Best Frenemies (12 page)

Was it possible to actually die of embarrassment? Because Alice not only felt like she might, she
hoped
she might. Being dead might actually be better than this. She tried to get up and go . . . somewhere—either auditorium, or preferably home under the covers, or maybe just a cave somewhere on the other side of the world where nobody could find her, but she couldn't get up.

After a few minutes, when both the musical and the math meet had let out, happy families and friends streamed out of both ends of the hall just in time to see Alice sprawled on the floor, holding her sore ankle.

“Are you okay?” asked at least three moms, crouching down in concern before she even had a moment to try to stand up. She felt hot and embarrassed and just wanted to be alone.

“Hey,” said a voice close to her, and Alice turned
to see Nikki kneeling next to her. “You sure do like to cause a scene wherever you go, huh?” she asked. “First Walker Bros., now this.”

“You know me.” Alice laughed.

Nikki's parents walked up. “Alice! Is everything all right?” asked Nikki's mom.

Alice waved weakly. “I'm fine. Just clumsy and embarrassed. I just need a second to find my pride down here somewhere.”

“All right, if you say so. Nikki, are you coming with us?”

“I was thinking I'd go out with everyone for ice cream,” Nikki said. “To celebrate.”

“Are you sure?” said her mom. “We can just get ice cream on the way home.”

“I'll be fine, Mom,” Nikki said firmly. “I'll be home by eight-thirty. I can get a ride.” Dr. and Dr. Wilcox both looked doubtful, but to Alice's surprise, they drifted off towards the doors.

“Seriously, are you okay?” asked Nikki, focusing again on Alice.

“I'm pretty sure I'm fine,” Alice said, then noticed the rest of the math team milling around in the hall, high-fiving. “But who cares about me? How are
you
?”

“I answered the meet-winning question!” crowed
Nikki. “It was about the volume of a sphere, which I wouldn't have known if it wasn't for our study session at Walker Bros.”

“That's awesome!” said Alice.

“Did you see me?” asked Nikki hopefully.

Alice could do a lot of things, but she didn't have it in her to sit on the floor like a fool and lie at the same time. It was time to finally be honest.

“No,” Alice said, grateful that finally some of the crowd was dispersing. “I'm really sorry.”

“It's okay,” Nikki said. “I heard you cheering for me, and it meant a lot that you were just there at all.”

“So
that's
where you were,” Alice heard another voice from above. Cassidy stood across from Nikki, back in her street clothes, but either her face was flushed with anger or she was still wearing her stage makeup. Either way, her face was red and she looked mad.

“Cass—” Alice said weakly.

“You were too busy with
her
to come to my show?” Cassidy fumed. “You said you'd see my solo. You lied to me!”

“I was there,” Alice said in a small voice. “Didn't you hear me whistle?”

“That was in the first act. What did you do, sneak out? If you had been there, you would've seen that they
brought the house lights up at the end of the show for the big dance number at the end. I wanted it to be a surprise,” Cassidy said, her eyes filling up with tears. “Everyone with a solo got to pull someone out of the audience to dance onstage at the end of the show. That's why I put you in that special seat—so I could find you. I missed half the number because I was down in the seats looking for you, Alice. It was supposed to be the best part of the show—and instead you were with
her
?” she asked, gesturing to Nikki.

Alice felt heartbroken. The whole time she was worrying that Cassidy was forgetting her, becoming closer with the other kids from the musical, she was planning this surprise for her. Alice stood up unsteadily, favoring her uninjured ankle. She'd be able to hop away on it, but she could tell the other leg was going to be sore the next day.

“I can't believe you chose
her
over me,” Cassidy said, pointing dramatically at Nikki's face. Nikki stared at Cassidy for a moment. Like that morning in homeroom when she had cried in front of Alice, her face turned red, and she ran off to the group of Nerd Herders and mathletes getting ready for celebratory ice cream. In moments, the halls were empty, and it was just Alice and Cassidy.

