But the other part of me knows I can’t tell anyone. If I did, I would have to tell about the Spinney.

So instead, I tell her about the poem I wrote about Edie. Fina’s eyes go wide.

“So that’s what she was looking at when you leaned down to get your pencil! No wonder—her face went all red and pruney.”

She lets out a little giggle.

“It’s not funny!” I insist. “She’s probably plotting to murder me or something.”

Okay, maybe I was joking about the murder, but Edie does bump into me extra hard during a basketball game in gym later that day. Coincidentally, she manages to do it right when the coach is glancing down at her phone.

I don’t tell on her. I’ve been waiting for her to do something to get back at me, so it’s almost a relief when it finally happens.

On Thursday, Fina and I have just sat down in the cafeteria when I see her waving someone over.

“I hope it’s okay,” she says. “I told her she could sit with us. She’s in my math class, and she’s new here, too.”

I turn around to see a short redheaded girl with masses of freckles bobbing toward us with her tray. She sits down and introduces herself as Ruby.

“Hey!” I say. “I remember you. You were on my bus the first day of school!”

She’s the one who looked really nervous, who I smiled at.

“Oh, yeah,” she agrees after studying me for a moment. “I remember you, too! I made my mom drive me the last couple of days. I hate the school bus.”

“Well, I officially call the first meeting of the New Kids Brigade to order!” Fina says, banging her fist on the table like a gavel. Ruby and I glance at each other and laugh.

“Are we a secret society?” I ask.

“Like with nicknames?” Ruby says eagerly.

Before Fina can answer, I look up to see Edie scowling at us as she passes by. Ruby sinks into her seat, but her eyes follow Edie all the way to a table across the room, where she sits with the two Graces and a pair of boys, Sean and Austin.

“You know Edie?” I ask.

“Not really,” Ruby says. “Only that when I had to say my name on the first day of school, she laughed.”

“Why?” Fina asks blankly.

Ruby points to her freckled face with one hand and holds up a lock of hair with the other. “Red hair, red freckles, red name,” she says. “The kids at my old school thought it was funny, too. I wasn’t exactly, um, popular there. But I thought maybe now we’re older . . .”

She stares wistfully at her PB&J.

Secretly, I don’t think it was very nice of her mom and dad to name her Ruby. But maybe the freckles came later.