Drama Fest

This book will contain romance

## A “Normal” Day

Today is a ‘normal’ day in the ‘normal’ house of ‘normal’ people. The Romans. Not the historical Romans. The family of five living on 4370 River Wing Drive. ‘Normal’. Hah! Who am I kidding? Normal in this case means completely odd, weird, and crazy. Let me introduce myself. I am Cecelia Roman (I prefer to be called *Celia*) and my family is anything *but* normal. I live with my Mom, Dad, two brothers, and *no* sisters. I know. Only boy siblings. Ugh. My best friends are like sisters to me but it isn’t genetic. Instead, I got a baby brother named Kyle and a twin brother named Jesse. Jesse and I are both thirteen and everyone *loves* Jesse. Right now, I sit in my room with two out of my three dogs; Bacon and Rocket.

“Cecelia!” I hear mom shout angrily.

“Mom! Can’t you call me Celia?” I shout back.

“I’ve raised you since you were an infant. I think I have the right to call you whatever I want!” Mom snaps from another room.

“Oooh! You're in trouble,” Jesse calls from the hallway.

“Oh, shut up, Jesse.” I snap and roll my eyes.

“Jesse, this does not concern you!” Mom yells behind her as she walks into my room. “Cecelia, I distinctly remember telling you to give Kyle his bottle. Kyle gets moody when he’s hungry!” Mom scolds.

“Mom, I’m sorry, but you always make me feed Kyle! He is *your* kid and I did not agree to have a little brother! Speaking of *kids* you have another one, Jesse! Why don’t you make him do it?” I snap.

“Is no one listening to me now?! *Dustin*!” Mom shouts to Dad.

“Can’t you call me Dusty?” Dad shouts and climbs up the stairs.

“Now I know where you get it!” Mom says sarcastically and looks at me.

“Basketball is on! Can you hurry it up?” Dad says.

“Yeah, hurry it up!” I say to Mom.

“*Cecelia! Stop!* You are in this family! When I tell you to feed Kyle I expect you to do so!” Mom yells and heads out of the room.

“Stay in your room for now. It’s your only punishment.” Dad says and follows Mom out of the door. “Oh, and next time you don’t feed Kyle, I’m going to have to take your iPhone.”

I wait for Dad to turn the T.V. off mute and watch the basketball game again. I hear a muffled voice saying, “Slam dunk! Wow! What a great shot!” so I know Dad is listening to the T.V. I grab my phone and go onto the group chat with my three other besties, Jayla Banks, Evilia Bay, and Violet Garnet.

**“Oh My Gosh! I'm so mad!”** I type into my phone.

**“Why?!?”** Jayla types back almost instantly.

**“What happened? R u OK?***”* Violet types before I have a chance to say what’s wrong.

**“I 4got 2 feed, Kyle.”** I quickly type. Then I wonder where Evie is. Her sister probably stole her phone again.

**“So? Did Jesse feed Kyle?”** Jayla types back.

**“No! I got in trouble!”** I type faster than I’ve typed in a long time.

Jesse walks into my room and says, “I’m sorry Cee. I should have covered for you.”

I look back down to my phone, Jayla is trying to FaceTime me. She wants a straight story. Jesse comes over to me and sits at my side.

“Look Cee, I know I haven’t been the nicest to you lately,” Jesse says and looks at the floor.

“So? We’re siblings! We’re supposed to fight!” I say and look at him like he has three heads.

“I need to tell you the reason why. Not Mom because well, she’s a mom.” Jesse says and looks as if he’s about to cry. “Luella, she doesn’t want to be my girlfriend anymore.”

“Oh! Jesse! I’m so sorry!” I say.

“It’s okay.” He says then he pauses before saying, “It’s not okay. She dumped me over text.”

“Are you kidding me! That’s like the worst possible way to dump someone!” I say and think to myself, *Is Jesse an idiot?*

I mean, like if someone dumps by telling you it’s going to be devastating but if they dump you over text, that’s even worse! That’s like if they don’t even care about you! But, I don’t say that aloud because Jesse already looks super upset.

“Hey, listen. Luella always used you. It’s better if you find someone new.” I say soothing him.

“I guess,” he says and walks out of the room.

Then, I realize that Jayla has stopped trying to call me. I guess I’ll just tell them at school. I go on PicSnap and go onto Luella’s account. I dislike all of the selfies of her and Jes and in one where Jesse and Luella are dancing I comment, **“Girlie, U crazy!”** I try to comment on more of Luella’s posts but Jayla calls and invites me over to her house. I run down the stairs to ask my Dad.

“Sure Celia! Just be back by dinner time,” Dad says and I grab my tennis shoes and slide them on.

I grab my helmet and grab my *Ripstik* from the gray chest we have in our backyard. I start to ripstik over to her house (we’re only two blocks apart). When I arrive I’m greeted by her dad’s. Mr. Camron is holding a stack of brownies and Mr. Banks has a platter of cucumbers. Jayla actually had a mom but she died and her two dads got married together.

“Hi, Mr. Banks! Hi Mr. Camron!” I say

“Hi, Celia!” says Mr. Camron, “Care for a brownie?”

“Sure!” I say and grab a brownie and four cucumber slices and I do my ritual with Violine and Hazella (Jay’s little sisters) by kissing them on the top of their wispy blonde heads.

