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19• why?

I inhaled deeply. I had set my mind to take charge and be who my heart told me to be. I would set things straight, which included confronting my apparent best friend, Valerie Hawthorne.

I opened the door and the cafeteria had not changed much. People still sat in clique tables. Mrs. Dobby was still the old thin lunch lady. And the smell of cheese and onions still hung in the air.

I hastily scanned the tables, searching for the A-List one, and I easily found it when I saw someone waving frantically at me.

Valerie.

It was showtime.

As I trudged towards the table, I rehearsed what I was going to tell Valerie. Hey Valerie, I didn't like what you did in Homeroom today. You should've told me in advance that I had duties and asked if I still wanted to execute them instead of taking them up yourself without consulti——

"Is it true?"

A guy suddenly appeared out of nowhere and stood in front of me, gazing at me with wonder. His eyes were kinda purplish.

I remembered seeing him from somewhere.

"Skater boy," I said before I could stop myself.

"Whoa whoa, Redding," he backtracked. "Skater boy?"

I cringed. "I'm so sorry. It's just that . . . I don't know you — I mean, I don't exactly remember you."

"So it's true."

"What's true?"

"Your amnesia," he scratched his head. "I thought your brother had nuts in his head but then I saw what they posted on the school website."

"School website?" There was a school website now?

"Yeah," skater boy whipped his phone out. "Everyone's talking about it."

"What?!" I took the phone from his hand and studied the screen.

I saw a photo of me which was not me but it was really me. My platinum blonde hair was down and it was flying all over as though it was being blown by the wind. I had on makeup and I looked really fierce. I was staring back at me and I noticed my green eyes were lined with kohl, cherry red lipstick on my mouth and I had posed as if I were in a photo shoot.

The fierceness in that photo startled me a bit, and it reminded me of the tigers I saw on Nat Geo that stood still before hunting their prey.

You might as well go in for the kill, tigress. Clark used to tease me whenever I was scared to try something new.

I shook my head, ridding that thought off my mind. I scrolled down to see the comments.

'Aww, poor Dee.'

'How unfortunate.'

'Ooh, nice.'

'Lol, three years? She should just drop out.'

'Hmm, interesting.'

'So theoretically speaking, if I steal something expensive of hers that she bought within the last two years, she won't know what's gone? YAAY'

Ugh. The never of these people.

"Who posted this?" I asked him.

"No idea," he took back his phone. "Are you really okay, though? Three years is such a long time. No wonder you looked lost."