That's What's Up!

by Paula Chase

  Total BFF Control

  “Another day, another drama.”

  —Britney Spears, “Piece of Me”

  Across town in Kelly’s posh nabe, Folgers Way, Jessica sat in Mari-BethLinton’s grand, pimped-out bedroom. She was so sure and confident about her plan, she’d been excitedly rambling on about it for the last ten minutes, oblivious to the scowl creeping across Mari-Beth’sface.

  It rattled Jessica when Mari-Beth looked up from giving herself a pedi and blurted icily, “I don’t get it. Why do you care?” She swung her lush, blonde hair to the side, rested her chin on her knee and reached for her toes with the polish brush. She frowned. “Shoot, I smudged it. Jess, can you come do this for me?”

  Her hand was already outstretched, thrusting the bottle of pink dazzle polish Jess’s way.

  Jess looked down at her own still-wet toes.

  Now my toes will be a hot mess, Jess thought, clenching her teeth against the sigh building in her chest.

  For a second she considered saying no or at least, “wait a minute”—but only for a second before she walked over to the windowseat where Mari-Beth sat. Jess surveyed the emerald green, perfectlymanicured lawn beyond the window. So many times she’d pretended this was her house, instead of the boxy rambler with the patchy grass she shared with her parents and twin. And she was here so often—nearly every weekend or as often as her parents allowed before mandating some Johnson Family Time—sometimes it actuallyfelt like her own home, like today.

  She and Mari-Beth had gotten up, eaten egg-white omelets preparedby the Lintons’ personal chef, took a nice long sit in the Jacuzzi and now were freshening their nails. She’d been outlining her thoughts to Mari-Beth about how she planned to deal with Mina at the Extreme. Sitting there on the cool, shiny hardwood floor in the room four times the size of Jessica’s bedroom, gave her power. It surged through her like voltage, making her voice tremble with excitement.

  That’s what had gotten Mari-Beth’s attention—the excitement in her voice.

  It was typical that as soon as Jess slipped into the skin of Mari-Beth’sluxe life and took on any role resembling the leader, Mari-Bethasserted her total BFF control, reminding Jess that she was only a visitor in the Lintons’ paradise.

  Jess could say no to polishing Mari-Beth’s toes. MB didn’t technicallydemand it. But Jess knew better.

  She took the bottle and sat cross-legged in front of Mari-Beth. She brushed on a coat of polish, moved to the next foot and waited a few seconds for the polish to dry.

  “I’m saying, what do you care who Mina hangs with? Not like she’ll ever be down with us,” Mari-Beth said. She shrugged like, so what does it matter?

  Jess let a few seconds elapse, pretending to take great care to get the second coat of pink dazzle on smoothly. If she answered wrong, Mari-Beth, without saying it straight out of course, would trash Jess’s whole plan and pull her support.

  “Oh, I don’t care who she hangs with,” Jess said, rolling her eyes. “Where’s the topcoat?”

  Mari-Beth’s professionally manicured fingernail pointed to her makeup table.

  Jess pushed herself up and went searching in the nail polish tray, where forty bottles of polish sat in rainbow order, lightest to darkest. She plucked out the clear topcoat and sat back down.

  This had to be Mari-Beth’s idea if it was going to work. She had to phrase her answers just right.

  And that’s exactly where Jess and Mina were different—reason #110 Jess couldn’t stand Mina in all her sunny optimism: The girl simply didn’t live in the real world as far as Jess was concerned.

  Mina wasn’t cut out for popularity. It was too much work. And Jess had no problem letting Mina know that being middle of the pack was where she belonged. I’m doing you a favor, Jess thought, suppressing a chuckle.

  Jess, on the other hand, knew how to play the game. Her friendshipwith MB was the perfect example. Even though the Lintons often had to foot the bill for Jess to come along, she was Mari-Beth’s constant companion.

  The price for admission to this world? Jess’s total dedication to Mari-Beth. If Mari-Beth wanted it, Jess let her have it.

  She followed Mari-Beth’s lead and made sure the other Glams knew their place was well behind her. It was a full-time job playing second fiddle to Mari-Beth, especially when Jess wanted something that Mari-Beth didn’t care about or was bored with.

