“Oh,” Iris says. “What about Darby and Jill?”
“They keep getting me into trouble,” I tell her.
“That’s too bad,” she says. “It seemed like you were good friends. I don’t have any friends either, you know. It’s not so bad, really.”
Is she serious? I look at her. She looks serious. What am I supposed to say? Everyone has friends.
“I’m sorry,” I say.
“It’s okay,” she says. “I get to read a lot. And I’ve made friends in the library, like Mr. Chan. He’s a nice librarian. You know what? I don’t think you have to worry anyway. They’ll become your friends again soon.”
“I don’t want them as my friends,” I say. “I just want Darby as my friend. I liked her better before Jill came back.”
“Sure,” says Iris. “I would if I were you, too. Darby acts different without Jill. I was in Ms. Rock’s class with her in second grade and Jill wasn’t in there, so I know.”
“Jill ruins everything,” I say, “even the Rizzlerunk Club that we started together.”
“Is your club named after Captain Rizzlerunk?” Iris asks me.
“You know about him?”
“Yes. Darby told me about him in second grade. It’s such a strange story. But the truth . . .”
“Is stranger than fiction?” I finish.
“Exactly,” she says. She smiles at me. “You can be in my club, if you like,” Iris says.
“Really?” I ask her.
“Yes.”
“What’s it called?”
“The Nobody Club,” she says. “I’m the only member.”
“Oh,” I say.
“When you’re in it,” she tells me, “it’s like being invisible.”
“I’ve always wanted to be invisible,” I say.
“Join the club,” she says.
The next morning I get on the bus with Abby, as usual, but this time Gabriella grabs my arm while I’m walking down the aisle and pulls me down next to her. Sonja and Tillie are in the seat behind us. I watch Abby go and sit next to a fifth-grader she doesn’t even know. She’s so brave.
“I heard you’re not a Rizzlerunk anymore,” Gabriella says.
“We were wondering if you want to join the Jilly Beans,” Sonja says.
“It’s more fun,” Tillie tells me.
“Me?” I ask.
“Yeah, you,” Gabriella says. “No one else is here.”
“Oh,” I say.
“Well?” asks Sonja.
“Jill and Darby would hate it,” Tillie says, smiling.
This is my second invitation to a new club. I think Iris’s invitation to the Nobody Club was supposed to be a joke, though. Hopefully, I won’t hurt her feelings.
“Okay,” I say.
We walk to class and hang up our coats together. When we walk into the classroom, Gabriella goes right up to Jill and Darby.
“Lily’s a Jilly Bean now,” she says.
They look at me. Darby looks worried.
“Right,” Jill says. “Lily can do whatever she pleases. But I want my name back straightaway. You can be the Rizzlerunks.”
“No, they can’t!” Darby says.
“Yes, they can,” Jill says. “It’s a lame name anyway.” Darby doesn’t say anything, but she looks kind of sad.
“Fine, you can be the Jilly Beans,” Gabriella says. “We’re the Gabbys now.”
“We’re the cool club, you know,” Gabriella tells us at recess. “They can have their Jilly Beans. They’re like the vomit-flavored Bertie Bott’s beans anyway.”
“Yeah,” says Sonja.
“Or the booger-flavored ones,” says Tillie.
“Or earwax,” I say, but I feel bad saying it. Everyone laughs.
I see Iris walk by. “Hi, Iris!” I say.
“Iris the virus!” shouts Tillie.
“You’re not friends with her, are you?” asks Sonja.
“Uh . . .”
“Because if you’re friends with her, you can forget being in the Gabbys with us.”
“She is kind of weird,” I say.
Now I have a terrible feeling in my stomach for saying Iris is weird. I mean, she is weird, but she’s also really nice — in fact, she’s nicer than all the other girls combined, except maybe Darby, before Jill came back. But if I’m friends with Iris, and Iris doesn’t have any other friends — then I won’t have any other friends either. I’m just happy to have friends again and be back in a club, so I keep quiet.
