Our team won the game. Everyone who was anyone went to Charlie's Pizza for
post-game celebration. This was a part I particularly enjoyed, since I was
still decked out in blue, a symbol of the winning team. Inside the pizza
place it was noisy, crowded, and filled with the aroma of pepperoni's and
Parmesan cheese. I sat at a large table in the corner, surrounding by the
excited voices of players and cheerleaders and the most respected of high
schoolers. I noticed vaguely other members of the student body, crowded
throughout the restaurant, many of them desperate to find a table. I would
have hated to be one of those lesser persons. As a sat comfortably at the
socialite table, I felt as though I was on a pedestal. I was mildly amused
to see Lizzie, Miranda, and Gordo lost in the mix.
"No, really, you guys," Penny Hawkens squealed with delight. Her hands were animated as she flung them around to illustrate her words. "Those back handsprings were, like, AWESOME."
"Totally," I chimed in. "We were so *on* tonight." I made a point to speak loud and clear over the blaring music, not only so Penny could hear me, but also to reach the ears of any jealous fool who was standing nearby.
"Thirty-eight!" bellowed a tired voice from the front counter.
I looked over at Ethan, who was building a tower out of cracker packages. "Ethan," I snapped. "That's our number."
"Huh?" he said distractedly. He was completely in his own world, occupied with that ridiculous cracker tower.
I sighed and spoke very slowly to him. "The pizza, Ethan."
"Oh, uh... right." His cracker creation tipped over and crashed into the table. "Aw, man...."
"For Christ's sake, Ethan," I muttered, getting up from the table. "I'll do it myself."
"Sure thing, babe," he said, even though I was already well on my way to the counter. He started rebuilding.
I walked up to the counter, thought it was abandoned. I let out an annoyed sigh and snapped my fingers. "Hello?" I asked impatiently. It should have been Ethan doing this, but instead the magic of crackers had enchanted him, leaving me to sacrifice valuable socialization time.
A gangly, pimply-faced teenager scurried to the counter bearing a steaming cheese pizza. "Thirty-eight?" he squeaked.
I nodded and took the pizza from him, handing him a wad of cash.
He attempted to smile at me as he handed me my change. "Here you go." Saliva glistened from his braces and I winced. "Have a nice evening."
I wrinkled my nose at him and gave him a condescending eye. "Whatever." As I turned around, I bumped into someone. The fresh, gooey pizza began to slide off the pan and I struggled to regain control of it. "What's your problem?" I snapped, looking up to see who was in my way.
A short, plump Hispanic girl stood before me. She was wearing a faded Slipknot shirt that was a bit to tight, exposing the enormous folds of flesh along her abdomen. Her hair was cut like a boy's, and dark red shadow inexpertly lined her eyes. She growled at me.
"Is there something wrong, Gourda?" said a snake-like voice from behind her. A tall, lanky Hispanic girl slithered up beside Gourda. She was wearing a purple halter-top with sequin teal capris. Hideous gold heart- shaped earrings were visible through her tangled mess of greasy black hair. I knew this girl from my English class. Her name was Esmerelda, and she and I had never been on good terms. Her horrible fashion sense was enough to prevent me from tolerating her, but in addition to that she seemed to take an interest in calling me a "rich white bitch" and threatening to "cut me open like a fish". Of course, she made those types of comments to nearly anyone who would listen.
Esmerelda wrapped her arm possessively around Gourda, cradling her like a pet. "Oh," she said, lacing each of her words with acid. "It's you." She scrunched up her nose at the sight of me, as if I had some horrible odor. I could have easily said the same thing about her.
I'll admit to being a bit scared of Esmerelda, but I still maintained my ever-present conceit and confidence. "I was just telling your... *friend* here to stay out of my way, Esmerelda."
Esmerelda squinted her sharp, serpent eyes at me. "Oh, really? Well, I think you're the one who needs to stay out of the way, punta."
I tried hard to give her my most ferocious glare in return, but she was incredibly intimidating. Esmerelda was edging closer to me, and I suddenly realized my words were having trouble coming out of my throat. I gulped.
"What's going on, ladies?" said a nearby voice. It was Jordan.
