Gina
“The guy is an arrogant jackass, Adrienne.” Gina was at Adrienne’s locker, fuming about Dustin.
“I wouldn’t take it so personally, I think he was just trying to be nice.”
“Nice?” Gina’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets and steam was just about coming out of her ears.
“Gina, you need to calm down.” Adrienne closed her locker and put her hands on Gina’s shoulders. “Why would he give you those-“ she looked at the band-aids and ointment in Gina’s hand. “If he was trying to be mean?”
“It’s insulting.”
“I don’t understand why you hate him so much.” Adrienne started walking toward the stairs, Gina followed.
“I don’t understand why you don’t.”
Some big football player ran down the stairs, ramming Adrienne into the wall, almost making her fall down the stairs until Gina caught her.
“Watch it!” Adrienne yelled at him.
“Don’t you just love high school?” Gina said with a fake smiled. Adrienne looked at her in agreement.
They got in Adrienne’s car and Adrienne blared the heat.
“Aren’t you cold?” she asked Gina. She shook her head.
“Where’s Peyton?” Gina suddenly wondered, surprised he wasn’t glued to her side as usual.
“I don’t know. He said he had to leave early but he’d come over later.”
Adrienne’s phone buzzed on the dashboard.
“Can you check that?” she asked Gina.
Gina took it and clicked the unlock button. A picture of her gray cat, Harold, camp up on the home screen. Its big black eyes stared at her while she looked at it.
“Isn’t he adorable?” Adrienne said, noticing Gina looking at the picture
She nodded, still looking at the picture.
“So, who’s the text from?” Adrienne asked impatiently.
“Um..” Gina tapped the little envelope that popped up on the screen. It was a text from Peyton saying, “Hey baby”
“It’s from Peyton.” She told her.
Adrienne’s face lit up with excitement, and grabbed the phone out of Gina’s hand.
“Texting and driving? Really? If you kill me, I swear, my ghost will come back and kick your skinny white ass.”
Adrienne huffed and threw the phone in Gina’s lap. She still had a small smile on her face.
“What?” Gina asked.
“Hmm? Oh, nothing. I’m just happy. I love having him as my boyfriend.” Gina got a sinking feeling in her stomach.
She knew that she wasn’t exactly Ms. social butterfly, but she always secretly hoped that something would happen that would give her something to look forward to in life. She figured that she probably wasn’t going to college. Her father wasn’t going to pay for it. He thought college was a conspiracy theory and the government’s legal way to rob people of their money.
One night at dinner he said, “Gina, not everyone goes to college. Look at Richard Branson, or Steve Jobs. College isn’t necessary.”
She didn’t have that many friends, she had Adrienne, Peyton, Hayden, and a couple others, but that was it; and she knew that the chance of her getting a boyfriend was a joke.
