Best Frenemies (14 page)
Authors: Cari Simmons
PICTURE PERFECT #4: BETWEEN US
!
PICTURE PERFECT #4: BETWEEN US
READ ON FOR A SNEAK PEEK OF
PICTURE PERFECT #4: BETWEEN US
!
HOW TO HAVE AN EPIC FIRST WEEK OF MIDDLE SCHOOL
Prep
1. Go to mall with Olivia and check out what seventh and eighth graders are wearing. Then shop!
2. Start getting up at time you need to get up for school. No oversleeping. (Walking in lateâyikes.)
3. Practice on combination lock.
4. Study map of school.
5. Organize school supplies.
6. Buy mints for locker.
When School Starts
1. Eat breakfast so stomach won't grumble.
2. Meet one person you didn't go to elementary school with.
3. Smile at people (but not like an insane clown girl).
4. Write down assignments.
5. Find out about clubs.
6. Remind Oh to use a straw so she won't spill!
7. Relax!!!!!
“
I'm not sure you get to check off number seven,” Olivia told her best friend.
“Why?” Bailey protested. Her fingers were itching to check off the last item on her Epic First Week list.
“How relaxed can you be if you have to have a list that tells you to be relaxed?” Olivia asked.
“Have you forgotten who you're talking to?” Bailey exclaimed, her voice rising. “Lists make me more relaxed than anything.”
Olivia shook her head, setting her dark brown curls bouncing. “I just wanted to see how unrelaxed you'd get if you thought you'd have to leave something unchecked. You should have heard yourself squeak. It was like a mouse on helium.”
“You're bad,” Bailey told her, trying not to laugh. “A bad, bad friend.” Bailey made an extrabig check next to number seven.
“Just trying to help you impulsify a little. You might miss something good if you're always looking at a list,” Olivia told her.
Bailey and Olivia were so different. Oh didn't like
to plan. She didn't even like basic rules, such as using words that were actually in the dictionary.
“I can impulsify!” Bailey looked around, trying to think of a way to prove it. “Look! I'm . . . I'm
sing
-ing in pub-
lic
.” She warbled the last few words, and didn't care that a couple people turned around and stared at her.
Olivia gave a laugh that turned into a snort. “I can't believe you did that. I was horrifyingly close to spraying blueberry soda out of my nose.”
“It would have been your own fault,” Bailey teased. She took a sip of her raspberry drink. She and Olivia always went to Emmy's for Italian sodas when they had something to celebrate, and completing their first week of middle school was definitely what Olivia would call whoop-whoop worthy.
As different as they were, the two of them had been friends since the second grade. Somehow Bailey's love of planning and Olivia's willingness to try anything were a perfect combination. No matter how much time they spent together, they always wanted to be together more.
Bailey could probably fill a whole notebook with all the ways Olivia was an awesome friend. Her birthday was coming up in about a month. Maybe Bailey would make that list as part of her present. Olivia couldn't
have a problem with a list like that!
“So next week at school, we shouldâ” Bailey was interrupted by her cell clucking. She'd let Olivia set the ringtones. She checked it.
need you home. big news!
Bailey showed the text to Olivia. “I wonder what's up,” Olivia said.
“Could be anything,” Bailey answered. “Remember that text that said I had to get home ASAP, and it was because the first rosebud of the year was opening on one of her bushes?”
“That was cool. I love your mom,” Olivia told her.
“Do you want to come with me?” Bailey asked. “Oh, wait. You can't. You've got karate.” Olivia kept trying new sports to see if there was one where her klutziness wasn't a problem. Last year she'd taken dance. Kind of a disaster.
Olivia jumped up so fast she almost tipped over her chair. “I've got karate! I forgot!”
Bailey checked the time on her phone. “You're good. You have twenty-four minutes.”
“Text me and tell me what the big news is,” Olivia said as Bailey slid her notebook into her backpack.
“I will,” Bailey promised.
CARI SIMMONS
once wished on her birthday candles that she would write a bookâand it came true! She lives and writes in Portland, Oregon, and this is her first series.
CLAIRE ZULKEY
, author of
An Off Year
, is still close with a lot of her best friends from middle school. They have a lot of embarrassing stories about her! She lives and writes in Chicago.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at
hc.com
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More titles in the Picture Perfect series:
Book #1: Bending Over Backwards
Book #2: You First
Cover art © 2015 by Cathi Mingus
Cover design by Steve Scott
PICTURE PERFECT #3: BEST FRENEMIES.
Copyright © 2015 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014952520
EPub Edition © March 2015 ISBN 9780062318466
ISBN 978-0-06-231845-9
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OPM
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FIRST EDITION
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