Maybe He Just Likes You

Mila and Hadley sit in the reception area at E Motions while their mother attends her hour-long exercise class. Before long, Hadley complains that she is bored. The enthusiastic owner of the new gym, Erica, introduces herself and offers Hadley and Mila the chance to join a dance class. Hadley eagerly agrees, but Mila declines. Erica promises to bring Hadley back in just a few minutes, but Mila assures her that Hadley can “stay the whole hour” (99), hoping she can get just a moment of peace.

Mila quickly becomes restless in the reception area, so she goes looking for the dance class. Instead, she discovers the karate class, and her classmate Samira is a student. Mila is fascinated with the karate class, especially with the “kiai”: the loud, sharp cry that is meant to “draw attention” and “[unnerve] attackers” (101). Samira instructs Mila to bow to the karate teacher, Ms. Platt, who allows Mila to stay and observe the class. Mila is nervous, but soon she is engrossed in the motions of the students, the “wild spirit yell” (104) of the kiai, and the confidence Samira exudes during the drills. Mila wonders if she could ever be as confident and strong as these karate students.

At dinner, Hadley gushes about how much fun she had in dance class. Their mother reminds the girls that E Motions is only free for the first two weeks, and they probably won’t be able to afford it after that. However, she tells them that she might get a raise, and if she does, it would mean “a little breathing room in [their] budget” (106). Mila congratulates her mother but is confused because she doesn’t understand why her mom would cry about work.

The next morning, Mila’s mother leaves a stack of her old clothes on Mila’s bed. Mila goes through the clothes, trying to find something she can wear to school without being teased. She chooses a shirt that “[won’t] cling” or “give out too much information” (108), and she wonders if her mother knows that she is trying to cover herself up and hide her body with her clothes.

Mila recalls being in second grade and obsessed with an animated show about tigers, “Ti-grrlz.” Mila wanted Turquoise Ti-grrlz stuff for her birthday, but her mom bought her the wrong color. Mila was disappointed but didn’t want to tell her mom and hurt her feelings. Instead, she had the “brilliant idea” to color her new clothes with a turquoise magic marker, but the ink ran out, and her top looked “worse than before” (110). When Mila’s mother did the laundry, the turquoise marker ran and ruined all the clothes in the wash. Still, Mila refused to tell her mother what she did because she didn’t want to tell her that she bought the wrong color of Ti-grrlz.

That morning, Zara apologizes to Mila for not sticking up for her when the basketball boys were teasing her. Mila is still upset, but she forgives Zara. Knowing that she and Zara aren’t fighting anymore “[makes] [Mila’s] spine relax a little” (114), and the basketball boys don’t bother her all morning. Mila is partnered up with Dante in ELA, and he behaves properly. In Spanish, she is partnered with Leo, who also treats Mila appropriately. Mila allows herself to feel relief and wonders if the teasing may end for good.

Right before lunch, Mila stops by her locker to put her notebooks away. Suddenly, someone grabs her butt. She turns to see Tobias, and when she yells at him for touching her, he becomes flustered and says that it was “probably [her] imagination” (116). Mila realizes that they are alone with no witnesses around, and she runs from the hallway to the blacktop outside.

Mila goes looking for her friends outside during lunch. She sees the basketball boys congratulating Tobias “like he scored a basket at the buzzer” (118). She finds Max, Omi, and Zara and tells them about what happened at the lockers with Tobias. She tells them about everything that happened in the band room and on the bus and how the boys keep trying to touch her and comment about her body. Omi and Max are supportive, but Zara becomes jealous and accuses Mila of “think[ing] all those boys are obsessed with [her]” because she’s “not the only girl in [their] grade with boobs” (119). Max encourages Mila to report the bullying to Mr. McCabe, the assistant principal, but Zara defends the boys and says that they’re just flirting and Mila is being a baby who is probably doing something to make the boys act like this. Mila knows that Zara doesn’t want Leo to get in trouble, but Mila also doesn’t want to tell Mr. McCabe.

After school on Friday, Zara, Omi, and Mila go downtown to buy nail polish at CVS. Mila is nervous about running into the basketball boys, and sure enough, she is greeted with “laughing and hooting” (123) when the boys spot her. Zara announces that she is going to take care of this problem once and for all, and despite Mila’s protestations, Zara makes a big show of telling the boys that they better stop messing with Mila. They play dumb, but Zara tells Leo that if he doesn’t cut it out, she might “start to get jealous” (125) of Mila. The boys are unfazed by the ultimatum, but Zara is satisfied with herself.

As the girls walk away, Mila gets angry with Zara. Instead of helping Mila, Zara made it all about herself and used the opportunity to flirt with Leo. Zara turns nasty again and suggests that maybe the boys were right and Mila was just being “a little too sensitive” (127) to their jokes. Zara storms off. Omi admits that Zara was wrong but was just trying to help, and Mila “need[s] all the friends [she] [has]” (129) to deal with this problem.