That's What Friends Do

  Behind us, Max shushes Corey, but Coach D doesn’t seem to notice.

  “You heard wrong,” I whisper, keeping my eyes on Coach D.

  “Then you’re available?” Corey asks quietly. “Playing the field? Looking for the right one?”

  “I’m not looking for anything,” I say. “I’m not interested.”

  Corey puts his hand on my leg. I startle, surprised, and turn to look at him, wondering if this is some kind of cool kid joke. But he’s staring straight ahead, at Coach D. I try to pick his hand up and move it off my leg, away from me, but he’s strong and holds it there. I glance at Coach D, who is looking right in our direction, but he doesn’t say anything to Corey.

  “Cut it out,” I whisper to Corey. “Move your hand.”

  “Make me,” he whispers back.

  “Hey,” Max says to Corey. “What are you doing? Sammie told you—”

  “Max!” Coach D snaps. “I expect your full attention. Whatever games you’re playing back there, they end now.”

  “But Coach—” Max starts to protest.

  “No buts. First two weeks are tryouts. I’m testing you,” Coach says. “Figuring out who’s truly committed to the team. There will be cuts. Look around at your competition because not everyone will make this team.”

  Corey squeezes my leg, and leans in to whisper something in my ear. His breath smells like French fries.

  “What a jerk,” Spencer says loudly.

  I push Corey away, stand up, walk past him and Markus, grab my bag, shove the papers inside, and keep on walking.

  “Samantha,” Coach D says. “Where are you going? Meeting’s not over.”

  I don’t say anything.

  I walk out of the gym and am halfway down the hall, on my way to the cafeteria to apologize to Haley, when somebody grabs my arms—two somebodies, actually, one on each side. Corey and Markus.

  “Coach D wants you back in the meeting,” Corey says.

  “Leave me alone.”

  “Can’t,” Markus says, grinning. “Coach wants you there.”

  “Tell him I changed my mind. I don’t want to play baseball.” I try to speak loudly, to sound tough, but my voice catches in my throat and it comes out wobbly and hoarse.

  “I thought you liked playing with the boys,” Markus says, backing me up against the lockers.

  My heart is racing and I feel out of breath and off-balance. “Get away from me,” I say.

  Corey shakes his head back and forth slowly. “Can’t.”

  “Cut it out,” I say. “Leave me alone.”

  “Coach D wants you in the gym,” Markus says, putting his hands on either side of my head and leaning toward me. “And what Coach wants, Coach gets.”

  “Stop it,” I say. I put my hand on Markus’s chest and try to push him away, but I can’t.

  Suddenly, over his shoulder, I see Valerie, Jelly, and Savanna. Corey sees them too and steps back, but Markus’s back is to them, so he’s caught off guard. Valerie grabs his arms and pulls him away from me.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” she says.

  Jelly takes one of Markus’s arms and Valerie hangs on to the other. Savanna plants herself in front of Corey, so her face is inches from his.

  “We weren’t doing anything,” Markus protests. “Sammie walked out right in the middle of the baseball meeting for no reason. Coach D told us to bring her back.”

  “Really?” Valerie asks, still holding Markus. “No way Coach D told you to bully her into coming back to the meeting. You guys are idiots. Get out of here.”

  I’m still leaning against the lockers as Corey and Markus shuffle off down the hall.

  “Those two are the biggest jerks in the seventh grade,” Valerie says. She puts her arms around me, and I want to say something to thank her, to show her that I’m okay, but what I do instead is start to shake. My whole body is vibrating and I can’t stop it. She keeps her arm around me and pulls me into her.

  I catch my breath and say, “It happened so fast. They caught me by surprise. I should have fought back harder, but—”

  “Shoulda, coulda, woulda,” Valerie cuts me off. “There were two of them and one of you. They always work as a team. Luckily, Savanna saw them.” She pats my shoulders and lets go of me. “That’s what friends are for. Girls got to stick up for each other. Especially around jerks like those two. Right?”

  “Right,” I whisper.

  Jelly flexes her arm. “Of course, it helps that I’m so strong. And tough!”

