Authors: Julie Bowe

My Best Frenemy (16 page)

BOOK: My Best Frenemy

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“
Now
what? ” Brooke asks. She holds the ice cup to her forehead like she’s getting a headache.

Stacey glances at me, then back at the girls. “Ida doesn’t want to do this dare, ” she says.

“Of course she doesn’t want to do it,” Brooke says. “That’s the point of a dare. ”

Stacey crosses her arms. “Then we should think of a
new
dare,” she says. “Because this one is too mean. ”

Brooke’s mouth drops open. “
Mean? ”
She huffs. “We built her a
pagoda
. Meeka sterilized her needles. I’m donating a pair of my best earrings. ” Brooke takes one of her melting ice cubes out of the cup. “I don’t call that mean. ” She pops the ice into her mouth and crunches.

I glance at the other girls, but they don’t look back at me. It’s like I’ve shrunk to the size of the potato in my hand. Maybe even smaller.

This is the size I’ll always be to them,
I think to myself,
if I don’t do this dare.

My eyes still sting, but I blink it away and take a breath. The air tastes like lip gloss and gummy bears and sweet pea body spritz. It tastes like fourth grade.

“Um . . .” I say quietly. “I think I panicked a little. I’m okay now. Let’s do it. ”

Stacey lifts her eyebrows and looks at me. “Are you sure? ”

I nod.

Brooke swallows her ice and smiles.

Meeka picks up her pincushion.

I squeeze my potato.

“Last one in is a rotten egg! ” Randi hollers from inside the pagoda. Jolene scrambles past Meeka. Brooke and Stacey dive for the pagoda, giggling.

I get in line behind them.

“Wait! ” someone suddenly shouts from the hallway. “
Waaaait!
”

Meeka looks up from her needles. Brooke and Stacey peek back out. I stop and turn.

Jenna rushes into the room. I didn’t even know she was gone.

Brooke crawls back out of the pagoda. “Jenna Drews, ” she snaps. “You can’t make us wait.
I’m
in charge, not you. ”

“Not hardly, ” Jenna says. She glances over her shoulder.

Jade steps into the room.

She studies the pagoda.

The cup of ice in Brooke’s hand.

The pincushion in Meeka’s.

The potato in mine.

Then she narrows her eyes. “What are you nut bars doing? ”

“Uh-oh,” I hear from deep inside the pagoda. “Not good. ”

Brooke steps past me. “We’re piercing Ida’s ears, ” she says to her sister. “Not that it’s any of your business. ”

Jade zeroes in on Brooke. “You’re
what
?”

Brooke huffs impatiently. “We’re piercing Id—”

“I heard you, ” Jade cuts in. She studies all of us again. Then she shakes her head and groans. She snatches up Meeka’s pincushion and holds it in front of Brooke’s face. “These are
sewing
needles, pea brain. ”

Brooke does a small snort.
“Du-uh,
” she says.

Jade moves in even closer and locks eyes with her sister. “They’re for fixing holes,” she says. “
Not
piercing ears. ”

Brooke shrinks back a step. “But I heard Meghan tell you about her cousin. How she pierced her ears for her and—”

“If you’re going to dip into other people’s conversations, ” Jade interrupts, “then you better keep your pretty little ears tuned in for the whole thing. ”

Brooke twitches and her ice cubes clink. “W-what do you mean? ”

“You missed the part about Meghan’s cousin getting a major infection. They had to take her to the emergency room so the doctors could drain the
pus
.”

“Eew! ” we all say.

“Cool, ”
slips from the pagoda.

“She had to have her head wrapped like a mummy for a
week, ”
Jade continues.

Brooke shifts a little. “I must have missed that part. ”

Jade grabs the cup of ice out of Brooke’s hand and plunks the pincushion into it. “
No
ear piercing, ” Jade says. “Not on my watch. ”

Jade sweeps past Jenna and down the hall. A moment later we hear her bedroom door slam.

Brooke just blinks for a minute. Then her eyes slowly shift to Jenna. “
You
spilled the beans,” she says. Her voice sounds as sharp as Meeka’s needles.

Jenna doesn’t flinch. She just lifts her chin. “
Someone
had to. ”

Brooke doesn’t reply.

No one does.

No one even moves. It’s like our feet have frozen to the floor.

Then I hear a rustling sound.

A shaggy head pokes out of the pagoda.

“I’m starved, ” Randi says. “When do we eat? ”

We don’t dare leave Brooke’s room, so we huddle in the pagoda, eating the grapes Jolene brought, and waiting for Jade to cool down.

“What about Ida’s dare?” Randi asks, popping a grape into her mouth. “Do we do it or not? ”

“I vote not, ” I say.

“But we have to do something, ” Brooke says.

“Jade took my needles, ” Meeka says. “So it will have to be a substitute dare. ”

“Maybe something that gets back at Jade,” Randi says. “For spoiling our daremony. ”

“
Jenna
is the one who spoiled it, ” Brooke says.

Randi shrugs. “Then Jenna can do the dare too. Two birds, one stone. Easy cheesy. ”

“Fine, ” Jenna says.

“Okay, ” I say. “But afterward, everything goes back to normal and nobody gets left out of the group. Deal? ”

“Deal, ” everyone says together.

“Ooo... I’ve got an idea for their dare,” Stacey says. She picks up Randi’s potato and looks at me and Jenna. “You guys have to hide this in Jade’s room! ”

“But Jade’s
in
her room,” Jolene says. “They would have to be invisible. ”

“Plus, they would get seriously murdered,” Meeka adds. “That’s so not healthy. ”

“Okay, not in her room,” Stacey says. “Just in her shoe or her coat or something. ”

Everyone agrees. Not because it’s the best triple-dog dare ever, but because sometimes you just have to take what you get and move on before you get bored to death.

