Skyla motioned “one sec” and continued her chatter with a few kids from her classes that year. Back in sixth grade, Skyla had only made friends with whoever Marianne had introduced her to.
Marianne barely knew these girls. And they mostly talked about boys. Boring.
She tugged on Skyla’s shirt to get her attention. “I can’t go home with you today,” she told her in a low voice.
Marianne had yet another meeting with the principal and her parents. Twice a year she could count on a warning about her grades. At home, her dad would yell and take something away, like her time on the iPad or nightly mint-chip ice cream. He’d say, “I just don’t understand why you don’t want to do well!” Her parents would try to help her with homework more often until they both gave up and spent that time working instead. They’d attempt hired tutoring again. It would fail and they’d decide it was too expensive, anyway.
Skyla turned away from her other friends, though it seemed to Marianne that she was still listening to their conversation out of one ear.
“Meeting with Ms. Clarke,” Marianne reported. “If you wait around my parents can drive us back together?”
“No, Papa and Dad are home early today and I bet they’ll make nachos and I don’t want to miss it. See you tomorrow. Good luck!”
“’Kay. Bye.” Marianne blew her a kiss.
Skyla blew one back and returned to her other friends—her non-best friends, who really hardly knew her, anyway.
Marianne hated having no classes with Skyla that year.
But before too long it would be high school, and she and Skyla could sign up for electives together. They could be each other’s dates for Homecoming, like Marianne’s big sister, Lillian, did with her best friend that year.
As she headed toward the end of the hallway to lit class, she heard Lucas Hayes cackling before she saw him.
He lingered in a crowd with his twin, Ava, and a couple of other kids, smirking at something. At someone.
Marianne inched closer.
Vi Cross stood before them handing out fliers and yammering on and on. Why did she keep talking? Couldn’t she see that they were laughing at whatever she was saying, and not in the good way?
Marianne remembered earlier in the year when Vi had run for class president but lost to Sam Musaka after giving a truly embarrassing speech about the “carbon footprint” of the school. At one point Vi had told the kids they were a “part of the problem” and scolded “For shame!” at the whole auditorium, which caused an explosion of laughter. She would probably be president of the United States one day, but the skills necessary to become president of the eighth grade were beyond her.
Marianne made her way to the outside of the crowd and held out a hand to one of the kids to snatch a flier. They passed one over. It read:
ETHERIDGE QUIZ QUEST TEAM IN NEED OF NEW MEMBERS
JOIN QUIZ QUEST AS IT PROCEEDS TO REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ETHERIDGE HISTORY
EXCELLENT GRADES NOT REQUIRED BUT HIGHLY PREFERRED
MUST HAVE KNOWLEDGE OF OR INTEREST IN GEOGRAPHY, SOCIAL STUDIES, LITERATURE, HISTORY, CIVICS, MATHEMATICS, SCIENCE, GRAMMAR, & MORE
*SEE MR. GARCIA FOR MORE DETAILS*