  Savanna does a bodybuilder pose with both arms flexed. “Yeah, and I’m stronger, and tougher!”

  I smile, and realize that they’re right: they are strong. And tough. They stand up for themselves, and they stand up for each other. They stood up for me, even though I’ve been ready to give up on them.

  I smile a wobbly smile. “You’re both strong. You’re like superheroes.”

  Savanna makes a pffft sound and waves her hand. “Nah. We’re just softball-strong. Athletes. Like you.”

  DAVID

  Sean is explaining to Arnold and Caroline and Ruby and me the difference between a black-capped chickadee and a Carolina chickadee—with pictures—when I look up and see Sammie come into the cafeteria with a bunch of other girls, which is really weird because she’s supposed to be in the mandatory baseball meeting. They all grab trays and get into the food line, and they’re talking and laughing. One of the girls puts her arm around Sammie and gives her a quick squeeze.

  “I’ve seen black-capped chickadees in New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Virginia. Their range is much bigger than the Carolina chickadees’.” When he talks about birds, Sean sounds exactly like Pop talking about some great new aluminum bat he’s going to start carrying at the store.

  “What does ‘range’ mean?” I ask Sean, glancing up at the cafeteria doors just in time to see Luke walking by, heading toward the west wing. I know the baseball meeting should still be going on, because Coach D has a reputation for keeping everyone until after the dismissal bell rings, so they’re all late for their next class. If both Sammie and Luke aren’t in there, something big must have happened, bigger even than Coach D having a spontaneous bloody nose, which he sometimes does get.

  I can’t believe Luke would bail on baseball. He was the starting catcher for the Diamondbacks. So maybe Coach D had a heart attack?

  “Hang on, I gotta check on something,” I tell Sean. “Medical emergency.” Then I grab my backpack and race after Luke.

  “Hey,” I call after him. “Wait up!”

  He turns and sees me, and for a split second I think he might try to take off running and lose me, but he doesn’t. I catch up to him, panting a little. “Where are you going? What happened to the mandatory meeting?”

  Then Luke does the weirdest thing: he starts blushing. “I . . . have to drop something off in the guidance office.”

  “Coach D let you leave the mandatory meeting to ‘drop something off’ in the guidance office?”

  Luke’s face is still bright red, which doesn’t make any sense because there’s nothing embarrassing about guidance counselors except maybe for Mr. Lang’s seasonally themed ties, but they should make Mr. Lang blush, not Luke, when I suddenly remember who else has an office in the guidance office.

  “Dr. Ginzburg!” I say, proud of myself for figuring it out. “You’re going to see Dr. Ginzburg.”

  “You don’t have to shout about it,” Luke says, frowning a little. He looks down at the floor. “It’s no big deal. I’ve met with her like four or five times, that’s all, just because I’m new. But things are better and I don’t have to keep meeting with her. She wanted to see me one more time. I suggested today, so I could skip out of at least part of that stupid baseball meeting.” He meets my eyes and smiles a small, crooked smile. “Apparently, Dr. Ginzburg has a lot of pull. I was allowed to turn my paperwork in to Coach D, sit politely for fifteen minutes, and then get the nod that I could leave.”

  “Good one,” I say.
<
br />   “Hey,” Luke says. “Don’t tell anyone about Dr. Ginzburg, okay? I mean, you understand it’s only because I’m new, but the other guys . . .” He trails off.

  Then the light bulb goes off in my head about where Luke was those times he wasn’t at lunch. And I realize that nothing has been going on between Sammie and Luke at lunchtime. Luke’s been hiding his meetings with Dr. Ginzburg the same way I was hiding my art club membership.

  “No problem,” I say, feeling suddenly better because maybe Luke hasn’t sealed the deal with Sammie. “I won’t tell anyone.”

  “Come with me?” he asks. “It’ll only take like ten minutes. Then I can tell you all about the baseball torture and you can tell me why you decided not to try out.”

  I walk with him to the guidance office and sit and work on my latest comic strip while Luke talks to Dr. Ginzburg. He comes out of her office just as the first bell rings.

  We head back to the east wing, round the corner, and run right into Jefferson, opening his locker.

