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Hailey said.
    Now I rolled my eyes again.
    Allie can be great when she feels like it. She’s very pretty,
     tall, and really fit, with long, wavy sandy blond hair (“popular girl hair”
     is what my friends called it in grade school). She’s smart and has cool friends
     and is a good dresser. But she can also be really mean. Like, right when you think
     she’s your friend, she lashes out at you or cuts you dead or rats you out. This is
     only if you’re her sister, of course. If you’re her friend, she treats you
     like gold.
    â€œAny new hotties?” she asked, opening thefridge and staring blankly inside.
    â€œNah,” I said.
    â€œStill pining away for ML?” She looked at me with a grin and
     winked at Hailey.
    Hailey laughed and her cheeks turned pink.
    Allie did a double take. “Wait, you like
     him, too ?” Allie said in shock.
    Hailey looked mortified. “Me? What? No!” She shook her head
     vehemently.
    Allie looked at her suspiciously, then laughed. “There’s
     gotta be more than one cute guy in middle school.”
    I nodded, though I couldn’t think of anyone else. (Even Jeff Perry
     didn’t count.) Was Allie just trying to stir up trouble?
    â€œHow’s Trigger?” Allie asked, changing the subject.
     Allie had been on the school paper too, but it wasn’t her passion. She liked Mr.
     Trigg though.
    â€œHe’s good. He . . .” Oh my
     goodness! (Or should I say OMG!) I had nearly blurted out that he had called
     me!
    â€œHe what?” she pressed, staring at me quizzically. Allie has
     major radar for someone whospends all her time plugged into
     electronics. She’d actually make a great reporter.
    â€œHe’s the same old, same old,” I said, fake laughing
     and shaking my head from side to side. “That guy!”
    Allie looked at me for an extra minute but I had scrambled her radar.
     Luckily, just then her phone chirped and I was dead to her anyway.
    She pulled it out and left the room.
    â€œHomework?” I said to Hailey.
    â€œOkay. Can you help me with language farts?” I always help
     Hailey with her English homework. It’s a ritual. She’s pretty dyslexic and
     hates reading and writing because it takes her so long.
    â€œSure, if you help me with math.”
    As we went up the stairs to my room an overwhelming wave of frustration
     washed over me. I was dying to tell Hailey about Know-It-All, and Allie too, but I
     couldn’t do it. It made me feel lonely.
    I wished I could tell Michael Lawrence. I think it would impress
     him.
    But he’d probably just say, “Way to go, Pasty.”

Chapter 3
    GIRL SUES
     CLASSMATE FOR HARASSMENT—THEN MARRIES HIM!
    It felt great to be back in the newsroom. The energy, the deadlines,
     the smell of toner. I always felt excited when we were putting together the paper.
    â€œLet’s get some man-on-the-street reactions . . .” our
     editor in chief was saying. “Interview some parents . . . Jeff, you’ll get
     out and take photos . . .”
    We were having a staff meeting to plan out the first issue of the school
     paper. It comes out every other week, so we have a good lead time to research the
     articles, write them, file them (which means turn them in), have them edited and laid
     out, and then put the paper to bed (which means get the final, final version off to the
     printer). Our editor in chief is Susannah Johnson, who is in eighth grade.She is extremely smart and very cool, and she is also captain of
     the field hockey team.
    This year we were assigned stories each week, and I had been assigned to
     report and write a lead article about the new curriculum changes at the school. Lead
     articles are on the front page, usually “above the fold,” which is what
     newspapers call the top half of the front page. It’s where the most important news
     goes, and for a