Chapter 3

Just because I was kind of popular now didn’t mean I magically started to like parties. They were still loud and overbearing, but I did have to admit, the best kinds of parties were the smaller ones.

Sydney had taken to becoming a popular girl kind of well. From what I’d learned of her, she was kind of like me; she started out as a bit of a nobody and climbed the social ladder by accident. That said, it was a good idea to keep the Student Council closer together, and Nicole was loving the spirit.

I sat in an armchair sipping a Pepsi, observing the rest of them. I couldn’t figure out if the Council were good friends that knew each other long before they all got elected, or if they all just pretended to be good friends with each other. Those had to be the only two options, right?

Nicole sat between Sydney and Rick, joking and laughing with them. It was weird, but I felt like I was on the other side of the world to her. Like she was just that far away. Neither of them even looked like they would be her friends. Sydney had a sweet round face, black hair to match Nicole’s, and an almost nervous-looking smile. Rick was tall and flamboyant, the type of guy that would make you think he was gay and involved in theater from one look. He was involved in theater, but I didn’t know if he was gay or not.

I sure hoped he was. Nicole was laughing and putting her hand on his leg and thanks to the small size of Sydney’s loveseat, the three were very close together, their bodies up against each other. I wasn’t really worried about Sydney making a move, but ... well, Rick was different.

I turned my attention to the floor, where Eugene was enthusiastically telling a story to Daniela. They were the reps for Advertisement and School Spirit, respectively, and from his bro-y attitude, it was clear they should have switched roles. The guy was putting on his broiest and most macho voice on to try to impress Daniela with a story of something that happened in his sophomore year. If I was a betting man, I would have said he was trying to hit on her, but hey, maybe he was just the most stereotypically Student Council-esque person there.

Better than me. All I was doing was sitting and people-watching. I wasn’t really part of the party ... I was just kind of looking into it from the outside.

Oh, dear God. I was becoming Paul.

“Having fun?” Megan asked me, walking up next to the chair I was sitting on.

I shook my head. “Huh?”

She gave me a smile. “Scoot over,” she gently suggested.

“It’s not that big a chair,” I countered.

“I’m not that big a girl,” she replied. I did my best to move over and she sat next to me. “You don’t really like parties, do you?”

“I mainly go for her,” I replied honestly, gesturing towards Nicole. We both looked at her. She was guffawing at one of stupid Rick’s stupid jokes, grabbing his leg affectionately as she did. I scoffed and looked away.

“What?” Megan asked obliviously, cluing in that I was upset but not getting why. “You could have told her no if you really didn’t want to come.”

“No, it’s not that,” I sighed, then got up, walking towards the kitchen. Megan quickly followed. Surprisingly, Jarrod was in there, rummaging through the cooler for drinks. The ninth grader was clearly thrilled to be at the party with the big kids. The rep for school dances, Dave, was with him, taking on the role of his big brother.

“That’s the beer,” he told him simply. “Just don’t go crazy with it. I’d only have one if I were you.”

He and Jarrod wandered off shortly after, leaving the kitchen alone, save for Megan and myself. Megan looked at me expectantly, and I sighed and leaned against the counter.

“I hate the way she looks at other guys,” I told her honestly. “Every time I see her even being friendly with another boy, it’s like, she could be doing something with him. The possibility is there, and it just kills me.”

Megan did her best to follow along, leaning against the opposite counter. “ ... Is the open relationship even a thing you both agreed to, or is it just a thing she said? Because if-”

“Neither, it’s complicated,” I answered. “She said she couldn’t do a relationship unless it was open, so we both made sacrifices. I don’t like it that much, but I’d rather be with her than not, and hey, maybe someday I’d like to go back to having casual sex or something.”

Hearing the last few words, Megan’s gaze grew stern and she looked at me with purpose. I could only blush and shrug, and after a few seconds, she only said one thing.

“Maybe you shouldn’t.”

We sat in silence for a while, and eventually, I felt like something needed to be said. “Yeah, maybe,” I conceded. Not liking the silence, I reached into the cooler and grabbed a beer. “Just having the one,” I gently told her before opening it.

“I didn’t say anything about that,” she said gently. I sipped my beer for about a minute, and we watched one or two people come in and out of the kitchen, noting our awkward silence and quickly leaving, with the exception of Jarrod, who came in twice more, each time for another beer.

