Sara held up her hands, confused beyond belief (and who could blame her?). “Wait, who is Amir? And why were you changing? Slow down, azizam. Start from the beginning.”
So I did. I told her how I lied about having a Homecoming date after Wesley dumped me, and how I’d ignored Ruth and Fabián, and how Amir kissed me last Saturday but we hadn’t really talked because I didn’t know what to do. And now I had a date with Matty this weekend despite what Wesley had said to me last night.
“Oh, ameh,” she said when I finished, shaking her head. “That is a lot.”
“So what do I do?” I whimpered.
She chewed her lip. “Well, first off, I think you need to apologize to your friends, no? Maybe start there. And, Parvin joonam, you need to forgive yourself, too. Why are you so hard on yourself? Why did you think changing would be worth it? Look at what happens when you aren’t true to who you are.”
“Parvin! Hurry up or you’ll be late for school!” Mom called up to my room.
“Coming!” I shouted back. “I gotta go, Ameh. But I’ll apologize to my friends first thing. Thanks for the advice.”
She blew a kiss through the screen. “Don’t worry, azizam—I’ll be there on Sunday and we can talk in person, okay? I think we have a lot to go over.”
I blew her a kiss back. “I know. I wish you were here already. Bye, Ameh!”
She waved, and I hung up.
■ ■ ■ INTRODUCTION TO VIDEO 10:00 A.M.
We were working on our commercials in class today, but I was pretty sure I was the only one doing stop-motion animation, which is when you take a photo of an object, move it a little bit, then take another photo. When you stitch them all together, it looks like the object is moving on its own.
Mr. Clarke was beside himself with excitement.
“Is this a stop-motion commercial?” he asked, pointing to my cardboard ocean diorama, complete with a little tuna fish made out of construction paper that I nudged between shots.
I shrugged. “Yes?”
Mr. Clarke nodded. “Right, right, okay. I can see what you’re doing here. You’ve got a consistent source of light—very good. And you’re moving the fish over an equal amount every time, to make it look smooth—very good.” His head snapped up suddenly. “Will you have music in the background of your commercial?”
“Er, yes,” I replied. Crap. I had forgotten about music.
He nodded to himself again. “Good, good, carry on.”
Who was he? A reality-TV-show judge? I pushed my little tuna fish over a bit more and took another photo. I’d already done some test shots, and it actually looked like a real spot. It was a lot easier than editing footage because with stop motion, there was no splicing or fade-ins or whatever, just assembling all the photos in order. It was way more my speed.
I looked at everyone else in class. Almost our entire group was already editing their videos at the computer bank in the back of the room, using the skills Mr. Clarke had taught us.
Sir had drawn a cat food brand out of the hat and was monologuing in a corner in front of a camera, holding up a metal tin. Because that’s what was gonna sell cat food: Sir’s monologues.
Suddenly, he looked at me. Oh no.
“Hey, Parvin!”
I looked back at my diorama. “Hey, Sir.”
“I just realized!” he shouted across the classroom. “We’re both making commercials for cat food.”
I looked back at my tuna tin.
He was right.
■ ■ ■ GAY-STRAIGHT ALLIANCE 3:00 P.M.
It had been almost two whole days since our fight on Monday, and I had no idea where Ruth and Fabián had been hanging out. I hadn’t seen them in the courtyard for lunch, so I’d been spending it in the practice rooms. But I knew there was a Gay-Straight Alliance meeting today, and they never missed a meeting. I had a plan forming in my mind on how I could make up everything to my friends, but before I could set it into motion, I needed to apologize.
I grabbed a seat in the back of the theater just as Ms. Kaiser called the meeting to order. I’d forgotten she was the GSA sponsor.
“Hello, everyone,” she called out. She wore a floral dress today, and her long black hair was in a bun at the top of her head. I could see Fabián and Ruth sitting near her in the front row, along with—wait, was that Matty Fumero? And why was he sitting next to Fabián? I thought they were theater rivals or whatever.
“Today we’ll be talking about our plans for Transgender Day of Remembrance. It’s a little over a month away now, so any and all suggestions are welcome for how we can honor those lives.”
I looked over. Shocker—Ruth was already scribbling a bunch of ideas down. I didn’t know these issues were so important to her. But then again, I was realizing that a lot of things were important to my friends—I’d just never bothered to ask them.
“Now it’s time for announcements.” Ms. Kaiser sat down and opened the floor as different students got up and talked about activities, fundraisers, and resources. Scary Becca from orientation even stood up, saying that anyone who wasn’t comfortable going to Homecoming could go to her house for an “Anti-Homecoming Homecoming.” That was nice, even if she was still terrifying. Once the announcements were done, everyone kind of milled around and caught up with one another. I waited for Fabián and Ruth to spot me.
“Parvin, hey,” Matty said, beating them to it. “I didn’t know you came to these.”
Ooof. He really was so cute. “I’m trying to be a more supportive friend,” I replied.
“So, about our date. I was thinking this weekend—” Matty began. In that moment, Fabián and Ruth saw me. Fabián gave me a dark look.
“Sorry—would you
