How To Be A Perfect Girl (16 page)

“I’m sure he’s used to it by now,” Alex
replied, “But if you’re really down about it, I can think of a way
to cheer you up.”

“Oh, how would you do that?”

Alex grinned, “I’m thinking you and I
getting wet and dirty, and taking all our clothes off because we’re
definitely gonna need a shower after.”

Val threw the boy a look of disbelief, “Oh
my gosh. No!”

“I was talking about playing a game of
soccer,” Alex laughed, “I thought you were into that. What did you
think I meant?” Logan, Steven, and Grant laughed too.

Val’s cheeks filled with color, “Nevermind.
I should be getting home anyway. I’m grounded.”

“Alright.” As Val walked away from the
table, he called after her, “That offer’s staying on the table, if
you ever want to take me up on it!”

Chapter 12

“So Mom, I know you said that I’m not
allowed to go to soccer tryouts—“ Val gave Mom her best pleading
look, “But I would just die if I didn’t get to at least try
out.”

Mom looked up from the kitchen counter,
where she’d been cutting the crust off of a pair of sandwiches, “I
understand darling.” She sighed, “I’ll talk to your father about
that, and today you can go to the tryouts. I don’t think you should
have to lose your chance to make the team because of one
mistake.”

“Thank you!” Val beamed. She hugged Mom, who
returned the gesture.

“You’re welcome. By the way, I called a car
service to take you to school this morning.”

Val groaned, “Why can’t Dad take me?”

“He could. But we spoke last night, and
decided that it would be easier to just save the time and hassle.
It’s not like we don’t have enough money,” she laughed.

Is this what normal rich
people do?
Joke about how much money they
have?
“Ok. When is the—person supposed to
be here?”

“Six forty-five. So you have a few
minutes.”

Val spent the time texting her friends who
were already awake; she had discovered that Alex responded to texts
at any time of day. Mom looked up when Val giggled a couple of
times at his messages, but said nothing.

Six forty-five came; Mom handed Val a blue
lunch bag, “Have a great day honey! Do well in tryouts!” She kissed
Val on the cheek and checked to make sure the driver was there.

Val opened the front door; sure enough there
was a black car parked in their driveway. “Thanks!” she waved
goodbye and got in the backseat.

It was a strange experience riding to school
in a car that wasn’t her father’s. Val was used to chatting with
him the whole ride, but felt awkward trying to converse with a
stranger. Instead, she focused on her phone.

Val was one of the first students to arrive
at her first hour class. Alex was playing some game on his phone;
he looked up when Val sat in her chair beside his, “Hello. You
never replied to my last text.”

“It’s only been a couple minutes,” Val
defended, “Plus, what was I supposed to respond to that?”

Alex shrugged, “I don’t know. You could have
just said like ‘k’ or something.”

“Yeah, but that would have ended the
conversation.”

“Fair enough.”

“It was a really strange text too,” Val
laughed, “Like can you imagine what someone would think if they saw
it out of context.”

Alex feigned fear, “They’d think I’d gone
crazy. But at least it made you laugh.”

Val nodded, “True.”

Alex smirked, “Well, you know what they say.
If you can make a girl laugh, you have a chance—“

Val cut him off, “Of getting her to do your
homework. You already made that joke.”

“Oh yeah, I guess I forgot.” Alex smiled,
“The good news is that I’ve got plenty more.”

Val was about to respond when Miss Stevens
launched into the day’s lesson; she shifted her attention to the
teacher. The lesson of the day was about something called
‘factoring’. Basically, it involved rewriting an equation in a
certain way that didn’t actually make it easier to understand at
all—Val didn’t get its purpose.

Miss Stevens handed out some in-class work
with ten minutes to go. Alex ignored it completely, “So how’s it
feel to be the freshman class president?” he asked.

“Huh?” Val looked up from the first problem;
Carrie was working frantically, as if her life depended on
finishing the worksheet before anyone else.

“Well I mean, you obviously have it in the
bag,” Alex said, “So how’s it feel?”

“Uh, I dunno. Not really any different.”

“But aren’t you excited that you’ll get to
work directly with the head bitch of the school?” Alex asked,
smirking.

