When I saw Eleni in the playground the next day, she ran to me and shrieked, “Why’d you run out like that? What is your purrr-oblem?”

My back arched and all my hair stood on end, like a cat under attack. At least, that’s how it felt. “It’s not me who has the problem!” I spat back.

Eleni frowned. “Actually, I think it is, Lex,” she replied in an angry tone.

We glared at each other with flaming eyes. I didn’t know how we’d ever get past this and go into school. But then Eleni shook her head, put her hand on my arm and said, “Don’t do it again. OK? You scared me.”

I nodded.

We went in but we’d never argued like that before, so we were both in shock for the rest of the day.

Anastasia went to a different school than we did, so I didn’t see her that week, but I know Eleni did because she told me. Anastasia went to Eleni’s house again after school on Wednesday, and Aunt Soph and Anastasia’s mother had plans to go to Hampton Court that weekend. I’d never been to Hampton Court. I wanted to go, but not with Anastasia. At least they weren’t having the sleepover, though. Anastasia’s uncle was coming to visit so they’d changed it to another weekend.

Still.

Every night that week, before I went to sleep, I lay staring at the ceiling with my guts in a knot. And because it was night and I was home in my own bed, Eleni wasn’t there to remind me that barbecued marshmallows are squishy in the middle and crispy on the outside, or that cozy cocoons contain snoozing caterpillars that are in for a big shock when they break out.

After an hour of not sleeping, I turned on my flashlight and opened my notebook. A couple of weeks before, we’d jotted down a new list of things that make us happy.

Good things. Sunday, August 30:

• Birthday parties (especially party-favor bags)

• Messages written in secret code

• Popping bubble wrap

• Going to the circus

• Walking in puddles with rain boots on

• Glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling

• Ice pops on very hot days (not broken ones from Pappou’s freezer)

• Turtles

• Buried treasure and pirate maps

• Cute dogs

• Aquariums—especially with clown fish

But even reading that didn’t make me feel any better. It just made me miss Eleni more.

A couple of weeks later, after Eleni went to Hampton Court with Anastasia (and had a totally amazing time—I know because Eleni told me all about it), Uncle Dimitri got us all together in Pappou’s house on Saturday afternoon and announced that he was getting engaged to Christina, his girlfriend.

We were so excited, we screamed, and we weren’t the only ones. Yiayia had wanted Dimitri to get married since he was like eighteen or something, and now he was thirty-four, which is really old. Yiayia didn’t stop going on about it, and she was so happy, she threw an engagement party that very night to celebrate. Not a big one—more like a family gathering in Yiayia and Pappou’s house. But we all love parties so we didn’t care.

And, even better, we had a wedding to look forward to! Eleni and I would be bridesmaids! We’d spend all our evenings and weekends together planning for the wedding and making notes in our notebooks and playing “I’m her” and Anastasia wouldn’t be part of any of it.

Everything would be fine from now to eternity, and that was the best feeling ever.