Getting REVENGE on Lauren Wood Read Free Page B

for cheerleading, huh?”
    “Mmm-hmm.”
    “I didn’t tell anyone, Lauren. You have to believe me.” The words came rushing out in one breath. My eyes burned and threatened to spill over. Lauren crossed her arms and sighed.
    “Don’t start crying again,” she said, her voice sounding tired.
    “Someone else must have told on them, or maybe one of them got cold feet and ratted out the others. Maybe together we can figure out who did it.” Lauren loved mysteries. I was hoping to convince her that this would be a fun one to solve.
    “God, just give it up. No one else told.”
    I looked at her and felt my stomach ice over. I felt things fall into place.
    “You …” My voice trailed off.
    “Me.”
    “Why?”
    “Do you remember when Principal LaPoint talked about how many opportunities we’ll have in the next few years?”
    I nodded.
    “I’m taking one of them.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “Did you know Emily Watson called me?”
    “Who?”
    “Emily Watson. She’s a junior. She’ll be a senior next year. She’s captain of the cheerleading squad. She was very appreciative that I was willing to tell who ratted out her friends. When I told her how I was scared that I wouldn’t have any friends since you were my best friend, she told me that I don’t have to worry. She’ll make sure I meet lots of people next year.”
    “I didn’t rat out anyone. You did.”
    “Yeah, but that wasn’t a problem. The truth isn’t important. What matters is what people think is the truth. If I’m going to be somebody, then I need people on my side.” She looked over at me. “People who are in a position to get me what I want.”
    I sat down hard on the ground, the air whooshing out me.
    “But why?”
    “There isn’t always a big reason why. It just is.”
    “But you’re my best friend.”
    “And you’re happy with good enough. You don’t care about dressing the right way or being invited to the right parties. You’re happy to rent movies on a Friday night. Not even new movies. You want to rent stuff no one has seen in like a hundred years. I want to go out. I want to be invited out. We were always second string, but now I have a chance to make the A-list.”
    “And that matters so much?”
    “Of course it matters.” Lauren tossed her hands in the air and paced back and forth. “My mom tells me that the friends you have in high school determine who your friends are in college, and then who your friends are for the rest of your life.”
    “Well, my mom says you can’t buy friendship,” I countered.
    “And your mom is a hippie who doesn’t even use deodorant.”
    “She does too. It’s just that rock crystal kind.”
    “Whatever.”
    “So you’re just done with me? That’s it?” I could hear my voice getting tight and high. This wasn’t going the way I had planned. I had figured my problem would be convincing her I hadn’t told. I wasn’t prepared for this conversation at all.
    Lauren sat down next to me and pulled a few strands of grass out of the lawn. We sat there quietly for a minute. “Nothing is forever, you know. Once I’m popular, we can be friends again and then you’ll be popular too. It will all be worth it.”
    “What makes you think I’ll want to be your friend?”
    “What makes you think you’ll have other options?”

Chapter Three
    T he last two weeks of eighth grade were vile. Someone mashed spoiled tuna fish through the vents in my locker so that everything I owned stunk. A person in my English class smeared glue on my chair. No one talked to me, but everyone was whispering about me behind my back. People left mean notes in my books, and the janitor stopped even bothering to clean my locker door, since every time he did, someone else would write snitch across it. I stopped eating lunch in the cafeteria after someone spit on my food tray. For those last two weeks of school I sat in the back of the library during lunch and pretended to study. During gym class