Chasing William Read Online Free PDF Page B

everywhere and she screams when she sees us. It is
nice to have someone excited about whether or not I’m there, even
if she does the same thing for everybody. “So, how was work
Saturday night, Crissy?”
    “What work?” Alright, I realize I shouldn’t
be tempting fate with Amanda like this after I was so worried about
what happened in class, but I can’t help it. I’m only human. Not
just human, but a woman scorned at that.
    “Amanda said you worked Saturday night so
you couldn’t come to our epic baking night. We made cake pops!”
Mars rummages around in her backpack. “Here! I saved you one.” It
looks like every textbook Mars owns has been laying on top of it at
some point, but I take the crumbled cake pop anyway. It’s just nice
to be remembered.
    “Thanks, girl, but I don’t work Saturday
nights.”
    “Then your schedule must have changed
because I know you mentioned working all night.”
    “The store closes at five. Can’t work that
late.”
    “Are you calling me a liar?” There it is.
Amanda’s bad side. I knew I pushed her too much already today.
    “I’m just sayin’. Can’t work at a store that
isn’t open. Maybe you misheard me?” I don’t know why I bother
trying, Amanda didn’t even bother to ask and we both know it.
    “Yeah. You probably misspoke.”
    “Oh, Amanda’s mad. What’d Crissy say now?”
That was Liz. Liz and I had never really clicked. We only called
each other friends because we were friends with everyone else and
it made things easier. I don’t dislike Liz; we just weren’t meant
to be friends. She’s really loud, even louder than Amanda, but loud
in an awkward way. She is the kind of person who’d yell something
inappropriate in a public place for the sole purpose of making
people angry or uncomfortable. Her whole personality is like that.
It’s like she is physically incapable of toning it down. I work
hard never to be alone with her in public. Some people are loud
like Amanda, and some people have loud personalities. These people
with loud personalities don’t even need to open their mouths to be
obnoxious. That’s Liz. At least she doesn’t sit next to me.
    “Oh, you know Crissy.” Amanda rolls her
eyes. I’m still not sure what I did that could be considered
“wrong” by a sane jury, or even a jury made up of those not
currently in high school.
    “I thought you guys were kidding. Are you
actually fighting?” I love Mars for being so oblivious, especially
now.
    “Yeah, I was just joking around, Amanda.
Weren’t you?” Amanda nods and turns to talk to Liz so I can’t see
her. Probably talking about me. I still won the round, although I
can’t help but worry about how I’ll be paying for it later.
    “Hey, what’s lunch?” Prudence comes flying
to the table and the dynamic is reset for now. Prudence, usually
“Pru” , always looks flustered and is always running. She’s a
little flighty too, not like Mars. She’s just flighty in a
forgetful way. Pru is the musician of the group and is always
carrying around piles of disorganized sheet music and composition
paper. She is the daughter of two hippies gone corporate, but some
of that 1960s love must have found its way into her genes. Her
parents put those Woodstock days behind them to become lawyers, and
are heartbroken their only child is going to be a musician. Ironic,
considering they’d named her after the Beatles’ song. They’d had
Pru when they were already old, and I guess the cynicism that comes
with time just built up so much they’ve forgotten their youth.
They’d passed on their rebellion to Pru, though. I’m sure their
younger selves would be proud.
    “Well, lunch is this meal we have at the
middle of the day to keep from passing out at the end of it,”
Amanda snaps. She goes from happy to bitch in under sixty seconds.
I wish I could say that was a record.
    “You know what I meant.” Pru rolls her eyes
and sits down with a paper bag.
    Liz and Amanda ignore her and go