Tianna the Terrible (Anika Scott Series) by Karen Rispin Page B

the cookie she'd been eating.
    "I don't even know if she's coming for sure," I said desperately. Tianna wasn't even here and already she was wrecking things for me.
    "Hey, I know," said Amy. "Let's pray. We can pray that if Tianna comes she'll get to be a Christian, and that we can still be friends."
    "I don't know," I said slowly. "I thought that their whole family would get to be Christians when we went to stay with them, but it didn't work. Now her parents might even get divorced."
    "I don't care," Amy said. "I'm going to pray about it."
    She bowed her head and had just gotten started when Sabrina Oats barged in with Esther Miller following her.
    "Anika Scott, you broke my china unicorn when you dumped my stuff," she yelled. "You'd better pay for it or else!"
    "Shhhhh! We're praying!" Muthoni said.
    Sabrina stopped for a second, then blurted, "So what? You're supposed to pay your debts first."
    Esther Miller grabbed at her arm like she wanted Sabrina to back off. Sabrina shook Esther's hand off and said, "That unicorn cost thirty American dollars."
    "That's ridiculous!" Lisa blurted. "Thirty bucks? That little thing? No way. Besides, how do we know it's really broken, anyway?"
    Sabrina whirled and grabbed what looked like a wad of Kleenex off her dresser. She spun back around and opened her hand in my face. The pieces of a delicate china unicorn lay there. Its head was beautiful. I reached out with one finger to touch it, feeling sad that it was broken.
    Sabrina jerked her hand back. "You better pay up, Anika Scott, or else!"
    She turned her back on us.
    "Where am I supposed to get thirty bucks?" I whispered.
    "She probably broke it herself," said Muthoni. "She's just trying to blame it on you."
    "It never cost thirty bucks anyway," Lisa said.
    I squirmed. I wasn't so sure. It was so pretty, and I had dumped her stuff. Just then Mrs. Jackson called us for devotions. I shoved thoughts about the unicorn out of my head.
    During the next few days I got back into the routine of boarding school. Lisa, Muthoni, Sabrina Oats, Esther Miller, and I all were in one room. Amy was in the other room with different kids, but she spent most of the time in our room. I didn't even think about Tianna. Sabrina Oats kept hassling me about the unicorn. I ignored her.
    "Let's make a fort," Amy said on the way down from breakfast that Saturday.
    "Yeah!" Muthoni said. "Like that one we had last year, only better."
    "There's a really good clump of trees behind that big rock," I said, pointing.
    "No, I mean down below the dorm," Amy said. "Come on!" She took off running, with Muthoni after her. I started, then looked back. Lisa was still walking. Muthoni and Amy had been best friends for ages. They'd let me hang around with them, but I'd never really had a best friend 'til Lisa came.
    "Hurry up!" I called. Lisa didn't move any faster, so finally I stopped to wait. "What's wrong?"
    "Forts are little kid stuff," she said.
    "Oh, come on," I blurted. "I love forts."
    She did come with me, but she still wouldn't run. When we were almost there, I ran ahead.
    Muthoni and Amy were in a really thick clump of small black wattle trees. Even though the smooth, gray bark and feathery leaves of the wattle trees didn't scratch, I could hardly push through because the trees were so thick. They were way too close together to grow properly.
    Amy had found a spot in the clump where you could stand up.
    "OK," she said, "This will be the middle. We can bend those ones down and tie them."
    "Shh!" said Muthoni, making frantic 'come-here' motions with her hands. "I've got a great idea," she whispered. "If we're really quiet, the other kids won't even know we have a fort."
    Amy giggled. "Sabrina Oats won't be able to bug us here. I'll go out and make sure nobody can see us. You guys start working, but be quiet."
    A second later I was going in circles twisting off a tree with a trunk about as thick as my big toe. The little tree was growing in the middle of what would be the