“That was mean of you, Cassidy,” Alice said in a low voice. It was time to be real. “I was definitely a jerk, but Nikki didn't do anything to you.”

“Hello, do you have amnesia?” said Cassidy. She began ticking off the crimes Nikki had committed against her on her fingers. “She was mean to me in ballet. She's too good to talk to anyone on the bus. She was mean to your boy Aaron. She doesn't want to be a part of your Nerd Herd. She was rude to you, if you don't remember—and now she's stolen my best friend.”

“Cass, she's not like that! She's just really shy—you'd know if you'd try to talk to her. Just give her a chance!”

“Why should I give the girl who's stealing my best friend away from me a chance?” Cassidy cried. “Her and your whole Nerd Herd. You think you're better than me since you got into honors classes and I didn't! And hanging out with Nikki just proves it.”

And with that, Cassidy ran back to the theater, with Alice in the middle of the hall, by herself, left to figure out which entrance to limp to in order to get a ride home.

It was warm for a November night, and humid. A fine mist created a halo around the school's floodlights as Alice sat on the cement steps, waiting for her dad to come and pick her up. She breathed in the damp air and thought about what had happened.

She would never have figured that popular, outgoing Cassidy would ever feel threatened by anyone as silly and dorky as the Nerd Herd. She also didn't expect to see Nikki stand up to her parents like that either.

“How did everything go?” Alice's dad asked when he came to get her. “Did you manage to be everything to everybody?”

“Uh, not exactly,” Alice said, and confessed everything to her dad, who, thank goodness, managed not to say “I told you so” a single time.

“I bet you want to go home and recover from all that drama,” her dad said.

“Yeah,” Alice said, but then she got an idea. Suddenly, she felt a whole lot better. “Can we actually stop at the Jewel first?”

“Anything for my favorite client,” said her dad, touching an imaginary limo driver's cap. Alice smiled in the dark.

“I'll just be a sec,” she said, and ducked into the brightly lit but mostly empty grocery store once they pulled up. She grabbed a small but colorful bouquet of flowers and, for her dad, since he was a good sport, a pint of dulce de leche ice cream.

“You didn't have to get me flowers!” said her dad when she got back in the car.

“These aren't for you, silly,” she said. “This is for you!” She held up the ice cream.

“I take back everything I ever said about you, Alice,” he said. “You're not so bad after all.”

“Thanks,” she said. “I have one more favor to ask, though,” Alice said, as they pulled up to their street. “Can I stop over at Cassidy's place? I know it's late, but I won't be gone long.”

“Sure thing,” her dad said, turning off the ignition. “Be home in an hour. I'll let your mom know.”

Alice took the flowers and walked across the street. The lights were still on in the Turners' kitchen, which
meant the family was still up celebrating Cassidy's musical, like they did with her ballet recitals. Alice just hoped that this time she wouldn't be turned away.

“Hi, honey!” Mrs. Turner said after Alice knocked on the door.
Good,
Alice thought.
At least Cassidy hasn't told them all that I'm the worst and turned them all against me
. “Come on in! We're just toasting Cassidy's show with some cupcakes and sparkling cider.”

“Sure,” said Alice, although she wasn't totally convinced Cassidy wouldn't smash a cupcake into her hair and throw the cider in her face.

“Hi,” Alice said to Cassidy, who was sitting primly on one of the high chairs at the kitchen bar.

“Hi,” Cassidy said warily to Alice. “What do you have there behind your back?”

Alice presented the flowers. “These are for you. To say congratulations. And I'm sorry.”

Cassidy smiled and breathed in the pink daisies' scent. “They're beautiful,” she said. She put a cupcake on a plate and extended it to Alice as another peace offering. “This is for you. To say I'm sorry too.”

Alice pretended to wrinkle her nose. “Just vanilla? No Funfetti?” She took a bite while she and Cassidy smiled at each other awkwardly and ate their cupcakes
in silence. Alice wasn't sure where things would go from here, but it was a start. A delicious start.

