The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett(6)

I also seemed to be the only person who had no friends.

Everyone else was excited about being in high school and embarking on a new journey and all that, but I was pretty depressed. Not only because no one would talk to me, but because I was starting to realize being in high school didn’t actually make you any smarter or cooler than you were in eighth grade. You were the same person, just in a new environment where you didn’t know the rules.

On the very worst day of my freshman year, I hid in the gym’s locker room during lunch period. I hadn’t expected anyone to be there. I certainly didn’t think Lizzie Lovett would be sitting on one of the benches, talking on her cell phone. But there she was.

I instantly felt awkward, like I was interrupting a private moment. Which meant the polite thing would be to turn around and leave. Except I was already halfway down the bank of lockers when I noticed her, and running away would probably have made me seem even more awkward.

So instead, I stood paralyzed in the middle of the room—which was probably the most awkward option of all.

Lizzie glanced up at me. Our eyes met. I wanted to disappear.

Instead, I forced myself to sit down on a bench and rifled through my backpack like I was looking for something.

Even if I hadn’t gone to Rush’s football games, I would have known Lizzie. Every single person at Griffin Mills High School knew who she was. And now I was the weird freshman who invaded her space and eavesdropped on her conversations.

“Well, I was planning on it,” Lizzie said into the phone. She sounded angry. I wondered who she was talking to. One of her many admirers, I guessed. They were probably fighting over something super incredibly important.

“God, Mom, I know.”

Or maybe not. It was weird to think of Lizzie Lovett doing something as ordinary as calling her mom during lunch.

“OK, fine. Yeah. OK. Love you too. Bye.”

Lizzie sighed deeply and tossed her phone into her purse. Of course she would carry a purse instead of a backpack.

I was still pretending to dig through my own bag. It suddenly seemed oversized and childish. At least it wasn’t the Alice in Wonderland backpack I’d had the previous year, the one I thought was so cool until my brother made fun of it.

“Aren’t you Rush Creely’s little sister?” Lizzie asked.

It took me a moment to realize she was talking to me. Which was pretty absurd, because Rush only has one sister.

“Uh, yeah.”

Lizzie nodded. I waited for her to say more. She didn’t. She didn’t get up to leave the locker room either.

I wondered if I should start looking through my backpack again. Or say something about Rush. Or slink away while hoping she didn’t notice.

“Sorry if I interrupted your call,” I finally said.

“You didn’t. It wasn’t, like, private or anything.”

“Oh. Cool.”

Silence again. Why wasn’t she leaving? Was she waiting for me to leave?

“What are you doing in here?” Lizzie asked.

I figured I should make up some awesome and elaborate story that explained why I was in the locker room, rifling clumsily through my backpack. The reason would be really great, and the story would make me sound cool, and then Lizzie would respect me.

“I’m sort of hiding,” I said instead.

“From what?”

“My friends.”

Lizzie shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal at all. She seemed vaguely bored. I wished she would stop looking at me, because her gaze made me feel like I was taking up all the space in the room, sucking up all the air.

I looked down at my backpack. I looked at the locker room door. I looked at Lizzie, who was still looking at me.

“I guess I kind of screwed up,” I said, because I had to say something. “My friend Amy had this thing happen…this thing with a teacher.”

“Oh my God,” Lizzie said, her face lighting up. “You’re friends with the girl who was hooking up with Mr. Kaminski?”

“Yeah. I mean, I was. Not anymore. I was sort of the one who spilled the beans.”

“Really?” Lizzie scooted down the bench closer to me.

“I didn’t mean to,” I said.

I had no intention of telling Lizzie how I’d been pretty sure I saw Mr. Kaminski on a TV show about fugitives and thought he was the guy who bombed that bridge in Pennsylvania, and how when I saw Amy getting into his car, I assumed it was because he was trying to get her to join his rebel cause and go on a suicide mission or something.

That was the only reason I’d called Amy’s mom to tell her about it. I hadn’t imagined Amy might be sleeping with him. Which, honestly, was maybe as disturbing as her becoming a suicide bomber, because Mr. Kaminski is not an attractive man.

Later, after everything got crazy and the whole school was talking about the secret relationship, Emily asked me why, if I was sure Mr. Kaminski was a terrorist, I called Amy’s mom instead of the police. Which was a really good question. One I didn’t have an answer to.

“I heard they started fooling around in, like, July or something,” Lizzie said.

“Yeah. Amy was taking this summer class. Getting ahead with her credits.”

Lizzie laughed. “And she ending up dropping out of school instead.”

“She didn’t drop out exactly. Her mom is sending her to private school.”