Esmerelda gave him a look of hate. "Just talking, ese," she told him, although her tone clearing indicated otherwise.
"Mind if I join you?" He approached us and stood right next to Esmerelda. They were the same height, but Esmerelda looked as if she was made of nothing but wire as she stood next to Jordan's football-player build. Their eyes met, until Jordan broke his gaze and looked in the direction of his table. Esmerelda saw the mass of rowdy football players, and figured out that if she kept threatening me, Jordan could have easily beckoned the aid of a large chunk of the varsity football team.
She glared at Jordan and muttered Spanish obscenties under her breath. Her eyes showed nothing but the utmost loathing for both Jordan and me, but she turned away nonetheless, arm still wrapped tightly around her chubby companion. I tried not to let my deep relief show, but inside I was thanking god I hadn't been murdered right there. It was just another one of the ways my connections came in handy.
"I'll get that for you," said Jordan. He took the pizza from my hands and carried it back to the table for me. When I took my seat, I saw that Ethan had not made much progress at all on his cracker castle. As soon as he saw the pizza, however, he completely lost interest in it and moved his focus onto stuffing his face. I sighed. At least he was a boy, so he could get away with acting like that. I took my time on one dainty slice as I tried to work my way back into the conversations. Jordan took his place beside Penny.
As the night wore on, people began to leave Charlie's and head either home or to after-parties. There were only fifteen or so people in the restaurant when Jordan rested his head on Penny's shoulder and yawned. "You ready to go?" he asked.
Penny had just finished saying goodbye to a group of sophomore cheerleaders. She pulled Jordan's wrist to her and looked at his watch. "Yeah, I guess we'd better be on our way," she said, gathering up her pom bag. "Just let me go to the bathroom first..." She paused, taking a minute to see who was left at the table. "Kate?"
I nodded and immediately stood up, honored to have been called upon. Any girl with class never goes to the bathroom by herself; it breaks all the rules of girl-dom. Being selected by a Senior like Penny to accompany her was one of the highlights of my day. I dutifully followed Penny to the bathroom. Her purse was slung over her shoulder and she walked with a dignified swagger. Even when she was doing something as simple as going to the bathroom, and even when there was hardly anyone there to witness it, she always carried herself with a sense of grace and superiority.
The pimply boy from the counter was mopping the floor, and smiled goofily at me as we passed him. I rolled my eyes and briskly walked past him, making sure to walk right through his freshly mopped floor.
I leaned against the wall in the bathroom as Penny stood in front of the mirror, wiping away smeared eyeliner and fluffing up her hair. When she seemed fairly satisfied with her appearance, she handed me her purse and went into one of the stalls.
"So, Kate," she said, speaking to me over the sounds of her pee. For some reason it struck me as un-ladylike to talk and use the bathroom at the same time. If there had been anyone else around, I knew she never would have done such a thing. I was pleased to know that she trusted me enough to let her guard down around me. "Those Mexican girls didn't hurt you, did they?"
My face reddened. I had hoped that no one had seen it. "Oh... no," I said. "But I think they were going to."
"Little beaner bitches," she muttered as she flushed the toilet. This was something else I hadn't heard Penny do in my presence before: gossip. I knew she talked smack about people, but the fact that she was doing it around me, a lowly Freshman, was something new. She opened the door to the stall and went right back to the mirror. "As soon as I saw them near you I sent Jordan over."
"Oh." I didn't know whether to feel good about this or be disappointed. I had originally thought that Jordan came to my rescue because he was my friend; now I realized he had only come because his girlfriend made him. Of course, the fact remained that his girlfriend was the extremely popular Penny Hawkens. Knowing that she had shown concern for me gave me a sense of importance.
After adjusting her hair for a second time, she turned to face me. She took my chin in her hand and lifted my face, as if to inspect it. "I didn't want them to break your arm or anything," she said, studying my features. "You're, like, one of our best back spots. Very rare for a Freshman." She took a step back from me, getting a full view of me. "I see potential in you, Kate. I could definitely make something out of you."
