I dropped the phone with a bang and stared at it. Goosebumps popped out on my arms and a thick lump crawled into my throat. The J’s had cut me out of their lives and replaced me with Celine. I felt like crawling into a cave and bawling my eyes out. Not that it would do any good.
The door opened and Mom walked into the kitchen from work. “Hi, sorry I’m late. Will you set the table for dinner? Oh, honey, what’s wrong? Your face is as long as a donkey’s ear.”
I shook my head and started setting the table. She stared at me for a minute before saying, “Okay. Whatever.” She turned around and went upstairs. A part of me wished she had stayed and tried to persuade me to tell her, but she didn’t do that much anymore.
The twins chattered all through dinner, and normally, this would have really ticked me off, but tonight I ignored them.
Sarah stopped twisting her Angel hair pasta long enough to ask, “AJ, is it okay for us…”
“…to use your trampoline tomorrow after school?” finished Suzanne.
I frowned. “The trampoline is off limits for you two, you know that. Why are you asking?”
“Because we might…” said Suzanne.
“…start taking gymnastics…” said Sarah.
“….and we need…” said Suzanne.
“….to get a head start,” Sarah finished with a mouth full of pasta.
Trying to keep up with who was saying what was giving me a worse headache than I already had. “Look, don’t ask me, ask Mom. I don’t care if you use it, just don’t fall off and then blame me because you don’t know what you’re doing. Excuse me, I’ve got homework to do.”
I pushed my chair back roughly, making it scrape on the floor and earning a sharp look from my mother. I ran upstairs to my room and slammed my door. I lay down on the bed and covered my face with a pillow. My whole life was suddenly falling apart. I wanted to talk to Dad but I didn’t know when he would be coming home again. Or if, said that nasty little voice in my head. And besides, he probably wouldn’t talk to me unless it was about selling Sunni.
I sighed, brushed the tears from my eyes, and went to my laptop. Okay, it was very clear I would finish the history project, but only my name would be on it. I pulled it up and realized there was more to do to finish it than I had thought. I finally got to the bibliography, printed everything out, and put it all carefully into the notebook I had bought. I looked at the other two notebooks and shook my head. I wasn’t going to make copies for the J’s, not after the way they treated me.
I rubbed my eyes and realized it was almost midnight. I had been working on that dumb project for more than four hours, plus all the time over the last few days. I seriously hoped I would never have to hear about Robert E. Lee or the Civil War again as long as I lived.
Tuesday morning the alarm rang much too soon. It was my turn to feed the horses, so as soon as I was through, I started walking to school. I had the history project in my backpack, but I knew Celine would be with the J’s, and I didn’t want to get into a discussion about why I didn’t have notebooks for them. I hid out in the girls’ restroom until the bell rang and ran into homeroom at the last minute.
Miss Gorman was already giving out instructions for the day. She gave me a snarly look as I came in at the end of the bell, but she didn’t say anything.
When homeroom was over, I headed for history. I heard Jaime say, “Hey, AJ, wait up.” I ignored her and sat down. Since their seats were behind me, Julie leaned over my shoulder. “AJ, what’s the matter? Are you mad at us for some reason?”
I couldn’t believe she said that, when they’d been practically ignoring me ever since dear Celine moved in on us.
“Mad at you? What would I have to be mad about?” I hoped my words dripped as many icicles as Celine’s usually did.
Before Julie or Jaime could reply, Ms. Spellman said, “All right, class, let’s get quiet. First order of business is to send up your history projects. Please try to do so without spilling them all over each other.”
Jaime’s overly loud whisper came from behind me. “AJ, where are our notebooks? You didn’t forget them, did you?”
“No, I didn’t forget them. I didn’t bring them. I did most of the work, and when you and Julie refused to help finish the project I did it by myself, and the only notebook is mine.”
I guess my whisper wasn’t quiet enough, as Ms. Spellman looked at me. “AJ, did you have something you want to share with the class? If not, send up your notebook and please refrain from chatting with your friends.”
I gave Jaime a triumphant look over my shoulder as I passed up my notebook, but suddenly I didn’t feel so good. My stomach took a nose dive when Ms. Spellman looked through the notebooks.
“Jaime and Julie, where are your notebooks? I know you were working with AJ on a project.”
I couldn’t do it. The J’s and I had started on the project in early August, right after Ms. Spellman sent everyone in her history class a note telling us a project would be due three weeks after school started. Julie and Jaime had done a lot of work on it, at least in the beginning, and they did deserve the credit. I knew Ms. Spellman would give them an “F”, and the project was a big part of our mid-term grade. Oh, crap.
I sighed. “Um, Ms. Spellman, I, uh, I forgot to bring their notebooks. I finished the bibliography last night and I was supposed to put the copies in their notebooks and bring them today but it was really late when I finished and, uh, I forgot them.” I was totally out of breath when I finished that overlong sentence. Plus, Mom had taught all of us that lying was one of the worst things we could do. I tried to convince myself that it wasn’t really a lie, it was just a little fib.
Fib or lie, I knew from the look she gave me she didn’t believe me. “Very well. Julie and Jaime, you can get them from AJ this afternoon and bring them back to me before five p.m. today. Is that clear?”
The J’s looked relieved. Ms. Spellman began stacking the notebooks neatly on her desk as she said, “AJ, I will see you privately after class.”
Aaghh. “After class” was not something I wanted to do. I definitely didn’t want to explain the real reason I didn’t bring the J’s’ notebooks with me.
