May 26, 1999

Our ninth-grade time was nearly over. Next year we were sophomores, and we were enjoying our last few months of being on top. Wanda was entertaining us – DA, Phoebe, and I were pretending to look interested with varying degrees of success.

"So for the picture, I want to wear a scarf and hat – then everyone can play 'Where's Wanda' – isn't that the best idea you ever heard?"

"It is, because I thought of it." Phoebe countered. "In fifth grade it was a dumb idea."

"It was then. It isn't now." Wanda grinned evilly. DA giggled a little bit.

"Stop stealing Phoebe's ideas." I rolled my eyes. "First her notes, then her favorite sweater, then her locker…"

"I feel so… used." Phoebe said in her sweet, sad voice. It cracked me up. Ever since her first day at Walkerville Elementary, Phoebe had been my best friend. The four of us girls were way tight, but I felt closer to Phoebe for some reason.

"Are you going to run around the back so you'll be in the picture twice?" Dorothy Ann asked. Wanda's eyes lit up.

"You didn't think of that, did you, Pheebs?" Wanda challenged.

"No, but I could actually do it if I wanted." Phoebe retorted. She was on the track team at Walker High, even though she was a freshman, and was probably going to be in a meet and everything.

"Aren't they taking the picture tomorrow?" I asked. "What are you gonna wear?"

"I just told you." Wanda insisted.

"Seriously, though." I raised my eyebrows.

"Don't you want to look hot?" DA prodded.

"Why would I want to do that?" She got defensive. This was fun.

"For boys?" Phoebe continued.

"Like…?" Wanda rolled her eyes. "I don't have to dress up to get boys."

"Right." DA smirked.

"Arnold has been in love with me since before he was born." Wanda tossed her hair matter-of-factly. She'd let the tomboyish bob grow out a bit and now had silky black hair halfway down her back.

The bell rang. Lunch was over, and I had only two classes left: band with Wanda and Phoebe, then geography with Phoebe, Carlos, and Tim. "See you later, DA!" Phoebe waved.

"Remember to wear something nice tomorrow – I hear someone thinks you're an eyesore!" Wanda called.

"Wanda!" Phoebe and I exclaimed.

"Come on, how could you guys not be used to my abuse by now?" She shrugged.

"Still," I sighed. "Carlos hasn't been complaining."

"We aren't talking about the same Carlos." Wanda leaned in closer. "They've been fighting more than usual. This could be it."

"For the third time this year." Phoebe added. "Honestly, Wanda, I doubt they'll ever really end it."

"We'll see what you say in a week." Wanda winked.

"Homewrecker." I remarked.

"You really have no idea what's going on, do you?" Wanda asked.

"No, because you won't tell me!" I argued. The three of us entered the band room. No one was setting up – our last concert had been Friday night. We were watching movies for the rest of the year.

"Basically, they're both worried about high school – when we get there, we might all get separated and stuff. They don't know if it will work." Wanda sighed.

"That's it?" I asked. "You made that big of a deal about that? I totally don't understand you, Wanda."

"I like it that way. It gives me mystique." Wanda put her hand in front of her face to illustrate her mystique.

"Girls, quiet please." Mr. Delmar, our teacher, insisted. He looked relieved that we were leaving soon.

We watched some stupid musical or something. I wasn't paying attention, I was whispering with Wanda and Phoebe throughout class.

"Are you so excited to go to Adventure Park?" Wanda's face lit up.

"So Arnold can give you the ride of your life again?" Phoebe raised her left eyebrow and the three of us busted out laughing. Phoebe had the single most innocent image I'd ever seen, complemented by the gold cross around her neck glinting in the TV's bluish glow.

"Hey, it would be great to end the year with a bang." Wanda giggled.

"GIRLS." Mr. Delmar said firmly. We were already near the back corner, so we had no choice but to quiet down a bit.

