Sweet sweet Valentine's

Valentine’s day was the sweetest holiday, literally. Only really rivaled by Easter, but high school student don’t really celebrate that much anymore.

Valentine’s day called for chocolate, and lots of it. Which of course called for a trip to Harriette’s favorite store to stock up on all things chocolate.

So after school, a few days before the special day, Harriette stopped by the mall to get all of the chocolate she would need to give people. The sign in the window spoke excitedly about the special chocolates for this holiday; Rose truffles, Triple Chocolate hearts, and of course the favorite Red Velvet truffles. Harriette was greeted warmly by the cashier and asked if she needed any help.

“I’m good, thank you,” Harriette said, grabbing a few of the heart shaped boxes for the select your own variety box. She filled them up with the special flavors, and one up with all the one’s she knew Collin loved. Then she got some for herself, of course, and payed for it all. She felt very accomplished as she left the store with two bags full of chocolate for all her friends and family.

Her plan was to give everyone in her house some chocolates and give some out at school to whoever she felt like it at the time. The chocolate for Collin was a tradition of course, she wondered what Collin was gonna get her, if anything. But thinking about the fact that Collin could get her nothing because he had a real valentine that year made her feel sick so she pushed that out of her mind.

---

Collin felt terrible that he was leaving Harriete alone on Valentine’s day, that they couldn’t celebrate like they used to. Instead he had a “Big Date” with Amado and he was determined to do something nice for Harriette to apologise.

And after mulling it over for a while he thought of what seemed like a nice plan that Harriette would love. So one afternoon he told Amado he couldn’t hang out after school and went home to work on her gift.

One of his newest artistic endeavors was water color, he had been playing around with it for some time. He used to hate it, and couldn’t ever make anything nice out of it but he thinks he might be getting good.

So he pulled up a picture of Harriette on his computer and got to work painting a portrait of her with water colors. Harriette loved his art and he knew she loved it when he drew her so he had a good feeling she would love this gift.

Thankfully Harriette was out that day, shopping with her friends or something, so he had most of the evening to work on this painting for her. By the time she got home, her voice calling up the stairs to announce her presence, he was done and it was drying by the window.

He felt pretty good about it, and figured it was probably one of his best works to date.

---

Harriette woke up on Valentine’s day already tired of it, but the smell of strawberry pancakes pulled her out of bed and down the stairs to the kitchen where the smell was wafting from.

“Good morning,” her mom greeted her as she put two plates of the pancakes in front of the twins who were already reaching out greedily.

“Don’t eat too fast or you’ll get sick,” her mom said to the twins, patting them both on their heads. They wrinkled their noses at her and wolfed down the pancakes. Her mom just sighed and shook her head.

“Morning, mom,” Harriette said, taking a seat.

“You’re not even ready for the day yet, are you okay?” her mom asked, concern creasing her forehead.

For a second Harriette just stared at her mom, a little confused, before realising she was right. She had just came downstairs without getting ready, that was unlike her.

“Oh, I guess you’re right,” Harriette said, laughing a bit, “I’m fine, just tired. And I guess hungry.”

Her mom laughed, “why don’t you get yourself ready and come back down for pancakes?”

“Yeah, okay,” Harriette said, getting up from the table.

Up in her room the outfit she had picked out for this day hang from her closet, a cute lacey pink dress and a pair of polka dot tights with mary jane flats. It was cute and so sweet for Valentine’s day. The prospect of getting dress and ready brightened her mood a little bit, and by the time she had done her hair, applied her makeup, and gotten dressed into her cute outfit she was feeling a lot better about today. Who cared if the only valentine she ever had had a different valentine? At least she looked cute.

Upon arriving in the kitchen she saw she wasn’t the only one looking especially cute that day, Collin was looking pretty good too. He was sitting at the table, his hair done perfectly as always and wearing a light pink button up with light brown jeans. He looked pretty sweet too.

“Happy Valentine’s day,” Collin said as Harriette took the seat next to him.

“Right back at you,” Harriette said, nudging him a little.

“Are you busy after school?” Collin asked.

