Another elbow dig in the ribs.
Mia [fierce whisper]: Shut up, okay! He’s coming over.
Me: Whuh?
Mia: B-e-n-i-s-c-o-m-i-n-g-o-v-e-r.
Me: OMG. No way! Over here?
Mia: Shut up! He’ll hear you!
And then, Ben’s standing there, right in front of me. Mia tactfully turns away, pretending to study her music score.
‘Hi,’ he says.
‘Um. Hi,’ I say back, trying not to stare at his eyes. I never noticed before how nice his eyes are.
‘So … so, are you all ready for your music exam?’ he asks me.
How does he know about my music exam?
‘Pretty much,’ I say, thinking I need to do some more practice. ‘Um … how did you know about it?’ ‘Er … I saw a list on Mr C’s desk when I was in his office before. You know, it had, um, all the names of people going for exams this week.’
He knows my name? He knows my name!
‘Ah,’ I say, like an idiot. This is so embarrassing.
Ben smiles at me. His dimples are really cute, too. ‘And I just wanted to … you know … wish you good luck for it.’
‘Hey, tha–’ I begin, but Ben jumps in before I get a chance to finish.
‘Anyway, I should be getting back to my trombone. See you, ah, later.’
I stand there in shock for a full twenty seconds, watching him lope back towards the guys in the brass section. Two seconds later, Mia turns back.
Mia: See?
Me: See what?
Mia: Told you he was looking at you. He likes you, stupid!
Chapter 12
tuesday afternoon … later
Dad’s already home when I get back from school.
‘Is something wrong?’ I ask him, startled to see him home so early. He’s not due for another hour yet. My throat constricts. ‘Is … Mum … or Sam … Has there been an … an accident?’
Dad makes calming movements with his hands. ‘No, no, everything is fine, Michi. I just wanted to spend some time with you, give you some extra coaching for your music exam.’ He smiles at me. ‘Only a couple of days now. Are you ready for it?’
I wrinkle my nose. ‘I hope so.’ I throw my backpack down on the floor. ‘I’ll just go and get my music, okay? Be back in a minute.’
Dad sits on the couch, conducting me through each of my exam pieces with his hands. Every now and then he stops me, giving me some advice on how to play a particular phrase. ‘Not so strong there,’ or ‘faster, faster,’ or ‘with love.’
With love? I think, as I saw away at the strings. How am I supposed to feel any love, after the way Amira and her little henchbuddies treated me in classes today? ‘Concentrate, Michi, you’re playing like a robot.’ Dad’s voice breaks into my thoughts. He sounds cross.
That’s because I am one, I feel like snapping back. I have to be, to cope with everything that’s going on. But there’s no point in saying something like that to Dad. Mum, either. They’d just start asking me uncomfortable questions, and I don’t feel up to telling them the answers just yet. I don’t even know the answers yet.
Instead, I set my jaw a little straighter, give my wrist a little shake, and begin the piece again, concentrating this time.
Dad smiles, then closes his eyes and settles back into the sofa cushions. His hands start to beat time again. ‘That’s better,’ he murmurs. ‘That’s my girl.’
After music practice I head for my room and fire up my mp3 player with the loudest tracks I can find. Then I switch on my computer. My mobile’s been silent all day. Just as well. I can do without any more messages telling me what I look like.
I hold my breath while my email starts up, then let it slowly out again. No messages there, either. Mia and Lexi were right. Amira and co. must have got bored and quit playing with me. About time, too. There’s only so much a girl can take. I wonder how long it will take them to apologise? Or at least come clean about why they’re treating me this way in the first place.
I consider what to do first. Look up examples of tsunamis for my humanities homework, or start putting together something for my oral report for English? It would be really embarrassing if Ms Hayes pulled my name out of the hat first up, and I wasn’t prepared for it. But I don’t really feel like doing either just yet.
Instead, I go to my MyPlace page. I’ve set up all the basic stuff, but haven’t had a chance to do much since that afternoon at Amira’s. Before everything started going wrong. I wish I could time travel back to that night, when she teased me about being a geekoid, or drove me crazy showing me photos of her friends. Anything rather than the sly looks and nasty words she sent my way today.
The page opens, displaying a loser photo of me grinning wide-eyed at the camera. Definitely need to update that some time, but it will do for now. The background needs changing, though. At the moment it’s just the standard one from the Land of Boring.
