I’m switching up the excerpts today to give you a little taste of my new serial, 90s Girl Cult. This is something new for me to try going back to paranormal thrillers. Find out what happens when a teen girl has been bullied too much and turns to witchcraft to curse those who have wronged her. At the bottom, I’ll include links so you can read more. (First three episodes are free on Vella, but that’s only available in the US currently. International readers can read on Patreon.)

Warning: contains strong language.

April 24, 1997

Song: “Seether” by Veruca Salt

Mood: righteous anger

I got called a slut today. Yes, me, Katie, the biggest thirteen-year-old nerd, I am a slut.

I’m still trying to figure out what happened. I was gone from school because my family was on vacation last week, so I don’t know what happened while I was gone. Something went wrong and I think it’s all Justin’s fault.

Justin and I were kind of going out. He was just a friend, someone I hung out with in the homeschool group, and I never really thought of him like that until he asked me out on Valentine’s Day. He bought me a heart-shaped box of chocolates and a really nice card. I said yes because it seemed like such a sweet gesture. But we didn’t tell anyone in the homeschool group that we were going out because I didn’t know how they would react. Especially my best friend, Georgia, she and I usually sit with Justin and his best friend Daniel. Daniel’s cool because he isn’t gross like most guys and I’m in marching band with him, although we sit on opposite sides of the room. I thought Justin was cool, too, but now he’s acting like a total asshole.

I thought it would make things awkward for her if suddenly half our group was a couple? I wasn’t trying to hide stuff from her, I just didn’t know how she would react.

Anyway, we were together for two months I guess. It was boring. Like, he would invite me over to his house and show me all his WWI plane models and then his mom would make us dinner. His mom and his sister were both really sweet. I didn’t really see his dad much, but I guess he was nice, too. But his mom introduced me to all these Vietnamese dishes that I’ve never had before. Her cooking was really good.

But Justin always wanted to make out. His parents made him keep his bedroom door open, so we didn’t get any privacy, but he had this big tree in his backyard. When we climbed up into the tree, the branches hid us from the ground. So we would climb up in the tree and make out.

Making out was the most boring thing. It just felt like he was drooling on me. Then he started getting more handsy, so I told him I wanted to break up with him. He asked if we could stay friends and I said sure so I wouldn’t hurt his feelings. I figured things would go back to normal, like when we hung out as the four of us. Although he’s been hanging out with those annoying twins lately, Brandon and Trevor. I didn’t want to be around them even before what happened today.

I didn’t think about the fact that I was gonna be gone for a week. No one knew we were even dating. Why would he tell them?