Picture Perfect #3: Best Frenemies

by Cari Simmons

  “Good luck!” Alice mouthed, and gave her friend a thumbs-up. Nikki grinned sheepishly, sticking out her tongue as she held her too-large T-shirt out in front of her, as if to say, “I can’t believe I have to wear this!” But she looked thrilled to see Alice.

  Good, Alice thought, relieved. She’s seen me, and she knows I’m here. Once the house lights went down to start the competition, she slipped out—checking first with one of the students working the door to make sure she’d be able to get back in.

  She dashed down the hall to the auditorium, which was packed with students and parents excited to see the show. Alice was impressed as spotlights swirled across the stage and the band played the show’s opening notes. This was sort of a bigger deal than she had expected! No wonder Cassidy had been so excited to be a part of it.

  A big group number kicked off the musical, but then when the scene ended, Evie and April entered the stage on either side of Cassidy, who looked amazing in a fun silver-and-black tutu, black leggings, and black crop top. Before Alice could cheer, a few other whoops went out in the audience—once again, Alice had to share her best friend with a lot of people, but that wasn’t something new. It was just the size of the crowd that she was getting used to.

  Alice instead put her fingers in her mouth and let out a loud weeah-wee! whistle. When Alice was little and would play over in Cassidy’s backyard, Mr. Kinney would use that whistle to call Alice back home. Over time, he had shown them both how to whistle as loud and as clear as he did. Cassidy smiled from ear to ear at the cheering. The girls recited their few lines before they were joined onstage by the seventh and eighth graders who were the main stars of the show.

  Alice felt like it was safe to head back out to the math meet, since she knew that Cassidy’s solo wasn’t until close to the end of the performance. She ducked out of her seat and crouch-ran up the aisle to the back of the theater to try not to disturb the other people in the audience.

  Once outside, Alice walked briskly down to the other end of the hall and nearly bumped—hard—into Cassidy’s older brother, David, who was walking out of the boys’ room.

  “Hey, Dingus!” he said, smiling. “What are you doing out here?”

  “Oh, just using the bathroom, same as you!” she said. “Obviously.”

  “Obviously,” he said, smiling. “But isn’t the bathroom right there?” He pointed to the girls’ room, which was behind Alice.

  “Oh, yeah,” she said. “You know, I was just all excited from seeing Cassidy onstage.”

  “I bet you’re not as excited about Cassidy being onstage as Cassidy is,” he smiled, revealing one single adorable dimple on his cheek. “You’re a good friend.” Alice beamed. Cassidy would kill her if she ever said what she really thought about her big brother—which was that he was nice and cute.

  “Well, see you after the show,” David said, and headed back to the auditorium. Alice realized that if he looked back, he’d either see her standing there awkwardly or scooting down to the small auditorium, so she had to follow through with using the girls’ room. Aargh, I’m wasting time! Alice thought as she ran her hands under the water. Once she was sure David had gone back into the musical, she speed-walked down to the gym.

  The second she put her hand on the door handle, though, she heard a burst of applause and cheers. Alice sneaked into her chair just in time to see Nikki walking back to her seat, a small, proud smile on her face. Ack! If it hadn’t been for David, Alice would have seen Nikki score a point for the team. Alice waved, but she was sure Nikki couldn’t see her place there in the seats.

  The next two students got up to face each other, and Alice realized it’d be a little while again before Nikki was up, so again she left the room as quietly as she could and ran back to the auditorium. When she reached her seat, she pulled her collar away from her neck to give herself some air. All this running around was making her hot!

  After a few minutes, she realized that she was watching a seemingly never-ending dance number that Cassidy was not in (which was good; it involved Hula-Hoops and streamers and looked cheesier than anything Cassidy would have ever wanted to be involved with). Alice bounced her knee impatiently.

  One scene, two scenes, three scenes. Alice waited and waited for Cassidy to appear onstage for her solo but was only rewarded with some more songs and awkward dialogue and the feeling that she was probably missing another one of Nikki’s big moments. She finally ran back to the gym, only to hear the applause again, this time before she even reached the door. She rushed through the door to see Nikki sitting down again. “GO, NIKKI!” she yelled, just to be safe.

