Mia Measures Up

by Coco Simon

That’s when it hit me. If I didn’t wear anything outrageous, I reasoned, Sarrah would have nothing to comment about. I opened my closet. What was the most basic thing I had? What did the girls at my school wear every day? Skinny jeans, of course. And those boots with the fur sticking out were still all the rage at my school, for some reason. I could pair them with a plain black T-shirt and wear my hair down. No braids.

  So that’s what I did. On Monday morning, I wore that exact outfit, an outfit that was guaranteed to make me blend in with just about every other girl at Park Street Middle School—except for Katie, who liked bright colors, and Alexis, who always looked ready for a business meeting, and Emma, who preferred dresses most of the time. Hmm. Maybe that’s why we were all friends!

  As I got ready for school, I tried Mom one more time. “So, can I please have my phone back today?”

  “No,” Mom said. “And stop asking. You’ll get it back when I feel you’re ready to get it back.”

  I glared at her and ate my breakfast in silence. Knowing Mom, I wouldn’t get my phone back until I was as old as Gladys Bailey!

  So, even though I hate Mondays (I know I’ve said that before, but I’ll never stop saying it), the morning went pretty smoothly. I felt like a ninja, walking through the halls in my T-shirt and skinny jeans. Looking around, half the girls had on the same outfit. I felt relieved. No one could make fun of me today.

  I have outsmarted Sarrah Sleepz, I thought, but boy, was I wrong.

  At lunchtime I was talking with Katie, Emma, and Alexis when I noticed something. Some kids at the next table were pointing at our table and laughing.

  “What’s their problem?” I asked, pointing a chin toward their table. I looked around the cafeteria. Over at the BFC table, Olivia was looking right at me while she whispered to Maggie.

  My stomach dropped. “Oh no. Again?”

  “You mean you think Sarrah Sleepz posted another photo?” Katie asked, and I nodded.

  “Let me check,” Emma said, taking out her phone.

  She quickly scrolled through her screen and then frowned.

  “Let me see,” I insisted, holding out my hand.

  Emma handed me her phone, and Katie looked over my shoulder. Sarrah Sleepz had snapped another photo of me from just this morning!

  Look who just woke up! This outfit makes me want to go back to sleep.

  Someone else wrote under her: Those boots are so last year! Nice try, but you’re out of step, Mia!

  I looked around the cafeteria. So many girls were wearing those boots! That’s why I had put them on. Why was Sarrah singling me out?

  Alexis had called up the picture on her phone. “Enough of this,” she said, standing up.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  Alexis walked toward the BFC table. I moved to go with her, but Emma put her hand on my arm.

  “Let her do this,” Emma said.

  Alexis stood in front of the BFC table, her arms folded. “All right. Which one of you is Sarrah Sleepz?”

  Olivia’s eyes got wide. “Who’s that?”

  “You know who that is,” Alexis said, “so don’t bother to lie about it. It’s obviously a fake account, and one of you must have started it.” She looked right at Olivia when she said it.

  I noticed that Callie was looking down at her sandwich, and Maggie and Bella were giggling. Olivia raised her right hand.

  “I solemnly swear that nobody at this table created the Sarrah Sleepz account,” she said.

  Alexis glared at her. “Well, if you didn’t, then you know who did. So you’d better tell her to cut it out.”

  “Why should we do that?” Olivia shot back.

  “Because it’s not nice,” Alexis said. She looked at Callie now. “You know it’s not.”

  Then Alexis turned and marched back to our table. Katie starting clapping.

  “Go, Alexis!” she cheered.

  “You didn’t have to do that,” I said.

  “Yes, I did,” Alexis said. “You’re my friend, Mia, and what’s happening is wrong.”

  She picked up her phone. “I’m going to report those comments to the PicPop staff. There’s got to be a way to shut down Sarrah Sleepz.”

  “I’ll report her too,” Katie said, and Emma picked up her phone and started typing as well.

  Right then I felt so grateful to have such good friends! For a second I wondered why it even mattered what Sarrah and those other girls said about me when I had Katie, Emma, and Alexis around me.