She took a tube of pink lipstick out of her purse, which I was still holding, and turned back to the mirror. She re-coated her lips and said nothing more. To her, I suppose, it was just another bathroom chitchat. But to me, it was a pivotal moment in my high school career. One my own I was already pretty important on campus. I grinned at the thought of all the power I'd have if I had Penny Hawkens backing me up.
When we walked out of the bathroom, there was no one left besides Jordan, Nic, Claire, and the pimply-faced pizza worker. It was almost 11:45, and I'd told Amy to come at 11:00. The five of us walked outside, and the parking lot was nearly empty. I didn't see Amy's car, which meant she had probably forgotten all about me. Claire, who was spending the night with me, noticed Amy's absence as well as sighed.
"Jordan," I said. He, Penny, and Nic were all heading towards his car. "Could you take Claire and I to my house?"
"Sure," he said, swinging his arm around Penny. "Hop in."
The five of us laughed as we approached Jordan's car, as he and Nic animatedly reenacted the game's more exciting plays. Just as I opened the door to the backseat, I noticed three people standing by the side of the building. Almost all of the lights were out in the parking lot, so it was dark. I was able to identify the obvious shapes of Gourda and Esmerelda, but the third person was covered in shadows. As a car drove down the road behind the pizza place, the headlights briefly illuminated flowing streams of blonde hair.
My breath caught in my throat as I realized it was Lizzie. What the hell was she doing here so late? More importantly, why was she standing in the dark with Gourda and Esmerelda? I was frozen for a moment, snapping back to reality only when Jordan started his car. Everyone else was already inside, but I was still standing there with the door open.
"Uh, you coming, Kate?" asked Jordan.
"Yeah," I replied weakly. I saw Esmerelda's hand give Lizzie a harsh shove. I felt a lump forming in my throat. Any ordinary person who had a basic sense of right and wrong would have immediately run to help, but I wasn't one of those people. I was the kind of person who thought about myself first, and others later. Despite the fact that I was scared for Lizzie, I couldn't force myself to do anything about it. Since middle school I had trained myself to never help Lizzie McGuire. She, of course, had always been willing to save my ass, but I never let myself return the favors. My previous encounter with Gourda and Esmerelda had not left me eager to face them again. They would probably slaughter me on sight. What could I do for her anyway?
I was just starting to slip into the car when I heard a slight moan from Lizzie, followed by a grunt from Gourda and Esmerelda's snake-like snickering.
"Um, I... forgot something," I told my friends in the car. "I'll be right back."
I nervously headed over to the shadows where Lizzie was cornered. I knew that nobody inside Jordan's car would care less about Lizzie McGuire, and none of them would be too thrilled to take on Gourda and Esmerelda just to save her skin. They would have done it anyway, if I had asked them, because no one wants to look like the bad guy. I just didn't want to deal with the resentment they would feel for me if I dragged them into something. They would expect me to look the other way.
But I couldn't look the other way. Not with Lizzie. I couldn't stand to go to sleep that night with visions of Lizzie, beaten bloody by Gourda and Esmerelda. As much as I hardened myself against her, I couldn't seem to turn my back on her when she really needed me.
"What's the matter, blondie?" hissed Esmerelda. She twisted a ringlet of Lizzie's hair around her finger. "Don't you wanna have fun with us?"
Gourda grunted in amusement.
"Hey!" I said as I approached them. I cursed myself for my own stupidity. Did I think I was just going to come over here and rip Lizzie from their clutches? The two of them could have me on the ground in a second, and worse yet, the only intimidation I could come up with was "hey".
Esmerelda growled and reared her head in my direction. "Ugh, you again?"
"Yeah, me." I moved my shoulders back, trying to look as tall as I could. Esmerelda was a good two years older than me, despite being in the same grade, and she was clearly larger than me. "Why don't you back off the twerp?"
Esmerelda grinned. "Oh? And what are you gonna do if we don't?"
"I... uh..."
"Lizzie!" cried out a woman's voice. I turned around and saw Mrs. McGuire pulling up; her car was clanking along and looked as though it was going to fall to pieces at any moment. "Oh, Lizzie, I'm so sorry, honey! I had car trouble! I tried to call your dad but my cell phone was dead... Oh, I'm just so sorry. I feel awful. Is everything okay?"