  “What were you guys doing up here?” he asks.

  “I had to drop some papers off in the teachers’ center,” Luke says. “David went with me, to keep me company.” He says it so smoothly that even though I know he’s lying, I believe him.

  “What are you doing up here?” I ask. “What happened to the mandatory meeting?”

  Jefferson smirks. “I think we broke Coach D. So many people were leaving that he gave up and let us all go early.” He punches me in the arm, kind of hard. “Sammie was one of the ones who walked out.” He looks at Luke. “Right before you left. Did you find her?”

  Luke looks puzzled. “What?”

  “Sammie. Did you find her? I figured you went after her, to make a move on her, right? Show the rest of us how it’s done?”

  “Umm,” Luke hedges. “On the bus. When the away games start.”

  We walk toward the back staircase, Jefferson giving a blow-by-blow of the part of the mandatory baseball meeting that Luke missed, and we push through the doors into the back stairwell. I look down and see Sammie coming through the doors below with Andrew and Kai. Jefferson sees them too, glances at me, and calls down, “Guys! Luke’s here. With me. Let’s do it!”

  He steps behind Luke and they start down the stairs. I follow, puzzling over what Jefferson said. Do what? Then I remember: the prank. I stop suddenly, halfway down the stairs, and some girl behind me bumps into me, pushing me forward into Jefferson.

  “Watch it!” he says, one hand on Luke’s shoulder.

  Think! Think! I tell my brain, trying to come up with some way to make this all stop.

  Luke and then Jefferson hit the landing. I’m three stairs above them, still trying to figure a way out, when Andrew and Kai take Sammie’s arms, one on either side of her. Jefferson pushes Luke so his back’s against the wall, and the other guys propel Sammie into Luke.

  I stand, frozen, on the bottom step.

  Jefferson grins and pulls out his phone.

  Sammie’s pressed into Luke, and their faces are inches apart. I see her blink, and watch tears fill the inside corners of her eyes, which are wide open.

  “This is your chance, Luke,” Andrew says. “Show us how it’s done. Go for it.”

  No one moves. We’re all frozen there, like some weird stop-action movie that’s stopped for too long. Behind us, kids are pushing their way up the stairs, talking and laughing like nothing’s going on.

  Then Sammie turns, and punches Andrew right in the stomach. He gasps and doubles over. She kicks Jefferson so hard in his shin that he wails in pain, grabbing his leg and hopping. Then she turns back to Luke, who is still pressed against the wall.

  “I’m not your girlfriend,” she says. “I never was and I never will be. I don’t even like you. Do me a favor and disappear.”

  She turns and looks at me, and her eyes are hard and angry. “Was this your idea? What happened on the bus wasn’t enough? You had to start telling lies about me too? I thought you were my friend. My best friend.”

  I hold my hands out, trying to look like I don’t know what she’s talking about, but my face is hot with shame and guilt. And Sammie? She’s done with me. She turns and marches up the stairs.

  “That hurt,” Andrew complains. “What got into her? She knows we were just joking, right?”

  I look around to see what Kai thinks, but he’s vanished.

  “I can’t believe she took it so personally,” Jefferson says, still sitting on the floor and rubbing his shin. “You did tell her, didn’t you, David? About the prank we planned on Luke?”

  I look at Luke. He hasn’t said a word the whole time. He picks up his backpack and pushes past me, and I think he’s going to go after Sammie, but he doesn’t. Instead, he pushes through the exit door, the one that says “Do Not Use,” and out into the swirling snow.

  I watch the door swing shut, and stand there for a long minute. But I know what I have to do, so I push through the door after him, out into the cold.

  He’s halfway across the playground, heading toward Quaker Ridge Road.

  “Luke,” I holler, my voice swallowed up in the snow and wind. “Luke!”

  He doesn’t even slow down, so I try again, cupping my already freezing hands around my mouth. “Luke! I’m sorry! It’s not your fault.”

  He stops and turns toward me. I gain a little bit of ground, closing the distance between the two of us.

  “I thought you’d be different,” he hollers. “I thought you were nice. I thought you’d be a real friend.”

  He turns his back to me and begins running even faster.