I could feel the black looks the J’s were giving me. So okay, they were mad at me, but as long as they got their notebooks and grades, I couldn’t see what difference it made. After all, I was the one in trouble with Ms. Spellman, so who cared if they were mad? You do, said the little voice. Just Shut UP.
After class, Ms. Spellman came over and sat down on the desk next to mine. She looked closely at me for a moment. “AJ, what’s wrong? It’s pretty obvious you didn’t ‘forget’ those notebooks this morning. You deliberately didn’t bring them. Do you want to talk about it?”
I shook my head. I avoided her eyes and mumbled, “No, there’s nothing to talk about. Can I go now? I promise I’ll get the notebooks for them.”
“All right, AJ. But be sure you get them to the girls immediately after school. Don’t ever pull a stunt like that in my class again, understand? Oh, and by the way, since you purposely left the notebooks at home, I will see a complete synopsis of Chapter Seven by Thursday morning. This is not something you are to ‘forget,’ is that clear?”
“I won’t forget, Ms. Spellman. May I go now?”
When she nodded, I grabbed my backpack and ran out, almost falling over Celine and Jaime, who were hiding on either side of the open door.
“Hey, what’s going on? What are you doing here?”
This time, they both smirked. Jaime said, “Well, getting into trouble is your own fault, AJ. We just wanted to know what happened and we knew you wouldn’t tell us the truth.”
I stared at Jaime in shock. When the J’s and I were best friends, like three weeks ago, we had always told each other everything. We had never lied to each other.
“Jaime, why would you say that? You know we always tell each other the truth. All you had to do is ask me.”
Celine butted in. “Well, you’re in trouble, AJ. You deliberately didn’t bring Julie and Jaime’s notebooks this morning, and if you’re sneaky enough to do that, then you’re sneaky enough to lie about what Ms. Spellman said. Isn’t that right, Jaime?”
I whirled around, my fists knotted and my voice loud. “You stay out of this! Jaime knows I don’t lie. The only reason she would think so is because you told her I would. That means you must lie a lot yourself so you think everyone else does. Well, I don’t! So you just keep your nose out of our business, Celine!”
Before she or Jaime could say anything, Ms. Spellman came to the door. “All right, girls, that’s enough. What’s going on out here, anyway?”
“Nothing!” I whirled around and ran down the hall.
At noon, I stood next to Julie in the lunch line. She spoke quietly, as if she didn’t want anyone to hear. “AJ, I’m sorry about Jaime and Celine spying on you today. I didn’t know they were going to do that.”
“Julie, what’s with you guys and Celine, anyway? All of a sudden she’s your new best friend and you’re just ignoring me.”
“Oh no, AJ, don’t think that! You’re still our best friend, but, well, Celine is really different. She’s so sure of herself, and she’s pretty and smart, and she knows all about everything in New York. And she knows who the cool kids are around here, and who aren’t worth even talking to.”
“Julie, what are you saying?” I stared at her in shock. “Celine has only been here a couple of weeks and you guys are treating her like she’s the Queen of Cool. She hardly knows any of the kids, so how would she know who’s ‘cool’ or not? Besides, what different does it make? We’ve always talked to everybody.”
Celine and Jaime were walking towards us. Julie picked up her tray. “Well, you just don’t understand. Celine is a lot more knowledgeable than we are, and she’s way smarter about people, too. Being from New York makes her really sophisticated about things like that. Maybe you should realize that there are some people who are smarter than you are.”
Julie left me staring after her as she walked over to join Jaime and Celine. She didn’t even ask me to sit with them at lunch. But I was still their best friend. Yeah, right.
Finally, the day was over. About two minutes before the last bell rang, I sidled up to my English Lit teacher, Mr. Norris. “Mr. Norris, may I leave now? I don’t feel good and I need to use the restroom.”
Mr. Norris was so absentminded that usually he didn’t even remember our names. When he assigns “quiet work”, mainly so he doesn’t have to answer questions, he reads to himself. He pushes his round owlish glasses way down on his long, thin nose and moves his thick lips silently. He was doing that now, so he didn’t even look up at me when he said, “Uh, yes, of course you can use the restroom.”
I picked up my backpack and headed for home. I didn’t really need to use the restroom, but I did have a tight knot in my stomach, so telling him I didn’t feel well wasn’t exactly a lie…I don’t think. I looked up at the sky and said silently, I’m sorry, God, I’ll try to do better. Just don’t strike me dead before I get those notebooks out to the J’s.
Shortly after I got home, I heard laughter coming in my open windows and knew that Julie and Jaime and Celinewere coming up the steps to our front porch. Well, no way was Celine coming up to my room. I grabbed the notebooks and raced downstairs to open the front door.
“Here.” I thrust the notebooks at Julie and Jaime. “They’re finished.”
Jaime glared at me. “What’s your problem, AJ? We did the work we were supposed to, so what are you mad about?”
I didn’t answer her, but I looked directly at Celine. I saw the amused little smile on her face and the malicious glint in her eyes. She knew exactly what was wrong, and she was happy about it. She continued to look at me as she slid an arm about Jaime’s waist. “What does it matter, Jaime? You and Julie have your notebooks, and if AJ wants to sulk about it, just leave her alone. Let’s get them to your teacher, and we can go to my house afterwards.”
Jaime looked at me. “You’re right, she can sulk all she wants. Come on, Julie, let’s go.” Julie looked embarrassed but she didn’t say anything. She and Jaime clutched the notebooks and walked off with Celine, leaving me standing alone on my porch.