But the puddle wasn’t the only reason I’d asked her to pick me up. The other reason, the bigger one, was Gabby. I didn’t want anyone on the late bus seeing us together and thinking we were friends. I knew that made me a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad person. But I couldn’t help it. Already SPF with AlliCam was evaporating one letter at a time, and the other girls on the pom squad couldn’t care less about me. If anyone thought I was actually friends with Gabby, that would be the final straw. I’d be another wannabe wandering the middle school halls without anyone even knowing I was alive, or worse, like Gabby, I’d become the punch line in Jackson’s newest joke. So when after leaving Old Hawk’s room, Gabby said, “Let’s stop at the water fountain before we head out to the bus. All that laughing made me thirsty.” I lied and said, “I have a dentist appointment, so my mom’s picking me up.”