Esmerelda and Gourda immediately backed away from Lizzie and started walking away. Lizzie was trembling, and she looked over at me. Our eyes met briefly, but I looked away. "Everything's fine, Mrs. McGuire," I said in my sweetest voice.
Mrs. McGuire smiled at me a let out a sigh of relief. "I'm glad." She gave an apologetic look at Lizzie. "Hop on in, sweetie. I'm so sorry."
"That's okay, Mom," said Lizzie. She looked over at me and smiled, and then got into the car with her mom. Mrs. McGuire looked over at me. "Do you need me to take you home, Kate?"
I shook my head. "No thank you, Mrs. McGuire."
She looked at me skeptically. "Well... okay. If you say so." She pulled out of the parking lot, her car clanking all the way.
I was amused by how much Lizzie's mother seemed to care about her. She had felt so terrible about being late. She didn't want her little Lizzie to be left alone any longer than she had to. And then, to extend her motherliness even further, she wanted to make sure that I was okay as well. She was mentally punishing herself for being forty-five minutes late, probably calling herself a horrible mother. She had no idea. My mother was hundreds of miles away, probably drunk at some fancy party. I was sure she could care less about the fact that the cousin to whom she trusted my care had completely abandoned me. Mrs. McGuire had no idea what it really meant to be a horrible mother.
"What was that all about?" asked Penny as I slid into the car and we pulled out of the parking lot.
"That... oh, I uh..." I began. "I just realized I left Ethan's change from the pizza on the table. But it was gone." There we go. That was the lying, confident Kate I knew.
"Oh." Penny looked out the window and saw Mrs. McGuire's run-down car a few feet a head of us. "And what about them? Who were they? Did I see those two Mexican girls over there, too?"
"No. It was just Lizzie McGuire." Penny's face was blank; she obviously had no idea who Lizzie was. "She's just a stupid Freshman. Total loser."
"Right." She seemed satisfied with my response, and I was glad she wasn't asking any more questions. She giggled to herself. "I'll bet it was that McGuire girl who took the change. Poor skank probably needs it. Would you look at that car?"
I laughed with her. "Oh, yeah. Totally."
Author's Note: If you've seen the episode where Gordo's brain project blows up in class, you'll get where I got the inspiration for Gourda's character; from when he says, "Actually, I'm Gordo. Gourda's the big girl from ESL." Anyway... just a little inside reference, for the fun of it.
"No, really, you guys," Penny Hawkens squealed with delight. Her hands were animated as she flung them around to illustrate her words. "Those back handsprings were, like, AWESOME."
"Totally," I chimed in. "We were so *on* tonight." I made a point to speak loud and clear over the blaring music, not only so Penny could hear me, but also to reach the ears of any jealous fool who was standing nearby.
"Thirty-eight!" bellowed a tired voice from the front counter.
I looked over at Ethan, who was building a tower out of cracker packages. "Ethan," I snapped. "That's our number."
"Huh?" he said distractedly. He was completely in his own world, occupied with that ridiculous cracker tower.
I sighed and spoke very slowly to him. "The pizza, Ethan."
"Oh, uh... right." His cracker creation tipped over and crashed into the table. "Aw, man...."
"For Christ's sake, Ethan," I muttered, getting up from the table. "I'll do it myself."
"Sure thing, babe," he said, even though I was already well on my way to the counter. He started rebuilding.
I walked up to the counter, thought it was abandoned. I let out an annoyed sigh and snapped my fingers. "Hello?" I asked impatiently. It should have been Ethan doing this, but instead the magic of crackers had enchanted him, leaving me to sacrifice valuable socialization time.
A gangly, pimply-faced teenager scurried to the counter bearing a steaming cheese pizza. "Thirty-eight?" he squeaked.
I nodded and took the pizza from him, handing him a wad of cash.
He attempted to smile at me as he handed me my change. "Here you go." Saliva glistened from his braces and I winced. "Have a nice evening."
I wrinkled my nose at him and gave him a condescending eye. "Whatever." As I turned around, I bumped into someone. The fresh, gooey pizza began to slide off the pan and I struggled to regain control of it. "What's your problem?" I snapped, looking up to see who was in my way.