“He’s going to be trouble tonight,” Megan softly said, trying to make small talk. I was avoiding small talk with her, and she definitely noticed. After a while, I saw her move out of my field of vision, and eventually, I felt her hand in mine. “You know why I feel the way I do about intercourse.”

“Of course I do,” I immediately replied. “But what the hell can I even say in response to that? I’m still going to have sex. I’m almost definitely going to have sex with more than just Nicole in the rest of my life, and it’s even more likely she’s going to fuck another guy. Maybe even tonight, she’ll fuck Rick or something. Just to fuckin’ piss me off.” I took a giant swig of my beer.

“Rick’s gay, Adam.”

“Neat,” I spat back, then paused. “Do you know for sure?”

She gently laughed. “Yeah.”

“Huh.” I paused, then shook my head. “Doesn’t change anything. She grabs his leg when she laughs at his jokes. No one does that.”

“We’re holding hands right now,” Megan reminded me. “Maybe their relationship is like ours. Did you ever think to, y’know, ask her?”

I deflated slightly. “I didn’t want to cause a fight.”

She laughed. “Yeah, so instead you just let yourself get angry by assuming stuff and keeping it to yourself.”

“Alright, whatever,” I dismissed. “How do you deal with being celibate, anyway? I wish I didn’t have any urges. Shit would be way easier.”

She smiled, but it was a sad smile. “Um, I do have urges...” she started uneasily. “They just bring back bad memories, so I don’t indulge them. It just sort of hurts when I have them. It’s like ... forget it, it’s hard to explain.”

“It’s like loving chocolate, like it’s the best thing in the world,” I found myself saying. “You eat it every day, and you enjoy it every day. And then one day, you get an allergy to chocolate. You still want to eat it, but eating it just hurts. It’s not like you don’t want it as badly, or even more badly, but you just can’t bring yourself to actually eat it. It hurts too much.”

“Wow...” Megan said, forming a smile. “That was deep, Adam. I was wrong, you do get it. Did you just think that up now?”

I stared forward, thinking to myself. “No, just something I heard once,” I mumbled, almost to myself. Realizing I was about to start crying, I blinked the tears away and cleared my throat. “You’re right, I need to stop assuming and then just sitting on that.”

“The beer didn’t help your thoughts either, I bet,” she offered gently.

I laughed. “I just drank this. It hasn’t even hit me yet,” I noted. “I’m, uh, sorry.”

“For what?”

I gave a sad single laugh. “All of first year?”

“Don’t worry about it. I didn’t mean to make this all about me. I’m okay now, I’m drama-free. It’s you and Nicole who need to talk.”

I looked at the can in my hands for a few seconds, then got off the counter and threw it away. “I guess we do.”

“Just remember – she’s allowed to have guy friends. You’re allowed to have girl friends too, you know,” she told me. “But she needs to remember how you feel, and you need to remember how she feels. And any other girl you may or may not have intercourse with.”

“‘Intercourse,’” I jokingly repeated.

“Oh hush,” Megan said with a smile.

“Anyway, don’t tell Carson about this. He’ll either call me whipped or he’ll take my side too much and hate Nicole for it, and both of those options suck,” I told her, with her nodding understandingly. We may have said more, but heard a commotion from the living room and walked over to investigate. We were greeted by the sight of several of the senior members keeping in their laughter while Jarrod babbled away.

“No, I’m serious!” he insisted, a slight slur growing in his voice. “You guys are, like, the first ever family I even had. Like, my parents are nice to me and everything, but they just don’t get me, you know? And, like, you guys just invited me, to your ... to your fuckin’ party! I don’t even like saying the f-word. You know, fuck. But like, you know, it feels right with you guys. It feels fuckin’ right!”

Nicole saw me come into the room and shot me a knowing look with a dry, sarcastic smile. She got up and started to walk towards me, but Jarrod saw her first.

“And Nicole – if I can call you Nicole -” he began, grabbing her wrist to stop her.

“What the fuck else would you call me?” Nicole asked with a confused laugh, clearly not loving the fact that Jarrod had grabbed her.

“I just love how confident you are, like I wish I was – no, I’m gonna be that confident this year! You just watch me, I’m gonna be the best grade nine rep Student Council has ever had!”

Nicole looked at Megan and myself. “Good luck, you got stiff competition,” she told him, not looking away from us.

Jarrod just laughed like she told a joke. “And the kiss, like – what was up with that? Like, actually, I think that was my first kiss ever!”

