“And make sure nobody breathes a word about this party to Vanessa. If she doesn’t know about it, she can’t make us invite her.”
Anika, queen bee of our friends group, made this announcement and looked around with her you-better-do-what-I-say-or-else expression as everybody else nodded in agreement. I opened my mouth to protest, but the doorbell rang, and Anika went to answer it. A few of my friends and I were planning my going away party since I was moving away from Michigan, my home of eight years.
I had met Vanessa when I first moved to Michigan, all the way back in preschool. We had bonded instantly and had been inseparable ever since. But ever since the start of middle school, Anika had disliked Vanessa with a passion, calling her “weird and nerdy” because she made accessories out of duct tape and read a lot, even though the two of them had been friends before. We were all still in the same class since we were in the gifted program, so I didn’t understand how simply moving from our elementary school building to our new middle school building suddenly made Vanessa unlikeable. Vanessa was one of my best friends, but everyone seemed to agree with Anika, so while it felt bad to repeatedly hear their deprecating remarks, it also felt out of place being the only one who liked her.
Anika returned with the last member of our planning committee and began making the guest list. Pretending like I hadn’t heard her earlier announcement, I suggested inviting Vanessa. Anika immediately turned and chastised me, but instead of being intimidated like I usually was, I argued that I should get to decide who’s invited since this was my going away party. Anika rebutted immediately, saying nobody else wanted her there, and everybody else agreed. Anika looked at me expectantly, but I had nothing to say in response so she went back to what she was doing. I frowned to myself; it still felt wrong to exclude Vanessa, one of my first friends in Michigan, from my going away party.
Anika called my name, and I pushed my thoughts aside to see what she wanted. She asked me to make sure all of the email address in the Evite list were correct, and I began scrolling through it. Anika’s mom called us up for lunch, and everyone started going upstairs, but I said I would finish up and join them in a few minutes. As I reached the end of the list, I was still trying to figure out how to convince Anika that Vanessa should be invited. I looked around the room. I was alone. Maybe I didn’t have to convince her. I held my breath, wondering if I should just do it. Go for it, Sarah. I quickly added Vanessa’s email address and hit send. If anybody asked, I had no idea how she got an invitation.