Between Friends by Natalie Banks

Author:Natalie Banks [Banks, Natalie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Champion Books
Published: 2025-08-28T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

Olivia

Seven weeks until graduation

Being in a popular high school clique isn’t as fun as it sounds. It’s not some shiny television teen drama. It’s more like survival of the fakest. Group chats that never stop buzzing. Whispered secrets in the bathroom that you pretend not to hear. Outfit approvals. Screenshot scandals. Crying in your car, then walking into class with winged eyeliner sharp enough to slice open your grief.

And in 2013, popularity comes with a dress code. Victoria Secret yoga pants, even if you’ve never done yoga. UGG boots in ninety-degree weather. Longchamp totes, monogrammed. North Face fleeces. Tiffany heart necklaces. Michael Kors everything. Starbucks in hand. EOS lip balm rolling loose in your purse like a personality trait.

And me? I live in Hillshire Park. My grandparents can barely afford groceries, let alone gas for our ‘86 Toyota Camry that sounds like it might die every time we turn the ignition. I can't even afford something new from Walmart, let alone anything with a name stitched into the tag.

My entire wardrobe is curated from thrift stores, clearance bins, and garage sales. But I have an eye for the good stuff...hidden gems buried in the piles...and a sewing machine that hums late into the night while I reshape my finds into something that passes. Something that fits them.

My grandparents do what they can, but they’re old. Worn thin from years of just barely getting by. My granddad works nights at the factory, even though his knees are shot and he can’t hear out of one ear. My grandma mostly watches TV and forgets what day it is. She’s not exactly warm...never tucks my hair behind my ear or asks about my day...but she tries. She folds my clothes, leaves dinner in the oven, tells me to be careful when I leave the house.

Sometimes I wonder if it would’ve all been different if my mom hadn’t run off. She dropped my sister and me on my grandparents’ doorstep when I was fourteen and Kristen was six and we never saw her again. My grandmother always makes a point to tell me I am just like my mom. A wild cannon, set to go off at any moment. Can’t contain wild things, she’d say.

I revolted against that. I didn’t want to be like my mom, not really, but the truth was deep down I knew I had that rebel bone too.

I made it just fine without a proper mother. I learned how to take care of myself. Learned how to survive. How to fit in.

But of course, I knew it was just smoke and mirrors. All of it. But I played the part well. They let me into the group because I’m pretty. That’s the truth no one says out loud. Pretty enough to stand next to them. Pretty enough to borrow from, copy, envy. But I’m not one of them. Not really. Just the girl they like to keep close enough to feel charitable.

Still...I stay. I smile. I laugh at the right jokes.

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