Cameo by Tanille Edwards Page A

was with her hair color?” I said, fishing for details. I didn’t get a chance to see her without the mask on. I wondered if Jane had noticed her hair.
    â€œShe needed a gloss, and some auburn highlights. That mousy brown look is so junior high, as if anyone has virgin hair these days.”
    So we had a match for the black turtleneck from the bedroom incident and this one involved a mask.
    Jane handed me the compact. Yeah, it was as I had suspected. I had a tile imprint on my cheek. If I thought the door knob was dirty, every germ on every shoe that had entered that bathroom was now residing on my face.
    â€œI have to go home.”
    â€œI get it. You’ve made the rounds. Talked to Jason and all.”
    I stopped dead in my tracks. Jane kept walking about ten feet before she realized I had deferred.
    â€œWhat?” She looked back at me confused.
    â€œWe are not seeing each other. No. Not even close.” I had to make that clear, otherwise I’d be in the morning text report. The day Craig and I had broken up I didn’t receive the morning text. Probably because my name was all over it. It turns out I had mysteriously deleted me from the send list. Cindy made sure to put me back on.
    We reached the top of the stairs. Carolina brushed past us. She only dreamed of appearing in the morning report. “The second bathroom on this floor stinks of D-list trash,” Carolina said.
    â€œI’d be careful who I called D-list,” Jane said.
    I just ignored Carolina. It was beyond my patience level. Though one thing was weird. Why was she referring to the second bathroom? She didn’t really have mousy brown hair. But it could’ve been a wig. Was she part of the “house” that crazy Taekwondo Girl from the bathroom represented. Taekwondo Girl knew the same moves from gym class. We must’ve had gym together. I had gym with Carolina. But, then again, so did fifty-nine other girls.
    I had a feeling that this had something to do with the very group of people I despised—the popular clique. So this “house” was made up of girls? I wondered if Jane was a member. I guess she had to be to have such a strong hold on the tabloid media. It would be weird if guys weren’t members.
    â€œI’m going to look for Cindy,” Jane said.
    â€œI think she’s upstairs with Peter.” I cleared my throat.
    â€œOh.” Jane shook her head. Then she checked her watch. “I give them five minutes,” Jane said.
    â€œThat sounds about right,” I said.
    We both looked at each other and laughed.
    The thing that got to me was that boys had the power to make a girl popular. I was a living specimen of that. So, if guys were members, why would they send a girl to rough me up? Popularity controlled by a secret society. This whole notion was completely absurd. You couldn’t be a member if you weren’t popular? Yet, you could be popular and not be a member? Uh! Look at me, I was thinking on their shallow level. This was supposed to be all behind me.
    I texted Cindy to meet us at the car and copied Jane. I walked out the door to get some fresh air. It felt like I should tell someone, but I didn’t know who that girl was or if she would be back. And this other person she spoke of … It had sounded like she was insinuating that something was looming. What could be next? My mind was racing a mile a minute. I couldn’t even complete a thought. That bathroom incident was downright jarring. I didn’t even know what to call it, but there would be another like it, I suspected. How could I stop it? Was this the type of thing you reported to the dean? What would they do? Sequester every brown-haired girl to the dean’s office for questioning? I hadn’t really been in a brawl since grade school. And at least then I knew who I was fighting and why they hated me.
    Jason rolled by in his convertible with the top down. He nodded at me and smiled.