Best Friends (Until Someone Better Comes Along) (13 page)

“You need to change,” Sylvie said, pushing me toward our front door. “Immediately. Where did you get that ugly tank top?”

“I borrowed it from a friend at the resort.” My parents were busy carrying stuff in, so I hustled over to the car and grabbed my bag. “It's comfy.”

“No
friend
would ever let someone be seen in something like that,” Sylvie said. “You're back in public. Fix yourself, and let's go.”

I went inside and dropped my stuff on my floor. After I'd changed into a cute pair of shorts and a clean tank top, I quickly tossed all my dirty clothes in the hamper and put my suitcase away. Hopefully, my mom would notice the gesture. I pulled a brush through my hair and peeked in the mirror. Not cute. I pulled my hair back into a ponytail, dabbed on some lip gloss, swiped nail polish remover across my fingertips, and headed back outside.

“Much better,” Sylvie said, nodding.

As we drove to Heidi's house, Sylvie talked nonstop.
“Ohmigod, Heidi has been driving me crazy,” she whispered, so her mom wouldn't hear. “She's been obsessing over Jake Theisen, and he's literally all she can talk about. Now that you're back, hopefully she'll just chill out about it, since I can't listen to her, and blah, blah, blah . . .”

I let Sylvie ramble on and on, but since I had nothing to contribute, I didn't really say much. She complained about Heidi until we got to Heidi's house. Once Heidi was in the car, they talked over each other trying to tell me about all the stupid things Cianna Jackson and Emily Kim had done at Sylvie's birthday party. Then they told me about the weekend at Heidi's dad's lake place. As they talked about how they'd spent most of the weekend inside the cabin, I found myself realizing I hadn't really missed much at all. I was sure I'd had a lot more fun at the resort with Bailey and Ava.

“So how was your month of torture?” Heidi asked finally, after we'd been walking through the mall for fifteen minutes already.

“It was pretty good, actually.”

“Did you put those losers in their place?” Heidi asked.

It was obvious she was talking about Bailey and Ava, since I'd told my friends who was there with me. But I pretended I didn't know what she was talking about. “Who?”

“Bailey Something and Ava Whatever,” Sylvie said, pulling us into one of our favorite stores. “Did they follow you around all summer?”

Before I had to answer, two other girls from our class came into the store and Heidi and Sylvie forgot all about their question. For the next two hours, I did my best to act as normal as possible, but I was seriously distracted by the thoughts that were swirling around in my head. I was freaked out about what was going to happen when we got back to school, when Bailey and Ava were around us every day. And I was dreading what might happen when I told my friends about how much fun I'd had during my month at the lake.

I'd only been home for a few hours, but I could already tell it was going to be harder to go back to normal than I'd ever imagined it could be. I'd been gone for just one month, but in that time so much had changed. And now I wasn't even sure the old “normal” was something I wanted anymore.

W
hen school started a few
days later, Heidi and I got a ride from Sylvie's mom—just like always. Sylvie and I were both zoned for the bus, but only losers rode the bus, so we always got her mom to drive us.

My friends and I were perfectly coordinated, down to our boots, even. We'd all gotten these adorable black boots at the mall a few days before. Along with the boots, I was wearing a black skirt, baby-blue ruffled shirt, and blue-and-black-plaid tights. Sylvie had chosen the same skirt, a pink shirt, and pink-and-black-plaid tights. Heidi stepped out of the car in a matching purple-and-black ensemble. We looked perfect.

As we hopped out of the car, I surveyed the scene. I saw a few groups of kids from our class, who were all watching
us. Sylvie leaned over to whisper, “They all
so
wish they were us right now.”

Heidi giggled. “How cute do we look?
So
cute.”

I just nodded and smiled. Across the front lawn, a few of the buses were unloading. Even at a distance, Bailey's copper hair made it easy to spot her emerging from one. I watched as she greeted Ava, who had come out of a different bus, and they met up with a few of their other friends.