“The question is, are you?” Harriette asked, “of course I am.”

Collin laughed a little, “yeah, I am. I don’t know what amado has up his sleeve but he promised me an hour of free time after school, so I was wondering if you wanted to grabs some sweets from the bakery and exchange Valentines?”

Harriette couldn’t stop herself from grinning as she nodded yes, “of course.”

“Good,” Collin said.

Just then their mom set down their plates of pancakes, that were to die for especially with a little chocolate syrup and whipped cream, and few seconds later Tamarai came down and handed each of them a little wrapped truffle and a paper heart.

“Happy Valentine’s day!” She said before taking a seat and accepting some pancakes from their mom.

“Thanks,” Harriette said, “this is really cute.”

“Yeah,” Collin agreed.

“You’re welcome! And thanks, I guess,” Tamarai said brightly.

“Okay kids, eat up, we gotta go,” their mom said, “I’ll be back in five minutes.”

And with that they all finished eating their pancakes, got their bags and headed out to the car. Ready for school.

---

“Are you not excited for our ‘Big Date’ tonight?” Amado sang as Collin approached his locker where Amado had been waiting for him.

“Uhm, I’m supposed to say yes?” Collin asked.

Amado nodded before giving Collin a quick kiss.

“Well then, yes,” Collin said, “And a little scared.

Amado frowned and punched him playfully, “no need to be scared, I don’t bite.”

Collin just raised his eyebrows at him before shutting his locker and heading off to homeroom, with Amado by his side.

“It’s going to be really really romantic,” Amado said, “but I have to go, do not want to be late. I will see you then.”

“See ya,” Collin said as Amado turned and started down the hall in the opposite direction.

The rest of the day was uneventful, Collin found a ton of valentines from “secret admirers” in his lockers and on his desk in various classes. At lunch the more brave people went right up to him and gave him things like cute paper heart and chocolates.

“Wow, you got more than me,” Harriette said, eyeing the rapidly growing pile next to Collin.

Collin just shrugged.

Ella was looking spectacularly bitter that day at lunch, she didn’t say much and eyed everyone who came by their table to give Harriette or Collin valentines with such disdain. Collin wondered what was wrong, and after lunch while Harriette went off with Mariah on their way to math class Collin followed Ella out of the cafeteria.

“Hey, you okay?” he asked.

Ella stopped walking and eyed him, biting her lip.

”It’s Valentine's day, I’m single,” Ella said as if that explained everything.

Collin nodded, “sorry. But you know, it’s not all about having a date.”

Ella just laughed and continued walking.

“Hey, don’t let it bother you,” Collin said, walking beside her, “it’s not worth it.”

Ella stopped again and stared at Collin, “maybe, I guess. But it sucks. It’s worse that I haven’t gotten a single stupid valentine from anyone. Well other than my mom who got me an ridiculously expensive perfume and a store bought card.”

Collin frowned, “that sucks.”

Ella smiled a bit, “exactly.”

Just then the last bell rang and Collin winced, realising he’d be late to his next class.

“I gotta go,” Collin said, “and you do to, so I’ll see you later.”

“Alright, see ya,” Ella said.

Collin liked to think she looked a little bit more upbeat as she walked away, just a little.

---

Finally school was over, Harriette had been counting down the seconds all day. Lunch was miserable, with Ella acting extra bitter and Mariah overcompensating for ella’s bitterness with her sugary sweetness. All of Collin’s valentines....

But school was over and that was the past and now she had a “date” with Collin and she was overjoyed that Collin still wanted to do something with her. And that he got her a valentines gift.

Things weren’t so bad.

They walked together to the bakery/deli/cafe as Collin told her about his day.

“And I swear Amado was stalking me, he kept appearing everywhere,” Collin laughed, “just to remind me to be excited for tonight.”

“I would be scared if I had to be reminded to be excited for a date,” Harriette teased.

“Oh, trust me, I am,” Collin joked.

Harriette laughed loving the warm feeling of just being with Collin.

