The next day, I stood in the cafeteria doorway trying to find someplace to sit. I decided to try Maggie and Halle’s table again. They said “hi” to me when I put my tray down and then went back to their conversation on some reality show. I pretended to be interested in my food and escaped to the library when I finished my sandwich. I picked Jane Eyre off the shelf and sat down to read. It was nice and long so I would have something to do during lunch for a while.
Devon wasn’t in science class because she hadn’t finished her math test in her last class. I kept watching the door hoping she’d come in since we were doing a lab, but Mrs. Tamar told me to work with Yasmin’s group. I pulled my chair up to Yasmin’s table and basically sat there while the rest of the table did the lab. No one said a single word to me. After class, as I was walking to social studies, Mrs. Kharrazi called me over.
“I got the contest results today, and you got second place in the short story contest. Congratulations,” she said.
It was like the light at the end of a crappy, crappy day. Suddenly I didn’t care about Tori or Ericka. I had just gotten second place in a writing contest, and even they couldn’t take it away from me. Then I got called down to the main office. Everybody made an, “Ooh,” sound, but I knew I wasn’t in trouble. How sad. I was too boring to even get suspended.
“Landry, your mother is on the phone,” the secretary said, giving me the evil eye for getting a personal call at school. I should have told her at least I didn’t sneak a cell phone into the bathroom to make calls like Yasmin and Arianna do.
“Hi, sweets. I hate to bother you at school, but Mrs. Myeski called, and they want you to have your picture taken for the paper today. The Ingénue people are paying for it, but you’ll have to get out of school early to do it,” Mom said.
“Cool!” I said. “Do I—”
“Wait! Don’t say anything. I had to say you have a dentist appointment so I could get you out early. Make sure you’re in the office at two o’clock and remember — don’t act excited because they think you’re going to the dentist,” she said.
“Right. See ya, Mom.”
I was psyched I was going to be in the newspaper. Tori had her picture in the paper once, but it was for playing soccer and she looked constipated as she kicked the ball. Those losers were going to be so sorry they got mad at me when they saw I was on my way to being a celebrity. And, if I did become famous, then I was never going to talk to either of them again. Let them see how it felt to be ignored. I ran into Devon on my way back to class. She had already gotten a call from her mom, but her excuse was “going to the doctor.” We stood in the hall talking about what we were going to wear until the door to the office opened, and we scattered like cockroaches.
I got out of class at two and had just enough time to stick a few of Mom’s hot rollers in my hair. I washed my face and put on some makeup and went to change. Mrs. Myeski said it was just a headshot, but I wanted to wear something nice since a little of my shirt would be showing. I put on my red sweater, but Mom thought it looked ratty. It was pathetic, but I didn’t have a lot of clothes which weren’t school clothes. Mom told me to wear my navy sweater to the shoot, which sucked because I didn’t want my first publicity photo ever to be in a Hillcrest sweater. I ended up wearing it, but I guess it didn’t matter too much because when we got to the photography studio, they said the photos were going to be black and white. Devon and I sat together. The other girls in the waiting room seemed super stuck up. One girl stepped on Devon’s foot and didn’t even apologize. They only took three shots of each of us. Afterward, they put them on a screen for us to see, and Mrs. Myeski came over to inspect them.
“Your eyes are sort of shut in this one,” she said. “And you’re trying too hard to keep them open wide in this one.”
She was right. I looked like a crazed lunatic with my eyes almost popping out of my head.
“But this one is nice and natural. You just need to work on relaxing your face,” she said.
Two of Devon’s pictures were perfect. Her mom wanted them to use the one where she was smiling, but Mrs. Myeski said the serious pose was more flattering.
Devon’s mom said we should go out to celebrate. I knew my mom wanted to go back to the office, but she agreed to stop for some ice cream at Ignatowski’s Ice Cream Palace. I got a caramel marshmallow sundae with extra strawberry whipped cream. Devon ordered the brownie n’ fudge extravaganza. Our moms sat at a separate table from us. There weren’t a lot of people there in the middle of the day, so we took the good table, which was a round booth which looked like you were sitting in a hot air balloon. There was also a booth like a gazebo, but it was where the older high school girls and their boyfriends sat. I was halfway done with my sundae when Devon said we should switch sundaes.
“My friends and I always switch so we can taste what everybody got,” she said.
I tried to ignore what I had read about salvia and mono online. It was kinda cool she would want to share with me. After all, Arianna and Yasmin always shared food at lunch, but my ex-friends never wanted to share anything with me — not even popcorn at the movies. I slid my dish over to her and tried not to gag as she told me about the time she, India, and Peyton had all gotten the flu after they shared a triple chocolate explosion. I guess Devon hadn’t learned anything from our chapter on germs and bacteria in our science book.
