Best Frenemies (4 page)

“What would you guys most want to take with you if you were stranded on an island?” Mr. Nichols asked the class on Monday, leaning against the board, tossing a tiny nub of chalk up in the air and catching it. The class, still rusty from the weekend, looked blankly at him. “Well, don't all speak up at once. Come on. Alice, how about you?”

“Um, a tent?” Alice asked.
Pitiful.
She could be more creative than that.

“Okay,” Mr. Nichols said. “Christy, how about you?”

“My dog!” she chirped. “He could keep me warm and provide company and maybe catch some food.”

“All right,” he said. “Companionship. Aaron, go.”

“Um, my TV and the NFL package?” Aaron said.

“The joke answer—finally, somebody got it out of the way,” Mr. Nichols said, tossing the piece of chalk gently at Aaron's forehead. Aaron caught the chalk
and grinned. A few other kids burst forth with similarly goofy answers, realizing that it was safe to do so, with answers like “A smartphone!” or “A microwave!” or “A helicopter!”

“Okay, good. Let's keep this discussion in mind as we read our next book,” Mr. Nichols said. “Because it may make you contemplate what's really important when you're on your own. I bring you . . .
Island of the Blue Dolphins
!” He passed out copies of the book, which featured a drawing of a small figure of a girl, standing alone on top of a cliff with her long dark hair blowing in the wind, dolphins swimming in the sea beneath her.

“This looks like a
girls'
book,” Todd Tian complained. A couple of the guys around him snorted.

“And why do you say that, Mr. Tian?” Mr. Nichols inquired.

“It has a girl on the cover, is all,” said Todd.

“That's it?” said Mr. Nichols.

“And, I don't know. Dolphins,” said Todd, shrugging. “It just seems girly.”

“Okay,” said Mr. Nichols. “Did anybody else in here have the same reaction as Todd?” A few reluctant hands went up around the room.

“I want you all to put your books on the floor,” Mr. Nichols said. “Quickly.” An echo of
thwap
s went around
the room as students dropped the paperbacks on the linoleum tile.

“Okay,” said Mr. Nichols, writing two headings on the blackboard, one titled
GIRLS
and the other
BOYS
. “Quick, don't overthink it. What are some words you'd expect to read in the description of a girls' book?”

“Gossip!” said one girl.

“Friends!” shouted out another.

“Clothes!” came out another cry. Mr. Nichols wrote this all on the board.

“Mr. Nichols?” Alice raised her hand. He nodded at her.

“Um, wasn't
To Kill a Mockingbird
also about a girl, though?” she asked. “So did that make it a girls' book?”

Mr. Nichols pursed his lips and raised his eyebrows. “Yes, now that you mention it, it
was
, wasn't it?” he said. Alice felt a warm sensation and tried not to smile. English was by far her favorite class: they had cool conversations and Mr. Nichols actually seemed to want to listen to what the class thought. “Did you guys recall seeing a lot of gossip, friends, and clothes in that book?”

“Well,” said Aaron hesitantly. “That book was
about
a girl but it wasn't, like, a girls' book.”

“So who was it for, then?” said Mr. Nichols.

“Uh, everybody?” Aaron said, shrinking down in his
chair and looking off to the side like he didn't want to be there anymore.

“Okay,” said Mr. Nichols. “I'll quit torturing you guys soon, I promise. But, what are some words you would associate with what you'd call a boys' book?”

Nobody raised his or her hand. Mr. Nichols looked around. “Nikki Wilcox, you've been awfully quiet,” he said.

Nikki rolled her dark eyes and pushed up the sleeves of her long-sleeved white T-shirt. “Nobody wants to say anything because they realize already that, like, the whole boys' books versus girls' books concept is dumb,” she said. “We wouldn't be having this conversation if Todd had just kept his mouth shut.” Todd glowered at his hands.

Harsh but true,
Alice thought. The room felt awkward, but Alice was invigorated by the discussion. Mr. Nichols was treating them like grown-ups and actually getting them to think and talk about books instead of just making them read for no particular reason. Finally it actually felt like honors classes were paying off.

