My Worst Best Friend Read Free Page A

them.
    Savanna didn’t let that stop her flow. “And anyway, I don’t know why she’s obsessing about it now,” she went on. “I mean, her birthday’s not for, like,
ages
.”
    “Two weeks.”
    “Exactly. I mean, like, really, Gracie, who decides what they’re going to eat two weeks ahead?”
    In my relationship with Savanna, she was the one who was passionate, spontaneous, unpredictable and as emotional as a character in a disaster movie. Four more of the things I loved about her. I was the thoughtful, plodding, reliable one. I was the voice of reason.
    “For Pete’s sake, Savanna, she’s nervous about going out for her birthday, that’s all. I don’t really think that’s a crime. And anyway, she was just keeping me company.” I poked her with my elbow. “You know, while I was waiting for
you
.”
    “Oh, that’s right!” wailed Savanna. “Blame me! Everybody else does. But you’ll have to get to the back of the line, Gracie. There are at least three million people ahead of you.”
    “Stop exaggerating,” I ordered. “It can’t be more than two and a half million.”
    By the time we stopped laughing, we were at the Old Road. I disengaged my arm so I could get on my bike.
    Savanna looked at me. Askance. “Where are you going, Gracie?”
    I said that I was going home. “You know, that place where I live? Where I keep my clothes and stuff?”
    Savanna said she thought I was going with her. “Didn’t I tell you at lunch that the mother dragonned me into doing the shopping this afternoon?”
    “Dragooned.”
    She flicked a hand. “Whatever. The point is that you said you’d come with me.”
    I didn’t remember saying that. All I remembered was Savanna grousing about the Zindle elders, their other daughter and their toaster, and me agreeing it was a miracle she didn’t have chronic indigestion since she never had a meal without a fight.
    “Well, I can’t go alone,” said Savanna. With conviction.
    “Why not? It’s not as if you have to strap on your snowshoes and go shoot a moose, Savanna. You’re just going to Food First to get some groceries.”
    Savanna shook her head. “Not by myself, Gracie. You know how much I hate shopping for food. I mean, how mind-drainingly boring can you get? I’d rather be trapped in a coalmine with Marilouise. I need moral support. You have to come with me.”
    “But I can’t. I have a translation to do for Spanish. That alone’ll take me hours.”
    Savanna wanted to know why I always had to make things so hard. In case I hadn’t noticed, this was the twenty-first century.
    “It won’t take twenty minutes to do it. You can have it translated online.”
    No, I couldn’t.
    “But that’s—”
    “No, it isn’t,” argued Savanna. “Cheating’s when you copy off someone else. This is using the resources available. Which everyone says is, like, a major sign of intelligence and ability.” Her smile was like a cloudless sky. “Anyway, it’s no worse than using a calculator. It’s what you’re supposed to do.”
    I figured my Spanish teacher Señor Pérez would disagree with that. Señor Pérez was pretty much firmly embedded in the twentieth century.
    “I wasn’t going to say that it’s cheating, Savanna. I was going to say those sites are—” I was going to say those sites were for morons, but I stomped on the brakes just in time. I was pretty sure she used them herself. “Those sites really don’t work. Not for something like this. They’re mega-literal and they get stuff really wrong.” I was in the Advanced Placement class. Literal didn’t cut much ice with Señor Pérez. “Besides, the whole idea is to learn the language, not learn how to find a site that’ll do your homework for you.”
    Savanna made a face she usually reserved for a lecture from her mother. “Oh, pardon me, Pope Gracie. I wasn’t trying to get you to betray your holy vows here. I just think you should give yourself a break. It’s not, like, going to kill you to