Dear Amanda,
I always envied the way you were with guys.
It was like you could cast a spell on them or
something …
“So that new kid Ethan is in my Physics class,” she said.
“Oh, he’s in my AP American History.”
At my house after school in early September, we sat on my bed and stared into the mirror. I had a brush in my hand and was slowly combing through my long brown hair. Amanda was trying on different lipsticks with a box of tissues by her side.
“He’s a junior, so he could technically go off campus, but I’m thinking about inviting him to sit with us at lunch.” She pursed her lips and applied a dark pink that made her pale skin look luminous.
“That looks so much better on you,” I said. “Take it.”
She smiled. “Really?”
“I can trade you for the cheek stain I got at Sephora last week.”
“Deal.”
She reached into her bag and pulled out a thick, sparkly pink pencil. “You can use it on your lips too.”
“Thanks.”
“I think he’s from Ohio or something. So do you think he’s cool?” she asked.
“Who?”
“That kid, Ethan.”
“Oh,” I said, making pink circles on the apples of my cheeks like they do in the commercials. Ethan Garrison. I didn’t think much of him. He was tall and sort of goofy looking, with floppy brown hair that was too long to be short and neat, but not long enough to be, like, intentionally long hair. It was unkempt. That’s the word that came to mind when he walked into my AP American History class on the first day of school and sat across the room from me. “Yeah, he seems nice.”
Amanda smiled then, and I saw its meaning, even in the mirror. It meant that Ethan had become more than the new kid—he was now Soon-to-Be Amanda’s Boyfriend.
She always had a boyfriend. Amanda had dated Daniel Bick and Rob Morris and Seth Hirschberg—each for three months plus. She’s the kind of girl who knows how to smile at a guy, what to say to make him feel good, how to throw her head back ever so slightly when she laughs to show off her long, elegant neck. She’s gorgeous, too, but not in an obvious way. She has really short blond hair—a pixie cut that might look boyish or mom-like on someone else, but there’s something about her face. Her eyes are huge and open, almost, like, anime-sized. And they’re always full of light, a little joyful, a little teasing.
And now that I knew she had her sights set on Ethan, it was my job to be encouraging.
“He’s really funny in history,” I said. It was true. I had a positive feeling about him, like he was a nice guy who’d be good for my friend.
Amanda flopped down on the bed dramatically. “So we should study, right?”
She never spent long talking about guys—she wasn’t into that. She just established her interest and moved on.
“Yeah.” I sighed and pulled out my Honors English vocab sheet. We had this really hard teacher who drilled us on SAT words every week. The year before, two kids in her class got perfect verbal scores, so I guess her methods worked, but still—exhausting.
“Let me quiz you,” said Amanda.
I gave her my worksheet and rested my back against the wall. She stretched out on my pillow and put her legs across my lap.
“Celerity.”
I rolled my eyes. “Start with one I know!”
“That’s not any fun,” she said, smiling.
“I truly have zero idea,” I said. “I haven’t started studying these yet.”
“Okay, think of it this way: if you drank celery tea, it would probably just run straight through you.”
“You mean I’d have to pee?”
“Yes, and you’d have to rush to find a bathroom with swiftness and speed,” Amanda said with a grin. “Good, right?”
“I’m supposed to see the word celerity on a test and think of drinking celery tea—which I’m not even sure is a real thing—and having to run to the bathroom?”
“Yes!” She was superpleased with herself. “It’ll work. Trust me.”
We went through the rest of the list, and Amanda thought up silly memory devices for each one. Capricious: “Think of me! I’m a Capricorn and I am so fickle with guys.” Wanton: “This is how you act around Chinese food like wonton soup—totally lustful and undisciplined.”
Some of her ideas were a real stretch, but I spent the whole study session laughing.
“We’re so acing this test,” she said when she was packing up to go home.
“Obviously, because we’re geniuses.”
“Naturally.”
She gave me a small wave and an excited smile as she left my room. “Ethan tomorrow!” she said.
And I knew he’d be hers. Who could resist Amanda?