No Such Thing as Perfect by Sarah Daltry

it made her mad that everyone else ostracized me. That ended up being what kept us close as we got older. Although I wasn’t interesting to ostracize by high school, Abby always felt like the only person who cared.
    The following week, we were asked to read aloud from the books we were currently reading, and Kayla’s hand went up – obviously. But so did Abby’s. Miss Stephens, taken aback, called on Abby, because it was a voice she’d never heard. Kayla, shocked, slammed her book down.
    “I’m telling my parents,” she announced.
    “Kayla, you can read, too,” Miss Stephens said. “Abby’s just going to go first.”
    “I always go first,” Kayla argued.
    “Exactly, which is why we’re letting Abby go today. Everyone deserves a chance, right, Kayla?”
    As mean as Kayla was to me, she wouldn’t contradict a teacher, so she sulked while Abby read and then Hannah went and several other kids read before she had her chance. Miss Stephens didn’t falter, despite Kayla’s loud sighs and complaints from her desk right up front. By the time she got to read, it was almost recess and no one was listening anymore and I was admittedly vindicated that Kayla could experience what it felt like to have your voice not matter.
    At recess, she came over to me and Abby. We were sitting on a rock and talking about Abby’s aunt’s new puppy.
    “You’re not invited to use my pool,” Kayla declared. This was the ultimate small town punishment, and she announced it with the full force of a judge meting out a sentence. Abby looked up at her, standing over us and trying to be intimidating, although she was just another nine-year-old girl.
    “That’s okay,” she replied. “I live on the lake and it’s much bigger than your stupid pool anyway.”
    Kayla didn’t know what to say, because no one had ever declined her mom’s cookies or her pool invitations. Those were the things that made her powerful in elementary school, but Abby went back to the story of Buster, the Pomeranian, and ignored Kayla’s further attempts to establish dominance. By the time recess ended, Kayla had been dethroned, but all efforts to set up Abby in her place went ignored as well. She just wanted to tell someone a story about a dog.

23.
    N ow that winter has shown its face, there’s an unspoken transition on campus. The airiness of the first month and a half of school is replaced almost overnight with focus. Everyone shifts from making friends and creating plans to following through and giving up. It was only a few weeks ago when all the tables were out for the club fair and groups of people were listening to music, playing hackey sack, and acting as if school were an afterthought. But with the cold, the light cotton of summer gives way to tweed, and earnestness settles.
    Of course I feel like I’m lagging behind the tide, but it’s a space that’s inherent and the catchup doesn’t take as long. For me, the biggest change is the slow friendship I’m forming with Jack. Aside from his last name – Connelly – I haven’t learned much more about him, but he’s been helping with my paper and I spend my evenings studying in his room. I love the way I never have to work at anything around him, but I also worry that I’m just filling my life with him to avoid figuring out all I ever felt with Derek. I don’t want our friendship to be a replacement for something else. It’s only been two weeks since Columbus Day. It amazes me that two weeks in college can feel so much like a lifetime.
    “I have band practice tonight,” Jack says. We’re in the cafeteria, although I haven’t felt like eating much lately. I can still hear my mother talking about my weight and every bite of food makes me nauseous.
    “That’s okay. I need to finish my paper and I should go to the library. Research and stuff.”
    “Ah, yes, stuff.”
    I nod. “Stuff.”
    “Do you... do you want to do something this weekend?” he asks.
    “Like a date?” It hurts to swallow