by Desiree Day
“Well that’s up to you. But keep reading. I got enough juice on that chic that by tomorrow half the school is going to hate her.”
“How did you get it?” Jessica asked.
“I refuse to reveal my sources.”
Jessica thought back to all the times Tamia just stood by like a robot waiting to be told what to do and refusing to help her when Chloe insulted her. “Leave in the part about Tamia.”
“You sure this can’t be traced back to you?” Jessica asked.
Matt shook his head. “Trust me. If anybody gets that deep, the only thing they’ll find is that it was created on a computer in China.”
“Talented! You’re da bomb man!” Samantha exclaimed.
Nora knocked on the door and rolled in the now familiar cart. On it was three covered dishes. “Time for a break!” she announced.
“Oh, I love you,” Jessica exclaimed then gave her a kiss. Over the course of her lifetime, she had served as a maid, nanny and friend. “Thanks.”
She handed Jessica a plate with baked lasagna, rolls and a salad on the side. The other two plates held the same. She passed out the other plates and left, wearing a small smile. She was glad to see Jessica having fun. “This is sooo wrong,” Jessica said. Eating her lasagna was like a bite of heaven.
“This isn’t on the approved list,” Samantha said.
Jessica’s eyebrows shot up. “You care?”
“Hell naw! I just wanted to say it before you did.”
“I’m ROTFLMAO.”
“Ewwww, you’re talking like one of them.”
“Just joking. You have permission to choke me if I do it again.”
Twenty minutes later, their plates were empty. “Back to business,” Jessica said. “We have the web site, how do people find out about it?”
“Ladies, you have so little faith in me,” Matt mocked.
“Okay Mr. Smarty, impress us. What else you got?”
“These.” He hit a button and the screen filled up with row after row of e-mail addresses.”
“E-mail addresses?”
“Yep! Of every student in the school district,” Matt said.
“The school district? Not the school?” Samantha asked.
“The whole freaking school district,” Matt confirmed, his voice smug.
“How did you get those?” Jessica asked.
“Like I told you, I know people.”
“I got you now, beeatch!” Jessica shouted.
“So let’s make this happen,” Samantha said. “Let’s get this beeatch!”
Jessica’s fingers flew over the keys, she hit send. op taK dwn Chloe wz a 6S. SYL. Jessica glanced back at Chloe and she suppressed a smile. Chloe looked like she had just found out that her favorite hair color had been discontinued. Next Jessica glanced at the opposite side of the room where Chloe’s former friends now sat. Occasionally they’d throw her a collective glare of such hate that half the room felt it. Jessica’s phone beeped and she opened her message. Cu@ lnch, Sam
“I love it,” Samantha gushed. The effects of Matt’s work had hit first thing in the morning. She and Jessica were sitting in the lunchroom watching Chloe trying to worm her way back to the top of the pack.
“I wonder what she’s telling them?” Jessica mused.
“That she didn’t write it, that it’s a fake.”
“That’s true,” Jessica whispered, but she didn’t have too, there was no way she could be overheard over the thunder of teenage voices.
“Yep, but they don’t know that.”
“Do you think we should tell them?”
“Are you crazy?”
“Well we did kinda ruin her life.”
“Not hardly. Chicks like her always survive. No matter how many times they get knocked down, some knight in shining help them up. Watch and see, she’ll end up a legend, I guarantee it.”
“How?”
“She’d probably get a modeling contract from those naked pictures.”
“Well why did we even do anything?” Jessica asked perplexed.
Samantha grinned. “Because Jessica we were responsible for making a little slice of her life a living hell,” she gloated with satisfaction. “And I freaking love it!”
Chapter 8
“Okay everybody line up against the wall!” Ms. McKenzie ordered. The class looked at each other. “Line up or I’m going to start calling people,” she threatened and they all scurried to the wall, and pressed their backs against it.
“Today my dear friends is weigh in. We’re going to see how much weight you all lost in the last week. I’m very excited. Can’t wait to see the results of all your hard work.”
