"Ooh, yes. That is so soft. Oh my gosh. Why am I, like, literally disgusting?" I busied myself looking around the store. "You need to love yourself a little bit." Abby replied with, "I can't." They were kinda annoying at times. It's just, they spoke like middle schoolers and it could really drive you crazy sometimes. "What do ya think?" I dont care. "It'll make your boobs look bigger." The store looked really boujee. I tried to find some cute clothes, but I was like the Soccer Mom version of justice. I searched for the, Soccer Moms United sign, but I figured it was outside. "When she remembers the little boob. Yo, mood." Norah liked it, "Mm-hmm. You are a mood." She asked Ginny's opinion, seeing I was busy looking at the ugly jewelry. "I dunno, Ginny. What do you think? Should I get it?" Ginny said definitely and Abby grabbed the earrings from her hand. "These would look really cute on you." She watched as Ginny hid them, "Good. I want an iced coffee. Let's go." Nope. I yanked the earrings from Ginny and put them back.
"Black girl stealing? Why do you have to be a fucking stereotype? Put those ugly ass flared earrings back." She sighed and dropped them. It's sad that people play into stereotypes set for them. I believe you should always try to defy standards. We turned to leave, but the cashier yelled, "Stop!" We had to sit until our mother got there. She'd searched our bags, but not theirs and came up with nothing, but still attempted to get us in trouble.
She bursted into the store, "My daughter would never steal. This is an outrage. She would never..." Virginia looked guilty, "Mom, I did it. But Y/n made me put it back. We didn't have anything when she 'caught' us." Mom became even more enraged, "Did you check the other girls' purses, or just my daughter because she's Black? I work at Mayor Paul Randolph's office, and he'd be fascinated to know that a store in Wellsbury was racially profiling." The cashier told her that 'race had nothing to do with it.' "But we didn't have anything? You couldn't have saw us stealing shit, either, because you would've seen Ginny put them back too. We don't ave to steal your one dollar, fugly looking, bitch ass earrings you hoe! Everything in this shit hole is ugly anyway! I have rights!" Cheers erupted from Abby and Norah. I'm not done with you bitches yet. "Language, Y/n," my mom reminded me. She didn't mind if I cursed, but not too much.
"Oh my God. Oh, I feel faint. I'm sorry. Social injustice tends to upset me. I'm sure this was a misunderstanding. I'd love to pay for the, um, 'one dollar, fugly looking, bitch ass' earrings. And this lovely jacket. Such beautiful things. Who picks all this out? You? What an eye. You take cash?" She bought her things and took us outside. "So, gals, fun day?" Abby and Norah were apparently snitches. "We had no idea that Ginny was stealing." The audacity- "The fuck? It was your idea! Fuck you tittyless! And you too miss prostitute 'fuck me Jordan!'" They scampered away all frantically and I laughed, getting squeezed in a side hug by my mother. "Is that 87 King Street? Come here. We went across the street to that annoying bitch that's son keeps bullying Austin. "Georgia, hi! I've been meaning to chat. Zach was so disappointed Austin took his Star of the Week slot. He'd been really looking forward to it." And? They're in elementary school. "Is this your office?"
"Oops," she closed the door. "Don't wanna let all the cool air out. I don't think it's right to switch up the order on the kids. Do you?" I coughed, "Can't Zach be the star next week? They're just trying to include Austin because he's new. And Austin brought cookies. I'm sure Zach enjoyed that!" She shook her head, "I don't let him eat sweets. He had celery today." That's why he's actually upset dumb ass. Just desserts; speaking of which, I think Zach would like popsicles... "What's Star of the Week" Mom shrugged, "I'm not sure. I can only deal
with one child in crisis at a time."
--
We went into Blue Farm and I focused on ordering food. Ooh, nachos. "Do you think those girls care about you? You're not their friend. You're not one of 'em. How quickly did the scary redhead throw you under the bus? I raised you smarter than this..." Right, they don't. It was kinda disappointing, to be honest. I don't really know Norah, but I thought Abby liked me. "Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe!" Joe looked exausted. Poor guy. "Oh no." She rubbed her tummy, "My daughters and I were shopping, and we were suddenly famished." I gave him a remorseful look that he seemed grateful for. "I'll give you more time." He almost got away, when my mom added, "While shopping, I was thinking, Ginny never learned the value of a dollar. She's just been handed things her whole life, and what she isn't handed, apparently, she just takes." He muttered, "I'll come back and tried to leave, "And that isn't healthy for character development. So I was wondering..." He was quick to shut that down, "No, I'm not hiring."
"I was just gonna say we'd love two turkey clubs. No mayo." Both Ginny and I asked for extra mayo. "I think you should hire Ginny."
