chp 3

Chapter 3: Mikayla
    Miranda and Melody left the next morning, to go shopping. I thought that was weird because who goes shopping at 10:00 in the morning? They were pretty upset because they did not get to see Sterling, today, but that was fine because aunt Calire could just sign the papers.Well anyways I woke up pretty early today, again, because I wanted to help out aunt Clare clean the house because I guess some record producer named Sterling was coming over, so aunt Clare could sign a contract for Miranda and Melody. I got pretty upset when she told me that, but I guess I eventually got over it. We washed the dishes, vacumed from the mess yesturday, organized the rooms, and folded the blankets. The house looked neat and tidy then. Aunt Clare wore her white apron, and stood in the kitchen to cook some lunch. She made her usual tamato soup, bread sticks, and chopped salad. It sounds gross, but knowing that aunt Clare is making it, your thoughts suddenly change.

“Ding Dong”, went the loud doorbell. I got up the answer the door, and as soon as I did, a man with a black suit,  bright neon colored blue tie, brown mustache, and a beagle with drooping ears, ginglery toddled in the house. “Hi my name is Sterling”, he said kindly. Usually no one visited here for the time that I’ve been here.

    “Would you like a cup of coffee”, aunt Clare asked Sterling.
    “No thanks....but I’ll have some water”, he replied.
He sat their like a statue, staring at some papers he was holding tightly in his long arms. Curiously I asked what it was. He raised his eyebrow and said the contract for Melody and Miranda’s fist song. I didn’t know what to do, so I just left, while aunt Clare signed the papers. It talked about how they are going to have the resposibilities to practice, sing songs and memorize each, and much more.
A few minutes, maybe an hour passed by, by the time Sterling left. So I dashed upstairs, and worked on my newspaper. I jotted down a few more things about I think you already know who.... I wrote how Miranda was a big diva who wanted everything her way all the time, which was partially true. I wrote Melody was a nerd and a teachers pet, which was also partially true. Something inside me told me that what I was doing was wrong, but then again, I was signing in  anonymous, and it was not getting published. I was only doing it, to let out my feeling, and get some money to, and I would offer to share some money with them to.. maybe. I could also buy Miranda’s something special for her birthday, because I still had to show that I cared, which I did, because every year we get each other something special.

For example last year, Melody and Miranda got me a puppy, which is back at home with my grandma, and they got me a bunch of other little things to! It really ment alot, so I want to do the same for them to. After Miranda and Mikayla came home, we waited for Miranda to go back out to Selema’s house to do home work, so aunt Clare, Melody, and I could go shopping for her gift. We came home with 2 pridigious bags, 1 with her gift which was a $50 perfume, a black leather jacket, a purse, and a tiara that she can wear when we go out to dinner. I was exteremely exited, and couldn’t wait to see her expression. T he other bag was filled with dinner, which was chinease food for the night.

I could not enjoy by night still knowing that my newspaper was not done yet, and that it had to be done by wednesday, and today was tuesday! After dinner, I spent the rest of the night writing and writing. I guess when I wrote all the negetive ideas about my friends, I never really thought about he posotive things about them. I just really wanted to know how everything will end up. Will this ruin my life? Will I still have 2 best friends at the end of everything?

Doing this really made me feel like a bad person. But thinking about it gave me a big headache, so I just went to sleep. The next morning I woke up thinking about the dream I had the previouse night. It was about how Calra told the principal that somehow Miranda and Melody cheated their way through the whole audition, and then they found out that I wrote the newspaper, beacuse Clare told them. But that would never happen in real life.

“So Miranda, how did the auditions go?,I never really got a chance to ask you”, said Mikayla.

“I guess it went good, thanks for caring’, Miranda replied in her usual girly tone.

“Looks like you guys did pretty good without me right,you got the contract everything you wanted right?” I said.

“Yea I guess so”, she said

“Well I thought your answer would be different,” I said rolling my eyes.

“Whatever we’re later for school lets go,” she said grabbing her hot pink name brand backpack.

Looks like we are not getting along anymore. Whenever there is drama, Melody just has to miss it. I don’t like how everything changed now that we moved. I guess me spending so much time on the gift was not worth it now. But that is to late to think about. The dinner was coming up. Time to go in the car and get ready for another day at school!
       

When we got to school, we immediately split up to find our friends, and I easily saw Clara waving me over. She wore an impatient and annoyed expression, that was easy to see. When I looked closer, she seemed to be looking right through me. I turned around and saw Miranda and Melody looking hesitantly this way. Was she really waving at them? Since when were they all buddy buddy with each other, last time I thought about it, I was certain they were enemies. Sure enough though, she was waving at them.