Once at the cafe they got their sweets, cream puffs for both of them and a milkshake for Harriette and a iced coffee for Collin, and took a seat.

“Mmmm,” Harriette said after taking a sip of her delicious milkshake. The milkshakes there were to die for, and the the special red velvet flavor for Valentine’s day was her favorite.

After talking a bit and eating the delectable cream puffs Harriette noticed it was almost already time for Collin’s date.

“Oh, I guess I better give you my gift,” she said, getting the box of chocolates and the paper heart she made for him from her bag.

“I hope you like them,” she said as she passed the gifts to Collin.

Collin read the note on the heart and peeked inside the box, smiling, “I love it. I can’t wait to devour all of these.”

“Don’t eat it too fast, or you’ll get sick,” Harriette mimicked her mom.

“I’ll try,” Collin said, “but I don’t know if I can help it.”

Harriette laughed.

“Okay, my turn,” Collin said. He reached into his bag and handed Harriette the gifts, a lollipop bouquet from her favorite candy store, a tradition, and a beautiful watercolor portrait of her in a pretty blue frame.

“Wow, it’s beautiful,” Harriette grinned, she really loved it when he drew her. It made her feel special.

“You like it?” Collin asked.

“More than like it, I love it,” Harriette said, grinning ear to ear.

“I’m so glad,” Collin said.

Harriette was too. So glad.

“Oh, I gotta go,” Collin said, frowning as he checked his phone, “but thanks for the valentines, I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah, see ya,” Harriette said.

They both got up and after throwing away their trash and a hug they split up, Collin to Amado’s house where Amado had told him to meet him and Harriette back home where she was planning to spend the rest of her Valentine’s day skyping with Fedora, her equally lonely best friend.

And she didn’t feel a bit pathetic about it at all, just happy.

Kinda Sorta

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Ella was fuming mad, and admittedly totally embarrassed. Why? Because she had finally put two and two together and realised that Collin kind of sort of had a boyfriend, and kinda sorta had a boyfriend since November.

Thing’s had been going so good for Ella. Collin had loved her gift, and Ella even saw him looking through it a couple time during lunch. Then Ella had an amazing winter break at the same ski lodge that Collin’s family went to, she even caught him alone a couple of times and hung out with him one on one.

Like the time when she woke up and Mariah had disappeared and she figured that Mariah had went down to the cafe and was getting herself some breakfast so that’s where Ella went too. But of course Ella wasn’t stupid, she wasn’t gonna leave her room without getting ready a little bit. So after fixing her hair and putting on her “natural makeup” she went downstairs, presumably to join her sister. Whos he found instead, to her pleasant surprised, was Collin sitting in one of the comfy chairs in the corner drawing. Alone.

She almost jumped up and down and squealed, but she controlled herself and manage dot get herself a muffin and coffee before heading over to him looking as composed as she could.

“What brings you here?” She asked as she took a seat next to him. Collin and his family had their own cabin away from the lodge, so she hadn’t seen him around here very much.

“Oh, hey, Ella,” Collin said looking up from his paper, “What was that?”

“Oh, sorry, what brings you here?” Ella asked again, feeling her face flush.

“I wanted to try drawing the cafe,” Collin said, looking around the cafe, “it’s not easy.”

“Oh?” Ella inquired.

“Yeah,” Collin said, looking back at Ella, “lots of people and stuff. What do you highlight and what do you just keep out of it.”

Ella nodded slowly, amazing by him as always.

“How are you doing?” Collin asked.

“Oh, me? Good,” Ella said, “been skiing. How about you? Do you like skiing?”

Collin frowned a bit, “A little bit. Not as much as some people, I don’t like the cold and the snow.”

Ella nodded, “I understand that. My parent’s really just bring us here because everyone else does. We’re going back home before New years, got a big party planned.”

Ella bit he rlip, then stopped thinking it might look weird, had she said too much? Had she rambled a bit? Hopefully not and if Collin was annoyed he didn’t show it he just smiled and said “we always celebrate new years at home too.”

Ella was momentarily silenced by his gorgeous smile.

