Slave Auction

I feel my body go numb as I hear people start to whisper things around me: “Is that her?”, “Who’s Jenna Brown?”, “I think she is in my English class!”, “Shh! I think that’s her right there,” and “What a slut,”. I turn around feeling the tears sting my eyes and the burning glares pierce through me. So that’s what Harry and Louis were talking about. I push back through the crowd and find Daisy. She can tell something is wrong. “Who is the Last Girl?” I shake my head, “Daisy we need to go to my locker.” “Why-?” she sees the tears actually start to fall as another group of girls walking by cough “slut” at me. “Now,” I say, before power walking out of the courtyard and into the hallway. I lean my head against my locker taking a second to breathe. How did this happen? “What the hell happened?” Daisy asks panting. “I got the Last Girl,” I say through my tears. “You- what?” “I got the Last Girl! I’m the Last Girl!” I feel bad for shouting at her but I am just so upset. “You didn’t tell me you signed up!” “I didn’t! Someone must have signed me up as a joke! And now Jessica probably hates me because she thinks I betrayed her!” “Well let’s go find her so you can explain. She probably went to the bathroom, that’s where everyone goes to cry after the results are posted I heard.” So we check out every bathroom at the school. We found groups of girls crying and complaining at each one. As soon as they would see me walk in they would all stop whatever they were doing to glare at me. They must know who I am. That's a first. At the last bathroom we check we only hear one girl crying in it. It was the crying of a girl we had known since eighth grade. “Jessica?” I ask. She bangs open the bathroom stall, causing the gross blue door to hit against the tiled wall. “I can’t believe this happened!” “I’m sorry, Jessica, it wasn’t me! Someone must have put my name in as a joke!” I feel myself tear up again. “No one put your name in as a joke. I put your name in! I knew you wouldn’t do it with me and I really wanted you to! I didn’t want to do it alone. But I didn’t think that you would beat me and get Last Girl! I didn’t even send in that good of a picture of you,” Jessica explains. “Gee, thanks.” “Oh you still looked hot! I was that one of us on the beach.” “You mean that one where the sun is in my eyes making me squint and my face looks all greasy?” I ask. “Well, yeah, that one,” Jessica admits looking at her hands. “You sent in that terrible picture? I’m in a bikini!” “Yes and you looked really good! My picture was me at the eighth grade dance." She pauses. "Did I look fat in my dress?” “No you looked gorgeous!” Daisy yells at her. “Well something was terribly wrong with it because she beat me!” Jessica yells back, pointing at me. “Why didn’t you sign Daisy up?” “Because I’m more afraid of Daisy. Unlike you, she can actually beat me up.” “I can beat you up too!” I yell angrily. Out of the corner of my eye I see Daisy smiling. I snap my head to the side to glare at her and her smirk fades. “I’ll drop out.” “What?” Jessica asks looking hopeful. “I will drop out so you can be Last Girl. They can’t make me do it if I don’t want to.” I say shrugging. “You can’t do that. You earned it.” She says sitting on the floor up against the wall. Daisy and I sit on either side of her. “I earned nothing. I don’t even want to do it, you do.” “Thank you,” Jessica says, “For being a good friend even when I am a terrible one.” “Oh please,” I say sarcastically, “Now I just have to talk to Courtney.” “She’s probably on the football field," Daisy says, "with all the other cheerleaders. And knowing my brother and his friends, they will probably be there too.”

Notes