Best Friends And Drama Queens Part 7

*What?' Caroline looked stunned. *That's not true. That's not the worst thing that can happen at all. The worst thing that can happen is that your parents could be killed in a car crash. Or that you get that thing you keep talking about . . . that flesh-eating virus. Who cares if Prince Peter knows if you like him? I mean, you do. So. So what?'

*Oh!' Sophie said, sucking in her breath like she was about to cry. That's because she was. *You would say that, Caroline Wu! Because it doesn't affect you, does it? This is all your fault anyway! You're the one who told Cheyenne about Prince Peter in the first place!'

Caroline shook her head, looking as upset as Sophie. *What? My fault? But . . . I didn't meana"'

*Shut up!' Sophie shouted just as the bell rang. *Just shut up!'

Then she ran off crying.

That's really when it all became clear to me. That everything had changed. Not just in Mrs Hunter's fourth-grade cla.s.s, but among the four of us queens as well.

And all because of a single sleepover.

Rule #9.

Sometimes It's Better Just to Say Things Will Be OK.

(Even If You Know This Isn't True).

Sophie asked Peter Jacobs to go with her during morning recess.

And he said yes.

But this didn't cheer her up, like you might have thought. We found her sitting on one of the swings, very depressed. Almost as depressed as Joey Fields had looked, pretending to read his Boxcar Children books, back in the simple days of the Kissing Game, when none of the girls would chase him.

*But,' Erica said, confused. Caroline wasn't with us. Caroline had decided to give Sophie some *breathing room' to *cool off', and was playing kickball with Rosemary and the boys, *I don't understand. If he said yes, why do you still look so sad?'

*Don't you get it?' Sophie seemed like she was about to cry. *He only said yes to be polite. He didn't want to upset me by saying no. He didn't want to be rude.'

*Oh, no,' Erica said, sending me a desperate glance over the top of Sophie's woolly hatted head, *I'm sure that's not true. I'm sure Prince Peter wouldn't do something like that.'

Sophie shot Erica a dirty look from her perch on the swing. *Of course he would,' she said. *He's a prince.'

*He's not a real prince,' I thought it was important to remind her.

But it turned out this was the wrong thing to say, since Sophie responded to it by bursting into tears.

*Oh dear,' Erica said, taking my arm and walking me a few feet away so we could talk without Sophie overhearing us. Not that there was any danger of this happening, since she was sobbing so loudly. *What are we going to do? This is awful. Sophie is miserable, and I don't think, the way things are going, she's ever going to forgive Caroline!'

*I know,' I said. I was sort of wishing I was Rosemary. Because if I was, I'd have just walked up to Cheyenne and punched her in the face.

But I wasn't Rosemary. I was just me, Allie. And I'm not the type of girl who walks up to people and punches them in the face. I'm more of a non-violent-conflict-resolution kind of girl.

By lunchtime, Caroline and Sophie were in a full on fight. It started out as Caroline was apologizing (again) for telling Cheyenne about Prince Peter as we were picking up Kevin from the kindergarten cla.s.sroom on our way home for lunch.

But Sophie wouldn't say anything back to Caroline. She just took Kevin's mittened hand, looked straight ahead and started walking.

*Did you hear me, Sophie?' Caroline said. *I said I'm really, really, really, really sorry.'

Sophie didn't say anything. At least, not to Caroline.

Kevin, not understanding what was going on, went, *Sophie? Did you hear what Caroline said? She said she was really, really, really, really sorry.'

*I heard her,' Sophie said to Kevin. *My, isn't it cold out today?'

Kevin looked at me. We had to walk pretty slowly down the sidewalk because Mom had put Kevin in his snowsuit again, and he was waddling. *Is everything OK?' he wanted to know.

*Everything is fine,' Erica told Kevin in a nervous voice. *Isn't everything fine, girls?'

But of course everything wasn't fine. Everything was falling apart.

*Sophie,' Caroline said. You could tell she was getting mad now. Caroline doesn't get mad very often, but when she does, watch out. *I don't know what you expect me to do. I said I was sorry.'

Sophie just kept walking like she hadn't heard anything. Erica and I, behind them, glanced at each other. Erica looked like she was going to throw up, she was so upset about the whole thing. Erica hates fights.

