Best Frenemies Read Free Page B

was stuck, both in her seat and in this dumb smart-kid class. Why did things have to change? Was it too late for her to move back down to regular classes? What did that girl have against her, anyway?

CHAPTER 3
HONORS STUDENTS FINISH LAST
    â€œSo,” Cassidy asked, bumping her hip against Alice’s as the two girls stood in the school parking lot. They were fifty percent waiting for the bus, fifty percent trying not to look too obvious as they scoped out the football team stretching on the field next to the lot. “Was it better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick?”
    Alice smiled and raised her hand to her forehead to create a visor against the golden afternoon sun. It was so unfair that school always started during the most beautiful time of year.
    â€œYou know, it wasn’t all bad,” Alice admitted, and it was true. Everything had been smooth sailing after the embarrassment of homeroom. “My English teacher might not actually be evil.” English was taught by Mr. Nichols, a wiry, energetic young teacher with twinkly brown eyes and rolled-up shirtsleeves and a funny type of sarcasm.
    â€œWell, I hope you all like reading, because we’re going to do a lot of it this year,” Mr. Nichols had announced, handing out copies of To Kill a Mockingbird to the class. Alice felt like she had caught a break there—she and her parents had listened to the audiobook a few summers ago on a road trip down south. (Perhaps being nerdy was hereditary.)
    Alice had loved To Kill a Mockingbird so much that they had rented the film version as soon as they got home, and she had developed a bit of a secret crush on Gregory Peck, the actor who played the handsome and good hero of the story, Atticus Finch. . . . although it was something she would never, ever tell anyone—not even Cassidy. So Alice looked forward to actually reading the book, and she hoped that meant that she’d have a pretty easy time with the work that came with it.
    Mr. Nichols gave them a list of some of the other books they’d be reading in class, and while Alice hadn’t heard of a lot of them, they had exciting, adult-sounding titles like Lord of the Flies and Brave New World.
    After English was math, which came easy to Alice in a way that she couldn’t explain. She just understood it, which thrilled her parents, since they both had stopped taking math classes after high school. Sometimes when they were out to dinner, they let her figure out howmuch to tip their waiter. Her dad had even mused once over the breakfast table that summer, “You know, I bet you could handle taking some math classes at the high school.”
    â€œNO!” Alice replied so loudly that he put his hands over his ears. Being in honors classes was enough. She didn’t need to head across town to the huge, scary high school, which was overrun by football players who probably ate middle schoolers for lunch. Actually, not even for lunch—just for a snack.
    â€œIt’s okay if she’s just in the grade she’s in,” Alice’s mom cut in, reassuring her.
    Mr. Sellke, bearded and full of a geeky sort of excitement that only math teachers could pull off, tried to recruit volunteers for the math team with terrible puns (“I think you would all make great additions to the team!”). Alice kept her head down and tried to make herself invisible. Just because she was good at math didn’t mean she wanted to make it her hobby. Plus, if she got signed up for math team, with its after-school practices, she’d never see Cassidy.
    Alice hid behind her red curtain of hair and wrote a note to Cassidy ( Very important question: Did you ever notice that “geometry” sounds like “Gee, I’m a tree”? )—
    â€œGreat! We have a new team member!” Mr. Sellkecheered. Alice turned to see the sour-faced, curly-haired girl from the bus and homeroom (whose name, Alice had learned, was Nikki