My Best Frenemy (15 page)

My dad drives me to Brooke’s house for the sleep-over.

“Have fun! ” he says as we pull up to her house.

“I’ll try, ” I say, reaching for my stuff.

“Everything okay? ” Dad asks.

I shrug. “Sure, ” I say. “Everything’s fine. ”

“You just seem a little down lately. Did you and Stacey have a fight? ”

“No, ” I say. “We’re fine too. ”

A car pulls up in front of us. Meeka and Jolene pile out and run up the steps to Brooke’s front door. Meeka’s dad turns and waves to us before driving away.

“Do you want to skip this one?” Dad asks. “There’ll be other sleep-overs. ”

I think about how easy it would be to skip it. And how hard. If I don’t go, everyone will be mad at me all over again. And I’d still have to do a triple-dog dare some other time. Maybe a worse one. Although getting poked with a needle sounds like the worst one to me.

I glance at Dad. “I’ll be okay. ”

Dad gives me half a smile. Then he leans over and gives me a hug. “Easy on the soda, ” he whispers in my ear. “And watch out for toothpaste on the toilet seat. ”

“I will, ” I say.

I hug him back a little longer than usual.

I climb out of the car and get my sleeping bag from the backseat.

“Bye, ” I say.

“Bye, Ida, ” Dad replies. “Have fun. ”

I close the door.

Stacey opens Brooke’s front door when I ring the bell.

“Ida! ” she sings. “You’re here! ”

“Yep, ” I say. “You too. ”

“I’ve been here
forever
! ” Stacey says, all breathless. “Brooke made me come early to help make the pagoda. ”

“The what? ”

“The pagoda,” Stacey says, pulling me inside and closing the door. “It’s like a tent. We hung sheets over chairs and strung up Christmas lights. Meeka will pierce your ears inside it! ”

“A piercing pagoda, ” I say.

“Exactly, ” Stacey says back. “C’mon! The party’s this way! ” She takes my stuff and heads for the staircase.

I toss my jacket onto a pile of others that are spilling off a bench. Stacey’s, Randi’s, Meeka’s, and Jolene’s.

Stacey stops on the stairs and turns halfway back to me. “Did you notice?” she asks, fluttering her eyelids.

“Is that . . . mascara? ” I study Stacey’s clumpy eyelashes. “And eyeliner? ”

Stacey nods. “Jade did it. She even did Randi! Wait ’til you see. She’s going to do everyone’s makeup as long as we don’t bug her all night. ”

Stacey starts up the stairs again and I follow along, remembering that Brooke’s parents are at a dinner tonight. They called to let my mom and dad know that Jade’s in charge until they get home.

I’ve been to Brooke’s house a couple of times for birthday parties, but this is the first time I’ve been upstairs. Stacey leads me down a long hallway. The floor is covered with squishy pink carpet. It’s like walking on a tongue. The walls are covered with pictures of Jade and Brooke. A door is open at the far end of the hallway. Music pours out of it. Some boy band. I see Randi sifting through a stack of CDs. Brooke, Meeka, and Jolene are tossing pillows into a pagoda.

“Don’t use this bathroom, ” Stacey says as we walk past a closed door. “Brooke’s mom is having it redecorated. ”

The next door we walk past is closed too. Music booms from behind it. Big, hollow notes that pound against my chest. It sounds like the stuff my dad listens to when my mom’s not home. A poster is tacked to the door. It has a picture of a lady wearing an old-fashioned cape over a long dress. Her dark hair is pulled up under a tall hat that looks like an upside-down bucket. She’s holding a cane. Or maybe it’s a whip. Next to her it says,
“I do not want people to be very agreeable as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal. ” Jane Austen.

“Jade’s room,” Stacey says, glancing at the poster. “Don’t go in there either. ”

Brooke pokes her head out from the room at the end of the hall. “There you are!” she says to Stacey. “I thought you got lost! ”

“Ida’s here! ” Stacey says. “I’m giving her the tour. ”

“Well, hurry up. We still have a ton of stuff to do. ”

Brooke ducks back inside her bedroom. The music coming from Jade’s room fades a little and I hear chimes.

“Doorbell! ” Stacey says.

“I’ll get it, ” I offer. “Brooke needs you. ”

“Thanks,” Stacey says. She hurries down the hallway to Brooke’s room. I head downstairs.

I pull open the front door. Jenna is standing on the other side.

