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The first period bell rang again, but I didn’t hear it. My eyes couldn’t unlatch themselves from my locker.
WHORE.
A thousand pieces of loose-leaf covered my locker, each white page marked with the ugly word. As I pulled the papers down, dozens of students stopped to point, laugh, or whisper at me.
Who was this mystery person who kept defacing my locker? It had to be Dana. It just had to be. The question was, what was I going to do about it?
Ariel and Jasmine walked up just as I pulled the last piece of paper off my locker. The pages laid at my feet in small heaps like crinkly snow.
Hot tears pooled behind my eyes, but I didn’t shed them. I didn’t want to cry. I wanted to punch something. I stomped my foot instead, and instantly felt like a child.
“Are you okay?” Ariel asked.
If you call wanting to bash Dana’s face in okay, then yes, I was perfectly okay.
“Yeah. I’m fine.”
“Maybe if you weren’t acting so different,” Jasmine said. “Maybe if you just, I don’t know, acted normal for a change, she would leave you alone.”
My frown deepened. How did this become my fault? Newsflash. I was the one with the defaced locker. Not Dana.
I carefully kept my temper in check. I had already pissed off my friends last night. I didn’t want this crazy stunt and my unsteady temper to force me to say more things that I’d regret.
“Look, I’m just trying to figure out where I fit in. I know things are crazy right now, but they’ll be normal again.”
“I hope so,” Jasmine said. “And soon.”
She walked away, leaving Ariel and me standing in the piles of paper that drifted across the floor like wayward snowflakes.
Ariel stepped forward.
“It’s so many changes so fast. We’re just trying to keep up.”
“I’m the same person that I’ve always been.”
“Really? You’re clothes. Your hair. It’s all so different, I guess.”
“Clothes and hair don’t make a person. My heart is the same.”
“And you hanging out with Stephanie, Ursula, and Mel? How is that the same?”
I sighed. “They’re nice girls, for the most part.”
Ariel smiled at me, but I could tell that she was frowning on the inside. Without another word, she turned and walked away, leaving me cold and lonely.
I closed my eyes. I needed to think. I needed to stop Dana in her tracks. I needed to-
“She’s really something, isn’t she?” Regina pushed the balls of paper around with her boot. “That Dana. Man. She’s nuts. I should know. I’ve been dealing with her since Freshman year.”
“I’m going to say something to her,” I said. “I can’t let her get away with this.”
Regina crossed her arms, and stood next to me, looking at the newly cleaned locker.
“I completely agree. Though, it may be better coming from Jake. That’s his ex. He needs to be a man and stand up for you. I mean, who is his girlfriend? You or Dana?”
Her words made sense. I had to admit, they made sense.
“I already asked him to do something about it. He doesn’t want to get involved.”
“You should make him get involved. It’s what a real man would do. And Jake’s a man, isn’t he? As a matter of fact, he’s your man.” She kicked a ball of paper out of her way. “If I were you, I wouldn’t stand for it.”
And then she was gone and I was off, marching my way to Jake’s classroom. He was just coming out of the door when he spotted me. I saw his vision go up and down the hall, obviously looking for Dana. I had discovered that if Dana was around, Jake was an absolute sweetheart. If she wasn’t, then he was an absolute douche hole.
This time, Dana wasn’t around, which meant that the smiles, kisses, and babys were not on his agenda.
“I need to talk to you,” I said.
He rolled his eyes. “Make it quick. I don’t want to be late.”
“Did you see what Dana did to my locker?”
“No. What?”
“She covered it with papers. She called me a whore.”
“And that is my problem because?”
“Um ... because she’s your ex. Fix it.”
“No time.”
His eyes laid on something further down the hall. I followed his line of sight. It was Kenny.
“I got to go.”
“You just said that you were going to be late.”
“I am.”
“But what about Dana?”
“I don’t know. Handle it.”
And then, like his sister, he was off down the hall, to whatever very important business that he had with Kenny. Drug business, no doubt.
Meanwhile, I was alone in the hallway, late for Art, and wondering how I had come to find myself in the crosshairs of Dana Rich in the first place.
Oh, that’s right. It was all because of a little lie.