Page 101

48

TEXT CHAT

Kat: I made this group chat because it’s efficient :)

Conor: Efficient for whom?

Star: Her.

Maverick: Lol.

Alessa: Kati? What is wrong?

Kat: I mean, nothing’s wrong. In fact, in my opinion, everything is right. But the school doesn’t agree and that’s backward of them.

Star: Stop prevaricating. Get on with it.

Kat: I picked a bad time, didn’t I? You’re always grouchy when you do that bleeding thing.

Star: You know the name of it.

Kat: I just didn’t want to embarrass you because there are boys here.

Star: The boys know what a period is and won’t blush. And if you didn’t want to embarrass me then you shouldn’t have brought up the bleeding thing.

Star: Now, get on with it. What have you done this time and whose arm do I need to break?

Kat: Conor, get out the hot chocolate.

Conor: It’s on hand. Now, Star’s right. Get on with it lol.

Kat: No arms need to be broken, but I may or may not have detention. It totally wasn’t my fault though.

Conor: And it was easier to tell us all at once?

Kat: Sure was. I can take initiative and can streamline efficiently.

Maverick: Are you trying to tell us you got in trouble at school or settling in for a job interview?

Alessa: What did you do?

Kat: I spat on someone.

Conor: Did they deserve it?

Alessa: Conor!

Kat: They did deserve it, Conor. Yes. I’m glad you asked that question.

Conor: Feel free to take the floor and justify your saliva landing on someone.

Alessa: Are you trying to make the rest of us look bad?

Conor: ;0) Who, me?

Star: Lol.

Maverick: What did you do, brat?

Kat: Hey, I resent the implication that I’m a brat. I was defending someone’s honor.

Conor: Whose honor?

Star: You got my attention.

Maverick: The next time she’s with us, Alessa, she’ll be even worse. These two are as bad as each other.

Kat: This kid was picking on the lunch lady in the cafeteria. He said she was on ‘minimum wage’ and that she didn’t have the right to tell him what to do.

Conor: I think we’re lucky you didn’t smack him.

Star: You spit on the kid, right? Not the lunch lady?

Kat: Star!

Star: I know you too well.

Kat: Not well enough. As if I’d spit on Mrs. Reisz. She’s so nice.

Conor: What did you spit on that belonged to the little bastard?

Alessa: They’re not going to punish her for using spit as a weapon, are they?

Maverick: I doubt it. You need to calm down, babe. I know you’re reading up on this shit but it’s just a schoolyard prank.

Alessa: Saliva transmits diseases, Maverick. You’re lucky, Katina, that you only got a detention.

Kat: I don’t think the principal likes the kid either. Even if his dad has this big business in the city and gave the school a library.

Conor: We can give them a laboratory if you want, Kat?

Kat: Oooh, is that an option? Can you upgrade the gym?

Conor: If you want.

Alessa: Is this your idea of a punishment?

Kat: Alessa! I was totally in the right.

Conor: Wouldn’t say ‘totally.’ Alessa has a point. If we encourage spit, what’s next?

Star: How about this… Kat, if you don’t work on your impulse control, the only place you can practice cartwheels is in the gym.

Kat: WHAT?! That’s so unreasonable. How am I supposed to get better?

Star: You get better at the gym.

Kat: It’s not like I can practice in a yard anymore.

Alessa: You can practice when you visit here.

Kat: But that’s every other weekend. What about every day?

Conor: We have a massive terrace.

Kat: I could fall off the side.

Conor: How could you? There are walls and glass barriers!

Star: She has a point. If there’s a way to fall off the side of a building this high, she’d discover it.

Maverick: Wait. What’s the actual punishment here? No cartwheels unless she’s in school? That doesn’t sound like much of a deterrent.

Alessa: I agree.

Kat: I was sticking up for the underdog. Isn’t that what the Green Berets taught you to do, Maverick?

Maverick: Nice try, kid.

Kat: :*

Star: They did, actually.

Maverick: I know. But that doesn’t mean she’s getting out of it. You have to stick up for the underdog without getting caught, Kati.

Alessa: JAMESON! That is not the point here. The point is you can’t go around spitting at people.

Star: Some people need to be spat on.

Maverick: I agree.

Alessa: You’re all animals.

Conor: I resent that.

Star: Okay, no cartwheels outside of the gym and no Switch for a week. How about that, Alessa?

Alessa: I think that’s as good an outcome as you’re capable of giving, Star.

Kat: That’s horrible. I was doing a nice thing!

Conor: For the lunch lady.

Star: Where did you spit on the kid, anyway?

Kat: Got him right in the eye. Teehee.

Conor: I can tell you’re stricken with guilt.

Kat: What does stricken mean?

Conor: It means plagued with it. Burdened by it.

Kat: Oh, yes. I am. Very much so. And next time, I promise I won’t get caught.

Maverick: Not that there’ll be a next time…

Kat: Right. Of course, there won’t. I’ll do better, Alessa, I swear.

Alessa: Why don’t I believe you?

Star: Because you’re a smart woman.

Alessa: Sigh. I want more than a promise of doing better, Katina. You’ve been given a wonderful opportunity at that school. I have to go through a special course just to get a general education certificate so that I can go to college.

Alessa: You’re very lucky, and if you get suspended or expelled for behaving like an animal, then think about how disrespectful it is to Star, for paying your fees, and to me, who can never have an opportunity like you’re throwing away.

Kat: I’m sorry, Lessie. 3 I never thought of it that way. I promise I won’t be reckless again. Thank you for everything. xoxoxoxoxo I’ll try to be a good girl from now on. 3

Star: And try to get that B in English up to an A, yeah? Otherwise, I’ll never hear the end of it from Savannah.

Kat: I’ll try. 3 3 3

Star: Good girl. So… five days of no Switch. ;P

Maverick: I see what you did there. Soft touch. Still, I agree.

Maverick: That’s a fitting punishment. ;)