Authors: Julie Bowe

My Best Frenemy (6 page)

BOOK: My Best Frenemy

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I nod and pull on my gloves. “A little help with the door, please? ”

Mom pulls open the front door. Icy air sweeps in.

Mom shivers. “Maybe I should drive you. ”

I slip on my backpack and slide past her. “I’m already bundled,” I say. “Hardly any air is getting through. ”

I step onto the porch and Mom closes the door. My nose hairs stand at attention in the cold air. I pull down my scarf knot so I can puff out a few breath-signals. Then I squeak down the sidewalk pretending I’m Laura Ingalls walking across a frozen prairie.

Two settlers appear on the horizon.

Jenna and Rachel.

They get to the bus stop at the same time I do. Quinn and Tess aren’t around. They must have gotten a ride.

“I brought it again, ” Jenna says, shifting her eyes toward the truth or dare box she’s got tucked under her arm. “If you sit by me—”

“Hey! ” Rachel interrupts. “I’m not zipped! ”

Jenna glances at Rachel’s unzipped coat. “So, zip it! ” she says.

“Mommy always does it for me, ” Rachel says back. Her chin starts to quiver and her eyes shut tight. “I’m getting froze! ”

“Don’t be a crybaby,” Jenna says, setting the truth or dare box on the sidewalk. “Your eyes will freeze shut. ” She grabs the tab on Rachel’s zipper and gives it a quick tug.

“Not so fast, or you’ll zip my chin!” Rachel says. “Mommy never zips my chin. ”

“Then keep your chin up, ” Jenna says.

Rachel lifts her chin.

Jenna yanks the zipper.

When the bus comes around the corner, Jenna grabs the game box and turns to me. “If you sit by me on the bus, ” she says, “we can play on our way to school. ”

I don’t usually sit with Jenna on the bus. She’s not any bigger than me, but she’s the kind of person that takes up a lot of room.

Still, she did ask nicely, so I say okay.

Jenna steers Rachel into one of the front seats and then follows me to a back seat.

We sit down, loosen our scarves, and pull off our gloves. Jenna takes a stack of cards out of the game box. “We don’t have much time, ” she says as the bus starts to move forward. “Let’s just do some of the truth cards. ”

“Okay, ” I say.

“And here’s a rule, ” she adds. “We
both
have to answer each card. ”

I shrug. “Okay again. ”

She does a quick nod. “I’ll go first. ”

Jenna draws a card and reads it out loud.
“What’s your dream vacation? ”
She looks up, thinking. “My dream vacation is camping at a state park. ”

“But your family goes camping at a state park
every
summer,” I say. “It can’t be a dream vacation if you go there all the time. ”

“Why not? ” Jenna asks.

“Because you have to go somewhere . . .
dreamy
. Somewhere that starts with a letter at the end of the alphabet. Like Quebec or Venezuela or Utah. Not a plain old state park. ”

Jenna thinks again. “Okay, how about this,” she says. “My dream vacation is to go camping at Yosemite. That’s a
national
park and it starts with a Y. ”

I nod. “Better. ”

“Now you answer, ” Jenna says. “What’s your dream vacation? ”

I rub my nose, thinking. “Maybe New Zealand,” I say. “It has a Z, plus I think it’s already tomorrow there. If I leave right now, I can skip a whole day of school. ”

I do a clever smile.

Jenna does a squint. “Skipping school will get you sent to the principal’s office. You should pick a place that’s closer. That just makes sense. ”

“It’s a
dream
vacation, Jenna, ” I say. “Dreams aren’t supposed to make sense. ”

The bus slows to a stop and more kids pile on. I take a new card from the stack.
“Who is your best friend? ”
I laugh. “That’s easy. Stacey Merriweather.”

Jenna’s mouth does a twitch. “Of course, ” she says. She snatches the card from me and puts it at the bottom of the stack. “My turn. ” She draws a card from the top.

“Wait, ” I say. “You have to answer the question too, remember? Who’s
your
best friend? ”

I know Jenna will say Brooke, even though they’ve been fighting lately. They’ve been best friends forever.

Jenna does the twitch again. “I changed my mind, ” she says. “We don’t have time to
both
answer. ”

“But you said—”

Jenna quickly reads her card out loud.
“What is your worst bad habit? ”
She thinks for a moment. “I bite my nails, ” she says. “What’s yours? ”

I roll my eyes. “You just said we don’t have time to
both
answer every card. ”

Jenna shrugs. “I changed my mind again. ”

“You
can’t
keep changing the rules, Jenna. Either we both answer
every
card or we
don’t
!”

The bus hits a bump and everyone bounces in their seats. One kid bounces onto another kid’s lap, just to get a laugh.

