Stay

The next day I was feeling a bit down. I had fell down and hit my head in the morning, and I made a fool of myself in front of the whole school this afternoon.
Well, we had the Talent Show today. I don’t know why I tried out, but I got in, so I began to do my dance.
Maybe hitting my head made me do the wackadoodle thing.
When I was doing kicks, one of the kicks didn’t go down properly. Instead, it hit into my other leg, making me lose balance.
In other words, I fell on my butt.
I ran off of the stage after that.
The person I saw laughing the most was none other than Anna, of course.
The rest of the day I was surrounded by comments saying, “Nice dance,” or “Nice fail!” or something along those lines.
By the time it was around 2:00, I was steaming. I was really angry. To make it worse, Anna decides it’s her turn.
She pokes me. “Hey, I didn’t know you were such a horrible dancer, Kayla.” She says it in a falsely sweet tone. “So, if it makes you feel any better, I could teach you.”
I glared at her. “No, you’re just a snippy little brat who doesn’t know what she’s saying, because I know you’re a horrid dancer!” I screamed.
I stormed off.
The last hour of the day, Anna was spreading news about what I said to her. She used a lot of bad language that I didn’t say. What a liar.
Kelly drove me home, and in the car there was a bit of silence making a barrier between us two. “So, what happened between Anna and you? I heard all about you cussing her out because she helped you.”
I took a deep breathe. “No, it wasn’t like that. You know that everyone’s being making fun of me because I fell, right? Well Anna called me a horrid dancer, and then said she was SO good at dancing and said that she could help me. Trust me, she wasn’t trying to be a saint on this one. So I called her a snippy little brat who can’t dance. I used no bad language.”
She didn’t speak. “That’s not what Anna’s been telling everyone.”
“I know, I saw her after school. She was saying I said all sorts of things.”
“Wow, must be tough. Does Connor think you did that?”
I forgot all about Connor.
Thoughts of worry filled my head. Did he think I was a clutz? A foul-mouth? I’m sure Anna told him.
I tried to lie about what I was thinking, say something different. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen him.”
“Well, Anna probably lied to him, too. I mean, he is her boyfriend.”
The thought of that angered me, but I kept it inside. Silently. “Yeah, I don’t think that she would keep that from him. Man, I wish Anna wasn’t so popular. Now basically the whole school knows all about our conversation--not to mention, my fall.”
She didn’t speak for the rest of the trip. When she dropped me off at home, I ran up stairs, and I cried for hours.