Friends for Never (7 page)

“You
were there?” Mandy asked.

“I was on my way to Louie‘s,” he said quickly, making sure the girls knew he hadn’t gone to the mall to see Suzanne. “I passed the stage just in time to see Suzanne looking ridiculous.”

Katie shook her head. “She wasn’t ridiculous at all. That’s the way all the big fashion models are wearing their pants now.”

Becky and Mandy looked at her strangely. “Yeah, right. Anyway, we thought you were still mad at her.”

“Well, that doesn’t mean I don’t trust her fashion sense,” Katie replied.

“I think your head’s on backward,” George told Katie.

Before long, a whole crowd of kids had gathered around Katie. She was determined to make the whole fourth grade think wearing your pants backward was in style.

“You guys know Suzanne would never have worn her pants backward by mistake. She’s too into fashion to do something like that,” she told them.

“But your pants look weird backward,” Miriam Chan told Katie.

Katie shrugged. “Lots of fashionable stuff looks weird. How about models who wear rings on their toes? Or male models who carry those man pocketbooks?”

The kids all looked at one another. It was hard to argue with logic like that.

“I should have known Ocean was wearing her pants that way on purpose!” Jessica said finally.

“Well, I’m going inside to turn my pants around,” Miriam declared.

“Me too,” Emma S. said.

“I can’t believe I wore a skirt today,” Becky moaned. “I wish I had pants I could wear backward.”

And then, Suzanne arrived. Everyone stared at her in surprise.

Suzanne wasn’t wearing
her
pants backward. She was wearing a plain jeans skirt, a polo shirt, and flat blue shoes. She wasn’t wearing any earrings, bracelets, or necklaces. She didn’t have any glitter anywhere.

“Check out Suzanne,” Kadeem said. “She looks so normal.”

“Suzanne is never normal,” Jeremy reminded him.

“Well, she
looks
it,” Kadeem reminded him.

Katie felt awful. Suzanne without glitter was the saddest sight in the world. She hurried over to the bench where Suzanne was sitting all alone.

“Hi,” Katie greeted her.

“Hello,” Suzanne said in a quiet voice.

“You okay?”

Suzanne shrugged. “I guess.” She looked down at Katie’s green corduroy pants. Her eyes got really small and angry. “I can’t believe you’re wearing your pants that way. I thought you were my friend.”

“I am,” Katie assured her.

“Then why are you making fun of me?”

“I’m not,” Katie promised. “I’m wearing my pants this way
because
I’m your friend. I did it so no one would be mean to you.”

Suzanne looked at her strangely. “Huh?”

“I told them you said
all
the top models are wearing their pants this way.”

Suzanne smiled. “And they believed you?”

Katie nodded. “They figured if
you
were wearing clothes this way, it had to be a fashion trend.” She pointed to Miriam Chan, Zoe Canter, Emma W., and Emma S. They had all just come out of the school building. And their pants were on backward!

Suzanne looked down at her plain, boring outfit. “But now everyone will know you were lying.”

Katie frowned. She hadn’t counted on Suzanne coming to school dressed like that.

Suzanne thought for a moment. “Unless maybe I . . .”

“What are you going to do?” Katie asked her.

Suzanne grinned. “You’ll see. You’re not the only one with great ideas, Katie Kazoo.”

By lunchtime, most of the girls in the fourth grade were wearing their pants backward. But not Suzanne. She was still wearing her jeans skirt and plain shirt. Only the shirt wasn’t so plain anymore. It had a big glittery S on it. Her pocketbook had an S on it, too.

“How’d you do that?” Katie asked as she stood beside her best friend in the lunch line.

“Glitter glue,” Suzanne answered. “It was easy.”

“How come you didn’t put an
O
for Ocean?”

Suzanne frowned. “I think I like Suzanne better. It’s a French name, did you know that?”

Katie smiled. “I like Suzanne better, too,” she said.

Suzanne’s glittery letters caught the attention of the girls in the fourth grade.

“Suzanne, how come you’re not wearing backward pants?” Miriam asked her.

Suzanne sighed dramatically. “Backward pants are so last Saturday. Today, everyone’s wearing initials. Check the fashion magazines. You’ll see.”

The girls all sighed. Once again, Suzanne’s fashion trends were moving faster than they were. She was ahead of them again.

In seconds, there was a crowd of girls standing around Suzanne. They listened intently as Suzanne talked about how she painted the glitter glue letters on her clothes.

Katie moved out of the way and left Suzanne in the center of the crowd. She took her tray and sat down alone at a quiet table in the corner.

A minute later, she heard a familiar voice behind her. “Is it okay if I sit here?” Suzanne asked.

Katie looked up, surprised. She and Suzanne hadn’t eaten lunch together in a long time. “Sure.”

Suzanne smiled and sat down beside her. “Katie, I’m really sorry about being so mean. I guess I got kind of weird about this whole modeling thing.”

“Kind of,” Katie agreed. “But it’s okay.” She paused for a minute. “I just have one question, though. How come you picked Jessica as your assistant and not me?”

“Oh, that’s easy,” Suzanne said. “An assistant works for you. But I could never be your boss, Katie. You’re my best friend.”

Katie smiled. Now she understood.

“I mean, I
hope
we’re still best friends,” Suzanne added nervously.

“Of course we are,” Katie assured her happily. “You and I are friends
forever
!”

Suzanne and Jessica were at the next Cooking Club meeting. Here’s the snack Katie and her pals made. Katie’s mom did all the cutting. You should get an adult to help you with that, too.

 

 

Directions:
Scoop out the watermelon half. Cut the watermelon into chunks. Combine the watermelon chunks and the rest of the fruit in a large bowl. Mix in the rest of the ingredients, except the coconut and cinnamon and sugar. Pour the mixture back into the watermelon shell. Mix the cinnamon and sugar together, and sprinkle it throughout the mixture. Then top the fruit with lots of snowy, white coconut.