"I knew it."
"Just part-time."
"I mean, look around. So many customers not being helped."
"That's because I'm standing here talking to you. Fine. She can start this weekend."
--
"Yes, I did! I got the lead! I did it!"
"Oh my God. That's amazing, Max!"
"I'm so excited." They tried to speak to us. "Yo, Max!" Maxine grabbed the both of us and turned around, "Don't look. We are mad at them. What they did...bullshit." I agreed. As we walked, Bracia asked if we were coming to leadership and Ginny gave a quick and rude answer. I, however, said I'd go to Field Hockey practice. "Abby is, like, such a nightmare, and also Norah thinks your mom's, like, terrifying. It's really funny. She's so scared."
--
"Because I wanna cheer up Austin. Pick your favorite. Hey, guys. I'll be right back." Mom left us to play some ball-golf knock off game, without a clue how to play. Austin scratched his head; "Y/n? I don't get it." I didn't either, but I tried my best to point him in the right direction. I told him what mom had said to me and grabbed the ball, rolling it into another. Austin gave me his signature 'ready for the competition' face before grabbing the next ball and whacking mine out of place. I picked him up, waving him around, "Austin makes the play and the crowd goes wild, Wooo!" He giggled and I set him down again. "What a coincidence. Um..." I saw that mayor guy Paul was here. Oh. That's why mom wanted to go here. "'Cause my mom's a lying skank," Ginny said before I smacked her forehead, "Don't embarrass us."
"Know what?....Left foot forward, follow through. Whoo! There you go! Good job, man!" He gave Austin a high five, after he'd taught him how to play. "I was thinking about Green Gardens today. City Planning's claiming they can't install AC because the building's historic, right?" Paul looked upset.
"Right. Please, do not remind me."
"Hmm."
"'Hmm,' what?"
"The building next door has AC. Cynthia's real estate office. They share a wall. You'd have to assume..." Paul caught onto the idea, "That they share electric."
"Cynthia was the one leading the charge against the RMBs in Wellsbury, right?" Paul nodded and my mom sarcastically remarked, "Huh! Coincidence."
"Quite."
--
"So we went to, like, three different stores, and finally found the right shade." Abby and Norah had came to apologize, I assumed, but still hadn't gotten to the apology part. "Why?" Norah shrugged, "'Cause the cosmetic industry's racist." Ginny shook her head, they weren't getting her meaning. "No, I mean, why would you do that?" Their faces softened, "Oh, we felt bad. You're our friend. Oh my God. There is the most amazing contour YouTube video that I have to show you." I tapped my foot and crossed my arms, like my mother did quite frequently. "Are y'all not gonna apologize or...?"
"Oh my God. Fuck, I forgot. We brought the makeup, as well as that candy you like to apologize. I'm sorry, that was shit and I'm guessing you wouldn't have done the same, which makes me a terrible friend. I'll do anything for your forgiveness. I'm starting to kinda like you a bit." I laughed and rolled my eyes, tapping my feet even faster out of habit. "Ok, anything?" Abby and Norah's heads shook violently, "Ok, well.....I wouldn't mind having a servant for a week." They laughed and grabbed aprons I had in my clean laundry basket. "Glad to serve you, M'dear. Oh, Max just texted me. "You guys can't have fun without me! I hate being grounded! Ah!" There's, like, a million sad face emojis. Oh my God. She's so extra. We should take a picture of the three of us to make her really mad."
We posed weirdly and Abby clicked the button on her camera. "You wanna sleep at mines on Friday," she whispered. I nodded and she clapped her hands together, flopping on the bed.
--
"You're still in bed?" I woke up in Ginny's bed, late. I guess I feel asleep after Norah and Abby left at 11. "No, Mom. Stop. Not this. Stop." Virginia didn't want to get up, but mom forced her out of the bed. "Time to get up." I cracked my back whilst I stretched. My legs dropped to the floor and off the the bed, helping me rise slowly out of the sheets. Gin's phone chimed and she opened it up to Snapchat, tapping me to come see what it was.
"It's Friday! Happy Friday! Good morning, Ginny, Welcome to Friday!" BYE- I started dying laughing when my knees gave out. I fell on the floor, still laughing and could't stop. Ginny had smiled at it, so she was wondering why I'd be laughing, but I didn't respond.
I grabbed my clothes and put them on(At the top, but I changed the orange color bc thats weird), my navy blue sweater going on last, and ran down the steps. I was supposed to make breakfast! My mom's not good at that kind of stuff and Austin asked me to make eggs so politely last night.
