Read My Forever Friends Online

Authors: Julie Bowe

My Forever Friends (10 page)

BOOK: My Forever Friends
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The spider scurries onto the wall.
Close to me.
Closer to Brooke.
Four fingernails cut a crooked path across my wrist. Brooke screams and dives. She clings to Jenna's back like a crazy cat.
“Get
off
!” Jenna shouts, squirming.
Brooke hangs on. “Spiders lay eggs, you know!” she wails. “In your hair!”
The spider moves.
Brooke howls.
Jenna slips off a shoe.
She lunges toward the wall with Brooke on her back.
Whack!
The spider falls to the floor and scurries to a shadowy corner.
“Jenna!”
Mr. Crow shouts. “I said to leave that spider alone!”
“I had to do something,” Jenna says, slipping her shoe back on. “Brooke was freaking.”
“Don't blame me,” Brooke says, straightening her tiara and smoothing her hair. “I didn't force you to commit murder.”
“Attempted murder,” Tom says.
“It looks mad.” Jolene steps closer to the spider. “See? Its hair is standing on end.”
“Bad luck,” Meeka says, shaking her head.
“For Jenna,” Brooke puts in.
“Outside,” Mr. Crow says. “Everyone. Game time.” He holds open the door and shoos us into the sunshine.
“Been nice knowin' ya,” Rusty says, giving Jenna's shoulder a pat.
Jenna jerks away. “I didn't kill it.”
“You tried,” Rusty says. “I saw the gleam in your eye.”
“Yeah, work on your aim, Spidergirl,” Quinn adds.
Rusty snorts. “Your aim, Spidergirl, your aim!”
They gallop away, laughing.
“It's good you missed,” Tom says, coming up behind us.
“Go away, Tom,” Jenna grumbles. “I don't need one of your brainy lectures right now.”
“No lecture,” Tom says. “It's just that spiders are useful. They get rid of unwanted pests.”
Jenna squints at him. “Right now you're the only pest I see.”
Tom's face falls.
Jenna tugs me away.
“He was just trying to be nice,” I say to her, glancing back at Tom. “Besides, I thought you liked him.”
“I
do
like him,” Jenna says. “But I don't want everyone to know it. And
I
was trying to be nice. But all
she
did was accuse me of attempted murder.”
“Who? Brooke?”
“Who else?” Jenna says. “Some former best friend.”
We catch up with the others in an open area near the picnic shelter. Mr. Crow teaches us some pioneer games. Drop the handkerchief. Shadow tag. Blind man's bluff. By the time the chaperones have lunch ready, my bonnet looks like it's been through a stampede. But I don't mind.
Jenna waves me to a picnic table after I get my buffalo burger. I sit next to her and what's left of her egg salad sandwich. Everyone fills in around us, eating and talking about the fun day we've had.
And actually, parts of it have been.
Quinn and Rusty are huddled across the table, whispering and giggling. I try to ignore them even though I wonder what they're talking about. I fiddle with the yarn around my neck and nibble at my burger. Maybe Quinn is telling Rusty what he said to me this morning. About looking like a tulip. About not stinking.
I hope he isn't, because there are some things you don't want to share around.
Quinn gives Rusty a jab. “Go on,” he whispers. “Do it.”
“Okay, okay,” Rusty whispers back, glancing at Jenna. He holds his buffalo burger out to her. “Hey, Spidergirl,” he says. “Dare you to take a bite!”
Jenna munches a carrot stick, studying the burger. She takes a sip from her juice pouch and squints at Rusty. “What will
you
do if
I
do?” she asks.
Everyone leans in, waiting for Rusty's answer.
Rusty takes time to think things through. Ketchup drips from his burger like fake blood. “If you take a bite,” he finally says, “I'll wear your bonnet.”
We gasp.
And giggle.
And shift back to Jenna.
“Will she do it?” someone whispers.
“No way,” someone else whispers back. “She doesn't even eat regular meat. She'll never go for buffalo.”
