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My blood simmers. It’s true that I always ran late to AP US History, but
that’s because Tally’s locker had been right next to the classroom and I
would loiter there with her until the last possible second. It’s a reminder I
don’t need so early in the morning.
“So what?” I snap. “You’ve taken it upon yourself to keep a log of
people’s arrival times?”
She laughs breezily. “You’re so easy to irritate.”
I imagine how I must have looked to her, dashing into class late every
day. Did she see me hanging all over Tally last year? Could she sense the
cracks in that relationship before I could? Is that why she thought I was
such a loser? A feeling of shame spreads through my torso.
“I’m better at getting to AP Euro on time,” I say pointedly. “But I guess
you wouldn’t know that, since you didn’t make it into the class.”
It’s a really snotty thing to say, but I want to get under her skin and I
don’t have many cards to play. It seems to work, because she puts down her
phone and glares at me.
“I did make it into the class. I just didn’t want to take it.”
“What? Why?”
“Oh come on. AP European History? A class where you literally study
how white people fucked up the world with the Crusades and colonization
and smallpox? Yet there’s no room in the budget to offer Asian or African
History? Yeah, no. If that’s the pinnacle of academic study our school has to
offer, I’ll fucking pass. Say what you want about Ms. Bowles’s ‘regular
track’ modern history class, but she makes a point of dismantling the whole
European hegemony thing, and that’s a much better use of my time.”
I can’t think of anything to say to that, not least because I’m trying to
figure out what hegemony means.
Irene takes a pointed sip from her thermos and shakes her head. “But
please, tell me more about how you’re so much smarter than me. Not like I
haven’t heard it before. People love to assume they’re better than you when
you’re ‘just a cheerleader,’ as if I’m not completely fucking aware of the
complicated identity that comes with my sport.”
“I never said I was smarter than you,” I say tersely.