“Your little friend is staring at you again.” That’s Kayla. She’s talking about Addie, who she insists on calling my “little friend.” It bugs me, but I don’t know how to make her stop without also causing her to freeze me out.
We’re sitting in the cafeteria. “We” are Kayla, Jen, Shayna and me. The three of them went to different elementary schools, but they knew each other because they were in the same gymnastics club. They’re all pretty and all skinny, like you’d expect gymnasts to be. They’re the most popular girls in grade ten, and you just know that when the time comes, one of them is going to be prom queen.
For some reason I don’t understand, Kayla has a real hate on for Addie. She makes snide remarks about her all the time, about how big her nose is (it’s not that big), how she slouches all the time (that’s true—Addie always seems to be collapsing in on herself, as if all she wants is to disappear), how tacky her clothes are (Addie doesn’t make much of an effort to keep up to date) and how she’s so quiet all the time. Jen says Addie reminds her of Boo Radley, the character from To Kill a Mockingbird who you never see and who everyone regards as some kind of ghost.
“She’s nothing like Boo Radley,” I say. I glance at Addie and see right away that I am wrong. She’s exactly like him—pale, invisible to most people and happiest when she’s in the shadows, unseen. And Kayla’s right—she is staring at me.
I shake my head at her and don’t even try to hide my annoyance. Confession—I wish Addie would leave me alone. I’m not like her anymore. I’ve moved on.
“She is too,” Jen says. “She’s a female Boo Radley—quiet and creepy.” She nudges Kayla, and they look at Addie again, only now Addie isn’t alone. John Branksome is standing beside her, handing her something and smiling at her.
“What the—” Kayla splutters.
I know what’s going on because Addie told me. John borrowed her history notes to copy. John lives across the street from her. His mom and Addie’s mom are friends. John and Addie have known each other practically since the day she was born. But I don’t tell Kayla that, not when she’s being such a bitch.
Instead I say, “Yeah, he’s been over at her house a lot lately.”
“Lately?”
“You know, since the play.”
After the play was over, just about the time Kayla was crowing to everyone about her “new boyfriend,” John dumped her. That’s assuming he was ever with her. It still isn’t clear to me. Kayla acted like they were a couple. John, not so much. Sometimes it seemed to me that they were just in a play together.
“He hangs out with her?” Kayla says, still with plenty of splutter.
“Forget it,” Shayna says. “Forget him. If he’s interested in her, he’s a loser.”
This earns her evil eyes from both Kayla and Jen. Maybe I’m wrong, but just the thought that she might have been hanging out with someone who one her friends is now calling a loser seems to get Kayla all riled up.
“What do you know?” Jen says. Jen is Kayla’s best friend. She sticks up for Kayla no matter what. “He probably just feels sorry for her. I know I do.”
“Yeah,” says Kayla, practically choking on the word. “Yeah, that’s probably it.” But she can’t take her eyes off them. When John squeezes Addie’s arm and Addie responds by staring adoringly up at him, Kayla goes pale.
“Addie’s always had a thing for him,” I say. I’d like to tell you I say it simply because it happens to be true. But really, I say it because I want to make a dig at Addie, just like I made one at Kayla. The truth is, they’re both getting on my nerves.
“So you know John, right?” Kayla says.
“Yeah.”
“Then talk to him for me.” It comes out like a command.
“And tell him what?”
“Tell him to call me. Tell him I’m sorry for whatever I did. Tell him I want him back.”
“Right,” I say. It comes out the way it would if I were talking to Addie, and not at all the way I’ve been talking to Kayla, the suck-up way you more or less have to talk to Kayla. “What good would that do? He’s already made up his mind.”
“Says who?” Shayna demands.
“He wants that worm instead?” Jen says. “You can’t be serious!”
“I just meant—”
“We know what you meant,”
Shayna says.
Kayla looks at me with her bitchy queen look, the one that lets everyone know she is not pleased. Kayla’s parents are divorced, and Kayla lives with her mother in a massive house in what used to be a nothing town. Now it’s filled with the massive houses of rich people who love all the lakes, especially if they can have the only property on one of them. Kayla’s mom “dabbles” (Kayla’s word) in interior design for these people. Her dad owns a bunch of companies and makes sure Kayla gets everything she wants and then some. Kayla says he’s not nearly so generous with her mom and that she’s pretty sure he pampers his princess (that’s what her dad supposedly calls her) as a way of getting back at his ex-wife. Kayla says it’s the best possible position for her to be in—both of her parents are always competing for her loyalty.
Because she’s a princess, I’m sure she’s going to say something bitchy to me. But she doesn’t. She gazes across the table at Addie with a thoughtful expression on her face. Addie doesn’t notice. She is alone now, her nose in a book. If I know her, she’s trying hard to hide herself in its pages.