Too Good to Be True Read Free Page A

talent.” Tryouts are going to be next Thursday, and the girls who make it will go to the high school every day after school to practice with the team, and they’ll perform with the team in competitions and in the fall dance show just before Thanksgiving. They’ll even get to perform at homecoming!
    When she finished talking, the gym got really noisy. It seemed like every single girl got excited about it. The Faraway High School dance team is amazing, and being part of homecoming and the fall dance show (which is a huge deal in town) would be so cool. Emily Pope, who has taken dance for years and was sitting two rows in front of me, started clapping and cheering like crazy. She’ll definitely make the team.
    Brynn, who was sitting next to me, reached over and squeezed my hand hard like she had breaking news. “We have to make it!” she whispered.
    I squeezed back. We’ve always talked about how cool it would be to be on the dance team together. “We need to start practicing,” I saidto Brynn as we were leaving the assembly. She nodded like she agreed completely.
    After the assembly, a bunch of girls were talking about trying out, and Brynn was quiet. I know Brynn better than anyone, and the only time she’s quiet is when she’s mad or scared. Today she didn’t have anything to be mad about, which means she got scared about tryouts and making the team. She must really want it. I do too.
    I know I’m supposed to be embracing the new me and staying positive, so I’ll just say this: I’m excited about trying out for the dance team, but I’ll be a lot more excited if I make it.
5:42 P.M .
    Mom just asked me if I’d walk Gilligan before dinner. The old me would have done it, but I would have groaned and rolled my eyes when Mom asked me to do it. The new me took the leash without complaint.
5:57 P.M .
    I’m back from my walk, and I have aquestion: how am I supposed to stay positive when I’m doing something as uncomplicated as walking my dog and something happens that complicates it?
    While I was walking Gilligan, I ran into Matt Parker, who was also walking his dog. This isn’t the first time this has happened. It happens a lot and it’s weird! I know if I talked to Brynn about it, she’d say, “It’s not so weird. Matt’s got a dog and a mom who probably makes him walk his dog before dinner just like your mom makes you walk your dog, and he lives next door to you.” But a) it feels weird to me, like Matt’s watching out his window and when he sees me walking my dog, he walks his too, and b) I couldn’t talk to Brynn about it anyway. Not after what happened this summer. Matt Parker is one topic that’s off-limits with Brynn. Whatever. The problem is that I’m always a mental case around Matt. Like just now. He started walking beside me and telling me all this stuff about high school and how it’s so much cooler than middle school.
    I could have said a bunch of normal things back, like,
“Cool,”
or
“Awesome.”
But what I saidwas “My mom is waiting for me to serve dinner and I have to go.”
    When I said that, Matt did this head bob thing he always does when he’s done with a conversation. Then he turned around and walked back to his house.
    Why would I say I had to go? I meant that I had to go eat dinner, but Matt could have taken it to mean I had to go to the bathroom. I sincerely hope he didn’t take it that way, but why wouldn’t he? I mean, at least half the time when people say they have to go, they mean they have to pee.
    I can’t think of one good reason why I would say anything to Matt that makes him think I have to pee. Seriously, there has to be something wrong with me. Why can’t I just talk to Matt like I talk to every other human on the planet? Part of me doesn’t even like talking to him, but another part does and it doesn’t want to say the