"I thought sticky squishy parts together was gross." I asked snidely. "Since when are you actually excited to ride in the Jewish rodeo?" Phoebe tried to suppress a laugh, causing her to snort. Wanda hit her arm with the back of her hand.

"I grew up."

"No you didn't." Phoebe and I retorted in unison.

"Remember how your last name is short for little?" I asked.

"You're too lazy to write the whole word." Phoebe added.

"Whatever." Wanda stuck her tongue out. "Besides, I play brass – that means I'm a better kisser than you guys."

"You can't beat my ligature." I pursed my lips as if I were playing my clarinet. "And our tonguing is divine, I hear."

"And we can lip it." Phoebe added.

"Lip it good." Wanda echoed. The conversation lulled.

"It's sad that DA isn't here – I miss it being all four of us." Phoebe sighed.

"She already knows all about kissing and God knows what else." Wanda rolled her eyes. Irritation was her way of expressing jealousy.

"Yeah, it's weird – like she and Carlos are off doing their thing, leaving the rest of us." I lamented.

"And at least boys have video games." Phoebe mused.

"I told you I could teach you to play." Wanda offered.

"You tried that." Phoebe, who was lying on her stomach, folded her arms and laid her head on them.

"Oh yeah, then you 'won' while 'some random person' was shooting walls." I giggled.

"I FORGOT WHICH SCREEN I WAS." Phoebe corrected sharply, but smiling. This time Wanda snorted, and she snorted much louder than Phoebe.

"Ms. Franklin, move to the other side of the room, please." Mr. Delmar ordered. I sighed. Things like this were always blamed on me – or Phoebe, or Wanda – but never the one whose fault it was. The one time Phoebe was speaking audibly, Wanda would get sent away. I sat across the room from my friends and scowled for the rest of the period.

Instead of watching the musical, I doodled in my notebook absent-mindedly, wondering how our trip to Adventure Park would pan out.

Phoebe will get trampled at least once by Wanda, who will be trying to sit next to Arnold

Carlos and DA will take three "bathroom breaks" before noon to go make out

Arnold will blush while upside-down, resulting in super red face

Bonus points if it's on the Fire Dragon and it gets captured on film.

Ooh, I had to document that for posterity. I scrawled "CAMERA" on my left palm. That would remind me. With Wanda relentlessly pursuing Arnold, Phoebe and I would be stuck with Ralphie and Tim. Wanda was bound to make Arnold ride Action Mountain. Maybe they'd actually make it this time. I paused while I thought up a number of times Wanda would have to ask before Arnold gave in. I came up with ten or so hypotheses before going "to the bathroom." On my way, I nonchalantly let the note fall from my hand and gave Wanda a look indicating that she should pick it up. On my way back in, I saw a note on my backpack.

WE'RE TALKING TO DA AFTER SCHOOL.

This stank of Phoebe. She had no regard to timing – she didn't seem to realize that we all had to ride the bus home with DA, and so most drama should be contained until we got off the bus so we could all run away and play phone tag like good teenage girls. Only Phoebe would decide to write a note ten seconds before the class was over anyway.

Sure enough, the bell rang within seconds.

"I don't care what you say, Keesha, we need to talk to her so we're not all angry when we go to Adventure Park on Friday." Phoebe preemptively protested. "We have to clear the air."

"Don't look at me, this was all her stupid idea!" Wanda defended, pointing. "You two plan it out in geography, I'm going to gym."

"See ya, weiner." I called.

"Later!" Wanda couldn't finish with anything amusing, so she just waved awkwardly.

"Can't this wait until the bus ride?" I pleaded.

"Let's just get it over with." Phoebe argued. She hated it when we fought, and her puppy-like innocence was enough to make me stop hating someone. "We can even tell Carlos not to make out with DA after school –" I elbowed her in the ribs to interrupt her. We were coming up to our geography class, and Carlos and DA were doing their melodramatic middle school couple goodbyes. I sucked in my breath, gritted my teeth, and tapped DA on the shoulder, causing both her and Carlos to break from their kissing in the hall and look at me angrily.

