Sticks & Stones by Abby Cooper

Nice Andy, this could possibly be a No-Cream Night for the first time in months!
    Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all. Plus, everyone knew that it was better to have a goofy boyfriend than no boyfriend at all. So I guess Nice Andy could stay.

 
    15
    THE SHOW
    The next day in English, I said hi to Olivia and took my seat. She wiggled her shoulders at me and giggled. It was one of the many so-bad-they’re-good new dance moves we had invented at her house. Maybe the shoulder shake could be our secret greeting. I did it back to her, and it made me giggle so hard that I didn’t notice Ms. Sigafiss staring at me from the front of the room.
    â€œElyse, I have a note for you,” she said after a minute. “It was in my mailbox in the office this morning.”
    â€œElyse, Teacher has a note for you!” Kevin repeated in a loud voice, causing everyone to burst into hysterics.
    â€œI think she heard me the first time,” Ms. Sigafiss said, glaring at him. “I’d be careful if I were you, Mr. Bata. I happen to know you’ve shown interest in being on the sixth-grade baseball team this spring. I would hate for that opportunity to be jeopardized.”
    While everyone looked at Kevin for his reaction, I looked at Jeg. This had to be a little distressing to her, seeing her boyfriend get threatened like that.
    Sure enough, her face had concern scribbled all over it. I wanted to remind her that Kevin was really tough. He could handle things, and he’d never actually get in that much trouble from one little comment. But then I remembered that reminding Jeg about this kind of stuff was up to her new friends now, the friends she’d chosen over me.
    So instead of looking at Jeg and trying to help her calm down with my mind, I looked at the piece of blue paper in my hand that Ms. Sigafiss had given me and began to unfold it. My gut knew what it was, but my brain couldn’t believe it, even when I opened it and saw the familiar typed letters.
    Elyse, ever thought about performing in the fund-raising show? It might get you one step closer to being Explorer Leader, but more important, wouldn’t it be cool to hear everyone clapping for you up on stage? There’s still a week left to sign up and two weeks until the show. Don’t wait!
    What the high heels? I opened my mouth, then closed it. I folded up the paper and stuffed it in my pocket. Nope. This one was just not gonna happen.
    *   *   *
    I realized too late that stuffing things in your pockets, if you’re me, is a terrible idea considering how much Mom does laundry.
    So I really shouldn’t have been surprised when, the next night, she held up the crumpled piece of paper and asked all casually (like she hadn’t been waiting to ask me this question the whole entire day), “What’s this?”
    Luckily the paper had ripped a little, so all she had was the part that said “performing in the fund-raising show” and not the part that was like “one step closer to being Explorer Leader.” That whole thing would have been kinda hard to explain.
    Of course, she insisted we go back to Dr. Patel’s right away.
    â€œI think it would be great for you to be in the show, sweetie,” Mom told me in the car, “but I think we should just double-check that it’s a good idea. You know, there have been a lot of bad words popping up lately, and that Explorer Leader contest didn’t go as well as we would have liked. Maybe it would be smart to lie low for a while.”
    I glared at her. Wasn’t she supposed to tell me I would do great and that worrying about it was silly?
    But I knew, deep down, that worrying about it wasn’t silly. It was real.
    I was hoping that Mom might pretend it wasn’t, though. That she’d pretend that I was a normal kid who could do normal things and have normal reactions if the things didn’t go amazingly.
    But we both knew I’d