“Hi, Vivi! Hey, Hazel,” I say, calling them by their special nicknames. Then I say to Jayla’s brother, “ Hey, Brookland,”

“Sup,” he says lazily and goes back to his iPhone.

Then, I run up to Jayla’s room shouting, “Jay! I’m here!” and then I burst into her room and plop onto her swivel chair.

“Hey, girl!” Jay says bursting with excitement. “Now, tell me *everything* that happened with Jesse and Kyle.”

“Okay! So I forgot to feed Kyle and Mom started yelling at me. I got super mad and you can probably guess what happened. Then Jesse felt like pouring his heart out to me and I found out; Luella dumped him.”

She makes a disgusted look. “I’ve always hated Luella but I never knew she was that mean!”

“It gets even worse. Jesse told me that she dumped him over *text*.” I say and Jayla looks furious.

“OMG! I can’t even.” Jay fumes. “Like, you don’t EVER dump someone over text!” she says and flicks her thin blonde braids behind her shoulder like she does whenever she’s annoyed at someone.

“I know right! Jesse doesn’t deserve that! But what does Luella do? SHE DUMPS HIM ANYWAY! Like, she could have at least just told him but no! She had to do it over text and break his heart!” I scream.

Just then Violine sticks her head in the room and says, “Uhhhh. Daddy Cammy says your mommy Mrs. Roo-Man or sumthin says for you to come home please?”

“Okay, Vivi,” I say.

Violine grabs my hand and rushes me downstairs and to my ripstik outside.

“Bye Violine! By Jay!”

“By Celia!” Jay says as I ripstik home. When I get home, Jesse is waiting for me and he looks urgent.

“Cecelia. I need to talk to you.” I know he called me CE-Celia but for once I don’t care.

“What’s up Jes?” I ask and try my best to sound as though I was the most caring sister in the world.

Jesse starts but can’t seem to finish, “I have my football game today and Luella usually walked me onto the field to wish me good luck. But…”

“She isn’t your girlfriend anymore,” I say as the picture forms in my mind.

“I was wondering if you could ask Violet to do it or something.” He says then runs to get a *Twix* to eat.

“Vi’s never gone to a football game. But maybe Jay and I can do it,” I say.

“You have to watch Kyle tonight though,” Jesse says sadly.

“I’ll take him with me. Let me just call Jayla,” I smile. “Jay, Jes’ football game is today. He needs someone to walk him on the field. You, me, and Kyle.” I say and hope Jayla agrees to come.

“Fine. But I call holding Kyle,” she says.

At about 5:30 p.m. we start walking there. Jesse’s game doesn’t start until 6:00 so I have plenty of time to get to the field. Jayla is pushing Kyle in his stroller, I’m walking next to Jayla, and Mom is driving there with Jesse and some other kids from his team. Riley, Ken, AJ, Harold, Tom, and Cail. So they filled up the WHOLE car and made Jayla, Kyle, and I walk.

“Good sister!” Tom said.

But whatever. When you have two brothers who annoy the living daylights out of you, you don’t care what *any* boy thinks. When we get to the football game after 17 minutes and 43 seconds (I timed it on my iPhone.), I grab Jayla, give her Kyle, and tell her to pick out some good seats for us. I head over to the cheerleaders and tell them about how Jesse doesn’t have a girlfriend.

“Luella is our friend.” Maddie, the head cheerleader snarls.

I look to Katie, she was my best friend in grade school.

“Katie!” I shout and run over to Katie. “Would you mind if I take your spot to run onto the field on Jesse’s time since Lu-smella isn’t here?”

“Lu-ELLA isn’t here because she is still crying because JESSE dumped her!” Maddie says and looks at me with disgust.

“Jesse did not dump her! Luella dumped Jes!” I say angrily.

“She did NOT! Luella specifically told me and the rest of the cheerleading group that about a week ago Jesse DUMPED Luella!” Maddie says, almost screaming.

“You are such a PATHOLOGICAL LIAR!” I say and then, the worst possible thing happens.

Right as Jesse and his friends start to walk up to us, Maddie yells, “JESSE. DUMPED. LUELLA. YOU. IDIOTIC. PSYCHOPATH!”

And when Jesse hears her say that he goes running from the field. I run and grab Jesse by the shoulders and run over to get his phone out of his bag. I do his password, 314159 from Pi, 3.14159 but then it goes on forever. I go onto Luella’s number and see Jesse wrote.

**I have another crush. Do U still want to be my girlfriend? I know it’s kind of unfair 2 U**.

Jesse was being honest.

**You are a TRAITOR! I H8 U.** Luella wrote back.

I guess you could say either one of Luesse (Luella+Jesse=Luesse) dumped the other! I walk Jesse onto the field. I don’t worry about my stupid old idea with Katie and Maddie.  We run back under the bleachers and Luella grabs Jesse and kisses him right on the lips.

“What are you doing, you creep?!?” Jesse screams and pulls away.

“A little thing I call sweet revenge,” Luella says and hops on Jesse’s back.

Jesse runs off the field and under the bleachers. I run over with Jayla who is holding Kyle. I grab Luella off Jesse and I yell, “What the flip do you think you're doing?”

