Best Friends (Until Someone Better Comes Along) (8 page)

“What routine?” I asked, my eyes wide. I suddenly worried that maybe You, Only Better had some sort of talent show at the end of the month. No one would get me to participate in something like that for all the money in the world. And the idea of my dad up onstage, singing Black Eyed Peas or Adele or something, made me want to vomit. My dad was totally the kind of guy who would sing in front of everyone too. He was the show-offy “Cool Guy,” the brand of dad who always wants to make everyone think he's really fun and easygoing. He isn't. Every time he acted like that lately, it was one hundred percent for show. “What are you talking about?” I repeated. “A gymnastics routine or something?”

Ava looked at Bailey, and Bailey shrugged. “Just tell her. She'll find out eventually.”

“Tell me what?” I asked.

“I'm trying out for Southwest's dance team this fall,” Ava said. “Promise you won't make fun of me. . . .”

“Why would I make fun of you?”

“Because you're Isabella Caravelli.” Bailey stared me down. “That's what you do.”

I shrugged. That was true. And in fact, I really did want to laugh about the idea of someone like Ava actually trying out for our school's dance team. Ava would never make the team, not in a million years. She would be eaten alive at auditions. But instead of saying that—which would have been the honest thing to say—I said, “Can I see you dance? I'll help you if I can.”

Ava squealed, and ran into Bailey's room to turn on the music.

“Are you trying out for dance this year?” Bailey asked me. She was shuffling around in the kitchen, looking for snacks while Ava got ready.

I shook my head. “No, I have soccer.” This was a lie that easily rolled off my tongue by now. I've somehow convinced everyone that I'm totally committed to soccer, or I definitely would be on the dance team. But the truth is, I have never and will never try out, because I know I'd never make the team. I'm a terrible dancer—like, dead-fish-flopping-around-in-the-bottom-of-a-boat bad. I've never even figured out how to make my body do simple tumbling stuff, like cartwheels, so there's no way I'm going to humiliate myself by trying to learn a complicated dance routine and then mess up in front of everyone.

The tough thing is, I'm practically the only one of my friends who
isn't
trying out. I don't like to think about how horrible it will be if they all make the team, then start hanging out without me. But only a few people make the dance team each year, so I know it isn't very likely. Everyone knows Heidi has no rhythm and Sylvie always cracks under pressure, so I'm not too worried about them making it. I'm kind of counting on both of them to mess up, actually.

I know you're supposed to support your friends, but it's hard to do when I know they'll both be better off if they just don't make it. Then nothing has to change with us, and my best friends will still need me just as much as they always have.

“Soccer?” Bailey said, looking at me curiously. “Can't you do both?”

Yes, I could. But I choose not to. “Nope,” I said, with no further explanation. I hoped Bailey would just butt out.

All of a sudden, a pulsing dance mix pumped through the wooden cabin. I tapped my feet, waiting on the couch as Ava prepared to enter.

“Action!” Bailey cried, clapping from the kitchen. She pulled her video camera out and pointed it toward the door of her bedroom.

Ava burst out from behind the bedroom curtain, her usually mousy expression gone. In its place was a huge smile. She leapt from the kitchen into the living room, her arms outstretched. She jumped and whirled, tossed her hair and kicked her feet. When the song ended, she landed in a full splits, with her arms straight above her head. Then her whole body collapsed forward onto the floor, her face flushed. After a few seconds, she peeked up from under her hair. “So?”

“So that was amazing!” I said honestly. I've seen Heidi's and Sylvie's routines, and they aren't even in the same league as Ava's. “I did
not
expect you to dance like that.”

“I guess that's a compliment?” Ava whispered.

“I guess so,” I agreed. Sometimes I even surprised myself.

W
hat's the deal with Brennan?”
I asked the next day as I stretched out on the dock beside Ava and Bailey. Now that I'd come to terms with the fact that we were just a summer thing, I was able to relax a little more when I was with them. They were pretty fun, and they definitely beat hanging out with my mom.

“He's super-cute, isn't he?” Bailey giggled.

