Be Free, Be You

“I totally would,” I responded, trying to look as intimidating as she did when she confronted a loser in the hallway that had the nerve to look at her for a second too long. “Don’t make me.”

She let out a long sigh, clearly trying to control herself from reaching out and snapping my neck. Then, she turned and stared at me, since we were at a red light. “Why is this so important to you, anyway?”

My face colored as the answer rushed into my mind immediately. My heart started to race. I didn’t want to answer, but when I opened my mouth to say so, my tongue had a different idea. “Look, Val…I’m not you. I’m not pretty or blonde or a cheerleader. I’m not really good at anything like you are. Anything I do decently, I have to work so hard for. Just once, I want people to know me for me. I want to be a part of something. I just want people to like me.” By the end of my speech, my voice had softened into barely a whisper, but from the stony look on Valarie’s face, I knew she heard every word of it.

There was a long pause, the tension draped between us. Finally, Val sighed again and turned her light green eyes on me. “Fine. I’ll do it. But you better not embarrass me.”

My heart leaped and a grin exploded on my face. “Thank you so much!”

“Yeah, yeah.” Her tone was dismissive, so I turned away from her and faced out the window, keeping my overwhelming excitement to myself.

***

That night, I tossed and turned with excitement. What was I going to be able to put our idea into motion? What song were we going to use? How was this going to work long-term? I mean, if I only used Val’s voice for the audition, wouldn’t they notice the odd, terrible voice out during group numbers? Not to mention the assignments…

Finally, I threw my comforter off me and started down the hall. With every footstep, my bare feet made a soft slapping noise against the hardwood.

When I got to Val’s room, I pushed the door open a little. Of course, she was still awake, sitting in front of her computer. It looked like she was working on some kind of paper or report, but she hadn’t gotten far, just a couple of lines with the cursor flashing, unmoving.

I opened the door the rest of the way, and Val turned to look at me. “Can I help you?” she questioned. Although her tone was slightly aggravated, she almost seemed relieved, too, as if she was looking for some kind of distraction to save her from her report.

“I hope so,” I replied, settling down on her bed, sitting Indian-style with my legs folded. “I was thinking that maybe we could work out some of the details of our plan that we haven’t figured out yet.”

Val rolled her eyes. “Do we really have to do this now? It’s past eleven and I have a paper due first period tomorrow.”

“So move.”

She stared at me, her eyes narrowed. “What?”

“Get your ass out of the seat,” I elaborated. “I’ll write it for you. I’m the better writer anyway, right? And I’ll be able to multitask, since I can write an A-worthy paper while we work out the details.”

It didn’t take her even a second to move over to her bed. I sat down in her desk chair and tossed my hair over my shoulder as I read her first two sentences.

They weren’t bad sentences, per se, but they weren’t up to the standard this paper was going to be. So I deleted them and read the rubric lying on top of her notebook.

Write about an experience where you were an underdog and talk about how you overcame the adversity.

I immediately burst out laughing, spinning around in the chair to look at Valarie. “No wonder you were having issues,” I commented. “I don’t think you’ve ever been an underdog in your life.”

“I know,” she sighed. “This is one of those times when being as charismatic and talented as I am doesn’t come in handy.” The statement seemed true enough to me, but her tone was distinctly sarcastic.

“It’s okay. I’ll make something up.” It only took a second of brainstorming before my fingers danced across the keys with ease, formulating an intricate story about how Valarie had to suck up her intense shyness to try out for the Cheerios, thus revealing to herself and everyone who saw her secret talent of dancing.

I was almost halfway through the paper, totally absorbed in my own little fake world, Valarie spoke up, “Didn’t you want to talk about the dumb Glee Club thing?”

“Oh, yeah,” I mumbled, not taking my eyes away from the word document. “Like, after the audition, how are we going to work out the singing thing?”

Val sighed. “I guess I’m going to have to cover for you during your solos or whatever, too. Group numbers, though, you’re on your own. Just sing softly.” She sighed, running her hand through her hair, which was slightly wavy, since it was drying naturally and she hadn’t had time to straighten it yet. “God, I’m going to have to miss so much Cheerios practice for this.”

It occurred to me just then that maybe I was being selfish. I was making Valarie sacrifice something that was really important to her, something that she loved, just so that I could pretend to be someone I wasn’t. My conscience started to get the better of me, but I turned my attention back to the computer to tune it out. Maybe I was being selfish. But maybe it was about time I acted a little selfish.

“What song should we…or you sing?” I questioned, trying to move the conversation forward.

***

Since Val and I needed to practice, we decided that it would be better for everyone if we practiced our performance over the weekend and actually performed it on Monday. After all, if we weren’t perfectly in sync, we’d be discovered by the Glee Club, and both of our reputations would be shattered forever. Not to mention that we’d be laughed out of the audition, which was the opposite of what I wanted to happen.

On the way to school Thursday morning, Valarie sat in her seat, unmoving after she took the key out of her car’s ignition. “I just want you to realize that I’m putting everything on the line for you if we go through with this plan. It’s going against everything I believe in and enforce.”

“I know,” I responded. “And I’m really grateful.”

“Thanks for writing my paper for me.”

“It was my pleasure.”

We got out of the car, and immediately, Val spotted some of the other Cheerios and bounced toward them.

Keeping my head down, my eyes fixed on the tips of my sneakers, I made my way into the school, careful not to attract too much attention.