A short, plump Hispanic girl stood before me. She was wearing a faded Slipknot shirt that was a bit to tight, exposing the enormous folds of flesh along her abdomen. Her hair was cut like a boy's, and dark red shadow inexpertly lined her eyes. She growled at me.
"Is there something wrong, Gourda?" said a snake-like voice from behind her. A tall, lanky Hispanic girl slithered up beside Gourda. She was wearing a purple halter-top with sequin teal capris. Hideous gold heart- shaped earrings were visible through her tangled mess of greasy black hair. I knew this girl from my English class. Her name was Esmerelda, and she and I had never been on good terms. Her horrible fashion sense was enough to prevent me from tolerating her, but in addition to that she seemed to take an interest in calling me a "rich white bitch" and threatening to "cut me open like a fish". Of course, she made those types of comments to nearly anyone who would listen.
Esmerelda wrapped her arm possessively around Gourda, cradling her like a pet. "Oh," she said, lacing each of her words with acid. "It's you." She scrunched up her nose at the sight of me, as if I had some horrible odor. I could have easily said the same thing about her.
I'll admit to being a bit scared of Esmerelda, but I still maintained my ever-present conceit and confidence. "I was just telling your... *friend* here to stay out of my way, Esmerelda."
Esmerelda squinted her sharp, serpent eyes at me. "Oh, really? Well, I think you're the one who needs to stay out of the way, punta."
I tried hard to give her my most ferocious glare in return, but she was incredibly intimidating. Esmerelda was edging closer to me, and I suddenly realized my words were having trouble coming out of my throat. I gulped.
"What's going on, ladies?" said a nearby voice. It was Jordan.
Esmerelda gave him a look of hate. "Just talking, ese," she told him, although her tone clearing indicated otherwise.
"Mind if I join you?" He approached us and stood right next to Esmerelda. They were the same height, but Esmerelda looked as if she was made of nothing but wire as she stood next to Jordan's football-player build. Their eyes met, until Jordan broke his gaze and looked in the direction of his table. Esmerelda saw the mass of rowdy football players, and figured out that if she kept threatening me, Jordan could have easily beckoned the aid of a large chunk of the varsity football team.
She glared at Jordan and muttered Spanish obscenties under her breath. Her eyes showed nothing but the utmost loathing for both Jordan and me, but she turned away nonetheless, arm still wrapped tightly around her chubby companion. I tried not to let my deep relief show, but inside I was thanking god I hadn't been murdered right there. It was just another one of the ways my connections came in handy.
"I'll get that for you," said Jordan. He took the pizza from my hands and carried it back to the table for me. When I took my seat, I saw that Ethan had not made much progress at all on his cracker castle. As soon as he saw the pizza, however, he completely lost interest in it and moved his focus onto stuffing his face. I sighed. At least he was a boy, so he could get away with acting like that. I took my time on one dainty slice as I tried to work my way back into the conversations. Jordan took his place beside Penny.
As the night wore on, people began to leave Charlie's and head either home or to after-parties. There were only fifteen or so people in the restaurant when Jordan rested his head on Penny's shoulder and yawned. "You ready to go?" he asked.
Penny had just finished saying goodbye to a group of sophomore cheerleaders. She pulled Jordan's wrist to her and looked at his watch. "Yeah, I guess we'd better be on our way," she said, gathering up her pom bag. "Just let me go to the bathroom first..." She paused, taking a minute to see who was left at the table. "Kate?"
I nodded and immediately stood up, honored to have been called upon. Any girl with class never goes to the bathroom by herself; it breaks all the rules of girl-dom. Being selected by a Senior like Penny to accompany her was one of the highlights of my day. I dutifully followed Penny to the bathroom. Her purse was slung over her shoulder and she walked with a dignified swagger. Even when she was doing something as simple as going to the bathroom, and even when there was hardly anyone there to witness it, she always carried herself with a sense of grace and superiority.
The pimply boy from the counter was mopping the floor, and smiled goofily at me as we passed him. I rolled my eyes and briskly walked past him, making sure to walk right through his freshly mopped floor.