  I try to follow him, but I know I’ll never catch up. He reaches the edge of the school grounds, turns once to look back, then disappears.

  I turn and start back to school, and I have the most awful thought: I caused this. I did this to Sammie, and I did it to Luke too. Nobody did anything to me, and this is what I did back to them.

  SAMMIE

  It happened so fast. One second I was walking through a doorway and the next I’m surrounded by boys grabbing at me, touching me, pushing me up against Luke, and it’s the bus and the baseball meeting and Corey and Markus all over again. My eyes start to fill with tears, and I feel so stupid, so helpless.

  “This is your chance,” Andrew says. “Go for it.”

  Those words go right into my heart, and something changes. I can’t run from this. I can’t let someone else, or a bunch of someone elses, tell me what I’m feeling. I know what these guys, my friends, are doing to me is wrong.

  So I go for it. I punch Andrew as hard as I can. I’m ready to hit Kai too, but he backs away, so I turn and kick Jefferson, hard, in the shins.

  I should get out of there. Run while I can. But I’ve been running, trying to avoid Luke and David, to pretend none of it ever happened. And what good has that done? I look Luke right in the eye, and I say loudly, so that everyone around us will hear, “I’m not your girlfriend. I don’t even like you.” I think of the way Luke ruined everything, and add, “Do me a favor and disappear.”

  Luke stares at me with his blue eyes wide open. It’s weird, how he’s looking at me, so I turn away from him. David’s there, blocking my exit. David, who used to be my friend. Who threw me over for Luke. Who grabbed me on the bus, like I was a thing. David, who started all the rumors about me.

  I almost haul off and punch him. Instead I tell him exactly what I think of him and his lies.

  Then I push past him and march up the stairs toward math class. I feel strong and good. But when I get into the upstairs hall, something happens to my legs and they start to shake. My arms are shaking too, and I feel dizzy. I reach out and grab at the wall to hold myself up. Carli and Marissa and Raven are standing in a circle, with the rest of their clique, whispering. They look up at me, leaning on the wall for support, then huddle back into their gossip circle. I know what they’re talking about: me.

  Haley’s standing outside math class with Amanda and DeeDee.

  I push my
self off the wall and walk on wobbly legs over to where they’re standing.

  “Hey,” I say. “What’s up with them?” I nod my head in the direction of Carli’s huddle.

  Haley rolls her eyes. “Gossip. Who cares?”

  The second bell rings, and I turn to go into math class. Behind me, someone says, “I don’t even like you. Do me a favor and disappear.” I recognize Carli’s sweet voice, and I recognize the words because I said them. Good, I think. Everyone will know that I am not going out with Luke Sullivan. And maybe my life can go back to normal.

  Luke never shows in math class.

  David tries to pass me a note. I tear it up without reading it.

  DAVID

  Five minutes into math class, Mrs. Merola announces early dismissal and that the buses will begin arriving soon. Mine is one of the first called, but when I get on, there’s no one for me to sit with. No Luke and no Sammie.

  I wonder how long it will take Luke to get home, and how he’ll explain being all snowy and wet, and whether he’ll tell his parents what happened. What I did. I wonder how deep the snow is on the Greenway, and whether I could walk to Sammie’s house and try to apologize. Again.

  When I get off the bus, Mom’s car is idling in the driveway. She rolls down her window and hollers, “Hop in.”

  Inez is in the front seat, and Allie’s in the back.

  “I’m dropping Inez off at the train,” Mom explains, “so she can get back home to the Bronx before the trains stop running, and then, David, you need to help your father at the store. None of the high schoolers can make it in this weather.”

  Does it occur to Pop to close the store early because no normal person would think of going out shopping for sporting goods when it’s practically a blizzard? No way. Or, as Pop would say, No way, José!

  “All of my clients canceled because of the snow,” Mom says cheerfully. “I was just organizing myself to go over and help your father at the store when the school called. Thank goodness!”

  “You can still go,” I say, trying to sound helpful. “I could stay home.”

  Mom laughs. “Your dad would be so disappointed to see me walking through the door. I’m all thumbs around that place.”