I scroll through the templates on offer. Lovehearts and flowers? Skulls and crossbones? Plain black? Nah – too predictable. Finally, I settle on a series of colourful whirls and splashes. It looks like a graffiti artist has thrown a bucket of paint across the screen. Nice and edgy. Pleased with my choice, I save it and move on to another section.
Mood. I don’t think there’s enough space to write all the different emotions I’m feeling at the moment. Shocked. Angry. Humiliated. Mystified. Paranoid. Plus I don’t really want anyone else to know about them. So I just pick happy instead.
The next section is Michi’s Friends. I’m just moving Mia into first place in my Top Friends when an item in the Friends Comments below grabs my attention.
It’s a thumbnail photo of a cow’s face, facing the camera in full moo. Next to it, the words
i hate you ur a cow
scream at me in stark letters. The comment is repeated twice, with a different photo each time, each showing a different part of a cow’s body. Then the next set of comments start:
ur ugly
This times the thumbnail photos show toads.
I close the page and sit in front of my computer screen, shaking. So much for thinking the hate campaign had stopped. Why won’t they leave me alone? Why are they doing this to me?
Chapter 13
tuesday evening
As soon as dinner is finished, I jump back on to my computer. Come on, Mia, be online, I beg, scrolling down the list of names in my contact list.
My guts twist as three names jump out at me.
They must have changed their screen names.
Shaking, I continue scrolling.
Yes! I quickly click on Mia’s name and send her a message.
While I’m waiting for her I open up Amira’s MyPlace page, looking for clues. Everything looks pretty much the same as the last time I saw it – same photos, same graphics. I move down to her Friends list, checking for my photo. It’s not in her Top Friends list, which doesn’t really surprise me. I used to be number two o
r three. Now I’ve probably been moved to the bottom rung. I click through to the complete list. Nothing. I’ve been wiped altogether.
And then I see it. A new section, below Amira’s Friends. It’s called Amira’s Not Friends. There’s one photo in it. Mine. And a description.
Michi is not my friend bcoz she’s a lying
cheating cow.
OMG. She’s never going to stop. Never. I wish I’d never opened the stupid page. There’s a pinging sound as Mia rejoins our chat.
What!? I can’t stand it any longer. I read Jane’s message for myself:
Hello everyone! Check out this awesome website.
Go to: www.10thingswehateaboutmichi.com
Spread the word!
Ten things? Ten things we hate about Michi? OMG. This isn’t happening.
My hands are shaking so much that I keep making typos but I punch in the website address. Then bury my face in my hands and peek through my fingers as the site starts to load. Oh, no. No wonder Mia said she felt sorry for me. This is my worst nightmare. And now everyone else is going to see it too.
At the top a loud banner in red block letters proclaims:
10 THINGS WE HATE
ABOUT MICHI
Then underneath that there’s a giant photo of me. Well, I guess it was once me. Someone’s gone crazy in Photoshop, picking out all my features and exaggerating them. So now I’ve got elephant ears, an eagle nose, and big droopy lips. My hair looks like a witch’s broom and my front teeth have been blacked out.
Next comes the actual list:
TOP 10 REASONS EVERYONE
HATES MICHI
1 She is a loser with no friends
2 She thinks she’s pretty and she’s not
3 She flirts with every guy she meets
4 She’s always talking about herself
5 She thinks she’s a musical genius and she’s sooo bad it’s a joke
6 She is a geekoid freak
7 She sucks up to all the teachers
8 She thinks everyone loves her
9 You cannot trust her with your guy
10 She is a lying cheating loser
And then … just to twist the knife into my guts a bit further, there’s a message board. Full of nasty, evil, hate-filled messages.
Jezebel U R so rite Michi is a fat ugly cow
Lulu She better not try taking my boyf
Babe-alicious Shes going to need more than gd luck to pass her exam
Bee Bee But then Michi always gets what Michi wants doesnt she
Misteek She shld keep her eyes on her music and off other ppls boyfrends
Who are all these people? Why don’t they have the guts to use their real names? And how do they know about my exam? Did one of Amira’s friends see me at orchestra practice today, talking to Ben? Did they hear him wishing me good luck for my music exam? Is that was this is all about? Because I was talking to Ben? It was, like, for about ten seconds! And anyway, he was the one doing all the talking. I didn’t even really have a chance to get a word in.
