Chapter 1

Cindy equals trouble, Mom always said, and she refused to have her over for dinner anymore. She hated it when I hung out with Cindy because, since kindergarten, Cindy has caused trouble, almost as if she thrived on chaos. Chaos Cindy. I didn’t sound right, but it fit.

I still hated that she sucked Brad last night, she knew I liked him. True, I liked lots of people, but still, she didn’t want or even like Brad. She did it to cause trouble and fuck up my life and chance to have a boyfriend. She claimed she gave Brad the blowjob to prove he didn’t respect me, that he would and did cheat, or some stupid reason. I think she just offered a teenage boy a blowjob to fuck with me, because what teenage boy would turn down a blowjob? Sure, Kamran, Helen’s boyfriend, would turn it down, but still, she didn’t have to prove it with Brad. I liked Brad. He called me his secret girlfriend and wanted a blowjob every morning. I understood that he didn’t care about me, but a blowjob boyfriend beat no boyfriend. Cindy never understood that. She had lots of boy toys. Hell, it would not surprise me that she caused the Brad issue just to get a date with the Principal, someone more her type than Brad.

I scrolled through my phone as we waited in the secretary’s front office. The forty-year-old pink-haired woman sat behind her computer and ignored us. Her fingers flew across the keyboard as she hummed off-key to the radio. An old pop song from a million years ago, from when they made terrible music. Something about a spoon or a son. My feeds had a new advertisement for a new scam dating site about enhanced single dads in my area. No way could they find one, I looked. I still signed up just in case, and they had the first month free. I had signed up for another site that promised to find my soulmate through a short questionnaire. They lied. I paid extra, and then they sent me good-looking fake bios. Only stupid bots responded. After I paid for the bus ticket for one guy who never showed, I learned my lesson. Cindy will never let me live that down.

Cindy sat hunched in her chair, with a chair between us. She appeared to scroll on her white phone, but had read the same article for five minutes. While Cindy always made trouble, she hated to get in trouble. Her black hair hung down to her mid-back, and she had the perfect amount of blush to accent her smoky skin. She knows how to make her Asian eyes more exotic, with black liner that curled up at the edges and dark eye shadow that made her dark eyes sparkle in the office lights. Unique among us enhanced healers, she carried a few extra pounds, especially on her chest. I often wished I had large breasts like hers, then I could easily capture a boyfriend. I wish I had her body instead of my thin, bony one.

I wiggled in my seat. The burgundy cloth seats had a straight back and flat seat that made me uncomfortable and hurt my ass even through the cushion. The three track lights shone on the three seats like spotlights, and the light caused sweat to bead on my forehead. The song changed, and the secretary began to hum the new song. Her fingers moved with the same rhythm while her dark eyes squinted in the dim light on her side of the room. She had a pear like body with a wide ass that men loved. While she didn’t have Cindy’s breasts, they did push out her blouse. I bet she doesn’t have trouble with guys. I bet she just giggles, drops her pen, bends over, wiggles her ass, and a guy gets so stunned that he proposes to her on the spot, or at least offers to pay for dinner before they return to his house for wild passionate sexual adventures.

I hearted another picture of a guy on a dating app without registering his face or body. Everyone deserves a heart. The waiting room had three seats, a metal desk with a white computer, and floor-to-ceiling cabinets that stood of either side of the principals door, which had Principal Foam brass name plate at eye level, and a brass door knob that made the door appear scary. The brass door hinges had tarnished, while the deep, dark wood reflected the three-room light with three light brown spots at hip level.

Another heart for another guy as I studied the room. Glass walls on the other three sides. A green fern with yellow-tipped leaves touched the ceiling to our right. The left wall contained the door to the office, with the hallway to the school behind us. Ugly green carpet covered the floor, with bits of dirt in the corners around the fern. The computer desk, three chairs, and fern filled the room and left little space to move around. Another heart, not my type, more Cindy’s with his dad’s body, but again, everyone deserves love.