“Cluck, cluck, cluck!” Quinn does nose pecks at Jenna and flaps his arms like wings.
My eyes go wide. There's nothing Jenna hates more than being called a chicken.
Jenna's eyes narrow under her red brim.
Then she plucks the burger out of Rusty's hand.
And takes an enormous bite.
We gasp again.
“Whoa!” Randi says. “She did it!”
“Huh?” Rusty blinks. Ketchup clings to his empty hand.
Jenna smirks around the buffalo in her mouth. “Huh,” she replies. Then she leans over her waxed paper and spits the whole thing out.
Triple gasp.
Jenna looks at Rusty and licks the corner of her mouth. “You lose,” she says, untying her bonnet.
“But you didn't eat it!” Rusty cries.
“You didn't dare me to
eat
it,” Jenna replies. “You dared me to take a bite. Which I did.” She jabs her bonnet at Rusty. “Pay up.”
“But that . . . but that . . . but that's not fair!” Rusty's eyes dart around, looking for the other guys to back him up.
“Actually, it is fair,” Tom says. “She did exactly what you dared her to do.”
“She did.” Even Brooke agrees.
Everyone nods.
“Thank you, Tom,” Jenna says. She gives him a smile.
Tom smiles back.
Rusty slumps.
Quinn snatches the bonnet from Jenna and plunks it on Rusty's head.
“Hey there, little lady,” Zane says all twangy to Rusty. “You look mighty pur-dee!”
We all laugh like a tuba band.
Mr. Crow and the chaperones look up.
They see Rusty and start laughing too.
I catch Stacey's eye.
She lets a smile slip.
A real smile.
Brooke flings a skinny arm around Stacey's neck and reels her in before I have a chance to smile back.
Then she snags Meeka and Jolene.
The four of them flit away.
Chapter 10
Later that night, I help with the supper dishes and take a bath and give my Lake Pepin rocks a shampoo. I line them up on the windowsill in my bedroom to dry. “Seven rocks,” I say to George. He's watching from my bed. “Just like us girls.”
Then I do some rearranging.
Three rocks here.
Four rocks there.
I look at George. “Do you think we'll ever be seven again?”
George stares at me with his black button eyes. Then he glances at one of the rocks.
I pick it up and set it between the others. “Me,” I say. “I'm the rock in the middle. The one who has to get the other rocks to roll back in.”
My stomach squirms a little. Like it did this afternoon when we all got on the bus to head back to school after our class trip. Brooke beat me and Jenna to the best seat. Randi squished in next to her because she loves to win, even if it means having to sit with Brooke.
Without even thinking, I sat in Brooke's old spot, next to Stacey. That left Jenna with Randi's old spot, next to Rusty. But as soon as Rusty saw Jenna coming, he reached across the aisle and yanked Quinn in.
Jenna had two choices. Sit in Quinn's old spot, next to Tom. Or sit with the chaperones.
Jenna chose Tom.
Brooke made smoochie sounds at them all the way back to school.
I kept waiting for Jenna to shoot dagger eyes at her.
But she didn't.
She shot them at
me
instead
.
The more she shot, the more I glanced at Stacey. I was still mad at her for ignoring me all week and for laughing at me this morning. But I wondered if she meant to give me that real smile in the picnic shelter, to make up for the fake smile she had given me earlier. And did she let Brooke and Randi beat her to the best seat? Was she hoping I'd sit with her?
I tried talking a little, to test if she wanted to talk back.
But all she said was “Mmm-hmm” and “Mmmmmm.” You can't have a conversation without vowels, so I stopped trying.
Jenna stormed off the bus when we got to school. She didn't say a word to me. She didn't even come home with us after school. She told my mom she had a stomachache from the buffalo burger she bit. So we dropped her off at home.
But I don't think a buffalo made her stomach hurt.
I think I did.
Because I ditched her to sit with Stacey.
At least that's how it must have looked to Jenna. And instead of trying to explain that I hadn't ditched her, I just pretended that I didn't know she was mad.
I rub my stomach. And look out my window. I can't see Jenna's house from here, but I know it's there, just a few blocks away.
