How to Be a Perfect Girl

by Mary Williams

  Val waited at Porter’s red car for five minutes before he showed up. When he saw her, instead of grinning like he usually did, Porter scowled. “Hey Derrick,” Val heard him say, turning to his friend, “You cool with catching a ride to lunch with someone else? I need to talk to Val about—you know.”

  “Yeah,” Derrick joined another group of seniors headed to their cars; Val vaguely heard him asking if he could tag along with them. She was busy focusing on Porter, who was still scowling.

  “We need to talk,” Porter said when he reached Val and his car. “Here, let’s do it on the way to lunch.”

  “Uh, okay,” Val replied; she got in the passenger seat, wondering what Porter wanted to talk to her about.

  The moment they were out of the parking lot, Porter turned to Val, “So you told Avery that all I do is complain about her?”

  Val gulped, oh, right. She’d nearly forgotten about that incident with Avery. “Well, I didn’t say that, exactly.”

  Porter sighed, “Then what did you say?”

  “I just said that you complained about her. Like I didn’t say it was all you did. Porter,” Val hated the pleading tone that crept into her voice, “She was just being really mean and, I don’t know, I—“

  “You wanted to bring her down a peg,” Porter finished for her.

  “Yeah.”

  “Val,” Porter’ voice assumed the tone Mom used when she was reprimanding Val, “You’re supposed to be nicer than that. That’s what I like about you.”

  “I know. It’s just—this place. Yesterday I was going to apologize to Jenny, for what I said, but instead I was even meaner than before!” The tears welling in Val’s eyes surprised even her, “What’s happening to me? I don’t wanna be like this, but more and more I just feel like—like I have to be. You know?”

  “Yeah, I—“ Porter stopped at a red light; he turned to look at Val, “Hold on, are you crying?”

  Val nodded, “Sorry.”

  “Don’t be sorry. Look Val, I think you just made a mistake. You’re still a nice girl,” Porter frowned, “But I just wanted you to know that you got me in a lot of hot water with Avery. That’s all.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay. Do you still want to go to lunch?”

  Val shook her head, “I don’t really feel like anything, but you can still go wherever.”

  Porter nodded, “Alright then. I’ll just stop off at McDonald’s and we can talk some more.” He executed a U-turn and slammed on the gas.

  “Can I ask you a question Porter?”

  “Shoot.”

  “Well, Avery’s so mean and you’re really nice and—“

  “And you’re wondering why I’m with her?”

  Val nodded.

  “It’s a fair question, I suppose. There are good sides of Avery that almost no one sees; just the same, I’ve been trying to figure out if the positives outweigh the negatives of staying with her. By the way, don’t tell her I said that,” Porter added.

  “I won’t. But you think you might wanna dump her?”

  “I was—hang on,” Porter pulled into the McDonald’s drive-through.

  “Welcome to McDonald’s,” a man’s voice played over the speaker, “Can I interest you in a McChicken?”

  “No thanks,” Porter shifted so he could speak directly into the ordering screen. “Could I just get three McDoubles, a large fry, and a vanilla shake.” He turned to Val, “Do you want anything?”

  “You mean that’s all for you?” she joked. “No thanks, I’m not a fan of McDonald’s.”

  “Alright then,” Porter turned back to the microphone, “That’ll be it.”

  They collected Porter’s food, and he parked in the lot to wolf it down. Val had a couple of his fries, but quickly remembered why she usually avoided such food; the fries tasted like pure grease sprinkled with a little salt.

  “Yuck,” she shook her head at Porter, who was unwrapping his third McDouble, “I can’t believe you eat this stuff.”

  Porter smiled, his mouth full of hamburger, “It’s good!”

  “Yeah,” Val grimaced, “It looks—appetizing.”

  While Porter finished his meal, Val made the mistake of pulling down his passenger vanity mirror, only to discover a single streak of mascara running all the way down her cheek. “Why didn’t you tell me my makeup was smeared?” she asked.

  Porter shrugged, “It was just us, and I wasn’t that put off by it.”

  Val rummaged through her bag, looking for her travel makeup kit. “Hang on, I don’t think it’s in here!”