Nicole’s jaw dropped and her eyes bugged out of their head as she whipped back to look at Jarrod. “No!!” she nearly shouted in disbelief.

A few of the senior students laughed. “Come on, Nicole, don’t be mean,” Dave chided her.

Jarrod either didn’t clue in or didn’t care. “Yeah, and like, I was wondering, do all of the new students get a kiss, or like...” he trailed off.

Nicole, challenging him, just looked at him, and eventually shrugged. “Or like what?” she asked.

“You know, was it just me?” he asked, testing the limits of his confidence.

“Oh yeah, dude. Just you. To be honest, I’ve never even thought of kissing a guy before you,” she replied, breaking herself free of his grasp. “But hey, may as well start now.” She sauntered over to me and gave me a kiss on the lips in front of everyone, earning a few cheers from Rick and Sydney, and a joking ‘boo’ from Eugene and a ‘yuck’ from Daniela.

She broke the kiss and her eyes fluttered open in that way they did after every kiss from me. This time, though, she didn’t smile meaningfully. “Save me,” she whispered, gesturing behind her with her eyes.

I thought quickly. “Hey Nicole, you’re the smartest, prettiest, most wonderful girl I’ve met since working on the council. How would you like to be boyfriend and girlfriend?” I asked in a slightly louder more purposeful voice than usual.

“Wow, Adam!” she replied, giving me the same tone. “A monogamous relationship, just for me? Why, I think I’ll take it! Let’s make it official starting right now!” She kissed me again, this time earning a joking chorus of ‘boos’ from the room. Even Megan joined in, with a smile on her face.

The rest of the Council knew she would have rather died than be in a monogamous relationship, myself included. But, importantly, Jarrod didn’t, although judging from the smile fading from his face, this was probably the dumbest way to go about it. Hell, he probably knew we were in a relationship since the first meeting, and if he was smart, he’d know this show was basically Nicole telling him to leave her alone or something. Still, at least he wouldn’t bother her, and he got some kind of closure from this ... that was at least something.

“Urngh, fuck...” I groaned, finishing my set. Even though it was mid-October, I only just caught up with where I was at the end of the school year. Being away from the gym all summer long made me regress a bit, even if I was still going to Nicole’s karate class. Exhaling with determination, I started another set when I heard the door open from behind me.

“ ... And this is the Student Council VP’s personal office, you can find him here whenever he wants to avoid me,” the joking tone of Nicole greeted my ears.

“This is the weights room,” Mr. Scott’s voice quickly rebutted. “More advanced gym classes are held here, and this is where the boxing club will meet after school on certain days.”

“On other days, students that have earned the school’s trust will spend time to work out, like Adam over here,” Nicole finished his thought.

I put down the barbell and looked around to see Mr. Scott and Nicole standing in the doorway with a girl I didn’t recognize. She had brown skin, silky black hair, pronounced features, and shy yet confident brown eyes. “Oh, hello Mr. Scott,” I greeted him.

“Good to see you, Adam,” he replied. “We’re just showing our new exchange student here around. Adam, this is Zelda. Zelda, Adam.”

“Hey, Zelda,” I replied warmly, walking over to them. Zelda? Was ‘Zelda’ a common name over in India or wherever she was from?

“Hi, Adam,” she replied with shyness yet just as much warmth.

I turned to Nicole. “‘Earned the school’s trust?’ I thought anyone could work out in here.”

Nicole gave me a muted smile. “Nope. I just put in a good word with you with the gym teachers and asked the Boxing Club their days off. You’re welcome.” She gave me a hug. “Good to see you, dummy. How’s training?”

“It’s fine. To be honest, I only know my machines so I probably couldn’t show, uh, Zelda here all of the machines in the room. I don’t know how half of them work.”

“Oh, we’re just showing her all of the rooms. She just came here from Denmark so I wanted to come along with Mr. Scott and sorta be a student rep.”

My face betrayed me, showing my confusion. “Denmark?” I asked quizzically.

Most people would know why someone would be confused, but they’d be tasteful and subtle about it, but not Nicole. Unmoved, she quickly replied, “Yeah, Denmark has brown people now if you can believe it, Adam,” with a slight tone of disapproval.

Scott turned to her, alarm clear on his face, though it dissipated when Zelda began to laugh. I blushed deeply, and began to mumble, “No, I just meant ... I was just surprised we’re doing an exchange program at all.”