*I mean, I admit I should never have said anything to Cheyenne about Peter a"' Caroline said.

Kevin gasped. *Caroline told Cheyenne about Prince Peter?'

*Kevin,' I said, *stay out of it.'

*Buta"' Kevin said.

*Stay out of it,' I warned him.

*See,' Sophie said. By then we'd reached the stop sign where Caroline and Sophie turn to go to their houses, *even Kevin knows that was a stupid thing to do! And he's four!'

*Five,' Kevin corrected her.

*Whatever,' Sophie said. She'd started to cry again. *You just don't know. You don't realize what you've done!'

*Oh, for heaven's sake,' Caroline said, rolling her eyes. *Do you have to be such a drama queen all the time, Sophie?'

Sophie sucked in her breath again. Then she let out a wail, turned around and ran down the street to her own house.

Caroline, realizing what she'd said, cried, *Sophie!' Then she ran off after her.

But ever since Sophie's broken toe has gotten a bit less tender, she's been walking and running without her limp. So I doubted Caroline would catch her.

Left alone at the stop sign, Erica and I looked at one another. Kevin was the one who said, *If you ask me, they're both acting like drama queens.'

*Shut up, Kevin,' I said, taking his hand.

*Well,' he said, *it's true.'

Lunch wasn't much fun that day. I had grilled cheese at Erica's house. We tried to figure out what to do about Caroline and Sophie, but couldn't come up with any solutions that made sense. When it came time to walk back to school, though we waited at the stop sign for both of them, neither showed up. We didn't know if they'd taken a different route to school to avoid us (or one another), or just hadn't felt like coming back to school at all.

When we got back to the playground, we looked around, but didn't see them anywhere.

*This is awful,' Erica said, slumping on to the root of a huge tree where we sometimes liked to sit when we came to the school after hours, just us two. *What are we going to do? We're supposed to be best friends, but it seems like we're all just falling apart.'

*It'll be OK,' I said.

But I was lying. I didn't really think it was going to be OK. Sometimes it's better just to say things will be OK (even if you know this isn't true). That's a rule.

*What if Caroline and Sophie never go back to speaking again?' Erica asked worriedly.

*They will,' I said. *They have to. They sit next to each other. Mrs Hunter will notice and make them.'

*She might move them,' Erica said. *The way she did you.'

*She'd never do that,' I said. *They never get in trouble for chit-chatting, the way we used to.'

Erica sighed. Out on the playground we saw Cheyenne and the other girls in our cla.s.s, who seemed to have nothing better to do but follow Cheyenne around. They were all cl.u.s.tered around someone. I couldn't see who that person was, though.

*I can't believe just the other night we were all having such a fun time at your slumber party,' Erica said.

*I know,' I said. The memory pained me, like a kick to the chest.

Then the bell rang, and Erica and I both stood up . . . then froze when the cl.u.s.ter of girls we'd been watching broke apart and we realized the person they'd all been gathered around turned out to be Caroline!

*What's she doing with them?' Erica asked in horror.

*How would I know?' I was just as shocked as Erica.

We didn't have to wait long to find out what was going on. Caroline walked slowly over to join us, her head hanging low.

*Have you seen Sophie?' Caroline asked when she caught up with us.

*N-no,' I stammered. *Didn't you walk back to school with her?'

*No,' Caroline said. *I took the long way and went around the block. I was . . . I thought maybe she needed some more time alone.'

*What were you doing with those girls?' Erica couldn't wait any longer to ask. *And Cheyenne?'

*It's a long story,' Caroline said with a sigh. *And I want to tell Sophie first.'

Except Caroline wasn't the one who got to tell Sophie her story. Cheyenne got to do that too, as we were all taking our coats off and hanging them up back in Room 209.

*Did you hear the news?' Cheyenne asked Sophie, who'd gotten back to school late from lunch a" probably on purpose to avoid having to walk with us . . . or at least with Caroline, not knowing that Caroline had taken a different route back to school in order to avoid having to walk with her.

*What news?' Sophie asked suspiciously.

I didn't blame Sophie for being suspicious. I'd be suspicious too. Every time Cheyenne talked to any of us, something bad seemed to happen directly afterwards.

