The Same Mistakes Club

Chapter Twenty-Three

Rita spent that Saturday interviewing the Club members for her article.  But she wanted to interview me, Margaret, and Maishely separately.

While I was one hundred percent behind the Club and couldn't have been happier about our success, the timing for this interview couldn't have been any worse.  The looks we all had been getting from the male population at Isabelling High and girl nonmembers had become more and more awkward.  Jacob had stopped talking to me all together.

"So do you consider yourself a feminist?"  Rita asked after I'd given her the background.

"Um, I guess?"

Nice answer.

I knew I had to start focusing on the interview.  The Club was too important to me not to, and I really wanted it to be portrayed as something positive.

"You better only be saying nice things about me,"  Margaret interrupted as she walked into the room.  "Is it my turn yet?"

Rita shut off the tape recorder.  "I just need to grab another tape.  I'll be right back."

For over a week I'd been avoiding telling Margaret about the upcoming whatever-it-was with Gabriel.  With Rita out of the room, it seemed as good a time as any.

After I was done, I asked, "So how do you feel about that?"

"Sounds like fun, Alissa.  This isn't a date or anything, is it?"

"Are you kidding me?  No, Margaret.  It's just a concert.  No big deal."

"Yeah, I've always liked Gabriel.  I'm surprised he hasn't started dating someone new."

"Well, he went to Homecoming with Katie -"

"Alissa, he's not dating her - he just took her to Homecoming.  He is one hundred percent single and available."  My heart stopped.  "Man, I should talk to Rita about writing some sort of gossip column for the Monitor.  I would hate to think where you'd be without my knowledge of the goings-on of the student body.  Anyways, you're not going to believe what those little brats did to me last night while I was babysitting...."

And like that, the conversation was over.  I had nothing to worry about.  It was just going to be an evening with two classmates catching a concert.  Nothing more.

*****

Maishely looked like she was going to be sick.

"Everything is going to be okay,"  I did my best to reassure her.

"Oh God, oh God, oh God."  She paced the hallway, her hands rolled up in tight fists.

Margaret and I exchanged worried looks.

Maishely slouched down on the floor.  "What was I thinking?"

I sat down next to her.  Margaret moved a few feet away with Marissa to give us privacy.

"Maishely."  I put my arm around her.  "I can't get over how much you've changed the past few weeks - you should be proud.  No matter what happens."

We looked up to see Coach King open the gymnasium doors and slowly walk toward the bulletin board.  A group of girls opened up a narrow passage for her and quickly closed up once she'd posted a single sheet of paper.

"Do you want me to look?"  I asked.

Maishely looked up as several girls started jumping up and down, cheering.  Margaret walked over and scanned the list.  Coach King walked past us on her way back to the gym, paused, and turned around.

"Welcome to the team, Creston."

Maishely's eyes widened.  "You mean..."

"Of course you made the team!"  Margaret could no longer contain herself.  "You're one of the flippin' team captains, Maishely!"

Maishely jumped up and rushed over to the bulletin board and studied the team list.

"I...  I..."  She turned back toward us.  "I did it!  Ohmygosh, I did it!"  She rushed over and engulfed me in a giant hug.

"Congratulations, we all knew you could do it!"  I was practically screaming, I was so excited for her.  "All right, guys, you can come over now!"

A screaming mob with "Congratulations, Maishely" signs came rushing from around the corner.

'What's going on?"  Maishely said in shock.

"You didn't want there to be a big scene in case you didn't make the team, but of course everybody wanted to be here for you."

Pride and Sierra proudly displayed their large "Way to go, Maishely" sign and quickly flipped it over to reveal another option:  "Screw 'em, they don't know what they're missing."  Pride winked at Maishely.  "Hey, a girls gotta be prepared!"

Maishely was swarmed by well-wishers, including the rest of her team members.

Margaret put her arm around me.  "Our little baby is all grown up!  Did you ever imagine this could've happened?"  Margaret asked.

I shook my head.

Not even in my wildest dreams.

*****

"Extra!  Extra!  Read all about us!"  Rita greeted me at my locker between classes on Monday and handed me a copy of the Isabelling Weekly News.

I grabbed the paper, and my eyes went straight to the headline about the Club and a picture of us that was on the front page.

"Oh, I didn't realize it was so big,"  I remarked as I tried to not have a panic attack.

I raced to the girls' bathroom, checked the stalls to make sure I was alone, and sat down.  It was all pretty much the standard story that I felt was already getting pretty old... until we got the end.

Rumours about the Club have been swirling the last few weeks, especially among the males at Isabelling.

"All that estrogen in one place can't be good,"  said junior Jacob Valadict.  "I just think all this no-dating stuff is a bunch of crap."

"I really haven't seen too much of a change in the chicks at school, except that they are a little too busy to hang,"  adds senior Derek Simpson.

Despite some concerns of the male population at Isabelling, The Same Mistakes Club doesn't appear to be slowing down anytime soon.

"I'm really excited to see what happens next," said Madison.  "There really doesn't seem to be an end in sight."

"One Thing" is for sure.  This reporter looks forward to her standing date every Saturday night, thanks to Alissa Madison.  Alissa won't be doing the "Same Mistakes" again with the male population of Isabelling.

I just stared at the last sentence:

Alissa won't be doing the "Same Mistakes" again with the male population of Isabelling.

My stomach tightened as the realization sank in that the entire school was going to read this.  The entire school.

What were people going to think of me after this got around?