The Baby-Sitters Club Friends Forever #3: Mary Anne’s Big Break-up (12 page)

everything). But writing about all those things rolled up into one enormous,

tangled bal is nowhere near as painful as writing about Jill. I’m going to do it, though. Write about her, I mean. Well, about us. Because I know that

afterward I’l feel better.

First, I need to compose myself.

Okay. Here it goes.

After the assembly on Tuesday, life at Vista seemed to return to

normal. A lot of kids had gotten in trouble, but at least we knew where we

stood. No more surprises. The party was behind us. Not forgotten, but over.

We could get on with things. And us eighth-graders could get on with things

without worrying about hazing. Plus, I was stil thinking about my idea, and I

liked it a lot. I planned to organize groups of kids to go to Ms. Krueger’s over

the next few weeks and fix up the lawn, maybe plant some new stuff in the

gardens. We could even find a way to raise some more money to buy plants

and things. I knew kids would like the idea.

Life went on. We went to our morning classes. I ate lunch in the

cafeteria with Sunny, Ducky, Maggie, and Amalia. Jil was sitting at a table

with Peg and some other friends of hers. Not usual, but not exactly unusual,

either. When lunch was over, we went to our afternoon classes. And after the

final bell rang, we went to our lockers.

I was just closing the door to mine, juggling books, a jacket, an

umbrella, and a bag full of dirty gym clothes, when I sensed someone

standing directly behind me. Mandy, I thought and whirled around.

But I found myself facing Jill.

“Dawn,” she said. “Hi. I was – I wanted to talk to you.”

I let out a breath. “Me too,” I said.

“You did?”

“Yup.”

“You go first.”

“Well,” I began, now feeling slightly unprepared.

“Did you want to say you’re sorry? Because that’s what I wanted to

say.”

“Um, I guess – yeah, that’s what I wanted to say. I’m sorry I yelled at

you. I shouldn’t have gotten so mad.”

“And I’m sorry I opened my mouth. What’s that phrase? Open mouth,

insert foot?” (This happens to be a phrase I can’t stand.) “Wel , that’s what I

did. I opened my mouth and inserted foot. I do that sometimes.”

Even though I hate that phrase I smiled at Jil . “That’s okay.” I felt

relieved to be talking to her again. We hadn’t spoken since our fight on

Monday. One whole day.

“So,” said Jil as we began to walk down the hal way, “what happened

with Ms. Krueger? Anything?”

I told Jill about the meeting in Ms. Krueger’s office with Sunny and

Ducky. “Mostly, we just got a lecture.”

“A lecture?” Jil looked vaguely disappointed.

“Yeah. You know. She tried to scare us.”

“What do you mean?”

“She told Sunny about alcohol poisoning, and she pointed out al the

dangers of walking around late at night, and going out without tel ing anyone

where you are. That kind of thing.”

Jil just stared at me.

“What?” I said.

“That’s al ?”

“Well…yeah. Why?”

“Oh, I don’t know. It seems to me that a lot of kids who didn’t do

anything wrong – like me – got into trouble for what you guys did. Plus, none

of you guys got into very much trouble for what you did do on Saturday.”

“Did you want us to get into trouble?”

“Well…” Jill said slowly, not quite looking at me. She stopped walking.

“Oh, that’s nice, Jill,” I said. “That is very nice.”

“Nice? You cal ditching your friends nice?”

“N. I don’t call it nice. But I already apologized to you for that. What do

you want, Jil ? What do you want from me?”

“I want - I want –“ Jill stammered.

“Whatever it is, I’m not sure I can give it to you.”

“But it’s not fair,” said Jill.

“What’s not fair?”

“You guys did something wrong and you’re hardly getting into trouble.”

“Jil , what is your problem? We have already been through that. Look,

things are not always equal. They’re not always fair or even. They’re not

always black-and-white. Maybe we try to make them that way when we’re

kids, but when we get older we see that the world just isn’t that way, no

matter how much we’d like it to be. You have to let go of that, Jil . Quit being

such a b-. Just grow up.”

“Hey, Dawn?”

I turned around at the sound of Sunny’s voice. She was calling to me

fro halfway down the hall. “Yeah?” I said.

“Maggie’s waiting outside. Are you coming?”

“I’ll – I’l be right there. You go ahead.”

Sunny left, and I turned back to Jill.

When I looked at Jil ’s face I knew that our friendship was over.

Something had changed. Jil had changed. I had changed. Whatever. Our

lives had veered off in different directions, and we simply were no longer

friends.

“I have to go,” I said to Jill.

“Yeah. Me too.”

And that was that. I walked away. I knew Jil was standing where I’d

left her. “I’m sorry,” I called over my shoulder. And I was sorry. Just not sorry

enough to work things out with her.

• “This jerk,” said Mandy, pointing at me, “was trying to break into my locker. Can you believe it?”