“Most schools try to do it once in a while,” Mr. Scott replied. “Anyway, we should keep moving on.”

“Actually, Adam, do you mind swapping in for me? I have a few things I wanted to take care of before next period.” She turned to Zelda. “I’d love to keep spending time with you but everything keeps pulling me in every direction, you know what I mean?”

Zelda smiled reassuringly at her. “I know exactly what you mean,” she replied gently.

“Plus, Adam’s a ball of fun,” Nicole added playfully, then looked towards Mr. Scott. “And I’m sure Mr. Scott has had enough of me by now.”

Mr. Scott smiled at Nicole. “Nicole, every school needs someone with even half the school spirit you do,” he replied kindly. “But if you are needed elsewhere, and Adam has the time...”

“Uh...” I stumbled. “I mean, I do, sure, but I did just work out, so I’m probably kinda sweaty and smelly...”

“You smell fine to me,” Zelda said with a smile, as if it were a normal thing to just say to someone you just met.

A smile broke out on Nicole’s face. “I like her. She’s bold,” she replied, then started to head off, giving me a wink from behind Zelda and Mr. Scott. “Thanks Adam, I owe ya one!”

Mr. Scott didn’t waste any time. “So Adam is the Student Council Vice President this year,” he began. “He’s an upstanding student that gets good grades and has a good reputation around the school.”

“Well, that depends on who you ask,” I joked. “Thank you, Mr. Scott.” I grabbed a towel from a nearby machine and dried my face and neck as best as I could, then grabbed my bag as we all started down the hallway towards some other classrooms.

“So what grade are you in?” I asked Zelda, trying my best to be friendly between classrooms.

“Ah...” she simply started. “I have to remember what it means to your education system.”

“Oh, it’s different there?”

“Yes, in my country I would say that I’m in first G or that I’m starting gymnasium,” she answered. “But I think here you would say grade ten? I’m fifteen, so maybe that answers your question.”

She had the most interesting accent. She definitely had a European flair to her voice – I could only guess her accent was mostly Danish – but she also spoke so articulately, and she had some kind of ... Middle Eastern in there? Was that racist? “Oh, cool,” I replied, nodding along. “I’m fifteen too, also in grade ten. We have a gymnasium, but...”

She laughed. “It means something different there,” she noted lightly.

“Were you born in Denmark?”

She gave me a look like I was joking, then abruptly stopped. “Oh, right, you don’t know my full name,” she murmured. “My last name is Sattari. My family is Persian.”

“Persian?” I asked. “Sorry, I don’t know where Persia is on the map.”

“You probably do,” she reassured me. “You might know it better as Iran.”

I chuckled nervously. “Okay, I’ve heard of Iran, but I’m not even sure I could point it out on a map,” I admitted honestly.

Zelda shot me a smile. “Maybe sometime we could pull out a map and I can show it to you,” she suggested.

I could only chuckle some more, albeit nervously. Girls in my grade were usually kind of boring, with Nicole being the outlier. Girls were always shy or talked about things I didn’t care about, and I remember when I was in middle school, I had to imagine they were more interesting or would be more complicated once you got to know them. This girl was just immediately interesting somehow. Maybe it was the confidence with which she spoke – even Nicole with her sarcasm sometimes sounded like she was defending herself. With Zelda, it was like everything was a matter of fact, and not even a condescending one. She just felt like ... an adult. Like what you’d hope you’d want to be when you were older, and yet, at my age, here she was.

We toured a few more classrooms and she kept up her energy as introduction after introduction was made. Finally, curiosity got the better of me. “So, is Zelda an Iranian name?”

“Can you do me a favor?” she asked me as we walked. “Say ‘Persian’ instead.”

“Oh, am I being racist?” I immediately asked.

Zelda laughed. “No, no you’re not,” she giggled. “I just like ‘Persian’ better. It’s the word I use. It sounds better.”

“Okay, so is your name...” I paused jokingly. “ ... Persian?”

She smiled. “No, my parents were just big fans of Nintendo and thought it was a nice name.”

“Wow, I didn’t-” I began saying, then quickly cut myself off.

“ ... think Iran even had Nintendo?” Zelda guessed.

Not knowing whether to look guilty or neutral, I nodded.

“See, that’s racist,” she joked with no tone of judgment or anger as we walked. “I don’t play many games myself, mainly because my friends in Denmark don’t.” We walked in silence for a bit before she added jokingly, “Denmark has Nintendo too.”

