What's a Girl Gotta Do? Read Free

hadn’t expected FemSoc to take off the way it had. Last summer term we’d campaigned to get this offensive song removed from the college jukebox. We won – which was great. Half of college hated us for it – which wasn’t so great. But lots of girls expressed an interest in joining and we now had over twenty members. We’d only had two meetings so far this term, but more girls had turned up to each one. And Evie, Amber and I still ran our own private Spinster Club meetings out of college – so we could spend time together, just us.
    You can’t adequately share cheesy snacks with twenty plus people.
    I pushed my way through the heavy double doors and the hubbub of everyone’s conversations hit me as I stepped into the meeting room. Some of them waved hi as I walked to the front, and I waved back weakly – hardly able to muster the energy. My emotions still swirled around my body, like a vortex had opened up in my guts. The worst thing was that today had felt so ergh…but really…what had happened that was so extraordinary?
    Evie was a jangly mess, her normally sleek blonde hair all straggly from running her hands through it. Amber had her arm around her, muttering reassuring things.
    I made myself smile. Not wanting to worry them. Not at Evie’s big moment. I plopped my bag on the chair next to them. “How’s the blood pressure?” I asked.
    Evie took an exaggerated breath. “Remind me why we decided to make this a public club again?”
    Amber wrapped her arm around tighter. “Because it will look good on our uni applications?” she joked.
    I shook my head. “Not according to my dad.”
    They both made aww shucks sympathy faces – they’d counselled me through many an argument about this with my father.
    â€œAnd, anyway, it’s public because we want to save the world. And we cannot do that holed up in Evie’s unnaturally tidy bedroom, eating cheese on toast and preaching to just each other.”
    â€œStop being so reasonable.” Evie’s eyes darted out over the crowd. “You know it doesn’t work on me.”
    I smiled sadly. I knew… Evie has OCD – though she’s got it pretty under control at the moment. She got really ill last year, before Amber or I knew about it. I felt guilty for asking her to run the meeting. It was tough being Evie’s friend sometimes. You had to maintain a delicate balance of not pushing her too hard to do things that scared her as it made her feel crap about herself, versus knowing that sometimes the odd nudge helped her grow.
    I put my arm around her, so we were all hugging. “You’re going to be fine. You know that, right?”
    She smiled. “I just still can’t believe you’re letting someone else talk.”
    â€œHey,” I said, while she and Amber burst out laughing. “I’m not that bad…hang on…yes, I’m definitely that bad.” I had a reputation for being quite…umm…chatty. Though today all I wanted to do was sit in the corner quietly and mull. My mood had got steadily worse.
    The last few trickles of girls came in and the room quietened, sensing the meeting was about to start. I pulled out my notebook and pen and started sucking on the end.
    Evie rustled some papers and stood up, readying herself. Amber pulled her chair up next to me. “You think she’s going to be okay?” she whispered. “I saw her wash her hands beforehand…”
    The blodge of guilt blodged blodgier.
    â€œI think she’ll be fine,” I said, though not entirely convinced. “She does still do that sometimes. Just as long as it’s not all the time, I guess.”
    â€œYou read her agenda?”
    I shook my head. “Not had time.”
    Amber inched forward – a stray bit of her frizzy red hair tickled my cheek.
    â€œSpeaking of being okay, are you okay?” she asked. “We missed