Night snakes are rear fanged, which means their fangs are located at the back of their mouths instead of the front.
—Animal Wisdom
Great. So not only are there snakes with nasty, obvious fangs, there are also snakes with secret, hidden fangs. There’s a surprise I don’t want to get, thankyouverymuch.
Liv was ten feet away, but she was already stumbling back. Her fists were clenched, and her eyebrows were knit together in a harsh, dark line. “What the hell, Ana?” she spat. Her eyes darted back and forth from me to Ashley.
I tried to open my mouth to speak, but the spazzy fear had already taken me over. Behind Liv, Bella was standing like she’d seen a ghost. Her mouth hung open in a tiny O, and her eyes were full of questions.
Just keep it together.
My thoughts whizzed around like a balloon with the air let out of it. This was a silly misunderstanding, and there was no way I could let it ruin everything. I just had to think of something that made perfect sense.
“Liv! Hi!” I said, waving her over. Play it cool. “We were—”
“No, I think I pretty much have it figured out. You guys match. Why did you lie to me, Ana? I asked you!” I could tell from the way Liv’s fingers clenched and unclenched that she was trying desperately not to cry in front of us. It was the same thing she had done when her goldfish died in fifth grade, and the same thing she had done when her mom convinced her to get a perm in second grade that made her look like a fuzzy Pomeranian.
It made my heart ache. But she was the one who had been acting so weird and making me feel like our friendship was hanging by a thread!
“I didn’t lie! I—”
“Stop it!” She cut me off again, her voice getting higher and squeakier. “Is this why you told me not to show up until two o’clock? So I wouldn’t know you were best buddies with stupid Sneerer Ashley?! It’s probably why you sent Bella to talk with me! To keep me occupied?!”
“Whoa, now,” Ashley said, taking a step back. She scoffed and turned to me expectantly, the fire in her eyes practically burning me. She held her hands up too, which didn’t help matters because her shark bracelet was still the only thing I could see.
And I’m pretty sure it was the only thing Liv could see too.
“Can we please talk?” I begged. I knew how awful it looked. How would I feel if I’d caught Leilani giving a friendship bracelet to Liv? It was bad enough they texted every waking moment. But it wasn’t like that! I was trying to save our friendship, not ruin it!
“Why don’t you just admit it?!” Liv seethed. Her face was flushed, and her voice was as sharp as glass.
My throat ached. In all the years we’d been best friends, I couldn’t remember a single time when she’d glared at me with such hate in her eyes. Not even when I ruined her favorite blue sweater by accidentally spilling fake blood on it at Halloween.
Despite what I’d done, had so much changed between us in such a short time that she could seriously hate me?
“You lied to me about not being friends with Ashley, and you let me go on and on about her when we talk, all the while sneaking around and hanging out together behind my back! And now this!” She lashed out, pointing at my bracelet. It felt like a chain, pulling me down into the ground, instead of a beautiful gift. “Why didn’t you tell me from the start?”
“I tried,” I croaked. “But every time I did, something happened, and I didn’t want you to get upset, especially since things are sort of weird between us. And Leilani—” My throat was dry, with every little breath tearing at me from the inside.
Please, please don’t do this.
Liv shook her head. “I wonder why that is! And don’t even mention Leilani! I never lied to you about anything! It’s not my fault she’s a better friend than you are right now,” she snapped, glaring at Ashley. Then she dug into her jacket pocket and pulled out a small present wrapped in purple paper.
She had gotten me a present.
My heart squeezed, desperate to turn back time so this whole mess hadn’t happened.
“It’s nothing special,” she said. Her lip was quivering, and I could tell she was doing everything she could to stop from crying. “It’s not some fancy documentary or a silver bracelet or anything some celebrity would want with their awesome new life,” she choked out, wiping her nose on her sleeve angrily, tossing the present at my feet. It landed with a clatter onto the dead, brown grass. As she turned her heel and started to stomp away, she nearly plowed into Bella.
Tears stung in my eyes as I stood, staring after Liv and sniffling like an idiot. What the heck happened to us?! We were supposed to be friends! Liv and I had fought before, but this felt different. Friends didn’t run off when things got sucky.
Friends listened to each other.
They give each other a chance.
Beside me, Ashley was shaking her head. “That was low, Ana,” she said bitterly. “You’re not going to have any friends if you keep treating them like that.”
