Chapter Three: Pool Party
Wednesday, August 17
I have got to do something-- anything -- to get Mom and Dad to change their minds. Finally, Danny Kessler invites me to one of his Waterslide Wonderland parties, and all of the popular kids will be there. It's supposed to be the party of the year, the thing that will set me and Miranda up for the rest of our lives. And it's also Gammy McGuire's birthday! I love my Gammy, but lately, she seems to be messing up *everything* for me.
If I get to go to this party, I will automatically be part of the popular group. That means getting invited to more parties, being envied by everyone at school, and Ethan Craft and Danny Kessler will finally notice me. The best part is, Miranda was invited, too, so she'd also be popular. What could be more perfect than that?
Oh, no. Dad's coming upstairs. He just knocked on my door. Time to see the hairbrush routine fail-- again. I can't believe Mom and Dad actually think I don't know what they're doing.
Thursday, August 18
Miranda makes me so mad! I can't believe what she's doing to me! After she promised that she wasn't going to go to the party without me. Backstabber! She agreed to get her mother to draw tatoos on Kate and her friends for the party, and now she's going to the party. Kate is even calling her *Randa*. And then, to top it all off, she sat in the back of the bus with all the popular kids on the way home and made me sit with Rudy Valesco, the nosemilk boy. He sat there picking his nose the whole way home. It was way disgusting!
I spent the lunch period with Gordo in the school library playing cards. He kind of made me feel better about what Miranda's doing to me, but I'm still so mad at her She's supposed to be my best friend. Why isn't she acting like she is?
Saturday, August 20
Today was supposed to be the day of the pool party, and guess what-- I could have gone, but I didn't even want to any more. Gammy's birthday party didn't pan out, and Mom told me I could go to the party. Instead, I invited Gordo over and he helped me tie dye my sheets. I thought that was really cool of him, but then, we are best friends. And we had more fun just us and my sheets in the back yard than I ever could have had with a pool full of popular kids at Waterslide Wonderland.
Miranda showed up while we were waiting for the sheets to dry. She left the party early because she wasn't having any fun. The henna tatoos made Kate and all her clones break out in nasty rashes. Anyway, we're best friends again, and I ended up with some really cute sheets.
I thought that if I went to this party, I would be popular. Maybe I would have been, maybe I wouldn't have. But maybe that's not something I really want as much as I used to. Sure, it would be fun to be noticed by the cutest guys in school and to be invited to a bunch of cool parties, and to have a ton of kids jealous of you. But I'd be giving up a lot, and who wants to have to always be around snobby people who expect you to do what they tell you to do when they tell you to do it and are constantly judging every move you make.
Ugh! Why does Gordo *always* have to be right?
Wednesday, August 17
I have got to do something-- anything -- to get Mom and Dad to change their minds. Finally, Danny Kessler invites me to one of his Waterslide Wonderland parties, and all of the popular kids will be there. It's supposed to be the party of the year, the thing that will set me and Miranda up for the rest of our lives. And it's also Gammy McGuire's birthday! I love my Gammy, but lately, she seems to be messing up *everything* for me.
If I get to go to this party, I will automatically be part of the popular group. That means getting invited to more parties, being envied by everyone at school, and Ethan Craft and Danny Kessler will finally notice me. The best part is, Miranda was invited, too, so she'd also be popular. What could be more perfect than that?
Oh, no. Dad's coming upstairs. He just knocked on my door. Time to see the hairbrush routine fail-- again. I can't believe Mom and Dad actually think I don't know what they're doing.
Thursday, August 18
Miranda makes me so mad! I can't believe what she's doing to me! After she promised that she wasn't going to go to the party without me. Backstabber! She agreed to get her mother to draw tatoos on Kate and her friends for the party, and now she's going to the party. Kate is even calling her *Randa*. And then, to top it all off, she sat in the back of the bus with all the popular kids on the way home and made me sit with Rudy Valesco, the nosemilk boy. He sat there picking his nose the whole way home. It was way disgusting!
I spent the lunch period with Gordo in the school library playing cards. He kind of made me feel better about what Miranda's doing to me, but I'm still so mad at her She's supposed to be my best friend. Why isn't she acting like she is?
Saturday, August 20
Today was supposed to be the day of the pool party, and guess what-- I could have gone, but I didn't even want to any more. Gammy's birthday party didn't pan out, and Mom told me I could go to the party. Instead, I invited Gordo over and he helped me tie dye my sheets. I thought that was really cool of him, but then, we are best friends. And we had more fun just us and my sheets in the back yard than I ever could have had with a pool full of popular kids at Waterslide Wonderland.
Miranda showed up while we were waiting for the sheets to dry. She left the party early because she wasn't having any fun. The henna tatoos made Kate and all her clones break out in nasty rashes. Anyway, we're best friends again, and I ended up with some really cute sheets.
I thought that if I went to this party, I would be popular. Maybe I would have been, maybe I wouldn't have. But maybe that's not something I really want as much as I used to. Sure, it would be fun to be noticed by the cutest guys in school and to be invited to a bunch of cool parties, and to have a ton of kids jealous of you. But I'd be giving up a lot, and who wants to have to always be around snobby people who expect you to do what they tell you to do when they tell you to do it and are constantly judging every move you make.
Ugh! Why does Gordo *always* have to be right?