  “What’s not?”

  “My makeup!” Her voice rising, Val pulled a pair of books from her bag, “What am I gonna do?”

  Porter laughed, “Calm down. It’s not like a huge tragedy.”

  “Can we go to like a store or something?” Val asked.

  “So you can buy an entire makeup kit to fix that little streak?”

  Val nodded, “It’s either that or clear everything off.”

  “I don’t see what would be wrong with that,” Porter frowned, “You wear a lot of eye makeup anyways. Can’t you just clean that part and—?“

  “I don’t know. I’ve never had this happen before!” Val looked at her reflection again, “It doesn’t look like I could fix it without removing the rest of my—“ she sighed.

  “Here, how about you go into the bathroom here and try to fix it? If that doesn’t work I’ll take you somewhere where you can buy whatever it is you need.”

  “That sounds like a good idea,” Val opened the door of Porter’s car and stretched before heading into McDonald’s. The smell of fries cooking assaulted her as she made her way to the bathroom; Am I one of the only people that doesn’t like greasy food? she wondered absently.

  It quickly became clear that simply cleaning the streak of mascara would not work; Val wet a paper towel and tried to use that, but, true to her expectations, it cleared away almost all of her makeup. She tried to use a corner and dab clean only the sections of skin that needed it. Once finished, Val took a step away from the mirror; there was a pale white streak where the mascara had been, and she’d managed to take off a lot of eye shadow as well. “That’s what I get for using so much bronzer,” she muttered. She decided to clear off the rest of the makeup, and hope there was a store with a makeup counter nearby.

  When Val opened the door to Porter’s car, he feigned surprise. “I’m sorry, do I know you?”

  Val laughed, “It’s me.” She stuck her tongue out at Porter.

  “Oh, Val, I didn’t recognize you without all that makeup.”

  “Jerk!” Val smiled, “So, do you know where we can go to buy a makeup kit?”

  Porter turned his key in the ignition; he frowned at the dashboard clock. “Crap, we’re running later than I thought.”

  “Oh, well—“

  “I really can’t miss next hour,” Porter sighed, “Sorry. Let’s just go back to school.”

  Val bit her lip, “Okay.”

  Porter drove out of the McDonald’s parking lot; he managed to hit forty-five on a side street before turning onto the road that would lead them back to school. “You really don’t look bad,” he said, “I know a lot of girls worry about not having makeup on, but the natural look suits you.”

  “Thanks,” Val replied, uncertain if he was telling the truth or simply trying to make her feel better.

  Porter drove even crazier than usual, and made it into the Palm Lake lot with the rest of the upperclassmen returning from lunch. Derrick spotted Porter’s car and left the group he was with to meet up with them.

  “Hey, where’d you guys go?” he asked as Val stepped out of the car.

  Porter shrugged, “We didn’t feel like Fazoli’s today. Went to McDonald’s instead.”

  Derrick laughed; he raised an eyebrow at Val, “So you won’t eat pizza, but you’re fine with McDonald’s?”

  “Oh, no, I didn’t have anything,” Val replied.

  Derrick squinted
, “Hang on, you look—different.”

  “I do?”

  “Yeah, like—oh yeah, no more raccoon eyes. Why’d you take all your makeup off?” The three of them headed for the school entrance.

  “It got smeared.” Val didn’t explain further; she hoped that would prevent Derrick from pressing further.

  A grin lit up the older boy’s face; he grabbed Porter’s shoulders, “Damn, I can see why you wanted to talk now!”

  “What?” Val asked, confused.

  “Nothing happened,” Porter looked almost angry.

  Derrick laughed, “Yeah, right.” They stopped just outside Palm Lake’s doors while he waited for either Val or Porter to elaborate. “Fine then,” he finally said, “Don’t tell me anything. But I know something happened. How’d your makeup get smeared, Val, if nothing happened?”

  “It’s none of your business,” Val said defensively.

  “Derrick, nothing happened,” Porter repeated in a flat tone. The passing period bell rang.