  But I had to be honest with myself. It did hurt. Every new comment was starting to feel like a slap.

  “This is going too far,” Katie said as she typed. “It has to be having an effect on you.”

  I nodded. “It has. I even wore what I thought was a boring outfit today so that Sarrah would leave me alone.”

  “Don’t you get it? It doesn’t matter what you wear. She’s going to come after you no matter what,” Alexis said fiercely.

  “I know,” I said, and I felt tears in the back of my eyes again. “I just don’t know what to do. When I told my mom, she just took away my phone. That didn’t help.”

  “That was before it got really bad,” Katie pointed out. “You should talk to her again.”

  “Maybe,” I said, but I was convinced it was no use. Mom would probably just lock me in my room and throw away the key!

  CHAPTER 9

  This Is Messing with My Head!

  No school tomorrow!” Katie announced when she boarded the bus the next morning.

  “Good,” I said, relieved. That was one less day that Sarrah Sleepz could post a photo of me.

  George leaned over the seat behind us. “A bunch of us are going to see that movie Pool Party tonight. You guys should come.”

  Katie made a face. “Is that the one about those high school kids who work at a swim club? It looks kind of dumb.”

  “What else are you going to see? Ninja Giraffe 2?” George asked.

  “Why not?” Katie countered. “Ninja Giraffe was really funny. Remember when he fought all those monkeys?”

  George struck a martial arts pose with his arms. “No more monkeying around!” Katie cracked up.

  “Seriously, though,” George said. “You guys should go see Pool Party. Everyone’s going to be there.”

  I looked at Katie. “Come on! It will be fun.”

  Katie sighed. “Fine. I can see Ninja Giraffe 2 some other time.”

  But our moms had a different idea.

  “Absolutely not!” Mom said when I brought up the subject after school that day. “That movie is PG-13.”

  “So?” I shot back. “So are all those vampire movies. You let me go see those.”

  “This is different,” Mom said. “Sharon and I talked about it. Movies get PG-13 ratings for different reasons. And I don’t think a movie about a wild high school party is appropriate for you and Katie.”

  “But everyone in school is seeing it!” I said, and I could hear my voice getting loud. “Everyone!”

  “That is between them and their parents,” Mom said. “Case closed. But if you and Katie want to go see Ninja Giraffe 2, I will drive you there.”

  I didn’t want to go see some dumb cartoon movie—no offense to Katie, but I didn’t. However, the thought of staying in the house with my mom was worse. I was going to the movies.

  “Fine,” I mumbled.

  Mom and I didn’t talk much after that, but she did take Katie and me to the Royal Theater, which is attached to the mall, later that night.

  Inside, it was pretty crowded with people taking advantage of a no-school-tomorrow-Tuesday by going to the movies. We waited in line for the box office and then got our tickets for Ninja Giraffe 2.

  “Can you believe our moms?” I said. “Like, suddenly we’re not old enough to see a PG-13 movie? How random is that?”

  “Well, Mom has never let me see just any PG-13 movie,” Katie explained. “She reads the reviews first. It was probably her idea.”

  “Well, my m
om went along with it,” I said.

  “Hey, cheer up!” Katie said, lightly punching me in the arm. “I promise you that Ninja Giraffe 2 will be fun.” We handed our tickets to the ticket taker and got our stubs.

  “Now let’s get candy and mix it in with our popcorn,” Katie said. Katie has discovered this thing where she takes those small chocolate candies studded with white dots and mixes them into her popcorn. When you take a bite of popcorn, you get some chocolate with it. It’s actually pretty good.

  “Hey, Katie! Mia!”

  It was George.

  “Hey, George!” Katie called back.

  “Shhh!” I said, nudging her. “Don’t tell him we’re going to see Ninja Giraffe 2.”

  “Why not?” Katie asked.

  I looked around. There were lots of kids from our school there. George was with his friends Wes and Jacob. By a corner I could see Maggie and Bella with some other girls from school. And there were more kids around too.

  What if one of them was Sarrah Sleepz? What if somebody took a picture of me going into the Ninja Giraffe 2 theater? I could just imagine what Sarrah would have to say about that.