--
I walked over to my friend group from the bathroom I'd been in all morning, still touching my lips with a smile. Marcus texted me before I got to school to meet him in there and all I'll say is that he's very good at that. "How are we getting booze for tomorrow?" I heard Press ask, what is with these 15 years olds and wanting to drink? "Press, you wanna try that gas station that let you buy a 30 rack?" He replied, "I don't want to too often in case he starts carding me." They talked about Jordan's mom's airline kit and went on and on about drinking. "You guys gonna be
one of those boyfriends and girlfriends who shares everything in a gross way that reminds me I'm gonna die alone? I mean, not that you're boyfriend and girlfriend, or that you're gonna be boyfriend and girlfriend 'cause who knows? We could get bombed by North Korea, and none of this would matter." Uh- no comment.
"OK, I'm going to class."
"Awkward...." Abby jogged to keep up with me after I'd walked away from the group. "Where were you all morning." My face flushed slightly and I walked faster so she didn't see. "Oh. Marcuuuus!" I slapped the hand she was tickling me with. "How cuute!" She grabbed the door to our Psychology classroom and waved, gesturing me in. She begged for details the entire class period.
"Sophomore Sleepover! Tomorrow is Sophomore Sleepover!" Ginny received another cringey-ass video from Hunter that I laughed at as well while I packed for both Abby's house and the School Sleepover I'd go to the day after. Max really hyped up Hunter for what. Like, hottest guy? That's Marcus. And he's so weird. I said goodbye to my family and drove to Abby's house. Her mom and dad were seemingly arguing about who was gonna open the door when the bell rang. "I'll just get it," I heard. Abby swung open the door with a smile and her arms wide. "Come here, sista!" I hugged her, smelling pleasant scents. Not only did she smell good, but her house smelled like vanilla. She seemed to noticed that I noticed, "I opened the vanilla extract so we could make cookies. We both had an understanding as we looked in the other's eyes, the last one to the kitchen is a rotten egg! I slid on my socks into the kitchen before her and cheered.
We started making cookies and I showed her what my family usually does. Or rather, my dad and I. "So you heat up the butter until it turns brown. Then, you wait until it gets hard again in the fridge. Brown butter tastes so much better than regular." I stirred the stick and a half in the pan as it began melting. "What do we do until it turns brown?" I shrugged, "We could talk." She jumped up onto the table. "Was Marcus good? At, like, making out?" I nodded enthusiastically, remembering what happened that morning. "Yeah, definitely. I don't know how to describe it, though. Perfect...tounge...usage?"
We laughed and she threw an egg at me, which I caught and put back. "Crazy egg girl. He actually got a boner while we were kissing and he got embarrassed so I had to leave." She giggled and posed with the parchment paper we had on the table. "Ok, but how big was he?" I though about the question for a moment. I mean, it looked pretty big, but I don't know. "Maybe. It looked, like around 8 I guess. and vaguely wide, sorry, I couldn't look away. But I couldn't know for sure." She got up to stir the butter around and begin to get ingredients out. I helped her get cups and the liquid measuring Pyrex. "I feel like I don't wanna wait until I'm married, but maybe I should? I'm like super fat and I don't want my future boyfriend to dump me. Or I could, like, turn off the lights. That's a good idea, isn't it?" She laughed and looked to me for reassurance, but I had a straight face. If she's fat, I'm a whale. "You are definitely not fat! And you are so pretty. If a guy doesn't want to be with you, he's a dumb bitch. Know how much you're worth, Abby!" SHe scrunched her nose and embraced me for a small side hug.
"Wow, how beautiful," she whimpered sarcastically. "But seriously, thank you." We poured the, now done, brown butter into a bowl and put it in the fridge.
--
We took a selfie with our finished cookies and posted it on Snapchat. Every one of our friends replied quickly, asking us to leave them a cookie. We'd make, like, 48 by accident, so Id din't think that'd be an issue. We'd bring the rest to Sophomore Sleepover. "Mmmm! You were right, this so, soo much better!" I smiled and grabbed a cookie from the plate we brought up, along with Ben and Jerry's ice cream, popcorn, and ice-cold waters. We were talking when we heard yelling from outside.
"You say things like, 'I wanna give this a try.'" Her dad argued back, "I am trying to talk to you. You're not meeting me halfway." I grabbed my phone and turned on Spotify, turning on my playlist. That my best friend, she a real bad bitch.
Abby smiled gratefully and stood to dance. "Come on! Dance with me!" She started jumping around and grabbed my arm. I, regretfully, got up to dance with her. I used to dance professionally, so dancing without a routine always makes me feel weird. "Wow, you're a great dancer!" I shook my head at her, "no, really!" I took her hand and we dance together singing the words. Now she twerkin', she throw it out and come back in
We stopped at the good part, Beep-beep, is that my bestie in a Tessie?