“I better go, Harriette’s probably awake now,” Collin said, glancing at his watch.

“Ella,” Ella said, trying to to show how disappointed she was, “I guess I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah,” Collin said, standing up, “see you around.”

And with one last gorgeous smile sent her way he walked across the cafe, stopping to toss something in the trash before heading out the door.

After that Ella was convinced it was only a matter of time before they fell in love and started dating. She was convinced that 2014 was her year, well her and Collin’s year. Anr as they counted down to the new year with all of their old school friends Ella kept a solid image of Collin in her head, her only resolution. Well, that and of course raising even higher on the popularity totem pole.

But then Mariah kinda sorta forgot to fill her in on Collin’s relationship status.

It had become painfully obvious when walking through the hallways that first day back to school she passed Collin standing at his locker awfully close to this weird looking hispanic guy. She had literally stopped in her tracks feeling the full force of how stupid she had been.

And when she told Mariah later all she did was laugh and say “so you finally figured it out?”

She was going to kill Mariah.

“You helped me pick out that gift for him,” Ella continued, Mariah just sitting on the couch painting her nails. “You must have known I was gonna embarrass myself! I am so embarrassed.”

“He probably didn’t even notice,” Mariah shrugged, “calm down, it’s not that bad.”

Ella glared at her sister, “you can talk when you find out the boy you’ve been crushing on is gay and totally in a relationship!”

Mariah gave her sister a overly sympathetic look, “I’m sorry, sis. But you have to calm down, it’s not a big deal. As I said, I don’t think he’s the type to pick up on people hitting on him.”

Ella stopped pacing and stared at Mariah, she had a point. He was kind of clueless. Ella smiled a little, “you really don’t think her noticed?”

Mariah nodded earnestly.

Ella collapsed dramatically onto the big comfy chair her dad always sat in. She wrinkled her nose, it always smelled really bad for some reason. She pushed herself off the chair and sat on the couch next to Mariah.

“What color is that?” Ella asked, watching her sister paint her nails a light creamy pink color.

“Blushing Poppies,” Mariah said, “I found it on my dresser this morning, must be from mom.”

Ella nodded, their mom was always leaving little gifts on their dressers or just around the house for them, probably to make up for the fact that she was always off somewhere exotic for “business meetings”.

“I like it,” Ella said, “it’s totally your color.”

Mariah nodded, “right?”

Ella watched Mariah blow lightly on her nails.

“So you’re done with you melt down?” Mariah asked.

Ella groaned and got up, “I’m gonna take a bath.”

Mariah shrugged, “have fun.”

Ella nodded and went up to her room to prepare for the said bath. Ella didn’t like showing emotions, well other than anger. So whenever she felt anything other than Anger she transferred the feelings into anger, which wasn’t exactly healthy she was aware but better than sobbing everywhere.

The thing is she actually really liked Collin, she had spent the last four months obsessing over him and now she had to move on and get over it and that wasn’t exactly easy. Honestly, she was kind of hurt, why didn’t anyone tell her. She had made it kind of obvious that she liked collin and not a single person filled her in on the fact that he would never like her back. She had to find out the hard way.

Yes, a bath was exactly what she needed.

BOOKSTORE GIFT SHOPPING?

Mariah absentmindedly flipped through some fashion magazine at the bookstore Ella had dragged her to, but she wasn’t paying attention to the magazine. She was watching her twin sister pull out books at random, reading the inside flap then putting them back with a shake of her head.

Mariah couldn’t figure out whether Ella was blind or just so madly in love she didn't realize that Collin was kind of gay.

Because he was the reason they were here instead of at the mall where Mariah would like to be because she had to pick out some gifts herself, but Ella had said that Collin seemed too intelligent to want some lame thing from the mall.

“He probably reads Shakespeare on his free time,” Ella had said.

She had continued to explain that she had to get him something special for Christmas, “so he’ll finally notice me,” her words.”

Mariah didn’t know what Ella expected from him, they had been sitting at his table for months now and had complete conversations with him. Wasn’t that noticing her enough? It’s not like he didn’t know she existed. But Mariah knew what she’d say to that, something along the lines of “I want him to notice me as a girl.” I’m sure you can see the irony there.

