“Hey,” she said.

Sophie gave a nod but kept her gaze averted and walked on.

“Hey, can I talk to you for a second?”

“Fine,” Sophie answered.

“We haven’t talked much lately, huh?” Amina let out a nervous, breathy giggle.

“Yup.” Sophie transformed her face to ice and stone. She gripped the straps of her backpack.

“You don’t sit with us anymore.” Amina took a step closer to Sophie.

“Um, yeah, ya think?” Sophie couldn’t make herself pretend it was nothing, or keep her mouth shut. It was too exhausting. “I heard you talking about me in the stairwell. The day after the list came out. Right before the parent meeting.” She locked her stern eyes with Amina’s. “And things just got worse from there.”

“What?” Amina looked flustered. “I never talked about you! I stand up for you all the time!”

Sophie scoffed. “Oh, so that means people are talking about me all the time?” Of course they were. “Anyway, that’s not the point. I heard you.”

“What do you think I said? I didn’t say anything!” Amina looked like she might cry.

Sophie tried to remember exactly what Amina had said, but she couldn’t recall who said what anymore. “You were all saying how I’m not really pretty. And Eve is. Rose is. It’s obvious you all truly felt that because look at who you’re following now.”

“Following?” Amina said. “What do you mean by that?”

“Oh, come on. Rose.” Sophie felt herself crossing her arms, not letting Amina in.

“I don’t know what you mean by ‘following’ Rose. You left our table. Rose was still there. What was I supposed to do? You obviously didn’t want to be friends anymore.”

“We were never friends,” Sophie spat back.

They heard a door shut in the hallway, and two teachers walked past them, chatting.

“Hi, girls,” one of them said. The other waved.

“Hi, Ms. Tilo!” Amina singsonged. She’d always been every teacher’s favorite. Probably because she knew how to act really nice.

When the teachers were a few yards away, Amina’s smile disappeared. Her face crumpled.

“We were friends.” Amina’s voice broke. She wiped a tear away, and Sophie could see her try to hold more back.

“Were we?” Sophie’s arms dropped. “Then why didn’t we … I don’t know, talk about stuff? Why didn’t you ever stand up for me when the list came out? Why didn’t you come after me at the Halloween dance? Seriously!”

“I know, it was really bad what Brody did to you!” Amina countered. “I’m really sorry, okay? I didn’t have any friends until you came to school halfway through sixth grade. I just studied, and felt weird all the time. And nobody here looked like me. Do you have any idea how that feels?”

“No,” Sophie acknowledged. She didn’t.

“I sat all alone at lunch. And then there was you. I couldn’t believe you wanted to be my friend.”

“Oh.” Sophie leaned against a locker and felt her shoulders droop.

Amina slouched, pressing her shoulder against the locker next to her. “But, sorry, you just … you never really talked about yourself. I didn’t want to ask the wrong questions. You got pretty mad when I did.”