My Cardboard Balcony

by Belinda Roddie She giggled maniacally, thrilled that her plan worked. In about seven minutes, Connor would be heading to the locker room, thinking he would be inviting her crush to the Valentine's Day dance. Instead, he'd be met with a gaggle of her friends with silly spray and whipped cream to douse him with. Nothing tasted sweeter than the flavor of inflicted humiliation. Reaching into her backpack, Nikki proceeded to pull out her phone and text a brief numeric code to her bestie Chelsea, who was the ringleader of the gang and its enforcement of the master plan. In the meantime, she had a pretty dame to woo. She practically skipped to the soccer field to watch the beautiful Amanda, all grass stains and ponytail and cleats, play some scrimmage before the junior varsity team's big game. Amanda was nearly six feet tall, brown-skinned, sharp-browed, and very, very attractive. She towered over the rest of her team as she played, her capacity as fullback in full fo...

She wanted an espresso and a scone, and once she got what she wanted, she sauntered over to the corner table and immersed herself in a book. Almost instantly, a young gentleman was hovering over her chair, trying to make small talk. The scene was enough to make me want to crush a paper cup in my fist and then hurl the angry wad at the guy's head, but if I were this frustrated, I could only imagine how much irritation the woman was feeling.