Darcy munched on her apple. Brisana rarely had anything nice to say about anybody. Darcy remembered sitting with her many times while both of them talked bad about other kids. That girl dressed like she wore clothes from a thrift store, and that boy’s breath smelled of garlic, and what stupid answers they gave in class! It seemed fun at the time, but now Darcy wondered if that was what she really wanted to do anymore, day after day.

Brisana leaned back in the grass, smiling. “Guess what? Hakeem Randall thinks he’s got a shot at being valedictorian in two years. Hakeem! He stutters, for crying out loud!”

“Only when he’s really nervous,” Darcy said in a small voice. She had never told Brisana about her crush on Hakeem. He was bright, cute, and sweet, but very, very shy.

“Yeah, right, can you just imagine how much that boy would stutter if he was valedictorian?” Brisana laughed. “He’d just stand there looking stupid because he’d be so nervous. Everybody’d look at him and say, ‘What a fool!’”

Darcy glanced at her watch. “Oh, I gotta get some books from the library before next period,” she said.

“See you later, Darcy. And good luck with the pig-girl,” Brisana said, gathering her books.

Darcy wanted to say, “Please don’t call her that. It really bothers me when you call her that. I mean, I don’t like her or anything, but just don’t call her a pig-girl. ” But Darcy instead said, “Yeah, see you later. ”

Darcy was in the school library searching for books on tidal pools when she heard a familiar voice. Bobby Wallace was with a friend on the other side of the bookshelves. Darcy drew closer without the boys seeing her.

“How you get hold of that CD, man?” the other boy asked Bobby.

“I got me a girl who’ll do anything for me, you hear what I’m sayin’? She in the store and I say, ‘Grab me that,’ and she will, ’cause she do anything I ask, see? She crazy ’bout me, you hear me?” Bobby boasted.

“Don’t she get caught or nothing?” the other boy asked.

“No, man, she smooth. Besides, that fool so busy with another customer he don’t see nothin’. I pipe the tune and she dances, you hear what I’m sayin’?” Bobby bragged. “She only fourteen, but, man, she look so good everybody think she eighteen. ”