And I do not say that lightly.
You know that type of person you come across, especially in high school, whom everyone hates? I don’t mean the unpopular, socially awkward kid. I mean the rude, arrogant, self-centered, suspended-for-fighting kid. I mean literally the most hated girl in the school. I’ll call her… Mary.
I don’t hate her. As a rule, I don’t hate anyone. Mary is annoying, but she’s never done anything to me personally, so I’m friendly to her. But when she thinks she’s right about something (read: everything) or decides she’s the victim of some gross injustice (read: “I want the best seat in orchestra even though I’m a really inexperienced playerâ€?), I just avoid her. Tonight I discovered that this will not be an option for the four days I’ll be spending in a room with her in New York City.
Christ, but we were careful planning all this. Rooms have four people, but there’s one with three people. My friends Ran and Veronica and I specifically requested the three-person room, and were granted it. That was that, until the music department head (wonderful sweet old lady, I love her dearly, but she had to make some tough decisions to deal with this) decided to switch things around; you see, no one wants Mary in their room. Somehow she got added to our so carefully planned and approved three-person one. We didn’t want this, so we got her switched out and took another friend, Jenny, whom I’m actually closer with than the other two. It was an even better arrangement for me. The final room lists were posted, and everything was fine.
Today was the final meeting; we leave in two weeks. And there, attached to the itinerary and rules and a dozen other lists everyone received, was a new room list, with the changes bolded so that we would be sure to notice them. They’d kicked out Jenny and replaced her with Mary. Not only is this incredibly unfair to Jenny, who is now stuck in a different room with people she may or may not get along with, but it also ignores the arrangements we specially made with the department head to avoid anything like this happening. Needless to say, Ran and I (Veronica and Jenny weren’t at the meeting) talked to her about it, and she said there was a problem with the other room Mary had been in that she couldn’t discuss with us. I know exactly what she’s talking about – a while ago, Mary got into a fight with one of the girls in that room, suspensions were involved, etc. So she couldn’t be in a room with her.
But it just had to be our room, sprung on us at the last moment, of which she displaced a member. Specifically, my room. Let me explain.
I used to be closer with Ran and Veronica, but we’ve grown apart. (Refer to circumstances below – Ran is the unnamed “she.�) On the other hand, I’ve been close with Jenny for years and we’re only getting closer. Plus we spent the last music trip together, so this would be just like old times. But now, I’m stuck with Mary. Ran and Veronica have each other; they made plans long ago to share a bed too, so of course I’ll be with Mary. (My mum said she’d pay for a cot, but I worry that it would offend Mary. I’ll decide later.)
You see, as irksome as she is, there’s a bigger problem than Mary here. The problem is that I’m going to be alone. It’ll be Ran and Veronica, and then me. It’s bad enough that it just hit me today how damn much I’m going to miss Ning in NYC – there’s a banquet and a cruise and dancing – but now, to not even have Jenny? And to know I’m going to have to put up with Mary??
I know it’s not going to be absolutely horrible. I know I’ll manage, I’ll be nice to her and give in to avoid problems when she wants something. I know it’s not the worst thing that could possibly happen. But this is my senior year and my last music trip – only my second trip too, since my parents have refused to let me go since the one in grade 9 due to my mother not enjoying it and some other complicated things. It’s even the beloved department head’s last year before she retires and my school’s music department changes forever. I want this trip to be special; at the least, I want it to be fun and I want to leave with some great memories. I don’t think that’s too much to ask. I just don’t want Mary to ruin this for me.