Auggie & Me (27 page)

“Ohhh!” said Ximena. “Of course I know who Reid is, duh. He's
totally
cute!”

“He
is
, right?” said Summer.

“You'd make a great couple,” said Ximena.

“Maybe someday,” answered Summer. “I don't want to be a couple
yet.
”

“Is that why you didn't want to go out with Julian?” asked Ximena.

“I didn't want to go out with Julian because Julian's a jerk,” Summer answered quickly.

“But you weren't really sick on Halloween, right?” said Ximena. “At Savanna's party?”

Summer shook her head. “I wasn't sick.”

Ximena nodded. “I thought so.”

“Okay, I have a question,” I said to Ximena. “But it's not from the cards.”

“Oh!” said Ximena, raising her eyebrows and smiling. “Okay.”

I hesitated. “Okay. When you say you're ‘going out' with Miles, what does that really mean? Like, what do you do?”

“Charlotte!” said Summer, smacking my arm with the back of her hand.

Ximena started laughing.

“No, I just mean—” I said.

“I know what you mean!” said Ximena, grabbing my fingers. “All it means is that Miles meets me at my locker after school every day. And he walks me to the bus stop sometimes. We hold hands.”

“Have you ever kissed him?” I asked.

Ximena made a face, like she was sucking on a lemon. She wasn't wearing her contacts now. Just big tortoise-framed glasses, as well as a retainer she was supposed to wear at night. She didn't look at all like the Ximena Chin we were used to seeing in school. “Just once. At the Halloween party.”

“Did you like it?” I asked.

“I don't know!” she answered, smiling. “It was a little like kissing your arm. Have you done that? Kiss your arms.”

Summer and I obediently kissed our arms. And then we all started giggling.

“Oh, Jack!” I said, making slurpy noises while I kissed myself up and down my wrist.

“Oh, Reid!” said Summer, doing the same thing.

“Oh, Miles!” said Ximena, kissing her wrist. “I mean, Amos!”

We were cracking up.

“
Mija,
” Ximena's mom said, knocking on the door. She poked her head in. “I don't want the baby to wake up. Can you keep it down a little?”

“Sorry,
mami
,” said Ximena.

“Good night, girls,” she said sweetly.

“Good night!” we whispered. “Sorry!”

“Should we go to sleep now?” I said softly.

“No, let's just be much quieter,” said Ximena. “Come on, I think it's your turn now, Summer. Truth or Dare.”

“I have another question that's not on the card, too,” said Summer, pointing to Ximena. “For you.”

“Uh-oh, you guys are ganging up on me!” laughed Ximena.

“We haven't done any Dares yet,” I pointed out.

“Okay, this is the Dare,” said Summer. “You have to sit at my lunch table on Monday, and you can't tell anyone why.”

“Oh, come on!” said Ximena. “I can't just ditch my table without saying why.”

“Exactly!” answered Summer. “So choose Truth.”

“Fine,” said Ximena. “So what's the Truth?”

Summer looked at her. “Okay, Truth. If Savanna, Ellie, and Gretchen hadn't gone skiing this weekend, would you still have asked Charlotte and me to a sleepover tonight?”

Ximena rolled her eyes. “Ohhh!” She puffed her cheeks out like a fish.

“You look like Mrs. Atanabi now,” I pointed out.

“Come on, Truth or Dare,” Summer pressured her.

“Okay, fine,” Ximena said finally, hiding her face behind her hands. “It's true! I probably wouldn't have. Sorry.” She peeked out at us from between her fingers. “I was
supposed
to go skiing with them this weekend, but then I didn't think it was worth my possibly twisting an ankle or something right before the dance, so I canceled at the last minute, and then I invited you guys over.”

“Aha!” said Summer, poking Ximena in the shoulder. “I knew it. We were your plan B for this weekend.”

I started poking her, too.

“I'm sorry!” said Ximena, laughing because we had started tickling her. “But it doesn't mean I don't want to hang out with you guys, too!”

“Have you had any other sleepovers in the last month?” Summer asked.

We were tickling her a lot at this point.

“Yes!” she giggled. “I'm sorry! I didn't invite you to those, either. I'm not good at mixing my friend groups! But I'll get better next year, I promise.”

“Do you even
like
Savanna?” I said, giving her one last poke.

Ximena made a face that I realized was a perfect imitation of Savanna's
eww
expression.

Now Summer and I started laughing.

“Shh!” said Ximena, patting the air to remind us to keep quiet.

“Shh!” said Summer.

“Shh!” I said.

We all settled down.

“Okay, I have to admit,” Ximena said quietly, “she's been
really
annoying ever since I started spending time with you guys rehearsing. She was so mad when she wasn't picked for the dance!”

“Probably mad that I got picked instead of her,” said Summer.

“Actually, no, she was mad at Charlotte,” Ximena answered, pointing her thumb at me.

“I knew it!” I said.

Ximena leaned her head on one shoulder. “She said—and this is
her
talking, not
me
—that you always get the good parts in shows at Beecher Prep because the teachers know you were in TV commercials when you were little. And that you try really hard to always be a teacher's pet.”