“Wow, what a shocker,” I replied sarcastically, practically forgetting that Mr. Scott was walking with us at this point. “Well hey, if we ever hang out with that map, maybe I can show you a few video games I like.”

“I think I’d like that,” she replied with a smile. Her voice was so gentle and kind, yet so articulate and powerful. She had the exact kind of voice that people would think had the power to hypnotize. I didn’t know if she was flirting with me, or if it was just ... wishful thinking. Was this what Nicole felt with every guy she wanted to have sex with? It was emotionally exhausting.

“Las ... tortugas,” Sabrina said aloud as we finished writing our sentences. “That’s all the questions, right?”

I looked over my book. That’s questions 1, 3, 4, 5, 6a and 6c, right?”

“Oh, oops,” she remarked. “We even did 6b.”

“Just means we’re such good students,” I joked, stretching.

“Ha, I guess we are,” Sabrina said in a small voice. It was like a particularly stiff wind could blow her over. If I thought Megan was shy last year, she was nothing compared to Sabrina. That just made the fact she could tell me about what she saw all the more impressive. “So did you hear about the new exchange student?”

“Zelda?” I asked, and Sabrina nodded. “I actually got to show her around.”

“You did?” Sabrina asked with wonder in her eyes. “Why you?”

“The perks of being Student Council VP,” I replied with a joking cockiness to my voice. “Plus, Nicole was showing her around and needed to get stuff done.”

“Oh, cool. Nicole’s cool.” Sabrina’s legs shifted in her seat. “I still feel kind of silly for causing drama and talking about that thing I saw.”

I groaned. I knew Sabrina was being kind, but she brought this up every conversation, and the last thing I wanted was to remember the visual of Nicole kissing some other guy. “I told you, it’s cool, and I think it was brave of you to say it,” I replied, saying this sentence for maybe the third time. “I would do the same thing in your situation.”

“Do you think she was, like, setting you up with the exchange student?” she asked out of the blue.

“What??” I asked in a louder voice. Most of the students studying in our Spanish class looked over at us, so Sabrina and I just dove our noses into our textbooks until they were looking away again. “Um ... probably not. Just because we’re open doesn’t mean it’s like a ... game. It’s just how she jokes around,” I added, returning to whispering.

“Maybe you should go for it,” Sabrina replied playfully. “Especially if the open thing doesn’t make you feel good, maybe you’d feel better if, like, the playing field was even. I bet you had good luck with girls before you and Nicole started dating.” She was smiling at me like we were sharing an inside joke.

Did she know about me and Megan? Or May? Either way... “I dunno about that,” I replied uneasily.

She decided to shrug and leave it at that. A few minutes and a few nervous mini-speeches from Mrs. Luciano later, class was finished, and I was walking to English with Jason in tow.

“Why weren’t you with us at lunch, man?” he asked, catching up to me.

“Oh, I’m not there a lot,” I answered. “I was just in the gym working out today. This year I don’t have a lot of time after school.”

“Soooo ... how do you eat lunch?” he asked, scratching his head.

“Apparently, stealthily,” I joked. “I was eating it during the first few minutes of Spanish. Luciano doesn’t mind.”

“Huh.” He kept walking alongside me. “Well, still, you gotta make time for your friends, right? They miss you.”

“Yeah, I still just need to adjust to the new year,” I replied, almost dismissively. Jason didn’t know my friends more than I did. Just because he saw them more in the last two-ish weeks didn’t mean shit. Plus, I was seeing them this weekend anyway, but I was nearly positive that Jason wasn’t invited, and I didn’t want to rub that in. “It’s hard keeping up with everything. I got class, council, I do karate, I gotta keep up with my friends plus my girlfriend...”

“She seems like a tough bitch to get a leash on,” Jason said with a nervous laugh. When he saw the look I gave him, his smile vanished. “Sorry. I was joking. I didn’t even mean it.”

“She’s definitely Council President material,” I acknowledged. “If anything, I’m the guy with the leash on.”

“Yeah...” he trailed off. “Can I ask something?”

“Go ahead.”

“So Carson said she’s the school slut.”

Here we go, I thought to myself.

“So like, how does it feel to be the guy that ... tamed her? I dunno, like does it feel weird she used to sleep with a lot of guys and now she doesn’t?”

