Genius!
Genius!After Kara’s mega-melodrama about Chloe’s birthday party, a brilliant idea struck me. If Kara was going to be away at her dad’s, then next weekend would be the perfect time to invite everyone to a camp-out at my house. And Mum wouldn’t be able to have a go at me for leaving her out. Then I could get proper time with Lily – without Kara. Genius or what?!
I didn’t want to make it too obvious, so I left it for a couple of days and then grabbed everyone after registration, as we all walked along the corridor to class (geography, fyi).
‘I’m having a camp-out on Saturday,’ I said casually. ‘Who’s up for it? Lily?’
‘Yeah!’ she cried. She loves camping.
‘Chloe? Elly?’ They both grinned and nodded. Then I paused before adding, ‘Kara?’
‘You know I can’t come,’ she said. ‘I’m going to my dad’s. Remember?’
‘Oh! Sorry! I completely forgot!’ I lied. Kara put on a ‘sad’ face and Lily flashed me a look. So, because I didn’t want Lily to think I was deliberately leaving Kara out (even though I was) I said, ‘Oh, well, you can come another time.’
Kara was furious. I was feeling pretty smart until she suddenly said, ‘What about Nadima? Aren’t you inviting Nadima?’
And everyone looked at Nadima, and Nadima looked at me.
I suddenly felt awful. I hadn’t planned to invite Nadima, as she was coming round to mine on Friday anyway. I honestly thought she’d find it really hard spending a whole night in a tent with a bunch of people she could hardly talk to. But I could see now how it looked, to the others.
‘Well, I think it’s pretty mean of you to invite everyone else in front of her and leave her out,’ said Kara. ‘Especially when you made such a fuss about Chloe inviting her to her party!’
‘I’m not leaving Nadima out!’ I cried. ‘She’s coming round after school on Friday.’ And then I saw the look on Lily’s face. She looked really surprised, and then hurt. Which was stupid. She must have had Kara round loads of times without me. But even so, somehow I’d managed to upset Lily and I’d given Kara something to gloat about.
Oh, brilliant. Just brilliant.
On the way home on the bus I texted Lily:
I was pretty sure she was lying. Especially when she added:
I lied. I don’t think she believed me. I texted:
Which should have made me feel better.
It didn’t.
I thought about texting Nad – but I couldn’t work out what to put. I could hardly ask her if she was upset that I hadn’t invited her to a camp-out which I didn’t know if she knew I was even having, could I? Even if you could say all that with emojis – which you obviously can’t.
Why was just being friends with everyone getting so complicated?