But me and Jenna sit stiff and still.

The bus pulls up to our school. I glance at Jenna. “Okay,” I grumble. “My bad habit is I sing in the shower. Country. ”

The bus door opens and kids start piling off.

Jenna stands up, but she doesn’t move. She just stays there, like a snowman starring straight ahead. “I don’t have one, ” she finally says.

I groan. “But you just said your bad habit is biting your nails. ”

Jenna whips me a look. “I’m not answering
that
question, okay? I’m answering the one I skipped.” She tosses the cards back into the box, grabs her stuff, and shoves down the aisle.

I sit there, confused.

Then I remember the question she skipped.

Who is your best friend?

When I get to our hallway I see the other girls are already there. So is Mr. Crow. He’s talking to them, only they aren’t talking back. They just nod and study their shoes. Mr. Crow walks away just as I catch up to Jenna.

“Mr. Crow told us we can’t wear eye shadow in class anymore, ” Brooke tells us when Jenna asks them what was going on. She snaps her eye shadow case closed. “He says it’s causing a distraction. ”

Brooke narrows her eyes at Randi. “This is all your fault. ”

“Huh? ” Randi says.

Brooke pulls a little package of tissues from a pocket in her backpack and starts wiping purple eye shadow off her eyes. “If you hadn’t put peanut butter on your eyelids in the lunchroom last Friday, Mrs. Kettleson wouldn’t have come out to see what everyone was laughing about. And then she wouldn’t have told on us to Mr. Crow. And
then
Mr. Crow wouldn’t be inspecting eyelids this morning. ”

Randi shrugs. “I was just having a little fun, ” she says.

Brooke hands a tissue to Meeka. She pulls out two more and hands them to Stacey and Jolene.

Jenna crosses her arms and lifts her chin. “I told you wearing makeup at school would get you into trouble, Brooke. If you had just lis—”

“You are not the boss of me, Jenna Drews,” Brooke interrupts.

Jenna’s mouth snaps shut.

Everyone is quiet.

“Um . . . I was getting tired of glittery eyelids anyway, ” I say.

“I’m glad it’s over too,” Randi says. “You guys looked stupid. ”

“We did
not
, ” Brooke snaps.

Randi shrugs. “Whatever. Who wants to race me to the snow fort? ”

Randi zips up her jacket and pulls on a face mask. “Anyone? ” she says. “I’ll give you a head start. ”

“Our lungs might freeze, ” Meeka says. “That’s not healthy. ”

“Plus the bell is going to ring any minute,” Jolene adds. “There’s not enough time. ”

“I can run there and back ten times before the bell rings, ” Randi says. “C’mon, who’s with me? ”

I glance at Stacey to see if she wants to go. But Stacey is already heading into the classroom with Brooke and the others.

I turn to Randi. “I guess no one feels like racing today. ”

Randi shrugs. “No one feels like doing anything lately, except wearing stupid makeup and playing stupider games. ”

I shift a little in my shoes.

Randi pulls on her gloves and heads to the hallway. “Last chance, ” she says, looking back at me.

“Maybe next time, ” I say, and follow after the others.

When it’s time for our morning recess, Ms. Stevens, our principal, tapes a sign to the playground door that says
INSIDE
. That means it’s too cold to play outside today.

All the boys start a game of silent ball in our classroom. To play, you sit on top of your desk and toss a squishy ball around, only you can’t talk and you can’t get off your desk unless you miss the ball. Then you’re out.

It’s a fun game, but today all the girls head to the reading corner to play truth or dare. Jenna opens the game box and sets the board on the floor. We gather in a circle around it. I sit next to Jenna. Stacey sits next to me.

Jolene rolls the dice.

Two D’s.

She chooses Brooke to take a dare card.

Brooke reads the card to herself. “Oh, no,” she says.

“What do you have to do? ” Stacey asks.

“Act like someone in your group
,
”
Brooke reads.
“Let everyone guess who you are pretending to be. ”

Brooke stands up. She thinks for a minute. Then she messes up her hair like she hasn’t brushed it for a week. She pretends to bounce a basketball. “Dudes!” she shouts. “Who wants to get their pants beat off? ”

Everyone laughs. “Randi! ” we all shout. Brooke wipes her sleeve across her nose and says, “Yup. ”

We all laugh again. If Brooke was trying to get back at Randi for putting peanut butter on her eyelids, it didn’t work. Even Randi is laughing.

Randi jumps up next to Brooke and takes a bow.