"Can I talk to you for a sec, DA?" I asked gingerly.

"Can it wait?" DA asked grouchily.

"It'll only take a second." I argued.

"I was talking to Carlos."

Phoebe giggled. I spoke up before DA could hear. "Look, I'll make it quick. You two are really cute together and all, but … it gets kind of awkward when we're all together – all eight of us."

"We've been through this," DA sighed. "You're just jealous."

"I'm not saying you guys have to break up," I kept going, trying not to let it needle me. "I'm just saying it would be very nice of you to have more private time… you know, not in front of the rest of us."

"We still like you guys a whole lot," Phoebe added. I hadn't expected her to still be standing there. "And I miss Dorothy Ann and Carlos. I hardly ever see you guys apart any more."

"Do you know how hard it is to make a relationship work?" DA demanded.

"Do you know how hard it is to keep your friends if you–" I started.

"DA, it's not that big of a deal," Carlos interrupted.

"We just want to hang out more like it used to be – when we were still kids and just wanted to have fun." Phoebe continued.

"Hey guys!" Tim said, his cheerful expression dropping the instant he detected drama. "What's – uh, what's going on?"

"We should get to class." Phoebe blurted before darting into the classroom, Tim hot on her heels.

"I didn't want to make you angry," I said softly to DA before I slipped into the classroom after my friends.

"Thanks for doing that," Phoebe whispered quickly before class started.

"What was that all about?" Tim asked. I was halfway through telling him when Carlos came in.

"Carlos, you know I'm not trying to be evil, right?" I asked.

"Oh yeah! DA just thinks everyone's out to get us or something. It's getting on my nerves, frankly."

Phoebe and I looked at each other and each raised an eyebrow. The disembodied voice of Wanda was crying "SEE?!"

"Girls are crazy," Tim shook his head. "I had to listen to Janet talk about what she's wearing for the picture tomorrow all last period."

"Bummer." Carlos sighed. The bell rang and geography begun.

"WITHOUT ME?!" Wanda cried. "Holy crap!"

"I was going to do it, but Keesha stopped me." Phoebe said. "Do you think DA hates us now?"

"She'll get over it." Carlos piped in.

"Wait, he was IN on it?" Wanda's voice was getting louder. I smacked her with my geography book.

"Yeah, she didn't look infuriated," Tim added. "It seemed more like she was amazed you had the nerve."

"I figure seventh period is as good a time as any to cool down." I sighed.

"Easy for you to say," Arnold panted. "She was PISSED." He had math with DA.

"Seriously?" Wanda's jaw dropped.

"Oh bad," I sighed.

"She's gonna kill us!" Phoebe moaned.

"I wouldn't go that far." We all stopped. It was DA. "What, am I some sort of evil creature now?"

"But you were mad," Phoebe said softly.

"Well apparently being angry is unreasonable." She glared at Carlos.

"Wait, could we please not hate each other now?" Arnold offered.

"It's the last two weeks of middle school," Tim added. "We're going to Adventure Park."

"The ninth grade picture is tomorrow and I don't want us all to look mad." Wanda continued.

"I just wanted to point something out – you can take it or leave it." I said quietly to DA. "Fair enough?"

"Fair enough." She sighed. She hated being wrong and we all knew it.

"Um…" Wanda started. "Where's Ralphie?"

We looked around, realizing there were only seven of us. "What's his seventh period?" I asked.

"Gym?" Tim asked.

"No," Wanda countered. "I would've seen him."

"Biology!" Phoebe exclaimed and took off running.

"Good old random Phoebe." Carlos sighed. I tossed my backpack on the ground and chased her.

"Where are you going?" I called.

"I'm going to get Ralphie," Phoebe turned her head and kept running. Before I could even vocalize how bad this could end up, I realized that it was going to end up pretty bad.