  Mari-Beth hugged her knees to her chest. Her toes dangled over the edge of the window seat for their final coat. Her voice had an annoyed edge to it when she said, “If you don’t care, then why are we talking about her instead of calling Breck to see if he’s definitely able to get the keg for Saturday’s party?”

  “I texted him a few minutes ago, remember?” Jess said, sure to keep the annoyance out of her own voice. “I’ll ping him again when I finish your toes.”

  Mari-Beth’s breath blew out in a warm stream over Jess’s head as she sighed, “Okay, so what’s this whole plan again?” She bit her lower lip, squinching her eyebrows. Her voice lost its edge. “I kind of like the part about the simul-text messages and pics.” She erupted into a peel of giggles. “That part is cool.”

  Jess kept her head down and smiled as Mari-Beth offered suggestionson how to make the plan better.

  “Let’s just ... forget we hate each other”

  “Don’t sweat girl, be yourself.”

  —Mary J. Blige, “Work That”

  Mondays at Del Rio Bay High were either manic, the halls buzzing with the latest gossip from people high from their weekend antics, or eerily low-key, as if everyone was hung over from indulging in too much fun. With spring break only two days away, today was a manic Monday. Hall traffic moved faster, like getting to class sooner would help the day go faster, the students were rowdier and the teachers allowed louder shout-outs and unnecessary whoops withoutgiving the “quiet” eye or a “shhh.”

  Mina whipped through the hall, a part of the Monday mania, anxious to get to lunch, easily her favorite subject lately. Her step stuttered when she heard her name called. She glanced back, but kept walking until it came again.

  “Mi-naa.”

  Her insides froze as the familiar voice sang out again.

  “Mi-naaa!”

  It didn’t matter that the voice sounded (friendly?) innocent enough.

  “Mina, wait up.”

  It could have been any number of people calling out hello. But Mina knew the voice—that crisp proper tone, the way every letter of her name was sounded out, the unspoken command in it. In the seventh grade she’d heard it in her nightmares: “Mina, you’re off the count! Mina, your low V’s too low.”

  It had been the cheer year from hell and only one person held the honor of Head Cheer Devil—Jessica Johnson.

  She willed her legs to slow down. People hustling to class brushed against her as she stemmed the natural flow of the traffic.

  Her stomach churned. It wasn’t fear. She simply hated dealing with Jessica. The drill was Jessica was snotty and Mina was indifferent,but always polite. But that was when Jessica saw Mina as a mid-pop,before Mina got the invite to the café. Now she and Jess were on equal footing.

  Now that Mina rolled with the Upper cheer clique, she already had the one thing Jess had desperately sworn to keep out of Mina’s grasp. She didn’t have to play nice with Jess anymore.

  Too bad her stomach hadn’t gotten the memo. It grew increasinglywoozy—from the usual weariness or something else, Mina couldn’t tell.

  She stopped in the middle of the hall and turned, slowly, toward the sound of Jess’s voice, just in time to see Jessica take a few long, supermodel strides her way. Mina unconsciously scoured the hall for Mari-Beth Linton. But Jessica was alone.

  Good. At least she’d only have to deal with one snot today.

  “Are you heading to lunch?” Jessica asked. She stopped dead in front of Mina, legs slightly apart, hands on her hips in an end-of-the-runwaypose and swished her thick weave. She was looking spring-coolin a pair
of baby blue cotton capris, a matching blue baby doll tee with the words Queen Me across the chest, and sparkly AmericanEagle flops.

  As Mina eyed Jess’s gear on the sly, “Yeah,” was her only response. It felt safe enough.

  “No longer lounging in the middle of the pack, huh? Sara told me you’re officially in, now.” Jessica’s hazel eyes glimmered and her mouth puckered—just a little—at the word “in” and for a second Mina caught what she thought was disgust. But it was gone before it ever registered, forcing Mina to chastise herself.

  I’ve got to stop overanalyzing when it comes to Jess, she thought.

  It took her a second to realize Jess had stopped talking and was waiting for a response.

  “My bad. I didn’t hear you. What did you say?” Mina asked, blinking herself back into the conversation.