“Pay-back,” She says as though it’s obvious. “Stop sounding so oblivious! You knew I was mad at Jello Bello Bo-Jo Jesse for not coming with me to the Fall Dance!” Luella says and flips her long blonde hair and walks over to her older sister Mackenzie and runs off into the distance.

“Jesse, did Luella dump you? Or did you dump Luella? Luella is a snob. I’m not going to blame you if…” I start.

“Luella dumped me. I said I had a crush. I want any relationship I’m in to be a completely honest one.” Jesse says and looks at the floor.

“Who’s your crush?” Jayla asks. I didn’t even know she was there! “I’m joking! Jeez!”

Jayla says and sticks her hands up as though she is surrendering and she backs up. “Celia, I came here as a favor. Can we just watch the game? Go get out there Jesse! They need you.” Jayla says and walks out from under the bleachers looking at her iPhone.

"Go get them, Jaguar!” I say and Jesse throws on his red and yellow helmet and runs out onto the field.

I have to run to catch up to Jay. But when I do she keeps walking.

“Uh? The bleachers are that way, you know the bleachers are there to sit on?” I ask, confused.

“I know, I have to go to the bathroom. Do you mind?” she scowls with a certain tone in her voice.

“Sorry!” I say and this time it’s my turn to stick my hands in the air and back up as though I’m surrendering.

I walk with her to the bathroom and as she goes in I walk near the concession stand.

“One soda and chips please,” I say once it gets to be my turn.

“Coming right up, ma’am.” The worker says. On his name tag, it says, “Hello, welcome to Jaguars Concessions! My name is Harold.” I stare at Harold for a long time.

“Aren’t you the coach?” I ask.

“No, I’m the coach's twin brother. Being a twin sucks. Let me tell you. Because you probably don’t know what it’s like to be the less popular, less athletic, less cool twin. Because you probably don’t even HAVE a twin.” Harold mumbles.

“Do you know Jesse Roman? Number 22 on the middle school football’s team?” I ask.

“Duh. Doesn’t EVERYONE know Jesse Roman? Number 22 has a twin named… What is his name I have no clue? Kyle? Kalib?” Harold says and squeezes his chin with a questioning look.

“His twin is a GIRL! Named CELIA! I am Jesse’s twin! I am less athletic! I am less popular! I am less ‘cool’! I know what it’s like!” I yell climbing up so I am four inches above him. I grab my Cherry Coke and my bag of chips and run to where Jayla is.

“I’ve been looking for you,” she says and guides me to where the bleachers are, and we sit down.

Then I stand right up and run to where the fence is to get a better view of the game “Jesse got tackled and isn’t getting up!” I yell to Jayla, who is holding Kyle.

“Oh no,” She says.

⤌⤍

“Celia?” Jesse says and looks at me. We’re inside our school, Brekingtone-Carnak Julius School.

“Are you okay Jesse?” asks Jayla.

“Jesse, are you okay?” Coach asks Jesse and picks him up off the floor.

“I’m fine,” Jesse says looking from me to Jayla.

“Okay then, let’s get our star quarterback back on the field!” Coach says and grabs Jesse’s shoulders and starts walking towards the field.

“Woah, woah, woah. Jesse is not going back onto the field. Did you not see that tackle? I think Jesse is just going to watch with Celia, Jayla, Kyle, and I.” Mom says and this time she grabs Jesse’s shoulder and guides him out the door but she doesn’t turn towards the bleachers. She walks onto the field where Luella sits, taking a break from cheerleading.

“Luella?” Mom asks. “Would you mind if Jayla, Kyle, and Celia come sit over here? I need to talk with Jesse.” Mom says.

“Oh, uh, not at all! I get it Jesse does need one of those talks!” Luella says and invites Jayla over by her as I bring out my phone and go on PicSnap.

“Can I borrow those?” I ask Luella and point to her pom-poms.

“Oh, uh, sure! You doing a PicSnap?” She asks and hands the pom-poms to me.

I show her my phone and she nods. “*Y… M… C… A!”* I whisper into the microphone on my iPhone.

I use the pom-poms to make a video of me doing the hand motions. I add a filter that makes me look like I’m in a black and white movie. I keep doing PicSnap. Some with Jayla, some with Kyle, one with Luella, and one with Mia, another Cheerleader. In the end, we lost 28 to 20. Our team and their team weren’t good at all without Jesse. Then we head home and I go to sleep with Rocket.

“Can we trade?” Jesse asks, holding Houdini and Bacon.

“Sure,” I say and Jesse puts Houdini and Bacon on my bed and picks up Rocket.

“Night,” I say to Jesse.

“Bye,” Jesse says back. I snuggle up with Houdini and Bacon and try to fall asleep.

I can’t seem to fall asleep though. I keep thinking about what Jesse said. So I go into Jesse’s room which is only across the hall.

“Jesse? Jesse!” I whisper and shake my brother.

“No-it's-not-time-to-wake-up,” Jesse moans.

“Jes! I can’t sleep thinking about Luella!” I whisper.

I don’t want to wake up mom and dad.

“OH MY GOSH! It’s fine! Luella kissed me because she was mad! She has a crush on Caleb Maxwells anyway!” Jesse whispers back.

“Jes,” I say.

“Ce! It’s okay. Don’t wake me up! Go back to sleep!”

“Fine,” I say and run back to my room, go into my bed, and I fall asleep.

