Revenge of the Girl With the Great Personality (10 page)

I
t’s pretty clear that I don’t know how to act on a date. But how to act at school after the first date is especially agonizing. Am I supposed to act different around Taylor? Has anybody written
The Dating Guide for Clueless Teenage Girls
yet? I
need
that book.

Fortunately for me, I do know someone who can clarify this mystery. And she’s headed straight toward me. Unfortunately, Cam doesn’t look too happy. The minute she gets to me, she says, “Have you seen Brooke’s pictures from Grant’s party on her profile?”

Okay, if there isn’t even a hello from Cam, this can’t be good.

“That would require me to be friends with Brooke. Why?”

Cam looks around. I follow her gaze and realize that some people are staring at me. A few are even whispering.

“She took some photos of us, mostly you, and made some comments.”

My stomach drops. “What kind of comments?”

“When you click on your face, instead of saying your name it said things like ‘desperate,’ ‘wannabe,’ ‘troll’ — stupid things like that.”

“Oh.” I can’t get anything else out. I can’t think of anything else to say. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised about what she did; it’s pretty typical of her. But even if I was anticipating something like this, it still doesn’t make it any easier to stomach.

Cam gives me a tight smile. “Don’t let it get you down. She’s just jealous. Ignore her and she’s bound to go away.”

I’m guessing that ignoring Brooke will be easier said than done, but I try to push those words out of my mind. Is that how she really sees me? Does everybody else see me that way?

Cam gives me a hug before she heads to class. I do my best to shake the negative thoughts from my head and not let it get to me. I see Benny approach with a sympathetic frown on his face.

News sure gets around fast.

“It’s okay,” I say before he can get a word in. The last thing I need is for one more person to feel sorry for me. I wrap my arm around Benny’s. “Let’s get to class.”

We round the corner to English when we see Brooke approaching me with a smile on her face.

Benny leans in. “Do you want me to …”

“It’s okay.”

Actually, it
isn’t
okay. But what can I really do about it? Saying something would definitely make it worse.

“Hey, Lexi,” she says sweetly as she blocks Benny and me from proceeding farther down the hallway, which is quite amazing since she’s so tiny, but her intimidation factor is through the roof. “We
need
to hang out more. I’d
love
to go shopping with you sometime. You have such
ah
-mazing taste in clothing. I’ll text you!” And without another word, she walks past us.

Benny breaks the stunned silence between us. “What was that?”

“I have no idea.” Does she think that I wouldn’t hear about what she did? Or does she think that she can break me so easily? Why would she even want to hang out with a “wannabe” and a “troll”? And does she even know what a troll is? I’m a few inches taller than her, so what, exactly, would that make her?

Benny clicks his teeth in disgust. “You’re not going, are you?”

“What? Going where?”

“Shopping. With Brooke.”

I give a nondescript shrug of my shoulders. Part of me has no desire to be around her. Ever. But another part of me wants to see what game she’s playing.

And okay, there’s another part of me, a very teeny, tiny part, that wants her acceptance.

If you would’ve told me a month ago that I’d be invited to a party at Grant’s and go on a date with Taylor, I would’ve said that you were living in a fantasy world. But what I’m doing right here, right now? Well, I would’ve put myself in a loony bin at the mere thought of it even two days ago. Yet here I am.

Brooke rummages through the rack at an upscale department store in the mall. I visit this place every once in a while to see what they have out, but I could never afford anything here.

“So …” Brooke addresses me without taking her eyes off of a long black tank dress she has in her hands. “How are things with Taylor?”

Is that why she asked to do something with me? To find out about my, ah, relationship with Taylor?
Oh my goodness, am I in a relationship?
I pick up a jacket near me and pretend to study the zipper, delaying a response. I don’t know what to say. I know anything I tell Brooke will be around the school in 2.4 seconds.

“Good. I’m seeing him tomorrow night.”

A ringing sound comes from Brooke’s very expensive red leather satchel.

“Ugh, it’s Hannah,” Brooke says as she silences her phone. “Isn’t she
so
needy?” she asks expectantly.

I don’t respond. Hannah’s always been nice enough to me. I thought
she and Brooke were BFFs, but I guess with Brooke it’s BFFN (Best Friends For Now).

It’s funny, because in a way, Brooke reminds me of a few of the pageant girls. She clearly abides by one of their most sacred pageant rules:
If you don’t have anything nice to say, wait until her back is turned
.

Brooke heads into the dressing room without another word, probably unsatisfied with my lack of trash talking.

I continue to look around the store, wondering why I even agreed to this. I guess it’s more out of curiosity than anything else. But I can completely understand that Benny and Cam aren’t too pleased that I’d go, as Cam put it, “shopping with the enemy.” After I told her I was going today, she slammed her head down on the lunch table so loudly that half the cafeteria turned around. She had a red blotch on her forehead for the remainder of the day. Then she told me that she’d disown me if I turned into a Beauty Bot and started eating lunch at the Popular Posse table. I had to pinkie swear that I would never do such a horrific thing.

“Are you coming or not?” I hear Brooke call out from the dressing room.

I walk in and see her in front of a three-way mirror examining herself from every angle.

“What do you think?”

