“If I fail a few tests, I’d have a lot more to deal with than missing work,” I retorted, kind of snapping at her. I don’t know why, but Isabella gets under my skin sometimes.

“Well…,” said Riley. She paused, and Sophia and I looked up. “Bella and I were thinking about doing soccer instead of field hockey.”

I caught Sophia’s eyes, which looked as surprised as mine.

“That’s great!” Michelle said. “So now I’ll take photos of the soccer team as well as field hockey.” Michelle takes awesome photos and dreams of being a professional photographer someday.

Riley bit her lip. “The thing is, I’m not sure I’m great at field hockey, and I know I’m a pretty good soccer player, so I want to try out for the team.”

Isabella looked at her and smiled. I had a weird feeling they’d talked about this before. Sophia looked at me.

I shrugged. “Well, you should always do what makes you happy,” I said. “Soph and I will be a team of two on the field hockey team.”

Riley looked at me strangely. “Okay,” she said. “I just don’t want you guys to be disappointed that we all wouldn’t be playing field hockey together. But you’re right, you have each other on the field.”

“Yep, we have each other,” said Sophia.

It was quiet for a second, and then Michelle asked me, “So how is work going?”

I shrugged. “It’s okay. A lot of the time I’d rather be somewhere else, but everyone in the family works there, so it’s my turn to step up. Or at least that’s what Grandpa said.”

“Do you get to eat the extra donuts?” asked Isabella. “Because oh my goodness, I could eat, like, a dozen of those at a time.”

“No,” I said. “We donate the ones that haven’t sold at the end of the day.”

Sophia and I exchanged a smile, because everyone always asks me that question.

People think if you work at a donut shop you eat donuts all day, every day. In elementary school, Joshua Victor asked me if our house was made of donuts.

“Well, you’ve been known to show up with donuts,” teased Riley, and I laughed.

I do try to bring donuts to my friends’ houses when we have extra or when Mom brings them home.

“Work perk!” I said.

“Oh, I can almost taste those cider donuts,” moaned Isabella. “Shoot, now all I want is a cider donut. It’s definitely better than… whatever this lunch they’re serving is.”

“My favorites are the coffee-cake donuts,” Michelle said. “And the chocolate ones with rainbow sprinkles. Or the plain glazed ones. Or…”

“We get it. You like donuts!” Riley said with a laugh.

Just then the bell rang. We gathered up our stuff and hustled out to our next class.