Tiffani sighed and flopped onto the sofa in her family’s living room. This is getting insane, she thought. I need perspective on this. As though on cue, her mother stepped into the living room.

“Oh, you’re home,” her mother said. “Good. Mr. and Mrs. Williams are going to be over for dinner, and I’m going to need you and your sisters to help me cook and tidy up the house before they arrive.”

“Hey, Mom?” Tiffani said.

“What?” her mother asked, a bit impatiently.

“Did you ever have a really big fight with someone over a boy when you were in high school?”

Her mother laughed and replied, “Well, of course I did. What girl didn’t? When I was about your age, my best friend Madeline-- she thought she was so great, since she was pretty and smart-- and I had a huge fight over this boy we both liked. I think his name was George. Anyway, I found out that George really liked Madeline.”

“So, what did you do?”

Elizabeth Royale chuckled and responded, “I spread a rumor about her, saying she got drunk and made out with George’s best friend.”

“What happened after that?”

Elizabeth shrugged and replied, “We had a big fight and stopped spending time with each other. And then I met your father and decided I liked him a lot better than I liked George anyway.”

Tiffani stared at her mother. “That’s it? That’s what you did?”

“Yes, it is. Why?”

“That’s terrible!”

Elizabeth shrugged. “You’re just growing up,” she said. “Part of being a woman is having a friend one day and calling her names the next.”


“Hey, Mom?” Ophelia said, sitting beside her mother on the sofa.

Her mother set her book aside and looked over at her daughter, concerned. “What’s up, sweetie?” she asked. “Is anything wrong?”

Ophelia sighed. “This girl at my school is really mad at me. She thinks I’m trying to get her boyfriend’s attention. But the thing is, I’m not. I don’t really care about the guy one way or another, and I’m not doing anything to attract him. But she just won’t listen when I tell her that. And she’s really ticked, Mom. Seriously.”

“Wow, that’s pretty serious stuff,” Viola Foley remarked. “So, what do you think you should do about it? Have you tried talking to her?”

“Yeah, I have. Several times. But she just won’t listen. And, get this! Earlier today, she made fun of me for dating Cy. I mean, I know Cy’s not the most ‘normal’ person, but still… leave the people I care about out of this fight. You know?”

“That wasn’t a very nice thing for her to do. Do any of your teachers know what’s going on?”

“Yeah. Ms. Gibson told us off for arguing in class-- which, I’ll admit, was wrong of us-- so she knows what’s going on.”

Viola sighed. “Well, I’m not going to suggest ignoring this girl, since I know how rarely that works. Maybe you could try talking to the principal--”

“Good luck with that,” Ophelia said gloomily. “He’s ready to ship me off as soon as he hears anything about any disagreements I’m involved in.”

“Or maybe you could try staying away from the boy, you know, like showing that you’re not taking any initiative to attract him.”

“Won’t work. We have classes together and have to work together on the Clique News Crash show.”

Viola sighed. “Ophelia, tell me what kind of resolution you hope to achieve from all this.”

“I’d like us to stop fighting and to go back to getting along with each other.”

“Then tell her that.”

“Talking hasn’t worked, Mom.”

“Have you tried telling her what you want?”

“Not like that, no.”

“Try it. And if more problems crop up, let me know, and we can figure out how you can get through this.”

“I guess it’s worth a try. Thanks, Mom,” Ophelia said, giving her mother a brief hug.


Angela smiled quietly to herself, toying with the gun. Dunstan is such an idiot, he’ll never realize where it went, she thought smugly. Not until I pull it out. He’s rich; he can afford a whole gun store, if he wanted. I’m not that lucky. Those who have should give to those who do not. She hummed to herself as she carefully polished the gun.

This whole grounding thing… it’s just a minor set-back, she thought. If I do it right, no one’s ever going to catch on. And if this doesn’t convince him… well… then… I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. Mom isn’t going to make me do anything I don’t want. I will get what I want. I will. And there’s nothing she can do to stop me. Nothing.

Angela tucked the gun carefully into the very back of the drawer and covered it up. She smiled to herself and murmured, “Time to go play ‘Good Daughter’ now.”


“Did you hear?” Gideon said to S. “Charise is…” He trailed off, staring at S’s expression. It was clear that S had spent the better part of an hour crying and didn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon. “Yeah, it looks like you heard.”

“Everyone heard,” S snapped, wiping at his face. “Sheridon told me.”

“Yeah… dude, I’m really sorry,” Gideon replied, lightly patting S on the shoulder.

“Sorry?!” S choked out. “You don’t know what sorry is! You’ve always had the person you loved! When the hell have you ever had to deal with this kind of thing? Never!”

“Well, maybe if you had been more of man and told her during the God knows how many years you’ve been lusting over her, this wouldn’t be happening,” Gideon snapped. “Look, S, I really feel bad for you, but if you’re going to be a jerk, I’m going to be an even bigger jerk.” He sighed and took a breath. “Sorry. I know you’re really torn up about this, and that’s why you’re acting this way. I have no excuses.”

“I shouldn’t have snapped. It’s not your fault Charise is marrying that b*****d.”

Gideon thought for a minute or two, and then smiled a little and said, “Hey, you know… if they do go through with the wedding, in the middle of it, you can do that scene from The Graduate.”

S groaned and replied, “Gideon, that’s seriously not funny.”