One with the Waves by Vezna Andrews

Author:Vezna Andrews
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Santa Monica Press

FOURTEEN

The No Beach Trash Club

At the beginning of November, a heat wave hit. During the day, it was too hot to walk Zuzu. She lay inside panting, looking like she was suffering under her heavy coat.

Nightfall brought some relief from the constant, intense heat. I got Zuzu’s leash and took her out. In the back alley, above the treetops, dark clouds hung suspended, the moon hidden behind them. Everything else was black. As we walked, I thought about having to go to school the next day. I clenched Zuzu’s leash, my hands sweating. I didn’t know what the girls in my homeroom talked about during lunch break in the quad. Caitlyn was hanging out with them now, and so was Sheila. My shoulders hunched.

A cat sat motionless under a street lamp, watching Zuzu and I pass by. A gentle breeze blew the hairs on my arms. I thought about Aisha. She seemed nice. She usually sat and read a book during lunch. I thought I’d do the same, so my table wouldn’t seem so empty. My stomach clenched. I dreaded going to school in the morning.

The next day during lunch, I sat alone at a table outside in the quad, reading. Someone tapped my shoulder, hard. I glanced behind me and was surprised to see Bonnie, followed by a pack of ten girls from my homeroom.

“We, like, need to talk to you,” Bonnie informed me.

“Now? I’m in the middle of a book.” But they lingered there, behind me, in a clump.

“In the middle of a book,” April mimicked me. “What a nerd.”

“Duh, like, now!” Bonnie insisted.

Thinking it was an emergency, I put my book down, stood up, and turned around. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

Bonnie shoved Caitlyn forward, “Say it, Caitlyn.” Caitlyn looked down at the ground. “Say it,” Bonnie repeated. Caitlyn muttered something.

“What? We can’t hear you!” Sheila prodded. All eyes were on Caitlyn. She froze, looking down at the table.

Bonnie huffed, pushing in front of Caitlyn. “We don’t like you, beach trash. We don’t like posers from New York with black eyes and bruises coming here, spreading your grody hobo germs out of your nose.”

“None of us like you,” Brooke taunted.

Reeling, I felt like I’d been punched in the stomach. But I said, “That’s not true. Caitlyn’s my friend.”

“No, she’s not. Caitlyn, say it!” Bonnie demanded.

A prickly chill went down my spine as I tried to make eye contact with Caitlyn, but her gaze remained fixed on the ground.

“Are you friends with this trash?” Bonnie pressed.

And then I heard her say it, a mumbled “no.” I stared at Caitlyn in stunned disbelief. She had betrayed me.

“See!” Brooke scoffed. “Like, no one likes you.”

My stomach clenched into a tight pit. I glanced around the empty quad, hoping to see someone, anyone, who wasn’t a part of this.

April stepped in closer and spat out, “Who are you looking for? You don’t have any friends.”

Bonnie crossed her arms and asserted in a matter-of-fact tone, “This is our school. You don’t belong here, trash.

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