The girl who stole that other girl's front page article

Here's for those of you who don't already know the story...

It was the morning of Monday, January 10th. I had written a weekend story on a women's basketball game and was excited to see if my article got into the Monday issue of the Daily Universe. There I was, minding my own business as I reached into the news stand, pulled out a paper and saw this:

Specifically, this:

That was MY name on the front page! Underneath an article I most certainly did not write.

"Hmm, that's a big mistake," I mumbled to myself after I finished staring and thumbed back a few pages to find my real article. (It was there.) "I wonder who really wrote that- that would stink to do all that work on a front page story and then have someone else's name go on it."

Two hours later I walked into my Comms 321 class (the DU class) just in time to catch the end of one of my classmates' conversations.

"...See? They didn't even put my name on it! It has some other name instead. Jessica Henrie. Who's Jessica Henrie?"

I caught her attention and waved. "Hi, it's me, Jessica Henrie."

(pause)

"Kelly Bluth," she said.

I gestured to the newspaper she was holding. "Yeah, um, I saw that this morning. That stinks. I'm sorry. It's a really good article, I was looking at it thinking, 'I wish I'd written this-' "

"Thanks," she said.

When Ed Carter, our professor and DU editor-in-chief, walked in, Kelly jumped up and waved the paper in his face.

"You put the wrong name on my article!" she said.

He took the paper from her and frowned at it. "That's a big mistake. I'm sorry. I'll make sure the byline is right online." He looked up at the class. "Is Jessica Henrie here?"

I waved my hand again from my spot by the wall. "Hey."

"Apparently you got a pretend front page story." He grinned. I smiled back.

"Yeah."

The story was all over the newsroom (and the department) in a matter of days. Last week I walked into one of my classes and struck up a conversation with a girl next to me.

"Hi, I'm Jessica Henrie," I said.

"Oh, the girl who stole that other girl's front page article?"

"Yep, that's me."

I went home and told Mara and Jill that I'm now officially The Girl.