“For you,” Bertie said. She did one of her weird and complicated bows. Then she held a cardboard tube so close to my face, I couldn’t not take it.

“Open it up,” she said. She seemed very excited.

I held up my hand to block it. I pushed it toward her.

“Okay,” Bertie said. “Allow me.” She shook the tube a few times and then unrolled what was inside.

It was a poster of a puppy, wearing sunglasses, playing the piano.

“Ta-da!” she said. “It’s not like I could get you a real puppy, but I thought you could maybe put this one up in your room.”

“I don’t get it,” I said.

“You don’t get it?” she said. She peered around to the front of the poster. “I Ruff Reading. It’s like I love reading. But it’s a puppy, so it says I Ruff Reading. I’m still not sure what’s with the sunglasses and the piano—I mean, except for the cuteness.”

For once, Bertie didn’t understand what I was talking about.

“You didn’t come find me yesterday,” I said.

“What do you mean?” Bertie said. “I waited for, like, half of recess, but then I figured you were still working with Ms. B., so I went to the book fair. Who wants to stand alone by the wall the whole time? That’s no fun.”

“I thought you didn’t want to be friends anymore,” I said real quiet.

Bertie took off her glasses and gave me a big eye roll. “Why would I not want to be friends anymore?” She put her glasses back on. “That wouldn’t be very steadfast.”

She said the last word loud enough to carry across the classroom.

I saw Ms. G. pull a pencil out of her hair. “Noted,” she called back.

“I don’t know why you were so upset yesterday,” Bertie said, “but all day, I was trying to think of something that could maybe help, and then I remembered the poster.” She handed it to me.

Huh. Maybe I had gotten Bertie a little wrong, too.

I held the poster up and looked at the cute puppy dog. “Sorry,” I said. And I tried to make it sound as real as I could, because I was.

“No sweat, you bet. Sometimes friends get upset.” Bertie did the head motions. “And sorry I called you a gloomy Gus riding the gloomy bus. That wasn’t very welcoming.”

“That’s okay,” I said.

“How was the LC?” Bertie asked. “Did you go on the trampoline? I love the trampoline. Ms. B. lets kids stop by to have a jump. We could do that. I mean, not now, but sometime.”

“Yeah,” I said.