Free Forever for a Year by B. T. Gottfred

been mean to me before and it was hard to rewire my brain to accept that maybe he was being nice to me now.
    I was telling Peggy about this in the hall after class, and she was saying how amazing it was, though I’m not sure if it was amazing or just really confusing. Then we saw Shannon Shunton and Wanda Chan, and they stopped us by stopping right in front of us.
    Shannon spoke directly at me, which I don’t think she had ever done before. “Do you want to borrow some of my clothes?”
    I wanted to cry and I didn’t even know why, but I didn’t cry, which was a relief.
    Then she said, “For the party.”
    â€œOkay,” I said, only I didn’t know if I meant it. Shannon Shunton always dressed in short skirts—because she had these amazing thin, thin, thin legs—and tank tops or very, very tight T-shirts, usually black or gray ones. My favorite colors were green and yellow and I liked to wear baggy clothes and pants because my body was horrible. Just horrible.
    â€œCool,” she said, “I’ll bring some stuff to Marguerite’s house.”
    â€œDo you still like Henry McCarthy?” I asked her. Peggy looked at me like I was from Mars for asking Shannon this, but I didn’t understand why this was a bad question, and aren’t we supposed to be friends with her now? And I still didn’t know why Henry was asking me to come watch his football game.
    â€œUh, no,” Shannon Shunton said, and then, “he’s a freshman.” Except she might as well have said, He’s a squirrel, and her voice suggested she might even have dated a squirrel before she’d date a freshman.
    Then Wanda said, “We hung around some seniors this summer and it’s just hard to relate to freshman boys anymore.” Then they both smiled, but cool smiles that didn’t feel like real smiles at all, and then they both left.
    â€œYou shouldn’t ask Shannon questions like that,” Peggy said after we had started walking again.
    â€œHow come?”
    â€œI don’t know. It just feels like we shouldn’t,” Peggy said.
    I didn’t know what else to say about Shannon Shunton, so I said, “Trevor hasn’t talked to me at all today.”
    â€œMy sister said she was going to talk to him at lunch about you.”
    Whaaaaaaaaaaaat!
    Huh?
    No.
    Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute.
    â€œWhat?” I said after my brain stopped being a huge giant fireball.
    Peggy said, in a calm voice that annoyed me, “Katherine talked to him. At least she said she was going to.”
    â€œWhat was she going to say?” Oh my GOSH! My heart was beating really fast. So fast.
    â€œJust ask him why he liked you. I don’t know.”
    â€œBUT WHY WOULD SHE DO THAT?”
    â€œShh! Don’t yell, Carrie!”
    â€œMy name’s Carolina!” I sort of yelled. Because I was so mad. So mad I couldn’t breathe! I couldn’t see! I couldn’t exist one more second without EXPLODING!
    â€œI’m sorry. But shh. Katherine is trying to help. She knows more about boys than we do.”
    â€œI can’t go to health class.”
    â€œWhy not?” Peggy asked, even though she’s my best friend and she should know why and obviously I WAS HAVING A HEART ATTACK.
    â€œBecause Trevor’s in my health class!”
    â€œWill you stop freaking out?”
    â€œI just can’t handle this. It’s too much. I can’t—” I stopped walking and sat down. In the middle of the hallway. Oh my gosh, why did I do that? Peggy pulled me up to my feet and pulled me over to the side so I wouldn’t get trampled.
    And then she said, “Guess what? You’re amazing. And if he’s smart, Trevor will like you. And if he doesn’t like you, then he’s stupid and you won’t like him.”
    This felt like it should make me feel better, but I didn’t feel better. Then because I thought