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The visit to Arnold was much more brief. We brought Lisa along, since she had actually spoken to him, but I smiled and introduced myself, and in all, he seemed like a nice kid. I mean, Lisa had said that he was great at giving advice and one of the calmest people she knew, but I hadn't really imagined what that meant. Arnold practically radiated rationality and empathy. He didn't act nine in a lot of ways.
Azure made a face after we left. "Boring."
"He was nice." Sunshine argued. "I liked that visit."
"Be prepared for tonight." I grinned. "Lisa, Lila and Nadine are still coming to sleep over, right?"
Lisa nodded, smiling. "They'll be arriving just before dinner time."
"Yep, so be prepared for them." I told my friends.
Lisa's sleepover was interesting. I hadn't known beforehand that Nadine's biggest interest in life was insects, but I sure did now. That seemed to be a reasonable explanation for why she braided her hair so it jutted out of her head in a way that made it look like spider's legs. She didn't really say much apart from showing the girls the latest beetle she was studying and talking about it, but that was all she needed to say.
Lila was as sugary sweet and bright as always, greeting all my friends with a shy smile.
That night, we discussed them in my room.
"If Lila was any sweeter, I'd be drowning in golden syrup right about now." Azure remarked.
"You think that was bad?" Mel scoffed. "That beetle Nadine had flew right into my eye at one point. I'm just glad she managed to get it back in its jar. At least Lila isn't obsessed with bugs."
"Lila being sweet isn't the problem." Sunshine replied. "I like sweet people. She keeps saying 'ever so' and 'oh so'. It drove me completely insane."
"She's too nice." Tasha added. "She's not just sweet, she's saccharine. I don't trust her."
"Well...Lisa told me that Lila managed to talk Helga into confessing her secret when she wanted the part of Juliet in the school play and she was the only thing standing in her way." I admitted. "Considering how defensive my neighbour is, that would make Lila pretty manipulative. For all we know, she might be keeping the secret from everyone else as blackmailing material."
"I could see that." Mel nodded. "Let us know if something like that happens."
"All in all, the only kid I've really liked so far is Curly." Azure stated. "I can see why you were friends with him, Steph. Shame he had to fall for you."
"I liked Arnold." Laura murmured. "I got this vibe from him, like..."
"You could tell him if you were in trouble and he'd keep it in confidence and try to help, if you asked." Tasha finished. "Yeah, I felt that too. Steph, what do you think?"
I shrugged. I'd gotten the same feeling, but I didn't really want to say so. "I think you might be right. From what Lisa's been told, Arnold is really good at giving advice, and he's helped out nearly everyone in the class. Like one time, Lisa said, he stopped giving advice because a bunch of kids were sick of him. Helga actually got the blame for him doing so, so she gave them advice, and things got so crazy that the whole school knew that one of the boys broke another kid's phone, Rhonda had tried to get Curly to leave her alone by reverse psychology, and that two of the boys had played a prank that put one kid in a wheelchair. In fact, if they'd just followed Arnold's advice in the first place, they wouldn't have needed advice later on."
"I can't wait to meet Rhonda." Mel enthused. "She sounds interesting."
"A word of warning," I said, "She really does NOT like me. She said she pities Lisa for having me as a sister, and I also think she's probably not too happy that I used to be friends with Curly. I yelled at her after she broke up with him during that blackmailing thing and she's hated me ever since."
As I predicted, Rhonda was none too pleased when the six of us showed up on her doorstep the day after she arrived back home from her weekend vacation. She had that look on her face, a look that communicated that she was just so much better than us.
"Get that look off your face, Rhonda, you're no better than us. You could even call us better than you, because we don't need money or clothes to have an attitude." I teased her. "Girls, this is the one that got herself blackmailed because she wore a ridiculously expensive coat that she shouldn't have been wearing anyway."
Rhonda glared at me. "You said you wouldn't tell anyone!" she said in a furious gasp.
"Oh, didn't I mention it?" I said innocently. "I tell my friends all the gossip. You know, like the stuff you spread about what this girl was wearing yesterday and what happened to that boy last week. Oh yeah, and at least I don't tell them I'm writing them a fashion ticket."
The other girls giggled at my words. But then, suddenly, Tasha smiled at Rhonda. "Hey, I love your shoes. Gucci, right?"
Rhonda's face lit up instantly. She flicked her dark bobbed hair back and smiled proudly. "Yeah, they are. Not as valuable as my custom-made shoes, but still worth a fortune. Most of my friends don't even realize the significance of the designer." She looked Tasha up and down. Then she frowned. "Copies, aren't they?"
"Some of us can't afford the best." Laura cut in. "So you have money, quit flaunting it and showing off. We know you're rich, you don't have to rub it in our faces."
We left soon after that.
"So, do we have anyone left?" I wondered. We'd gone through most of the kids at PS118 in between the sleepover and Rhonda. Sure enough, we'd gone through everyone. I'd even gotten both Lisa and Bart to come with us when I checked the books and found Phoebe's address (Lisa had told me that her surname was Heyerdahl). We got a bit of pleasure out of seeing the way Bart reacted to being so close to his crush. Phoebe spoke politely to him, but didn't show any interest past friendship. On the other hand, she and Lisa got on so well that we left them to it. And that evening, Lisa was bouncing up and down. My friends had gone back to their backpackers' by the time Lisa came to talk to me, practically skipping into my room.
"Thank you, Steph!" she exclaimed, giving me a hug. "We're friends now! I never knew she I had so much in common with her. We're not going to hang around too much at school, maybe just occasionally. She says that Helga's a little insecure. Oh, and I asked her about 'ice cream' so she knows we know – remember Helga said she knew the code word? But we're going to be study buddies after school and do our homework together and help each other out. Phoebe's half-Japanese and she knows all about the culture, she even has a Kendo poster in her room and she was telling me how she and her dad do fencing, I'm so glad I get to hang out with her now!"
"Slow down, Lise." I laughed. "But really, little sis, it's nice that you've finally got a like-minded nerdy girl to hang out with. She's better than rich-girl, sugar-spiller, and insect-obsessee who you talk to now. Who knows, you might, Oz forbid, end up friends with the Pink Tsundere if you hang around Phoebe enough."
Lisa threw one glare in my direction at that moment. "You know, you can stop insulting Rhonda, Lila and Nadine any time. I don't insult your friends."
"Oh?" I retorted. "So who was the actual fourth-grade psychopath, if it wasn't one of my friends?"
"I was right about that, and you know it!" Lisa snapped. "Besides, you weren't friends with him then."
"Stupid excuses." I scoffed. "Now get!"
Most of the other kids we met on the streets. I didn't know most of their names, only by sight. It turned out that Simone, one of Maria's friends, was still around, so I introduced the girls to her, but she was the only sixth grader around. I steered clear of most of the fifth graders. I didn't know them too well, but since Bart had become popular with them, I'd gotten to know a few. Lisa had also had a run-in with one of the toughest fifth-graders, Wolfgang, whose favourite activity was apparently beating up on fourth-graders. She'd argued with him when he'd monopolized Gerald Field while they were trying to play football and got a black eye for her trouble. However, we met nearly every fourth grader, from klutzy Eugene (a kid who was considered a 'jinx' as Lisa told me) to so-called cool Gerald (he and Arnold were playing something in Tina Park at some point, so I introduced him then). By the time my friends left, I was exhausted by the introductions.
Things hadn't changed much, apart from one thing: Lisa had a new friend.
Well, don't say you didn't see it coming, Lisa had to make friends with Phoebe, they're pretty alike with their fear of failure and overachieving abilities. Please review!