“I guess,” I said, keeping my eyes hidden behind my sunglasses. I didn't want to admit just
how
cute I thought he was, since Brennan wasn't really very nice to me the day before during Canoe Wars. I had a feeling I wasn't exactly his favorite girl at the resort. “Is he our age?”

“No, he's going into eighth grade,” Ava said. “He goes to Hill.”

Hill was the other middle school in our district. Sometimes we played them in soccer—but I didn't know anyone who went there.

“I
wish
he went to Southwest,” Bailey said, pulling her hair back into a messy ponytail. “Maybe then he'd realize I'm not just some kid he spends summers with at the lake.”

“Oh!” I said, as realization hit. “You like him!”

“No!” Bailey said immediately. But the flush in her cheeks gave her away. “I mean, sure, he's cute, but it's not like I'd ever have a chance with him. Someone like you might, maybe, but not me.”

I studied Bailey through my sunglasses, realizing she was making excuses for why she couldn't or shouldn't have a crush on Brennan. It bothered me, the way she was dismissing herself, like she wasn't good enough for him. “Why do you say that?” I demanded. “Why would you think you wouldn't ever have a chance with him?”

Bailey shrugged. “I just—I just don't.”

There was something in the way she said it that made me think that maybe she sort of
did
think she had a chance. But something was obviously holding her back. “You really believe that?” I lifted my sunglasses so I could look right at her. “Because I think you don't.”

Bailey laughed. “I mean, yeah, maybe he sometimes flirts with me a little bit. But that doesn't mean anything. He flirts with everyone. It's no big deal.”

“Well,” I said, casually dropping my sunglasses back over my eyes. “I definitely think he's cute. And I think we should figure out who—if anyone—he
does
like here. There's no sense in letting a good guy go to waste all month, right?” I realized that if Bailey wasn't going to go after him, well, then I might as well flirt with him myself. It was good practice for real guys, if nothing else.

“How are you going to do that?” Ava asked, her mouth an O of surprise. I'd started to realize that Ava almost always looked surprised and scared. “Are you just going to ask him?”

“Of course I'm not just going to ask him!” I said, rolling my eyes. Suddenly, I had an idea. “Let's
all
flirt with him for the next week and see how things turn out.” I liked this plan. I loved the idea of all of us flirting with Brennan, trying to get him to pick one of us over the others. The main reason I loved the idea is, I always won games like this. And I had no doubt I'd win at this, too. I knew there was no way Bailey or Ava was better at getting a guy's attention than I am. Hopefully, they would appreciate the chance to learn something
about flirting from me. They should be psyched that I was willing to teach them a thing or two!

“I think that sounds awful,” Bailey said, shaking her head.

“What . . . are you afraid of a little flirting?” I teased. “Do you not know
how
to flirt?” That was probably it. If she really was afraid to flirt, I felt bad for her. I was doing her a favor by showing her how this worked!

Bailey didn't laugh at my teasing, like Heidi or Sylvie would have. She almost looked like I'd offended her. “Yes, I know how to flirt,” she said coolly. “It just seems like one of us is going to end up feeling awful at the end of the week if we do that.”

I considered her point. My friends and I did this sort of thing all the time. Sure, someone got hurt at the end of one of our little competitions, but whoever it was eventually got over it. There are winners and losers in life; that's just the way it is, and people have to figure that out. Besides, I usually won—and that made our games a lot more fun for me. “Yeah, someone's feelings might get a little hurt,” I agreed, lying back on my towel. I didn't like the look on Bailey's face. It was making me uncomfortable, like I'd disappointed her. “I just thought it would be fun. You can play or you can not play. But I'm going to try to get Brennan to notice me.”

I caught Ava and Bailey glancing at each other. I glared at them from behind my dark glasses. “What?” I demanded. Clearly, they were upset about something. They were both so transparent, it was easy for me to read them. But I figured neither of them would have the guts to actually say anything to me, so it didn't really matter
what
they were thinking.

Ava pushed herself up and sat cross-legged beside Bailey. She squeaked out, “You don't think you're being rude?”

