The Holiday

My 10 step plan for fighting back;

1.       Go to school and act like nothing at all happened yesterday,

2.       Print 3 copies of my English essay, put them all in different places in my bag, put a copy on my Memory stick and place that securely in my pocket, and upload a file onto my school account so that Max cannot keep me from handing it in,

3.       Set the alarm on my Alarm clock, an alarm on my mobile phone and an alarm on my MP3 player so that I will not get up late,

4.       Find some proper evidence to blackmail Max with,

5.       Think of a way (Other than wrecking his room) to get Max back for everything that he has done to me

6.       Think of a way to exclude Kelly from everything

7.       Try and be the best friend that I can be to Macy and Brooke,

8.       Make Macy and Brooke realise what a fake Kelly really is,

9.       Find out what was going on yesterday

And the 10^th step in my plan for fighting back;

10.   Possibly the most important one - keep my friends close and my enemies closer

Well you know my plan for fighting back?  It failed miserably.  Literally �" the whole thing went terribly and it started with that stupid text message from Kelly. 

So, I woke up to the sound of two alarms.  Max had taken my main alarm clock again. Kinda lame doing the same prank 2 days in a row, but I have to say, the look on his face when I beat him to the bathroom was priceless.

Anyway, I checked my phone to find a text message from Kelly, and we had the following conversation;

Kelly: Hey xx

Yours Truly: Hey xx

Kelly: How r u?  Xx

Me: I’m fine xx u?

Kelly: I’m really happy :D xx

Me: Y?  Xx

Kelly: Becoz I just booked my holiday for the summer!  Xx

Me: Kl where r u going?  Xx

Kelly: Greece or maybe Italy dunno yet!  Xx

Me: Lucky  xx

That conversation is living proof of the sneaky b***h that Kelly is.  In year 7 I told Kelly that my parents can barely afford school, let alone holidays �" she knows that I can’t go on holiday for a while and yet she chooses to text me to boast about her holiday.  The girl is stinking rich.  Her mum is a stockbroker and her dad is a lawyer.  She goes through roughly 3 mobile phones a year.  Last year she got a mega expensive phone for Christmas, but then everybody got less expensive phones that were all the same, so she told her mum and she paid her out of her expensive contract and bought her a new phone so that she could fit in with everyone else.  She has two holidays a year, one during Christmas and one in the summer.  Where are Macy and Brooke to bore with her details?

Anyways, whatever, that conversation wasn’t what made the day suck �" the journey to suckville began at school. 

The ride to school was slow and silent and all we did was sit and listen to the radio.  As soon as I got to school I went to mine and Macy’s usual place but she wasn’t there.  I waited 10 minutes, sent her a text, got no reply from the text and so sent her another one saying that I would meet her in the classroom. 

By the time I got to the classroom, she was sitting on a desk talking with guess who?  Kelly.  She blew me off to hang out with Kelly.  After I was there for her when Kelly wasn’t and I listened to hours of her bitching about how Kelly wasn’t giving her the time of day, she forgets me like nothing.  Seriously �" like I was there for her constantly but she’s so quick to go back to following Kelly around. 

The text conversation with Kelly made me paranoid and the fact that Macy stood me up meant I was incredibly pissed off, so I didn’t even bother with the polite “Hello’s”.

“Macy, where were you yesterday?”

She tried to act dumb, like she didn’t know what I was talking about.  Sometimes her fake innocence makes my blood boil.

“Oh yeah, I went to the main hall with everyone else because I wasn’t sure what time you were coming in today, you kinda left me sitting there by myself yesterday”

See that was just unfair!  I had no choice!

“You know that my brother took my alarm clock so I woke up late!” And then I tried to be the bigger person, keep calm, just like I said I would in my plan, “But yeah, I’m sorry that I left you by yourself yesterday, I should have texted you or something”

She told me that it was okay and then I joined in with their conversation, (Well kind of joined in, I spent the most part nodding and pretending that I knew what was going on.) Then we strolled upstairs to the library (Well they strolled, I followed behind), talked for a while again (Again, I was nodding, pretending that I knew what was going on) and then went back to the classroom to talk to Brooke.

Brooke left me out as much as they did.  I tried again with the “Joining in” thing and as soon as there was a gap in the conversation, I tried to bring up a subject that someone had personally told me about,

“So, Kelly, You looking forward to your summer holiday?”

That, was where the day began to plummet downhill.  It began with Kelly flicking her hair behind her ear and beginning,

Kelly: Yeah, Sure.  Oh - that reminds me, Brooke which would you rather go to, Greece or Italy?

Brooke: I don’t mind, you’re the one paying for it!

Kelly: I know, but you’re coming to, so you better pick somewhere that you like!

Macy: You guys are so lucky!  Greece or Italy will be an amazing holiday!

Brooke: Well Macy, it’s not like you weren’t invited,

Kelly: yeah!  I mean, I invited you to come on holiday with us but you’re gonna be in Spain with your family for those 2 weeks!

Me: Wait - You guys are going on holiday together?

Kelly: (Slightly quieter while looking at her shoes) Yeah - I invited Macy and Brooke to come on holiday with me but Macy couldn’t come. 

Yup.  That’s right.  They’re going on holiday together.

You know, sometimes I wonder if anyone would really miss me if I were gone.  I spend every single day at school hanging onto my friends by a thread, one thread that could snap at any moment.  There’s nothing special about me.  I’m not funny like Brooke or perfect like Macy and I don’t have thousands of pounds to buy friends with like Kelly - I’m easily replaceable.  The one day that I’m late, the 2 years of work I’ve spent being as loyal and as witty as I can and trying to figure out my personality disappears, like nothing matters - with a click of my fingers, none of that matters. 

I don’t matter.

That was one step too far.  I’m part of this group of friends too and yet as far as Kelly’s concerned, I may as well be invisible.  I don’t particularly like Kelly, and yet whenever I have Macy and Brooke around I ALWAYS make an effort to invite Kelly and be nice to her.  Why?  Because I don’t want to hurt her feelings.

Also, if I were to not invite Kelly, there would be drama and tension and Brooke and Macy would tell me that I need to be nicer to her.  They would stick up for Kelly, but do they ever stick up for me?  Not at all.  I may as well be invisible.  If I was, nobody would notice any difference.  I know that for a fact.

Ok, maybe I’m being slightly pathetic, but I really can’t face them at school, if do, I will probably explode (Actually - I keep all of my feelings inside so technically I would probably implode).  So here I am, home alone due to illness (I’m legit sick �" but if I wasn’t I probably would’ve faked an illness anyway) and I have completely cut myself off from the outside world. 

I’m in my third day of missing school �" my mum said one more day and she’s taking me to the doctors.  My heart’s racing, head’s pounding and nose is all bunged up, but worst of all, I’ve been off of school for 3 days now, and I hadn’t had one text or phone call or email or...  I don’t know...  letter from Macy, Brooke or Kelly asking whether I’m okay, or whether I’m feeling better or where I had been for the last 3 days! 

Oooh, scratch that �" text message has just come through!

Ok.  Don’t scratch that, it’s from a random number �" not Kelly Macy or Brooke. 

Hey xx U haven’t been in skl for 3 days & nobody’s heard from u.  R u okay?  Xx Btw it’s Valerie

Amazing. 

Yh I’m fine just got a cold thnx for asking xxx

Typical.  I don’t tell anyone where I am, I disappear for 3 days, my friends don’t even text me once and yet a girl in my class who I barely talk to texts me wondering where I am.  So much for friends.