30 Days of No Gossip by Stephanie Faris

moment—
    “The no-gossiping thing.” Vi’s voice cut into my thoughts. “How’s that going for you?”
    I was surprised she asked that. We hadn’t talked for so long that now that we’d started, things felt touchy between us. But since she’d brought it up, I had to give her an answer.
    “It’s not easy,” I said. “People keep assuming things and reading into things that I’m saying.”
    That was my way of preparing her for hearing that I’d started some massive rumor at school. This way hopefully she wouldn’t get as mad if she heard something like that. But she was looking at me with her head tilted to the side a little.
    “What do you mean?” she asked, curious.
    “They expect me to gossip, so even when I don’t say anything, they assume that’s saying something,” I told her.
    She thought about that a second. “I see.”
    “Like today,” I said. “There was this strange woman walking across the front lawn of school. Everyone asked who it was and started making up all these crazy stories. I told the truth about her—”
    “Which was ?” Vi asked.
    I clamped my mouth shut and stared. Oh no. I wasn’t going to walk into that trap.
    “Oh, I get it,” Vi answered for me. “Like right now I assume the truth is some huge thing you can’t tell me, so I’m making stuff up in my head?”
    I nodded. She continued.
    “And then that person tells someone else and says you’re the one who said it,” she added.
    “Exactly.” I sighed in relief. It felt like I was letting out a breath I’d been holding in for the past few days. “Even if I state a fact, they add all kinds of things to it.”
    “Hmmm. Let me think about that. That might count.”
    “What? How can that count? I can’t spend the next twenty-six days hiding in a hole somewhere.”
    “The whole thing was, you aren’t supposed to gossip,” Vi said, handing the chip bag to me and standing up. “Look up the definition of gossip. It’s not just what you say but what you hear, too.”
    “I’m pretty sure gossiping is just spreading gossip,” I told her.
    “But if you’re listening and nodding along while someone is gossiping, you’re making it worse. It was thirty days of no gossip.”
    “Thirty days of not talking about other people orwriting the Troy Tattler ,” I said, standing to face off with her. “That’s what you said.”
    “But as you can see, you’re spreading gossip without even talking,” she said. “If I hear someone gossiping, I remove myself from the situation immediately. If they ask my opinion, I tell them I prefer only to say nice things about people.”
    “You’ve listened to us gossip for as long as I can remember,” I pointed out. “I think you were listening to gossip when we were in preschool.”
    “I don’t listen,” she said. “Most of the time, I really tune all of you out when you’re talking about other people.”
    I crossed my arms over my chest, surprised. Seriously? She was trying to make me believe while she was sitting next to me, doodling on her sketch pad or doing her math homework, she wasn’t halfway listening?
    “I know you too well to believe that,” I said. “I’ve known you all my life.”
    Vi’s expression softened at the reminder that we’d been friends so long. I half hoped she’d suddenly realize how silly this was and everything could go back to being normal. More than halfway.
    “It’s never been about the actual gossip,” Vi said. “That’s what I want you to see.”
    I gave her a quizzical look and waited for her to say more. If it wasn’t about gossip, what was it about?
    “Never mind.” Vi waved a hand in the air dismissively. “Just do whatever you want.”
    “I’m trying,” I argued. “Can’t I get some credit for that? I’m doing everything I can do to make you happy, and I just don’t know what else to do.”
    “I want you to make yourself happy,” Vi said. “But until you figure out that this isn’t about gossip but about our