Chapter 1: The Ticket to Everything

I fall asleep to the sound of a rusted ceiling fan and creaking wooden boards, my mind still buzzing with my conversation with Kendra. It's not really sleep though, it's an in-between. My brain shuts down but not a single dream is afloat.

It's not peaceful but I don't roll around in a fit to untangle from the blankets.

It's as much nothingness as the feelings boiling in me about their split.

And it's complete, and total hell.


The first thought in my head when I way isn't about the suffocating heat from the blankets around me or the creaking upstairs, not even the horrible situation at hand. My first thought is of none other than Evan Goldman. The most popular boy in school. I don't even know him yet but Kendra has told me so, so much.

And I love every second of it.

He's smart — they call him the Brain, he's "hot enough to melt the north pole" (clearly someone is going to fail geography seeing as the south pole is colder), he's nice (and considerate and polite and all that crap), he's charming, he can sing (apparently, he serenaded Charlotte, — who Kendra says I will love — how romantic), he's awesome (Kendra told me he's gotten all the popular kids into R rated movies before with this genius plan), he's tall (and I know what comes with height, even if I've never seen one), he's funny, he's single.

Well, not for long.

If I can just get him, I can get everything back. I just need to wrap him around my finger, get invited to his Bar Mitzvah, and get him to kiss me.

3 simple steps and I get everything back.

I push the blankets off carefully, not wanting them to pile onto the carpet. That would just be a pain to clean up later. And I don't need another headache, thank you very much. I do, however, need to brush my hair out.

The carpeting molds around my feet as I lazily saunter to the bathroom to do my morning routine. Something about my life has to have some normalcy.

I look too pale in the mirror, pasty. I hate it but I don't tan. At all. And maybe Evan likes tan girls. Crap, I have to find out what his past girlfriends look like. Looks like I know where I have to go after I'm ready.


Kendra opens the door with a smile. "Hey, Lucy!" She greets, giving me a hug. Nice girl, stupid though.

"Hey, Kendra," I smile, brushing my hair back with my fingers, "so, you know — well, obviously you know — how you were telling me about Charlotte yesterday? I think we should all have a little get together at the Dairy Queen down the road or the mall across town."

"That sounds awesome, Lucy, I can text Charlotte about it, she loves going to the mall to look at cute guys in the food court," Kendra squeals, grabbing both my hands for a brief happy dance. Aw . . . If you ever tell anyone I thought that, I will ruin you.

"Sounds like a plan," I grin brightly, my handbag swaying with my hand motions, "and who knows, it might cheer her up a little about Evan."

"Hopefully; she's still kinda down about it even though it was a mutual breakup," Kendra says sympathetically. Wait, has Kendra had a breakup recently? Hm, better find out.

"You sound like you've been there recently," I place a comforting hand on her shoulder, pouting slightly in an understanding way.

"I have, my boyfriend and I broke up in the middle of the school year because he liked our last head cheerleader," she sighs, bowing her head.

"Aw, I'm so sorry, Kendra. Tell ya what, when school starts, I'll help you get a new boyfriend but for now checking out cute guys in the food court will have to do," I tell her, genuinely feeling just a little sad for her. She seems so nice and friendly, I wonder who her last boyfriend was. I'll have to ask later.

"Really? You'd do that for me, Lucy?" She asks, hope brewing in her eyes.

"Of course, Kendra, we're friends after all," I inform her, "now, I believe it's time to text Charlotte?"

"Yeah, give me a second," she says, her voice dying down a little as she texts rapid fire with the girl in question.

Let's hope this goes well. Fingers crossed.


The decision is simple, Charlotte is tan but not overly so and, from what I've been told, Evan has liked pale girls before. That apparently had something to do with their breakup.

We're all laughing by the time Kendra's mom parks her car. Charlotte, as fate would have it, is a gossip, so, naturally, I'm filled in on every rumor and fling from 6th grade at this point. Yes, it's necessary to know all the gossip since the beginning of middle school. If I'm ever going to get a handle on it, I need to know the rumor patterns of the school.

You see, each school and each grade within the school has its own rumor pattern, some schools are big on who's dating who, others are all about what nasty things teachers may or may not have done. My last school was centered around exactly what I wanted people to focus on, whatever worked in my favor was what I fed them. If I (or one of my friends) was mad at someone, I made sure the whole school was buzzing about what nasty little secrets they have, or the ones I made up.