A few minutes later, we all listen at the door while Brooke asks Jade if we can please play ghosts in the graveyard. She uses her sweetest voice. The one Jade taught her for getting her way.

Brooke flies back to us. “It’s a go, ” she says. “But if we break anything Jade will make us sleep in a snowbank. I’ll be the ghost first so I can turn off the lights downstairs. You guys do the chant and then come looking for me. Ida and Jenna, you hide the potato in Jade’s coat pocket while everyone is running around. It’s in the closet by the front door. ”

“How will we know which coat? ” Jenna asks.

“Don’t worry, ” I say. “I’ve seen it before. ”

Brooke takes off and we start chanting slowly, to give her enough time to hide. “One o’clock . . . two o’clock . . . three o’clock . . . four o’clock . . .” When we get to “Midnight!” we all shout, “We hope we see a ghost tonight! ”

Everyone scatters down the hallway, looking for Brooke. Jenna picks up the potato. “Follow me, ” she says.

“Wait, ” I say, grabbing her arm. “There’s something I want to do first. ”

I take the potato from Jenna and walk over to Brooke’s desk. I find a marker and write
Thanks a lot
on the potato. Only I don’t write it in a mean way.

Jenna reads the potato and smirks. “Very thoughtful, ” she says.

“Yep, ” I say back. “Plus, I wanted to thank you too, for spilling the beans to Jade. That was really nice of you. ”

Jenna twitches. “I wasn’t doing it to be nice,” she says. “I just wanted to get back at Brooke for taking over my truth or dare game in the first place. ”

“Still,” I say. “You were being a good friend when you did it. ”

Jenna huffs and looks away. “I’m not anybody’s friend.
Frenemy
maybe, but not friend. ”

I do the huff too. “Then you were being a good
frenemy
. My
best
frenemy. ”

Jenna glances at me. And smiles.

We hear a fake scream and then the sound of feet pounding up the stairs. “C’mon,” I say. “Let’s get this dare over with so we can play too. ”

Jenna nods.

I lead the way.

Dear Stella,

I just got home from Brooke’s sleep-over. I was supposed to get my ears pierced there, but things didn’t go as planned. Jenna told Jade what we were up to and Jade made us stop. She was pretty mad, but she didn’t tell on us.

She didn’t finish doing our makeup either. I guess that was fair.

Stacey thought up a substitute dare for me and Jenna to do. It was the only one we did all night. I think we’re done playing that game for a while.

There’s a knock on my door. Mom looks in. “I forgot to tell you that Mrs. Drews called for you earlier. ”

“For me? ”

Mom nods and walks over to me. She picks up George and sits down on my bed. “She needs a favor. ”

I blink and wait for more information.

“She has a doctor’s appointment next Thursday when Jenna is at dance and she needs someone to watch Rachel. She wondered if you would babysit for her. ”

“Babysit? Why didn’t she just ask you? I mean, you’ll be home anyway, right? ”

“Yes, I’ll be here,” Mom says. “But Rachel wanted
you
.”

“Me? ”

Mom nods. “Mrs. Drews said she’ll pay you. Five dollars an hour. ”

I do a gasp. “She’ll
pay
me? Just for watching Rachel? What did you tell her? ”

Mom sets George on my lap. “I told her you might be busy because you always meet Stacey after dance on Thursdays. ”

I think about how much I like meeting Stacey and sharing a cookie and talking about best friend stuff. But sometimes plans change. Sometimes friendships do too. Even mine and Stacey’s has been changing lately. Not in a bad way, like Brooke and Jenna’s. Just in a different way. Maybe even a good way. Because even though I still like Stacey, I know I’m not exactly like her. And that’s okay.

“I’ll do it, ” I say. “Stacey owes me a skip anyway.”

“Better call Mrs. Drews then, ” Mom says, standing up. “Her number’s by the kitchen phone. ”

I set George by my journal and head downstairs.

“Everything good?” Mom asks when I hang up the phone. She looks up from the lettuce leaves she’s rinsing in the sink.

I lean against the counter. “Everything’s great, ” I reply. “Mrs. Drews said she might need me to babysit next weekend too, when Jenna’s at Girl Scouts. ”

“Wow, ” Mom says, turning off the water and shaking the leaves. “You’ll be rich. ”

“I know. ”

Mom sets the lettuce in a salad bowl and starts tearing it into pieces. I pick up a leaf and start tearing too. The whole time my brain is churning up an idea.

A great big idea.

“Mom?” I finally say. “Do I have to save my babysitting money, or can I spend it on whatever I want? ”

Mom narrows her eyes. “That depends on what the
whatever
is. ”

I pause, daring myself to tell her.

“I want to get my ears pierced, ” I say. “As soon as possible. ”

“Ida,” Mom says, “we’ve already talked about this. ”

“I know, ” I say. “You want me to wait until I’m ten. But I’m nine and a half now. And Mr. Crow says you always round half numbers
up
. So, if you do the math right, I’m already ten. ”

Mom does a little snort.

“I’ll do all my chores,” I continue. “With no reminders. And I’ll take good care of Rachel. And after I get my ears pierced I’ll clean them ten times a day so you won’t have to take me to the emergency room. ”

Mom snorts again. Then she’s quiet for a minute.

“Well...” she finally says. “I’ll talk it over with Dad. And . . . if it sounds good to him—”

I don’t wait to hear the end of this conversation.

I dive in, hugging her.

Mom rests her chin on top of my head and hugs me back.