"Pheeb!" I managed to get out before Phoebe ran into a very green-faced Ralphie, and I realized that I was going to top off their pile if I didn't do something quick. I tried to stop, but the floor was slippery and my flats weren't the best at traction. The instant I swerved, I wished I hadn't.

I slammed into the lockers on the side of the hall and fell backward onto Phoebe, our heads hitting each other.

"This has been a bad day." Ralphie said after a moment. The three of us sat up, rubbing the various sites we'd collided.

"You guys!" Wanda cried, "Get off your butts or we'll miss the bus!"

Phoebe, Ralphie, and I groaned and picked ourselves up from the floor. No one was bleeding, fortunately for us.

"Where were you?" Arnold asked.

"The teacher decided we needed to learn about intestinal parasites." Ralphie moaned. "I was going to be sick again if I stood up too quickly."

The next morning, Thursday, the ninth grade picture was taken. Wanda forgot her scarf and Arnold wouldn't let her borrow his glasses, so she had to look normal (for Wanda). DA lightened up a little. As irritable as we all could be, it was hard to stay mad at anyone in the group for long. That day was the longest day of my life. No one could concentrate or do anything in class because we were all too focused on scheming and musing about the trip to Adventure Park. DA joined the rest of us girls in looking over the predictions and laughing.

"I'm going to say Phoebe ends up with Tim." She smiled.

"What? Why?" Phoebe asked.

"Because Keesha is going to end up with Ralphie, duh." Wanda rolled her eyes. We were back at lunch again, and back to normal. This was nice.

"Well I have to head to English," DA said, picking up her bag.

"Hey, thanks for being cool about this whole thing," I said quickly. Wanda and Phoebe were already heading to band.

DA shrugged, "No problem. See you after school!"

Finally, we were on the bus. Normal school backpacks had been stuffed full of bathing suits, towels, and spare t-shirts (especially for the savvy girls whose cutest Adventure Park outfits involved white shirts) instead of books, cameras were snapping away on the bus, and Carlos, of course, had brought his Walkman.

"Let me listen!" Ralphie leaned over his seat and grabbed at Carlos' headphones.

"No way!" Carlos recoiled. "DA, tell him to leave me alone!"

"You wish!" DA retorted, absorbed in rubbing sunscreen on her bronzed arms.

"I wish I could tan like you," Phoebe mused, rubbing SPF 80 on her pale, freckled arms.

"You'd look funny if you had DA's skin," Wanda, who had "so happened to" take the seat next to Arnold (stepping on Phoebe's toes and almost kicking me in the shin in the process).

"So would you," I retorted. "Can I borrow some sunscreen, Pheebs?"

"Sure," she handed me the gigantic bottle of generic sunscreen. "Anyone else need any?"

"I forgot mine." Ralphie sulked.

"You would." Tim retorted. Ralphie punched him. "OW! You can use some of mine. The girls will take forever to put on their sunscreen."

"They're trying to seduce you with it." Carlos raised an eyebrow.

"I don't think Phoebe knows what that means." I teased.

"I DO TOO!" Phoebe squeaked.

"MS. TERESE!" A familiar voice yelled from the front of the bus. Phoebe turned red and slunk down in her seat.

"Oh my Lord," I gasped.

"What?" Ralphie asked from across the aisle.

"This is the first time Mr. Delmar actually yelled at the right one of us." I whispered. I remembered DA's prediction about Phoebe and Tim, which did leave me with Ralphie. Then again, DA was convinced that arguing meant love, in which case Ralphie and I were married with twelve children. I noticed that I was leaning more toward Ralphie than I expected and pulled myself back. "Don't worry, Phoebe, he's talking to the preppies now." I reassured her.

"I think I'll stay down here." Phoebe said before falling off the seat and onto the floor. "Yep, I think I will."

"Hey Tim," DA called, getting a sly look in her eye. "Phoebe's fallen down, maybe you should pick her up?"

"Sure," Tim said. I smiled at DA. Everything was going to go according to plan.