The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth - Alexandra Robbins [157]
They talked about their parents and the book they had to read for government. Logan told Danielle to give her a call if she needed any help. When the seniors dropped Danielle off, Tracy thanked her for coming.
“Thanks for inviting me,” Danielle replied. “Bye!” She hurried into her backyard, self-conscious about the girls watching her walk up to the house.
When she was out of sight, Danielle realized that she was proud of doing something social with new people. Maybe, Danielle thought, she wasn’t as socially awkward as she had assumed. She wondered if she could muster the courage to hang out with Logan again. She didn’t count the beach outing as part of her challenge because her mother had set it up.
WHITNEY, NEW YORK | THE POPULAR BITCH
In Spanish, Shay asked Whitney, “Are you doing anything tonight?”
“Nah,” Whitney said.
Shay spoke tentatively. “Could you work for me at the pool this week?” Shay and Whitney were lifeguards at the public pool. “I have choir practice.”
The timing wasn’t convenient, but Whitney figured she could use the extra money. “Yeah, of course,” she said.
Chelsea watched the conversation carefully.
Whitney and Shay were growing closer. Shay helped Whitney with a speech assignment. When Shay pulled ahead of Whitney in the class rankings, instead of holding a grudge as she would have in the past, Whitney allowed herself to be genuinely happy for her.
For an economics group project, the teacher placed Whitney in a group with Shay, a loser, a punk girl, and a badass. Whitney asked their opinions and incorporated their ideas instead of snootily blowing them off as the old Whitney would have done. She tried to temper her bossiness, and she chatted about nonschool subjects like iPhones and baseball. The group shared ideas equally and ended up with the best presentation in the class. A week later, Whitney acknowledged all of her former groupmates in the halls. They said hello back. (“That’s huge, trust me,” Whitney said later.) When Whitney greeted them while standing with preps, the preps stared at her. She was certain that they disparaged her as soon as she walked away.
Whitney, Shay, and Chelsea were huddled at a table in the library, working on an English group project, when Bianca and Giselle walked in and sat on the couch. A few minutes later, Chelsea stood up and, without a word to her partners, joined Bianca and Giselle for the rest of the period. “Dude, what the fuck?!” Whitney vented. “That’s so annoying.” She began a tirade about Chelsea’s selfishness. Chelsea had wormed her way into the preps’ circle. She had been savvy enough not to try too hard, as Irene had. Chelsea, for example, knew better than to wear anklets as Bianca did.
“Calm down,” Shay told her. “Let it go, it’s not a big deal. She wasn’t helping us anyway.” Whitney liked that Shay didn’t let minor matters bother her. Generally Whitney agreed with classmates’ assessment of her as a melodramatic, high-strung girl. When she was with Shay, though, she felt more relaxed.
The next day, when Bianca and Giselle entered the library, Bianca yelled across the room, “Chelsea, you know you want to sit with us.” Chelsea seemed thrilled that Bianca had gone out of her way to invite her over. The following day, as Whitney again worked with Shay on their project, out of the corner of her eye she saw Chelsea sneak into the library and bolt into the other room, where Bianca lounged with Steph.
Outside of the cafeteria, Whitney hadn’t hung out with the preps as a group since February. The only Riverland students she socialized with after school were Giselle, Giselle’s boyfriend, and Steph. Otherwise, she spent much of her free time with Luke. In school, Whitney was gradually branching out. In Spanish and speech classes, Whitney started to chat with Caroline, the emo who, when asked to write about something that annoyed her, chose to write about preps. The first time Whitney spoke to her, she pointed to Caroline’s Bullet for My Valentine shirt. “I like them. Are they still touring in Europe this summer?