## Jesse’s Big Question

When I get to school the next day, the first person I see is Evilia and I rush up to her. I realize that Jay and I are the only ones who know about the Jesse/Luella thing.

“You’ll never believe what happened yesterday,” I say.

“Tell me!” Evie squeals.

“We have to wait for Vi,” I tell her and she groans.

“Noooo,” She moans. Evie’s a sucker for drama and gossip. “Wait, does that mean JAY knows?” she asks.

“Later,” I say firmly without answering her question.

“Fiiiiiiinnnne.” She groans.

I guess now is a good time to talk about all of my friends. Jayla’s mom died after she had Violine so then Mr. Banks remarried to Mr. Cameron. Evie’s new here and we only met her a year ago when Violet brought her into our group. Violet is really shy and part of that is because of her past. Her dad left when she was a baby and then her mom remarried to this guy with two daughters when she was ten and it was super overwhelming for her because she’s always been quiet. The school we go to is nice so we walk over to one of the ivory benches and sit down.

Evie starts playing with my hair; making a French braid. Then, the buses start to arrive. They’re not like those big yellow ones some kids have to ride into school down at Parkview Plains; they are a lot like the buses you would take on a subway with nice seats and free seating. Violet starts to climb out of her bus and is almost stampeded by the other kids. She looks at Evie with terrified, wide eyes and Ev runs over to help her. Evie and Violet have always been close friends and I guess it’s because they balance each other out. Evie can make Vi braver and Vi can calm Evie down when she gets angry. Jay and I even talk about how they would be a cute couple together and honestly Jay and I wouldn’t care because we all know what it’s like because of Jay’s dads.

Jay comes over to the bench and Evie comes back seconds later with Violet. Evie sits down and starts playing with my hair again. Violet plops down her backpack, and Jay hangs upside-down from the bench with her braids dangling.

“Evie, Violet. I need to tell you something. So, yesterday I got in trouble for forgetting to feed Kyle and my mom got SO mad and my dad said if it happens again, I’ll lose my iPhone as a punishment.”

“Celia,” Evilia says, “I get it but you can’t get mad at your mom for needing help around the house and you can’t have a temper tantrum about it.”

“Evie!” Jayla says.

“Sor-ry! We ALL know it’s true though. You two are just too nice to say it!” Evie says.

I look over at her and glare. “Oh, and Luella dumped Jesse. Over text.” I say, and start to pick up my stuff furiously. Evilia just doesn’t get it.

“Oh no!” Violet says and picks up her backpack too.

“Celia! Stop!” Ev snaps as she grabs her bag. “Listen, you and Jay go find Luella. Vi and I will go find Jes,” she says.

I whip around and glare. Jes is my nickname for Jesse. He would hate it if anyone else called him that. “What’s your problem? We’re helping you!” Ev says, grabs Vi, and walks the other way.

“Text me,” she whispers before she lets Ev drag her away.

I grab my phone and get off the group chat from yesterday and go onto Vi’s number.

**“Jes is my nickname for Jesse. He would H8 it if EVILIA called him that.”** I text Vi.

**“H8?”** She texts back. It’s almost hilarious how little Vi knows about texting slang. When I type Ev’s name, I make sure it’s in caps to show I mean business.

**“H8=HATE”** I explain.**“Tell EVILIA not to call Jesse “Jes” but don’t tell her it’s from me.”** I text and hope Violet isn’t too shy to not tell Evilia.

Jayla and I start to walk into the school and to Luella’s locker. We find Luella there with her besties Alexis Zurgie and Samantha Tifton. Luella is standing there smothering on lip gloss.

“Luella Jen Surger,” I say.

“Oh, HELLO, Cecelia Roman. How have you been feeling seeing as your brother is a traitor?”

“My brother is NOT a traitor and he NEVER will be,” I say furiously.

“Oh, honey, didn’t hear? He dumped me.”

“My brother did NOTHING of the sort. You dumped him because he had a crush on someone else.” I snap.

“Sweetie, do you not understand English?” Luella asks.

“Oh, I understand perfectly well but do YOU understand how much you hurt Jesse?!”

“Um no, and I don’t care anymore ‘cause he broke my heart!” She says and slams her locker and walks away as Alexis and Samantha follow.

⤌⤍

At lunch, we meet up at our usual table, and Evilia and I sit at opposite ends of the table while Jayla goes to buy her lunch and Violet gets a soft-serve ice cream bowl.

“Hey, Celia, look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude about Kyle and your Mom. I guess I have a lot to learn about friendship along with math and science. And, I’m sorry I used your special name for Jesse.” Ev says.

“It’s okay, Ev,” I say and she relaxes. Suddenly Violet and Jay appear.

“All cleared up then?” Vi asks and I nod. “Good,”

“So, did you find Jesse?” I ask and Vi says,

“Yeah, Jesse was at his locker and we saw him texting his friend Jake that lives in Canada. We asked him if everything was okay and he nodded but Evie told him that she knew that he really wasn’t because she knows what it feels like because of last year when she liked Tanner Jenkins and then he threw her out like a moldy piece of cheese.” Violet begins and Ev’s face flushes.

“ANYWAY, I left them alone and went to class and Evie arrived 5 minutes late to class with Jesse, and Jesse’s eyes were a little red which was a good sign that she had calmed him down a bit.” She finishes.