  To Alice’s horror, a few stern faces (including Nikki’s parents, eek!) turned around to glare at her. Maybe yelling wasn’t encouraged at the math meet until the end? Or maybe Nikki hadn’t gotten the problem right? Alice was getting too flustered to even care. She’d worry about it later.

  She dashed back to the auditorium, determined not to miss another moment. Unfortunately for Alice, apparently the janitors had decided to wax the school’s pistachio-green floors earlier in the evening, and she found herself sliding on her otherwise cute-and-comfortable flats at the halfway point. In a weird way, for a few seconds, it was almost fun, like she was scooting around on the Turners’ hardwood floors in her socks. Until. . . . her ankle twisted out from under her painfully, and she crashed to the floor.

  “Point: Nikki Wilcox. Team Lakeside wins!” Alice heard from the south side of the school, just as she heard Cassidy’s voice singing out pure and clean—her solo. Applause burst out in stereo from both ends of the hall, echoing down to Alice, making her feel like everyone in the school was sarcastically clapping for her fall and the fact that she had ended up missing both of her friends’ big moments. Ouch.

  CHAPTER 17

  MOMENT OF TRUTH

  Was it possible to actually die of embarrassment? Because Alice not only felt like she might, she hoped she might. Being dead might actually be better than this. She tried to get up and go . . . somewhere—either auditorium, or preferably home under the covers, or maybe just a cave somewhere on the other side of the world where nobody could find her, but she couldn’t get up.

  After a few minutes, when both the musical and the math meet had let out, happy families and friends streamed out of both ends of the hall just in time to see Alice sprawled on the floor, holding her sore ankle.

  “Are you okay?” asked at least three moms, crouching down in concern before she even had a moment to try to stand up. She felt hot and embarrassed and just wanted to be alone.

  “Hey,” said a voice close to her, and Alice turned to see Nikki kneeling next to her. “You sure do like to cause a scene wherever you go, huh?” she asked. “First Walker Bros., now this.”

  “You know me.” Alice laughed.

  Nikki’s parents walked up. “Alice! Is everything all right?” asked Nikki’s mom.

  Alice waved weakly. “I’m fine. Just clumsy and embarrassed. I just need a second to find my pride down here somewhere.”

  “All right, if you say so. Nikki, are you coming with us?”

  “I was thinking I’d go out with everyone for ice cream,” Nikki said. “To celebrate.”

  “Are you sure?” said her mom. “We can just get ice cream on the way home.”

  “I’ll be fine, Mom,” Nikki said firmly. “I’ll be home by eight-thirty. I can get a ride.” Dr. and Dr. Wilcox both looked doubtful, but to Alice’s surprise, they drifted off towards the doors.

  “Seriously, are you okay?” asked Nikki, focusing again on Alice.

  “I’m pretty sure I’m fine,” Alice said, then noticed the rest of the math team milling around in the hall, high-fiving. “But who cares about me? How are you?”

  “I answered the meet-winning question!” crowed Nikki. “It was about the volume of a sphere, which I wouldn’t have known if it wasn’t for our study session at Walker Bros.”

  “That’s awesome!” said Alice.

  “Did you see me?�
�� asked Nikki hopefully.

  Alice could do a lot of things, but she didn’t have it in her to sit on the floor like a fool and lie at the same time. It was time to finally be honest.

  “No,” Alice said, grateful that finally some of the crowd was dispersing. “I’m really sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” Nikki said. “I heard you cheering for me, and it meant a lot that you were just there at all.”

  “So that’s where you were,” Alice heard another voice from above. Cassidy stood across from Nikki, back in her street clothes, but either her face was flushed with anger or she was still wearing her stage makeup. Either way, her face was red and she looked mad.

  “Cass—” Alice said weakly.

  “You were too busy with her to come to my show?” Cassidy fumed. “You said you’d see my solo. You lied to me!”

  “I was there,” Alice said in a small voice. “Didn’t you hear me whistle?”

