Upstander by James Preller (free ereaders .TXT) 📕

truly awesome. As an act of espionage, Mary’s mother swung by Gateway Bagels on a near-daily basis. Supposedly to “pick up a few things,” but really just to make sure Jonny was showing up for work (so far, so good). The end result was the house was fully stocked with bagels and four different flavors of cream cheese (jalapeño was most popular by a landslide, though Ernesto also had a soft spot for maple raisin walnut). Mary wasn’t complaining.

Oh, and Griffin Connelly was dead to her. I’ll never again be friends with him, she silently vowed.

Chantel had texted again, eager to get together. And even though Mary wasn’t supposed to like Chantel, she couldn’t deny the fact that, well, she did. Chantel was nice and maybe a little perfect, but she was perfect in a nice way. With Griff out of the picture, and Alexis and Chrissie away, Mary’s social life wasn’t bursting with excitement. She decided to meet up with Chantel, but making sure it was at a remote location. The fewer witnesses, the better. It wouldn’t be good if word got out.

“Do you play tennis?” Chantel asked.

“I suck, but sure—just don’t slaughter me,” Mary said.

They met at the high school courts, which were usually empty in late August. Mary actually enjoyed playing. She represented decently enough and was quick to the ball, whereas Chantel tended to stay at the baseline and power away with a heavy forehand. They didn’t keep score. After an hour, they’d worked up a sweat and sat on the bench under the shade, swigging from water bottles.

“Whoa,” Mary gasped, shaking her head. “I need to do that more often. I’m out of shape.”

“You’re good for someone who never plays,” Chantel said.

“Too many marshmallows,” Mary quipped. “I should probably start eating kale instead, then I’d kill you.”

“Yeah, right,” Chantel joked.

“How was the no-phones thing at camp?” Mary asked. “Was it hard?”

Chantel leaned back. “No, not really. The first couple of days, you reach for it out of habit, but after a while you get used to it. Honestly, I liked it. You know what? I even wrote letters.”

“Letters!” Mary joked. “What are those?”

“It’s like email with paper, strange, I know,” Chantel quipped. “I enjoyed reading them. Getting mail was special. Hakeem wrote to me—twice.”

“You guys are still—”

Chantel threw up her hands, beaming. “I don’t know what we are!”

“But you’re like … progressing?”

“Progressing,” Chantel laughed. “That sounds awful. Like a report card! No, we’re just getting to know each other. Slowly. There’s no hurry.”

“So no pics,” Mary said.

Chantel blushed. “Some, a little, but nothing, you know, exposed.”

“Good,” Mary said. “This is good.”

“But I have to tell you something,” Chantel said, leaning closer. “Promise you won’t tell.”

Mary nodded.

“I mean it,” Chantel said. “Seriously.”

“Okay, okay,” Mary said, eager to hear what might come next.

“Hakeem told me he did get a picture—from Alexis.”

“What?!”

“Yeah,” Chantel said, mouth open, eyes twinkling.

“He told you that?”

“Last night,” Chantel said.

“You got together last night?” Mary was working hard to keep up.

“We went climbing at the indoor rock gym, so much fun,” Chantel said. “Anyway, I think he was shocked. We were together, his phone dinged, and there she was—topless!”

“Get out!”

“Well, she had her arms, you know, like this”—Chantel folded her arms in an X across her chest—“so nothing showed.”

“What did Hakeem say?” Mary asked. “Were you mad?”

Chantel looked away, leaning her chin into her hand. “He says that he never asked, she just sent it out of nowhere. I told him to delete it.”

“That’s so wild,” Mary said. Her mind reeled, thinking back to Alexis’s announcement at the beach. She liked Hakeem. He was her next target. It must be true. “Are you sure you believe that Hakeem is innocent in all this? It sounds fishy.”

Chantel began packing away the tennis balls, zipping the racket into the protective case. “I know how it sounds, but I do believe him,” she said. “You had to be there, I guess. He was shocked. He didn’t try to hide it from me.”

“Are you going to say anything?” Mary asked.

Chantel laughed. “What am I going to say? Nice boobs?”

In that moment of sharing, Mary almost told Chantel to be careful. About how Chrissie and Alexis didn’t plan on being her friends anymore. She thought about Griffin, and her brother Jonny. But for some reason, Mary didn’t say a word. She kept those secrets to herself.

23[floating]

It was such a calming shade of blue-green. Soothing, peaceful. Mary drifted on an inflatable pool mattress, her head hanging facedown in the water, wearing goggles and a snorkel. She gazed deeply at the bottom of Chrissie’s pool and thought of all the names she remembered from acrylic paint tubes and other places: turquoise, olive, emerald, cadmium, mint, lime, sea foam, lagoon, teal. She settled on aquamarine, which was basically green with a bluish tint. It was the color of the pool that she was absorbing into her bloodstream through her eyes. A serenity seeping into her body. Mary had earrings that were aquamarine gemstones, a color she avoided during the gray winter months. But for August afternoons in the blistering sun? Perfection.

Chrissie and Alexis were lounging side by side, content to find themselves returned home after thirteen epic days on the Jersey Shore. Upon seeing their friend Mary again, they squeezed her tight and said all the best, gushy things—but Mary sensed the connection between the two girls was stronger than ever. They were rock-solid besties, and nothing would come between that. Their bond felt like a wall through which Mary could never pass. To her surprise, it upset Mary to feel like an outcast. It wasn’t logical, but a feeling was a feeling, not subject to notions of “right” or “wrong.” Some unspoken part of her simply wanted to belong. She’d felt sad lately and wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was just everything. So she floated on the water, letting her thoughts drift to that cruel idiot Griffin Connelly, and Chantel, and, always, Jonny.

Everyone said it was better that he was