“You think I’m ‘okay’? You think I want people telling me I stuff my bra? You think I like it when someone texts me ‘you’re kinda hairy’? Like, what?!”

“Geez, Evie, I didn’t know…,” Nessa broke in.

“Why do you think I dress this way, huh?” She motioned to her brother’s hoodie. “You think I want to be looked at?”

Even more tears rose back up and leaked out, down her face and onto the front of her clothes. “You think I don’t know this was never supposed to happen?” She tried to hold in a sob, but it forced itself out, anyway. “You think I think I’m some supermodel or something? It’s obviously some cruel joke.” Eve wiped her eyes. “Just please, tell all your friends to leave me alone!”

And then the only sounds in the room were Eve’s cries and the light pats of Nessa’s palm on Eve’s back, until Sophie groaned.

“Okay, so you’re trying to say you didn’t put that Post-it on my back?” Sophie jutted a hip out, and her arms guarded her chest once again.

“What? I was trying to get it off you!” Eve threw her hands up in the air. “What is even happening?” She turned to Nessa. “Let’s just go. Please.”

“You’re right.” Nessa shook her head at Sophie. “She’s just like the rest of them.”

“I’m not!”

At Sophie’s words, Eve and Nessa stopped.

“Just wait. Let’s say I believe you and you didn’t write it.” She looked from Nessa to Eve and back. “Who did, then?”

The three of them stood in silence.

Eve had no idea who wrote the list, but whoever it was, she could feel them with her now, always. It was someone who had looked at her too much. Maybe someone who wanted to mock her. And not just her, but the girls left off the list, too. Someone who didn’t care about their feelings, or about how a number could dissolve into a girl’s skin like ink and never leave.

“I don’t know,” Eve said at the same time as Nessa began to name names.

“It could be a girl.” Nessa angled herself against the door. “I’ve wondered that. Hayley Salem?”

Sophie nodded. “Yeah, yeah, for sure, that’s what I’ve been saying! A girl!” She walked to the piano and leaned against it.

“And, yeah, probably someone in the top ten.” Nessa took a step toward Sophie. “Someone who would get something out of it, right?”

“But Hayley Salem would make herself number one.” Sophie shook her head at the thought. “She’s too stupid. She’d make it obvious. She wouldn’t put herself as five. And why would any of them put Eve at the top of the list?”

“Yeah, good point.” Nessa moved farther inside the room, inching closer toward Sophie at the piano. “And a girl who just wants attention doesn’t get much out of a list that gives Evie all the attention, right?” she theorized.

“Why would anyone want this kind of attention? Maybe it’s someone who hates me,” Eve muttered, moving away from the door, to stand beside Nessa.