“Language!” Miss Stevens had moved closer
while they were both talking; she closed the gap and leaned in to
speak to their group. While looking directly at Val she said, “You
guys should get to work on the in-class problems. Especially you,
Miss Hunter. I’m worried about how you’re going to do on the first
exam, looking at your homework.”

Val gulped; she hated being called out, and
having a teacher do it in front of her friends made the situation
even worse. She flushed and started working on the assigned
problems. Miss Stevens nodded, apparently satisfied, and left to
answer another student’s question.

“Yes Val, we really need to review your
priorities,” Alex joked, “I mean, you’ve already missed this class
once, and we’re not even through the first two weeks yet. You could
probably use some extra time with our study group.”

Val shook her head without looking up, “My
parents said I’m not allowed to study with our ‘study group’ until
I apologize to Jenny—for what happened on Monday.”

“How long is that gonna be?”

“
I don’t know. Miss Young
didn’t mention when her suspension was over.”

“Oh, okay. But you can still hang out with
friends, right?”

“I don’t think so—I think I’m pretty much
grounded. I had to beg my mom just to let me try out for soccer
today.”

“That sucks. So—“ he was cut off by Miss
Stevens, who had retaken her position at the head of the
classroom.

“There’s only about a minute left of class,
so I suppose we don’t really have time to discuss these problems.
We will tomorrow though. When the bell rings, you can go.”

Val said a quick goodbye to her tablemates,
and put away her class materials. When the bell rang, she walked
out into the hallway to head for Geography.

A boy she didn’t recognize nodded in
greeting, “What’s up?”

“Um, hey,” Val replied
awkwardly.
Do I know you?

“Hey! I’m Colin—from Student Gov. I gave a
speech yesterday; it wasn’t as memorable as yours though,” he
smiled kindly.

Val laughed, “Yeah, one of my friends just
told me to be honest, so that’s what I did.”

“Well, it worked. Funniest candidacy speech
I’ve ever heard, and I’ve been in Student Gov for three years.”

“Thanks.”

“Sure thing. See you around.” Colin left,
and Val walked to the end of the hall, where her Geography class
was about to start. She walked in just as the bell rang; “You’re
late,” Mr. Andrews announced.

“I am? But I got here before the bell,” Val
argued.

“The rule is you have to be in your seat by
the bell, not just in the room. I’ll let it slide this time.”

“Oh, uh, thank you.” Val fell into her
seat.

“You’re welcome.”

The next few hours were somewhat uneventful;
a couple more upperclassmen greeted Val on her way from Geography
to Italian, praising her candidacy speech. As the final bell rang,
Val was amazed at how quickly the day had rushed by.

It was the last day of Student Gov before
the clubs would resume their normal schedule; once officers were
announced, Val gathered that they would return to more mundane
tasks.

Avery wasted no time in hushing everyone,
once the majority of them had found their usual seats. Val looked
over at Aiden and gave him a thumbs up, feeling bad about the day
before; he didn’t respond.

“Since we gave speeches from oldest to
youngest, it’s only fitting that I announce winners in the reverse
order. Let’s start with the freshmen: class president—“ Val’s heart
pounded in her chest, “—Valentina Hunter.”

There was polite applause, as well as a
wolf-whistle from Alex; Val beamed.

“If you would please stand up,” Avery
prompted. Val stood, and there were a couple of cheers as people
recognized her.

Declaring the other officers took about a
half hour; Val barely paid attention, excited as she was by her
victory. Avery announced that she had won the school presidency
position (which didn’t seem to surprise anyone), and that Colin
would be the Junior class president. “Now, those of you who didn’t
get a position, there’s no need to worry; you still have a role to
fill. We’ll talk more about that next time, though. For now, if I
could have the other class presidents meet me out in the hall for a
brief moment. Everyone else is dismissed.” She stepped out of
sight.

Val moved to follow, and she was joined by
Colin and a sophomore she didn’t recognize. The girl was pretty,
even if she did wear too much makeup; she went on ahead of Val and
Colin, as the two matched pace to talk.