“What did you tell Jes?” I ask and Ev blushes.

“Well, I just told him that I know it’s hard to let go with someone that you are more than friends with because you care about them. And he was like, but what if I care about EVERYBODY? And I told him that that just means you care about that special person a bit more than a friend. And that I know it’s going to be hard to let go but, the good thing is you don’t have to have a girlfriend only once.”

“Wow... that's very heartfelt!” I say. Ev usually hides her sweet side and rarely lets it out.

⤌⤍

After school, Jay, Evie, Vi, and I have a sewing class held by the home ec teacher; Miss Talisman. Jay, Evie, Vi, and I also have a website where we sell sewn goods. Half of the proceeds are used to buy things for people that are homeless. In the summer, we buy sunscreen and sunglasses. Fall, we buy gloves and thick socks. For winter, we buy mittens, hats, and scarves, sometimes coats. And, in the spring, we buy lots of plants to grow food.

Our website is called *SewForOthers.org.* Today, we’re working on some Halloween costumes to sell (Halloween is in 20 days). Evie is making a baby’s pumpkin costume, Vi is currently making a women’s evil countess costume, Jay is making a boys ninja costume, and I’m doing a girls ‘Elsa’ dress)\.

“Ugh!” Evie screams.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

“This stupid baby costume won’t stay still while I try to sew the edges!”

“Here let me see what I can do,” says Jay.

While Jay helps Ev, I go and check in Vi who is quiet. As usual.

“What’s up?” I ask.

“Nothing,” She says.

“Okay,” I walk away because when Vi is secretive, it’s best to just leave her alone.

We go a bit over time because all of us finish the costumes. I gather all of them up because we all have jobs, I’m the inspector/packager. That means I check to make sure nothing is ripped then I package them for Evie to send. So Evie sends the clothes when they live over an hour away to drive. We pay her brother to drive Evie to all of the close customers' houses and deliver the clothes. Violet is the recorder, she records all of the items the customers want. Lastly, Jayla is the “Money Man” (even though she’s a girl, we had to find a good name for her position) she also buys all of the fabric because she has to make sure it is in our price range. When I get home, I fish out a granola bar and head to my room.

When Jesse gets home, he comes into my room and says, “After dinner, tonight, meet me in my room.” and walks away.

I eat dinner; tacos. Some people are like, “TACOS! Yes! I love Tacos! And then they start doing a stupid little victory dance, but not me! After you eat tacos every Tuesday for three months you start to hate tacos (and nachos) After I finish dinner, I head up to Jesse’s room.

“Ce, thanks for coming.” Jesse starts, “I know in the past week, it looked as though we were besties, and we would never fight again. I was humiliated at the football game. I just wanted to say, I didn’t want just any of your friends to come. I know I didn’t name someone specific, but I have a crush on one of your friends. I kinda wanted her to come and I didn’t want YOU to come, that would put you in an awkward position.” Jesse finishes.

“Ah, ga ga goo la ba da la carba!” Kyle shouts and crawls into Jesse’s room.

I pick Kyle up and sit on Jesse’s chair next to his desk. Kyle crawls around my legs till he finally gets comfortable.

“Well sorry that you asked me!” I snap. I get a little snippy when I get mad.

“Ah, gooba shavala!” Kyle yells and slams his hands down on my legs.

“Who?” I ask and Jesse looks down and says, “What? I don’t know what you’re talking about?”

Lies. Lies. Lies.

“You know what I’m talking about, not Jayla. Evilia?” I ask and squint at him.

“No,” Jesse says, shocked, “Evilia is stuck up and rude.” I know Jesse feels bad for saying that because he smiles and says, “Sorry. Evilia is *your* friend and I need to respect that.”

Bacon runs into the room and Jesse scoops him up and starts petting him. I squint at Jesse, trying to make him feel bad.

“It’s Violet then. But, Evie is a great person! She’s kind and will make you feel like you’re the most special person ever! When you are mad at her she’ll think it through and then sincerely apologize. She won’t bribe you for forgiveness; she’ll try to EARN it. And when she’s mad at you, she’ll accept you saying ‘I’m sorry’ and then she’ll forgive you. A.J., Riley, and Tom must be great friends but DON’T compare them to Evilia, Jayla, and Violet.” I snap. I set Kyle down and leave the room.

I usually wouldn’t leave in the middle of something embarrassing him about having a crush on Violet, but I’m almost crying. I just need to get to my room. I close the door and look at my phone. Immediately, there are four text messages from Jesse.

**Is Violet single?**

**Celia?**

**Answer me!**

**I’m sorry.**

I take my time to think about what to say. **I’m never doing something like the football game ever again. But for Violet, I have a plan.**

I go onto PicSnap. I tap *friends* and see Luella's most recent post of her super cute dog, Music. Then I look at her location and do a double-take. It reads, “4370, River Wing Drive.” She’s at our house! I run down the stairs. I walk to the door and open it.

“Hello?” I snap.

“I just wanted to talk,” Luella says and sighs heavily.

“With Jesse? Because I can go get him,” I offer suspiciously.

“No, with you, Cecelia,” she says.

I scowl. “Please call me Celia,” I say swiftly.

“Ooba!” Kyle squeals as he crawls into the room.

