Bright Purple: Color Me Confused with Bonus Content by Melody Carlson

ex–best friend. This is her fault. She’s the one who brought all this on. But it’s like I’m the one who’s getting tortured here. I’m the one with the friends who are turning against me. I’m the one who lost a spot on the team. I’m paying the price, but Jess is the one who’s to blame. This is so wrong. So totally wrong. And then, just as I reach the science department and I think BJ and Lauren have temporarily given up on me, a light goes on in my head. Maybe this is how Jesus felt when people picked on him. Is it possible that I’m actually being persecuted for righteousness’ sake? If that’s the case, maybe I should just keep my mouth shut and bear it.
God make me strong
, I pray as I take my seat in chemistry.
God help me
.
    This thought helps me to get through the rest of the morning, but by noon I feel slightly beat up. It seems like the whole school knows now that I quit the basketball team. Okay, that’s probably an exaggeration. But the whole team knows. And it seems like every single one of them has aimed their sites at me today. Rumors are flying fast and furious now. Mostly the arrows are targeted at my relationship with Mitch. My ex-teammates, other than Lauren, are assuming I betrayed the team just so that I could have more time to spend with my new boyfriend. yeah, right.
    “How’s it going?” Mitch asks, after he’s caught me from behind, which wasn’t much of a challenge since I was plodding toward the cafeteria as slowly as possible.
    But I’m so relieved to see him that I throw my arms around him and hug him tightly. “I’m so happy to see you!”
    He grins with surprise. “Cool. Is there any special reason you’re so happy? Or is it just due to my sweet nature and general good looks?”
    Then I give him the lowdown on my morning and how things just seem to be getting worse. I even explain the assumptions about how I quit the team because of him.
    “That’s crazy,” he says. “If anything, I’m trying to talk you into staying on the team.”
    “Tell me about it.”
    “Maybe I should tell someone else about it.”
    “You mean start some
new
rumors?”
    “Yeah, we could start all kinds of rumors. Just make up a bunch of stuff, toss it out there, and see if any of it sticks.”
    So we start joking about all the whacked-out rumors we could start, and before I know it I’m laughing. “You’re good for me, Mitch,” I tell him, but when we reach the cafeteria I stop in front of the door. I so do not want to go in there. I don’t want to see BJ or Lauren or Amy or any of them.
    “Wanna go someplace else for lunch?” he offers.
    I turn and look at him. “But it’s closed campus.”
    He gets this mischievous look. “But you can sneak out with me, if you want to. I’m officially checked out, you know, so I can take my car off the lot without getting into trouble.”
    “Yeah, maybe you can, but I might—”
    “Hey, what do you have to lose?” He grabs me by the hand. “Maybe they’ll even suspend you from the team for a couple of weeks.”
    I consider this. “Yeah. Maybe you’re right.” And so, even though I know it’s wrong, I go with him. We dash over to the parking lot, and then I actually hunch down in his car, like I really think some school official is watching, although Mitch assures me that’s not the case. “Don’t worry,” he says. “My friends and I used to sneak out for lunch all the time when we were juniors, and we never got caught.”
    Still, I stay down until he’s a block or two from school. Then I pop up and start laughing. “This is kinda fun,” I admit.
    “And from what I hear of your mom, it’s not like she’d get mad at you for something like this,” he says. “She sounds pretty understanding to me.”
    I consider this. “Yeah, she’d probably give me a little talk about how it’s my life and how the way I live it is up to me, but that I’m the one who will have to deal with the consequences. Stuff like that.”
    “But