Colin clapped Val on the back, “So how’s it
feel?”

Val shrugged, “I could ask you the same
question.”

“Yeah, but I’ve been class president before.
This is your first time.”

“I was president of my entire middle
school,” Val bragged, “But still, it was nice. Believe it or not, I
was still worried I might lose, even though Aiden was the only one
opposing me.”

Colin smiled, “I believe it. Heck, I could
run unopposed and I’d be worried I might lose—the politics in this
school can be crazy.” They cut off their conversation as they
reached the alcove where Avery and the other girl were waiting.

“Colin, freshman,” Avery
greeted. Val almost protested the epithet, but thought better of
it—
probably best not to annoy the soccer
captain right before I try out for her team
. Avery continued, “As class leaders, you exemplify the very
best Palm Lake has to offer. Throughout the year, you’ll be
responsible for various duties. In addition to any classwork and
other extracurricular activities, you each must complete no fewer
than thirty hours of community service. You will also be
responsible for leading your class in any assemblies.”

They all nodded.
Yeah, I get it, I read the flyer,
Val thought. Avery looked at her and scowled
before resuming her speech, “As long as you all understand what
your duties are, we’ll be just fine. Don’t hesitate to come to me
if you need anything; I’ll be happy to hear suggestions or offer
advice,” the way she said it made it clear that nothing would make
her less happy. “Anyway, that’s all I have prepared. Allow me to
just ask for your phone numbers—and if you’d be so kind as to
exchange them amongst yourselves too—and then we can all be done
for the day.”

They did, and Avery headed to the girls’
locker room while Colin, Val and the sophomore class president—she
entered herself into Val’s phone as Savannah Fox—shared their
numbers with each other.

“Wow, three beautiful girls’ number at
once,” Colin joked, “Must be my lucky day.”

Val laughed, but Savannah seemed to take
offense; “You’d better not use that for anything other than Student
Gov business,” the sophomore warned.

“Oh don’t worry,” Colin shot back, “You’re
not my type anyway.”

Savannah huffed and stormed off. Val frowned
at Colin, “That was mean.”

The junior shrugged, “Yeah, but she was mean
first. It’s not like I’m so desperate I need to use Student Gov as
an alley to meet girls.”

Val shook her head, “You still shouldn’t
have been mean back. Just because someone’s mean to you doesn’t
give you an excuse—“

“Oh, doesn’t it? That’s the golden rule,
right? ‘Don’t do unto others what you wouldn’t like done unto
you’?”

Val wasn’t sure if he was
being serious;
no point in arguing it even
if he is.
She just shrugged, “Well, I
don’t wanna be late to soccer tryouts. See you around!” She charted
a course toward the locker room.

“Have a nice Columbus Day!” Colin yelled
after her.

“It’s Columbus Day?”

Colin laughed, “Nope, but I like to use
unusual farewells. Helps people remember me.”

The joke elicited a small laugh from Val as
well, “Uh, okay then. Bye!”

Avery wasn’t in the locker room by the time
Val got there, but a few other girls were; Val didn’t know any of
them. Some pulled on jerseys from past years, marking them as team
members; the rest, like Val, only had their regular gym clothes to
change into. Once she was finished changing, Val made her way
towards the soccer fields, which were near the football field but a
bit farther from the school.

Once it was clear there were no more
laggards still changing, Avery counted everyone there—excluding the
girls wearing jerseys. “It looks like we have about ten girls
trying out this year. And, as you can see, very few openings.” It
was true; as Val looked at the returning players, it was obvious
that they could field a full team without taking on any of the
girls trying out.

“Coach isn’t here today, so we’re going to
be running practice,” Avery gestured to herself and a couple other
older-looking girls. “Today will look like this: drills the first
half, and then we’ll split up and play a short scrimmage. Now, just
to get an idea of who’s trying out for what: how many of you want
to be goalies?” One girl raised her hand. “Middies?” Half of the
group raised their hands. “Strikers?” Val and a pair of other
freshmen raised their hands. “And defenders?” the final girl
nodded. “Well, you two can go home,” Avery said to the girl who
wanted to be a goalie and the one who was trying out for
defender.