  “Well, I’ll see you guys later,” Derrick left, but not before shooting Porter another grin and giving him a thumbs up.

  Val looked back at Porter, “What does he think happened?” she asked.

  Porter sighed; he pushed a hand through his hair, “Come on, Val. What do you think he thinks happened?”

  “I don’t know. He seemed like—like he thought we, you know—“

  “Yeah, that’s it,” Porter confirmed. “Fuck!” he yelled, causing a passing teacher to throw them both a very hostile glare, “If things weren’t screwed up before, they will be now.”

  “Why? Derrick won’t tell anyone, will he? And besides, nothing actually happened, so it doesn’t matter.”

  “It does matter. Derrick wasn’t the only one who noticed us coming back. Even if he keeps quiet, stuff like this gets around.” Porter stared at the ground, “I was trying to fix things, and now they’re worse than before.”

  “I’m sorry,” Val placed an arm on Porter’s shoulder that he promptly shrugged off.

  “It’s not your fault. But—maybe we should keep our distance for a while.”

  “But you don’t even know that there are gonna be rumors yet.”

  “Oh, I do. The only question is how much Avery’ll flip when she hears them; it’s bound to be bad, that much I’m sure of. Look Val, I like hanging out with you, but you’re really young and—“ he trailed off.

  “I like hanging out with you, though, and you like hanging out with me—I think. And we don’t even know for sure if anyone will say anything.”

  Porter assumed a blank expression, “Val, you asked me not that long ago if I liked you as a friend or as—something more. The truth is, I only like you as a friend and my relationship with Avery is more important than my relationship with you.”

  The words came like knifepoints, and Val took a step back. Until that moment, she hadn’t realized how much she had wanted Porter to like her. “Oh,” she said, a lump forming in her throat, “Oh, well—“ Val swallowed, “Then I guess that’s that.” She took a deep breath and entered the building, forcing herself not to look back at Porter.

  “Val,” Porter said quietly, but she didn’t turn to hear what he had to say.

  English went by like a blur; Val halfheartedly tried to pay attention as the teacher, Miss Donnely, emphatically read through passages of Romeo and Juliet. The class was over quickly, and Val found she couldn’t remember anything about the scenes they’d discussed.

  Seeing Keenan in Chemistry just reminded Val of the whole incident; he looked similar enough to his brother that she had a hard time keeping her anger at Porter from seeping out with him.

  “So,” Keenan said after class, “We still on for today?” They walked into the hall before continuing the conversation.

  Val shrugged, “Yeah, I guess so. I’ll be home by five, if you wanna just go there and wait for me—you can go in by the garage. The code’s my birthday, month and day.”

  “Oh, cool. Listen, is something wrong?”

  Val sighed, “No, I’m fine.”

  “Alex swears that ‘fine’ is girl code for ‘something’s wrong and if you weren’t so stupid you’d know what it is’.” Keenan laughed in a weak attempt to relieve the tension.

  Val looked him in the eyes, “Okay, something’s wrong. But let’s talk about it later. I need to get to Eco Club. The first meeting’s today.”

  Keenan nodded, “Rain check then. But I wanna hear all about it tonight.”

  “Oh trust me, you will.” Val hugged Keenan before going to the room that was supposed to be Eco Club’s meeting place. It was one half of a double room, separated from its twin by some thin accordion doors.

  As it turned out, Eco Club was the smallest club that Val had ever seen. In five minutes, the club’s sponsor had shown up, along with five other students, all of whom were older than Val. She didn’t know any of them.

  “Oh, nice!” a toad-faced girl with extremely large glasses exclaimed, “We have a new member!”

  “Um, yeah,” Val felt awkward standing there, with all six people staring at her.

  “Perfect! We need some new blood!” the girl gestured to herself and three of the other members, “We’re all seniors. So it’ll be up to you and Noah to keep things going.” With a jolt, Val recognized the nerdy freshman, who refused to meet her eyes.

  “Noah’s my brother,” the girl continued, “And I just realized—I haven’t introduced myself yet. I’m Mia.”

  “Oh, uh, nice to meet you,” How can I get out of here? Thought Val. “I’m Valentina; I prefer to be called Val, though.”