Jessica glared at her friends, who were intentionally avoiding her gaze, she knew she should not have eaten all that junk food. Samantha nonchalantly chewed her gum, while humming to herself. And Matt grinned as though he had a secret, Jessica eyed him suspiciously.
Ms. McKenzie sauntered over to the corner where the flag was kept. Next to the flag sat a scale that no one had noticed. Tilting it back, she rolled it to the front of the class.
“Oh crap!”
“I don’t believe this!”
“Oh no!” Jessica groaned. This wasn’t what she was expecting at all. To be weighed in front of the whole class was worse than getting your period in the middle of gym class. I should have signed up for gym, she thought grimly. On the first day of class The Mac had put up a partition and wrote down their weight, where they were embarrassed privately not publicly. The Mac isn’t that diabolical she’s a little bizarre but not diabolical, Jessica decided and relaxed.
Ms. McKenzie looked at her clipboard. “Okay on the first day of class you all were weighed. If there’s an increase in the weight that you gave me, then you people will have to write a one thousand word essay on why maintaining a healthy weight is beneficial for you. And the people who lost weight will have to write the same essay but only five hundred words.”
Suddenly a chorus of questions erupted:
“May I take off my sweater?”
“What about my boots?”
“I had two glasses of water before class. Are you going to take that into consideration?”
Ms. McKenzie studied the group, then threw up her hands. “You may take off your shoes, but all shirts, pants, skirts, blouses are to remain on. In other words, no undergarments will be shown. Okay let’s get started. I won’t be going alphabetically this time,” she said and a few students smiled relieved. “Nor will I do a reverse alphabetical,” she revealed and this time there was a collective sigh of relieve. “I’ve decided on something better.”
The students pressed forward with anticipation.
“I wrote all of your names on a slip of paper and put them in this little hat,” see said gleefully and held up the hat. “And I’m going to reach in and randomly select student’s name. So that way, none of you will feel that I’m picking on you.” She reached in and pulled the first name. “Let’s see who this is.” She unfolded the sheet of paper and called, “Samantha Rice.”
Jessica felt Samantha stiffen beside her. “It’s not random at all. I bet my favorite pair of Gap jeans that you’re next,” Samantha hissed in Jessica’s ear before stalking to the scale.
“Do you need to take anything off?” Ms. McKenzie asked with a smirk.
Instead of answering, Samantha rolled her eyes and stepped onto the scale. Samantha watched as the numbers inched up to one forty, bypassed one fifty and stopped at one hundred eighty pounds. The higher the numbers got the lower Samantha’s heart sank. “This can’t be right,” she said as it stopped at one hundred eighty pounds.
“Why don’t you take off your boots,” McKenzie offered in a rare display of sensitivity.
“Um sure.” Samantha lumbered over to a chair, plopped down and attempted to bend down, but she felt herself tittering like Humpty-Dumpty. “Give me a minute,” she grumbled as she tried to regain her balance. At home, sometimes her little sister helped her with getting h
er shoes off and on. She lifted her foot a couple inches and stopped, the little space it was from her thigh felt like a mile. Her foot dropped to the floor. “I’ll keep what I have,” Samantha muttered. She pushed herself out of the chair and waddled next to Jessica, who squeezed her hand.
“One hundred and eighty it is. Thank you Samantha,” McKenzie said. She stuck her hand in the hat and pulled out another name. “Jessica Smith please come on down!”
“Told you,” Samantha hissed as Jessica dragged her feet as she made her way to the front of the class.
“Do you need to take anything off?”
Only about sixty pounds she wanted to say, but shook her head no instead.
“Step on up!” Using her clipboard, Ms. McKenzie waved Jessica toward the scale. Jessica tentatively approached it as though she was entering a fitting room to try on bathing suits. “Hurry up. I still have a lot to do!” Jessica stepped on and immediately closed her eyes. But then changed her mind and opened them. I want to know before it’s announced to the world. “One seventy-five.”