I turned around again, and saw Melody and Miranda conversing, probably about whether to go to Clara or not. They were a little predictable in that way. On the other hand, if I were in their place I’d be worried to come this way though, especially with Clara looking like she was out to kill. As if they were snails, they walked behind me in slow motion.
It was clear Clara didn’t notice me, because when her eyes fell on me, she smirked. What was that about? I mean, it wasn’t a normal smirk (I didn’t even know if there was such a thing as a normal smirk), but it was a satisfied smirk. Like a haha-I-sure-showed-you smirk. I didn’t even do anything though. Then I realized I was blatantly staring at her, and blushed a little. I wasn’t going to treat her like she was a queen or anything. Even though she was one of my friends, I would never show weakness or admiration towards her. Especially with her smirking as if I was below her status. Yeah right, who was the girl who came running up to me when I first arrived at school. Oh yeah, it was her. Whatever.
Being sure to look at other things before I arrived to her, I looked at her and slumped.
“Hey. What’s up?” I said nonchalantly.
“Nothing.” She replied shortly, “Just wait here, I need to talk to your friends.” She sneered the word friends.
“Excuse me?” I replied in the same tone. “What do you mean, friends? They’re definitely better friends than you.” Even if they aren’t my friends right now. Even if they probably hate me right now. Even if they will probably dislike me even more after Clara talks to them. No, I shouldn’t say that. Maybe she just wants to congratulate them on the contract. When I looked at her expression, I knew I was right to say that she wouldn’t be congratulating anyone today.
“Huh?” She wasn’t even listening to me. “Just a sec, Kayla.” She said, using her sugary sweet voice that I came to know, since I enrolled in this school, was just as fake as her cheap makeup. Add that to my nickname, “Kayla”, which I secretly hated, and she was just as sweet as expired milk. In any case, I had faith that Miranda and Melody wouldn’t succumb to her spurious lies. Maybe I was being a little dramatic, but basically they could stand their ground.
“Uh, you, um, waved us over?” Melody said with disbelief, but also with contempt in every word. Both her and Miranda looked curiously at me, and I shrugged. At least Clara’s unusual request made them acknowledge me.
“Well, why’d you call us over?” Miranda added, getting impatient.
“Okay, well, come over here, I gotta tell you two something.” Clara said with another sugary smile. But my best friends just looked at her with disbelief, clearly saying that they’d rather do anything than talk to her.
And here I was, just a bystander, the one thing I hated.
“Whatever.” Miranda said, and they both walked a few feet away.
My mind was aching. What was Clara telling them both that I couldn’t know? I couldn’t make out anything more than whispers, growing furious. She was obviously getting them annoyed, which couldn’t have been too hard seeing as they were already in such irked states before. When they stopped whispering, I dared to look at them, and instead of looking at Clara with hatred, that emotion was directed towards me.
Whaaaaaat?
In sync, my best friends stomped away. I grabbed hold off Miranda’s shoulder just before she could get too far. “Ugh, let go of me!” Miranda snarled at me, jerking her shoulder out of my tight grasp. She glared at me angrily and massaged her shoulder, over exaggerating the movement of it. I couldn’t help it, I was angry at them too, and Clara for messing up whatever kind of good relationship we had now with whatever she said. And Miranda and Melody had no right to be angry at me, I didn’t do anything at all.
“What did she tell you?” I asked under a mask of calmness.
Melody looked angry, but also frustrated when she said, “She told us about your newspaper.”
“Huh? You two already knew what I was entering that contest.” Honestly, why would they be mad about that?
Melody rolled her eyes now, seeming to be over the frustration, and said, “Yeah, well we didn’t know about your topic: us.”
“And you believe Clara?” I asked, not denying the accusation.
Her eyes narrowed, and I realized that’s why she was frustrated before. She didn’t completely believe Clara, but now that I didn’t even deny it, she was sure Clara told the truth. I silently cursed myself, how stupid could I be?
Miranda seemed to be over feigning her hurt shoulder and replied, “She showed us a few pages of it. You probably loaned it to her sometime, or something along those lines. They pages she showed us matched your handwriting, and it even mentioned some of the things we told you. As secrets.” She looked hurt as she said it, even though anger was clear as day in every syllable. She seemed to notice this, and added with a steely glare this time, “By the way, Mikayla, I don’t even see how you thought you could win the contest with that as your entry. The judges wouldn’t want to see a whiney little girl rant about her ex-best friends with bad grammar.”
Ouch. She really didn’t hold back. I could see that Melody saw this, too, because she dropped her angry gaze instantly and winced, realizing that Miranda crossed the line. Even Miranda saw that she did, and a look of regret replaced the caustic one, but she turned away, not ready to take the words back. I closed my eyes for a few seconds, telling myself that she was just angry, but that wasn’t the problem. Even though she didn’t mean the words, and they impulsively fell out of her mouth, I felt like they were true. Why would I write something so hurtful like that, and enter it? Besides, it was stupid. Every single word of it. Stupid. I mean, maybe it was good writing, maybe…
Tears threatened to spill and I held them back with a lot of difficulty. I sighed and said, “Whatever Miranda, at least I had the guts to say what I was thinking about everything and take action. Whereas you,” I spit out a laugh, “just sit there like a little Barbie doll, not even daring to force out a word about anything that happens. You‘re just a coward.” Where did that come from? I should be apologizing like crazy, I know I was wrong. I shouldn’t be insulting her, I was wrong. Not her.