I wiped my eyes as I picked up Liv’s gift, tearing off the wrapping. An old picture—the two of us at my first-grade birthday party, beaming and hanging off each other wearing matching pink feather boas—stared back at me. A sob caught in my throat. How could two people who used to be so close end up so broken?
“I’m so sorry, guys.” I sniffled. “I didn’t know what else to do, and everything’s been so bad since Liv got here. I…I’m sorry. I won’t put you in the middle like that again.”
Bella sighed, shoulders slumped. “I don’t mind being in the middle,” she said. “That’s what friends are for. But lying to us is pretty awful.”
“I promise I won’t do it again,” I vowed. And honestly, I meant it.
“You better not,” Ashley said. Her voice was tight, but I could tell by the way her face softened that she didn’t hate me. At least I hoped so.
“Forgive me?” I asked.
Ashley scoffed. “Oh, go get her,” she urged. “Yes, I forgive you. But standing here and snotting all over yourself isn’t going to fix anything, right?”
Ashley was right. Apologizing again to both of them, I sucked in a breath and took off in a run.
I had to catch up with her.
I had to talk to her.
I had to save us.
“Liv!” I shouted. “Wait up!” I scrambled over the cobblestone, nearly twisting my ankle in the process. Leaping over an empty bench, I tried to take a shortcut through a mulched garden area to cut her off before she made it past the penguin exhibit. I couldn’t let our friendship break like this. I had to figure out a way to be friends with everyone—and a good friend too—without lying or losing anyone along the way.
And you know what?
It might have actually worked if my left shoelace hadn’t come untied.
Instead of sailing over the bench gracefully, my lace caught in one of the teensy slots between the wood. My shoe stayed put, but the yank from the stuck lace was enough to turn my attempt at a Superman impression into more of a clumsy flamingo. I toppled to the ground, landing on my wrist.
Cra-a-a-c-k!
The sick crunch seemed to echo through me. Had I broken the bench? Stars popped in my vision, and my head felt like it weighed as much as an elephant. I was going to throw up. I tried to shove myself up from my face-plant position to turn back and look, but my arm wouldn’t cooperate. A sharp, icy pain shot through me.
“Oww!” I fumbled on my elbow. Something was wrong. Something was definitely wrong. Wrists shouldn’t feel like this.
“Hey, loser!” Daz yelled from beside the hyenas. He was standing next to Kevin with an armful of presents. Concern clouded his face as he realized that I wasn’t fooling around. The panicked, terrified look on my face probably tipped him off.
“Are you okay? Mom! Come ’ere!” he yelped, rushing over to me. Behind me, Ashley rounded the corner where I’d just become the worst stuntwoman in history.
Daz, Mom, and Ashley all knelt beside me, while Kevin stood a few feet away. Mom’s face was white, but she spoke fast. “Okay, hun. Where does it hurt?” Her lips squished together as she gingerly pulled up my sleeve to inspect my wrist. I’d seen her make the same face when she was inspecting the fox for injuries. Was I broken like him? I felt like I’d been hit by a truck.
My stomach turned as I saw how angry and swollen my wrist looked already.
Ouch, ouch, ouch.
“It hurts!” I hissed, hardly able to find enough air through the pain to speak.
“Oh, man!” Daz said, his eyes widening. “Should I call 911?”
I looked back to Mom. If she thought I would be all right, then I knew I would be.
My heart skipped with fear when she frowned at him. “No, but I’m going to take Ana to the emergency room right away. I need you to stay here with Dad and help out, okay? Kevin, please go inside and ask the staff for some ice from the freezer.” She turned back to me, gripping me gently on my shoulder. I blinked away tears as people from the party and zoo visitors started to notice us. They milled about aimlessly, trying not to stare. I could practically hear the confused thoughts.
There’s that girl whose best friend ditched her.
She deserved it, I bet. For being such a liar.
I quaked under the pain, leaning back into my mother with a whimper. I didn’t care that everyone could see me crying, because it felt like so much more than my wrist was hurting.
“It’s okay. I think you’ve got a broken wrist. We’ll get you fixed up, I promise.” The way she looked deep into my eyes to reassure me made my throat tight. “Sit tight and try to think happy thoughts until we can get some painkillers into you.”
Settling into her arms, I did my best not to cry anymore, but all of my happy thoughts seemed to skitter away on the wind like the dead leaves on the ground beside me. I’d wrecked my friendship. Wrecked my wrist.
And I’d only been thirteen for a few hours.