Luella kneels and says, “Hey, Ky!”

“Ky?” I ask.

“Yeah. When Jesse was my boyfriend, he told me that I could call him Ky. I’ll call him Kyle if that makes you uncomfortable though.” Luella promises. I never thought Luella would be the person to take something back.

“So… why are you at my house?” I ask.

“I just wanted to talk to you. Do you want to get ice cream while we talk?” she asks.

“Uh… sure,” I say. I grab my phone and my purse.

“Okay,” I say, “Let’s go.”

Luella nods awkwardly and fiddles with her fingers. I realize I’ve never seen Luella this uncomfortable. Her haughtiness now seems like it was all an act to hide the real, unsure Luella. As we walk to the ice cream parlor, Luella explains everything. She said she didn’t want to have a relationship with Jesse because he’d be chasing after another girl that he wanted and not Luella. We order our ice cream and sit down in a booth.

I lick my orange-vanilla ice cream once before saying, “I guess I never really bothered to ask what happened from your point of view. I just went into overprotective sister mode.”

“Thanks,” Luella says awkwardly.

“Do you want me to tell Jesse what you told me?” I ask.

“Please, no. I don’t want Jesse to feel like he had to choose between me and some other girl. Do you know who he likes? I’m guessing it’s one of your friends.” Luella asks.

“Oh, um…” I don’t know how to explain it.

“Let me make it easier,” Luella says and she leans in. “I’m really NOT snobby. Jesse knew that, and I want you to know that too. I’ve always wanted a group of friends like you and your friends who actually care about each other. Not a bunch of fake friends.” she finishes and looks at her shoes.

“Okay. He likes Violet,” I tell her.

“Oh,” is all she says.

“Hey, do you want to eat lunch with us tomorrow?” I ask.

“Your friends don’t like me though,” she says and blushes.

“Don’t worry,” I assure her. “I’ll talk to them.”

“Thanks! I’ll see you then,” she says and gives a half-smile.

When I get home, I call Jayla and tell her everything that happened. “Okay. Let me get this straight. Luella is nice now and is eating lunch with us tomorrow.”

“Correct,” I say.

“Fine,” she says and hangs up.

I call Violet next because she’ll be easiest to convince. “Hello?” she asks.

“Hi! It’s Celia!” I say.

“Hi! What’s up?” she asks.

I explain what happened with Luella except for the part about Jesse liking Violet. “So, tomorrow Luella is going to eat with us if that’s okay.” I finish.

“Okay, I trust you.” She says and hangs up saying, “Bye!”

After a while, I pluck up the courage to facetime Evie.

“Hi!” I say.

“Hi!” Evie says. “What’s up?”

“So today, Luella came over to my house and asked me if I wanted to get ice cream with her and talk. I said yes and so we went to get ice cream and she told me why she dumped Jesse. He dumped her because he has a crush on Violet. I told her he does and then invited her to eat with us because she’s actually really nice.” I blurt out.

“Fine by me. Also-” she begins. “Hang on.” Ev’s older brother Frankie appears in the camera behind her.

“What?” she asks him.

“Dinnertime,” he says.

“‘Kay, hang on,” she says and shoves him out of the room and closes the door. She turns back to me. “Okay, so did you just say that Jesse likes VI!?” She asks.

“Uh-huh,” I answer.

“Wow… okay. Benches like usual. Bring Jay okay?” She tells me.

“Okay…?”

“See you then!” she says and hangs up. The only thing I think about that night is wondering what Ev’s plan is.

## Operation Violet

The next day I get to school early and see Evie already waiting. I run up to her. “We NEED to get Jesse and Vi together!” She says and she grins mischievously.

“Yeah, but first, we have to tell Jayla what we’re going to do,” I say to her.

“‘Kay,” says Ev.

Jayla arrives about a minute later and asks, “Is it true? Jesse and Vi? We’re getting them together?”

“Yeah. Listen the buses arrive in twenty minutes. Do you think we should just tell her?” I ask.

“No way. It would overwhelm her. You know how sensitive she can be. We just need to slowly give her hints first.” says Evie.

“OMG!” says Jayla, “You're so right!” Jayla can say nice things but act overdramatic about them when she kinda doesn't care.

“Jayla, stop it,” Evilia says and gives Jayla *the eyes.* It's when she looks right at you, then she looks down and closes her eyes, and then rolls them.

“I mean it’s gonna happen! And Ev, You didn’t care when Jesse broke up with Luella!” I say.

“Hey! I cared yesterday! I told you everything I told him. I care because I know what it’s like!” says Ev and looks a little red in the face which she always does when she is half-mad half-embarrassed. I feel a little guilty but at the same time, I don’t.

“Anyway,” says Jayla, “What’s step one?”

“Here’s what we need to do. We want her to slowly find out who her secret admirer is and act as though we didn’t know. So, we first need to give her this note I made Jes write.” I say.

I grab it out of my bag and Evie runs inside to tape it to her locker. The buses start coming in and Violet pushes her way over to us.

“Hi, guys!” She says and looks puzzled. “Where’s Evie?”

“Oh, she had to use the bathroom,” Jayla says. We practiced what to say to Vi three times.