“Why is that rude?” I asked. I had no idea what Ava was so upset about. Neither she nor Bailey was actively going after Brennan, so why was he suddenly off-limits to me, too?

“Bailey
just
told you she thinks he's cute. And now, suddenly, you're going to try to get him to like you?” Ava's voice went up an octave. “Maybe that's how you do things with your friends, but that's not how we treat each other. It's just rude.” She sat up straighter and said, “No offense, but if you're going to keep acting the way you do at school, I don't really want to hang out with you.” She squared her shoulders and tried to look tough, but I could see that she was shaking.

“Fine,” I said, keeping my voice even.

But it really wasn't fine. I had just started to like Ava and Bailey, and having them tell me they didn't want to spend time with me was hurtful. I'd discovered that they were easy
and relaxing to be around, and I could feel myself unwind a little bit when I spent time with them. I could just
be
, and I didn't have to work so hard to control everything around me. Something about them made me wish I was a better person. And I guess it was true that a nicer person probably wouldn't design a game to try to steal someone else's crush. “Actually,” I said, speaking quietly, embarrassed, “it's not fine. You're right.”

“Ava's usually right about stuff like that,” Bailey added. “She's a really good friend.”

And Izzy's not.
I finished Bailey's comment for her in my head. Sometimes I knew I wasn't the greatest friend. But it was hard. There was a fine line between being a doormat and being a good friend, and I just don't want to put myself in a position where people might push me around. So I always push first—that way I always have the upper hand. It's all about maintaining control. But I was starting to realize control didn't matter quite as much at the lake, and maybe I could just sit back and hang out for a few weeks.

“So let's forget the flirting challenge,” I said. “Pretend I never suggested it, okay?”

Bailey shrugged. “I guess.”

“Seriously,” I said. “Please, just forget I said it.” I realized it
sounded like I was begging, but maybe that was okay. It was possible I had to do some things I didn't usually like to do if I wanted to make the summer with these girls work. Maybe it would take a little begging and a lot of holding my tongue if I wanted to avoid spending every minute inside the cabin with my mom. “Maybe Ava and I can help you with Brennan somehow?”

Bailey didn't look convinced. “Really?”

“Sure,” I offered. “It might be kind of fun. It will be like a project.”

“I'm not your project,” Bailey said, her mouth set. “If you think you're doing me some sort of favor, don't. I don't need your charity, and I certainly don't need lessons from you on how to get people to like me.”

Wow.

Neither of these girls was at
all
like I thought they were going to be. Bailey was actually a little like a pitbull sometimes. She was pretty fierce and definitely stood up for what she believed in. Kind of like me. But not.

“Maybe we should start over,” I suggested, trying to figure out how I was supposed to go about offering up a truce, when really, I was probably the reason everything had gone wrong in the first place. “I think we got off to a bad start.
I
got off to
a bad start.” I sat up on my towel, pulled off my sunglasses, and looked both Bailey and Ava in the eye. “I'm Izzy,” I said with a smile. “It's really nice to meet you. I hope we can be friends.” I was surprised something so cheesy was coming out of my mouth.

But as I said it, the thing that surprised me the most was just how much I meant it.

I
guess all it took
was admitting that I'd been sort of—okay, maybe a touch more than
sort of
—rude at the beginning of the month. Because after that day on the dock, Bailey and Ava and I got along really well. We spent most of our days on the beach or in the water. A lot of days we hung out with Brennan and Zach, or Levi, and often Madeline, but many times it was just the three of us. I was still completely useless at Canoe Wars, even after six more rounds of practice. My team
always
lost—but I had fun anyway, and everyone liked cracking jokes at my expense.

Most afternoons, Bailey, Ava, and I spent an hour or two at Ava's cabin, helping her practice her dance routine. Bailey always had her video camera with her, to take rehearsal shots
of Ava while she danced. Sometimes we'd huddle around the little video screen afterward and give Ava silly tips on what she could improve upon. Neither Bailey nor I were of any use in the “real dance advice” department—so we always tried to one-up each other with really ridiculous suggestions, like suggesting she attempt to do the whole dance with frozen joints or that she complete her routine without smiling.