How You Get the Girl

Gossip and Lies a Fun High School Tradition I Won't Miss

It was my free period and I needed to do my English reading. I had hidden in a library carrel behind a bookshelf, out of sight of everyone. There were two tables on the other side of the bookshelf. They had been empty when I had sat down, but after a few minutes Margaret and Caroline, two senior girls who were friends with Ben put their book down at one of them and started talking. I had eaten lunch with them almost every day since I had started dating Ben. I had not been wild about Margaret since she had grilled me about my pictures of Chip but since then she had been okay to me to my face. Apparently not so much behind my back. It took me a minute to realize they were talking about me.

"He just likes her because she has that blond popular thing going, I hear she is really dumb. Kenzie's in my Calculus class. She told me that Ben's tutoring her in math and she's still getting C's," Margaret said. Which was not true. I was getting a B- now, I thought.

"I'm sure he's just using her for sex," said Caroline.

"She is friends with Sasha and Julia, she has to be easy. Those two have slept with half the school," Margaret said. I was frozen. Were they really saying those things?

"I thought Harper was sleeping with Seth. That's what Seth was saying. She was with Michael before him. Everyone in that crowd is always sleeping with each other," Margaret continued. I fought the urge to stand up and confront them. Did everyone in the school think I was a slut?

"It's got to be an end of senior year thing for Ben. Have sex with one of the easy girls than dump her and head off to college," Caroline stated.

"Why else would he date someone like her? I bet she'll do anything and I mean anything.  I heard they got caught by a teacher in the Lost and Found room basically having sex.  What a slut," Margaret said. "And look at how she dresses. She basically advertising that she's giving it away. Could her skirts be any shorter?"

My stomach churned and I closed my eyes. I knew people were talking about Ben and me. I knew there had been gossip but I had no idea it was this nasty.

Did I dress like a slut? I was wearing a dark blue skater dress today with a black leather jacket over it. It was form-fitting and short with a flared skirt but not that short. I did like to wear skirts and dresses but did that mean I dressed slutty?

"It's pathetic the way she hangs on him. Someone should clue her in that he's just using her. I mean, I want to tell her, girl he's just not that into you," Caroline finished.

Then I heard Kenzie say, "He is that into her." I peeked through the bookcase. Margaret and Caroline were both starring at Kenzie who had walked up behind them and had clearly overheard at their conversation. She went on, "Nice job slut shamming someone when you both know Harper's not like that at all. You're just pissed, Margaret because Ben was not that into of you when you were together, which is what this is really about."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Margaret told Kenzie.

"Yes, you do. Harper's my friend and Ben's my brother, so stop the gossiping about them. It just makes you look petty and bitchy," Kenzie said.

"Whatever Kenzie. Girls like her are never really your friend you know," Margaret said and stormed off. Caroline lingered for a second as if she wanted to say something to Kenzie but she seemed to be unable to figure out what she could possibly say to smooth things over. Finally, she ducked her head and followed Margaret. There went two people I would not be asking to sign my yearbook.

I stood up and walked out from behind the bookcase. Kenzie started when she saw me there.

"How much of that conversation did you hear?" She asked me, her eyes wide.

"All of it. Thanks for standing up for me," I told her and I looked around to see if anyone had noticed what had happened. No one was starring thank goodness.

"Margaret and Caroline are both total bitches," she said.

"I know. Is that really what everyone is saying about me?" I asked.

"Not everyone."

That was not really a reassuring answer.

"Why is everyone so pissed off that Ben and I are dating?"

"You broke the rules," Kenzie told me.

"What rules?" I asked her.

"The rules of high school. Stay in your clique. Don't try to change who you are or who you are friends with. Be exactly what everyone expects," she explained.

"Well, I blew that one, didn't I? I fell for the guy no one expected me to like."

"I think you have good taste, but don't tell him I said that," Kenzie told me. "Brothers should never know their sisters actually think there're okay."

"I won't," I reassured her. Then I asked her, "Do I dress like a slut?"

"No," Kenzie said rolling her eyes. "But, most of the girls in your group, not Beth, but Sasha, Julia, and even Frida have reputations. How did you end up being friends with them? They party, sleep around and are seriously bitchy. You're not like that."

"It just happened. We've been friends since we were little. By the time we got to high school and everybody started doing all that stuff, it was just the group I was part of. Like you said, it's not like you can really change groups in high school. Once people think you are a certain person, your pretty much that person for the next four years," I told her.

"Only two more months and you get to start over," she said.

"I think I've already blown things up pretty well. I'm not part of that group any more that's for sure. Who knew one kiss in a study room would cause so much trouble?" I replied.

"One kiss in a study room?" Kenzie asked.

"Ben never told you about how we started seeing each other?" I said.

"You're joking, right? I didn't know you had started dating until he told me we were picking you up on the way to school the next day. Even then he just said 'we're seeing each other' and I said, 'like dating?' and he said 'yes,'" she responded. "It wasn't much of a conversation. No details at all."

"That sounds like him," I answered and I told her how we started seeing each other.

"You kissed him. I should have known. I thought he had finally gotten up the nerve to ask you out," she laughed.

"Wait, he was going to ask me out?" I asked her.

"I'm not sure he ever would have gotten up the nerve. I knew he liked you a lot. I mean, this was my brother who up until that point had spent most of his time alone in his room on his computer. Suddenly he was spending all his time with a girl. He went to that museum with you and was tutoring you at math. You were over at our house all the time. He was talking to you in actual sentences. It was pretty obvious he was into you," she told me.

"He dated girls before me. He must have spent time with them," I said.

"Not as much as with you. He saw Clare a couple of times a month. He's really different with you," she answered.

"Oh," I said. I knew I had fallen hard for Ben during that first month when we had spent so much time together. Beth had known I liked him because of how I was acting. It was strange to think about it from the opposite perspective, that Ben had been as obvious to Kenzie as I was to Beth. Maybe he was as into me as I was into him. Maybe it was time to stop being so insecure about him.