Chicas Malas

Lunch was both her favorite and her least favorite period of the school day.

She liked it because she could be alone, and usually no one bothered her. She didn’t like it because sometimes she got tired of being alone, and during lunch there was nothing going on to make the time pass faster like there was during class.

Even though she and her mother had moved, MJ was still attending the same school. Mom said it was because it was the best in the district, and she wasn’t going to let MJ go to a school that wasn’t as good. MJ could tell it meant a lot to her mother, keeping her here. Selling their old house had been really hard, and MJ knew her mother blamed herself.

That’s why MJ had such a hard time being mad about moving, or at least being mad at her mother. She could see how much pain it caused Mom, and MJ didn’t want to add to that. Besides, as much as she loved their old house, after Papi left, every room reminded her of them all being together, and that always hurt.

Going to a different school was one change MJ wouldn’t have minded making, though. The kids at her school always seemed so stuck up to MJ. And most of them didn’t look like her. She never really talked about that, not even to Papi, but she noticed. She noticed every day.

MJ bought chocolate milk from one of the school’s vending machines. There was a spot behind the library where MJ liked to sit against the wall and watch wrestling on her tablet while she ate her lunch.

Lucha Dominion was MJ’s favorite pro-wrestling show, and they put out a new episode every week. She had their app loaded onto her tablet so she could keep up with it and watch extra stuff like interviews and behind-the-scenes videos. Unlike other wrestling shows, which ran all year long every year, Lucha Dominion happened in seasons like a regular TV show.

“So this is where you hide now?”

MJ looked up in alarm.

It was Madison. She was the top-ranked gymnast their age in the state and one of the worst people on the planet, or at least that’s what MJ thought.

Madison was flanked by Emma and Sophia, the other stars of their school’s gymnastics team. The two of them weren’t so bad, except when they were around Madison, and then they were like hyper puppies someone kept poking with a stick. It wasn’t hard to understand why. Not only was Madison their team’s undisputed leader, her dad was their gymnastics coach. No one wanted to cross her.

Besides, MJ thought, the three of them looked like they belonged together. They all matched. They were like an advertisement for The Pretty White Girl Store.

MJ had managed to avoid them since the school year started three weeks ago, but her luck had finally run out.

“I’m just eating my lunch,” MJ said, returning her attention to her tablet, hoping they’d go away.

None of them moved.

“We didn’t see you at tryouts,” Madison said.

“That’s because I wasn’t there. I’m not doing gymnastics anymore.”

Madison folded her arms across her chest and smirked.

“Why not?”

MJ didn’t answer her, because telling them the truth would just make Madison say even meaner things, and probably do worse than that.

“I hope you don’t think you’re too good for us, or something.”

MJ still didn’t answer.

The truth was they’d been so mean to her that even the thought of showing up for gymnastics practice made her want to cry.

Her silence and the way she was ignoring them made Madison angry.

“Look at me when I’m talking to you!”

MJ sighed. She paused her Lucha Dominion video and slowly raised her chin, staring up at the three of them.

Madison’s expression was like something out of a comic book panel. She looked like a Marvel villain who’d just been beaten up by Wolverine or something.

“Are you still watching that junk?” she asked, nodding at the frozen image on MJ’s screen.

Madison had always liked making fun of her wrestling obsession, but MJ was used to people doing that.

It only hurt now because wrestling was one of the things she shared with her papi.

“Obviously,” MJ said, too quietly to even be heard through her grinding teeth.

“I told you what my dad said about people who watch wrestling, right? How they can barely be smart enough to tie their shoes?”

MJ blinked hard as if she’d just been stung by a bee. The mention of Madison’s father hurt even worse than any of her insults. She remembered all too well the way their coach felt about wrestling. He’d always barked at her to “turn that junk off” whenever he caught her watching her tablet before practice.

“I didn’t try out this year because I just don’t want to do gymnastics anymore, that’s all.”

Madison glared at her.

MJ waited, her heart beating faster. She felt like she was sweating, and she hoped they couldn’t see it.

“You are so pathetic,” Madison said after a while.

There was so much hatred in her voice. MJ couldn’t understand why.

Madison kicked over the plastic bottle of chocolate milk sitting opened on the ground beside her. MJ had to scoot away to avoid the milk that spilled across the cement. She reached down and picked up the bottle while there was still some left inside.

Madison watched her and laughed. The other girls didn’t laugh. They just stood there with nervous smiles on their faces. She wished they’d say something, but she knew they were too scared of Madison and her dad to ever do it.

Fortunately, they walked away after that.

It wasn’t what they did to her that really bothered MJ, it was that she had to take it. That was the part that made her feel so powerless and angry. She wanted to fight back, but she didn’t know how.

MJ drank the sip of chocolate milk that was left in the bottle, and then she unpaused the video she was watching.

Listening to Corrina made her feel better.

Wrestling was still there for her, even if Papi wasn’t, and it helped her deal with the real world.

It didn’t fix things, but it helped.