“Hey, check this out,” Emily remarked. “A name meaning website!”

The Clique News Crash team was hanging out in Ms. Gibson’s classroom in the morning. Emily had been given permission to use the new computer that had been put into the classroom, and she was looking up different websites.

“Oh really?” Ophelia said. She hurried over. AJ, Angela, and Ms. Gibson followed suit.

“Let’s see…” Emily said. “Let’s see what my name means.”

She typed in her name and read the results out loud: “Medieval feminine form of Aemilius (see Emil).” She shrugged and clicked on the link to the name meaning for Emil and read, “From the Roman family name Aemilius, which was derived from Latin aemulus meaning ‘rival.’” She groaned to herself. “Well, that sucks.”

Ophelia laughed and said, “Look up AJ’s name!”

Emily said, “Okay, fine… what does Aiden mean…?”

“You mean his real name is Aiden?” Ophelia snickered. “What’s the J for?”

“James. My middle name,” AJ said bitterly. “Thanks for telling everyone, Em.”

“No problem,” Emily said dryly. She read from the screen, clicking links, “Aiden is a variant of Aidan, which is an Anglicized form of Aodhán, which is from the old Irish name Áedán, a pet form of Áed or Aodh, meaning ‘fire.’”

“All that clicking just to find out that my name means one word?” AJ asked. “What a rip-off!”


Emily typed for a few seconds. “Hey, there’s no meaning for the name Charise on here,” she said.

Charise hurried over and leaned over her shoulder. “That’s because my name was invented by my dad. It’s a shortened version of my grandmother’s name-- Charlotte Clarisse. So, if you look up Charlotte and Clarisse, you’ll get what my name means.”

“Oh, okay,” Emily said with a nod. “Let’s see… Charlotte is the French feminine pet form of Charles, from the Germanic name Karl, derived from a Germanic word meaning ‘man.’ Or, in your case, ‘woman.’ However, an alternate theory states that the name is derived from the common Germanic element heri, meaning ‘army, or warrior.’ Clarisse is the French form of Clarice-- wow, both parts of your name are French-- and it’s from the late Latin name Claritia, derived from the Latin clarus, meaning ‘clear, bright, famous.’”

“Great name meaning there,” Ophelia remarked. “Look up Tiffani’s name.” She looked around. “Come to think of it, where is Tiffani? AJ, did you tell her something mean?”

“No,” AJ replied quickly. “I think she’s getting some new scoop for our show.”

“Scoop?” Emily asked.

“Yeah. Sherrie and her boyfriend Bruno are having a nasty public breakup,” AJ responded.

“And just how is that scoop for our show?” Ophelia asked.

“School celebrity news?” AJ said with a shrug. "Anyway, I think she went just because Sherrie's her best friend, or used to be, and she wanted to feel superior to the girl who took her place on the cheerleading squad."

Ophelia and Emily rolled their eyes.

“AJ,” Ophelia said, “a breakup does not count as scoop.”


“It does when the chick in question was cheating on her boyfriend with Lyle Robbins, the class hottie,” Tiffani said breathlessly, from behind them.

“Where did you come from?” Emily asked.

“Blame my parents,” Tiffani said dryly. “Seriously, though, I’ve got major news.”

“We already know about the breakup. And the cheating,” AJ replied.

“And we are not going to use that on our show,” Ophelia added.

“No, no, this has nothing to do with the breakup,” Tiffani replied, flopping into a chair. “This is really big news.”

“Well, tell us, instead of just telling us how big and major and wicked it is,” Charise replied.


“Well, it is wicked serious,” Tiffani said. “I saw Mae.”

“Yeah, and? We've all seen Mae,” AJ replied.

“…She’s dressed… girly!” Tiffani gasped out.

Ophelia shrieked out, “What?!” Everyone stared at her. “Oh God, not this again!” she added, rushing out of the classroom. Everyone followed suit.


Indeed, Tiffani was not lying. Mae was walking down the hall, wearing a rather feminine outfit. In fact, most of the people witnessing this were astonished that Mae would even have such an outfit. Ophelia, however, bit her lip, concerned. She remembered the last time that Mae had done this. Not long after her parents divorced, Mae appeared at school wearing a frilly pink dress. Ophelia flinched at this memory. She’s taking it even harder than I thought, Ophelia thought guiltily.


Ophelia took a deep breath. Mae was heading her way! “G-good morning,” Ophelia greeted her. Mae smiled, but Ophelia could see that the smile was forced. “Good morning,” Mae replied. She nodded politely and moved along.


Julia trailed behind Mae. She watched Ophelia and Mae’s interaction, and as she did, her eyes widened. She hurried to catch up to Mae and gasped, “Oh my God, you did have a fight!” Mae glanced away. Julia noticed that a lot of people seemed to be commenting on Mae’s outfit. “Well, it seems everyone likes your new look,” she continued. I don’t, though, Julia thought. It’s not your kind of normal.