I felt much better since having some nice quality time with Hailey to ground me. I hadn’t spoken to or seen Michael, but that was okay. Maybe we had spent too much time together. I wasn’t even mad anymore about Allie. I just wanted to forget the whole thing. Later in the afternoon, I went to my locker to get stuff for my last class. A seventh grader I barely knew, Todd Gibbons, who worked backstage for the play, came walking straight up to me. “You shouldn’t criticize something you know nothing about,” he said. “Excuse me?” I said, unsure of what he was talking about. “The review. I mean, who do you guys think you are? We worked hard on that show,” he said, and walked away, shaking his head. I got a sinking feeling in my stomach. No one had ever reacted like this to one of my articles for the paper. Maybe Todd Gibbons was just extra-sensitive or having a bad day. I grabbed my backpack and headed toward class. As I walked down the hall, at least three people glared at me.