After school, Gabriella invites me to go to the Country Store with the Gabbys to buy candy. I don’t really want to go. They make me uncomfortable. I decide to use Mom as an excuse.
“I can’t go,” I say. “My mom said that I have to call her if I want to go to the store after school, and I don’t have a phone.”
All three of the Gabbys hold out their phones. I call Mom.
“It’s okay with me,” Mom says, “as long as you don’t eat very much candy.”
I was hoping she’d say no.
At the Country Store, I’m overwhelmed by the choices in the candy aisle. Since I hardly ever get sugar, it feels like a huge decision to pick out a few pieces of candy. There are so many pretty colors of Jolly Ranchers to choose from! I’m trying to decide whether I like apple or cherry best when Darby and Jill walk in.
“Hi, Lily,” Darby says.
I see Jill elbow Darby in the side.
I decide to pick both the apple and cherry Jolly Ranchers and put my Tootsie Roll back. I bring them up to the counter to buy them. I wave to Darby but don’t say anything, since I don’t want to talk to Jill. As I wait for the other Gabbys to buy their candy, I can’t help but turn around to see what kind of candy Darby and Jill are choosing. I see Darby sneak a handful of Tootsie Rolls into her pocket!
What? I can’t believe it! She’s stealing! Darby wouldn’t steal. Then Jill whispers something into her ear, and she reaches for a candy bar. Just as she puts it into her pocket, a man with a gray mustache walks out of the back room.
“Stop right there, young lady!” he says. “Show me what’s in those pockets.” Darby freezes. Then she starts crying.
“Oh, dear. I told her not to take it, sir,” Jill says to the man in her most sweet-sounding British accent.
He gives Jill a look like he doesn’t trust her. She turns her coat pockets inside out. There’s nothing in them but a hair clip and her phone.
“I didn’t mean to do it,” Darby cries.
“You didn’t mean to take the candy and put it into your pocket?” says the man.
“I mean . . . I’m sorry!” she says. “I’ll buy them, and I’ll never do it again! Please don’t arrest me!”
All of us stare at them, but the store manager glares at us, so we leave.
What was Darby thinking? I guess Darby doesn’t think when she’s with Jill. Maybe I should go tell the store manager that it’s Jill’s fault.
“What was Darby thinking?” Gabriella says.
“That’s what I was just wondering,” I say.
“I know!” Tillie says. “How could she have been dumb enough to get caught?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask.
“I mean,” Tillie says, “she wasn’t very quick. When you shoplift, you have to be quick.”
“You’ve shoplifted?” I ask her.
“Yeah, haven’t you?” Tillie asks me.
They all look at me. I shrug like maybe I have and maybe I haven’t — but I just want to go home. I would never shoplift!
The next day at school Jill is telling everyone how Darby got caught shoplifting, and Darby’s laughing along with her, like she’s proud of it!
“Did you get into trouble?” I ask Darby.
“What’s it to you, Lily?” Jill says.
I walk out to recess with the Gabbys, even though I don’t want to be with them anymore. I never heard of anyone stealing anything in my old school. I really don’t want the Gabbys being mean to me, though, so I follow them
to the playground.
“Let’s play chase the boys!” Gabriella says.
I’ve never played that game before but I join in. We start running after Mikey, David, José, and Billy. Gabriella catches Mikey’s shirt, then grabs him.
“Got you!” she says.
“Switch sides!” says Mikey.
The boys start chasing us. I can feel someone catching up to me. I turn around and it’s Mikey. He catches me by the back of my pant leg and I fall down. “Sorry, Lily!” he says.
He puts out his hand and pulls me up from the ground, smiling at me. He doesn’t let go of my hand. I can feel my face getting hot.
“Mikey likes Lily! Mikey likes Lily!” the other boys shout together.
Gabriella spins around and glares at me. Sonja and Tillie glare at me, too. I drop Mikey’s hand. Gabriella is the only one who’s allowed to like Mikey. Everyone knows that.
“You are out of the Gabbys, Lily Lattuga!” Gabriella says.
They all turn around and walk away from me. The boys chase them. I’m so relieved that I can hardly breathe.
