“Be quiet, Dennis,” Anya hisses, defending me, but I cannot even thank her because I am too busy watching Mrs. Spangle come over to our group.

“Scoot your chair back,” she says to Natalie. Natalie does, and then Mrs. Spangle slides Natalie’s desk across the floor.

She slides it farther and farther away from me. Wahoo!

And then she slides it right into the space next to Anya.

“Anya, I’m hoping you can be a good helper to Natalie until her wrist gets better,” Mrs. Spangle says. “What do you say?”

“Okay!” Anya answers, and I try to give Anya my “How dare you?” look, but she is too busy carrying Natalie’s journal up to Mrs. Spangle’s desk.

“And you, Mandy,” Mrs. Spangle begins. “You’re going to spend recess today fixing that mess you made in your writing journal. And you’re missing tomorrow’s recess, too, for what you did to Natalie’s cast.”

I slouch in my seat and push my lips together into a pout. It was bad enough when I had to be Natalie’s buddy. But for Natalie to be the most famous person in our class and to have Anya as her buddy?

I need to put a stop to this immediately.

And also, I need to learn to write with my left hand.