Always, Abigail Read Free Page B

when the war started.
    First, The Brain threw a pair of balled-up sweat socks down the stairs at us. We cracked up because he missed us by a mile. (The Brain was really smart but not athletic at all .)
    Then Alli threw a bunch of little pillows from the couch. Every pillow she threw hit The Brain. One nailed him right on the forehead.
    He threw a few more pairs of socks, which barely made it to the family room, and then he threw a pillow from his bed. The pillow was way too big to throw, so it didn’t even make it down the stairs.
    Cami and I fell on the floor laughing while Alli grabbed a couple more things to throw. She whipped one of their dog’s tennis balls and hit The Brain right in the thigh.

    â€œOuch!” he yelled and slammed his door.
    That’s when Alli’s dad walked in. He was home early. Cami and I got up from the floor, and Alli dropped the rest of her ammunition, mostly dog toys.
    â€œOh, hi, Dad!” Alli said, a little out of breath. “We were just going out to the garage to practice. We don’t want our music to disturb Brian.”
    Cami and I followed Alli out into the garage, where the three of us fell on top of each other laughing.
    That’s when Alli got her brainstorm. A perfect way to get back at The Brain for being such a pain.

    In the garage, there was a recycling bin overflowing with newspaper. Instead of practicing poms, we spent the next hour crinkling up newspaper and stuffing it into The Brain’s Volkswagen. When we were finished, you couldn’t even see inside the car anymore.
    Then Alli yelled into the house, “Dad, could you tell Brian it’s time for him to drive Cami and Abigail home!”
    And the only thing funnier than the look on The Brain’s face when he saw his car was the fact that he actually had a red mark on his leg where the tennis ball had hit him.

A Note I Found in My Locker after Fourth Period
    Abigail,
    At lunch we heard that last year’s poms are going to Chitchat after school. It’s our chance to get in good with the pom crowd. We HAVE to go!
    We’ll get off at Cami’s stop and walk from there.
    Write back!
    SPF,
    AlliCam
    P.S. Jackie and McKenzie are meeting us there.

Three Things I Thought About during Social Studies
    1. How much trouble I’d get into for going to Chitchat without permission. (My mom thought I was going to Cami’s house to practice after school. The rule was no changing after-school plans during the school day because my mom didn’t want me calling her at work all the time asking if I could go here or there.)
    2. How supernervous I was! This was really it! Hanging out with real pom-pom girls.
    3. Jackie and McKenzie? I worried about homeroom inside jokes. Was I going to spend the whole afternoon feeling left out?

Five Questions I Thought of That Gave Me a Stomachache by the End of Social Studies
    1. Would Jackie and McKenzie like me?
    2. Would the other pom girls like me?
    3. Would I be able to think of anything to say?
    4. Would there be any boys there?
    5. Were Alli and Cami as nervous as I was?

The Note I Put in AlliCam’s Locker after Fifth Period
    Chitchat with the poms, really? I’m in! See you on the bus!
    SPF,
    Abigail

Something We Did on the Bus on the Way to Chitchat
    AlliCam and I took turns brushing each other’s hair. We wanted to make sure we looked perfect when we got there. The problem was, AlliCam’s hair already looked good before we even started, and mine didn’t look much better when we were finished.
    Thankfully, Alli had a great idea. She put one little braid on each side of my hair and used a hair clip to pull them together in the back. I checked it out in the mirror that Cami kept in her backpack, and it looked sort of like a style you’d see in a magazine.
    By the time we got there, AlliCam looked like they belonged on the pom squad, and I hoped I did too.

Five Things That Happened at Chitchat
    1. As soon as we saw