What?

I only kill when my pack needs to eat. And when I'm bored.

No rumors ruining people, no fun.

"You girls have fun and be safe, alright?" Kendra's mom tells us, giving her daughter a hug.

"We'll be fine, Mom," the blonde girl smiles. I feel a pang in my chest, I remember when my family was that stable. The divorce . . . There weren't any warnings, no signs to read. It just . . . Happened. One minute I could've sworn we were the perfect family, the next Dad was dumping us for his freaking secretary.

. . .

Whatever.


"So, the next year, Brett and Evan are still in a fight, Brett basically tries to kill Evan who's like, "if you're gonna be like that, you can eat in the bathroom!" and you know Brett thinks he's, like, a god or something — and he is really hot, so, you know — so, anyways, he shoves Evan and they get in this huge fight, meanwhile the teachers are God knows where and Molly is filming the whole thing — it's got, like 80,000 hits on YouTube — then this crippled kid, Artie or something like that, shows up and gets hit in the face!" Charlotte exclaims while Kendra orders us all pizza.

"Wait, is the video called Sampson vs. Goldman - Cafeteria Showdown?" I ask.

"Oh, my God, yes!" She laughs.

"No way, Kelsey, my best friend back in New York, showed me that video last year!" I tell her, laughing at this point, "they seriously got in that fight because of a rumor that Evan and Kendra were sneaking around?"

"I know, it's crazy, right? The rumor wasn't even true, it was just this bored loser hobbit's fault," she scoffs, twirling her hair.

"Ooh, cute guy, 6 o'clock," I whisper, pointing.

"Seriously? How cute — 1 to 10," she whispers back, leaning forward.

"100," I deadpan.

"No," she gasps, bouncing slightly, "does he look our age?"

"Yeah," I nod — oh, he's talking to a girl. Crap, I think he might be flirting with her. Whatever, it's now or never. "Okay, it's safe to look." She does, eagerly spinning around in her chair. But when she sees him, she freezes.

"Lucy," she whispers, "that's Evan."

"Oh, my God, I'm sorry, I didn't know," I apologize quickly, putting a comforting hand over hers.

"It's okay, you didn't mean to. Besides, it was a mutual breakup and it was months ago, if he's moved on, I will too," Charlotte nods, more like she's assuring herself than me.

I open my mouth to support her when someone shouts her name.

"Charlotte! Hey, I didn't know you were here," it's him. He's smiling and waving and coming over here, "hey, it's been a while." He gives her a fleeting hug, his hand positioning confirms that he's moved on.

"Hi, Evan," she smiles warmly like she wasn't just about to cry, "it's good to see you, Kendra's getting us all pizza, wanna join?"

"Sure, but, I don't think I've met you before," he smiles ever so gently at me.

"You haven't. I just moved here yesterday, from New York," I tell him confidently. After all, this is a game I know how to play.

"From New York? Impressive, well, I'm Evan Goldman," he laughs slightly, holding out a hand to shake.

"I knew that, Charlotte's been filling me in on the ins and outs of Dan Quayle Junior High," I tell him, not yet taking his hand.

"Heh, I guess I should've figured she would. Well, hopefully she hasn't told you anything bad about me," he nervously touches the back of his neck.

"Not really, hm, I guess you want to know my name, right?" I cock my head like I don't already know the answer.

"A name would be nice," he shrugs.

"Lucy Dunn," I tell him, finally taking his hand to shake. I notice Charlotte's expression.

Did you just flirt with my ex-boyfriend?

Don't be ridiculous, Charlotte, I would never flirt with your ex. But aren't you supposed to be moving on?

Well . . . That's not the point!

Look, I get it if you still like Evan, I can see why, but clearly he's moved on. We've gotta get you a boyfriend. What do you say?

What? Get me a boyfriend . . . Yeah, yeah. You're right, I am supposed to moving on, I guess.

"Hey! I got the pizza, pepperoni just like we agreed," Kendra laughs, walking over to us, "oh, Evan's here?"

Charlotte sends her a telepathic message through facial expression, like the conversation we just had.

"Well, let's dig in," she smiles brightly.

Evan smiles at me as we all get a slice. I just love it when things work out like this.

xoxo

The favorites be screwed,

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the follows can fall in a ditch,

they make us want to slap a bitch,

kisses dead bitches 💋

- Lucy & Ari

xoxo