I could only laugh. Hey, if Jason was going to be part of the friend group now, he at least had a right to know. “She actually still does,” I said bluntly. “Sleep with guys, I mean. We’re, uh, in an open relationship.”

“Oh, wow...” He thought to himself for a moment. “Do you like it?”

“No,” I freely admitted. Fuck it, Jason could know that too. Better him than one of my closer friends that had history with Nicole anyway. “No I don’t.”

“ ... So why do you do it?”

“Long story short, Nicole hates being tied down, and wouldn’t have been in a relationship with anyone unless it was open. I love her so much that even though I don’t like it, I’m willing to look past it. And, like, even now, the benefits outweigh the downsides.” I stopped where I was. “Don’t tell the others please, they know Nicole too and I don’t want it to, like, look bad on her.”

“Your secret’s safe with me, dude,” Jason promised, then we kept walking. “I kinda know where you’re coming from, actually. Like, me and Athena are definitely not open, we’re faithful to each ot- I mean...”

“I know what you mean,” I mumbled.

“Cool – but there’s definitely something similar there. Like, Athena, she’s an older girl. And dating an older girl can come with a lot of...”

For the rest of the walk, Jason talked about his relationship. He mentioned the fact that Athena was older than him about three more times.

“So now you’re skipping lunch just to work out?” Nicole asked me with a disapproving tone. “Are you just trying to disobey what I said?”

“Disobey?” I repeated with a smile as we walked. “Are you my girlfriend or my mother?”

“I could be both if you got over yourself and finally called me ‘mommy’ when we fucked,” she joked. I had a sneaking suspicion she brought it up so often because she wasn’t actually joking. “I told you, you have to eat lunch. You’re also missing out on seeing your friends.”

“They don’t miss me,” I replied quietly.

“We both know you’re talking out of your ass there, squirt,” she quickly rebutted. “If it’s too much, you can just work out after school and just not come to yearbook meetings with me.”

“This is the first one I’m going to, yearbook clearly isn’t the problem,” I pointed out.

She shook her head. “You’re just too busy. Ease up a lil’. You’re gonna give yourself a hernia or an ulcer or something.” With that, we arrived in the yearbook room.

She called it the yearbook room, but really it was just a computer lab in the math hallway. At about six of the computers, various students were working on various pictures and adding subtitles to them. In the middle of the room stood an authoritative figure, a tall fat black girl, looking cross at Nicole.

“Nicole...” she started disapprovingly, tapping her watch a few times.

“Oh, did you get a new watch? I don’t get why. Looks just like your old one,” Nicole joked dismissively. The girl rolled her eyes, then set them on me.

“Oh, hi,” I said politely. “I’m Adam, I just came here with Nicole.”

“I’m afraid we’re not taking any more applications for the yearbook team,” the girl replied, watching Nicole putting her stuff down.

“Nah, he’s just with me,” Nicole replied casually. “I’m his ride home, so he’s going to chill in here if that’s okay. Think of it as me babysitting him.” She winked at me, then casually joined the group.

“Okay, just don’t distract any of the yearbook team if that’s okay,” the girl replied, walking towards a table with a bunch of chairs around it, then abruptly turning around. “My name’s Jennifer.”

This was getting to be too many names. It was going to be impossible to remember them all. “Nice to meet you!” I replied diligently, watching her turn away and sit down at the table with Nicole. The two of them were clearly the head honchos, and immediately started some kind of meeting about the bigger design choices of the year’s yearbook.

I heard the smallest voice saying, “Oh, hey,” and turned to see Sabrina Saigeon waving timidly at me. I quickly walked over and sat down next to her, smiling.

“Hey! I didn’t know you were in yearbook,” I said casually.

“Really? I thought I said that, but yeah, I am,” she whispered back. “We shouldn’t talk too loud. Those two get really mad when we’re not doing our work.”

“Which one’s the leader?” I asked, and the both of us peeked over the computers at the little meeting. Jennfer was shoving her finger in Nicole’s face and Nicole was holding her arms up indignantly, all while grinning.

“It’s hard to say...” Sabrina said slowly. “I think Jennifer is the head of yearbook team, but Nicole acts just as leader-y as Jennifer.”

“Yeah, that sounds right,” I admitted. “I bet Jennifer can be scary.”

“Nicole is scarier,” Sabrina replied instantly.

I chuckled. “I guess I’m used to it,” I replied. “Should I let you work?”