There she was, one of the popular girls at Valley Heights. She seemed like she had everything that any highschool girl would long for: popularity, many friends, being on the cheer team, being a guy’s eye- candy, wealth, etc. Even some of the other popular girls felt like they couldn’t meet her standards. This girl is Elizabeth Anne Johnson, Liz for short. She has light brown skin, pretty brown eyes, and long, curly, hazelnut hair that would shimmer in the sun.

              Valley High was not an easy school to get around. It was pretty cliquey, mainly because it was a rich, suburban school and there was little ethnic diversity. The way to fit in at this school is to just follow what the crowd does, keep quiet if you think otherwise, and have your A-game tight as much as you can. This was how Liz became popular. Did it feel great for her at first? Sure. But, is she satisfied? Not quite. Many people viewed Liz as this happy, vibrant, carefree girl. Little did they know, she always put on an act when she was at school, hiding her true self from the crowd. Liz was personally passionate about racial justice, since she was a biracial girl who had always grown up in a white, suburban city. However, when she got to school, that side of her disappeared. She knew the rules of popularity, so she just went along with them. But, the beginning of this school year had started differently.

              Tuesday, September 6th was the first day of school at Valley Heights Highschool. Liz has remembered that this was her senior year. She excitedly hoped out of bed, got dressed, brushed her teeth, brushed her hair, and put on her makeup. She ran downstairs, slipped on her new sandals, grabbed her backpack and entered out the door to catch up with her best friend Lauren. She was waiting in her big, red SUV parked in the driveway. Liz got into the car.

              “Hey Lizzie, you ready?”

              “You bet I am!” She replied, buckling her seatbelt.

As they were off, Lauren started blasting some of the current top ten pop songs. They were jamming in the car, getting pumped up for their final year of highschool. They stopped for frappes, and then they arrived.

              They walked through the crowded halls and down to the cafeteria to meet up with the rest of the group. They reflected on what they did that summer and made plans for homecoming, until the first period bell rang. The first day was typical; noticing new faces, classes dragging, and catching up with friends.

               After school, Lauren and Liz went to the mall. They stopped at the food court for a quick bite to eat and then went to their favorite clothing store.

               “I love this dress!” Lauren exclaimed. “Shoot, I don’t have enough money for it!”

               Liz laughed. “You didn’t check if you had a decent amount of money before going to the mall?”

               “I only have five bucks on me, and I just realized that my debit card is rejected,” Lauren sighed.

               Liz shook her head. “Well you're out of luck, because I’m not letting you use my money this time!”

               Lauren paused, and then she snickered, “Hey, I’ve got an idea.”

               “Lauren, don’t tell me what I think you’re doing.”

               “Oh yeah, I’m doing exactly what you’re thinking,” she said stealthily, as she folded the dress and put it in her purse.

               “Are you kidding me? They’re gonna catch us for sure! Come on Lauren, you know that I’m not a troublemaker.”

               “Oh, quit being scared,” She teased. “Come on Liz, today was our first day as seniors!      This is our chance to do something crazy to make it remarkable.”

               Liz rolled her eyes. “Tell that to the authorities.”

               Lauren slightly pushed Liz. “Ugh, sometimes you can be such a wet blanket.”

               “Well then, if we get caught, this was all your idea.”    

               Lauren then handed Liz her purse. “Here, hold my purse. My arms are tired.”

               As Liz and Lauren walked through the exit, a loud sound rang across the store. They both panicked. “Crap, I didn’t know that there were alarms activated,” Lauren said in a slight whisper. Suddenly, the manager of the store came running towards them.

               “Are you ladies stealing?” She interrogated.

               “We didn’t steal anything, ma’am.” Lauren responded immediately.

               “Well then, let me just check what's inside this purse.” The manager said as she took the purse from Liz. She instantly found the folded dress and took it out.

               “And you say you’re not stealing?” she said, waving the dress around. Lauren then pretended to be shocked.       

               “I'm sure that you are responsible for this,” she asserted, directly to Liz.

               Before Liz could even answer, the manager took out her phone and started dialing. “Looks like you’re going to have to answer to the cops,” she said to Liz.

               After she made the call, she went to put the dress back, with Lauren’s purse still in her other hand. Liz was angry, and nervous at the same time. She took a seat on a bench, with her palms on her face and her thoughts racing through her mind. Then, it occurred to her; Lauren gave Liz her purse, so that she could look innocent just in case they got caught. When Liz looked up, she noticed that Lauren was gone, and that the woman was not holding her purse. She had set up Liz, and then left her hanging.

               ‘Some friend,’ Liz thought. ‘Damn, all these years I thought that she was cool, but now I know the real side of her.’

               Since Liz was aware of racial injustice, she was aware that Lauren had used her white privilege to convince the manager that she was innocent, even though the dress was found in her purse.      