*The news about Caroline, silly,' Cheyenne said. *You and I aren't the only ones who are going with boys in this cla.s.s. Caroline is going with someone too.'

I don't think my head could've turned fast enough to look at Caroline. In fact I think I almost got whiplash, which is a type of neck injury, from turning my head to look at her, I turned it so fast.

Caroline's face turned pink. But otherwise it didn't change expression.

*That's right,' Caroline said calmly. *Lenny Hsu and I are going together.'

My head whipped around in the other direction so I could look at Lenny Hsu. He was the other champion speller of our cla.s.s. Basically, he was second runner-up to Caroline. If you wanted to think of a boy to go with, you would never think of Lenny Hsu. That's because Lenny Hsu never talks or does anything at all except read books about s.p.a.ce and dinosaurs. Which was what he was doing just then, not even realizing half the cla.s.s was staring at him. In fact it almost seemed like if he and Caroline were going together, he didn't know anything about it.

If Caroline's sacrifice a" because that's what it was. Caroline had no more interest in going with a boy than any of the rest of us did a" was supposed to make Sophie want to be friends with her again, it didn't work. Because all Sophie did when she heard that Caroline was going with Lenny was turn around and walk to her seat with her nose in the air, looking about as prissy as she could.

And Sophie was pretty good at looking prissy, another thing she'd learned from Jill in The Silver Chair.

When Caroline saw this, she didn't start crying or anything. Her mouth just got all small, the way it always did when she was mad. Who knows what she would have done, if Mrs Hunter hadn't gone up to the front of the room and told us all to get out our English books?

I was pretty sure things couldn't get much worse after that. Much worse than two of my best friends being in such a bad fight that they weren't even speaking to each other. Oh, and both of them going with boys. One of them with a boy she didn't even like.

But I was wrong.

Because by Wednesday, almost every girl in Mrs Hunter's cla.s.s was going with a boy except for me, Rosemary and Erica.

But even then, Cheyenne wasn't happy. Cheyenne was determined to make every boy and every girl in our cla.s.s go together.

Because, Cheyenne said, that was how mature people acted.

So I guess it shouldn't have been such a shock to me when I heard the news that Erica a" my best friend Erica a" was going with Stuart Maxwell.

Except for that part where hearing that news was like being stabbed in the heart with a knife. Erica didn't even like Stuart Maxwell! Erica was totally grossed out by Stuart Maxwell, because of his disgusting zombie drawings!

*Erica,' I said, the first chance I got as soon as I got Erica alone after I found out the news. We were in the girls' room, the only place Erica and I could talk any more without one of Cheyenne's spies finding us, it seemed, or Caroline or Sophie hanging around, talking bad about the other person. Caroline and Sophie still weren't speaking. Well, Sophie wasn't speaking to Caroline, and Caroline was so mad about it she had decided to stop speaking to Sophie in retaliation. Things had gotten so bad, the four or us hadn't played queens in nearly a week, and forget walking to and from school together. Everyone was taking a different route a" except Erica and me.

But Erica hadn't said a word to me about Stuart. No doubt because she just wanted us all to get along and knew I'd be upset. But still!

*What is Stuart talking about, that you and he are going together?' I demanded.

Erica looked so miserable I couldn't even yell at her, even though I wanted to. Erica and I have a tradition of yelling at each other when we're excited. But I wasn't excited about this. More like almost throwing up.

*I couldn't help it,' Erica said. *Marianne pa.s.sed me a note during math. She pa.s.sed it from Dominique, who pa.s.sed it from Cheyenne, who pa.s.sed it from Stuart asking me. I had to say yes! I didn't want to hurt his feelings.'

I practically yelled. But only practically, *Stuart doesn't have any feelings! He's Stuart! He likes to draw maggots crawling out of eye sockets. For fun!'

*He does too have feelings,' Erica said, giving me a reproachful look. *Just because you think he's gross doesn't mean it wouldn't have made him feel bad if I said no.'

*Erica,' I said. I couldn't believe this. I wanted to throw something. But there was nothing in the girls' room to throw. Except toilet paper, *you don't understand. Stuart didn't ask you to go with him because he likes you. No offence. But he only asked you because Cheyenne told him to. And all the boys in our cla.s.s are absolutely so dumb, they'll do whatever Cheyenne says.'