Sophia, Michelle, Riley, and I have been what my dad calls “four peas in a pod” since we were toddlers. We have other friends too, but everyone knows we’ve always been a crew. But when school started, Riley was suddenly really into hanging out with Isabella, who seems to be joining us at lunch on the regular.

Whenever I complain about having more people around instead of it just being the four of us, my mom always replies, “When it comes to friends, additions are always okay, but subtractions are not.”

So I’m trying to be okay with more friends, but sometimes I’d like to subtract Isabella and just make it Sophia, Michelle, Riley, and me, like it always has been.

Sophia wrinkled her brow a little bit when Isabella sat next to Riley. No one else noticed, but if you’ve known her for eleven years like I have, you’d have noticed.

Michelle uses a wheelchair, and she wheeled her way over to my side. “Scootch over,” she said, and I made room for her.

“Hey, Isabella,” Sophia said.

Isabella put her tray down and looked like she was going to cry.

“What’s wrong?” Sophia asked.

“You guys, I totally think I am going to fail my coding class,” Isabella said. “I just do not get it.”

“Bella, it’s only the second month of school!” said Riley. “You’ll get the hang of it.” I had never really heard anyone call Isabella “Bella” before.

“Yeah, chill out, Isabella,” Michelle said. “Take a deep breath. It’s going to be fine.”

“Ugh,” said Isabella. “It’s just so hard and there’s so much pressure. I mean, they all say that everything starts to matter in middle school if you want to go to college!” she complained.

“You still have a long way until college!” I said. “No need to worry about it now. Trust me, my sister Jenna is in high school. That’s when the pressure really starts.”

That wasn’t entirely accurate. Jenna had been talking about college for a good seven years. Jenna is the oldest of my siblings (she’s a junior in high school) and a little bossy. Actually she’s a lot bossy.

She and Lindsay, and even my adopted sister Molly, who is a few months older than me, are always talking about going away to college. My parents are okay with this, but I can tell they don’t want us to go too far. Jenna talks about how she wants to go to a school in California, which kind of scares me.