So not the drama, p.17
So Not the Drama, page 17
Just because Lila kept hinting she had what it took to get a lead, didn’t mean she’d get it. Did it?
Lizzie’s head spun. Her heart tugged, pushing her legs toward the Dorothy section. But her brain took over, reminding the heart who was in charge. Glinda was in several key scenes, had a handful of lines in each and was a good, solid role. She could score it easily as long as someone like Dru didn’t audition.
Lizzie’s heart picked up the pace again.
Of course Dru would audition for Glinda. No one tried out for only one role. It was crazy for Lizzie not to sign up for Dorothy auditions, as well.
She pointed her body toward the Dorothy list. Stopped. Took a step. Stopped again.
What was wrong with her?
Glinda. That was it. Nothing else.
Lizzie beelined it to her seat, to wait for Michael, before her sappy, hopeful heart could change her mind. She sat down, huffing heavily like the battle between her heart and mind was a physical one.
Lizzie crossed her hands over her chest to calm the aggressive thumping against her ribcage. She grabbed her backpack and dashed out of the auditorium before the theatre’s darkness closed in on her anymore.
Crisp, cool hit her in the face when she burst outside. The heat that plagued the JV game was gone, whisked away once the sun set. She eagerly gulped in the night’s fresh air even as a voice inside scolded her for chickening out.
The thought took hold. She was a coward.
She chastised herself for taking the easy way out.
Lizzie looked toward the football field. The bright stadium lights showcased people pouring from the stands. The game had ended. She couldn’t run to Mina for advice.
She closed her eyes and stood, one arm holding the door open, her body half in and half out of the school. With a quick breath, she silenced the bickering voices inside her head and retreated back inside.
Popularity Ain’t Easy
“If I were a rich girl (na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na).”
—Gwen Stefani, “Rich Girl”
Like at least two dozen other communities, Folgers Way was a short walk from the high school. The similarities ended there. An exclusive country club, private park, and golf course lay well hidden in the enclave of rambling estates and mansions of Folgers. You didn’t just walk into Folgers. No invite? No entrance.
The main road stretched ahead, wide and black. Street lights twinkled overhead giving the illusion that it was earlier than it was. But no cars passed by, making it feel later.
Just as the girls stepped to the neighborhood’s gate, Jessica and Mari-Beth, swaying and sashaying to the same silent rhythm like contestants on America’s Next Top Model, rounded the corner.
Jessica stopped in front of Kelly, ignoring Mina and Jacinta.
“Which house is yours?”
“I’m 1489,” Kelly said.
Mari-Beth nodded. “That’s what I thought. She’s just one street down from me.”
“Fine. We have to walk Mari home first,” Jessica announced.
“No, WE don’t. You meet us over Kelly’s,” Jacinta said, tired of Jessica already.
Jessica and Mari-Beth looked through Jacinta with their best blank mannequin stare.
“It’s not a big deal.” Kelly slipped a thin plastic card from her pocket and waved it in front of a blinking red console. “Cinny, really, I’m okay with it.”
A steel gate whirred softly disappearing behind a high-bricked wall that ran the perimeter of the neighborhood.
“Very James Bond,” Mina cooed.
Jessica and Mari-Beth sped up, keeping themselves a few paces ahead of the group.
Jake, Mari-Beth, Conner, Laura ... Mina ticked off the names of the people she knew who lived in Folgers Way. Laura’s mom had hosted several cheer pool parties, years ago. But Laura was going on her second year as a soccer chick. It had been a minute since Mina walked the neighborhood’s roads. They were still quiet as ever.
Padding along thoughtfully, Mina listened to the mix their footsteps made on the blacktop. Her cheer shoes, Kelly’s flats, and Jacinta’s made soft thuds, while Jessica and Mari-Beth’s matching open-toed heel sandals scratched against the road, echoing loudly off the trees.
There were more houses, near the neighborhood’s entrance, than Mina remembered. She passed a wide, spacious gap where she was positive there were once trees. Only the dim shine of house lights proved that something, no doubt, another of Folger’s mini mansions, was there beyond the darkness.
