Free Crush Control by Jennifer Jabaley Page A

little Greek restaurant in town—the Olive Tavern. I’ll take you there next weekend. The food is amazing.”
    Max taking me to his girlfriend’s parents’ restaurant? It was too painful.
    Suddenly Max stood up, crossed the beige carpet of my new room, and pulled me into a tight hug. “God, it’s so good to have you here,” he said.
    I smelled the fresh soap fragrance on his neck—clean and wonderful.
    He pulled back and looked at me. “There are just so many things I can’t wait to show you.”
    And as he wrapped his arms tightly around me, I let myself dream and hope that maybe Minnie was around only because I hadn’t been. And that once he started showing me all the things that were important to him, he’d realize that Minnie was no longer necessary because now I was here and that was all he wanted.

6
    A tall girl with mahogany hair hovered next to Mia’s desk at the start of English class the next day. As the students all bustled around, taking out notebooks and gossiping, Mia and the dark-haired girl discussed the cheerleading fund-raiser they were in charge of. They both wore the tight white T-shirts that said SAVE THE TA-TAS . These were the shirts they were selling to raise money for breast cancer awareness. Mia had a calculator out and was tabulating their current profits.
    â€œEven after the proceeds that go to the breast cancer society,” Mia said, “we should still have enough profits to buy new uniforms.”
    â€œUh-huh,” the mahogany-haired girl said, sounding bored.
    Mia continued to tap the calculator buttons.
    â€œSo,” Mahogany-Haired Girl said. “Riley is refusing to cheer at next week’s competition unless we change the music.”
    Mia snapped her head up from her calculator and running tally. “Why?”
    â€œApparently”—Mahogany-Haired Girl rolled her eyes—“she’s taking a stand against any musician whose lyrics are violent or disparaging to women. You know, ho , bitch , slut . . .”
    Mia held up her hand to stop the girl. She reached down into her backpack and pulled out another notebook and a four-color pen. She flipped open the notebook to the red tab marked CHEERLEADING and clicked her pen to red. I watched with fascination as she began to write in perfect block letters.
    â€œOkay,” Mia said, unaware of my curious stare. “Let’s come up with a list of politically correct musicians and songs we can use.” She began to construct a bullet-point list.
    Mrs. Stabile rose from behind her desk. “Let’s get started. Sadie?” she called over to Mahogany-Haired Girl. “What are you doing in this class?”
    â€œSorry.” Sadie smiled. “Just conducting a little business.” She waved good-bye to Mia and darted out of the classroom.
    Mia clicked her pen over to blue, shut her extracurricular activities notebook, and returned to her English notes.
    Mrs. Stabile announced that she was dividing us into groups to discuss different topics from A Midsummer Night’s Dream . She began sectioning off the class. Slowly she worked her way toward the far left of the room, where I was sitting. She pointed her chubby finger at Mia, Georgia, and me. “You three,” she said, “can compile a one-page report on the images of love and marriage in the play versus how they’ve evolved through history.”
    Mia quickly jotted down the assignment in blue block letters. We stood up and turned our desks so we faced one another. Georgia rummaged through her backpack for her copy of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Mia already had her copy out on the desk. Several Post-it notes stuck out from the pages, with words like characterization and key plot point and symbolism marked.
    I looked up and caught Mia eyeing me. “Um, I . . .” I stammered because it wasn’t like I could say to the queen bee, Wow, I really admire you.