Everyone's a Critic Read Free Page A

story with Austin Carey about the school district’s investments. Now we were skipping this issue. By the time we really got working on it, a month would have gone by since we’d actually spent some quality time together. When you have a crush, it seems like every day something happens to change your situation one way or another.
    Hailey must have seen the panic on my face. “Okay, I have an idea. Get out a pen and paper and write down what I say.” Girl Saves Best Friend from Losing Crush! At least I hoped so. Since Hailey has dyslexia, it’s hard for her to write fast. I’m usually the list person.
    â€œâ€˜How to Keep Michael Lawrence’s Interest,’” she said.
    â€œShh!” I hissed.
    â€œOkay,” she said in a lower tone. “Ask him about the play.”
    I wrote that down.
    â€œAsk him how baseball is going.”
    Kind of boring, but maybe.
    â€œAsk him who he has a crush on,” she said, as if she were reciting a grocery list to me.
    â€œI don’t think so,” I said.
    â€œJust write! Show up at his house really hungry and ask if he could make you some cinnamon buns or else you might die of starvation.”
    â€œAre you insane?” I rolled my eyes and crumpled up the list.
    â€œWhy’d you do that? I was just joking on thelast one,” she said. She suddenly seemed kind of hurt. Now I was wondering if my reaction was too honest. I know she was joking on the last one, but Ask him who he has a crush on ? Really?
    â€œI might do the first two,” I said.
    â€œGood!” She perked back up. “Let’s get started!”
    She grabbed my arm and I stuffed the crumpled paper in my bag. At least I was wearing the cute green shirt and my favorite little silver hoop earrings that I got last year for my birthday.
    â€œWhat are we doing?” I whispered.
    She turned to me and put a finger on her lips. Then she motioned for me to follow her. I did, hoping I wouldn’t regret it. We walked over to Michael’s table.
    â€œHi, Michael,” Hailey said, and fluffed her hair in her flirty way. Whoa, she’d better not start with that again. At the beginning of the year, she had a crush on Michael, too, but we sorted it out. I gave her a look. Michael turned and saw us.
    â€œHey, Hailey. Hey, Pasty,” he said, and smiled, showing off the dimple in his left cheek.
    I just smiled and waved. Then she shoved me toward him and whispered “Baseball!” in my ear.
    â€œSo, how’s baseball?” I said, trying to look at some of the other boys at the table too so my head wouldn’t explode. What did Hailey think she was doing?
    Michael looked around, as if he wasn’t sure if I was speaking to him or not.
    â€œUm, good?”
    â€œOkay; well then . . .,” I said, my cheeks on fire. “Oh, Hailey, I just remembered something really important that I left in my locker.” I grabbed her hand.
    â€œWhat?” she said, all smiley and oblivious.
    â€œJust something really important.” I put my arm around her, leading her away from the table.
    Michael looked back and forth at each of us. “You okay, Paste?”
    â€œOh, sure. See ya,” I said, and tugged Hailey out of the cafeteria.
    â€œOw! What’s so important?” she said when we finally got out into the hallway.
    â€œNothing, I just wanted to get out of there. Whydid you do that?” I asked. I put my hands on my warm cheeks. “I felt like such a dork.”
    â€œWell, you didn’t want him to forget about you,” she said. “Hey, I was trying to help. Are you seriously mad?”
    I took a deep breath. “No,” I lied.
    â€œAre you sure you’re not mad?”
    â€œI’m sure. Are you coming over this afternoon?” I asked, trying to move off the subject.
    â€œYup!” she said.
    The fifth-period bell rang and we hurried off to our classes before the stampede from