One seventy-five, not quite one twenty but not quite two hundred. My weight isn’t that bad is it? She mulled as she fell into place next to Samantha. Her friend still wore a shell shocked expression as though she had walked into a Baskin Robbins and discovered that it had been converted to an organic vegetarian restaurant.
“Matt Lincoln!”
Matt sauntered to the front of the room and confidently stepped on the scale. “Be gentle with me,” he teased and the class rolled with nervous laughter.
“Two seventy eight!” Ms. McKenzie barked.
“I guess I’d better lay off the donuts,” Matt joked then ambled back to the line.
After Matt, outbursts of shock, tears of embarrassment and giggles of nervousness were heard as the remaining students were weighed.
“You all may sit down,” Ms. McKenzie instructed. They stampeded back to their seats before she changed her mind. She stood in front of the class, alternately studying her notes then them. This went on for five minutes before she said the dreaded three words. “You guys suck!” The Mack slammed the clipboard on the desk. “Each and every one of you gained weight.” She began walking around the class, glaring at them. She continued slicing between rows and backtracking until she ended where she started. “So in addition to your thousand word essay I want each of you to write the following sentence, I gained some weight and I need to lose it, five hundred times.”
“I’m not going to do that?” Samantha blurted out.
The blood drained from Ms. McKenzie’s face so fast that she looked like a vanilla ice cream cone. “What did you say?”
“I’m not going to do it. It’s juvenile, insulting and just plain stupid. And now that I’m thinking about it, I’m not writing a thousand word essay.”
“Yes you will!”
“No I’m not.”
“Yes you will!”
“Nu uh!”
Ms. McKenzie stalked through the rows of desks and halted in front of Samantha. “You will write it and you will complete it and will turn it in at the next class.”
Samantha crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t think so.”
“Oh I know so.”
“Why are you always trying to insult us and belittle us for our weight?”
“Yeah,” Jessica murmured. “That’s not right,” she said a little louder.
The Mack pointed her finger at Jessica. “You! Go to the principal’s office.”
On trembling legs, Jessica stood up, she had never been sent to the principal’s office. With her lips quivering and her eyes tearing, she turned to Samantha. Her friend shot out of her seat.
“I’m going with her.”
“Me too!” Matt got out of his chair and joined his friends.
“No you’re not!”
“Yeah I am! Come on!” She grabbed her friend’s hand and pulled her out the classroom. Matt lumbered behind them.
“You guys are going to get into trouble,” Jessica said, worried about her friends.
“Whatevah. What can she do to us?”
“I don’t know Sam, but whatever she does. I know that it’s going to be hellacious. Just wait and see…hellacious!”
“Can she make us do this?” Jessica groaned. “I mean isn’t this illegal?”
“Yeah, isn’t she breaking some type of child labor law?”
Jessica, Samantha and Matt were in Ms. McKenzie’s back yard raking up leaves. “I bet she’s sitting on a full acre,” Matt decided.
“What her big azz or big house?” Samantha cracked.
“I meant house, but either works,” Matt said.
“How can she do this?” Jessica moaned for the hundredth time. Just an hour into it, her arms hurt worse than a shop lifter trying to boost portable DVD players.
“She struck a deal with the principal. Instead of detention, we have to rake her nasty old yard,” Samantha answered.
“Oh I would love detention. With its nice pukey green walls, arrogant delinquents and teachers who’d preferred to have pins stuck in their eyes instead of monitoring detention. Oh yeah I would love detention,” Jessica replied sarcastically. She stopped and pulled off her heavy hoodie and dropped it to the ground. She rolled her shoulders.
Matt saw her discomfort and placed his rake on the ground and stepped over. “Here, maybe this’ll help.” Before Jessica could ask what he was talking about, he started to gently massage her shoulders. She let out a strangled cry when she felt Matt’s hands. “It’s just me,” Matt said, before chuckling softly.
“Oh,” she breathed. Jessica stood mannequin still as Matt kneaded her shoulders. This was the first time a boy had ever touched her.
