Best Friend Emma (7 page)

“What do you mean, ‘What’?” Annie Pat asks me. Her face is pink, and she looks really mad. At me.

At me! What did
I
do? I shrug to show Annie Pat how confused I am.

“You—you asked that new girl over on Saturday,” Annie Pat says, tears gathering in her navy-blue eyes.

“So what?” I say. “You can come, too. I was going
to invite you, in fact,” I add, fibbing a little.

I mean, I probably would have thought of inviting Annie Pat eventually, only I hadn’t exactly gotten around to it yet.

But Mom is going to freak, being suddenly asked to take three girls to two expensive places in one day. She probably thought we would just take a nice long inexpensive walk that day, and then maybe do the laundry or something.

And usually that’s fine with me, because we both love peace and quiet.

“You were already gonna spend Saturday with
me
,” Annie Pat says, her tears spilling over.

“Huh?”

“Marine Universe,” Annie Pat says, hissing the words like a beaked sea snake, her favorite venomous creature.

Oh, no
. “I forgot all about it,” I say, the words barely making it past my suddenly dry lips.

“You
forgot
?” she says, almost squealing. “But you said you really wanted to go. And we were
gonna do some
research
. Marine Universe is my favorite thing in the whole wild world!”

(Annie Pat says things such as “whole
wild
world” instead of “whole
wide
world.” It’s one of the things I really like about her.)

“And we were going to treat you to the whole thing,” Annie Pat continues. “And we’ve been planning it for, like—like, six whole months!”

“Two and a half weeks,” I say, correcting her. Because I didn’t even know Annie Pat six months ago. Six months ago, I was minding my own business at Magdalena School for Girls, which is many miles away. For all I knew then, Oak Glen didn’t even exist.

“Shut
up
,” Annie Pat says, clapping her hands over her ears.

“No, listen,” I say urgently. I try to pull one of her hands away so that she will hear me, but she’s pretty strong for the second-littlest girl in the third grade. “Listen, Annie Pat,” I repeat. “We could ask
Kry Rodriguez
to go with us to Marine Universe.
That would
really
impress her. It would be awesome!”

And Cynthia could never compete with that, I congratulate myself silently. Again, score!

“I don’t
want
to impress her,” Annie Pat says, stomping her foot. “Who cares about Kry Rodriguez? She’s not even a scientist like us. She’d just ruin the whole thing.”

Whatever happened to my battle with Cynthia Harbison? I am suddenly having a fight with the wrong person.

“Kry wouldn’t ruin it,” I say, trying to convince Annie Pat to see things my way. “And she’d be so happy to be invited that she’d
want
to be my friend.
Our
friend, I mean. Because I’m doing
this for you, Annie Pat,” I add, desperate.

This is not exactly the truth, but it could be.

I mean, Annie Pat doesn’t know it’s a lie. So maybe she’ll go for it.

But Annie Pat stomps her foot one more time, which is never a good sign with her. “You were our
guest
,” she reminds me angrily. “And a guest doesn’t get to invite other people along. Especially not for the whole day—and when it’s such an expensive treat.”

Oh. I never thought of it like that. I guess she kind of has a point. “But—but what can I do, Annie Pat?” I ask, holding my hands out in a helpless way. “I already invited Kry to do something on Saturday! And I can’t back out now. I can’t just un-invite her, can I?”

“Don’t even worry about it, Emma,” Annie Pat says,
suddenly as cool as an emperor penguin—in spite of the tear tracks on her cheeks. “You and what’s-her-name can do whatever you want, because I take back my whole invitation to you. So there!”

And then she turns around and leaves.

     
8
     

It’s not fair that Annie Pat is so mad at me. I didn’t mean for anything this bad to happen! I just sort of forgot about Marine Universe on Saturday, that’s all. Isn’t a person allowed to forget something every so often? Am I supposed to be
perfect
?

And anyway, I was trying to make friends with Kry Rodriguez for
us
—me and Annie Pat—so we’d be even with Cynthia, Fiona, and Heather.

Annie Pat didn’t even look at me the whole rest of the day. But I am willing to forgive her for that, so why can’t she forgive
me
?

And now, on top of all my other problems, I have to convince my mom—who worries about
spending too much money when we use up toilet paper too fast—to take Kry Rodriguez and me out on Saturday for a fabulous lunch and a really cool movie. Ka-
ching
!

“Mom?”

“Mmm?” my mother answers, fiddling with her turquoise necklace as she gazes at her computer screen. She is not really listening to me. The cozy Thursday-night smell of our meatballs-and-mashed-potatoes dinner hangs in the air, and our stomachs are nice and full, and she’s busy with work.

Perfect
.

“You know how you’re always telling me to make new friends?” I ask softly.

Mom pulls her eyes away from her work and looks at me instead, instantly alert. Mothers everywhere in the animal kingdom are like this with
their young, I tell myself nervously. It doesn’t mean she’s really paying close attention.

“Um-hmm,” she says, nodding. “Friends. Well,” she corrects me, “I believe I told you not to worry—that you
would
make new friends at Oak Glen. And you have, Emma. Just look at you and Annie Pat! Why, you couldn’t have chosen a better friend if you’d ordered her from a catalog.” She beams a smile at me.

“And don’t forget Kry,” I say, sliding in the name—a name that I hope my mom will be hearing a lot in the future. Like this coming Saturday, for instance.

“Cry?” Mom repeats, looking confused.

“Kry Rodriguez, Mom.
You
know. The new girl. She’s my friend, too. Our friend, I mean. Mine and Annie Pat’s. The three of us are really good friends now.”

Liar, liar, pants on fire
. But my mom doesn’t know that.

And the three of us
will
be friends someday—if it kills me.

Mom blinks, trying to remember when I last talked to her about Kry—which was never, because I was keeping Kry all to myself. “Oh,” she finally says. “Well, that’s nice, sweetie.” Her eyes stray back to the computer screen.

“So anyway,” I say, raising my voice a little, “I made this new friend, like you told me to, and I was wondering if I could invite her out to lunch and a movie on Saturday. With you driving. Kry’s really nice, Mom.”

My mother turns to me, surprised. “But, Emma, you already have plans on Saturday,” she says, reminding me. “
Big
plans. Annie Pat and her father are taking you to Marine Universe!”

Mom sometimes forgets what day it is, ever since she started working at home, and she almost always forgets to buy the kind of cereal I like best, and she often forgets to take clothes out of the
dryer, and she sometimes forgets to add all the correct ingredients to a recipe. Even cookies! And peanut-butter cookies without the peanut butter are just plain weird.

But she has to remember
this
?

“Marine Universe is off,” I inform my mom. “Annie Pat canceled the whole thing,” I add, so my mom won’t think any of this is my fault.

Big
mistake.

“I’m sure you’re wrong about that, Emma,” Mom says, frowning. “I know how much Annie Pat was looking forward to her special day. She needs to get away from the new baby, even if it’s only for a little while.”

And then my mom reaches for the phone.

“No, don’t!” I say, squawking the words like a startled toucan.

But it’s too late. Morn and Mrs. Masterson are already
talking. “Mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm,” my mom murmurs, shooting me a
stay-right-there
glance as I tiptoe toward the door.

It’s more of a glare, really, and my heart starts thudding.

“Mmm-hmm,” Mom continues. “Oh, for heaven’s sake!” She listens to Annie Pat’s mother some more. “Well,” Mom finally says with a sigh, “I can’t tell you how sorry I am, Donna. I don’t know what got into Emma, but I intend to find out.
Pronto
.”