I’ve been asked this question hundreds of times at work. Generally people ask it when they aren’t positive they like something or have a concern. But with Brooke, I think she only wants positive reinforcement. Which is hard in this instance, because while the dress looks
nice on her, it gaps where her armpits are, since she’s so tiny but has a big chest for her frame. It really doesn’t look good, but I’m terrified of saying anything.

“Well …” I try to think of what I should say, but I don’t want to lie. I hate being manipulated and don’t feel comfortable doing it to someone, even if that someone is Queen Manipulator. Maybe she would even appreciate someone telling her the truth for once. “I think … that maybe it fits a little weird around the arms.”

Brooke lifts her arms and can see that her purple lace bra is showing with the gap in the dress.

“It’s more a flaw with the design of the dress,” I add.

She goes into the dressing room with a slam of the door.

Mental note for the future:
Do NOT tell the truth. Just say she looks great.

I hear my stomach growl. “Hey, Brooke,” I call out to her. “I’m getting hungry, do you want to grab something to eat?”

“No.”

I reach in my purse and grab a cherry pie Lärabar. I’m halfway through eating it when she opens up her dressing room door and stares at me.

“Wow. You eat
a lot
.”

I look down at my super-healthy snack. “Um, you’re supposed to eat every few hours. Do you want one?”

I dig through my purse.

“No.” She scrunches up her nose at me.

“Are you sure? It’s good. They’re gluten free.” I stop myself from giving Brooke the same food lecture I give my mom. The difference between the two is that all my mom eats is junk, while I’m pretty sure Brooke doesn’t eat at all. I know it’s not fair of me to make assumptions about Brooke, because Cam’s super skinny and eats more than me and Benny combined. But I’ve never seen Brooke eat anything more than a few bites of food.

Brooke takes a piece of gum out of her bag. “I’m sure.” She gives me the death stare as she puts the stick in her mouth.

I give up, and honestly I could care less about what Brooke thinks.

But then, if I don’t care, what am I doing here?

“Well, well …” Mark knocks on the employee break room door at the end of my shift the following day. He gives me a little smirk. “Your
guest
is here. It all starts making sense.”

I finish changing into my cute date shoes and ignore his comment. I give myself a quick once-over in the mirror and grab my purse.

Mark has the door blocked. “I’m trying to figure out if he bought all those clothes weeks ago because he liked you, or if you’re dating him as a thanks for the commission. Either way, the dedication to your job has not gone unnoticed.”

I move his arm away and go into the store to see Taylor browsing.

“Hey,” I say to get his attention.

“Hi.” He smiles at me and gives me a quick hug.

“Ahem.” Mark clears his voice loudly.

I can’t believe he’s going to make me introduce him like he’s my parent. Well, sometimes Mark acts more like a father figure to me than my
actual
father.

“Mark, this is Taylor; Taylor, this is my boss, Mark.”

They shake hands.

“So where are you two off to?” Mark asks.

“Just going to grab a bite at The Court.” I give him a smile that says
Don’t push it any further
.

Mark starts to rub his chin, like he’s deep in thought. “I see. And how late will you be this evening?”

“Don’t wait up.” I grab Taylor’s arm and head out to the mall. “Sorry about that. I’d like to say that he’s a little overprotective, but basically he just likes to humiliate me.”

“Oh good.” Taylor seems flustered. “Not good that he humiliates you, I got worried that I’d have yet another guy who would threaten me if anything happens to you.”

Taylor can tell from my reaction that I have no idea what he’s talking about.

He leans in close to me. “Your friend Benny came up to me today. He said that he hoped I had fun tonight, but not too much fun.”

“Oh my God, no he didn’t. You’re lying!”

He holds up his arms. “I kid you not. He’s a big guy, I have to admit, it freaked me out a bit. I didn’t realize he could be so intimidating. We’ve got to get him on the football team.”

I
can’t believe Benny would do that. It makes me love him even more. Although the chances of Benny joining the football team are as likely as me becoming BFFN with Brooke.

“Anyway, Josh told me that new mini-golf place is pretty cool. You want to try it out on Saturday?”

We haven’t even finished our second date and he’s already asking me on a third? The excitement I feel dies quickly as I realize what’s this Saturday.

“I can’t on Saturday. I have to go help out at my sister’s pageant.” Not to mention that I was supposed to see my father.

Taylor studies my face. “That must be hard to have to devote so much time to your little sister.”

I’m almost speechless. I’m used to dropping everything for the pageants, but truthfully, it
can
be a burden. And never did I think someone like Taylor would notice.

“It can be pretty frustrating….” I allow myself to speak the truth for once. But I can’t really elaborate, out of fear of what would come out of my mouth.

My phone comes to life. I glance at the screen and see it’s Mom.

“Do you need to …” Taylor motions toward my phone.

“Um, it’s my mom, I should probably …”

I pick up the phone and move to the corner of the food court. I hate when people talk on their phones in public, especially in the mall. I can’t even begin to describe some of the horribly personal conversations I’ve had to listen to while at work. I usually try to get as far away from the
people as possible, but there are only so many places I can hide on the floor. Just last week a woman came in and started breaking up with her boyfriend on the phone, all while searching the rack for her size.

“Thank goodness you picked up.” Mom sounds out of breath.

“Hello to you, too.”

“I need you to take your sister to her dance class.”