“Girls, make sure you get a look at the moon before you say good night,” said Mrs. Turner, lingering at the top of the stairs before heading to the rec room to watch TV with Mr. Turner. “It's huge and orange and amazing.”

“Want to go check it out?” asked Cassidy.

“Sure,” said Alice. She pulled on her green parka, and Cassidy grabbed her red-and-black jacket. She slid open the heavy glass patio door, and the two headed for the swinging seat that they always chose when they sat outside in Cassidy's yard together. Alice couldn't even remember the last time they'd sat out back.

“Oh, wow,” whispered Cassidy, and Alice gasped. The moon, which usually looked tiny and faraway, hung huge and low and close over the lake, casting an orange light that reflected on the still water. Some stray wispy clouds lingered in the sky, drawing spooky lines like cobwebs across the huge moon's face. The girls sat in silence for a few minutes, and Alice was grateful that she had something so much bigger than a school musical or honors classes to look at and think about.

“I was really out of line,” Cassidy finally said. “Over
at the school. I'm sorry. Are you okay, by the way? I never even asked.”

“I'm fine,” Alice said. “Mostly just embarrassed. Both because I fell down, and because of my harebrained scheme. I don't know what I was thinking.”

“Yeah, what
were
you thinking?” Cassidy said with a laugh.

“So here's the deal,” Alice said. She drew a deep breath and finally told Cassidy about the day that Nikki had cried in front of her, going to her house, eating at Walker Bros. with her, everything.

“But I was scared to tell you,” Alice said. “Because you
so
didn't like her. And also . . . I didn't say anything at the time, but it felt kind of weird knowing that you were going to the mall, and to get ice cream, and all that other stuff, with the kids from the musical. Without me.”

“That's kinda how I felt when I came over and you had the Nerd Herders over,” Cassidy admitted.

“Yeah,” Alice said. “And since things were already weird, I couldn't find a way or time to say, ‘Hey, I know we're not spending much time together, but do you know who I
do
hang out with now is Negative Nikki Wilcox!” Alice took another breath while Cassidy nodded at her to go on.

“Things felt different after I got into honors classes. You have to believe me, I didn't
want
to be separate from you. But I didn't have a choice. And I felt, deep down, like you thought I was choosing
not
to be with you.” Alice finally exhaled.

“Okay,” Cassidy said. “Truth time?”

“Truth time,” said Alice.

“When you got into honors classes, I felt, well, kind of dumb in comparison. And it's taken me awhile to get over that. I didn't think I cared about being asked to join honors until you got asked and I didn't,” she said, holding up a hand to Alice, who was about to protest. “I know, I'm not dumb. But still, we grew up doing
everything
together, and when you got moved to a separate class for separate smarties, I felt sad about it. And yeah, I guess a little bit angry. And I took it out on you and Nikki too.”

“So you felt kind of how I did when you did the school musical and didn't even ask me,” Alice said. “I guess I was worried that you didn't think you needed me anymore, with all your other friends from the musical and in your classes.”

“See,” Cassidy said, “in a weird way that makes me feel better—that it's weird for you too when I do something separate.”

“I guess . . . ,” Alice said, toying with one of the wooden toggles on her coat. “Isn't it kind of a good thing, that we can still be best friends and do different things and have separate relationships too?”

Cassidy nodded. “It'll give us more things to talk about. Even if we don't see each other quite as much, we'll still find a way to catch up. And also, Alice? I need to tell you this more, but I'm
proud
of you for being in honors classes. I love that my best friend is so nice and pretty but also so
smart
.”

Alice felt warm all over. “I feel like we needed to have this talk way earlier.”

“True,” said Cassidy. “Let's just be honest with each other from now on.”

“I'll try,” said Alice.

“And I promise not to just assume that you may or may not want to do something I'm doing,” said Cassidy. “No joke, you would have had fun doing stagecraft for the musical. Everybody was messing around and having fun while they were building sets. It was awesome!”

