Revenge of the Girl With the Great Personality Read Online Free PDF Page A

Benjamin.”
    I’m always a little in awe when I walk into Benny’s new, huge house. They moved in last year after his dad became a partner at his law firm.You walk into a vast entranceway with a spiral staircase stretching up to the second floor. You could fit my entire house in the foyer. (I didn’t even know what a foyer was until I saw this house and Mrs. Bayer explained.)
    “How’s your mom?” Mrs. Bayer asks. “We’ve really missed y’all in church. We’d love to have you back.”
    I give her a noncommittal smile. We used to go to the same massive church with Benny’s family back when my family was unbroken. Many of the parishioners were really helpful to us after Dad left, providing day care and casseroles in the beginning. Then Mom got into an argument with the pastor’s wife over pageants. Mom wanted some monetary help from the parish, but they didn’t approve of something that valued looks over someone’s faith.
    There are many things that I don’t agree with the church on. However, in this instance, the pastor’s wife was truly preaching to the choir as far as I was concerned.
    But Mom didn’t see it that way. She turned her back on them and hasn’t returned since.
    “Well” — Mrs. Bayer can tell she’s not converting me today — “anytime you need some guidance, hon.”
    Thankfully, Benny comes to my rescue as he descends the massive staircase. “We’re doing homework. Can we meet in my room?”
    “You know the rules. No girls in your room.”
    I was always allowed in Benny’s room when I was little. But I swear, as soon as we turned twelve, Benny’s parents started all these rulesabout where we could or could not hang out together. Things got even stricter when Cam came along freshman year. Benny decided having a girlfriend would make his life easier with his family. So Cam became Benny’s fake girlfriend for a couple months.
    At first I was offended he didn’t ask me (I can’t even get a fake boyfriend), but as he explained, he’s known me “since the womb,” so Cam would be easier to explain to his parents. Now when Cam comes over, we have to stay in the living room. Even though they “broke things off amicably.” It was kind of fun when it was going on, because I felt like we were playing different roles: Benny, the stud with the hot new girl in class as his girlfriend; Cam, the aforementioned girl; and me, as um, I guess the friend … with the great personality. Gag.
    One perk to being seen as relatively asexual by Benny’s parents is that I’m allowed in the game room, which is in an adjacent wing and has way more privacy than the living room, where the sound travels upstairs. Plus, it might possibly be the greatest room in the history of modern architecture.
    Their game room has overstuffed chairs that you literally sink into and never want to leave. Plus, it has foosball and air hockey tables, a full-size Ms. Pac-Man arcade game (I’m currently the highest scorer, thank you very much), and pretty much every movie ever made, which we can watch on their gigantic drops-down-from-the-ceiling screen.
    When I first saw this room, I immediately thought about all the amazing parties we’d have here. Then I had to remind myself thatBenny and I aren’t the type of people to have parties (that people would show up for).
    “Do you want to see what I got?” Benny tears open the box and pulls out a few more T-shirts. He starts excitedly showing them off to me, but I have no idea what any of them really mean.
    “Who is Charles and why do you want him ‘in charge’ of you?” I ask.
    “Are you kidding me?” Benny teases me by hanging his head in shame.
    “Ah, you know I wasn’t alive in the eighties, so …”
    “It’s called the Internet,” he counters. “I found this awesome website with all these hysterical T-shirts. I bought pretty much anything that made my mom laugh or my dad groan.”
    “Like, totally awesome.”
    “ Now you’re speaking my language.”