The popular girls were at their regular table in the middle of the room. They were all wearing pink in tribute to Laney, who came in second runner-up last night. She was obviously telling them all about it.
“And then I realized that my girl Riley was in so much trouble,” she said. Laney made a fake sad face. Riley looked like she’d finally had enough.
Me, Kate, Toni, and Yuzi just plopped ourselves down at the table. We hadn’t been invited. In fact, no one had even voted us in, but we made ourselves right at home and began opening our lunches.
“Eww! Baloney again,” said Yuzi. “My mom is having a bad lunch week. Trade, anyone?”
“I’ll trade,” said Toni. “I love baloney. Want my turkey and tomato?”
We acted like nothing unusual had just happened, but something very unusual was happening. The unwritten rules of lunchroom power had just been challenged. Laney was standing up now.
“What do you think you are doing?” she asked, glaring at me.
“Oh, this?” I said, taking a bite of my tuna salad sandwich. “This is called eating.”
Everyone laughed except her little cotton candy fan club. Their eyes were wide.
“This is our table,” said Laney. She made an annoying little circle with her two pointy fingers as she pointed to the table.
“Oh, you can sit here,” said Kate. “It’s just fine with us.”
“Yep,” I said. “It’s fine with us.”
Then we went back to our eating.
Laney looked like she was about to throw a temper tantrum the size of Jupiter. She flittered up and down on her tiptoes and her cheeks turned bright red. Her mouth was wide open as if she were about to scream, but nothing came out. Just when I thought she might burst, she flopped herself back down into her seat and just fumed in silence.
I smiled thinking of the club rules we wrote last night while we were IMing.
RULE #8: Always sit together at lunch.
RULE #9: Anyone who wants to can totally hang with us at lunch.
RULE #10: There will be no voting on who can be whose friend!
“Riley, I’m glad you won the ballroom gown competition,” I said, looking right at her. “You looked majorly beautiful in my dress!”
“Thanks,” she said, and looked down shyly at her food.
“Ewwww!” wailed Laney, finally erupting into the full screech she’d been holding inside. “You cannot sit here!”
“Sure we can. And you can, too!” I said calmly, looking right into her eyes. Then I spoke a little more loudly, “Anyone who wants to can sit with us!”
“Cool,” said Ferner, coming out of nowhere and plopping down next to us.
“Ferner,” whined Laney, “what are you doing?”
“Just sitting with my second grade do-si-do partner, Laney,” he said, staring her down. “Got a problem with that?” Suddenly, I decided that I actually did like him.
Laney looked at him like she didn’t understand the language he’d just spoken.
There was an awkward silence followed by a dragging sound. Riley Peterson slid her cafeteria tray closer to me and smiled shyly.
I’m thinking that with a little time, she just might make a great Secret Keeper Girl.
I took another bite of my tuna and looked over at Mrs. Hefty. She gave me a thumbs-up.
Yep, this is definitely my new best-day-ever. And the best part hasn’t even happened yet!
Spotlights raced through the Spectra Dome and shone on Alayna Rayne as she belted out her number one hit song twenty feet from me.
“I’ve gotta slow down, wa-a-ay down.
This earth is spinnin’ round and round,
Don’t wanna miss this moment’s sound
Gotta be who I am now;
Who I am right now!”
As the song came to an end, fireworks went off onstage behind her. My dad told me earlier that he had helped her manager set that up. I had bragged about that on the way here.
“This is the best,” Kate screamed at me even though her mouth was practically inside my ear cavity. “I’m so blown away!”
The surprise that Mrs. Hefty had for us after the Teeny Pop Pageant was six—not four—but six front-row seats to the Alayna Rayne concert. Mrs. Hefty and Mrs. V had been on the committee to collect prizes for this year’s pageant winners. It turned out that they were the ones who’d gotten the tickets to the concert to begin with. Always looking for their own brand of fun, they had talked their husbands and the Butters into using the extra six tickets. But when they saw what happened at the pageant, they decided that the new Secret Keeper Girls should get them instead. (They kept two though, so they could come with us!)
“I love you, Ohio!” hollered Alayna as her song came to an end. “Tonight we have a special guest in the house.” I knew she was going to introduce Abbey Anderson, who was seated right next to me with her parents, and was wearing her crown. Mrs. Hefty had told us that Abbey was going to get to go onstage with Alayna as a part of her prize.
“I’d like to introduce Abbey Anderson, who is Marion, Ohio’s, newest Miss Teeny Pop!” said Alayna. The spotlight searched the front row looking for Abbey, who was already standing and waving. Finally, it found her.
“I met Abbey backstage before the concert,” said Alayna. “She said she has someone she wants to dedicate this next song to—someone who taught her about being a true friend. In fact, Abbey and the very first Miss Teeny Pop have something special to present.”
Suddenly Abbey and Mrs. Hefty were escorted by two of Alayna’s bodyguards to the big set of stairs in the middle of the stage. Two more bodyguards grabbed my arms and practically lifted me off the ground as they followed the first two.
What in the world? I wondered.
“Abbey. Mrs. Hefty,” said Alayna as they reached her onstage. She handed Mrs. Hefty her mic.
Abbey just smiled, and I realized then that her hands were behind her back. What was she holding?
“Well, there,” began Mrs. Hefty in rapid pace. She went on to tell the audience the whole crazy story, starting with the Purple Flurp, which made everyone laugh, and ending with Riley Peterson in my one-of-a-kind dress, which made everyone cry.
“There’s a saying that if you want to have a friend, you have to be one. In the spirit of the Miss Teeny Pop Pageant, we want to present this, the first Miss Teeny Pop crown … ”
She paused and Abbey pulled out that old, slightly bent plastic crown that I’d seen at Mrs. Hefty’s house just two days ago. It looked beautiful tonight.
“… to someone who is definitely a true friend …
Miss Danika McAllister!”
Abbey walked over to me, carefully pulled my sky-blue headband from my head, and placed the original Miss Teeny Pop crown on me!
I was wearing the Miss Teeny Pop crown!
“You’re the true winner,” Abbey whispered to me. Then she hugged me.
“This song is dedicated to Danika McAllister!” shouted Alayna, and she started singing “Tru Friends R Tru.”
I can’t lie. It was pretty sweet standing there under a dozen spotlights and wearing the Miss Teeny Pop crown as Alayna Rayne sang to me. I loved it, even if it took me a whole lot longer than expected to get here. I’m actually glad it did. I needed to take a few “walks,” as Mrs. V called them, and it was worth every step to find true friends along the way.
I was pretty sure that I’d probably eventually put my new crown in a trunk somewhere. I might even totally get over my obsession with the Miss Teeny Pop Pageant one day.
But I’d never outgrow my true friends.
Girl Gab About True Friendship
Hey, Secret Keeper Girl! Grab your mom or a BFF for some great girl gab about true friendship. Let’s take a look at what you can learn from Danika’s crazy quest for the Teeny Pop crown. First, she learned that she wasn’t such a great friend, but then she learned how to be one!
Gab About It:
Hopefully, you could see this Bible verse literally live
d out in Danika’s life. As she hung around with “fools” like Riley, her life fell to pieces. As she began to hang out with friends who wanted what was best for her, like Kate, she made better choices.
Danika learned how to be a friend! It’s so easy to get stressed about who likes you and who thinks you’re cool. Instead, we should be thinking about who needs a good friend to walk with her. Ask God to show you a wise friend who needs someone to walk with. Pray it out loud with your mom!
Secret Keeper Girl Fiction Series Page 18