And then I read a message that makes my blood run cold.
Goldilocks Watch out Michi We’re coming to get U.
Chapter 14
wednesday morning
My alarm bell rings and I switch it off, then roll over, pull my doona up close and jam my head under the pillow. No way am I going to school. Not after what those evil witches did to me last night. I think about how many people there are on Amira’s contact list, then multiply it by ten. ‘Spread the word,’ the message said. By now, probably everyone in the school has seen it and is laughing at me.
Ten minutes go by. Enough time for me to sort out exactly where I’m going to spend the rest of the day. Right here in bed, preferably. Or behind the couch at Pink HQ, where no-one can find me.
‘Michi!’ Mum’s voice rings out from the kitchen.
I lie low. Maybe if I’m really really quiet she’ll forget she’s got a daughter.
No such luck.
‘Michi! Come on, get up. You’ll be late for school.’ My door opens. I peek out from underneath my pillow. Mum’s standing there, rubbing lotion into her hands.
‘Come on, darling. Get up. You’ll miss your bus.’
‘Don’t feel like it,’ I whimper.
Mum moves closer to my bed. ‘Are you ill?’
‘Terminally,’ I tell her, making my voice as croaky as possible.
There’s a rustling sound as Mum pulls a cord and my blind shoots up, flooding the room with morning sunlight.
‘Tough,’ she says. ‘Come on. You’re not a baby any more. You’re nearly thirteen.’
Don’t remind me, I think. It just brings back bad memories of the party I thought my friends were going to have for me.
‘And if you hadn’t sat up half the night on your computer, you’d probably feel much better about being up and out of bed now. What were you doing, anyway? Chatting to your friends?’
Has she got X-ray vision or something? How did she know I was up till 2 a.m., reading and rereading the horrible messages on that horrible website? Sighing, I emerge from the comforting cocoon of my doona and slide my feet onto the floor. ‘Something like that,’ I tell her.
The bus drops me outside the school entrance and I hoist my backpack securely onto my shoulder, then slink th
rough the gates, trying not to attract any attention. A couple of girls on the bus gave me funny looks when I got on, then whispered about me behind their hands. Did they know about the website? Or maybe I am just a fat ugly lying loser cow who deserves to be whispered about.
I keep an eye out for Mia but can’t see her anywhere. Alysha walks past in a tight little group with Paige and Jayde.
‘Leesh?’ I call softly. I want to find out more about this hacking stuff she told Mia about last night. But she doesn’t stop, just flutters her fingers in a little wave. Paige and Jayde give me greasies, like I’m a bad smell or something. OMG. They must have seen the website. They don’t believe all those horrible lies, do they? Surely Alysha’s told them I’m not really like that?
My guts suddenly turn to ice. What if Alysha believes it herself? … We’re not the closest of friends, not tight like Mia and I are. And then I remember Mia telling me how she and Alysha used to be really close – Lexi, as well. They were called the Awesome Threesome. Mia’s told me the change in their friendship has nothing to do with me. But maybe she was just being Mia, trying not to make me feel bad. Maybe Lexi falling out with Mia, and Alysha moving away to hang with other people was all my fault …
By the time I reach our locker area I’ve convinced myself I deserve all the grief I’ve been getting over the last few days. I shuffle over to my locker, keeping my head down. There’s a small crowd hanging around Amira and the Js, laughing and chatting. Amira seems to be handing out something. Envelopes, maybe – it’s hard to tell when the main thing you can see is your shoes. The chat stops as soon as they see me coming, and turns into stares.
‘Seen any good websites lately, Michi?’ Jess asks me sweetly as I fiddle with my lock. ‘I’m thinking of updating my MyPlace page, and I thought you might have some good ideas for stuff to put on it.’
Where are you, Mia? I think desperately. Has she deserted me too?
The door to my locker finally opens and I bury my head inside so she can’t see my burning cheeks.
‘Hey, Michi,’ says Jane. ‘You’re good at music, aren’t you? Oh, hang on, that’s right. You only think you are. That’s too bad, because I wanted to ask you if you’d write the music to some lyrics I wrote about you.’
A Year in Girl Hell Page 12