“Distracted much?” Heidi asked, then wrapped her arm through mine and pulled me toward school. My friends were on either side of me, and I took the center spot. I was always in the middle. Maybe it's because I'm the tallest, maybe not, but for some reason we always walked in a line that went Heidi, Izzy, Sylvie. As we strutted toward the front doors, people stepped away, clearing a path for us.

On either side of me, my friends smiled and flipped their hair. “Oh my God, look at her outfit,” Heidi giggled, pointing at Safia Neri from our class.

“Do you think someone dared her to cut her hair like that? It hurts my eyes to look at it,” Sylvie sneered, as we passed Makayla Unger. Makayla waved timidly at us as we went by, and Sylvie smiled and waved back to her. “Hi-
iiii
! Cute haircut.”

We found my locker first, then Heidi's, then Sylvie's. Everything we did was just the same as we did it last year. There was a routine we followed, and it was comforting to know it would be the same this year. But something felt off. I couldn't get into the conversation, and I felt like part of me wasn't ready to be back at school.

“Why so quiet, Izzy?” Sylvie said, as she and I leaned against Heidi's locker, waiting for her to unpack her bag. I knew we'd be waiting a while—Heidi always brought a million things to decorate her locker with, and this year was no exception. She put a mirror up, then several pictures of the three of us, and a poster of some runner she's obsessed with (Heidi's super into running, especially short distances where she doesn't sweat a lot and ruin her makeup).

“You are not at all yourself,” Heidi added. Someone bumped into her from behind, and Heidi turned around to give whoever it was a look of death. The guy—Brandon, Brendan, Ben?—backed away, scared.

“I'm not quiet,” I said.

“You haven't even made one comment about Sara Anne Brown's outfit, and I
know
you must have something to say.” Heidi gestured across the hall toward the locker of one of our elementary school friends.

Sara Anne Brown and I had been pretty good friends until third grade, and then she got lice. At the time, I told everyone that it wasn't a surprise she had lice, since Sara Anne's house was always nasty (not true). I'd maybe pushed the story a little too far when I added that I thought they probably had bedbugs, too. Part of the reason I told the story is that I still think
I
was the one who gave Sara Anne lice in the first place. I never told anyone I'd had it at all. . . . It was less embarrassing if people thought Sara Anne was the source of it all.

Today, Sara Anne was wearing a pair of navy-blue pants—slacks, really—that she must have stolen out of her mother's closet. They were too big and a really awful color, and she'd paired them with this shirt that seriously had a pony on it.

I closed my eyes, wishing I could erase what I'd seen. It was almost impossible not to say something about an outfit that was
that
horrible, but I found I sort of didn't want to say anything at all. Last year, I would have made fun of her—loudly. But that day, all I could think about was the time Sara Anne had let me stay over three nights in a row when my dad was out of town, just so I wouldn't have to spend all that time home alone with my mom.

“It's not that bad,” I said finally. Both Heidi's and Sylvie's mouths hung open.

“You're kidding, right?” Sylvie blurted out. She raised her voice until she was practically screaming, then blurted out, “Isabella Caravelli cannot
stand
navy pants. Or slacks. Or trousers. They should be illegal. Right, Izzy?”

I cringed, and looked across the hall at Sara Anne. She had obviously heard Sylvie, since she glanced at me for the briefest second, slammed her locker closed, and skulked away.

“Why did you do that?” I demanded. “That was so mean.”

Sylvie giggled. “It was for her own good. She needs to learn that navy-blue mom pants aren't doing her any favors. She looks like a lunch lady or something,” she said. “Heidi, can you get your butt moving? I want to do a quick walk past Henry Ehler's locker. He spent the whole summer on his parents' boat, and he looks delish.”

“First we're going by Jake's locker, though,” Heidi said, pouting her lips to reapply her lip gloss. “You promised.”

“I did not,” Sylvie snapped. “Besides, I think you probably need to talk to Izzy about Jake.”

“What?” I said, confused. On our way to the mall the other day, Sylvie had been telling me all about how Heidi
was interested in Jake Theisen. I remembered because she'd been complaining about how obsessed Heidi had been all summer. I'd listened to her whining about it long enough that I couldn't possibly forget. “What do
I
have to do with Heidi and Jake?”