Jacinta threw Mina a look of disapproval. But Mina’s head was turned away looking off into the blackness. Jacinta silently cursed the assignment that trapped her in the lush landscape of Folgers Way on a Friday night with two girls too scared to stand up to someone who talked to them like they were dirt under her nails.
She peered past the well-lit street, lined with tall, full trees, into the darkness beyond, knowing by instinct, but not seeing for herself the homes set back off the road. Not even a breeze blew to rustle the trees. She felt like they had walked out of the world and into a sealed bubble.
The quiet was spooky.
Just as Jacinta was beginning to wonder if there was a world beyond the sidewalk, a three-story house came into view, lit up by half a dozen spotlights shining from the yard. The house, sitting on a small hill, shone bright against the blackness.You couldn’t miss it.
Yeah, that’s the point of all those “look-at-me” lights, Jacinta thought, suppressing a snort.
Her eyes bugged as the house came into full view. One, two, three ... seven, eight ... she counted the endless number of windows along the front of the red-bricked house (building?). Twenty-four in all—twelve along the top level, six in the middle, and six on the bottom half. Twenty-four windows? No way only one family lived there. Three windows across was the same width as her entire house in Pirate’s Cove.
It was insane. Seeing the crazy cribs on a show like The Fabulous Life of ... was one thing. Seeing one up close was like, whoa!
She frowned, shaken out of her stupor by Jessica and Mari-Beth, who had suddenly slowed down enough so that Jacinta nearly heeled Jessica. Jessica placed herself on one side of Kelly and Mari-Beth on the other, forcing Jacinta and Mina off the concrete sidewalk and onto the grass.
“So, Kelly,” Mari-Beth paused dramatically. “I’m dying to know why you transferred from McStew to public school.” Mari-Beth said public school like the word tasted bitter. She continued, before Kelly had a chance to answer. “I went to McStew until sixth grade. I know you remember that we both had Ms. Cornwell in fifth-grade language arts.”
“Yes, I remember,” Kelly said.
“Thought so,” Mari-Beth said, smug satisfaction on her lips.
Jessica nodded, as if something needed confirmation.
Kelly regretted not backing Jacinta now. They should have said no to walking Mari-Beth home.
Mari-Beth hadn’t changed since fifth grade. She was still shallow, ditzy, and mean. Well, one thing had changed. She was now, obviously, the Alpha dog in her clique. But Mari-Beth hadn’t been anywhere close to that at McStew, more like a flunky of Maisy Whitmore, their class’s popular girl.
Kelly wondered if Mari-Beth’s public school clique knew that at McStew, Mari-Beth would have never risen to Queen Bee. Pecking order was all about the number of zeros in your family’s bank account, who had a bigger trust fund, who had hallways, auditoriums, and new wings named after their family thanks to fat donations.
Mari-Beth’s dad was a successful executive at a company. That was it. He didn’t own the company, wasn’t the founder or even the president of a division. He just worked there. Mari-Beth certainly didn’t go without the usual rich kid spoils. But whatever her dad’s salary, it wasn’t enough to earn Mari-Beth a place among the ruling class at McStew.
“You’re Latino, right?” Mari-Beth asked. “Puerto Rican?”
Kelly eyed her wearily. “Yeah.”
“I always figured you were on some kind of scholarship. You know some kind of getting more minority students in McStew kind of thing.” Mari-Beth shrugged. “Why leave a free ride?”
“I wasn’t on scholarship,” Kelly said. Her lips, pinched in anger, disappeared into a thin line.
Mari-Beth shrugged again.
“Okay, so, why did you leave?” Jessica asked again. Her lips turned down into an ugly frown. “People would kill to get into McStew.”
“I’ve been wanting to attend public school for awhile,” Kelly said. “Del Rio Bay High is one of the best public schools in the state. It’s not like I went from McStew to a bad school.”
Caught up in her own curiosity, Mina didn’t think twice as she peered around Jacinta and asked, “Why did you leave, Mari-Beth?”
Mari-Beth stopped abruptly, tossed her hair, and glared at Mina.
Mina’s feet skittered to a stop and she took a step back to realign herself with the group.
Mari-Beth drew out her words slowly, as if Mina were stupid or deaf.
