“Yep, for sure.” I grin moronically, trying to reassure her. “I’m just a little tired.” I watch her taking in this excuse I’ve been trotting out to parents for years. I expect that she’ll push me on this, but then Jacob calls out to her in a flat voice:

“Rhonda? Are you coming back?”

She looks back up into the house and bites her lip. “Sorry, yep, I’m coming,” she calls, and turns to me, and looks like she’s forgotten what we were talking about.

“Well,” she says, hands on her hips. “Have a good night, Stevie. Don’t forget you can go your own way,” she says, quoting a Fleetwood Mac song that she never tires of singing to me. I look back toward the kitchen and see Jacob with his head in his hands. I don’t like the looks of this.

I smile at Rhonda. “Ha. Yes. Well,” I say, opening the door. “See ya tomorrow.”

“All right, kiddo. See you. Bright and early!”

Chapter 2

2

Episode 65 1:25

Friendships in the high school film arena are some of my favorites. You’ve got your jocks, your nerds, your goths and art freaks. Best friends are the glue that holds our heroes together and helps them navigate the social ladders, like Tai and Cher in Clueless and Cady, Janis, and Damian in Mean Girls. People always say that these will be the best time of our lives, and that the friends we make now will last a lifetime. Well, here’s hoping, right?

I love old films—the ones between 1975 and 1995 are the best. They are my passion. My raison d’être, but also the reason for my YouTube channel, FlickChick.

“Hiii, Stevie’s fans!” My mom waves into my computer screen every time she knows I’m working on a video. She doesn’t seem to get that I edit her out later or that no one knows my actual name on there. I don’t really tell anyone about my channel. It’s like I have my own little YouTube secret identity, where I can live out all the movie obsessions I have.