The Original Crowd (A Whole New Crowd 0.50)

“Are you at Devon’s?” I asked, laying my head on my pillow.

There was a mo

ment of silence on the other end before she answered, “Are you going to go off on me if I say yes?”

“No,” I muttered. “You already know how I feel.”

“Yes, I do,” she sounded annoyed, “but this is my decision.”

“I know, I know. I’m just looking out for you, you know. We’re sisters and all,” I mumbled, feeling awkward. All this new family stuff was new to me.

“Okay,” she trailed off for a moment, “I thought you’d be at Tray’.”

“No. We’re…he’s not happy with me right now.”

“You guys had a fight?”

“I guess you could call it that. I don’t know what it was.”

“But you’re not over there?”

“No.”

“And you’d like to be?”

“Yeah.”

“But you can’t because of whatever it is?” Mandy was just good at this game.

“Yeah.”

“You’re in a fight,” she announced proudly.

“Are you happy about this?” I asked, confused and annoyed.

“Yes! Tray is in a fight, with a girl. A girl. And it’s my sister. That’s awesome!” she cried out excitedly.

“I cease to understand the significance. All I know is that I can’t go over there until I make a decision about something…one that he’ll be happy with.”

“What was the fight about?” she asked curiously.

“I want to go after my friends. He doesn’t want me to.” I kept it short and simple. It was the basic gist of it anyway. She didn’t need to know all about Galverson and Tray’s eighth grade year of hell.

“Oh.”

“Oh…what?”

“Nothing. Just, oh,” Mandy commented.

I heard a muffling sound on her end and asked, “Is that Devon?”

“Yeah. Amber and Erin are here too. We just ordered some food.”

“Who’s Erin?”

“A friend of mine. She’s on the student council with me,” Mandy replied, her voice half-turned from the phone.

“Alright, I’ll pass along your lie to Shelley and Kevin.” I laughed, hanging up. I got up, brushed my teeth, and changed into my pajamas. I crawled in my bed and curled underneath the covers. I was asleep within moments.