“Hi, Lily,” Iris says from behind me.
“Hi, Iris,” I say, surprised that she’s out at recess and not in the library.
“Are you sure you don’t want to join the Nobody Club?” she asks me.
“Thanks,” I say. “That’s really nice of you. But I think I’m done with clubs for a while.”
“I understand,” Iris says. “If I ever left the Nobody Club, I wouldn’t want to join another club either.”
I wonder how a person can leave a club when they’re the only member, but I don’t ask. We walk side by side back to class. We pass Darby and Jill, and I see Darby look at us, but she doesn’t say anything. Jill doesn’t even bother to look at us.
“Hey, Iris?” I say.
“Yes?”
“Even if I’m not in the Nobody Club, can we still be friends?”
“I’d like that,” she says.
On Saturday, I’m lower than low. It’s raining, and I have nothing to do but watch TV or play with Abby. I watch TV. Then Mom tells me she has plenty of chores for me to do, so I ask Abby if she wants to go out in the boat.
“Let’s catch frogs!” she says.
“That will make me miss Darby,” I say.
“You’ll be fine, Lily,” Abby assures me. “You know what Dad says: if you fall off a camel, the best thing to do is get right back on the hump and ride.”
“You mean horse? If you fall off a horse, you get right back in the saddle and ride?”
“A camel would be more fun,” Abby says. “Come on, maybe we can find some frogs’ eggs and bring them to our end of the lake so we can finally have some frogs here to play with.”
“Fine,” I say. “I’ll go with you.”
We get a bucket, then put on our rain gear and get into the rowboat. I show Abby the bottom of Captain Rizzlerunk’s island when we pass it and the top of the island at the park.
“That is literally impossible, Lily. Islands don’t float. They’re like mountains with just the top showing. All of Hawaii is made up of islands, and they just had a huge hurricane there. Do you think there would still be Hawaii if islands floated?”
“I know that!” I say. “I told that to Darby, but she swears it happened. Her dad told her it did!”
“Lily, her dad writes ghost stories!”
“I know,” I say.
As we approach the end of the lake, we see there’s a boat in the lily pads. It’s raining so hard, we can barely see.
“Aww, someone else is catching frogs, too,” Abby says. “I want all the frogs for us.”
“It’s fine, Abby. There are plenty of frogs to go around,” I tell her.
I look at Abby and she’s squinting into the rain, with her hand sheltering her eyes. “Isn’t that Darby’s raincoat?” she says.
I turn around and squint, and the rain jackets barely come into focus. The yellow one has black stripes on the sleeves, just like Darby’s. The other one is black. It’s Jill’s.
“It’s Darby and Jill,” I say. “Let’s go home.”
“No way!” says Abby. “We rowed so far. I want to catch frogs! Come on, Lily, just because you’re mad at them doesn’t mean we can’t go into the swamp.”
“Fine,” I say.
I start rowing through the lily pads, closer to Jill and Darby. “Hey!” Abby says. “What are they doing?”
“How would I know, Abby? I don’t have eyes in the back of my head!”
“Well, turn around and look!” she says. “Is that Jill in the black coat?”
“Probably,” I say.
“Lily! She’s throwing frogs!”
“What?”
“I saw a frog flying through the air, so unless frogs fly, Jill’s throwing them.”
Then I see her do it. Jill throws another frog through the air.
“Tell her to stop, Lily!” Abby says.
I’m too scared to tell Jill to stop doing anything. Where’s my turtle shell? I just want to hide. I decide to pretend like I’m inside my shell with Abby and there’s nothing we can do about it.
“No. I don’t want to deal with Jill,” I say. “She doesn’t like me enough already. Let’s just go back.”
“No! Lily, she just threw two more. She’s going to hurt the frogs!”
“Abby! I’m not going to tell Jill what to do!”
“Why? She tells you what to do,” Abby says.
How does Abby know everything? I should tell Jill to stop, but I don’t want her to be meaner to me than she already has been. Then I see a yellow arm with black stripes swing through the air.