“Do you think he likes poetry?” Ella asked Mariah, breaking her from her thoughts.

“Probably,” Mariah said, “He is an artist.”

“What about art and poetry?” Ella asked. Mariah started to reply but Ella had already moved on to another section, full of art books Mariah guessed.

Mariah sighed and put down the magazine. She followed Ella over to the other books and watched as Ella continued to pick through the books there. The books in this section were big books full of art and Mariah had to admit this was probably a better idea than some boring Shakespeare.

“Do you think he likes abstract or realist?” Ella asked.

“I’m not the expert,” Mariah said.

Ella huffed and pulled out a book full of portraits and flipped through it.

“He draws realistic stuff,” she said, “I’ve seen some of his portraits of Harriette in her room.”

“Yeah, and he’s good,” Mariah said.

“No duh,” Ella said, then waved a big book with a sketch of someone's face on the cover, “I’m getting this, it sound interesting. The artist drew a portrait of random people on the street, once every day of the year.”

“That does sound interesting,” Mariah said.

“Well it’s not for you,” Ella said, “come on let’s get out of here, I want a latte.”

“Alright,” Mariah said, thinking she could get get a start on her shopping at the deli. She wanted to buy a gift card for Ella, since she was addicted to their lattes.

“I still can’t believe I went through my whole life not having one of these lattes,” Ella said as they left for the cafe after buying the book.

And I still can’t believe she dragged me to this bookstore to buy a “special present” for a gay guy to “notice her as a girl”.

Just a bunch of stuff about Popularity

A week into the new school year Harriette found herself with two candidates for her new friend. Ella and Mariah, they were twins just like her and Collin, and they were very pretty, seemed to be very nice and not too obsessed with popularity.

So one day Harriette invited them to sit with her at lunch and of course the graciously accepted.

“Tamarai, this is Ella and Mariah, the girl’s I told you about,” Harriette said as they sat down at the table.

“Hi,” Tamarai said, with a bright smile. Harriette was proud of her, when Harriette had first told her about Ella and Mariah Tamarai had frowned and yet again went on about how she should forgive DaeRi. Honestly Harriette was getting tired of talking about DaeRi with Tamarai. She hoped that her new friends would show Tamarai that she was serious about not forgiving DaeRi.

“Hello,” Ella said, “Nice to finally meet you.”

“Same,” Tamarai said, but Harriette could tell she didn’t mean it..

--

Earlier that morning Tamarai was talking on the phone with DaeRi as she got ready. DaeRi was still mad at her for not talking to her at school, but she needed someone to vent to.

“It’s been a week!” DaeRi said through the phone.

“I know,” Tamarai said, “I really thought she would forgive you, but now I’m not sure. She say’s she’s gonna invite some new girls to sit with us.”

“No, no, no,” DaeRi said, “This cannot be happening, already replacing me?”

“Sorry,” Tamarai said.

“I always dreamed about my senior year and now it’s ruined,” DaeRi said, she said this almost every time they talked.

Tamarai herself wished she could focus on the fact that it was her senior year and enjoy it, but with all this drama between DaeRi and Harriette it felt like she couldn’t enjoy it. She just wanted Harriette to forgive DaeRi so they could get on with their lives.

But now since it didn’t look like that would happen she just wanted DaeRi to stop caring, but that wasn’t gonna happen either.

Her year was looking very bleak.

--

After the first days things got easier for Shae. Everyday she met up with Mariah at their lockers and Mariah would ask how her day went and how her sister was. Then they would walk to homeroom together, sit together and talk some more. It was easy talking to Mariah because Shae didn’t really have to say anything, there was no silence because Mariah talked a lot. Kind of like Matt.

Speaking of Matt she only saw him once after the first day, he was with his drama friends, as always, in the cafeteria during lunch, which was the only thing they shared. At the time he had waved to her and she, being unprepared, simply ignored him and went to her table.

He didn’t wave at her again.