  Her face tight, Jessica visibly swallowed her annoyance. “I said,” Jessica said with an exaggerated rise in her voice, “that I’ll never figureout what my sister sees in you. Obviously she doesn’t care that she and Kim may be responsible for the fall of the entire DRB social scene by inviting you in.”

  Ahhh, there was the Jessica Mina loved to hate. Her body actually relaxed as Jessica’s insult reached her ears.

  “Seriously, did you stop me to say that?” Mina asked, her voice its usual neutral when talking to Jess. Not loud enough to start an argument,but not low enough to signal defeat.

  Jessica cocked her head, a smile on her lips, and snorted a haughty chuckle. “Actually, I did.” She swished her hair again then nudged Mina’s arm, signaling her to walk. People fanned out around them as they walked the center hall. “The Extreme is in a few days and we’ll be stuck in O.C. together.” She rolled her eyes and snorted, remindingMina of a horse. “Look, I don’t like you, Mina.”

  “Should I call a press conference?” Mina quipped, under her breath.

  Jessica surprised her by laughing, a real, lusty laugh. Not the mechanical,Stepford-friends laugh that she and the other Glams had perfected. “Maybe you should, because I’m calling a truce.”

  Jessica stopped at the door to the cafeteria and turned to Mina. “You probably think now that you’re in the café that you’re an Upper and so we should get along, right?”

  “Jess, believe it or not, I stopped trying to get along with you after the soc project,” Mina said. She took a deep breath, steeling herself to say what she really felt instead of cowering from Jess’s abrasive bluntness. “When we agreed it was cool that not everybody was going to be friends, I meant it. And that definitely applies to me and you. I’m swazy with that.”

  “Good, because that’s real for us,” Jessica said, her voice clipped. “Here’s the thing. O.C. isn’t that big. Even though I’m staying with Mari-Beth, we’ll still end up partying in the same places during spring break ...” She paused for dramatic effect, knowing no matter what status Mina thought she had, she wouldn’t walk away before she was dismissed. Jess purposely took a second to wave to a few people before finishing. “I’m saying that from now through Sunday, let’s just consider our differences squashed.”

  “Why?” Mina frowned.

  “Because I don’t feel like arguing with Sara about you the entire trip,” Jessica said, matching the frown. “We don’t need to be buds or anything. I’m just saying, until spring break ends, let’s just ... forget we hate each other.”

  Mina couldn’t let it go. She pressed. “Wouldn’t ignoring each other as usual be easier?”

  “God, Mina, I’m waving the white flag! Is it a deal or what?”

  The yelp caused a few people passing to turn and stare. But when they saw who it came from, they moved on.

  Jessica waited, arms folded, her patience with Mina on empty.

  Mina shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. She was the queen of positive, but this was Jessica Johnson. Mina had tried making peace with her the entire fall semester. And every time she did, Jess took the venom she spewed up a level.

  Now a truce?

  She needed time to soak it in, but the bell was about to ring and if Jessica’s eyebrow arched any higher, it would meet her fake hairline.

  “Yeah, we have a deal,” Mina said finally.

  “Great,” Jessica said, thick with sarcasm. “Your indecisiveness astoundsme,” she huffed before supermodeling her way down the hall.

  Mina stepped through the doors of the cafeteria and the heavy scent of grease à la mode made her already queasy stomach shrivel even more.

  The snitty, clipped one-liners, cat-like glares, even Jess’s keen sense for hitting below the belt—Mina thought she was used to it. Truce or not, her knees felt as if they were melting to her ankles.

  She blew out a long breath and tried to let the normalcy of the cafeteria’s rowdy banter bring her back from her clanging thoughts.

  Her wobbly legs automatically carried her down the seven stairs and toward the door leading to the café. She joined the cheer table, where it was already standing room only, squeezing one slim shoulderbetween Jamie and Sara.

  The five of them standing, front to back, looked as if they were playing a strange game of musical chairs, waiting in line ready to hop in the tall chairs the instant one of the three sitters got up. And the absurdity of it—standing so close at the teeny table with only one hand free to pick at her lunch—made Mina feel better.