“Oh, okay,” Violet says. “Let’s get to class,”

She walks off to her locker and we follow. I grab my phone and go onto PicSnap. I see Violet nearing her locker and look down at my phone, trying to keep a straight face. Evie comes out of the girls’ bathroom just as we reach Vi’s locker. She runs down the hall to us and plays it up for Violet.

“Hi! What’s up?” She asks.

Violet hugs her and says, “Nothing.”

She turns to her locker and notices the note. It’s taped to her locker and says ‘Violet’ in Jesse’s writing. “What’s this?” she asks, completely oblivious of Jayla who is trying hard not to smile. She opens the note and reads it. As she continues, her face flushes.

“What is it?” I ask.

“It’s… a love letter,” she whispers. Violet looks up shocked and stares at us while we all pretend to look appalled.

“Did you do this?” she asks.

“Of course not!” I say.

“Yes you did!” she says.

“I DIDN’T!” I snap.

Jay grabs my shoulders. “We know you didn’t. Don’t snap.”

I grin inwardly as Violet takes in my reaction. She’s believing every word of our act. “Vi, I didn’t write it. I promise,” I say.

“If you’re lying…” she says.

“I’m not. I PROMISE.” I say.

“Guys, the bell rings in ten minutes,” Ev says.

Thankfully, Violet decides to believe us. “Do you guys know who did?” she asks.

“I promise, we have no idea how this happened,” Jayla says.

“I’m gonna use the bathroom quickly. Then let’s get math class over with,” she says and smiles.

The second she’s in the bathroom I high-five Jayla. “It kinda doesn’t feel right, lying to Vi I mean.” Ev says quietly.

“It’s gonna work, don’t worry,” I whisper.

“Fine,” she relents.

“Oooh!” says Maddie as she and her best friend Eloise appear. “Is Little Miss Crybaby going into the bathroom to cry again?”

“She’s not a crybaby! She just needed to use the bathroom.” Evie snaps fiercely.

“No, no. You guys go mind your stupid cheerleader business. We’re just ignorant amateurs.” I say.

“If she’s talking to us, then we MUST not be ignorant amateurs.” Ev points out sarcastically and we all laugh.

“Ignorant!” Maddie says and flips her hair and walks away.

“Ignorant!” Eloise says and flips her hair and walks to Maddie.

“You were supposed to say *amateurs*!” Maddie scolds and they both walk back. “Amateurs!” Maddie says as she walks past us.

“Ignorant!” Eloise says and does her ‘fancy walk’ which is just when she puts her hands on her hips, sticks her bottom out, and walks slowly.

“No! You were supposed to say amateurs! Oh my gosh, you are such a freaking idiot!” Maddie scolds. “Just say amateurs after I say ignorant!”

Violet then comes out of the bathroom and scowls at seeing Maddie. We are still laughing about the whole ignorant amateurs thing which she heard from the bathroom.

“Go *away,* Maddie,” Violet says fiercely.

“NO. YOU. STUPID. LITTLE. IDIOTIC. GIRL!!!” Maddie snaps and pokes Violet. Violet’s eyes fill with tears but she doesn’t move.

“THAT'S RIGHT! CRY! LIKE THE BIG FAT BABY YOU ARE!” screams Maddie. Violet stands there and doesn’t move.

“Ugh. Ignorant!” Maddie says.

“Amateurs!” says Eloise.

Then they both stalk off. I let Ev lead us all into the bathroom and Violet slumps down against the tall mirror. A few tears let loose but Jayla and I hug her.

“Where’s Ev?” asks Jayla.

“Right here,” she says in a muffled voice. She’s next to the other mirror and her one cheek is covered with her sweater sleeve.

“What happened?” I ask.

“Eloise slapped me.” Ev explains.

“Ugh! I can’t even with those two!” Jayla screams and she looks like she wants to kick something.

“Let me see,” Violet says and pulls Ev’s arm off her face.

“It’s fine.” She says. Her left cheek is red and flushed. “Let’s just go to math.”

“Ughhh. I hate math,” says Jayla but we all leave the bathroom two minutes before the bell is due to ring.

I pass Jesse on the way and whisper in his ear, “ I think she absolutely hates you, even if she doesn’t know it’s you,” I smirk.

“Yes! Exactly what I was going for!” He says before walking off.

We take our seats with the rest of the class and lots of kids start to chatter. “Okay, class. Settle down, stop talking,” says Mrs. Jessington.

“Does anyone care what she says?” Violet mutters and I have to giggle. Violet’s snarky side is awesome.

“Class! Alright then, the next five people to talk will get detention.” Mrs. Jessington warns.

Jayla sneezes. “You talked. Detention.” Mrs. Jessington snarls.

“Uh, that’s not fair! I sneezed!” Jayla says.

“Well, you just talked.” Mrs. Jessington snarls again.

“That’s not fair! She sneezed! Then you *made* her talk!” Evilia squints then rolls her eyes.

“Detention!” Mrs. Jessington cackles, “Haha! This is getting fun!”

“You think tricking people into talking, then telling them they have to spend an hour writing, ‘I won’t talk in class’ is the right thing to do?” I ask.

“Detention! That’s three!” Mrs. Jessington laughs.

“This is not math. If this is what you call math, you surely were Breksingtone-Carnak Julius school's very last resort. Why are you giving Jayla such a hard time? You used to be my favorite teacher.” Luella sighs.