“People should feel free to say what they think in this class—within reason,” said Mr. Nichols. “But listen, I promise I won't judge any of you, and neither will your classmates. I'm actually trying to get at something here,
I swear. Boys' books. Go.”

The students threw out words like “fight” and “sports” and “adventure,” which Mr. Nichols added to the board.

“Good,” he said. “Okay, you may rescue your books from the floor. You can apologize to them too, if you are sorry for mistreating them.”

“I'm sorry, book!” Todd clowned around, holding his book up in the air and gazing at it. “I will never do that to you again!” The students laughed.

“Okay, Todd,” Mr. Nichols said. “The spotlight is yours, since you seem to need it so badly today. Do me a favor and read the description of
Island of the Blue Dolphins
on the back aloud to the class.”

Todd turned his book over in his hands and cleared his throat dramatically. “The story of a twelve-year-old girl who lives alone on a Pacific island after she leaps from a rescue ship. Isolated on the island for eighteen years, Karana forages for food, builds weapons to fight predators, clothes herself in a cormorant-feathered skirt, and finds strength and peace in her seclusion.”

“All right,” said Mr. Nichols. “Very nice, Todd. So what do you guys notice?”

“Well, it
does
have the word ‘clothes' in it,” pointed out Aaron.

“‘Fight' and ‘weapons' and ‘predators'” are in there too,” offered Christy, twirling her wooden cuff bracelet around her wrist. “So she's a tough girl.”

“Righto,” said Mr. Nichols. “So what do you guys think I'm getting at here?” he said.

“That Todd needs to stop talking!” offered Ashley Dawson in the back. Everyone laughed uproariously; studious Ashley rarely spoke in class, which made her takedown even funnier.

“I think you want us not to judge a book by its cover,” said Alice.

“And that maybe just because a book is
about a girl
doesn't mean it's a book
for
girls,” added Aaron.

“That's right,” said Mr. Nichols. “I know I'm old and everything, but I hope you trust me when it comes to what I choose for you to read. It wouldn't make for a very interesting class if half of you were completely tuned out when it came to our discussions and homework.”

Mr. Nichols glanced at the clock on the wall that, for some reason, was protected by a metal cage, as if people were constantly throwing rocks at it. “Good talk today, guys. And with that, it looks like our time is almost up for the day, so I would like to thank you all for such a spirited discussion.” The class beamed at the compliment. “But you're not off the hook. Have
the first three chapters of the book read by tomorrow,” Mr. Nichols said, to a chorus of class groaning. “
And
be ready to discuss. Clearly you all have opinions and have no problem expressing them, so I expect a lot more good feedback tomorrow.”

The bell rang and the students stood up, gathering their things to head to the next class. Alice could tell that everyone else—like her—felt inspired by the discussion. She even felt a little more mature, and possibly like she had grown an extra half inch taller, if that were possible.

“I kind of love this class, don't you?” she asked over her shoulder to someone she thought was Ashley Dawson, who wore her long, straight dark hair down today, along with a cute black-and-white dress. But Alice did a double take—it wasn't Ashley she was talking to, it was Nikki, who, with her dark curly hair, white tee, and black skirt, looked like Ashley in Alice's periphery.

For a second, Nikki looked like she was going to respond like a normal human being—but then a hard look fell over Nikki's face. She narrowed her eyes and stomped around her to get to biology.
Yeesh,
Alice thought.
I was just trying to be positive about class. I wonder what her problem is.

“That was kind of fun, huh?” said Aaron, shouldering his blue backpack as they trekked across the hall to the lab.

“Yeah!” Alice said, relieved that she wasn't the only one who liked Mr. Nichols. The honors class was quickly becoming its own group of friends—aside from Nikki. There was a sort of chicken-and-egg situation with Nikki, Alice realized. Was she separate from the class because she was so negative and hard to include, or did she just want to do her own thing, apart from everybody else, and that was why she
seemed
so cranky?
Either way, it's like she's making it hard for herself on purpose. Why would she do that?
Alice pondered, then shook her head, as if to get Nikki's grumpy dust off her.
It's not my problem!

