Anything but Normal by Melody Carlson

that?
    “Sorry, but I’m serious. Are you?”
    “What?”
    “Sick.”
    “No, but thanks for caring.”
    “I do care. It’s just that Wes said you got sick in journalism.” “You talked to Wes?” Sophie peeled her eyes off of her computer screen to see that it was after ten and she still wasn’t finished.
    “Well, yeah. He told me that you’d agreed to go to the homecoming dance with him, then you got sick and ran off. Like was that a coincidence?”
    “Meaning?”
    “Meaning Wes is worried that he made you sick.”
    Despite herself, Sophie laughed. “Seriously?”
    “I told him that was ridiculous. So what happened then? Why did he think you were sick?”
    Sophie told Carrie Anne about talking to Mr. Young in his office, making it seem like the way he’d questioned her interest in being the chief editor had been upsetting. It actually seemed not only fairly clever but rather believable as well. “I just overreacted,” she said finally. “I think it was PMS.”
    “I don’t blame you for overreacting, Sophie. You’re the obvious choice for chief editor. I can’t believe he’d even question you on that.”
    “I know.”
    “I hope you stood up for yourself.”
    “That’s a little hard to do when you’re bawling.”
    “You were bawling?” Carrie Anne sounded alarmed.
    “Not in front of him. I did have the good sense to get to the restroom.”
    “Well, I’m sure you can straighten it all out with him tomorrow.”
    “Maybe.”
    “Just tell him that he hurt your feelings and that you’re the right woman for the job. I mean, journalism is, like, in your blood. He should know better.”
    Suddenly Sophie wished she hadn’t twisted the truth so much. Mostly she just wanted to change the subject before it got worse. “So, what’s up with Drew now? I told Wes that the only way I’d go to the dance with him was if we doubled with you and Drew.”
    “That must’ve been flattering. Way to boost a guy’s ego.”
    “He understood.” Sophie sighed. “But back to Drew. Did he ask you to the dance or what?”
    “As a matter of fact, he did. Because, unlike a certain best friend who shall remain unnamed, I went to youth group tonight.”
    “I told you I had to finish this project.”
    “But you’ve missed youth group for two weeks in a row, Sophie.”
    “So take away my gold star, all right?”
    “Well, you really should schedule your time better. I mean, you have most of the afternoon off, it seems like you should be able to get your homework done—”
    “I’m also on yearbook, remember?” The truth was, Sophie had skipped out on that today too. Part of her “sick” routine.
    “Whatever. Just the same, you need fellowship.”
    “I’m talking to you, right? Isn’t that fellowship?”
    “I suppose.”
    “Anyway, I’m guessing Drew was at youth group.”
    “He was. And he met me at the door and asked me straight out, which turned out to be a good thing since I think he was too embarrassed to talk to me much afterward.”
    “So the four of us are going to the dance now? It’s all settled?”
    “You make it sound like some cut-and-dried business deal. It’s a dance, Sophie. It’s supposed to be fun.”
    “Yeah, right. It’s a dance that I’ve been coerced by my best friend to go to. What fun.”
    “You seriously need to lighten up, Sophie.”
    “I seriously need to finish this opinion piece for journalism tomorrow. It’s bad enough that I made a total fool of myself and ran out of there like a baby. I really need to be able to hold my head up tomorrow.”
    “Well, you go, girl.”
    “Thanks.”
    “And thanks for telling Wes you’d go to the dance.”
    “Right. Now you owe me.”
    “I owe, I owe,” Carrie Anne sang like one of the dwarfs in Snow White , “so off to bed I go.”
    “Very cute, Dopey.”
    “Night night, Grumpy.”
    Sophie returned to her opinion piece, rereading it from the beginning and then cutting about a third of it. Tighten, tighten, tighten. Her