***I don't own Lizzie, or anybody else from the cast, even though I'd really like to own Gordo…but that's beside the point***
Mr. Diggs approached Lizzie and Miranda's desks and said, "Ah, Ms. McGuire and Ms. Sanchez. I figured the two of you would be partnering."
"Yeah, well, that almost didn't happen, now did it?" Lizzie said snottily as she put her hand in the cup to retrieve a country.
"Jeez Lizzie, will you drop it already! I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to make you mad or anything. Please, let it go." Miranda said in return. She was very annoyed.
"I'm just going to pretend like I didn't here that fight, and just stand here and wait until you two have a country." Mr. Diggs said, obviously slightly uncomfortable.
"Sorry, Mr. Diggs," Miranda apologized. "Lizzie and I just had a misunderstanding, that's all."
"Good, because it'd be a shame for you two to get into a big fight, you're like frick and frack, Minnie and Daisey, King Arthur the third and his loyal advisor!" Mr. Diggs said enthusiastically.
"Who?" Lizzie asked as she finally pulled out a strip of paper.
"Never mind," he said as he replaced the cup in his hand with a pen. "What'd you pick?"
"Um," Lizzie said as she opened the piece of paper. "Lichten…how do you say that?"
"Ah," Mr. Diggs said as he read the paper in Lizzie's hand. "Liechtenstein. A small country, but oh so interesting." He wrote down their selection on his legal pad.
"Exactly how small are we talking?" Miranda asked quizzically.
"About the size of New Jersey, probably smaller." He said nonchalantly. 'Well, off to the next group. Good luck girls!" With that, Mr. Diggs walked to the next group in the class.
"New Jersey?" Lizzie exclaimed. "Do you know how small that state is?"
"Yeah, but at least they have cool accents," Miranda said reassuringly.
"True," Lizzie agreed. The two girls began to laugh.
***Meanwhile***
"I don't care if I'm not going to like it." Shelley said to Gordo. "Just tell me about the only fight the three of you have, please!"
"Fine. The whole thing started when Miranda got back from camp the summer before the fifth grade. She'd had a great time at camp and wanted to tell Lizzie and me all about it, but we didn't really care. We'd done a lot over the summer, including becoming closer then we ever had, and with Miranda back, things suddenly felt different, and one reason was all of the bragging she was doing about her 'best camp friend'."
"Me?" Shelley asked him.
"Yeah, but we didn't know it was you," he moved his hands up and down in her direction.
"Ok, so where does the fighting start?"
"Well, the worst happened about a week after she came back…
~Flashback~ (Gordo's POV)
"She's bugging me so much lately!" Lizzie complained to me about Miranda while we sat at a table in the Digital Bean, a local hang out. "Why couldn't she just stay in New Mexico with her, 'like, totally cool bunk buddy'" she had been mocking Miranda when she said the last part.
"I know what you mean. We were having so much fun just the two of us, then she had to come back and go on and on about that Shirley girl, or whatever her name is." Gordo agreed.
"It's Shelley. How could you forget, that's all she's been talking about for the past week straight."
"Oh, yeah, I almost forgot."
"I swear, if I have to listen to one more sentence starting in 'One time, me and Shelley' or 'Shelley would say' I think I'm going to scream." Lizzie said before taking a sip of her milk shake. I laughed at her joke and nodded in agreement. "We were having the best summer ever, and then Miranda had to come along and bore us to death with her constant Shelley stories. I mean, at least…" Lizzie continued to talk, but I stopped listening because just then I saw Miranda walking toward us.
"Um, Lizzie." I tried to stop her, but it was too late. Miranda was close enough to hear Lizzie's ranting about how the end of our summer was ruined by her constant stories about camp.
"Is this what you guys always do when I'm not around?" Miranda asked loudly as she approached our table. "Talk behind my back about me and my other friends?"
Lizzie quickly turned around and was face to face with the last person she wanted to see at the moment. "Miranda."
"You want to finish that conversation? I'd really like to know what else you guys think about me and my 'pathetic life at camp'" She used quotation fingers to emphasize the last part of her statement.
"Look Miranda, you just caught the end of that, I can explain" I began, but Lizzie cut me off.
"Don't lie to her Gordo, it's time we told the truth." She turned back to Miranda. "Gordo and I are totally sick of listening to your stupid stories about camp. We don't care about what happened to you or how much fun your dumb new friend is. I mean you're probably making her up anyway."
"First of all, she isn't dumb, she's great and I know you two would love her, and second, I can't believe you guys would say that I made something like that up, let alone talk behind my back about it. I thought you were my friends."
"Yeah well we thought that too, until you decided to bore us 24-7 about some girl that you would obviously rather be with then us." Lizzie shot back.
"You're being awfully quiet Gordo, do you agree with her?" Miranda asked me.
This was obviously my cue to help out Lizzie. "Well, you do talk about her a lot, and it does seem like you like her better then us."
"I can't believe you two are saying this to me!"
"Why don't you go complain to your stupid friend then." Lizzie said as she thumped back into her seat again.
"You two are the most awful people I've ever met. Neither of you better talk to me again, ever!" Miranda turned and stomped out of the building. I sat down with Lizzie and we finished our milkshakes before leaving as well.
~ End flashback ~
"Lizzie and I didn't talk to Miranda for two weeks after that, and she didn't try to talk to us either. Eventually we became friends again, and were closer then ever, but up until that point, it was the worst two weeks I've had in my life. We promised we'd never talk about that again, and haven't even told anyone, until now that is."
"So the only fight you three have ever had was because of me? Now I feel way guilty." Shelley said as she put her elbow on the desk and leaned her head on her hand.
"It wasn't the only fight, just the worst."
"Oh, that makes me feel so much better." She said with a little laugh.
"Besides, that was four years ago, and we didn't really know you. Now that I've actually talked to you, I can see why Miranda had so much to say, you seem like a really interesting and fun person."
"Thanks, that really does make me feel a lot better."
"Good. Oh, here comes Mr. Diggs, you can pick the country if you want."
"Ok, thanks."
"So, Mr. Gordon, you've decided to partner with Ms. Cummings I see." Mr. Diggs said as he approached our desks.
"Yeah, I thought I'd give the new girl a chance," Gordo said as he gave her a sideways glance.
"It wasn't your choice to partner with me, Miranda made you." Shelley contradicted him.
"Well, that's because I'd never talked to you. If I had to pick again, I'd still choose you over Kate."
"Thanks, that's a real compliment," Shelley sarcastically answered.
"Well, here's the cup so you can pick your country. There's only three left, so the pickings are slim. Choose wisely." Mr. Diggs said as he held the cup out to them.
Shelley reached her hand in and pulled out the first piece of paper she touched. She unfolded it and announced that the two would be researching Australia.
"Ah, a great country," said Mr. Diggs as he began to write it down on the legal pad. "A great continent too, looks like you two have a lot of work ahead of you. Well, better be going, I can't keep the last two groups waiting." He walked off in the direction of the remaining groups.
After Mr. Diggs was out of hearing distance Gordo said, "Hey, Shelley, make sure you don't let Lizzie and Miranda find out I told you about that fight, ok?"
"Why not?"
"I don't think they would have wanted me to. But I felt like I could trust you, ya know?"
"Yeah, thanks, and I won't tell, I promise." Shelley used her finger to draw a cross across her chest.