“You’re here!” I say, trying to sound as sparkly as Stacey.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Jenna says back. “I did get invited, you know. ”

“I know, ” I say, stepping aside.

Jenna walks in and I take her stuff.

“You can leave your coat there, ” I say, nodding toward the bench. “Then I’ll show you the way.”

“I know the way,” Jenna says, dumping her coat. “I practically lived here when Brooke and I were best friends. ”

Jenna trudges up the stairs.

I rearrange her stuff in my arms and trudge up too.

At first, everything is just like an ordinary sleep-over. We bounce on Brooke’s bed, eat junk food, and laugh while Randi lip-syncs to songs in her glittery makeup and camo clothes. We even sneak down the hall to Jade’s room and press our ears against her door, biting back giggles.

“What’s she doing in there? ” Jolene whispers.

“Who knows, ” Brooke whispers back. “Just don’t let her catch you sneak—”

Jade’s door flies open. We all stumble back.

Jade glares at us. “
What.
” She doesn’t say it like a question.

Brooke steps up. “We just wanted to tell you that everyone is here, ” she says. “Can you finish doing our makeup now? ”

Jade flips her cell phone shut. She slips it into the front pocket of her jeans. Then she steps out of her room and pulls the door closed behind her.

She turns to Brooke. “No, ” she says.

Brooke crosses her arms and scowls as we watch Jade disappear down the stairs.

“Great,” Brooke grumbles. “She’s in a mood. We better not bug her again until my mom and dad get home. Then she’ll have to be nice to us. ”

“What should we do until then? ” Meeka asks.

“What we came here for,” Randi says. “The daremony! ”

Everyone looks at me.

“So soon? ” I say.

Brooke’s mouth curls into a grin. “Randi? ” she says. “Got the potato? ”

“Check! ” Randi says back.

“Meeka? Needles? ”

“Check check! ” Meeka says.

Brooke nods. “I’ll get the ice. The rest of you clean up the pagoda. We need a completely sterile environment. Five minutes! ”

Brooke takes off for the stairs. Everyone else heads to Brooke’s room.

Randi runs to her backpack and digs out a potato. “Here, Ida, ” she says. “Hold this behind your ear so Meeka doesn’t poke your brain out. ”

Randi tosses the potato to me, but I miss. It bounces on the carpet and rolls to Meeka’s feet. “Time for your pre-op exam, ” she says to me.

I pick up the potato. “I have to take a quiz? ”

Meeka pulls me aside while the other girls fuss with the pagoda. “Exam, ” she says, squeezing my right earlobe. “As in
examination
? ” She squeezes my left earlobe and frowns. “Hmm . . . thicker than I thought. ”

“Is that . . . bad? ” I ask.

Meeka steps back and studies my ears for a moment. Then she pulls a pincushion out of her sleep-over bag. It’s tomato-shaped and prickly with pins and needles. “This should do it, ” she says, pulling out the longest needle I’ve ever seen.

I gulp and look around for Stacey. But she’s with the others, inside the pagoda.

“I’m back,” Brooke says, running into the room with a cup of ice. She closes the door and leans against it, breathing hard. “Ohmygosh, that was so close! ”

Everyone peeks out of the pagoda. “What happened? ” Jolene asks.

“Jade saw me getting ice and was all,
‘No soda upstairs’
and so I had to think super fast and say, ‘It’s not for soda. It’s for Randi. She twisted her ankle in PE.’”

“Good thinking! ” Stacey says.

“I know, ” Brooke replies. She looks at Randi. “Be sure to limp if you see Jade. ”

“Got it, ” Randi says.

Brooke jiggles her cup and the ice cubes clink inside. “Let the daremony begin! ”

“What about our dance? ” Jolene says, crawling out of the pagoda. “Meeka and I practiced for hours. ”

“Fine, ” Brooke says. “Do your dance, but hurry before my ice melts. ”

Meeka sets the pincushion on Brooke’s desk and grabs her bag. She and Jolene whisper some instructions to Brooke, then disappear into the hallway. The rest of us—me and Stacey, Randi and Jenna—climb onto Brooke’s bed.

“Ready? ” Brooke asks.

“Ready! ” we all reply.

Brooke pops a CD into her player. Creepy music slithers out. The kind you hear during a scary scene in a movie. She shuts off the lights and unplugs the pagoda. It’s totally dark and we can’t help but fake-scream.

