Happiness by Vogue
I walked down the hall to go home. I bumped into Katy.
“There you are,” I said. “Katy, could you please sign my petition about conservation?”
“If I do everyone will hate me.” “Puh-lease, they already do. You know that.”
“Only because I’m friends with you,” she said and stormed off.
“Katy, wait!” But she was gone. I sighed heavily. There was no point to stay now so I trudged home.
The next day I felt guilty. I must’ve said something awful, mean, or jerky. Katy never got angry. I was still contemplating this when I got on the school plane.
I sat down and looked for Katy. Then I saw her sitting next to Nina Rich the richest girl in the school. Even her name said money. Katy and Nina were yapping about something stupid. I made a mistake.
“Hi Katy, can I come and sit with you?”
“No way Maria, I’m having fun with Nina. You never let me play with anyone, and doing that makes you a bad friend. I meant what I said yesterday.”
I looked for any signs that she was saying this to be mean or look cool, but her face was a model of sincerity. My face became hot with embarrassment. She turned away. I realized I would have to choose between friends and my obsession with petitions and the environment.
Then I asked myself, why is this hard? I’ve never really done anything so why would giving up nothing be hard. But then I realized it was because I’d spent my life in this and I didn’t want to be wrong. I also remembered others were already making a change. I wasn’t doing it for the environment, but for me. The only problem was my stupid obsession.
I then thought about Katy. I realized I had made her a social outcast. I felt so guilty. I spent the rest of the plane ride in silence.
When the plane landed at school, I got off, still in the heat of embarrassment. Katy wouldn’t even glance at me. She walked in, arm in arm with Nina. I really felt like an outcast. We walked to our first class. Of course it had to be math. I worked without thinking. I got a C. Next was writing time. I wanted to write a story called The Worst Day Of My Life. Ironically we had to write The Best Day Ever. I felt my life was ironic.
I couldn’t think of anything, so I took out my cheating pen. I’d invented it, and no one knew I had it. I secretly invented things, which really came in handy.
I didn’t have to worry about parents. I didn’t live with mine. Practically no one does. Right, back to my Cheat-A-Pen. Scribble, scribble, scribble-done. The rest of the day dragged by. I was relieved when the bell rang. I ran quickly to the plane.
“Katy, wait up,” I yelled. “I’m sorry for whatever I did.”
“Apology not accepted.”
“Please?”
“If you promise to stop writing petitions, and get rid of your dumb obsession!”
“I will, I will.”
“Good. You wanna sit with me and Nina?”
“ ‘Kay.”
“Great!” “Come before the seats are all taken.”
We walked to the seat where Nina was already sitting. She looked up from her magazine.
“Hey Katy,” she said, ignoring me.
I turned to leave since what was the point of staying? Nina obviously wouldn’t care if I left.
“Maria, where are you going?”
“Somewhere else,” I retorted un-humorously.
“But I thought you were sitting with me and Nina.”
“Was going to, but since Nina purposely ignored me, not anymore.”
“Come on Maria, Nina has no problem with you being here. Right Nina?”
“Of course, why would I?”
“Positive?”
“Yes for goodness sake!”
“Good.”
“ O.K. welcome to the club, now to business.”
“Huh?”
“We’re reviewing an article in this magazine.”
“Oh.”
“Did I ever tell you about when I went to planet Xandrion?”
“No.”
“Well it was fabulous. You don’t buy products. You buy catalogs and touch a product and it materializes.” After that she yammered for a while.
Twenty minutes later we finished. The article was lame. I mean who cares that they painted this NASA spaceship green with purple polka dots. Who?
When I got home I felt better than ever before. It wasn’t happiness. More like relief. My environmental obsession had led to no sleep for weeks on end. I didn’t understand why I’d had one. It hadn’t made any sense. Now that it’s over I feel so much better.
Maybe I’m crazy, but for a second I might’ve glimpsed happiness. I’m not saying happily ever after, or going on vacation to planet Xandrion like Nina has. But close, very close.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
