Chapter 17
Love Undercover"Brace yourself," Inyoung says, catching me before homeroom the following morning. "This is bad."
"What's bad?" I ask nervously.
"Tiffany. At least I think it's Tiffany. She's... well. See for yourself." Inyoung whips out her cell. "This picture was e-mailed to everyone on the girls' soccer team this morning," she says, handing me the phone. "Try not to freak out, Kim. I know it seems bad, but... you'll be okay. I swear. If I survived crapping my pants on the soccer field, then you can survive this."
Despite Inyoung's warning, nothing can prepare me for the image on the screen. As I stare at the cell phone I feel frozen, sick to my stomach. It's me--only I'm half . It's a picture of me changing for gym class. I'm standing there without my shirt, my tiny, nonexistent s displayed in all their flat-chested glory. Thank God I'm wearing a bra. Tiffany's best friend Sooyoung is in my gym class. She must have snapped the photo when I wasn't paying attention.
I stand there, too numb to move or even speak. And then, finally, the words come. "Noooooooooooooo!" I cry. I start whimpering, making horrible, guttural sounds. Inyoung grabs hold of me, steadying me in her arms. "It's okay. It just went out to the girls' soccer team. At least no guys have seen it."
As if on cue, one of the football jocks comes sailing by. "Hey, look, it's Nudie Kim!" he says, gesturing at me. "Show us a little skin, eh?"
"Oh, God," I say, running around the side of the school. And there, behind one of the large dumpsters, I break down in tears.
- - -
It's worse than I ever would have imagined. The photo has spread like wildfire--forwarded to cell phones all over school.
I go through the rest of the day being called Nudie Kim. In every class I can hear kids snickering behind my back. I can feel their eyes boring into the back of my head. In the halls people laugh and point as I walk by. It's awful. By lunchtime I'm so upset I hide out in one of the bathroom stall. Inyoung tracks me down there.
"It's no use, I'm not coming out," I tell her as she bangs on the door.
"I have something that will make you fell better."
"Nothing can make me feel better."
She laughs a wicked, maniacal laugh. "How about a little revenge?"
"I don't know..." I'm reluctant. I'm too humiliated and depressed to think about anything but my own pain.
"So, I've been thinking," Inyoung tells me. "All this time we've let Tiffany pick on us, walk all over us. And we've done nothing to stop her; we're easy targets. Maybe if we stand up for ourselves, if we fight fire with fire, then she'll back off and leave us alone--for good."
Well... there could be something to what Inyoung's saying. I crack open the door. "What did you have in mind?"
Inyoung rubs her hands together in anticipation. "I think I've found the perfect thing." She reaches into her backpack and retrieves a stack of magazines. "Ta da!" she announces. "I swiped these from the school library after first period."
I wipe my tearstained face, then stare at the magazines in confusion. "What are we going to do, fill out, like, fifty subscription cards in Tiffany's name?"
"Hmm, that's not bad," Inyoung muses, leaning against the stall door. "But I was going for something more immediate. I wanna be there to see her reaction." She rapidly thumbs through the pages, then comes to a sudden stop. "Here it is!" She passes the magazine to me.
I stare down and see a full-page tampon ad, complete with the words "New anti-leak system for your heaviest days."
"Ew, gross!"
"Don't you get it?" Inyoung asks, waving the ad in my face. "These magazines have like ten billion tampon ads in each one." She flips through another magazine and stops at a tampon ad, proving her point. "We're going to tear out a dozen or so of these and put them on everything Tiffany touches. Her desk, her locker, her soccer basket in the girls' changing room. We'll blanket her with tampon ads!"
It's pretty mean--not the sort of thing I would ordinarily do--but I'm feeling desperate. And giving Tiffany a taste of her own medicine might take the edge off my own crushing embarrassment. "So when should we do it?"
"Right now! Everyone's in the cafeteria so it's the perfect time to plaster her locker. And then you can get to English class early and leave a couple on her desk!"
"You really think this is a good idea?" I ask. As much as I hate Tiffany, I can't help feeling a lump in the pit of my stomach that tells me this is going to be bad.
Inyoung nods her head. "We have to do it. She's got it coming."
I still feel a little funny about it, but I push that thoughts aside and set to work clipping out tampon ads. Having something to do distracts me from imagining hordes of people looking at the picture of me in my bra.
Once we've got a decent-size stack, we put phase one of the plan in action. Inyoung and I duck into the main office and sneak a small tape dispenser when the secretary, Mrs. Choi, isn't looking. Then we get down to business. We take turns decorating and standing guard. We have to work quickly. Lunch period is almost over and we don't want anyone to catch us. In no time flat, we've covers Tiffany's locker with a collage of tampon photos. In the middle is the piece de resistance: a huge colorful headline that says BLOATING, GAS, CONSTIPATION. Beneath it are the words "Is stress taking its toll on your tummy?" We ditched that part, though; it was funnier with just the three big words. After we've finished with the locker we go our seperate ways, with Inyoung heading towards the sports locker room and me taking off for Mr. Lee Soo Man's English class.
I'm the first one there. I can't believe how perfectly we've timed this! I only have one tampon left, but it's a goody. It has an enormous photo of a tampon on it, along with the words "Your monthly friend." After a few seconds of debate, I decide to tape the ad to the back of Tiffany's chair. I figure that's the safest. Hopefully she'll sit down without even noticing it. Wouldn't that be a riot. I would pee in my pants laughing if Tiffany sits through English class with a giant tampon photo attached to the back of her chair.
As soon as I'm finished taping it up, I dart out of the classroom and make my way down the hall. The last thing I want to do is be caught red-handed. I wander back into the office and replace the tape dispenser on the front counter. Thankfully, Mrs. Choi is, like, the least observant person on the planet. She's always too busy reading chessy paperback romance novels to notice what the students are doing.
I casually stroll out of the office and over to the girls' bathroom. I have a few minutes to kill before I need to get to English class. I want to make sure I get there after some other students have arrived (but before the late bell--the last thing I need is another tardy). That way, no one will consider me as suspect. I stop in front of the bathroom mirrow and reapply my makeup. I dig into my purse and locate my container of loose powder. Then I spend several minutes applying a fresh coat of eye shadow and mascara. I spend so much time in front of the bathroom mirror that I'm almost late for class. But I can't help it. Tiffany Hwang is about to be taken down a couple of notches and I want to look my absolute best for it.
- - -
I'm sorry if she's so mean in here. >< She's like Tiffany, huh? Or is she worse? I'm sorry!! ><
Anyway, sorry if I haven't update like two or three days ago. I was kinda busy with school. Sigh. School . Three more years and I'll be out from that Hell. Good luck to me. Huhu.
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P.P.S. SORRY FOR THE LONG- AUTHOR NOTE! ><
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