And I know she's there too. Or at least I think she is.
Maybe looking out her window.
Maybe feeling squirmy about today too.
“You can't unditch someone,” I say to George. “All you can do is say you're sorry and hope they yank you back in.”
The telephone rings and a moment later I hear my mom all light and chatty downstairs.
I look at the clock on my desk.
7:46 p.m.
I'm allowed to call friends until 8:00.
My stomach does triple-flips as I hunt around for our cordless phone and take it back to my room. When Mom is done talking on the other phone, I sit on my bed and punch in Jenna's number.
Ring . . . ring . . . ring . . .
“Hello?”
It's Jenna.
“Hi,” I say. “It's me. Ida.”
“I know,” Jenna says. “We have caller ID.”
“Oh.”
Silence.
“It only tells me your name, though,” Jenna says. “Not
why
you're calling. You have to provide that information yourself.”
“Oh,” I say again. “Um . . . I just wanted to tell you something.”
“Uh-huh,” Jenna says. “I figured that much out when the phone rang.” She pauses and takes a breath. “Tell me what?”
“It's just that . . . I'm sorry about today. For ditching you. For sitting with Stacey. It was mean.”
“You weren't being mean,” Jenna says. “You were being honest. You'd rather sit with Stacey than with me. I get it.”
“No, you don't,” I reply. “I mean, yes, I do want to sit with Stacey. Sometimes. And with the other girls.
And
with you.”
Jenna huffs. “You can't have everything.”
“I don't want everything,” I say. “I just want those three things.”
Silence again.
“Are you still there?” I ask.
“Of course I'm still here,” Jenna mumbles. “Where else would I be?” She does another breath. “I'm sorry too. For getting mad and for acting like the whole thing was some
ginormous
emergency. I'm surprised you didn't call 911.”
I do a little snort.
Jenna does one too.
“Friends again?” I ask.
“Duh,” Jenna replies. “I'd be friendless without you.”
“You're crazy,” I reply. “You have lots of friends. When we're not fighting.”
“Now who's crazy? Do my
friends
save me a place in line? No. Do they meet me at the Purdee Good for cookies and ice cream? No. Do they call or send me e-mails? No and no again.”
“I've called you a bunch of times,” I say. “And I invited you to the Purdee Good just the other day.”
“You've called me twelve times since Christmas,” Jenna replies. “I can show you the dates in my journal. And the Purdee Good was a mercy invite. Those don't count.”
I pause, knowing what I want to say next, but trying to pick the right words to say it. “Maybe if you weren't so . . . bossy . . . people would be more friendly.”
Jenna does a sharp breath. “Maybe if people were more
friendly,
I wouldn't be so bossy!”
I pull George toward me and wind his tail around my finger, thinking. I've always just assumed that everyone avoids Jenna because she's such a boss.
But what if I've got it twisted the wrong way around?
If everyone treated Jenna like a friend, would she be more of a friend too?
George winces. I unwind his tail. “Just because I want to have other friends, doesn't mean I'm not your friend,” I say. “Besides, how many times have you called
me
? Or sent
me
an e-mail? Or saved
me
a place in line? I bet you don't keep track of that in your journal.”
Jenna's quiet for a moment. “I don't have time to sit around and think about who's inviting who to do what when,” she finally says. “All anybody has time for at my house is worrying about the
stupid
baby.”
I frown. “Don't say that, Jenna. The baby isn't stupid. It's not trying to be a problem.”
Jenna laughs. “If there was no baby we wouldn't
have
any problems. Don't you get that?” She's quiet again. “Sometimes I wish . . . I
really, really
wish . . . that the baby would never be—”
I hear Jenna's mom calling her name in the background.
“That the baby would never be
what
?” I ask. “Born?”
Jenna sighs. “Just forget it. I have to go. But listen, there's something I want to tell you. Show you, actually. Something I promised to keep secret a long time ago. But I think the promise is worn out now.”
BOOK: My Forever Friends
9.81Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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