Fresh blow out, skin on tan, ooh, she ready
Bitch, you look goodt, with a T at the end
I'ma hype her every time, that my motherfuckin' friend
She pulled on her jeans after a while of dancing and looked in the mirror. She looked a little disappointed and I decided to give her a little time on her own after shouting, "Bitch you look goodt, with a T at the end!" She grinned and waved in my direction.
I used the bathroom and came back to phone notifications. Everyone was telling Abby how good she looked in those jeans, which I agreed. She gave me a pair to keep when I came in the room, even though they were 300 dollars. Damn, thanks Abby. By the time we finished our snacks and the tv show episode we watched(Glee!), it was midnight and time to got to sleep, according to her parents, which was fine because I was surprisingly tired. We lied down in her bed to sleep, facing each other when I remembered the question I wanted to ask her. "Abby, I've wanted to ask you this for a while." She looked scared, "Do you like me? Because I'm flattered, but I'm a hetero-"
"Um. No...That was, um, ok. Anyway, do you like Press? You're always giving him looks." She looked at her freshly painted feet before looking in my eyes again. "...Yes. He's dumb and rude, but he's always telling me how great I look or whatever and yeah." She played with her hands before setting them back down at her side. "Can I help? Help you get together, I mean. I love love and all my friends tell me I'm a great matchmaker. It'd be my pleasure, really." She whisper-screamed yes and thank you a thousand times before falling asleep in the hug she gave me. I made sure she was tucked in and good before I fell asleep as well.
--
After waking up early, at around 9, as we were supposed to be at school at 12, Abby and I ate the breakfast her mom made, bacon and eggs, and grabbed the cookie bag that her dad had packed. I had convinced Maxine to get shirts that say our initial on the back and I grabbed scissors from her drawer, happy that Abby's mom had a sewing machine. "What are you doing? You're cutting up your Y/i(Your initial) shirt!" I finished my cutting off the top and set up the shirt under the machine's needle. "I'm upcycling! These shirts are ugly, no shade. I'm making mine cute." She watched in wonder as I finished changing the shirt, tying the middle, which took about twenty minutes in total, much less than I'd originally expected. "Can you do mine too? But, like, different. Can you make it tie in the back and look all sexy?" I said yes and she ripped her shirt off quickly. "Cut it up!!" I think she enjoyed watching me cut them up more than she liked the shirts when they were done.
"Perfect! Thank you!" She jumped on me and I fell to the ground.
--
We arrived at the school 15 minutes early; I let Abby borrow one of my bras because she wanted her breasts to look bigger. I mean, they did, but I don't think mine are that big. And that 36 B looked a little weird on her, but that's just because I've seen her actual bra size. "Girls!" Maxine's mom yelled at us and Abby and I ran to meet everyone else, turning around to show our letters. "Y/i-G-M-A-N. What's Y/iGMAN?" Maxine shook her head sadly at her mom's words, "Y/i G-MAN. Like a cool movie name. And can you just, like, not?" Ellen smiled lovingly, "But I love you, and I'm super grateful to be here. Like a backwards mango." Maxine hit her head. "Maybe Ellen and I should make matching shirts." I snickered, but for some reason, Virginia was mad, as usual. "Are you trying to embarrass me?" Mom snickered too, "You're the G in Y/i G-MAN, and I'm embarrassing? Jesus, lighten up." I laughed and Ginny told mom what to do, which I walked away for after my mom hug because my sister thinks she Jesus or something and I'm not here for it. I walked into the building with my friends, while Ginny spoke.
"Holy crap. This is carnival on crack." We looked around, amazed by how the gym looked. Abby grabbed the bag of cookies and waved them in Press and Norah's faces. "Wanna try??" They both looked at each other and then scrambled to get to the bag first. Press was the first one to grab a cookie and everyone did the same after. "This shit's good, " he exclaimed with a mouth full of cookies. Everyone agreed and fought for the rest. Ginny enjoyed hers more silently, as we make them the exact same at home. "Let's get weird!" Everyone ran to the dance floor, after finishing 48 cookies in one sitting. I didn't think it was a good idea, but it wasn't my problem. We jumped to the music and I spinned Abby around and into Press. He didn't mind, though, grabbing her hand to dance. "Oh, wait, wait, wait. I have a great idea. Oh my God. You're gonna love this." Maxine took us to the photo booth, with Abby looking mad. We'd just taken her from her crush....
"Oh, sorry. Get out of our way." Maxine pushed past and we all chucked. We took a few pictures with various poses before we were interrupted. "Hey, gals. Mind if I get one with Ginny?" We all hopped out. "Its friday, happy friday," Abby finished, "Good morning ginny welcome to friday!" We laughed hard and ran, hoping they didn't hear us.
This was gonna be fun.