The first week Shae sat with Ella and Mariah at lunch, and listened as Ella talked about her encounters with Harriette. Harriette was the most popular girl in school, everyone loved her. Especially Ella, who seemed to worship her.

“Today we talked about shopping,” Ella would say, “She totally shops at the same stores I do!”

Shae didn’t know how she felt about Ella.

Not that she had to worry, because a week later they were sitting with Harriette and she was sitting alone. She hoped that Matt didn’t see her pitifully reading during lunch all alone. At least when she was with Ella and Mariah it looked like she had friends.

Mariah apologized to Shae profusely the day after they sat with Harriette.

“She invited us, and we couldn’t say no,” Mariah explained.

“It’s okay, really,” Shae said, though she didn’t understand why they couldn’t give her the heads up before lunch when she saw for herself that her only two friends had ditched her.

“Maybe she’ll let you sit with us too,” Mariah said.

Shae doubted that, and she wasn’t quite sure if she wanted to sit with them anyway. Sitting with Harriette meant everyone looked at you, it meant  a crowd of people listening to your every word.

It was weird actually that being popular made you so important.

---

DaeRi hated that she had to sit at a table all alone outside of the Popular circle. It was painful to watch everyone pass her, giving her looks full of sympathy or disdain. But no one sat with her.

She really had believed that Harriette would forgive her quickly but after a week of sitting alone at lunch DaeRi realised she really needed to take action. First step was finding new friends, make it seem like she was moving on.

So at lunch she watched the people pass her and wondered who was fit for her, and that’s when she saw the inseparable Heather and Tracy. It wasn’t a secret that they wanted to be popular, they sat on the outside of the popular circle but acted like it was the center. No one liked them much ever since Heather spread a rumour about Harriette a few years ago.

DaeRi thought they seemed good for her, they wanted to be popular like her and they hurt Harriette in some way, like DaeRi had. But maybe it wasn’t the best idea to befriend other outcasts.

But would anyone else give her a chance? Probably not.

So she picked up her lunch and moved to their tables, which they shared with the Drama Geeks. They weren’t drama geeks at all but they always sat with them at lunch for some reason.

Everyone stared at DaeRi as she sat down.

“Hi,” DaeRi said, ignoring the drama geeks and directing her “hi” at Tracy and Heather.

“Uhm, hey?” Heather said. Tracy just stared.

“It’s okay if I sit here, right?” DaeRi asked.

Heather laughed, “sure. If you think we’re popular enough for you.”

DaeRi resisted the urge to pick up her lunch and leave, or throw it at Heather, and smiled.

“Gosh, I don’t think I’m popular enough for myself,” DaeRi said, she didn’t even know what she meant by that  but it sounded right in her head.

Tracy shrugged and Heather stared at her, obviously confused.

DaeRi was second guessing her choice.

“Look, I’m not gonna sit by myself for my whole senior year, okay?” DaeRi said.

“Whatever,” Tracy said, “Sit wherever you like.”

Heather nodded then took out her phone and started looking through it. Completely ignoring DaeRi.

DaeRi sighed, this wasn’t working. These girls wanted nothing to do with her. She couldn’t believe these loser girls were acting like they could be picky about their friends.

She contemplated her other choices, sitting alone or finding someone else. She looked around the cafeteria. Lexi and Honey were probably stupid enough to let her sit with them. But Lexi was at the beach party and was one of the unfriendly faces after DaeRi’s scene.

DaeRi couldn’t believe that this was her life now. Last year anyone would have wanted her to sit with her.

She couldn’t believe it, but she wouldn’t be surprised if Tracy and Heather were higher on the popularity scale than her.

---

Back at the popular table Harriette was telling Ella and Mariah about how Collin had entered a piece of art in “an art thing” and won first place. She told everyone she saw this, she was very proud of him.

Ella couldn’t keep her eyes off of Collin, after only a week of knowing him she was sure she was in love with him. His gorgeous deep blue eyes, his perfect lips, slightly chubby cheeks that made him look so much younger than he was. Ella was convince he was perfect.  And it didn’t help that he was so genuinely nice to everyone.

