seemed nice? And I did like him. So, if he was such a loser … what did that say about me?
I took off my glasses and snuggled close to Zooms, determined to get through tomorrow like today never happened.