My Best Frenemy

by Julie Bowe

  “I’ll do it, ” I say. “Stacey owes me a skip anyway.”

  “Better call Mrs. Drews then, ” Mom says, standing up. “Her number’s by the kitchen phone. ”

  I set George by my journal and head downstairs.

  “Everything good?” Mom asks when I hang up the phone. She looks up from the lettuce leaves she’s rinsing in the sink.

  I lean against the counter. “Everything’s great, ” I reply. “Mrs. Drews said she might need me to babysit next weekend too, when Jenna’s at Girl Scouts. ”

  “Wow, ” Mom says, turning off the water and shaking the leaves. “You’ll be rich. ”

  “I know. ”

  Mom sets the lettuce in a salad bowl and starts tearing it into pieces. I pick up a leaf and start tearing too. The whole time my brain is churning up an idea.

  A great big idea.

  “Mom?” I finally say. “Do I have to save my babysitting money, or can I spend it on whatever I want? ”

  Mom narrows her eyes. “That depends on what the whatever is. ”

  I pause, daring myself to tell her.

  “I want to get my ears pierced, ” I say. “As soon as possible. ”

  “Ida,” Mom says, “we’ve already talked about this. ”

  “I know, ” I say. “You want me to wait until I’m ten. But I’m nine and a half now. And Mr. Crow says you always round half numbers up. So, if you do the math right, I’m already ten. ”

  Mom does a little snort.

  “I’ll do all my chores,” I continue. “With no reminders. And I’ll take good care of Rachel. And after I get my ears pierced I’ll clean them ten times a day so you won’t have to take me to the emergency room. ”

  Mom snorts again. Then she’s quiet for a minute.

  “Well...” she finally says. “I’ll talk it over with Dad. And . . . if it sounds good to him—”

  I don’t wait to hear the end of this conversation.

  I dive in, hugging her.

  Mom rests her chin on top of my head and hugs me back.

  Jenna walks with me and Rachel to my house on Tuesday afternoon.

  “This makes two weeks in a row,” I say to Jenna as we head up my porch steps. “It’s getting to be like a pattern with you. ”

  Jenna gives me a squint.

  “Yeah,” Rachel says, taking my hand. “A big fat pattern. ”

  “I’m just doing it to be fair, ” Jenna says. “Since you have to babysit Rachel while I’m at dance. ”

  “I don’t mind, ” I say.

  “Yeah, Ida doesn’t mind,” Rachel adds. “She would babysit me every day if she could. ” Rachel looks up at me. “Right? ”

  “Right,” I say back. “But what I meant was, I don’t mind if Jenna comes to my house. ”

  “You don’t? ” Jenna says.

  “You don’t? ” Rachel chimes in.

  “Nope,” I say, opening the front door. “We can work on our snowflakes. ”

  Mr. Crow showed us how to make paper snowflakes in school today. We get extra credit if we make more at home to hang in our classroom.

  “Of course,” Jenna says, following us inside. “I’m excellent at making them. ”

  I find paper and scissors for both of us after Rachel starts her lesson. We sit on my bedroom floor and fold and cut the paper like Mr. Crow taught us, so that our snowflakes will be perfect hexagons when we unfold them again.

  “We should cut the holes in geometric shapes, ” Jenna says. “Triangles. Circles. Squares. ”

  I nod. “Maybe even stars. ”

  “Maybe even hearts,” Jenna adds. “Then you could give a snowflake to your crush.”

  “Ha, ha, ” I say. “I barely even like any boys. ”

  Jenna snips at her snowflake for a minute. “I like Tom, ” she says.

  My mouth drops. “Tom Sanders? But you made him drink his science experiment! ”

  Jenna rolls her eyes. “That was in first grade, Ida. I’m way more mature now. ” Jenna unfolds her snowflake. Little squares are scattered over its six points. “What about you? ” she asks. “Who do you like? ”

  I think about what I wrote in my journal way back when I started it. About liking Quinn. And how I haven’t told anyone that secret. Not even Stacey.

  “I told you who I like, so you have to tell me who you like, ” Jenna says, folding a new sheet of paper. “It’s only fair. ”

  I cut heart shapes along the edge of my snowflake. “Maybe I like Quinn, ” I mumble. “A little. ”

  Jenna snorts. “I knew it. ”

  “How did you know? ”

  “Duh, Ida, ” she says, glancing up at me. “Remember when we built our snow fort and you hit Quinn with a snowball and he smiled at you? ”

  “You saw that? ”

  “Yup,” Jenna says. “You turned ten shades of red. ”

  I do a huff. “I did not turn colors! ”

  Jenna snorts again. “Like a box of crayons. ”

  “If my cheeks were red, it was only because it was cold out, ” I say.

  “Uh-huh, ” Jenna says back, cutting a circle in the center of her snowflake. “Don’t worry. Your secrets are safe with me. ”

  I unfold my snowflake and I give her half a smile. “Yours too. ”

  Epilogue

  Dear Stella,

  We finished our math unit in school yesterday, so everyone helped Mr. Crow put away the Little table of cardboard shapes and roll up the rug and hand back our concrete poems. He also Let us take down our paper snowflakes if we wanted to keep them.

  I took down the one I made with heart shapes and Jenna dared me to give it to Quinn. She’s still the only one who knows that I Like him. So I gave it to him even though we’re not supposed to do dares in school.

  Quinn grunted and stuck it in his desk.

  Boys.

  I glance up from my journal and see my reflection in the mirror that hangs behind my bedroom door. It’s the million and oneth time I’ve looked at myself today.

  Mostly just my ears.

  Mostly just my earlobes.

  That’s because I counted all my babysitting money this morning and there was enough to get them pierced.

  The more I tilt my head, the more my earrings sparkle. “They’re my birthstone,” I say to George. He’s watching me from my dresser. “Peridot,” I add, sliding off my bed and walking over to him. “Which I think is the artistic name for green.”

  George glances from my ears to my fish tank and I tap on the glass. “I’ll clean your filter in a minute, Pic, ” I say to my fish. “Right after I clean my ears. ”

  Pic must be happy to hear this, because he takes a couple of laps around the pirate.

  I set George on my bed and glance at the picture of me and Stacey that’s sitting on my nightstand. I called her this morning to see if she could go to the mall with me to get my ears pierced.

  But she was on her way to Brooke’s house to practice their dance for the spring recital.

  So I called Jenna and asked her if she could go with me instead.

  She said yes.

  After the piercing lady cleaned my earlobes and marked them with two tiny dots, and held an earring shooter up to my ear, and said, “Ready?” I looked at Jenna and asked her if I could squeeze her hand.

  She said, “Squeeze the blood out of it. I don’t care. ”

  So I did.

  Which was a good thing because guess what? It hurts to get your ears pierced.

  I pick up my journal again.

  I got my ears pierced today. Afterward we walked around the mall until I could breathe normally again. Then my mom got a coffee while me and Jenna Looked around the Mish Mosh. Mom had given me some extra money so I could buy something for Jenna, to thank her for coming aLong.

  We dug through the jewelry bin together for a Long time until she found exactly what she wanted.

  Ladybug barrettes.

  Bye, Ida

  My Best Frenemy