  “That was in the first act. What did you do, sneak out? If you had been there, you would’ve seen that they brought the house lights up at the end of the show for the big dance number at the end. I wanted it to be a surprise,” Cassidy said, her eyes filling up with tears. “Everyone with a solo got to pull someone out of the audience to dance onstage at the end of the show. That’s why I put you in that special seat—so I could find you. I missed half the number because I was down in the seats looking for you, Alice. It was supposed to be the best part of the show—and instead you were with her?” she asked, gesturing to Nikki.

  Alice felt heartbroken. The whole time she was worrying that Cassidy was forgetting her, becoming closer with the other kids from the musical, she was planning this surprise for her. Alice stood up unsteadily, favoring her uninjured ankle. She’d be able to hop away on it, but she could tell the other leg was going to be sore the next day.

  “I can’t believe you chose her over me,” Cassidy said, pointing dramatically at Nikki’s face. Nikki stared at Cassidy for a moment. Like that morning in homeroom when she had cried in front of Alice, her face turned red, and she ran off to the group of Nerd Herders and mathletes getting ready for celebratory ice cream. In moments, the halls were empty, and it was just Alice and Cassidy.

  “That was mean of you, Cassidy,” Alice said in a low voice. It was time to be real. “I was definitely a jerk, but Nikki didn’t do anything to you.”

  “Hello, do you have amnesia?” said Cassidy. She began ticking off the crimes Nikki had committed against her on her fingers. “She was mean to me in ballet. She’s too good to talk to anyone on the bus. She was mean to your boy Aaron. She doesn’t want to be a part of your Nerd Herd. She was rude to you, if you don’t remember—and now she’s stolen my best friend.”

  “Cass, she’s not like that! She’s just really shy—you’d know if you’d try to talk to her. Just give her a chance!”

  “Why should I give the girl who’s stealing my best friend away from me a chance?” Cassidy cried. “Her and your whole Nerd Herd. You think you’re better than me since you got into honors classes and I didn’t! And hanging out with Nikki just proves it.”

  And with that, Cassidy ran back to the theater, with Alice in the middle of the hall, by herself, left to figure out which entrance to limp to in order to get a ride home.

  CHAPTER 18

  AFTER-MATH

  It was warm for a November night, and humid. A fine mist created a halo around the school’s floodlights as Alice sat on the cement steps, waiting for her dad to come and pick her up. She breathed in the damp air and thought about what had happened.

  She would never have figured that popular, outgoing Cassidy would ever feel threatened by anyone as silly and dorky as the Nerd Herd. She also didn’t expect to see Nikki stand up to her parents like that either.

  “How did everything go?” Alice’s dad asked when he came to get her. “Did you manage to be everything to everybody?”

  “Uh, not exactly,” Alice said, and confessed everything to her dad, who, thank goodness, managed not to say “I told you so” a single time.

  “I bet you want to go home and recover from all that drama,” her dad said.

  “Yeah,” Alice said, but then she got an idea. Suddenly, she felt a whole lot better. “Can we actually stop at the Jewel first?”

  “Anything for my favorite client,” said her dad, touching an imaginary limo driver’s cap. Alice smiled in the dark.

  “I’ll just be a sec,” she said, and ducked into the brightly lit but mostly empty grocery store once they pulled up. She grabbed a small but colorful bouquet of flowers and, for her dad, since he was a good sport, a pint of dulce de leche ice cream.

  “You didn’t have to get me flowers!” said her dad when she got back in the car.

  “These aren’t for you, silly,” she said. “This is for you!” She held up the ice cream.

  “I take back everything I ever said about you, Alice,” he said. “You’re not so bad after all.”

  “Thanks,” she said. “I have one more favor to ask, though,” Alice said, as they pulled up to their street. “Can I stop over at Cassidy’s place? I know it’s late, but I won’t be gone long.”

  “Sure thing,” her dad said, turning off the ignition. “Be home in an hour. I’ll let your mom know.”

  Alice took the flowers and walked across the street. The lights were still on in the Turners’ kitchen, which meant the family was still up celebrating Cassidy’s musical, like they did with her ballet recitals. Alice just hoped that this time she wouldn’t be turned away.

