up. âItâll be fun!â
âOkay â¦â
âAnd if we look at really old yearbooks, itâll be fun to see peopleâs crazy hair. People always had the weirdest hairstyles back in the day. Didnât they?â
âTotally. But I donât know how far back the yearbooks go. Iâll go find Mr. Singer.â I wonder if Iâll see that kid again, and if I do, I hope I remember his name.
âWho?â
âOh, the librarian. Heâs actually kind of cool.â
When I get back from looking for Mr. Singer, I realize what Iâve doneâsomething totally careless and stupid. Like an absolute total idiot, I left my cell phone on the table, just sitting there, not even with the keypad locked. The screen on my BlackBerry is bright, and on it thereâs another text from Molly.
Dina looks at the phone and then up at me and back at the phone again.
Things just went from bad to worse. Why did she have to see that?
Yeah, I donât want to be working with her, but Iâm not like Molly, someone whoâs totally fine with insulting other people. But in all fairness, even Molly didnât expect that Dina would see it.
Iâm the moron who let that happen.
âSorry,â I mumble. âItâs just Molly. She doesnât realize what she says half the time.â
âI get that you guys donât know me, and Iâm new and that automatically makes me uncool, even though I sort of thought that would make me stand out kind of in a cool way,â Dina says all in a rush, âbut what I donât get is why youâre all so weirded out with the video thing. You have a video camera on your BlackBerry right there, the one that just vibrated and insulted me.â
Sheâs pointing at my phone, and I cover my mouth because Iâm about to crack up. Dinaâs actually kind of funny sometimes. âItâs justâI donât knowâunusual, I guess.â
She nods like sheâs trying to understand what Iâm saying. She doesnât say anything for a few seconds, and then she asks, âDid you find the librarian or the yearbooks? I have to go soon, and weâve accomplished nothing.â
âIâm sorry you saw that, okay?â I say again because I donât know what else to do. And then I hear Mr. Singerâs unmistakable whistling. âIâll make it up to you, I swear. Right now, actually. Iâll get the yearbooks.â
I head over to the circulation desk, but before I can ask Mr. Singer for anything, Dina yells from across the library.
âI actually have to go,â she says. âMy mom forgot mybrother has a dentist appointment, so she needs to pick me up now. Iâll meet you here after school tomorrow.â
At least she says sheâll meet me here tomorrow. Thatâs kind of a good thing because now that I think about it, talking about the project for a few minutes was actually kind of fun. It was a little chunk of time when I wasnât thinking about things at home or worrying about my friends finding out about everything.
And I got to see that cute kid with the libary cart.
Dina doesnât wait for me to say anything back, she just leaves, her oversized mom-looking tote bag slung over her right shoulder. Thatâs what I get for offering to make it up to her, even though I didnât really say the mean thingâMolly did.
Maybe I should text Molly and tell her she shouldnât have said that, but the truth is, the only reason Iâm mad is because Dina saw it. If she hadnât seen it, it wouldnât have even fazed me.
But thatâs how I feel about everything latelyâonce itâs out in the open, itâs much, much worse.
Video tip: Use the eyes to draw emotion.
Cut on the blinks.
Even after a few days, that text message lingers in my brain. Why did I have to see it? Itâs not like I couldnât guess what they were saying. But seeing it