I wanted to help Rhonda… but I also wanted to turn invisible and escape the Wrath of the Princesses. She was trapped in their evil web of insults, and it looked like they were moving in for the kill.
Get away now, I told myself, while you still can! I moved, but my feet went the wrong way. Instead of going backward, they went forward. And before I knew what I was doing, I heard myself say, “Shut your lipstick holes! Rhonda’s singing with the band, and she rocks!”
The hall went dead silent. Missy’s gaze made me feel like a bug that had been pinned to a board with its wings still moving. Everyone was watching us. Rhonda’s eyes were so wide that I thought they might fall out of her head and roll around on the floor.
Finally, Missy laughed. Brittany and Bethany laughed too, playing follow the leader, as usual. “Rhonda isn’t even your friend,” Missy announced. “Remember? You told me so yourself.” Then she looked over at Rhonda with a smile, like she’d won.
Rhonda looked at me. “Georgia wouldn’t say that,” she said, but she didn’t sound sure. For the first time ever, she spoke in lowercase letters.
“I—” I tried to speak, but all I could do was make a strangled little squeak.
Rhonda blinked, as if a bug had flown into her face. Her eyebrows pulled together, and then her chin started to quiver. People in the hallway had stopped and were staring. Things were getting quiet, in a bad-quiet kind of way.
Missy let out a loud “Ha!” and walked away, the Princesses trailing after her. I felt the students who lined the hall look away from us. But Rhonda couldn’t tear her gaze from mine. I knew what she wanted to hear—that I’d never said that. That it wasn’t true.
But I had said it.
PS: I just can’t draw any of this. It’s too hideous.
Please, just look away, like everyone else did.