  “Hi, honey!” Mrs. Turner said after Alice knocked on the door. Good, Alice thought. At least Cassidy hasn’t told them all that I’m the worst and turned them all against me. “Come on in! We’re just toasting Cassidy’s show with some cupcakes and sparkling cider.”

  “Sure,” said Alice, although she wasn’t totally convinced Cassidy wouldn’t smash a cupcake into her hair and throw the cider in her face.

  “Hi,” Alice said to Cassidy, who was sitting primly on one of the high chairs at the kitchen bar.

  “Hi,” Cassidy said warily to Alice. “What do you have there behind your back?”

  Alice presented the flowers. “These are for you. To say congratulations. And I’m sorry.”

  Cassidy smiled and breathed in the pink daisies’ scent. “They’re beautiful,” she said. She put a cupcake on a plate and extended it to Alice as another peace offering. “This is for you. To say I’m sorry too.”

  Alice pretended to wrinkle her nose. “Just vanilla? No Funfetti?” She took a bite while she and Cassidy smiled at each other awkwardly and ate their cupcakes in silence. Alice wasn’t sure where things would go from here, but it was a start. A delicious start.

  “Girls, make sure you get a look at the moon before you say good night,” said Mrs. Turner, lingering at the top of the stairs before heading to the rec room to watch TV with Mr. Turner. “It’s huge and orange and amazing.”

  “Want to go check it out?” asked Cassidy.

  “Sure,” said Alice. She pulled on her green parka, and Cassidy grabbed her red-and-black jacket. She slid open the heavy glass patio door, and the two headed for the swinging seat that they always chose when they sat outside in Cassidy’s yard together. Alice couldn’t even remember the last time they’d sat out back.

  “Oh, wow,” whispered Cassidy, and Alice gasped. The moon, which usually looked tiny and faraway, hung huge and low and close over the lake, casting an orange light that reflected on the still water. Some stray wispy clouds lingered in the sky, drawing spooky lines like cobwebs across the huge moon’s face. The girls sat in silence for a few minutes, and Alice was grateful that she had something so much bigger than a school musical or honors classes to look at and think about.

  “I was really out of line,” Cassidy finally said. “Over at the school. I’m sorry. Are you okay, by the way? I never even asked.”

  “I’m fine,” Alice said. “Mostly just embarrassed. Both because I fell down, and because of m
y harebrained scheme. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

  “Yeah, what were you thinking?” Cassidy said with a laugh.

  “So here’s the deal,” Alice said. She drew a deep breath and finally told Cassidy about the day that Nikki had cried in front of her, going to her house, eating at Walker Bros. with her, everything.

  “But I was scared to tell you,” Alice said. “Because you so didn’t like her. And also . . . I didn’t say anything at the time, but it felt kind of weird knowing that you were going to the mall, and to get ice cream, and all that other stuff, with the kids from the musical. Without me.”

  “That’s kinda how I felt when I came over and you had the Nerd Herders over,” Cassidy admitted.

  “Yeah,” Alice said. “And since things were already weird, I couldn’t find a way or time to say, ‘Hey, I know we’re not spending much time together, but do you know who I do hang out with now is Negative Nikki Wilcox!” Alice took another breath while Cassidy nodded at her to go on.

  “Things felt different after I got into honors classes. You have to believe me, I didn’t want to be separate from you. But I didn’t have a choice. And I felt, deep down, like you thought I was choosing not to be with you.” Alice finally exhaled.

  “Okay,” Cassidy said. “Truth time?”

  “Truth time,” said Alice.

  “When you got into honors classes, I felt, well, kind of dumb in comparison. And it’s taken me awhile to get over that. I didn’t think I cared about being asked to join honors until you got asked and I didn’t,” she said, holding up a hand to Alice, who was about to protest. “I know, I’m not dumb. But still, we grew up doing everything together, and when you got moved to a separate class for separate smarties, I felt sad about it. And yeah, I guess a little bit angry. And I took it out on you and Nikki too.”