I leaned against the wall in the bathroom as Penny stood in front of the mirror, wiping away smeared eyeliner and fluffing up her hair. When she seemed fairly satisfied with her appearance, she handed me her purse and went into one of the stalls.
"So, Kate," she said, speaking to me over the sounds of her pee. For some reason it struck me as un-ladylike to talk and use the bathroom at the same time. If there had been anyone else around, I knew she never would have done such a thing. I was pleased to know that she trusted me enough to let her guard down around me. "Those Mexican girls didn't hurt you, did they?"
My face reddened. I had hoped that no one had seen it. "Oh... no," I said. "But I think they were going to."
"Little beaner bitches," she muttered as she flushed the toilet. This was something else I hadn't heard Penny do in my presence before: gossip. I knew she talked smack about people, but the fact that she was doing it around me, a lowly Freshman, was something new. She opened the door to the stall and went right back to the mirror. "As soon as I saw them near you I sent Jordan over."
"Oh." I didn't know whether to feel good about this or be disappointed. I had originally thought that Jordan came to my rescue because he was my friend; now I realized he had only come because his girlfriend made him. Of course, the fact remained that his girlfriend was the extremely popular Penny Hawkens. Knowing that she had shown concern for me gave me a sense of importance.
After adjusting her hair for a second time, she turned to face me. She took my chin in her hand and lifted my face, as if to inspect it. "I didn't want them to break your arm or anything," she said, studying my features. "You're, like, one of our best back spots. Very rare for a Freshman." She took a step back from me, getting a full view of me. "I see potential in you, Kate. I could definitely make something out of you."
She took a tube of pink lipstick out of her purse, which I was still holding, and turned back to the mirror. She re-coated her lips and said nothing more. To her, I suppose, it was just another bathroom chitchat. But to me, it was a pivotal moment in my high school career. One my own I was already pretty important on campus. I grinned at the thought of all the power I'd have if I had Penny Hawkens backing me up.
When we walked out of the bathroom, there was no one left besides Jordan, Nic, Claire, and the pimply-faced pizza worker. It was almost 11:45, and I'd told Amy to come at 11:00. The five of us walked outside, and the parking lot was nearly empty. I didn't see Amy's car, which meant she had probably forgotten all about me. Claire, who was spending the night with me, noticed Amy's absence as well as sighed.
"Jordan," I said. He, Penny, and Nic were all heading towards his car. "Could you take Claire and I to my house?"
"Sure," he said, swinging his arm around Penny. "Hop in."
The five of us laughed as we approached Jordan's car, as he and Nic animatedly reenacted the game's more exciting plays. Just as I opened the door to the backseat, I noticed three people standing by the side of the building. Almost all of the lights were out in the parking lot, so it was dark. I was able to identify the obvious shapes of Gourda and Esmerelda, but the third person was covered in shadows. As a car drove down the road behind the pizza place, the headlights briefly illuminated flowing streams of blonde hair.
My breath caught in my throat as I realized it was Lizzie. What the hell was she doing here so late? More importantly, why was she standing in the dark with Gourda and Esmerelda? I was frozen for a moment, snapping back to reality only when Jordan started his car. Everyone else was already inside, but I was still standing there with the door open.
"Uh, you coming, Kate?" asked Jordan.
"Yeah," I replied weakly. I saw Esmerelda's hand give Lizzie a harsh shove. I felt a lump forming in my throat. Any ordinary person who had a basic sense of right and wrong would have immediately run to help, but I wasn't one of those people. I was the kind of person who thought about myself first, and others later. Despite the fact that I was scared for Lizzie, I couldn't force myself to do anything about it. Since middle school I had trained myself to never help Lizzie McGuire. She, of course, had always been willing to save my ass, but I never let myself return the favors. My previous encounter with Gourda and Esmerelda had not left me eager to face them again. They would probably slaughter me on sight. What could I do for her anyway?
I was just starting to slip into the car when I heard a slight moan from Lizzie, followed by a grunt from Gourda and Esmerelda's snake-like snickering.
"Um, I... forgot something," I told my friends in the car. "I'll be right back."