  “A pleasure!” Mia squealed, “Well Valentina, I’m excited to have you in this club! I just know we’ll have a wonderful year!”

  Wow, she’s really—energetic. “So, what do you guys do?”

  It was the wrong question to ask; for the next hour Mia talked about all the ‘projects’ the Eco Club was planning on working on, which included everything from a school-wide recycling project to getting solar panels installed on the roof. “Although,” Mia admitted, “So far we’ve only implemented the recycling program on the basis that we sort through and retrieve all the cans and papers ourselves.”

  Val grimaced, “So you—sort through trash?”

  “Kinda. Not really. I mean, it’s not trash, it’s recycling. But yeah, we go through it all by ourselves.” Mia beamed, as if this were a source of pride.

  Val checked the time on her phone, hoping soccer practice would give her an excuse to leave; it still read only three pm.

  “She’s not interested,” Noah commented from his spot several feet away from the group, “You can save the pitch, Mia.”

  “No, I really am,” Val said, if for no other reason than to spare the Eco Club kids’ feelings, “I think it’s—great, how you want to save the environment and everything.”

  Noah laughed, “You are such a liar Val. Yeah, you think this club’s great, just like you wanted to learn how to play Mini Monsters.”

  Val gulped, “Well, I—“

  “Just try being honest for once. It won’t kill you.”

  “Noah! Be nice to Valentina!” Mia reprimanded, “After all, she’s gonna be your only ally in the fight to save our environment once we graduate. Isn’t that right?” she directed the question at Val.

  “Uh, yeah—“ Val checked her phone again: 3:06pm. “Look, I have to get to practice a little early today. Is it okay if I leave now?”

  Mia nodded, “We’ll see you next Friday. We’re voting for officers.” To Valentina, she whispered, “Don’t worry, there are enough positions for everybody. If you want, you could even be the official recorder! That’s a high-ranking position for a freshman,” she smiled.

  “Oh, cool,” Val hoisted her bag and left before Mia could start into another speech. Behind her, she heard Noah say, “Three to one odds she doesn’t show. Any takers?”

  There was almost no one else in the girl’s locker room when Val started to change.
She was just putting on her athletic shorts when Scarlett cleared her throat, “What are you doing in here?”

  “Changing,” Val answered, “I had to get out of this one club, so I know I’m a bit early, but I figure maybe I’ll get in a little extra practice before, you know, before the official practice starts.”

  Scarlett laughed; at first Val didn’t see what was funny, but then the junior explained, “We don’t have practice on Fridays. I thought you gathered that from what Coach said yesterday.”

  “Oh,” Val frowned, “But then, why are you here?”

  “I’m going to go down to the weight room,” Scarlett replied, “I wanna be a starter this year, and that’ll only happen if I build up my leg strength.”

  “Oh, nice.” Val thought a moment, and then asked, “Can I come with you?”

  “Sure. You can spot me, and if you want I’ll show you my special exercises to focus on the muscles soccer players really need.”

  “Cool! Well just let me finish changing and then we can go.”

  Scarlett laughed again, “I need to change too.” She opened one of the bottom lockers on a nearby wall. “You’ll probably get done before me.”

  “Probably,” Val was almost finished as it was; she tied up her shoes, returning her soccer cleats to her locker.

  “By the way,” Scarlett said as she replaced her blue shirt with a white Under Armor one, “I heard about you and Porter. Very nice.”

  “What did you hear?” It was astonishing that the news would travel so quickly, especially to Scarlett, who was a junior.

  “I was there when Addison told Avery,” Scarlett grinned, “You should have seen her face. I’ve never seen Avery livid before, but that’s how I would describe it. I think it’s safe to say you won this round.”

  “Won what round? What do you mean?” Val looked at the junior with an alarmed expression.

  “The bout between you and Avery. That’s what you two were fighting about a couple of days ago, right? I overheard a little of it; the whole ‘I don’t hate you thing’. Well, I think it’s safe to say Avery hates you now, and you’ve definitely moved up to a somebody on her radar.”