And as Harriette told them about his win he was blushing and shrugging it off as if it was nothing, so he was modest too. But all Ella could think was that he was so cute when he blushed.

Every time he even glanced her way she felt her heart explode. She was in deep.

“That’s amazing,” she said, which earned her  a shy smile from Collin. She almost fainted.

Harriette was silent for a while, and Ella didn’t catch the look she was giving her because her eyes were glued on Collin who was now looking at Harriette with a confused looked on his face.  He was so cute.

“So what do you guys do?” Harriette said, sounding oddly flat.

“We dance,” Mariah said.

“Oh, really?” Harriette said, “What kind?”

“Ballet,” Mariah said. Ella watched Collin’s face for a reaction but he was still staring at Harriette.

“Yeah, we’ve been dancing since we were four,” Ella said, still watching Collin. Again no reaction.

“Oh, cute,” Harriette said. “My friend once tried ballet, but it wasn’t her thing. She’s done just about every type of dance, she liked hip hop and jazz the best.”

“Nice,” Mariah said, “Does she go here?”

“Nah, she’s in her second year of college,” Harriette said, “at Harvard.”

“Oh, wow,” Mariah said.

“Yep, she’s very smart,” Harriette said, “She was valedictorian.”

“How come she danced so much and isn’t actually pursuing it?”  Ella said, finally taking her eyes off of Collin and looking at Harriette. She was taken aback again by how similar they looked, they had the same eyes, the same lips, the same chubby cheeks. But somehow Harriette looked like a girl and Collin looked like a boy.

Harriette shrugged, “She wanted to be a lawyer.”

“That’s nice,” Mariah said.

“What do you want to be?” Ella asked.

Harriette frowned, “I’m not sure.”

“Oh,” Ella said, “isn’t it around the time you figure that out, junior year?”

Harriette shrugged and looked at Collin as if asking him for help, “I don’t know.”

“Not everyone knows what they want to do at the same time,” Collin said, “And anyway, she still has a whole year to decide before applying to college. That is if she decides to go to college right after school.”

Ella nodded, his voice was so smooth.

Harriette was beaming at Collin and Ella wondered why the girl was so obsessed with her brother. She’s not nearly that obsessed with Mariah, so it’s not just that they’re twins.

“Speaking of what we do,” Ella said slowly, “What do you do?”

“I cheer,” Harriette said.

“Oh,” Ella said, Trying not to laugh. Of course the most popular girl was a cheerleader, what else could she be?

“That’s nice,” Mariah said. Ella had to admit, she wished she could be as nice as her sister, Mariah always had something nice to say.

“Yeah, IDK if i’m gonna do it this year though,” Harriette said, “But it’s kind of expected of me isn’t it?”

“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do,” Collin said.

“Of course,” Harriette said.

“I understand,” Ella said, “The pressure of being popular.”

“Oh?” Harriette said, “Were you popular at your old school?”

“Oh, of course,” Ella said, “We had so many friends.”

“Why’d you leave?” Harriette said, looking genuinely confused.

“All girl private school, boring,” Ella said, dragging out the word boring.

“But why would you leave all your friends?” Harriette asked.

“That’s what I asked her,” Mariah said.

“Oh,” Harriette said, “so she made the decision on her own.”

“Just because we’re twins doesn't mean we have to do everything together,” Ella said, “She made the choice to follow me completely on her own.”

Mariah shrugged, “I guess, I just didn't want to leave Ella. She’s my best friend.”

Harriette grinned, “Of course. That’s sweet.”

Ella frowned, why did everyone always think Mariah was so sweet. Okay, Ella knew why, because Mariah was so sweet.  But still people always seemed to like her better. Ella happened to know that their friends always talked about her behind her back. They said she was too shallow. And fake. Which was the worst, every time she did something “sweet” they all called her fake. Like what did they want from her?

Then the bell rang and Harriette looked all upset to have to go to class and Ella wondered if Harriette was fake.

No, Harriette always looked so genuine.

But she could have been a good actor.