“Remember?” Sylvie said, turning to wink at me so Heidi couldn't see. “You told me
you're
super-interested in Jake too. Didn't you tell me you're thinking of asking him to the fall dance?”

I stared at her. “No,” I said, seriously confused.

“Yes, you did,” Sylvie insisted. “Remember how you told me that you and Jake had that ‘moment' at Sophia's party right before you left for your dad's horrible work trip this summer? On our way to the mall the other day, you
just
told me you were going to make sure he was into you this year. Remember?” She winked again.

“I'm not interested in Jake Theisen,” I said, pulling my eyebrows together. Then realization hit—Sylvie was just trying to get me to go after him because Heidi wanted him too. This was exactly the kind of game we usually played with each other, but I didn't want any part in it. “Heidi's interested in Jake, so I'm not going to get in her way. It's, like, a friend code or something to stay away from your friend's crush.”

I looked over at Heidi and saw she was close to tears. “Really?” she asked, her eyes big and hopeful.

“Really,” I said, nodding. “Friends don't go after friends' guys. It's not cool.”

“Oh,” Sylvie said with a huff. “I didn't realize the rules had changed.” She looked annoyed and sounded super-sarcastic when she said, “And obviously, what Izzy says, goes.”

“I like Izzy's rule, even if she
is
acting weird today.” Heidi said, slamming her locker closed.

When I turned to head toward Sylvie's locker, I spotted Bailey and Ava walking down the hall toward us. I watched as they got closer. My friends already thought I was acting like a nutjob, so how freaked out were they going to be when I actually said hi to Bailey and Ava? I still hadn't told Heidi or Sylvie about how close I'd gotten to my two summer friends, so it was going to come as a total surprise.

Bailey and Ava were laughing about something, and they didn't notice me at first. But when they were just a few feet away, Bailey looked up and saw me. Just as our eyes locked, Heidi poked me in the side and said, “Ready? Let's move.”

I looked away from Bailey for just a second, but when I looked back, she'd turned away again. Ava glanced at me for the briefest of seconds, but neither of us said anything.

“Hi, guys,” I said, my voice catching. I'm not sure my words carried over the sounds in the hall. Neither of them said anything back.

“Did they just ignore you?” Sylvie asked, staring at the backs of Bailey's and Ava's heads. “Hel-
lo
? Did you just
ignore
Isabella Caravelli? That is so not cool.”

Bailey and Ava kept on walking, without looking back. I don't know why they were ignoring me, but it hurt.

“It's fine, Sylvie,” I said. “Just forget it.”

“That's not at all fine. When you say hi to people, they're supposed to say hi back. It's called manners.”

“They didn't hear me,” I said, trying to steer their focus away from Bailey and Ava. “I'll catch up with them later.”

Heidi gawked at me. “Excuse me? You'll catch up with them later?”

“Yeah. They're the two girls I spent August with at the resort.”

“Um, yes,” Sylvie said in a totally condescending voice. “We know that. We get that you spent a month with them, but it's not like that means you have to suddenly be BFFs with two nobodies now that you're back in civilization with us.”

“They're my friends now,” I said, starting to get angry. “I
really like them, and I think if you gave them a chance, you'd probably like them too.”

Heidi laughed. “Yes, I'm sure we'd all have just the bestest time dressing up our dollies and trying on Mommy's makeup.”

I stared her down, trying to make her stop. It was my Isabella Caravelli look, the one that seemed to scare and intimidate so many people, but it didn't have the effect I wanted on one of my best friends.

“Seriously, Iz,” Heidi said, still laughing. “That Ava girl looks like she's about nine, and she never says anything. She's like a little mouse with a really unfortunate haircut. Do you think she gave a monkey at the zoo a pair of scissors and asked it to please, pretty please cut her bangs for her?” She giggled, amusing herself. “I know you only hung out with the two of them this summer because they did everything you told them to do. They were like your minions, right? It was a classic Izzy pity party.”

As Heidi spit out the last of her awful words, I noticed that Sylvie was smiling just a tiny bit and carefully watching something over my shoulder. I turned to look, and saw that Ava and Bailey were suddenly standing right behind me.