  “Just don’t,” I hissed to Katie. George ran up to us with a big grin on his face.

  “You guys gonna sit with us?” he asked.

  “Actually—” Katie began, but I interrupted her.

  “Sure,” I said.

  Katie looked at me, her eyes wide. “Mia . . .”

  I grabbed her by the arm. “We’ll be right back,” I told George, and then I dragged her away.

  “Let’s just go see Pool Party,” I said. “Everyone else is doing it. It will look weird if we go see the other movie.”

  Katie frowned. “But we bought our tickets for Ninja Giraffe 2. Isn’t that illegal or something?”

  “No way,” I said. “People do it all the time. Come on. It’ll be fine. Besides, won’t it be more fun to watch a movie with George?”

  Katie looked over at the ticket taker. “Are you sure we won’t get in trouble?” she asked, and I knew I had convinced her.

  “Of course not,” I said, and I took her by the arm again. “Let’s go!”

  We followed George and his friends inside the theater. They all wanted to sit in the very back row. Katie sat between me and George.

  The previews started playing, and George, Wes, and Jacob were totally loud and rowdy during them. In this one preview a guy jumped out of a plane and landed on a moving train below.

  “Yeah! Awesome!” cheered Wes.

  “That would be, like, totally impossible,” I whispered to Katie.

  Then they showed a preview for a romantic movie, and when the couple kissed, the boys started yelling again. It was really annoying.

  “Wooooooooooo!” George hooted, and even though it was dark, I was sure Katie was blushing.

  Finally, the movie started, and the boys quieted down, thankfully. It was about these kids who work at a swim club, and at night, when the club closes, they have this huge party. There were a lot of dumb jokes and girls in bikinis and teenagers making out.

  Why did I want to see this movie? I asked myself, but I knew the answer. I didn’t want anyone to think I was an immature kid by going to see a cartoon movie about a giraffe. So the real question was, when did I start caring about what other people thought?

  When the movie ended, the lights came on.

  “That was funny,” George said.

  Katie shrugged. “I guess.” She turned to me. “Come on, Mia.”

  This time, Katie pulled me by the arm. She dragged me out of the theater.

  “That was awful!” she said when we got to the lobby. “Everyone in that movie was acting so dumb.”

  “Yeah, you’re right,” I admitted.

  “You know, now I have to wait until Ninja Giraffes 2 comes out on DVD before I can see it,” Katie said, annoyed. “And I’ll have to lie to my mom when she asks me how it was. Why exactly did we go see that dumb movie again?”

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “It’s Sarrah Sleepz. She’s messing with my head. I thought somebody might take a picture of me going into the movie, and it’s, like, a kid’s movie, and I thought she would make fun of me.”

  Katie shook her head. “Wow, Mia, this is really affecting you. You’ve got to do something about it!”

  I nodded. Katie was right. I didn’t like how Sarrah was making me feel. I was becoming not-Mia. I needed to be Mia again.

  “I know, but what am I supposed to do?” I asked. Then I remembered something. “What happened when you reported her to PicPop?”

  Kate’s face clouded. “They messaged me back and said that because the comments didn’t use ‘inappropriate language,’ they couldn’t remove them or stop her. And I messaged them back, like, you mean being mean to someone isn’t inappropriate? But they didn’t respond.”

  My heart sank. There was no way to stop Sarrah Sleepz. She was going to be making my life miserable forever!

  CHAPTER 10

  There’s Hope!

  How was the movie?” Mom asked when she picked up me and Katie.

  I looked at Katie. She was biting her lip, and I could tell she didn’t want to lie.

  “Really cute,” I answered for us. “You know I love giraffes.”

  That seemed to satisfy Mom, who chatted with Katie on the way to Katie’s house. After we dropped off Katie, Mom and I were quiet on the way home. Things were pretty tense between us.

  And it’s all Sarrah Sleepz’s fault, I couldn’t help thinking. None of this would be happening if she hadn’t started picking on me!

  Then another little voice in my head chimed in. And if you hadn’t friended her on PicPop. Maybe Mom was right about friending people you don’t know. . . .