  There was plenty of space at the eight-seater tables inside the cafeteria. But she was here. After all Jessica’s warnings that she’d never make it to the café as long as they both walked DRB High’s halls, Mina could have been pinned between twenty people, standingon one leg—it would be swazy. But she was here.

  “Hey, Mina, if you don’t get that double-down cleaner, I think Coach Em is going to have an aneurysm,” Kim said. She popped a low-fat chip into her mouth, grinning as she chewed.

  The rest of the table laughed, no doubt at the image of Mina’s flailing arms as she was tossed high enough to twist twice before landing safely in the hands of her bases. Mina’s sloppy double-downs had been the reason for many of their suicide cycles of late.

  Coach Embry was a taskmaster. Perfection, and nothing less, was her motto. Her tough tactics had made the team tight, quickly. They’d all been on the receiving end of her sharp tongue. Instead of feeling angry at Mina for not shaping up the stunt, they sympathized.

  “What are you reaching for up there?” Jamie asked, nudging Mina playfully in the back of her knee.

  “Anything,” Mina quipped. Her heart did a tiny skip at the thought of the double twist. She hated them. “I’m trying, for real. But my arms ...”

  “Are going to knock somebody out, one day,” Erica said, her brunette ponytail bobbing in confirmation.

  Mina made sad eyes across the table at Kim and patted Sara’s shoulder, joking with her bases. “Then I apologize in advance. But I swear I’ll send flowers if you end up in the hospital.”

  Another round of laughter went up. With Nationals only days away the squad’s nervous energy was at its peak. They were laughing now, but likely at practice, later, there would be tears and snapping one another’s heads off for every missed step, stunt bobble and motionmistake.

  Several Blue Devil basketball players, including Brian, and a few members of the lacrosse team joined the squad, forming a second circle of tight-knit standers.

  “So what’s the scoop, lady Blue Devils?” a curly-haired lacrosse player asked, managing to squeeze his way to the table. “You guys kicking booty at the Extreme or what?”

  Mina joined the girls in a hearty “yeah,” giggling as Brian stepped up close beside her. As the table talk went up a level, veering away from cheerleading and on to who would be hosting the expected beach party, Mina and Brian fell into their own zone.

  Every day she expected to feel some sort of familiar comfort with Brian. But when they were together, her feet felt light and airy and her stomach did flip-flops, the good kind, not the kind she’d felt when Jessica called her in the hall.

  S
he wished that feeling would never end.

  Brian leaned in closer to her ear, each word tickling, sending her arms into goose bumps.

  “This thing is going to be crazy,” he said. “How y’all gonna find time to cheer in between all these parties I keep hearing about?”

  Mina nodded. If the talk was to be believed, there were about four parties going down Friday night alone.

  “Coach Em has us on curfew Friday night,” she said, then shrugged. “She’s letting us go to the Individuals. But trust, she will be herding us back to the hotel like cattle the second they’re over.”

  Brian chuckled, low and deep.

  The vibrations from his voice gave Mina’s goose bumps, goose bumps.

  He put his arms around her and rubbed her arms. “You cold?” he asked.

  Mina laughed, embarrassed. The sun was shining right into the café’s court, burning the chill in the air. But she wasn’t about to explain.She ignored his question by starting a new conversation. “Are you excited about your first Extreme? It’s mad crazy down there even when it’s not spring break. But this year ...” She shook her head as if that completed her thought.

  “Oh I’m curious about it, for sure. People are hyped,” Brian said. He nuzzled her. “But I’m more pressed about being with you the whole weekend.”

  “Well, me and my parents,” Mina reminded him.

  His thick black curls blew as a slight breeze zipped through the café. He whipped a perfectly creased cap from his back pocket and sat it lightly atop his head as he teased, “What else is new?”

  Mina elbowed his stomach. But she was lucky. Brian was a good sport about having to hang out at her house under her parents’ cool eye whenever they weren’t with the entire clique. They rarely had real alone time. Scratch that, they never had any alone time. Papa and Mama Bear Mooney made sure of it.

  The Extreme would be different. She’d already warned her parentsthat the cheer squad had lots of bonding plans. As long as she was with the girls ... well, near the girls, her parents wouldn’t questionit. She and Brian were going to get some time to themselves if she had anything to do with it.