“What. The. Heck?” I said, stupefied. “That is the craziest thing I've ever heard.”

Ximena shrugged. “I'm just telling you what she told me and Ellie.”

“But Ellie knows that's not true,” I said.

“Trust me,” answered Ximena. “Ellie never says anything to contradict Savanna.”

“I don't get why she's always
hated
me,” I said, shaking my head.

“Savanna doesn't hate you,” Summer answered, reaching over to take Ximena's glasses off her face. “I think, if anything, she's probably always been a little jealous of you and Ellie being best friends.”

“Really?” I said. “Why?”

Summer shrugged. She tried on Ximena's glasses. “Well, you know, you and Ellie tended to be kind of cliquey. I think Savanna probably felt a little left out.”

This had never,
ever
occurred to me.

“I had no idea anyone felt that way,” I said. “I mean,
seriously
, no idea. Are you sure? Did other people feel this way? Did
you
?”

Summer let the glasses fall to the tip of her nose. “Kind of. But I wasn't in any of your classes, so I didn't care. Savanna was in
all
your classes.”

“Wow,” I said, biting the inside of my cheek, which is a nervous habit I have.

“I wouldn't worry about it, though,” said Summer, putting Ximena's glasses on my face now. “It doesn't matter anymore. You look really good in those.”

“I don't want Savanna to hate me, though!” I said.

“Why do you care so much about what Savanna thinks?” asked Ximena.

“Don't
you
care what she thinks?” I asked. “Let's face it, you're different when you're around her, too.”

“That's true,” said Summer, taking the glasses off my face. She started cleaning them with her pajama top.

“You're much nicer when you're not with her,” I said.

Ximena was twisting her hair with her finger. “Everyone's a little mean in middle school, don't you think?”

“No!” said Summer, putting the glasses back on Ximena's face.

“Not even a little?” Ximena answered, raising her right eyebrow.

“No,” Summer repeated, adjusting the glasses so they were straight. “No one has to be mean. Ever.” She leaned back to inspect the glasses.

“Well, that's what you think because you're a saint,” teased Ximena.

“Oh my gosh, if you call me that one more time!” laughed Summer, tossing her pillow at Ximena.

“Summer Dawson, you did not just hit me with my favorite 800-fill-power European white goose-down pillow, did you?” said Ximena, standing up slowly. She picked up her own super-fluffy pillow and raised it in the air.

“Is that a challenge?” Summer asked, standing and holding her pillow up like a shield.

I stood up excitedly, holding my pillow in the air.

“Pillow fight!” I said, a little too loudly because I was excited.

“Shh!” Ximena said, holding her finger over her mouth to remind me to keep it down.

“Silent pillow fight!” I whispered loudly.

We spent one long second looking at one another, to see who would strike first, and then we just started going at it. Ximena brought her pillow down on Summer, Summer struck her from below, I made a long sideswipe at Ximena. Then Ximena came up and swung at me from the left, but Summer spun around and struck us both from above. Soon we were smacking each other with more than just pillows: the stuffed animals on Ximena's bed, towels, our rolled-up clothes. And despite our trying to be completely silent, or maybe
because
of it—since there's nothing funnier than trying not to laugh when you want to laugh—it was the single best pillow fight I've ever had in my entire life!

The thing that stopped it, or else it might have gone on too long, was the mysterious trumpet blast of a fart that came from one of us. It stopped the three of us in our tracks as we looked at each other, eyes open wide, and started laughing hysterically when no one took credit for it.

Anyway, two seconds later, Ximena's mom knocked on the door again, still sounding patient but also obviously a little irritated. It was way past midnight.

We promised her we would go to sleep now and we wouldn't make any more noise.

We were out of breath from laughing so hard. My stomach actually hurt a little.

It took us a while to straighten out our sleeping bags and put the stuffed animals back where they belonged. We folded our clothes and returned the towels to the closet.

We smoothed out our pillows and lay down in our sleeping bags and zipped them up, and then we said good night to one another. I think I probably would have fallen asleep right away, but I got a case of the giggles, and then Summer and Ximena started giggling. We kept trying to shush one another by cupping our hands over each other's mouths.

Finally, once the giggles had passed and it got quiet again, Ximena started singing really softly in the dark. At first, I didn't even realize what she was singing, she was singing so quietly.

No-no, no, no-no, no-no-no-no.

Then Summer took up the song:

No, no-no, no, no, no-no, no-no, no-no.

Finally, I realized what they were singing, and sang:

No-no-no-no, no-no, no, no-no, no!

Then we all started whisper-singing together.

Nobody can do the shingaling

Like I do—

Nobody can do the skate

Like I do—

Nobody can do boogaloo

Like I do—

We were lying on our backs side by side as we sang, and made our arms and hands dance in sync above our heads. And we sang the whole song, from beginning to end, as quietly as if we were praying in church.

I know. I spend too much time thinking about this stuff.

On Monday, there was no mention of the sleepover. It's like the three of us knew, instinctively, without having to say it out loud, that when we got back to school, everything would return to being business as usual. Ximena hanging out with the Savanna group. Summer hanging out with her tiny group. Me playing dots with Maya at my lunch table.