Picture Perfect #4: Between Us

by Cari Simmons

  “He didn’t ask my permission,” Bailey shot back. She gave a tug on Franz’s leash. He took a couple of steps but didn’t stop peeing. Suddenly Hans realized what was going on. He scrambled right over Monsieur’s back and started peeing over the spots Franz had already marked.

  “Come on, guys. Come,” Bailey called, walking forwards and hoping Franz would follow. Bruce was already happily plodding forwards. But Franz, who probably weighed only about twenty pounds, seemed to have glued himself to the sidewalk. Bailey pulled on the leash, and Franz skittered forwards, his nails fighting to cling to the cement.

  “Don’t drag him like that,” Gus yelled.

  “Well, he won’t walk,” Bailey answered.

  Gus slapped his thigh. “Franz, giddyap,” he cried. And Franz giddyapped. But first he went through Bailey’s legs and around one ankle. She stumbled and landed hard on one knee. She was going to get a bruise as big as the ones Tess always had from falling off her board when she was practicing a new trick. Cats never knocked you to the ground!

  “Give them back.” Gus sounded exasperated. With her. Not with the insane wiener dog.

  Bailey handed back the leashes. They were in front of her house. “See you,” she said. “And thanks.”

  Gus grunted in response, then said, “Have fun with Olivia. I’ll just be home crying into my pillow because you didn’t ask me to come.”

  Bailey was still laughing when she walked into the house. “Mom!” she called. Her mother would be able to help her figure out exactly how to explain why Bailey and Olivia wanted to celebrate Olivia’s birthday without Hannah—without hurting Hannah’s feelings! She’d understand why Olivia’s birthday absolutely had to be a Hannah-free zone.

  “In the kitchen,” her mom called back.

  “I need to ask you a—” she began as soon as she entered the kitchen. She cut herself off when she saw that her aunt Caitlin was sitting at the table with her mom. Obviously she wasn’t going to be able to bring up her Hannah problem now. “It’s a homework thing. We can talk about it later. Hi, Aunt Caitlin.”

  “Sit down with us for a minute,” her aunt said. “I wanted to thank you for being so great to Hannah. She really appreciates the way you introduced her to all your friends. She said all of them have been so friendly. I appreciate it too.”

  Bailey nodded. “It must be hard starting at a new school.”

  “It is. Especially because Hannah really didn’t want to move. She’s had so many upsets lately. On top of . . . of the divorce, moving was almost too much. She’d barely started at the last school.” Aunt Caitlin’s brow furrowed with worry. “Every time her dad talks to her on the phone, she gets so sad. I try to talk to her about it, but she shuts me down. The only time she seems really happy is when she tells me about things she’s doing with you.”

  “I’m glad she’s living here,” Bailey said truthfully, her mind whirling. She needed to figure out how to get in some best-friend time with Olivia, especially on her birthday. That was vital.

  But Hannah was her cousin. She needed Bailey. And there was no way Bailey was deserting her.

  CHAPTER 8

  HOW TO HELP HANNAH DEAL WITH HER PARENTS’ DIVORCE

  1.If she wants to talk, let her. Don’t push her to talk.

  2.Be a good listener.

  3.Watch a funny movie together.

  4.Be positive.

  5.Ask if she needs help with homework/do homework together.

  6.Give her a compliment.

  7.Make her a snack in case she’s too upset to eat.

  “Hi! I brought you a bagel with peanut butter.” Bailey thrust the foil-wrapped snack into her cousin’s hand as soon as Hannah answered the door the next morning. A blog she’d read said when people are upset they sometimes forget to eat and that makes them feel worse.

  The bagel was part of Bailey’s plan to give Hannah some extra attention. She figured if she did, then Hannah would know Bailey cared about her and was her friend, not just her cousin, even if Bailey didn’t invite her to Olivia’s All-Day Birthday Adventure, as she and Olivia had been calling it since they were kids. Maybe they’d even be able to do some other stuff without Hannah once in a while. All she had to do was make sure Hannah knew Bailey was always going to be around if Hannah needed her.