“I only transferred because my parents made me,” Mari-Beth said. She rolled her eyes. “They said I needed a more well-rounded educational experience. Like, isn’t that what college is for?”
Mari-Beth rattled on, dropping her special brand of knowledge. “Outside of having parents like mine who actually believe public school can be a good thing, there are only two reasons to transfer from a school like McStew. Scandal or ...”
“Stupidity,” Jessica finished.
“I told you she was weird,” Mari-Beth said. She and Jessica walked off, picking up their pace, leaving Kelly behind. Their identical pod friend cackle echoed in the quiet night.
Mina immediately closed in, joining Kelly on the sidewalk. “I don’t blame you. McStew preppies are a whole new breed of snobby.”
“I always felt like I was under a microscope there,” Kelly said.
“That’s anywhere,” Jacinta said.
“No, it’s different at McStew.” Kelly talked so only Mina and Jacinta could hear. “Except for a couple of SKs, most everybody there comes from well-to-do, wealthy, or just plain filthy rich families.”
“What’s an SK?” Jacinta frowned.
“Scholarship kids,” Kelly said. “I’m not surprised that Mari-Beth thought I was one.” She didn’t bother to admit that it shocked her that Mari-Beth had said it so bluntly. It shouldn’t have. Mari-Beth was as clueless and insensitive as ever. But it did. Kelly shook her head. “The few black or Latino kids at McStew usually are on scholarship. There are only a handful ...”
“Of black and Latino kids or people on scholarship?” Mina asked.
Kelly grinned. “Both. But only a handful of SKs get in each year, black, white, whatever. They’re the kids who have the grades but not the tuition.”
“I guess you had both,” Jacinta said. Her eyes swept the immaculate grounds of Folgers Way. “No SKs are coming from this part of town.”
“Nope. But trust me, there are no wings named after Raoul Lopez at McStew, either,” Kelly said.
“Who is that? Your father?” Mina asked.
“My grandfather. He was a president at Honeywell, which means I was just one of hundreds from a family that ...” Kelly struggled to find a word. She shrugged. “Some people go to McStew ... like I did. Other people own McStew.”
“Daddy gotta be Bill Gates to get the real love, huh?” Jacinta said, chuckling.
“Something like that,” Kelly said.
“Well, DRB High has some clique issues but nothing like that,” Mina said. “Hey, JZ asked Jake if he knew you.” She laughed, tripping before she got the words out. “Jake was like, ‘who that black-looking chick?’ Now, what is black-looking?”
Kelly raised her hand. “I’m called that all the time.”
Mina hooted again and her uncontrollable giggle spread to Kelly.
Even Jacinta smiled.
“But he thinks you’re cute,” Mina said. “That’s something.”
Kelly’s shoulders shook as she laughed. Mina’s constant, ordinary chatter made her feel at ease. She loved how Mina pulled you into the conversation with question after question then set her large, deep eyes on you until you answered.
If Kelly closed her eyes they could easily just be three friends hanging out on a Friday night.
They stopped at the end of Mari-Beth’s driveway. Mari-Beth and Jessica stood, waiting, arms crossed. A nod passed between them as Mari-Beth said, “So, Kelly, Jessica and I were talking ...”
“Umph, somebody call MTV News,” Jacinta said.
Mina clinched her toes together to stop herself from laughing.
“Even though you’re kind of... odd.” Mari-Beth tilted her head, a small frown turned down her lips.
Mina couldn’t believe her ears. Odd was a putdown no matter how you turned it. But Mari-Beth said it as if she felt sorry for Kelly’s condition. Mina waited for Mari-Beth to pat Kelly on the head like a lost dog. Instead, Mari-Beth said, “We were wondering if you wanted to hang out with us tomorrow?”
“Dag, I’ve never seen somebody insult and invite somebody to kick it in the same sentence,” Jacinta said.
This time Mina did laugh.
“Jess, can handle the details,” Mari-Beth said. She turned and sashayed down her driveway, throwing a backward hand wave. “See you tomorrow, Jess.”
“Your girl is wack,” Jacinta said to Jessica.
“Jessica, no harm or anything,” Kelly said. Mina noticed it was the same lost-dog tone that Mari-Beth had just used. “But I’m not into cliques and secret societies or any other group that excludes people.”
