Chapter 10 Scarlett
Scarlett
Scarlett had been hanging out with Avery ever since she’d eaten lunch with her two weeks ago.
Now they sat together every day. Avery wanted to learn how to play tennis, and Scarlett was teaching her.
They practiced every day after school now.
The other two girls who’d been at the table that first day were only around occasionally.
Avery said she’d rather be alone than hang out with anyone who wasn’t real.
She was big on that, and Scarlett thought she was pretty cool.
Not at all like Zoe, who judged everyone by what they wore or what their bodies looked like.
Avery didn’t diss other people. She said small-minded people talked about others, while great minds discussed ideas.
Something like that anyway. It was a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt, who Avery said should be an example to every woman.
Scarlett wondered if one of the reasons it was easier for Avery to be independent was because she’d moved around so much.
Avery’s father was a navy pilot, and this was the sixth school she’d gone to.
Scarlett thought that sounded kind of cool.
You could reinvent yourself whenever you felt like it.
Scarlett had been friends with the same people since she was five.
It was hard not to get stuck in everyone’s idea of who you were.
They had just sat down to have lunch when Zoe, Brittany, and Chloe walked by their table and made a point of turning their heads in the opposite direction. It was obvious they were ignoring Scarlett.
“Real mature,” Scarlett called after them.
“Don’t let ’em see they’re getting to you,” Avery said.
“You only need, like, one really good friend,” she told Scarlett.
“Trying to fit in with the popular group makes you a drone.” She put the word popular in air quotes.
Avery wanted to be an investigative journalist and was always observing people.
The truth was, Avery could have fit in with any group she wanted.
She was really pretty and smart, and funny too.
She was what Scarlett had heard her mother refer to as “effortlessly beautiful.” Avery didn’t wear much makeup, and she dressed casually.
She had shiny black hair, blue eyes, and one of those perfect turned-up noses that Scarlett would have killed for.
She wished she could be more like her new friend, and not care about what others thought.
But she did care. She couldn’t help sneaking a look over at Zoe’s table and wondering if they were laughing at her.
She forced herself to look straight ahead and ignore them.
“Ben said they’re a bunch of losers, and I should ignore them.”
“Totally. He sounds like a cool guy. Where does he live again?” Avery took a bite of her sandwich.
“Chicago. I wish he wasn’t so far away. We both want to meet up. Do you think I should ask my parents? Maybe they could help me arrange something.”
Avery gave her a look. “You’re joking. No, don’t tell them.
From what you’ve said about your dad, he’d totally freak out.
Especially since you’ve done this behind their backs.
They’re not going to help you go meet some random guy.
Give it time. You don’t want to blow it, and then never get to meet him.
Maybe later on, you can figure out how to talk to your parents about him.
For now, I’d keep it quiet. But like I said before, you need to FaceTime him and make sure he’s who he says he is. ”
Scarlett nodded, even though she had no intention of doing that. She liked texting. It gave her more time to think about how to respond. If they talked on FaceTime and Ben asked personal questions, she’d be put on the spot, maybe say something really dumb.
“Let me see his picture again,” Avery said.
Scarlett navigated to Ben’s Instagram. “Here.” She handed Avery her phone.
“He’s really cute!” She slid the phone back across the table. “Time to head to class. By the way, steer clear of the bathroom by the library before last period.”
“Why?”
She leaned in. “Don’t tell anyone, but I heard some teachers talking in the hall this morning, when I came in early to use the writing lab. They’ve been trying to catch a group of girls who’ve been vaping in the bathroom. Every time they try to catch them, the girls flush the vapes.”
“If they know when they’re doing it, why doesn’t a teacher go in the bathroom at that time?” Scarlett asked.
“They’ve tried, but then the girls don’t do it, and they can’t put someone in there all day.”
“So what are they gonna do?”
“Right before last bell, they’re going to seal up the toilets so the vapes can’t be flushed. Then they’ll go in a couple minutes before and catch ’em.”
“Are you going to tell them?” Scarlett asked.
“No, if they’re dumb enough to pollute their lungs, that’s their problem. I’m going to record it so I can write about it.”
As Scarlett walked to her class, an idea came to her.
She’d go and be Avery’s backup. Why should she miss out on the excitement?
It was time she stopped leading such a boring life.
She wished she knew what her life’s ambition was.
Avery was lucky to know what she wanted to do.
Scarlett loved sailing, and she was good at tennis and most sports, but that wasn’t a job.
She did love to read, but she didn’t want to be a librarian or English teacher.
Her mom was a marketing whiz who knew everything there was to know about social media and getting clicks, but Scarlett only liked doing that for fun.
And she didn’t think she had the stomach to go into medicine, like her dad.
Olivia said she wanted to be a doctor, but maybe that was because she was only eleven and thought it would be neat to do what their dad did.
Maybe Scarlett could be a detective. She liked trying to figure things out, to find out what secrets others were hiding.
She’d already started snooping around her own house, because both her parents were definitely hiding something.
She fidgeted as her science teacher droned on and on about amoebas. Finally, the bell rang. Grabbing her backpack, Scarlett ran down the two flights of stairs and tried to push open the door to the bathroom.
“It’s full!” a girl’s voice called out.
“I just need a minute,” Scarlett said. A moment later the door opened a crack, and she slid in.
The girl who’d opened the door slid the trash can back against it.
Avery was right; six girls were vaping. She walked past them to the last sink and pulled out a lip gloss from her backpack, trying to look nonchalant.
One of the stall doors was closed, and she could see Avery’s green Nikes reflected in the mirror.
Her heart began beating furiously as she anticipated the teachers barging in.
Just when she thought it was a false alarm, the trash can started to move, and a teacher called out.
“Open this door immediately!”
The girls ran to one of the stalls and tried to throw the vapes in the toilet, but they landed on the ground. There was cellophane adhered to the toilets. The door burst open and Ms. Barlow, the assistant principal, came in.
“All of you, head to my office. You’re suspended.”
“What? We didn’t do anything,” one of the girls said.
Ms. Barlow walked over to the stall and pointed to the vapes on the floor. “Let’s go.”
They began to file out. She looked at Scarlett. “Come on.”
“But I wasn’t vaping. I was only using the mirror.”
“Nice try. Let’s go.”
Scarlett glanced at the last stall and saw that Avery’s shoes weren’t visible. She must be standing on the toilet seat. In her fury, Ms. Barlow hadn’t even looked in that direction. Scarlett left the bathroom, trying to figure out how she was going to explain this to her parents.