I nervously headed over to the shadows where Lizzie was cornered. I knew that nobody inside Jordan's car would care less about Lizzie McGuire, and none of them would be too thrilled to take on Gourda and Esmerelda just to save her skin. They would have done it anyway, if I had asked them, because no one wants to look like the bad guy. I just didn't want to deal with the resentment they would feel for me if I dragged them into something. They would expect me to look the other way.
But I couldn't look the other way. Not with Lizzie. I couldn't stand to go to sleep that night with visions of Lizzie, beaten bloody by Gourda and Esmerelda. As much as I hardened myself against her, I couldn't seem to turn my back on her when she really needed me.
"What's the matter, blondie?" hissed Esmerelda. She twisted a ringlet of Lizzie's hair around her finger. "Don't you wanna have fun with us?"
Gourda grunted in amusement.
"Hey!" I said as I approached them. I cursed myself for my own stupidity. Did I think I was just going to come over here and rip Lizzie from their clutches? The two of them could have me on the ground in a second, and worse yet, the only intimidation I could come up with was "hey".
Esmerelda growled and reared her head in my direction. "Ugh, you again?"
"Yeah, me." I moved my shoulders back, trying to look as tall as I could. Esmerelda was a good two years older than me, despite being in the same grade, and she was clearly larger than me. "Why don't you back off the twerp?"
Esmerelda grinned. "Oh? And what are you gonna do if we don't?"
"I... uh..."
"Lizzie!" cried out a woman's voice. I turned around and saw Mrs. McGuire pulling up; her car was clanking along and looked as though it was going to fall to pieces at any moment. "Oh, Lizzie, I'm so sorry, honey! I had car trouble! I tried to call your dad but my cell phone was dead... Oh, I'm just so sorry. I feel awful. Is everything okay?"
Esmerelda and Gourda immediately backed away from Lizzie and started walking away. Lizzie was trembling, and she looked over at me. Our eyes met briefly, but I looked away. "Everything's fine, Mrs. McGuire," I said in my sweetest voice.
Mrs. McGuire smiled at me a let out a sigh of relief. "I'm glad." She gave an apologetic look at Lizzie. "Hop on in, sweetie. I'm so sorry."
"That's okay, Mom," said Lizzie. She looked over at me and smiled, and then got into the car with her mom. Mrs. McGuire looked over at me. "Do you need me to take you home, Kate?"
I shook my head. "No thank you, Mrs. McGuire."
She looked at me skeptically. "Well... okay. If you say so." She pulled out of the parking lot, her car clanking all the way.
I was amused by how much Lizzie's mother seemed to care about her. She had felt so terrible about being late. She didn't want her little Lizzie to be left alone any longer than she had to. And then, to extend her motherliness even further, she wanted to make sure that I was okay as well. She was mentally punishing herself for being forty-five minutes late, probably calling herself a horrible mother. She had no idea. My mother was hundreds of miles away, probably drunk at some fancy party. I was sure she could care less about the fact that the cousin to whom she trusted my care had completely abandoned me. Mrs. McGuire had no idea what it really meant to be a horrible mother.
"What was that all about?" asked Penny as I slid into the car and we pulled out of the parking lot.
"That... oh, I uh..." I began. "I just realized I left Ethan's change from the pizza on the table. But it was gone." There we go. That was the lying, confident Kate I knew.
"Oh." Penny looked out the window and saw Mrs. McGuire's run-down car a few feet a head of us. "And what about them? Who were they? Did I see those two Mexican girls over there, too?"
"No. It was just Lizzie McGuire." Penny's face was blank; she obviously had no idea who Lizzie was. "She's just a stupid Freshman. Total loser."
"Right." She seemed satisfied with my response, and I was glad she wasn't asking any more questions. She giggled to herself. "I'll bet it was that McGuire girl who took the change. Poor skank probably needs it. Would you look at that car?"
I laughed with her. "Oh, yeah. Totally."
Author's Note: If you've seen the episode where Gordo's brain project blows up in class, you'll get where I got the inspiration for Gourda's character; from when he says, "Actually, I'm Gordo. Gourda's the big girl from ESL." Anyway... just a little inside reference, for the fun of it.