The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth - Alexandra Robbins [47]
The administrator turned to Josiah and said, “What, what? Is ‘muffin’ a code word for something that I’m unaware of? Am I going to lose my job?”
“Noo, nope, noo,” Josiah replied sarcastically.
After the administrator left the room, Regan said to Josiah, “I was tempted to say, ‘Chocolate.’ ”
A few weeks later, the boy who had uttered the word “faggot” approached Regan. He told her that he was gaming online and someone typed, “You’re a fag.” The boy grinned. “Man, I was about to type it back and everything, but then I remembered you told me not to say that word, so I didn’t. I called him a bastard instead.”
Regan smiled to herself. The victory was small, but it was a victory nonetheless.
WHEN THE FIRST FACEBOOK message came in, Regan laughed it off. “Oh my God,” she said. Crystal, who was hanging out in the kitchen, looked up.
“You won’t believe this,” Regan said. “You know my friend Theodore at school? He sent me a message: ‘Funny story . . . well, maybe not! I totally called your archenemy Mandy your name! She was PISSED.’ ”
As soon as Regan got to school the next morning, she found Theodore in the art room. “So . . . what?” she asked.
“It was ridiculous,” Theodore said.
Tess, a mutual acquaintance, walked into the room. “Oh, are you telling her about Mandy?” she asked, looking thrilled to be part of the gossip. Her eyes widened. “It was unbelievable. I walked in after the whole thing happened, and she was still yelling and ranting, her hands flying all over the place. I was like, ‘What the hell happened?’ When I heard it, I couldn’t even believe it.”
“Okay, what happened?” Regan asked.
“First of all,” Theodore started, “I didn’t even know about the Wyatt thing. I wasn’t even aware that she—”
Tess broke in: “When he told me he called her your name, I was like, ‘Do you know what you just did?’ I had to explain the whole thing to him.” Apparently Mandy had acted as if Theodore obviously should have known about the Mandy-Wyatt-Regan triangle.
“I saw her sitting in the auditorium,” Theodore said. “And all I saw was blonde, curly hair.” Regan had recently dyed her hair blonde.
“Oh!” Regan said. “She was sitting? Thank God. I thought she was standing up, and I was like, ‘Oh no, you did not mistake her ass for mine.’ ”
“No, no,” Theodore laughed. “So I went up to her, and I was like, ‘Hey buddy, haven’t seen you in a minute.’ She turned around and gave me the look of death. I was like, ‘Oh, sorry, I thought you were Davis.’ And then white girl got ghetto. I mean ghetto. She was putting her neck into it and everything, snapping and all. She was like, ‘Don’t ever make that mistake again! I am not that bitch. I am not that lesbian. I am not annoying.’ She went on and on!”
“She called me annoying? And a bitch? What have I ever done to her?”
Theodore went on. “Then she just started going off. Screaming. Yelling. Francesca was trying to get Mandy to calm down, but she was flipping out. She was so loud that people in other rows were turning around. I was like, ‘I don’t even know you,’ you know?”
Regan fumed. “That is the most unprofessional thing I have ever heard in my life. And why did she call me out on being gay? That has nothing to do with her, and it has even less to do with why she hates me!”
“She’s just pissed because she got your sloppy seconds,” Tess said.
“Yeah,” said Theodore. “Clearly she’s just jealous.”
“But she shouldn’t be!” Regan yelled. “If anyone should hate anyone, I should hate her. She’s the one who stole my boyfriend! But I don’t hate her! I mean, I don’t like her. But I certainly don’t hate her or talk trash about her. I can’t believe it. Part of me wants to say something to her.” She rolled her eyes. “I’ve gotta get to class,” she said, glancing at the clock. “But thanks for the story.”
Regan was more frustrated than deeply offended. “I’m completely blown away,” she said later. “I’m aggravated that someone would be that rude and inconsiderate.