which she says a lot these days.
“Whoa,” added Amalia.
“I can’t believe they’re taking the money out of our class funds,” said
Maggie as we made our way to the aisle.
“We worked hard for that money,” said Ducky.
“I can’t believe we did two thousand dollars’ worth of damage to Ms.
Krueger’s yard,” I said. “I mean, I can believe it – we saw all the stuff in the
pool and the ruined lawn and everything. I just can’t believe we did it.” I
pictured the ruined yard. I felt horrible. Then I began to get an idea.
“No class trip for the ninth-graders and the eleventh-graders,” said
Sunny. “That real y rots.”
“The rest of us aren’t going to have money for anything but a class
trip,” I pointed out. We headed into the hall. But my mind wasn’t real y on
class trips. It was on my idea.
“Hey, here comes Justin!” Sunny suddenly whispered to Maggie.
Sure enough, Justin Randall and two other guys brushed past us.
Justin nodded at us, said hi to Maggie, and eyed her (another admiring look,
I might add). Then they boys hustled off.
And that was when I caught sight of Mandy and her friends. “Uh-oh,” I
said under my breath.
“What?” asked Amalia.
Before I could answer her, Mandy planted herself in front of Maggie
and said, “So. Did you find your wallet?”
Sunny narrowed her eyes. “How did you know anything about a
wallet? And it was my wallet, by the way.”
Mandy looked disappointed at first, and then confused, but just for a
moment. “Oh. Was it yours? You little kids are so hard to tell apart.”
“I can’t believe you planted my wallet –“ Sunny started to say at the
same time Amalia said, “Justin Randal doesn’t think so.”
Once again, I wanted to smirk but didn’t. Mandy scared me. I could
tell she scared the others too. Amalia already looked sorry that she’d made
that remark. But remembering what Mr. Dean had said about the
upperclassmen and hazing, I figured Mandy wasn’t going to do anything
horrible to us. At least not right now.
Wednesday night 10/8
I was right. Mandy didn’t do anything horrible. She let the matter drop.
She and her friends turned and walked away.
I looked at Maggie and Amalia and Ducky and Sunny. I smiled
uncomfortably.
Maggie and Amalia and Sunny smiled back at me.
But Ducky was staring after Mandy and her friends, an odd look on
his face.
“What is it?” I asked him. “What’s wrong?”
Ducky shook his head slightly. Then he said, “I know them better than
you do. That’s al .” He frowned.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Maggie.
“Nothing,” replied Ducky. “Come on. We don’t want to e late for class.”
Ducky turned on his great grin. He extended his elbows to Amalia and
me. We took them. Behind us, Maggie and Sunny linked arms. We headed
for our classes. Our big adventure was over.
Thursday 10/9
Well, the adventure was over, but the day wasn’t. There was more to
come, and it was directly related to the party and the weekend. Related
only, though. When I think about what happened on Tuesday afternoon, I
don’t entirely understand it. Maybe I never will. People, friends,
relationships…they are very confusing things.
Actual y, there are a lot of things I don’t understand. Like, why couldn’t
Carol tell Dad the news about the baby over the phone? I mean, eventually
she did tell him over the phone, but why did she think she couldn’t at first?
And why are Mandy and her friends so mean to me and my friends? It must
be more than the swimming pool and Justin Randall and the locker mix-up.
The swimming pool was an accident, Justin didn’t come along until later
(after Mandy had already decided she hated me), and most people would
have been understanding about the locker mix-up. They would simply have
said, “Excuse me, this is my locker. Yours is in the next hallway.” Why did
Mandy get so mad? I know I broke her mirror, but still…
There are
Susan Krinard
Sabrina Benulis
Annalisa Nicole
Jan Hudson
Lucy Oliver
Neil White
James Dashner
TM Watkins
Emma Holly
Claire C Riley