“Sit down, Randi, ” Jenna snaps. “It’s not your turn. ”

All the laughter dribbles away. Randi stops bowing, but she doesn’t sit down. She just grins and says, “Hey, who am
I
pretending to be?” She gives Brooke a fake scowl and shakes her finger. “Follow the rules or I’ll break your neck! ” She says it in a sharp voice. A Jenna voice.

Everyone starts laughing. But we suck it back in when Jenna jumps up.

“It’s
not
your turn,” Jenna says. “If you can’t follow the rules, you can’t play my game. ”

Randi snickers and sits down. “You win,” she says. “I quit. ” She leans back on her elbows and stretches out her legs. “This game is for babies anyway. The cards don’t make you do
real
dares. ”

“
Real
dares? ” Stacey asks.

Randi nods. “You know, stuff like . . .” She looks up at the ceiling, thinking. Then her mouth curls up at the corners and she zeroes in on Jenna. “I
dare
you to tell Zane you
like
him. ”

Everyone gasps.

Then giggles.

Then gasps again.

“I
don’t
like Zane, ” Jenna says.

“So?” Randi sits up. “I didn’t dare you to
marry
him. Just
tell
him you like him. Or are you
chicken
?”

Red splotches appear on Jenna’s neck and cheeks. “I am
not
chicken, ” she says.

Randi does her grin again. “Prove it. ”

Jenna glances at Zane. He’s sitting on top of his desk, chewing on a pink eraser. Zane says chewing on an eraser makes his broken arm itch less. But Zane has been chewing on erasers since kindergarten.

Jenna glances back at us. Her eyes lock on mine. She doesn’t say a word, but it feels like she’s asking me a question.

What should I do?

“Um . . .” I start to say. But before I can say anything else, Jenna jerks away and walks toward Zane. The closer she gets to him, the slower she walks. Like her legs are freezing up.

Randi scoots onto her knees and nudges forward. “This is gonna be good, ” she whispers.

We all nudge forward too.

Zane doesn’t notice Jenna at first. He’s too busy chewing on his eraser and throwing the silent ball when it comes to him.

Jenna gives Zane’s shoulder a poke. She has to poke it three times before he glances back.

“Wha?” Zane asks, shifting the eraser with his tongue.

Jenna doesn’t answer. She doesn’t even move. Except for her chin, which is quivering.

“I . . . I . . . like you, ” she says.

Zane shifts the eraser again. “Huh? ”

Jenna’s splotches get even redder. “Y-you heard me, ” she says. Then she whips around and marches back to us.

The silent ball bounces off Zane’s head. He’s out.

Jenna crumples next to me. She pulls her knees up to her chest, wraps her arms around them, and buries her face.

“Wow, ” I say. “That was really brave, Jenna. ”

Everyone agrees.

Randi grins. “Now that’s what I call a
real
dare. ”

“Ooooo. . . . ” Brooke says. “I just had the best idea! ”

“What? ” Meeka asks.

“Let’s make up our
own
dares, ” Brooke says. “We can make each other do whatever we want! ”

Everyone squirms and giggles.

I gulp.

Jenna doesn’t say a word.

Dear Stella,

Guess what? Jenna told me she doesn’t have a best friend and I think she was being true. Then Randi dared her to tell Zane she Likes him, which is definitely not true. I don’t know who she Likes, but I’m positive it’s not Zane. I mean, he chews erasers. No girl Likes a boy who does that. Plus, she signed a piece of paper that said I DO NOT LIKE ZANE. She made Zane sign it too.

After Jenna showed us the paper, Stacey said if she Liked a boy it would not be Zane. And then Brooke said who would it be? Stacey said maybe Dominic or probably Quinn. And then Brooke said probably Quinn for her too. Then they asked me who I would pick if I Liked a boy and I said oops, Look at the time. Then I ran out to the bus.

Brooke probably would have called me a copycat if I picked Quinn. Only not in a teasey-nice way Like she does with Stacey.

But before any of that happened, Brooke decided we should make our own dare cards. So that’s what I’ve been doing since I got home from school. Jolene donated some kitten note cards she had in her desk. We each got three. Here’s what I wrote on mine:

* Tell Mr. Crow there is a spider in his hair.

* At Lunch, eat the fruit cocktail.

* Touch Dylan Anderson’s shoe.

Luckily, we made a rule that you can’t choose your own card, so I won’t get stuck doing any of mine, especially not the Last one. Dylan Lives on a farm, so there’s always crusty stuff stuck to his shoes that Looks Like it might have once belonged to a cow.

I hope Stacey doesn’t have to do my shoe dare. I would still be her best friend if she did, but I might make her wash her hands first.

And maybe I hope Jenna doesn’t have to do it either. If you are short on best friends, the Last thing you want to do is touch a crusty shoe.

BOOK: My Best Frenemy

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