“Darby threw a frog!” Abby shouts. “Do something, Lily!”
I can’t believe it. Darby loves frogs. Darby is not thinking straight. Darby needs help. I need to get out of my shell — now! I row as quickly as I can toward them, cutting a path through the lily pads. I turn around and cup my hands around my mouth.
“Darby!” I shout. “DARBY! What are you DOING?”
Darby looks up at me. The rain lets up, and I can see her face. She stares straight at me like I’m one of her scary ghosts, then her face turns red and she bursts into tears. She’s bawling.
Jill pulls her hood off and looks right at Darby. For the first time since she came back from London, I hear her speak without her accent.
“Darby! What is wrong with you? You are such a freak! Do you actually like the frogs?” Darby just cries louder.
“Fine, Darby, if you’re going to be such a crybaby, I’ll take you home. THANKS A LOT, LILY!” she screams at me.
“You know what, Jill?” I scream back. “Everything was better before you came back from stupid London with your stupid British accent and your stupid uniform and your stupid ideas that get everyone else in trouble. You’re a bully. And you’re a thief! You stole my friend just like you steal candy!”
“YOU’RE the thief!” Jill yells loudly enough that a bunch of frogs jump off the lily pads into the water. “You stole my friend! I got Darby first. I have dibs. She’s mine and she does what I say, and I say she’s never going to be your friend again. Right, Darby?”
I look at Darby, and she’s crying too hard to say anything.
“So THERE!” Jill screams, and starts rowing away.
I don’t care what Jill says. Maybe I can’t save Darby — but at least I saved the frogs!
Monday at school, I get a crumpled-up note passed to me by Iris. I can tell it’s from Darby. Darby is the only one who crumples her notes up like garbage.
I shove the note into my pocket. I’m not going to answer it. Darby was throwing frogs! Why would I want to be friends with someone who throws frogs?
At recess, I sit along the side of the building, where no one can see me. I look out at the playground and see Darby sitting alone by a tree. It looks like she’s crying. She should be. She’s a thief and a frog-thrower! I see Iris walking slowly toward Darby. She sits down next to her. For a while, they just si
t there, leaning against the tree, then Iris puts her arm around Darby’s shoulders. Darby starts crying even harder. She obviously feels terrible. But I don’t care. Even if Jill made it seem like a brilliant idea, I wouldn’t throw a frog! Would I? I think about all of Jill’s brilliant ideas, and suddenly I’m not so sure.
Later, when we’re doing a vocabulary sheet, I pull out Darby’s note and uncrumple it. I read it again. Then I make a big red X.
Abby and I walk through the mud from the bus stop after school. After days, it’s finally stopped raining, so we take off our hoods. We run across the slippery grass past Zach. Every time we go by, he jumps a little bit higher, which means he might jump over the fence one day. That would be bad.
When we get home, Mom’s at work. All she left for us is a list of chores. It’s so long.
I search through the refrigerator for something to eat. I find kale, almond milk, and condiments. I decide on the kale. I tear it from the stems like Mom taught me to do and put it into a bowl with some olive oil and salt. It’s not Pop-Tarts, but it’s not bad.
I look out the kitchen window at the lake. It looks like it’s still raining over most of it, but the sun is shining on our dock.
I walk down to the lake to throw some sticks into the water for Snort. Abby comes with me. It’s warm out, which feels so good. I throw the stick and Snort runs to the end of the dock and jumps off, flying through the air like a superdog and belly-flopping into the lake. Abby and I laugh. Snort gets out of the water, runs back onto the dock, and drops the stick at my feet. Then she shakes water all over us. I throw it again, and again she leaps from the dock and splashes into the water. Abby sits on the dock and looks out at the lake.
“This is the weirdest weather!” she says.
I look up. There’s a huge fog bank still covering most of the lake.
“What if the rest of the lake is gone?” I say. “And we didn’t even know it!”
“That would be like one of those old Twilight Zone episodes,” Abby says.
I start singing the Twilight Zone music. Do do do do, do do do do, da daaa!
The Rizzlerunk Club Page 10