• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

“I did not!” Danielle protested.

Max nodded emphatically. “It took three months to get Dani to talk to me,” he said. “I just kept on talking to her nonstop and eventually she started to talk to me a little.”

Why’d he do that? Danielle wondered. Most people don’t bother.

Danielle gave Max a ride home from the picnic. Still new to driving, she told herself, Watch for the curb. Do not forget to watch for the curb. When she started the engine, Max said, “Okay, Dani, we’re going to play a game. You’re going to drive around town until you find my house.”

“What?!”

Max laughed. “I’ll tell you if you’re hot or cold.”

Danielle saw Olivia riding her bicycle down Stone Mill’s semicircular driveway. She pulled alongside her.

“Olivia!” she shouted. “Where does Max live?”

“Kjshfjklsdfhjk!” Max yelled gibberish so that Danielle couldn’t hear.

“I pass his house on the way home!” Olivia shouted over Max.

“I know! Where does he live, though?”

“Um, you go right, and then . . .”

“Do you know the street?” Danielle pressed.

“DANI!” Max shouted as Danielle, too busy talking to Olivia to pay attention to the curving driveway, drove over the curb and onto the grass in front of the school.

Max couldn’t stop laughing while Danielle, kicking herself, got back onto the road. “You are a horrible driver!”

“Well, I did drive through a garage door.” Danielle hadn’t admitted that to anyone at school.

When she pulled into his driveway, Max lingered. He goofed around, pressing buttons in the car, turning on the windshield wipers. He was still laughing about how she’d driven onto the curb.

“Get out,” Danielle said, mock-angry.

“Okay!” Max chortled. “Bye, Dani! We’re going to play tennis soon!”

Danielle didn’t realize until she had been home for an hour that Max had turned on her hazard lights, which hadn’t stopped flashing since.

WHITNEY, NEW YORK | THE POPULAR BITCH

Whitney was in the senior lounge when the class advisor asked if any students wanted to organize the senior slideshow. The show would feature childhood pictures of the seniors and would run during Senior Night, the pre-graduation ceremony during which senior awards and scholarships were announced. Bobby and Chip volunteered. Aware that if the preps were in charge of the slideshow, they would spotlight only themselves, Whitney also volunteered. The teacher gave a quick speech about how they needed to include everyone.

The next day, Whitney met Bobby and Chip in the computer graphics room, which the boys said they had never entered because “only punks and emos do stupid things like graphic design.” Bianca and Giselle watched from across the room. Bianca made fun of pictures of students who were overweight as children. She said little to Whitney.

As they shuffled through the photos, Whitney began scanning pictures of students from various groups. When she inserted a photo of a “loser,” Chip said, “No, absolutely not.”

“Eww, Whitney, don’t include that!” Bianca said. Whitney inserted the photo anyway.

“Whitney, are you kidding?” Chip said. Bobby laughed.

“You guys are so annoying,” Whitney muttered. She made sure the slideshow was accessible only under her username so that the preps couldn’t change the photos later.

Whitney flipped to a picture of a group of punks. She dragged and dropped it into the show.

“You’re ruining the slideshow!” said Chip, the senior class president. “It’s just disgusting!” Bobby doubled over.

As Whitney continued to represent all of her grade’s groups, Chip made snarky comments about most of the non-preps, while Bobby played along. “What a dome!” they crowed about a band kid with a large head.

“You guys weren’t the best-looking kids, either,” Whitney said.

Chip insisted that every photo of him had to go in the slideshow.

“Whatever,” Whitney said, knowing she would sneak a few out. She made sure that, no matter how much the boys complained, every senior who submitted a picture was included in the show.

Two weeks later, Whitney pulled into the school parking lot for Senior Night.