“We’ll see you at home Mikayla.” Melody said quietly, yet seething. She turned around and put her arm around Miranda. I sighed and closed my eyes again, and when I opened them I found Clara looking at me with an amused expression. She was cruel.
“Hm. That was interesting. Well Mikayla, they would have out about it anyway.” She smiled, placating, and for a second I almost believed she felt sorry for me. “I’ll see you later.” She said as the bell rang. She turned around, but I still saw the glimpse of a smile etched on her face.
Quickly enough, it was fourth period. This was my favorite period, English class. The best class ever.
Not today.
Everyone sat in their assigned seats, and Mrs, Corall looked happily at us. “Before we start our lessons, I’d like to congratulate Mikayla for winning the Statewide newspaper contest! The judges said, and I quote, ‘the article sounded as if it were written for an exclusive gossip magazine. The author replicated the rumors and voice of the writers of them astoundingly!’” Um, I wasn’t replicating it. “Great job Mikayla! Would you like to share with the class?”
No. Definitely not. Not in a million years. Never. Nope. No way. “Um, no thank you.” I replied nervously.
“Oh, but I insist.” I shook my head spastically. “Oh, Mikayla, if your shy, I’ll read it out loud myself.” I closed my eyes in defeat. Please, please don’t read their names. But she did. And as soon she realized who I was saying all these despicable things about, she stopped in her tracks.

I looked at her, my eyes pleading for her not to continue any longer. All around me, eyes were fixed on me, bodies were turned towards me. I wished I could rewind time, and take back everything that I said. But I couldn’t, it was out to the whole world. All the embarrassing secrets about Miranda and Melody were out. I had no doubt that my class would spread it.

There was absolutely no chance of being forgiven now.

I slumped in my seat, doodling the rest of the period, pretending not to notice the snickers around me and eyes fixated on me. When the bell finally rang, I couldn’t help but feel relieved, it was over. But I was wrong, the words did spread. I felt the heated glare of every student and whenever Melody or Miranda would pass by me in the hall, the wouldn’t even meet my gaze, and they were engulfed with snickers and teasing. I was so pained, I wished I could take everything back and just beg for forgiveness. That’s what I’d do when I got home, at Miranda’s birthday dinner.

The car ride home was painful, and even Aunt Clare could sense it, but decided not to play a part in the argument.

The car ride home was painful, and even Aunt Clare could sense it, but decided not to play a part in the argument.

At home, I could hear Miranda and Melody talking in excited whispers about how they were going to record a song in less than a week. I was happy for them, but it hurt. It's the reason I was in this mess, because of this contract they had. I wish I auditioned with them, not because they get a recording contract and they might become famous, but because I want to be with them. But it's my own fault... I waited patiently at home until 6 o’clock, when we’d leave for dinner, which I was dreading. Of course, it came as quickly as it could. We handed Miranda her presents: perfume, a coach purse, and a warm leather jacket. When Aunt Clare left to start the car and leave, I knew the time to apologize was here.

“Miranda, Melody? Um, I’m really, really, unbelievably sorry for writing those things about you guys. You didn’t deserve it, I was being a jerk. And I didn’t mean for Mrs. Corall to read it out loud, and for it to spread. I- I’m really sorry.” I stuttered the last few words, verging on tears.

“Mikayla, we know that you’re sorry. We really do. But…” Miranda said.

“Well, it’s kinda hard to trust you now. I- we get that you were angry when you wrote it, but everyone at school is making fun of us now. Because of you.” Melody continued, looking down at the floor while she was talking. “And, uh, we were thinking that we don’t really want that to happen again, after this all blows over, if it does. You don’t know how it feels, to have all your secrets spill out to the school. Sorry doesn’t do anything, Mikaya, taking action does. And I doubt that even that will decrease our humiliation.” She finished. She threw my own words about taking action back at me, and I knew she was right.

But because of that, another idea spun in my head. What if I did take action, and it took away all their pain? Could I do that?

First I had to make a choice though. Between my friends’ reputations, and my own.

The choice was unbelievably easy.