****
The next day I missed the bus and I expected Ms. Ashcroft to glare at me when I walked in late, but instead she congratulated me on getting second place with my story in the Michigan Young Pens Contest. However, I overheard Ericka talking about me in science class.
“It’s not like it was first place, you know,” she said and Tori agreed. So I didn’t win the contest. What had they won lately? Then Ericka made a remark about my hair.
“Looks like a dye job,” Ericka said.
“A bad dye job,” Tori said.
“She only got picked because models have to be super scrawny. Who knows, maybe washed-out hair colors will become trendy,” Ericka said laughing.
I walked over to my seat and slammed my books on my desk. Tad congratulated me on the writing contest, but all I could focus on were my ex-friends whispering on the other side of the room. Devon was absent, but we were doing a worksheet so I didn’t mind sitting alone. We watched Anne Frank in history, and India and Peyton congratulated me on the contest.
“So what are you wearing for your audition?” Peyton asked.
“I got an outfit from Franciszka T. It has a black and grey striped long sleeved sweater, and then it’s like a strapless grey dress which goes under it with a wide black belt.”
“It sounds cute. Devon’s super excited about the whole thing,” she said. “Her mom kept her home because she’s had a sore throat last night.”
Great, the girl I shared ice cream with was home with a sore throat. Fabulous.
“Her mom’s so overprotective,” India said peering at the TV. “Hey, is it the guy from Schindler’s List? I can barely see from here.”
“Put your glasses on, dork. Yeah, it’s him. Landry, what chapter are you guys on in French?” Peyton asked.
“Oh crap. I forgot to do the homework for chapter nine,” I said. I couldn’t even do the work now because I had left the handout in my locker.
“Chapter nine? She handed those back in my class.” Peyton went through her binder and pulled them out. “Here, just copy them on notebook paper and tell her you spilled something on your sheet.” I started to thank her, but she cut me off. “No, you helped me out before.”
I spent the rest of the movie copying her work. It was a good thing I had my homework done because Mrs. Aniston freaked out when Thalia forgot hers, and she wouldn’t give her a pass to get it out of her locker. Mrs. Aniston said we had to be mature enough to bring our homework to class.
Devon was back the next day. “Congratulations,” she said. I asked if she was feeling better.
“Yeah, but now I have all this extra work. I had to take a math quiz during lunch, and now I’ve got the stupid lab from the other day to do,” she said as Mrs. Tamar came over to see if Devon was going to stay after to make up the lab assignment.
“I don’t have a ride home today,” she said. “Could I do it during lunch on Monday since the field trip is tomorrow?”
“Well, I have an appointment, so I won’t be here then…”
“I could come in during lunch to help,” I said. It’s not like I had anything better to do.
At the end of the day, Ms. Ashcroft announced what cars we’d be in for our field trip to the art museum. It took about a half hour to get there, and it would suck if I got stuck in a car with one of my ex-friends. Ms. Ashcroft read off my name, along with three boys, and Ashanti and Tori. Great, with Ashanti out sick and Tori acting like Ericka’s new best friend, the trip would be a blast. I thought about pretending to be sick tomorrow, but Mom would never let me miss school unless I was throwing up. I called Ashanti when I got home to see if she was feeling any better. I was hoping she’d say the doctor realized she didn’t have mono after all, but then she told me she had a blood test and she was definitely going to be out of school longer.
“We never go on a decent field trip, and I’m on my deathbed the one time we do. Too bad you got stuck in a car with Tori — she follows Ericka around like a puppy,” she said.
I checked my e-mail before bed. I was hoping Tori would want to make up, but I didn’t have any mail. I couldn’t believe they were still mad at me. I went into the living room where my mom was watching TV.
“I don’t feel good,” I said, remembering Ashanti had said she had a lot of high fevers. “Check my temperature. I think I’ve got mono.” She slid her hand onto my forehead.
“Hate to disappoint you, kiddo, but you feel cool as a cucumber,” she said.
“I feel sick. I don’t think I can go tomorrow,” my voice broke, and I moved away so she wouldn’t see me cry.
“What’s the matter?” she asked. “Are you crying?”
“I just feel so bad.” She told me to go to bed and see how I felt in the morning. I did feel sick. My stomach was cramping, and my head hurt. I lay in bed wishing I would wake up with mono and be out of school for weeks. I didn’t want to fall asleep because the sooner I went to sleep, the sooner it would be time to get up for school.