  She’d decided not to tell Hannah in advance that she’d be out with Olivia on Saturday. If it came up—like if Hannah asked if she and Bailey could do something that day—Bailey would just explain about the birthday tradition. Hannah would understand. Like Gus said, Bailey and Olivia’s other friends didn’t get offended when she and Oh did things by themselves.

  “Thanks.” Hannah slid the bagel into her backpack. “I’ll have it later. I just finished breakfast. Grandma made her granola.”

  “With dried mango pieces?” Bailey asked. Her grandmother loved to experiment with different kinds of granola. She and Bailey made it together on mornings when Bailey had spent the night.

  “It was yogurt-coated cashews today,” Hannah answered. Bailey had never had that one before. She felt a tiny zing of jealousy, then reminded herself that she’d had tons of time with her grandparents and Hannah had hardly had any.

  They started down the sidewalk towards Olivia’s. Her house was a little out of the way, but she and Bailey always walked to school together. “Your hair looks great today, Hannah,” Bailey said.

  Hannah smiled. “Really?” She threaded her fingers through her long blond hair, and Bailey had to glance away so she didn’t have to look at the white polka dots painted on Hannah’s nails, the main coat of each nail a different color.

  Now that Olivia had made her remember Hannah wasn’t wearing polka dots on her nails the day she got to town, Bailey couldn’t stop wondering if Hannah had been lying about how she was a huge polka dot fan.

  Bailey was seriously considering changing her signature look. Except she was afraid Hannah would copy whatever new one she came up with, and that would make Olivia’s head go splat! It would make Bailey feel weird too.

  “Yeah, it’s so shiny,” Bailey said. “And I love that hair band.”

  “Thanks,” Hannah answered. “I made it by braiding together strips from an old T-shirt.”

  “You’re a DIY fashionista,” Bailey said. “You come up with so much great stuff.” She really did.

  “I’ll make you one if you want,” Hannah volunteered. She sounded happy. Good. That was what Bailey wanted.

  By the end of the day, she’d gotten through her whole list. Hannah hadn’t brought up the divorce, but Bailey had been prepared, ready to be a good listener.

  By the time she and Hannah were walking to school together on Friday, Bailey had gotten through most of the list eight more times. The funny movie item wasn’t one that she could do every day, so she’d thrown in a couple of extra compliments and found a few jokes online to tell Hannah.

  It felt good to be helping her cousin. It wasn’t like it was a huge chore. Hannah could be fun. She had great stories about all the places she’d lived—if you coaxed them out of her. And during one of the movies, she’d helped Bailey do a reverse appliqué on one of her T-shirts, cutting out leaves, then sewing a piece of another T-shirt underneath so it showed through. Actually, she’d done the appliqué herself while Bailey watched.

  Now that Bailey had given Hannah a lot of extra attention, she could enjoy spending all day Saturday hanging out with Olivia with a clear conscience. It was Olivia’s birthday, and they were going to have some serious fun!

  Olivia caught up to Bailey right before she walked into the cafeteria that day at lunch. “I came up with a way to show you that Hannah is copying you on purpose,” she announced, her brown eyes gleaming.

  “I told you, we just happen to like a lot of the same things,” Bailey said. “You and I like a lot of the same things too. That’s why we’re friends.”

  “I knew you’d say that. I know you think she just likes the same people you like and the same things you like because you two are
soul cousins or whatever,” Olivia answered. “But I finally figured out how to show you it’s more than that.”

  “How?”

  “You’ll see. Come on.” Olivia led the way into the cafeteria.

  Bailey watched her best friend carefully as they bought food and sat down with Vivi, Tess, and Hannah. What was Olivia planning to do?

  Olivia started eating her lunch, chatting about some movie she wanted to see, acting totally normal. Had her plan started? What was her plan? Bailey was feeling so jittery that it was hard to sit still.

  “I’m going to run to the bathroom.” Olivia gave Bailey a look that Bailey knew meant “Come with me.”

  “I’ll come with,” Bailey said.

  Hannah scrambled to her feet. “I need to go too. I’ll go with you.”

  Olivia raised her eyebrows at Bailey. That couldn’t be what Olivia had been talking about, could it? It was totally normal to go to the bathroom with your friends.

