Free Nice and Mean by Jessica Leader

project.
    â€œUm,” said Addie, “I guess that would be okay.”
    â€œThen I’ll do it.” It was a genius idea! Rachel couldn’t complain as much if I showed a good picture of her. “I just think, Adds, you need to show her that she can’t walk all over you.”
    Addie took her thumb out of her mouth. “I guess you’re right.”
    I nudged her shoulder with my knee. “Of course I’m right. Nobody messes with Addie Ling.”
    Addie blushed. Even if, actually, people
did
mess with Addie Ling, she was on board. And that meant no one would mess with Marina Glass.
    SACHI’S VIDEO NIGHTMARE #8.0
    INTERIOR. JANE JACOBS MIDDLE SCHOOL STAIRWELL—DAY
    Sachi and Marina open the door to the stairwell, carrying video equipment.
    Eerie horror-movie MUSIC. Bats SCREECH.
    The door SLAMS shut.
    A THUMP—Marina drops the bag with the video camera. She begins to strangle Sachi.
    MARINA
    Not only do I have to work on your stupid video, but I can’t even edit my footage today? You’re so dead.
    Sachi gasps and sputters.
    MARINA
    (strangling)
    Take that! And that!
    Dead, Sachi slumps against Marina and slides to the floor.
    Marina picks up the video camera and tripod.
    MARINA
    Now I’m off to make the real video.
    There were no bats in the stairwell, and Marina seemed only silent, not violent, as we descended to the basement, but I could feel her anger all the same. I had told Mr. Phillips that I didn’t need Marina to come with me, but he had looked at me in surprise and said, “Partners film together.” I knew that wasn’t the answer Marina had wanted to hear, and with just the two of us in the dark, echoey stairs, I felt like I had to say something.
    â€œI’m sorry Mr. Phillips wouldn’t let you edit,” I told Marina. “I’m glad you’ll be helping me”—or perhaps not—“but if it had been up to me, I would have said you could stay upstairs.”
    â€œWhatever,” she said. Then she muttered, “I don’t know why you have to film during play rehearsal.”
    I hadn’t expected
that
. “I don’t
have
to,” I said. “But that’s where my friends are, and they said I could film them when they weren’t onstage. I don’t know when else I would do it.”
    Marina shrugged. “It’s fine.”
    Okay. If it was fine . . .
    I had to admit, there was another reason I wanted to film in the auditorium: If Alex was on stage crew, maybe hewould be around when I filmed. Carrying a video camera always made me feel slightly cool, and on top of that, I was wearing the black hoop earrings Lainey had bought me when I hadn’t been able to come to the Kyle Griffin movie the weekend before.
    Then again
, I thought as I rounded a corner,
why should it matter which earrings I wore?
I didn’t want to be one of those people who needed to be dressed a certain way to feel good. I ran my thumb over Nani’s ring. It was all so complicated. Some days I truly wished I could go to school with my cousins in India.
They
got to wear uniforms.
    And would I really learn anything from my video, anyway? I ran through my interview questions for what seemed like the twentieth time:
    1. How do you choose what to wear?
    2. Do you try to be unique, or to fit in? Why?
    3. How do you think people decide some things are cool and some are not?
    4. Do you know what’s going to be popular? How?
    5. Do you know what things are uncool? What makes them uncool?
    I’d run the questions by Lainey in the hall before Video. “Yeah, these are fun,” she’d said, handing them back to me.
    â€œYou’re sure?” I looked at her closely. “They’re not too . . .”
    She pulled a book from her locker. “Too what?”
    Dorky? Nerdy? Immature?
    â€œI don’t know.” I tucked them back into my folder. “Thanks.”
    Flora had come loping down the