Every year, Two Bridges hosts Volunteer Week for the juniors so that all of its students, even the ones falling behind academically, would have an opportunity to polish their resumes for the upcoming college application cycle. The student body is divided into three charity teams: the classroom, the kitchen, and the park.
The classroom team is assigned to teach elementary school students rudimentary subjects such as Math, ELA, Science, and Social Studies. The teachers have picked high-performing students for that team under the assumption that they would understand the subjects the best and convey them to younger students in a fun way. Logically, it follows that Yuey and Mikael are on that team. I hoped to join them, but I've been assigned to the kitchen. I try not to take it personally, and some faculty claim that the teams are chosen at random, but I know better.
The kitchen team is tasked with feeding New York's homeless population. The school has teamed up with local nonprofit organizations to make meals for the hungry. The idea is that the nonprofits supply the ingredients, and the school will provide free labor to cook the meals. I think this is a recipe for disaster since I'm fairly certain that I'm the only one on my team who knows how to cook, courtesy of all the years helping out at the family bakery. I've been assigned to this team with my favorite people: Ainsley and Natalie. I would have wanted Maia to be here, too, to break up the tension, but she has been assigned to the park team.
The park team is in charge of cleaning up nearby green spaces. There's a rumor that it's a team for the school's worst-performing students because much of the work is manual labor. The students are mostly in charge of picking up trash and sweeping up leaves. Students with greater physical strength will be tasked with trimming hedges and other gardening tasks. With spring around the corner, this team has the best excuse to stay outside and enjoy the weather. Maia has been assigned to this team with Louis and other boys from our class. She tells me that she is not looking forward to the work.
In preparation for Volunteer Week, our teachers add a class period of skill-building for each team. The classroom team is taught how to build a curriculum. The kitchen team is placed in a beginner's cooking class. The park team learns a mixture of earth science and botany.
The cooking class is a disaster. Once upon a time, all female students were forced to take home economics. In the modern era, my peers can't even boil an egg. I watch as Ainsley can't figure out how to turn on a stove, and Natalie struggles to chop vegetables. Someone manages to set their sink on fire, causing the entire school to evacuate when it triggers the fire alarm.
Still, the school pushes us to go through with Volunteer Week even though it's clear that the kitchen team can't function properly. They have our group serve food instead of cooking it at the soup kitchen for our first day. Ainsley manages not to mess that up, passing out trays and boxes of food with a fake smile on her face. Natalie charms some of the seniors sitting down nearby, causing them to erupt with laughter. If she hadn't been born rich, she would have made a great waitress. Even with her father being in jail for white collar crime, she lives a lifestyle leagues above the homeless we were helping.
A fight breaks out when someone on the kitchen team accidentally serves one person more food than the other. I end up in the middle, and I have to break up the two people by giving them extra servings.
"They're animals," Ainsley tells me as we're washing our hands. "They have no self-control."
I don't acknowledge her remark. The cold truth was that I had more in common with those 'animals' than I did with her. That was the harsh reality of the socioeconomic math.
We serve food for the rest of the day, taking turns and doing our shifts. It feels like an easier version of what I already have to do in my family's bakery, with less cleanup and heavy lifting.
Toward the end of our volunteer hours, I catch Natalie packing up some of the food in the kitchen to take home. She tries to discreetly tuck it into her book bag, but Ainsley catches her.
"What are you doing?"
She asks the question loud enough to get the attention of the rest of the students on our team.
"Mind your own business," Natalie replies coolly.
"It's my business if you're stealing. Taking from the less fortunate is low, even for you."
"I didn't take anything," she lies. "You need to stop picking on me."
Ainsley tilts her head toward me, malice glittering in her eyes. "Yan saw you put something in your bag."
"No, she didn't." Natalie stared at me intensely as if she could try to get me to play along through telepathy.
Three years of abandonment and disdain run through my head. From the way she ignored me to the way she tried to keep me away from Mikael, nothing but rage pulses through me in response to that expression on her face.
"She put a meal in her bag," I say, watching her face crumble. "I don't know if she had permission to do that."
"Like father, like daughter. You just couldn't resist the urge to commit a crime, could you? Is mommy not feeding you or something?"
Ainsley had the smuggest look on her face while tearing down Natalie. For a brief moment, my former friend appeared to be on the verge of tears. I remember what Maia said about Ainsley being her online bully. Witnessing this scene, I wonder how I could have ever doubted her.
Then, Natalie's face hardens. "I eat well, unlike you. Do you still vomit after every meal just to eat more?"
Ainsley trembles, her face turning red. Years of hidden history between the two girls unravel like a dark storm cloud.
"I don't know. Do you still cut your arm at night when your mom falls asleep? Most people outgrow those childish habits at this age."
Natalie recoils like she was slapped. "You should stop lying. Making up stories doesn't change the fact that you'll never be better than your brothers."
"Big deal. At least I don't go through men like a box of tissues. Can you even remember the last guy you slept with?"
Natalie scoffs. "Nothing wrong with liking boys. A shame the same thing can't be said for you."
Ainsley's jaw clenches. "Now who's the one lying?" She seems to have trouble breathing.
Natalie glances at me. With her nose stuck up in the air, she appears done with their argument. The students lose interest in watching them fight after the teachers dismiss, eager to get home. Ainsley and I are the last ones to leave. Alone together, I see her struggle to hold back her tears.
"Don't believe everything that bitch says. She's just mad because she's poor," she spits out.
I never saw her so vulnerable. "Why would I believe a liar?"
She smiles ruefully. "I knew I could count on you. You're the only one who understands how I feel about her."
In a way, this is true. We were the only two people that I knew of who had a close friendship with Natalie. She didn't appear overly attached to the group of delinquents she hung out with. From my perspective, she uses them to cut class and smoke cigarettes. I doubt they knew her like we did, but I suspect Ainsley had the closest relationship with her.
"Are you the one leaving hate comments on her social media pages?"
I didn't expect her to answer me honestly. But after seeing her exchange with Natalie, I had to know.
She sucks in a breath. "Only a few. Not all of them come from me."
So Maia was partially right. "Where do most of them come from?"
"I'm not sure. I could make a few guesses. Some people from boarding school hated her, but I can't imagine any of them going out of their way like I do. Not that she ever deserved any peace."
I think about the less savory comments. "What about the boys?"
"None of them stay," she sneers. "But she does have a weird cult following. Just a small group of losers from Grand Army and Bayard. Her family had to call the police because they were stalking her."
But even the police hadn't been enough to stop the online bullying. On the train home, I couldn't help but feel betrayed by Ainsley and Natalie. There was so much about both of them that I hadn't known, a parallel world I was never privy to.
Neither of them was the monster I had pictured them to be, but at the same time, they were equally capable of monstrous things. But they aren't the only ones with secrets.
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