  I knew that little voice was probably right, but it didn’t make me feel any better. When we got home, I mumbled good night and headed upstairs to my room.

  The nice thing about having a day off from school is that I didn’t have to set the alarm. I slept . . . and slept . . . and slept. When I finally woke up, it was almost eleven o’clock!

  I reached to check my phone, out of habit, and remembered it wasn’t there. With a sigh, I got out of bed and made my way to the bathroom.

  When I finally got downstairs, Mom was in the kitchen, making sandwiches.

  “Good almost afternoon,” she said, emphasizing the last two words to make a point that I’d slept so late.

  “Hi,” I said groggily. I reached into the fridge and pulled out the water pitcher.

  “I made egg salad,” Mom said.

  “You’re working here today?” I asked. Since Mom is a fashion stylist, she doesn’t work for anyone specific—she has different clients. Sometimes she’s out all day meeting with them, and other days she stays home, working in her home office.

  Mom nodded. “Yes. Eddie’s at work, and Dan went to play basketball down at the park, so it’s just you and me.”

  I sat down, and Mom slid a plate over to me. There was definitely an awkward tension between us. I was relieved when the doorbell rang.

  “Who could that be?” Mom asked, and I jumped up to answer it.

  To my surprise, it was Katie and her mom.

  “Oh, hi!” I said.

  “Hi, Mia,” Mrs. Brown said. “I know this is unexpected, but may we come in?”

  “Sure,” I said, looking at Katie, hoping to get some clue as to why they were there. But Katie just kind of nervously looked away.

  Mom got up from her chair, and she hugged Mrs. Brown.

  “What a nice surprise, Sharon!” Mom said.

  “I hope this isn’t a bad time,” said Mrs. Brown. “But Katie told me something, and I thought it was important to talk to you in person about it.”

  For a second I couldn’t breathe. Katie had told her mom about Sarrah Sleepz! I wasn’t sure if I felt angry or relieved. Katie was pacing back and forth in the kitchen.

  “Is that egg salad?” Katie asked, eyeing the bowl on the counter.


  “Katie, manners!” her mom scolded.

  “No, that’s fine. Katie, help yourself,” Mom said. “Now, Sharon, please sit down and tell me what’s happening.”

  Mrs. Brown sat next to my mom. She’s got brown hair, like Katie, but she wears it cut short—stylishly short, because my mom picked out the haircut for her.

  “I think you know part of the story,” Mrs. Brown said. “A girl on the PicPop app has been making fun of Mia.”

  Mom nodded. “Yes, I know. I had Mia delete the app from her phone.”

  “I understand,” said Mrs. Brown. “But Katie tells me that the problem hasn’t stopped. This girl, who calls herself Sarrah Sleepz, has been posting photos of Mia and making mean comments. And other girls from the school are chiming in.”

  “Oh no!” Mom said. She looked at me. “Mia, why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I did tell you,” I said. “And you took away my phone. So I figured there was no point in telling you again.”

  Mom suddenly looked very sad. “I thought that would be the end of it, Mia. I’m sorry. Katie, can you show me what’s been happening?”

  Katie put down the egg salad sandwich she had just made, found Sarrah Sleepz’s PicPop profile, and handed her phone to my mom. Mom scrolled through the page, shaking her head.

  “This is awful!” she said. “How is she getting photos of you when you’re not her friend?”

  “She’s probably someone from our school with a fake account, but we don’t know who it is,” Katie said. “And Alexis, Emma, and I reported it to PicPop, but they said it’s not inappropriate and they can’t take it down.”

  Mom looked at Mrs. Brown. “Surely the school can do something.”

  “That’s what I was thinking,” Katie’s mom replied. “Park Street Middle School has an antibullying policy, including cyberbullying, and if this person is a student at the school, it would apply to him or her.”

  That idea made me nervous. “What if she gets in big trouble? Won’t she just target me more?”

  “We’ll do everything we can to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Mom promised. “But it’s clear that we need to do something. This can’t go on anymore.”

  A wave of relief washed over me then, hearing Mom say that. She was on my side. So was Mrs. Brown. And my friends. For the first time I had hope that the Sarrah Sleepz thing would end.