  After she, Hannah, and Olivia were out of the bathroom stalls and had washed their hands, Olivia pulled her favorite tinted lip balm out of her bag. “I forgot to give this back to you,” she said to Bailey. Before Bailey could say the balm wasn’t hers, Olivia continued. “Oh, wait. I forgot you gave it to me because you ended up not liking the color. You said you like darker pink. I decided it was a little too pale for me too. Do you want it, Hannah?” She pulled off the top so Hannah could see the shade.

  This had to be part of Olivia’s plan. First, the lip balm was hers, not Bailey’s. Second, she loved the color. She called it pinktastic.

  Hannah shook her head. “It’s not really my color either,” she said, even though she was wearing a pale pink gloss that was almost exactly the shade of the lip balm Olivia had offered her.

  “It isn’t?” Olivia asked. “But you wear almost that color all the time. You’re wearing it right now. That’s why I thought you’d want it.”

  “I, um, bought it by mistake,” Hannah said quickly. “It looked darker in the tube. I wanted to throw it away, but my mom won’t let me. She . . . she says it’s perfectly good and it’s wasteful not to use it. That’s why I’ve been wearing it so much. I, uh, I wanted to use it all up as fast as I could so I could buy the color I really like.” She nodded four times, then smiled at Olivia. “Thanks for offering it to me, though.”

  “Sure.” Olivia was answering Hannah, but looking at Bailey.

  Bailey understood. Olivia had been showing her that Hannah had liked the color until Bailey had said she didn’t like it. Hannah wasn’t a very good actress. It had been so clear she was lying when she told them about buying the wrong color.

  Maybe Olivia was right. Maybe Hannah had been copying Bailey from the beginning, starting with buying that polka-dotted scarf. No, even before that. Starting with getting herself in almost every class Bailey was in.

  A whooping sound caught Bailey’s attention. “Hey, do you hear that?” Bailey exclaimed. She didn’t want to think about Hannah anymore right then. “It sounds like the cheerleaders are doing a pep rally!” She hurried out of the bathroom and back to their table, Hannah right behind her, with Olivia trailing after them.

  “Homecoming Day is almost here. And this is reason enough to cheer!” the eighth-grade cheerleaders were chanting. Then they all did kicks or jumps.

  “Woo!” Bailey shouted as she applauded.

  “Woo!” Hannah cried.

  She’s like a parrot! Bailey thought, then told herself that half the kids in the caf had yelled “Woo!” at the same time Hannah had.

  “Okay, everybody,” the head cheerleader called. “We’re so excited because you know what happens in two weeks?”

  “Homecoming!” the other cheerleaders shouted.

  “And right before that?” the head cheerleader cried.

  “Spirit Week!” the others yelled in response.

  “That’s right!” The head cheerleader grinned at the crowd. “For all you sixth graders, East Concord Middle School has the most awesome Spirit Week. There are games during each lunch period and costume competitions, and everybody has fun. This year each grade will pick a Most Valuable Player at the end of the week, and that person will get two free tickets to the Katy Perry concert in Charlotte.” She jumped into a split and touched her toes. “The sold-out concert!”

  How cool would it be to see Katy Perry live? Bailey’s fingers were itching to start a list. With enough planning, she thought she might be able to get chosen as the MVP for the whole sixth grade!

  “I love Katy Perry!” Bailey cried.

  “Love, love, love her!” Hannah exclaimed.

  Is that even true? Bailey wondered, eyeing Hannah. Or is she saying it only because I said it first?

  Bailey was so glad to get home after school that day. She didn’t think she could stand one more second with Hannah. When she’d thought she and Hannah liked a ton of the same things, it had been cool. But now that she knew Hannah was only pretending to like the things Bailey liked, it was weird. Make that annoying. Really annoying.

  At least tomorrow would be a completely Hannah-free day. She pulled the Olivia’s All-Day Birthday Adventure list out of the front pocket so she could review it. “Mom, you remember we’re leaving to pick up Olivia for breakfast at nine, right?” she asked as she headed into the living room.

  Her mom put down the book she was reading for her book club. “Of course I remember. You’ve left me a note by the coffeepot the last two mornings.”