               In about fifteen minutes since the call was made, two cops showed up at the store.

              “There is the stealer,” the woman told them, pointing to Liz.

              The officers took Liz’s arms, swung her up, and then handcuffed her.

              “Ma’am, this is a huge misunderstanding,” Liz pleaded to the manager.

              The manager shook her head, “Lying is only going to make it worse, miss.”

              The cops then walked with Liz out of the store. Liz felt humiliated, walking out of the mall with two cops on her back. They put her into the car, and then they drove off. Liz’s hands felt clammy, and her legs were shaking. The ride seemed to take forever.  

              At the police station, one of the cops contacted Liz’s parents. About twenty minutes later, they arrived. The cop explained to them what happened, and how she would have to make up for it. Liz could see the frustration in her parents’ faces, not because they thought that she had stolen, but because they knew that she would never do anything of the sort. After the talk, the cops got Liz out of the room and took the handcuffs off of her. She and her parents walked out of the police station, into the dark evening.

              “What a rough start to the first day,” her dad sighed, as he was driving. “I’m sorry, kiddo.”

              “Honey, deep down we know that you didn’t do it,” her mom said. “Me and your dad will see what we can do to fix this.”

              “Thanks mom,” Liz murmured.

              When Liz went to school the next day, it was tough; people were scowling at her, and nobody had bothered to talk to her, including her friends. She couldn’t believe it, her best friend, Lauren, had turned the whole school against her, in just one day.

              She was walking through the hall, and saw from a distance, Lauren talking with some of the others in their friend group.

             “I can’t believe that she would do this to me!” Lauren cried.

             The other girls tried to comfort her. Liz, just stood there, angrier than ever. At that moment, she decided that enough was enough. She walked over to Lauren and yelled, “Why would you do this to me?”

People started looking over at them. “You see what I mean?” Lauren said to the girls.

Liz looked at Lauren, directly into her crystal blue eyes. “Lauren, I have let you and our other friends get away with being racist, but this is the last straw. It is time that I do something about it.” Liz stated.             

              “Remember the watermelon joke that you and Amy said to me that time at lunch?” Liz questioned.

              One day in the spring of sophomore year, Liz, Lauren, and some other girls were eating at lunch together. Liz’s lunch came with watermelon, and when she was eating it, Lauren smiled and said, “Hey Liz, I bet that you’re really enjoying that watermelon. Then Amy, who was one of Liz’s other best friends, said, “Yeah, you like that watermelon, don’t you?” And the table bursted out laughing. Liz just laughed it off, even though it really bothered her.

              Lauren rolled her eyes. “Chill out, it was just a joke. And hey, you really looked like you were savoring that watermelon.”

              There was some laughter in the background. Liz groaned. “Oh, and remember the time when I was crying to you about how an unarmed black man was shot by the cops for no reason, and you made an extremely ignorant excuse about how it was his fault?”

Liz went on, emotionally mentioning what had happened. More people in the hall seemed to really listen this time.

              A couple of weeks before summer, Liz was watching the news, when she heard about a horrific tragedy. It mentioned that an African American man, who was in Liz’s city, was shot at least 10 times by cops. He was pulled over, because he was speeding. It was also mentioned that he was unarmed, and that he had complied. A graphic video that one of the cops had recorded of the scene was shown. Liz was extremely disappointed by this, and she started to cry. She ran upstairs to her room, called Lauren, and told her about it. Lauren’s response to the matter was careless, as she said, “Well, he must’ve not complied if he was shot that many times.”

Liz replied, “Lauren, even if he didn’t comply, he didn’t deserve to be shot that many times.”

Then Lauren talked about how he was probably on drugs wildling out, considering that he was black. She also mentioned how the cops were in danger of their life, and that they had to do what they did. They started arguing, and then Lauren angrily hung up. They didn’t talk to each other for a few days, then Liz apologized to Lauren, and forgave her.

               Liz then finished her statement, “Now, you blame me for you stealing, because you know that people will most likely believe the white girl over the black girl, and that black people are the ones who are targeted the most for committing crimes.”

               There was silence. Then, someone clapped. After a short moment, another person clapped. Slowly, claps started escalating across the hall. Liz was pretty surprised, because she wasn’t expecting to get this much support, considering that Valley Heights wasn’t very liberal.

               Lauren stood there, shocked. She then took off running down the hall, with her friends still on her side. After that, Liz didn’t speak to Lauren nor some of their other friends again. But, Liz was glad she didn’t, because she knew that she deserved friends who were actually caring and respectful. Sure, her popularity decreased a little, but she didn’t care about that anymore. Liz was able to find some new people to hang out with. This time, she felt more relaxed that she revealed the side of herself that she had wanted to show for a long time; the side that was racially aware.