Before I Fall

they said she smelled like pee.
I’m looking out the window and I watch Hailee's hair flash in the sunlight like it’s catching fire.
There’s darkness on the horizon, a smudge where the storm is growing. It occurs to me for the first
time that I’m not exactly sure why Dinah started hating Hailee in the first place, or when. I open
my mouth to ask her, but they’ve already moved on to other topics.
“—catfight,” Mani finishes, and Ally giggles.
“I’m terrified,” Dinah says sarcastically. Clearly I’ve missed something.
“What’s going on?” I say.
Mani turns to me. “Elle Fanning is going around saying Dinah ruined her life.” I have to wait
while Mani folds a fry expertly into her mouth. “She can’t swim in the quarter finals. And you
know she lives for that shit. Remember when she forgot to take her goggles off after morning
practice and she wore them until second period?”
“She probably keeps all of her blue ribbons on a wall in her room,” Ally says.
“Mila used to do that. Didn’t you, Walz? All those ribbons for playing with horsies.” Dinah
elbows me.
“Can we get back to the point?” I wave my hands, partly because I want to hear the story, partly
to take the attention off me and the fact that I used to be a dork.
When I was in fifth grade, I spent more time with horses than with members of my own species.
“I still don’t get why Elle's pissed at Dinah.”
Mani rolls her eyes at me like I belong at the special ed table. “Elle got detention—she was late
to homeroom for, like, the fifth time in two weeks.” I’m still not getting it and she heaves a sigh.
“She was late to homeroom because she had to park in Upper Lot and haul ass—”
“.22 miles!”
We all bust it out at the same time and then start giggling like maniacs.
“Don’t worry, Cheechee,” I say. “If you guys throw down I’m totally putting money on you.”
“Yeah, we’ve got your back,” Mani says.
“Isn’t it kind of weird how that stuff happens?” Ally says in this shy voice she gets when she’s
trying to say something serious. “How everything spirals out from everything else? Like, if Dinah
hadn’t stolen that parking space…”
“I didn’t steal it. I got it fair and square,” Dinah protests, bringing her hand down on the table for
emphasis. Mani's Diet Coke sloshes over the side of the can, soaking some fries. This makes us
start laughing again.
“I’m serious!” Ally raises her voice to be heard over us. “It’s like a web, you know? Everything’s
connected.”
“Have you been breaking into your dad’s stash again, Al?” Mani says.
This is all it takes to really get us going. This is a joke we’ve had with Ally for years because her
dad works in the music industry. He’s a lawyer, not a producer or manager or musician or anything,