She giggles. “I know your voice. What number are you calling me from?”
I tell her about the hotel employee and how awesome she is for letting me use the “urgent” phone.
“You should leave her a really good review online,” Zara says.
“I definitely will. So what’s up? I miss you.”
“I miss you, too,” she says. My heart floods with warm fuzzies when she says it. I’ve become a completely lovestruck dork around this girl. We chat for a bit and I tell her about my attempts to find cell signal and how I wish I could text her more often.
As happy as I am to hear from her, something feels off. She sounds a little sad.
“You okay?” I ask.
“Yeah,” she says, but I’m not convinced.
“You sound upset.”
She sighs into the phone. “Eh, I’m good. School is just… exhausting. But it’ll be better when you come back.”
“I can’t wait.” I check the clock on the wall above me. My fifteen minutes is almost up. “As soon as I get back, we’re going on our second date.”
After we hang up the phone, a darkness overshadows my good mood from getting to talk to her. She sounded off. Sad, maybe. Or upset. I’m not sure. I don’t know her very well yet, but she still didn’t sound like her normal self.
I hope everything is okay.
Twelve
Zara
I wishfootball didn’t even exist. I know the mere thought of that is blasphemous in my household and probably in the entire country since everyonelovesfootball so freaking much. But I’m sick of it. Not the sport, exactly, but everything else that goes with football.
Especially homecoming.
This week has been a nightmare of epic proportions. There hasn’t been a single event in my entire life that was this stressful. Zane’s ex-girlfriend has waged a complete war on me for homecoming queen. It started with the posters. Then she started her daily lunch parties, which is so stupid I can’t believe people fall for it. She passes out cupcakes with her face printed on it in edible sugar paper and spends the whole time taking selfies and talking with the underclassmen. Basically anyone who thinks she’s “cool” has been gathering around to get their dose of fake popularity from her. She’s laying it on so thick it’s ridiculous.
Most everyone in the senior class seems to be on my side. At least they act like they are. And while our school used to only have seniors voting for seniors, a couple years go the student council successfully changed the school charter to say that all students, no matter their grade, can vote for homecoming court. Andrea is using this rule change to her advantage by sucking up to all the underclassmen who think it’s cool to be friends with a senior. It’s pathetic. Don’t they realize she’s not really their friend?
Her posters have gotten worse, too. Now she’s telling everyone how important it is to vote for new people and not just stick to the same old traditions. Her point is stupid because there are no more women in my family left to become homecoming queen. Jackie got it two years ago, and then I’m supposed to be queen this year, and then literally anyone else from my family can be queen after that. So she’s being a bit dramatic by acting like my family is some evil dynasty who is taking away other girls’ rights to be homecoming queen.
It’s not that I don’t want anyone to run against me. I’d welcome other candidates in any other circumstance. I never cared about being homecoming queen anyway. But this is different than a little friendly competition. Andrea is trying to win back Zane.My Zane. And she’s insulting me in the process.
On social media, she’s become particularly nasty. She’s scoured my photos and tagged photos of me and found all the less-than-flattering ones, like where I’m in the background of a group picture and the angles are bad. Then she puts “do you want this as your queen?” on top of the photo and spams her account with it.
It’s gross. It’s insulting. It’s rude.
I haven’t told Zane any of this. For one, I don’t want him to stress out since he’s helping his dad with a funeral. Also, I just don’t want to be the person who runs to a guy to complain because someone is mean to her. I can handle this on my own. I refuse to let Andrea wear the crown next to Zane at our homecoming game. So I’ve recruited some help.
Today at lunch, I have a special surprise for everyone. Jackie is loved by all the administrators at school, so when she shows up and signs in as a visitor, the ladies in the front office are more than happy to let her come eat lunch with me. She has two big reusable grocery bags in her arms, which were not part of the plan. But I trust her.
As soon as we walk into the cafeteria, Krissy rushes up and hugs my sister. Then, one by one, other people notice she’s here. We have a crowd before we’ve even sat down at our table. That’s just proof of how beloved my big sister is.
Jackie is all smiles, wearing a homemade VOTE FOR ZARA T-shirt, as she hugs everyone and gushes with old friends she hasn’t seen since she graduated. “Start passing these out,” she tells me, reaching for her bags.
Inside are hundreds of pinback buttons that all say VOTE FOR ZARA. I can’t believe she had these made up in just twenty four hours after I called her crying about the Andrea situation. My heart bursts with love for my big sis.
“You are the best,” I say.
She winks at me and then climbs onto the top of the cafeteria table. “Hand me my megaphone, will ya?” she says, nodding to the other bag.
