Chapter 5 Scarlett
Scarlett
Scarlett usually slept as late as possible before getting up for school, but she and Ben had started texting in the mornings, so she found herself eagerly awakening at six-thirty.
She loved starting her day with him, especially knowing that she was facing social obliteration once she reached school.
Ben: GM
Scarlett: Hey how was ur wknd. What’d you do?
Ben: NMU
Scarlett: Some tennis. Then I wanted to watch the new Halloween but Olivia said it was too scary. Had to watch some baby movie instead.
Ben: That sucks.
Scarlett: IKR
Ben: Didn’t she get to pick where you went to lunch too? Does she always get her way?
Scarlett: IDK Now that you say that…
Ben: Must be hard. I’m an only so…IMO sounds like ur Mom favors ur sis
Scarlett: SRSLY u may b right. What’s ur mom like?
Ben: Pretty cool works a lot urs work?
Scarlett: Yeah—she does social media stuff for a company so she’s all over me monitoring mine. Eye roll
Ben: Pretty cool job tho what company?
Scarlett inserted a link to her mom’s website.
Ben: Cool! GTG. Wish I could go with you to school and put those witches in their place
Scarlett smiled. It felt so good to have someone like Ben wanting to defend her, to protect her. It made what she was going through at school a little bit easier.
Scarlett: Thx! TTYL
She put her phone down and stretched. She needed to get up, but she could hear the shower going, so Olivia must have beaten her to it.
She felt kind of bad keeping Ben a secret from her sister.
But Olivia would tell their parents, and Scarlett couldn’t let that happen.
When the time was right, she’d let Olivia in on everything.
As much as she teased her younger sister, she really loved her.
Olivia was like this little ball of sunshine, seeing the good in everything.
Scarlett looked forward to the day when they were both older, and their age difference would be insignificant.
Her mother was always telling her how much she wished she’d had a sister, and how lucky Scarlett was that she had Olivia.
But for now, it seemed Olivia was still the innocent child, while Scarlett felt as though she were teetering on the edge of adulthood.
Lately, she found herself thinking about the future.
Even though she still had four years of high school, she was worried about college.
Everyone kept drilling into her head how important it was to prepare now.
Get good grades. Volunteer. Do extracurriculars.
It was exhausting trying to juggle schoolwork with practice and games, then sailing on the weekends.
Sometimes she wondered if her parents kept their schedules so packed to ensure there would be no time to get in trouble.
This feeling of being hemmed in, of her world being too controlled by her parents, was relatively new.
It was like there was a fire inside her now, and one wrong look or word from her parents could make it erupt.
One minute she wanted to run to them for comfort, and the next she wanted to scream at them to stay out of her life.
She’d tried to talk to Olivia about it, but she didn’t understand.
Sometimes Scarlett felt as though she was going crazy.
—
Scarlett grabbed her lunch from her locker and headed to the cafeteria.
She took a seat at her usual table, but she was the first one there.
Zoe had texted her to meet them in the cafeteria—said she was ready to make up.
But where were they? She looked around the crowded room alive with chatter, scanning the table to see if her friends were sitting somewhere else.
She froze when her eyes met Zoe’s. Zoe was sitting at a table with Ethan and his lacrosse buddies.
She raised her eyebrows and pursed her lips, then turned her gaze back to Ethan, moving closer to him.
Scarlett wanted to scream. Her face grew warm when she saw Zoe’s new clique of three sitting down across from her.
Zoe had sent that text to mess with her.
They were still freezing her out. She bit the inside of her lip, willing herself not to cry.
Screw them. She wasn’t about to let them see how humiliated she felt.
Scarlett took a deep breath, gathered her things, and stood.
She would find new friends. Friends who weren’t so petty as to ignore her like they were back in elementary school or something.
She walked three tables over to where Avery, a girl from her English class, was sitting with two girls Scarlett didn’t know. “Okay to sit here?”
Avery shrugged. “It’s a free country.”
Scarlett sat down and unwrapped her lunch.
Her mom had packed her a turkey and cheese sandwich, along with an apple and some almonds.
Her father was always pressuring her to send them to school with a balanced lunch.
There had been cookies left over, and she’d snagged a small bagful this morning.
She put them in front of her. “Help yourself.”
Avery hesitated, then reached out and took one. “Thanks.” She took a bite. “Pretty good.”
Scarlett pushed the bag toward the other two girls. “Want one?”
“I’m good,” they both said.
“So, what happened to your clique? How come they ditched you?” Avery asked.
Scarlett shook her head. “Doesn’t matter. I thought they were my friends, but—”
Avery looked across the room to where Zoe was sitting and then back at Scarlett. “Let me guess. It was over a guy?”
“Maybe.”
“Well, if you ask me, you’re better off without all of them, including Ethan. That guy may know how to spin a lacrosse stick, but he can hardly string two sentences together.”
Scarlett nodded. “I guess I got distracted by how cute he is.”
“Cute only goes so far. Don’t you want to be with someone who has brains too?”
“I don’t care about Ethan anymore. He’s a jerk. Zoe can have him. I’m more interested in getting to know someone else right now anyway.”