Brooke dives onto the bed. We bounce like crazy and I nearly drop my potato. “Shhh!” Brooke says, crawling out of our tangled arms and legs. “Here they come! ”

Meeka and Jolene step into the room and close the door. They’re wearing black sweatshirts now, with the hoods up, and holding flashlights under their chins. They blink them off and on so their faces glow like zombies.

“Spooky! ” Randi says.

Meeka and Jolene start dancing in a very zombie-ish way and I scoot closer to Stacey because sometimes it feels safer to sit extra-close to your best friend.

I nudge Stacey’s arm. “Creepy, huh? ”

“I’ve seen creepier. ”

I look at Stacey. Only it’s not her. It’s Jenna. “Oh, ” I say. “Sorry. I thought you were Stacey. ”

“No, it’s just me,” Jenna says. “Stacey bounced over there.” Jenna points to the foot of the bed, where Brooke and Stacey are huddled together, sucking on ice cubes and squealing every time Meeka and Jolene snatch at them with their zombie hands.

“We should play ghost in the graveyard after this, ” Randi says. She swings her arm like a pendulum. “One o’clock, two o’clock, three o’clock . . . ”

“No games until after the daremony, ” Brooke says. She slides off the bed and switches on the lights.

“Hey, we weren’t finished yet! ” Meeka says.

“Sorry, ” Brooke replies. “But my ice is having a serious melt-down. We can’t wait any longer. ”

“I don’t mind waiting, ” I say. “Really. ”

“Meeka, get your needles,” Brooke says. “Ida, bring the potato. Everyone, into the pagoda.
Now
!”

Everyone does what Brooke says.

Except me.

I just sit on the bed thinking about how much I don’t want to do this. “Wait,” I say. But no one hears me because they are talking and laughing and crawling over each other to get to the pagoda.

I drop my potato on the bed and stand up. I plant my feet in the squishy carpet and breathe in as much air as my lungs will hold.
“Waaaait! ”
I shout as loudly as I can. Which, as it turns out, is pretty loud.

Everyone freezes.

“
Now
what? ” Brooke says.

“I need . . . I need . . . to go to the bathroom, ” I say.

Brooke groans and sits back on her heels. “Well, hurry up! ” she says. “I am
not
getting more ice. If Jade catches me she will start asking questions. ”

“But, I don’t know where it is,” I say. “The bathroom, I mean. ”

Brooke groans again and starts to stand. “Downstairs and to the right, ” she says. “I’ll show you. ”

But I don’t want Brooke to go with me. I want my best friend to.

I look straight at Stacey. Straight
through
her. I mouth the word
please
.

Stacey does a puzzled look. Then her face goes smooth. She grabs my arm. “Be right back,” she says to Brooke.

We run out of Brooke’s room, down the stairs, slip into the bathroom, and lock the door.

It’s a big bathroom, so there’s lots of room for me to pace. Stacey leans against the sink. “What’s going on? ” she asks.

I glance at her and catch my reflection slipping in and out of the big mirror that hangs behind her. “Um . . . it’s just . . .” I start to say. “It’s not that I don’t want to do it . . . but . . . the thing is . . . ”

“Ida, what is it? ” Stacey pulls me to a stop.

I look at the mirror again and see both of us reflected in it side by side.

I turn and look at the real Stacey. “I—I’m . . . chicken,” I say. “I want to get my ears pierced. Really. But not like this. Not with ice. Not with a potato. Not with Meeka poking the needle. ”

Tears fill my eyes. They tip over my eyelashes and stream down my face. I don’t try to stop them.

Crumpling to the floor, I pull my knees up to my chest, wrap my arms around them, and bury my face.

Then I bawl like the biggest baby in the world.

Stacey crouches next to me. She puts her arm across my shoulders and lets me cry.

“It’s okay,” Stacey says. “Don’t worry. I’ll fix it. ”

After I finish crying and splash water on my face and blow my nose three times and let Stacey try to hide my puffy eyelids behind my bangs, we head back to Brooke’s room.

When we get there, Randi and Jolene are sitting on the bed playing catch with the potato. Brooke is melting an ice cube on her arm. Meeka is sitting just inside the pagoda, cleaning her needles with a wet wipe.

Brooke looks up. “
Finally
, ” she says.

“Yeah, this is getting seriously boring, ” Randi says, tossing me the potato.

This time I catch it.

Randi rolls off Brooke’s bed and crawls past Meeka to get inside the pagoda. Jolene follows along. Stacey reaches for the CD player and turns off the music. “Guys, ” she says. “There’s something I need to tell you. ”