So DaeRi’s first plan bombed, and she wasn’t sure whether to continue with the whole campaign plan or not. It didn’t seem like it would help her, but if she stopped then everyone would know she was only doing it to get on Harriette’s good side.
The whole ride home, on the bus because she had no ride since she used to ride home with Harriette’s mom, she thought it over again and again. Riding the bus was a pain, so it encourage her to keep on trying. She couldn’t just give up. She just needed a better plan.
When she arrived home, to an empty house as her mom was working late lately, she went straight to her room to think where she does her best thinking, on her floor. Her floor was her favorite place in the house.
When they first moved in years ago her mom said she could buy one thing for her new room and she picked out an extremely fluffy rug in the shape of a penguins head. It was old now and the white was more yellow, but she loved it all the same.
She got her iPod, put on her favorite thinking playlist and sat down right in the middle of her rug. She had a small room, which just enough space for a bed, a desk, and a closet. Her bed was against the floor length window, which her desk right next to the foot of it. The closet was on the third wall, with the door on the fourth wall.
Her second favorite part of her room was the walls, her mom and AeGuk had painted them light blue color, and then DaeRi had insisted that they paint the wall next to her bed, the one with the window, a midnight blue so it would feel like sleeping outside. And they did.
Now sitting in penguin rug, though, she wasn’t thinking about that. She was thinking about ways to win back her popularity. She needed to think of the ultimate good deed that would get her back on Harriette’s good side.
And just as she was contemplating that her phone rang and she rolled her eyes. The only person who called her was her mom, usually to tell her she was gonna be late because she got an extra job and had to take it, or to ask her if she would please check if the rice cooker was on.
She answered her phone prepared for either of those situations and instead heard Tamarai’s familiar voice.
“Hi,” Tamarai said.
“Oh, Tamarai,” DaeRi said, even though she tried not to let it show she did miss Tamarai. Tamarai was always the best listener and always had some helpful advice to give, usually something she heard her mom say before and Mrs. Brown was probably the wisest person in Broad Meadows.
“Thanks for trying to campaign for me,” Tamarai said, “I’m sorry the cookies came out bad.”
“So you don’t think I did it on purpose, then?” DaeRi said, as this had passed her mind a few times since her talk with Thomas earlier. If Thomas thought she was that much of a monster, why wouldn’t Tamarai?
“What? Of course not,” Tamarai said, “You would never do something like that, especially if you wanted to become popular again.”
“Right?” Daeri said, “This guy totally thought I did earlier, though.”
“Who?” Tamarai asked.
“This Thomas guy,” DaeRi said.
“Oh, yeah, I know him,” Tamarai said, “Brown wavy hair, almost curly, and weird green eyes?”
“Yeah, that’s him,” DaeRi said.
“Yeah he’s our junior photographer,” Tamarai said, “For the newspaper.”
Newspaper. Due to her miserable start of the year DaeRi had forgotten to sign up, now she wished she had. Two times a week to show everyone that she wasn’t that bad? Sounded like a good idea.
“Can you maybe get me in?” DaeRi asked.
“What? The newspaper committee?” Tamarai asked.
“Yes,” DaeRi said, “I forgot to sign up.”
“I guess I could try,” Tamarai said. Then DaeRi heard a voice in the background, the familiar childish voice of Harriette. She seriously sounded like a five year old.
“I gotta go,” Tamarai said quickly, “Talk to you later.”
“Bye,” DaeRi said quickly just as Tamarai hung up.
The call left her wondering why she had dumped Tamarai in the first place, it was awfully nice to have someone to talk to.
--
Tamarai had to admit that it was nice not having to worry about DaeRi, even though she did miss her.
But the weeks they had stop talking where probably the best weeks of her senior year so far, the newspaper committee started up again and she was getting close to the cute editor, and she suspected that he was gonna ask her to homecoming. Plus Harriette’s new friends Ella and Mariah were actually kind of fun, Ella was a little harsh on the edges, like DaeRi was, to be honest, but Mariah was sweet and liked stupid jokes. Sometimes she reminded herself she should feel bad having so much fun with DaeRi’s replacements but really, she didn’t mind.
Tamarai started feeling a bit like DaeRi was doing okay without her, sure she was still eating alone and she didn’t seem to be feeling anymore upbeat, but she didn’t look too bad.
Then the whole cookie incident happened and she saw just how much DaeRi still wanted to be popular, and watching her sulk her way out of the cafeteria afterwards made Tamarai feel bad. She felt bad that her plan had failed, because Tamarai was sure that it was indeed just a big plan and that DaeRi had not actually felt any sort of actually want to help Tamarai win homecoming queen.
So Tamarai called her, mostly to apologise about her failed plan, but somehow there conversation segwayed into talking about Thomas, some guy on the newspaper committee, and DaeRi asked her to help her get back into the newspaper committee. And then Harriette was in her room, wanting to talk about Homecoming dresses. Tamarai told her she was talking to the cute editor.
Tamarai wanted to be friends with DaeRi but it was just too complicated.
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