Alice was en route to Ms. Crawford's class when she saw Cassidy emerge from her math class. Cassidy didn't see Alice at first, and Alice was able to observe, from a slight distance, how happy and popular Cassidy looked. She wore a bright red dress with black high-tops, and her hair was growing out into a petite Afro, which she wore like a crown. Xia, April, and Evie (who had cut her hair short recently too, although she swore it wasn't because she was copying Cassidy) hovered around her as they laughed at some joke Cassidy had made.

Look, she doesn't need you,
a tiny voice in Alice's head whispered.

Oh, shut up!
Alice thought in response. She marched up to Cassidy and whispered breathlessly in her ear, “Oh my goodness, can we
please
have an emergency hangout tonight? I need to tell you about the weirdest encounter I just had with Nikki Wilcox.”

“What? Oh, totally,” said Cassidy. “I
need
to hear this. Come to my place after school?” Alice nodded, squeezed into biology just as the bell was ringing, and slid into her desk right on time. She glanced over at Nikki, who seemed to be reading her textbook—three chapters ahead. What a weirdo. It was like she went out of her way not to have any friends. Alice wondered what Nikki would be like if she had a best friend, a Cassidy in her life. But that would mean Nikki had actually bothered to talk to someone else for once. Maybe even smile at them!

Alice pulled the purple notebook out of her bag to write down what had just happened.

Have you learned anything more about why Nikki Wilcox is the way she is? Is her mother a rhino and her father a crab?

Alice decided to go ahead and write a good lengthy entry about the last few days. Maybe she'd encourage Cassidy to write something nice and long too.

You know how we played all that badminton in your backyard last summer and got really good at it? Well, in gym class yesterday this guy from the intramural soccer team went around challenging everyone, and I totally beat him! I wish you had been there to see it.

Alice glanced up to make sure that she still was engaged with the class. Ms. Crawford was going over photosynthesis, which Alice had learned all about last year, when she'd coaxed a plant to grow through a maze she'd created out of cardboard boxes, in order to reach a sun lamp she'd placed at the other end. She kept the plant with its heart-shaped leaves on her desk at home, where it grew and grew like a girl's hair, eventually reaching the floor. Last year for Valentine's Day, she had given Cassidy a few clippings of the plant in a small pink pot, and it made Alice happy to see it growing every time she went to the Turners'.

Alice, stumped for additional funny stories, glanced
over at Nikki, who sat at the lab table a few people down from her, jotting notes furiously on a legal pad while Ms. Crawford spoke. Alice noticed that in profile, as she concentrated, Nikki's pouting lips made a perfect heart shape, just like Alice's and Nikki's plants. But suddenly Nikki's face transformed into a snarl as she hissed at Aaron Woolsey, who was sitting next to her, “Would you stop that? It's really annoying!” Aaron had been absentmindedly tapping his pen against the edge of the tabletop while Ms. Crawford spoke.

“Sorry,” whispered Aaron, looking a little hurt and pointedly laying the pen on top of the lab table. Even Ms. Crawford briefly paused during her lecture but decided to keep going once she realized nothing dramatic was happening. Alice's heart broke a little bit. Aaron was so nice to
everyone
—she couldn't believe that Nikki had just been mean to him!

YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE HOW MEAN NEGATIVE NIKKI JUST WAS—AND THIS IS THE THIRD TIME TODAY.

Maybe Cassidy had learned something in ballet or from one of Nikki's former elementary school classmates about why she was the way she was.

Oh no.
Alice realized, with a pang of disappointment, that she couldn't, shouldn't, go to Cassidy's tonight—she had to read
Island of the Blue Dolphins
instead. Since she'd never read it before, she had to pay much closer attention than she had to with
To Kill a Mockingbird
, plus she had homework from math and probably would from biology too.

It would be smarter to stay home and get her work done, but the idea of not seeing her best friend was just too much, especially after a day like today.

You can get the reading done,
Alice told herself.
You made it through last week, right?

Alice alternated between fretting over what was the right choice and halfheartedly jotting down some notes from class so she could do the homework exercise later.