“We didn’t say anything about inviting you into the glams,” Jessica sniffed. “Mari-Beth just wants to know if you want to hang out one day, just us three. Give it some thought.”
Jessica turned on her heels and headed the way they had come.
Sensing there was no way to say no politely, Kelly opted for her usual answer, silence. She fell into step beside Mina and Jacinta, wondering if Jessica, five steps in front of them, would head to the right house. She didn’t have to wonder long.
A few long strides later, Jessica turned to the right down a brick-paved driveway lined by fat flowery bushes. A motion sensor clicked and bright white light illuminated the driveway as a contemporary, brick mansion came into view.
“Here we go. Time to knock out prejudice over popcorn and pop tunes,” Mina said.
Jessica’s steps slowed enough to let the girls catch up. Together, they approached a porch that ran the length of the house. Six double windows bathed the porch with light from inside of the house.
Kelly pressed her hand against a panel on the frame and there was a loud metal click. The finely carved wooden door swung gently open, revealing a huge foyer with walls draped in art. A shiny oak floor laid out like the yellow brick road.
Mina swallowed her gasp. She didn’t want to be the first one to come off like she wasn’t used to anything. Her father was a techie but even she was impressed by all of the Mission Impossible–like security. And Kelly’s house was huge.
She gaped in spite of her resolve. She tried to play it cool and snuck a sideways glance to see if Jacinta was holding up any better.
Jacinta’s eyes, locked on the spiral stairs next to an elevator, were wide as saucers.
The celebrities on Cribs didn’t have anything on Kelly’s digs. Her house ran high and deep. And that was just the view from the porch.
Mina stepped inside. A tangy spice that smelled out of place tickled her nose. Houses like this usually only had one smell, clean. But the pleasant, lingering scent—Mina couldn’t place it, but it was something hot—made the enormous house feel close and cozy. Her mouth watered, reminding her that she hadn’t eaten since before the football game.
Kelly’s voice bounced off the twenty-foot ceilings. “Abuela, yo estoy en casa!”
Jessica nudged Mina, “What did she say?”
Still gazing at the stairs design, Jacinta responded vacantly, “She said, ‘Grandma, I’m home.’”
Mina couldn’t have been more surprised if Jacinta had grown a third arm right in front of her face. She elbowed her. “How did you know that?”
“My boyfriend’s best friend is Puerto Rican. He speaks in Spanish all the time. I’ve picked up on a lot of it.”
Kelly’s grandmother, a dark brown, petite woman with her hair cut in a short pixie style, appeared at the top of the staircase. Stylish in a pair of orange capri pants, matching mules, and a white blouse with ballerina sleeves, she made her way down. She embraced Kelly tight, like they hadn’t seen each other in a long time. “Hola, Nena. Estos son tús amigas de la escuela?”
“Hi, Grand.Yeah, these are my friends from school,” Kelly translated.
Mina wondered how she could use that word with a straight face about Jessica. But then how rude is it to say, “These are my two friends and this one chick I hate.”
Mrs. Lopez beamed at the group. “Hi, girls, I’m Kellita’s grandmother. Are you girls hungry?”
Never shy, Mina spoke up for all of them. “Yes, Ma’am.”
Kelly teased her grandmother. “Like you’re going to cook this late. She’s showing off for you guys. She’s the main one always telling me and my brother that this isn’t a twenty-four-hour kitchen.”
“Well, it’s not,” Mrs. Lopez lectured. “But Cita made empanadas, earlier. There’s plenty.”
“Thanks, Grand.”
“Okay. Well, I sent Kevin to stay with a friend. I knew you wouldn’t want him breaking up your party.”
“Ooh, thank you,” Kelly gushed, glad her grandmother read her mind.
Jacinta murmured to herself, “Not like we’d ever know he was here. This big ass house.”
Mina poked her, even though she agreed. They exchanged a tiny smile until Jessica groaned. “You guys act like you’re country cousins visiting the big city,” she whispered, annoyed. Knowing that she’d felt the same way, years ago the first time she was welcomed into Del Rio’s glam side. But that was then. The girls’ slack-jawed irritation annoyed her.