  Bailey smiled. “You never skip coffee, that’s why I put my important messages there.”

  “I was talking to your aunt Caitlin today, and I told her Hannah was welcome to go with you and Olivia,” her mom said. Like it was no big thing.

  “Mom, no!” Bailey wailed. “Olivia and I do all our special birthday things. It won’t be the same with someone else there.”

  “I’m sure the three of you will have a great time. Hannah will love everything you have planned,” her mother answered.

  Or she’ll pretend to, Bailey thought. Since she’s trying to turn herself into me—and get my room and my friends and my life, just like Olivia said.

  “You have to tell Aunt Caitlin you were wrong,” Bailey told her mother. “It will ruin everything if Hannah comes. And it’s not like I’ve been ignoring her. I’ve been spending practically every second with her since she moved here. I eat lunch with her every day. She came over to watch a movie this week and last week. She sat with me in Spanish Club. Every time we have to do an acting exercise with a partner, I’m her partner. We run together every time we have track. I gave her that party! I introduced her to all my friends. I even let her have my idea for the meadow mural, and I really wanted it for myself! I gave her all these compliments and made her a peanut butter bagel.”

  “I know, honey, but—” her mother began.

  “No!” Bailey burst out, interrupting her. “Hannah can come over on Sunday. She can come over every day after school for the rest of my entire life. She can start wearing clothes right out of my closet. She can dye her hair to match mine if she wants to. She can change her name to Bailey. But she can’t come with us on Olivia’s birthday. She can’t! She—”

  “Bailey, stop.” Now it was her mother who interrupted. “Sit down and listen to me.” Her mother looked at Bailey until Bailey gave a reluctant nod and flopped down on the living room sofa.

  “It turns out that tomorrow is Hannah’s dad’s birthday too,” Mom said, brushing Bailey’s hair away from her face. “Hannah and her mom and dad always did something together on his birthday, just the way you do with Olivia.”

  “It’s not the same,” Bailey protested.

  “It’s very much the same,” her mother insisted. “It’s a tradition, just the way you and Olivia celebrating your birthdays together is a tradition. Think how you’d feel celebrating your birthday without Olivia.”

  “But it’s not Hannah’s birthday.” Bailey wasn’t giving in on this one. She wasn’t. She’d done everything she could t
hink of to be nice to Hannah, and she’d keep on doing everything. But just not tomorrow.

  “Hannah’s really missing her dad,” Bailey’s mother told her. “She’s going to be thinking about him so much tomorrow, missing him extrahard. Going out with you and Olivia would help keep her mind off being so far away.”

  “Why can’t she go out with her mom?” Bailey asked. “Why can’t they do something together?”

  “Aunt Caitlin said she offered to do anything Hannah wanted to, but Hannah said no. Maybe it’s because it would make her miss her dad even more if the two of them did something on a day the three of them always spent together. There’d be so many memories, you know?”

  Bailey reluctantly nodded.

  “Doing something with you and Olivia wouldn’t have any old memories connected to it. Hannah could just have fun,” her mother went on. “What do you say?”

  “I don’t really have a choice, do I?” Bailey muttered.

  Her mother sighed. “I’m not going to force you,” she finally answered. “But I want you to try to put yourself in Hannah’s place before you decide.”

  CHAPTER 9

  HOW NOT TO BE ANNOYED BY A SORT-OF-ANNOYING PERSON

  1.If it’s something small, let it go.

  2.Talk to someone about it.

  3.Practice saying nice things in the mirror.

  4.Smile—faking a smile can actually make you feel happy (according to Dad, at least).

  5.Imagine something happy while she’s being annoying.

  6.Remember that she’s not TRYING to be annoying.

  7.Relax!!!!!!

  “I’m proud of you, Bailey,” her mother said after they got in the car the next morning.

  “Thanks,” Bailey mumbled. She and Olivia had talked last night. Bailey had admitted that Olivia was right about Hannah copying her. She’d also admitted that now that she’d realized Hannah was doing it, it was completely annoying.

  But they’d both still decided they had to invite Hannah to spend the day with them. They wouldn’t be able to have any fun if they knew Hannah was home by herself, wishing she was with her dad.