January 4
Laura
Laura pulled into the EHS senior parking lot just after 8:00 a.m. It was the first day back after winter break, and she was ready to start the second semester of senior year in a very different way.
This time Laura wasn’t the new girl anymore and she welcomed not having to walk in on a clean slate. It was time to focus her energy on the pleasure of being one of, if not the most popular girl in school. Now she could do what she wanted, when she wanted, with whomever she chose. She was the Queen Bee that the meek girls feared, only she wouldn’t be nearly as scary as the Amandas of the world. Laura knew that high school was a tricky series of hoops she had to jump through before she could finally live on her own, and now she was ready to navigate them with complete ease. High school is finally mine, she realized. Now I can make the rules that govern everyone else’s lives.
She stepped out of her convertible and glanced around at the other cars in the student parking lot. This time she didn’t have to look to find the only other topless car in the lot. There was only hers.
“Thanks for the ride,” Charlie said awkwardly as he closed the passenger side door behind him. “See you in English.”
“Aren’t we going to walk in together?” Laura asked.
“I have to run to see Hayden about a student council thing,” Charlie said, clearly lying. It only took one pointed look from her to change his mind. “Sorry,” he said. “I’m not trying to avoid being with you or anything.”
“Yes, you are,” Laura said. “This will take some time to get used to, but you will. Starting today.”
Across the parking lot she caught the glance of two girls getting out of a white Toyota Camry. Laura smiled in their direction, and they waved back.
“Welcome back, hot stuff!” one shouted.
“It’s nice to see you two hopping out of the same car!” the other added.
Laura smiled to herself as she remembered a very similar moment almost five months ago. They were the same girls who’d greeted her with that scared look on her first day at Englewood, she now realized. My, how things have changed. This time Laura glanced back at the two gorgeous brunettes as she walked toward the double-steel doors of EHS with Charlie on her arm. Once again, she saw the genuine feeling behind their eyes, only this time it was very, very different. They were jealous.
I have exactly one hundred seventy-eight more days of stares like that to look forward to, she thought as she leaned over and gave Charlie a surprise peck on the cheek, and then I get an even bigger gift: Charlie’s final decision on what he’s going to confess.