“I could have done that,” mused Alice. “As long as it didn't actually mean going onstage.” After a moment, she asked Cassidy, “What's it like being onstage, in the spotlight?”

“It's terrifying,” admitted Cassidy. “But I love it. It
feels like jumping off the high dive. Once I've done it, I feel so proud of myself.” Alice thought to herself about the one time she had climbed up the high dive at the community pool, only, in shame, to walk backwards back down the ladder, too chicken to take the plunge. It was amazing that Cassidy could be so brave about some things but still be insecure about others.

“Can you promise me one more thing?” asked Alice.

“What's that?”

“Will you try to just meet Nikki?” Alice asked. “You don't have to be good friends with her, but just give her a chance.”

“Yes. This is the new and improved Cassidy,” Cass said, pointing to herself. “I would like to hang out with the new and improved Alice.”

“She's getting there,” Alice said. She leaned her head on Cassidy's shoulder, and they looked at the moon again, which now was rising higher into the sky, getting smaller and lighter.

Back at Alice's house, her mom just “happened” to be getting a mug of hot chocolate when Alice got home. Alice pretended her mom wasn't just waiting up for her.

“Oh, hi,” her mom said. With her makeup still on from the workday, but in her white pajamas and blue
terrycloth robe, her mom looked like a model from one of the catalogs Alice and Cass pored through. “Your dad filled me in on everything. Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” said Alice, getting one of the painted blue ceramic mugs from the cabinet for herself. “Finally. Thank goodness.” Alice tore open an envelope of chocolate powder, and her mom poured her some hot water. Alice blew impatiently on the liquid. The worst thing about hot chocolate was that you couldn't just drink it right away.

“You were right,” Alice admitted while waiting for her hot chocolate to cool. “I should have just been honest with Cassidy from the get-go.”

“Don't beat yourself up,” said her mom. “I understand what it's like to be afraid to hurt someone's feelings.”

“You do?” Alice asked.

“Sure,” her mom said, and smiled. “Why do you think moms know best? It's from experience!” While Alice finally drank her hot chocolate, her mom told her a few stories about fights with friends when she was younger. Alice was amazed. It sounded like friendships really didn't change that much over the years.

After brushing her teeth and washing her face and putting on her pajamas, Alice was exhausted, but she
wanted to do one last thing before falling into her fluffy white comforter.

She booted up her computer. Just as she had hoped, she saw that Nikki was online.

AISFORALICE:
Hi.

NKWLCX:
Hey.

AISFORALICE:
So . . .

AISFORALICE:
I already said it, I know, but I'm really sorry I missed your big win tonight.

NKWLCX:
And I already said it's fine!

AISFORALICE:
No, it's not. I told you I would be there and I wasn't. I was trying to be in two places at once.

NKWLCX:
Well . . .

NKWLCX:
Thanks for saying that.

AISFORALICE:
And also . . .

NKWLCX:
?

AISFORALICE:
I know Cassidy feels bad about blowing up at you the way she did.

NKWLCX:
Oh.

NKWLCX:
It's fine. Whatever.

NKWLCX:
. . . I know she's not my biggest fan.

AISFORALICE:
Hey, I wouldn't tell you that Cassidy felt bad if she didn't feel bad. I would like you two to try to be friends.

NKWLCX:
Do you think it's possible?

AISFORALICE:
I think it's definitely possible. Cassidy is going to try.

NKWLCX:
Cool.

NKWLCX:
Then I will too. ☺

Alice finally crawled into bed. She spent a few minutes awake trying to figure out what the best way to get Nikki and Cassidy to bond would be. Maybe a walk along the lake? But it was getting cold. Lunch at Walker Bros.? It was kind of noisy there. Maybe a movie? But you can never really talk at a movie. Despite her buzzing mind, Alice fell asleep and, for what seemed like the first time in weeks, slept soundly.