I was late for Monday’s newspaper staff meeting. Miss Holt, Webb, and Dwayne were all waiting for me.

“Sorry. I forgot to set my alarm clock.” That seemed like a good excuse. The truth was I’d stayed in bed to avoid Mom.

Webb pulled out a typed agenda. The first item brought tears to my eyes. He’d gone behind my back and had Dwayne write about why Sam had quit the basketball team.

“Sam’s gonna get some tutoring and spend more time studying,” Big D said. “That way she can play in high school, when it really counts toward college.”

Miss Holt chipped the polish from one of her fingernails with her thumb. We both knew the real reason.

“Allie, which seventh grader do you want to interview next?” Webb asked.

“If you print that story about Sam, there won’t be another interview. I’ll quit.”

“But it’s my … my decision,” Webb sputtered.

“It’s an invasion of Sam’s privacy,” I countered.

Webb squinted at me through his glasses, letting me know he was irritated. The feeling was mutual. I squinted back.

Webb turned to Miss Holt. “We’ve reached an impasse. It’s up to you.”

Miss Holt rubbed her forehead and took a minute before answering. “I didn’t step in initially because I wanted you to solve this problem by yourselves. Allie’s right. This would be an invasion of privacy. I know real newspapers do that, but a school newspaper has a higher purpose, to foster community and highlight the accomplishments of its students, doesn’t it?”

Webb’s face flushed. “I didn’t think of it like that. I’m sorry.”

“Apology accepted,” Miss Holt said.

We sat silent as statues until Dwayne jumped in. “Now that we’re scrapping my story about Sam, we need a new article. How about Allie and I interview each other? We’ll call it ‘Dueling Reporters.’ ”

I was still irritated at Dwayne for writing the article in the first place, but he had the nicest smile. It was impossible to stay mad at him.

Miss Holt clasped her hands together, leaning toward me. “It’d be something new and interesting for our readers, and for you too, Allie. What do you say?”

I said okay. Saying no would have just caused a big stink. I spent the rest of the meeting daydreaming about Sam. We climbed on Penelope and rode far, far away. I wished the dream could come true.

Big D and I met after school in the library. The location was his idea. I would have rather gone to Scott’s Drug Store for a cherry coke.

We opened our notebooks and stared at each other. We’d never really talked without Sam or Webb around. Normally, I would have made a list of questions, but it hadn’t seemed worth the effort.

“How do you like DB so far?” Dwayne asked.

I shrugged. “Good.”

Dwayne put his elbows on the table. “One- or two-word answers will make a mighty boring interview.”

“Sorry.”

“Maybe I didn’t ask the right question. What I’d really like to know is why you went from happy to sad.”

“It’s a long story.”

“We’ve got an hour before Mrs. Smitherman closes the library.”

There was no easy way to explain. “The short answer is my brother died. That changed everything. My mom’s sad, and she thinks I’m spending too much time with Sam.”

Dwayne nodded. “Thought it had something to do with Sam.” He scrunched his forehead so that it wrinkled like an old man’s. “I watch people. Bet you do too, since you like to write.”

“I do it all the time.”

“And what I noticed,” Dwayne said, “is your eyes shine whenever Sam is around.”

“It’s that obvious, huh?”

“It is to me.”

We sat there awkward and silent. Finally, I said, “We’d better get started on ‘Dueling Reporters.’ What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Dwayne told me how he hoped to someday go to the University of North Carolina and play for Coach Smith. “They’ve got a good journalism program too. What about you?”

“A reporter, same as you.”

“Why’d you ask me about the future?” Dwayne said. “You didn’t do that in any of your other interviews.”

I didn’t want to admit that talking about the future meant I could avoid talking about the present. “I don’t know. That’s just what happened.”

As we were packing up our notebooks, Dwayne said, “You’ve got good taste in friends. Sam is about my favorite person around here.”

“Mine too.”

“Then tell your mom that,” Dwayne said. “Stand up to her the way you stood up to Webb. That was something!”

I felt a smile spread across my face. “Maybe you’re right. I need to speak up more!”