“Well,” I said. “We are.”
“Speak for yourself! And what about G and T?”
“What about G and T?”
“You just told the entire country that we sit in there and goof off because Mrs. Hill is always in the teachers’ lounge! What are you, stupid? You’ve probably gotten her into trouble!”
I felt something inside of me clench, as if someone was squeezing my intestines very, very tightly.
“Oh, no,” I breathed. “Do you really think so?”
Lilly just let out a frustrated scream, then snarled, “My parents say to tell your mother mazel tov.”
Then she slammed the phone down.
I felt worse than ever. Poor Mrs. Hill!
Then the phone rang again. It was Shameeka.
“Mia,” she said. “Remember how I invited you to my Halloween party this Friday?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Well, my dad won’t let me have it now.”
“What? Why?”
“Because thanks to you he is under the impression that Albert Einstein High School is filled with sex addicts and alcoholics.”
“But I didn’t say that!” Not in those exact words, anyway.
“Well, that’s what he heard. He is currently in the next room surfing the Internet for a girls’ school in New Hampshire he can send me to next semester. And he says he’s not letting me go out with a boy again until I’m thirty.”
“Oh, Shameeka,” I said. “I’m so sorry.”
Shameeka didn’t say anything. In fact, she had to hang up, because she was sobbing too hard to speak.
The phone rang again. I didn’t want to answer it, but I had no choic
e: Mr. Gianini was holding my mom’s hair back while she threw up some more.
“Hello?”
It was Tina Hakim Baba.
“Oh, my gosh!” she shouted.
“I’m sorry, Tina,” I said, figuring I better just start apologizing to every single person who called, right off the bat.
“Sorry? What are you sorry for?” Tina was practically hyperventilating. “You said my name on TV!”
“Um . . . I know.” I had also called her a freak.
“I can’t believe it!” Tina yelled. “That was so cool!”
“You aren’t . . . you aren’t mad at me?”
“Why should I be mad at you? This is the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me. I’ve never had my name said on television before!”