“I was your favorite?” Mrs. Jessington asks.

“*Was* my favorite. You aren’t my favorite anymore,” Luella replies.

“Detention, that’s four. I’m sorry, Luella.” Mrs. Jessington says sorrowfully.

“Holy crap! She’s at four!” A.J. Thomas says, then he covers his mouth.

“That’s five. This *is* a math class. I *was* at four. Then you spoke. You need help counting and with logic. Detention for Mr. Thomas.” Mrs. Jessington smiles.

Now Violet chooses to speak up, “Can we do math and forget about this whole detention thing?”

“No, Miss. Garnet. Detention for you!” Mrs. Jessington laughs.

“No, I was the sixth one to talk.” Violet corrects her.

“Excuse me?” Mrs. Jessington asks.

“Sorry, but I was the sixth. You said you would put the next *five* people to talk to go to detention.” Violet says, almost defiantly.

“So. Be. It.” Mrs. Jessington says coldly.

⤌⤍

“Thanks for sticking up for us Violet,” Jayla says as we walk down the hallway from math class.

“Oh. My. Gosh. I’ve never gotten detention. I mean, I’m a cheerleader. I am nearly a head cheerleader. I have practice. I. Can’t. Go. To. Detention.” Luella cries.

“Since when is she our friend?” Evilia wonders.

Luella bursts into tears as Maddie passes her and she rushes over to hug her.

“Uh, Maddie? What are you doing?” Evilia asks.

Maddie looks over. Her wavy dark brown hair is in two braids and her hazel eyes narrow as she glares. “What did you do Roman?” she says sassily.

“Nothing more than I did, Madison.” Jayla snaps.

“What *did* you do Banks?” Maddie snickers.

“Madison! They are my friends now! It was Mrs. Jessington. Jeez,” Luella rolls her eyes.

“Uh, so you’re a nerd too now?” Madison scowls.

“I’m not a nerd.” Luella snaps.

“Sheesh. I was just playing with you, Lue! C’mon have some fun, I know you aren’t a nerd, and I know you would *never* want to be friends with these twerps!” Madison laughs.

“They are not twerps Madison!” snaps Luella.

“Uh yeah, they are. I guess you're too now. I’m gonna totes miss you as my friend,” Maddie puts on a sad duck face, pulls out her phone, takes a selfie, and says, “I’m going to hashtag this picture as #MyBFFJustDumpedMe!SoSad!”

“That is like the stupidest hashtag EVER,” says Jayla.

“ANYTHING stupid if it comes from Maddie,” Ev mutters, and Jay giggles.

“I heard that!” Maddie says.

“GOOD,” Ev snaps. Evie has a knack for finding the perfect roast for someone at any time.

“Ugh. You are like, soooo weird.” Maddie says and rolls her eyes.

“Yeah, I’m the weird one here,” Evie says and starts to walk away as Jay, Vi, and I follow her.

⤌⤍

At dismissal, Vi heads off to her bus quickly since she doesn’t want to miss it.

“Bye, y’all!” Jay says.

“Bye!” I squeal back.

“Bye,” Vi says as she runs to the bus.

Then, I ask Evie, “Hey, do you want to come over to my house to do a movie with Luella?”

“Sure! Just let me stop home so I can bring popcorn. I'll meet you in ten.” she says and starts to sprint home to grab the popcorn. While Ev is off getting the popcorn I find Luella and tell her that Evie will be coming too.

“Cool, but… where is she?” Luella asks.

“She’s getting popcorn for us,”

“Oh, okay,” says Luella.

Half an hour later, Luella, Evie, and I sit on my couch. I’m glad that Jesse isn’t here because he’s still weird about her right now. We all continually reach into the big bowl of buttered popcorn that Ev brought. After watching two movies, Luella heads home though Ev stays and we head upstairs.

“So, Vi still sus of us so we need to-” Ev starts but I cut her off.

“What’s ‘sus’?” I ask.

“It’s from this game called Among Us. Download it on your phone, it’s really fun. Anyway, sus is a term in Among Us because you’re on a ship in space with other players, and you’re like a little robot dude and if you’re a Crewmate, your job is to do tasks around the spaceship and not die from the Impostor. If you’re the Impostor, you have to fake tasks and make sure no one’s sus of you and kill everyone. There can be up to three Impostors if you want and if someone finds a dead body they report it and everyone has to discuss to figure out who the Impostor is and then they vote someone out and the term sus means you’re suspicious of someone.” she explains.

“Sounds fun. I’ll try it out.” I say.

“So like I was saying, since Vi is still sus of us, we need to make up with her about her suspicions. Then, we need to ACTUALLY get Vi and Jesse together.” Says Evie.

“Okay, but how do we make up with Vi?” I ask.

“Are you serious?” Evie asks and rolls her eyes. “Vi is *Vi.* All you have to do is sincerely apologize and then she forgives you like that.” Evie says and snaps her fingers.

“Got it. I’ll text Jay the plan.” I say.

I click onto my phone and type, **“Ok. After Luella left, Ev and I think we need to apologize to Vi tomorrow and then get Vi and Jesse together after.”**

**“Kk!”** Jay types and I look up from my phone.

“Jay’s all good,” I tell her.

“Good,” says Evie.

“Now all we need is for Vi to believe us,” I say.