“Next time we’ll fight for det—” Samantha looked up to find Matt’s hands on Jessica, she nearly dropped her rake. What the hell? “Whaaat?” she mouthed to Jessica. Jessica rolled her eyes in response.
“Does that feel better?” Matt asked.
“Yeah sure.”
“Let me know if they knot up again. Okay?” he asked then, picked up his rake and resumed working as though massaging Jessica’s shoulders were a regular occurrence.
“Okay,” Jessica whispered.
Samantha hurried over to her friend. “Um, I think we missed a spot in the front yard!” she yelled. And before Jessica could protest she grabbed her hand and tugged her to the front of the house. “What the hell happened? What was Matt doing feeling you up? Did you know he was going to do that? Did you ask him? Is there something going on between you two? Is this his first ti—?”
“Would you shut up!” Jessica screamed. She needed some quiet time to think about what just happened with her and Matt.
Samantha blinked in surprise Jessica rarely yelled at her. She paused then asked, “Is this his first time? Were you expecting it?”
Jessica laughed. “You’re crazy Sam! Just crazy. I guess I’m not going to get a minute to myself. I don’t know what happened. I didn’t even ask him. I took off my hoodie ‘cause I was getting too hot, and then I felt some hands on my shoulders and I thought it was you. But then I looked and it was Matt.”
“Gurl. I didn’t know Matt had caught feelings for you. That’s bananas.”
Jessica shook her head. “No that’s not true, Matt’s not feeling me like that. I think he’s just being nice.”
“I don’t know. A boy just don’t massage shoulders unless he wants something.”
Jessica thought about what her friend said. “That would be true if I were horizontal, the lights were dim, Trey Songz playing in the background,” she said dreamily and Samantha snorted pulling Jessica out of her dream. “But I think he was just being nice,” she insisted.
“Nice or not. He did have his hands on your—”
“Look at the two fatties!” They were so engrossed in their conversation that neither one of them noticed the car that had stopped. In it sat Darryl and some of his friends.
“Shut up butt wipe!” Samantha yelle
d.
“You should know something about butts, yours is big enough. That should make you a buttologist.”
“Oops, I thought that was your nickname. The rumor is that you like butts, but not on girls.” Even from twenty feet away they could see his face redden and his lips moving without anything coming out.
“Bitch!”
“Why don’t you come in my face and say it!”
“Samantha!” Jessica said panicked. This time they didn’t have a teacher to intercept them. “Oh my God here they come!” Jessica and Samantha watched as Darryl and his crew sauntered to them. “What do you think they’re going to do to us?” Jessica asked then grabbed Samantha’s hand.
Suddenly Matt rounded the house. “Yo whassup?” he said to Darryl and his friends, his voice casual.
Darryl and his crew halted. They hadn’t expected Matt. They quickly sized each other up. Matt outweighed Darryl by at least fifty pounds and had a couple inches on him.
“You need something dawg?” Matt asked.
“Yeah, those assholes don’t know how to keep their mouths shut,” Darryl sneered, not intimated by Matt.
“Asshole!” Samantha raised her rake and swiped it at Darryl, just barely missing his arm.
“Yeah!” Darryl shouted.
“Don’t you ever call me that!” Samantha said as she raised her rake a second time, aiming for his face this time.
“Chill Sam, I got this,” Matt said confidently and Samantha snarled at him before she lowered her rake, but she turned her attention to Darryl, ready to strike if necessary. “I think you’d better dip.”
“Not until I’m finish with these two.”
“Screw you!” Samantha shouted.
“That’s right,” Jessica chimed in, but stumbled back when Darryl stepped toward her.
“You guys need to step,” Matt repeated.
“Whatevah,” Darryl said, waving his hand at him dismissingly.
In a flurry of movement, Matt had Darryl trapped on the ground. What Matt rarely told anyone was that he use to wrestle but had to stop because of his knees.
“What the hell!” Darryl groaned. And his friends stood frozen with shock, they didn’t know what happened.
