Too Cool for This School by Kristen Tracy Page B

said.
    The sound of Tuma and Mint laughing interrupted our fight.
    “Totally get that one,” Tuma said.
    “Aunt Claire?” Mint called. “I think I found my shirts.”
    I rolled my eyes. I couldn’t even imagine what Mint had found that she thought was wearable.
    “Those are nice,” my mom said, as the cashier rang up our purchase.
    It turns out I was wrong about everything being black in the store. Mint had found a tight-fitting, dark green T-shirt with a bunch of smeared patches of red on it. If you stood back far enough, the green spaces formed a world globe. And she also picked out a shirt that had a camouflage pattern on it that said DON’T SHOOT . It surprised me that these shirts even existed, let alone that I would be related to somebody who wanted to wear them to middle school.
    While I stood beside my mom at the register, I could feel Tuma approaching me. I didn’t turn my head.
    “So what’s Ava doing tonight?” Tuma asked me.
    It creeped me out that Tuma asked me something so personal about Ava. They weren’t friends. And I was pretty sure she wouldn’t want me to discuss what she was doing. “She’s chillin’,” I said, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible.
    “When’s her next cello thing?” he asked.
    I glanced at Mint and shot her daggers. If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t be in this awkward situation. I would be at home talking to Rachel on the phone.
    “Next month,” I said. And then I turned my body away so he knew I was finished talking to him.
    “Ready?” my mom asked as she finished signing the store’s receipt.
    “Yeah,” I said.
    As we climbed into the car and started driving home, I kept feeling a weird tingling sensation on my arms. Like maybe a spider was crawling on them. But every time I looked down they were fine.
    “Tuma told me that the class captains get to plan all the school parties for the year,” Mint said.
    This meant Mint and Tuma had been talking about me. I didn’t approve of that at all.
    “Your school always has the best themes,” my mom said in an upbeat voice. “Last year they had a luau.”
    I actually didn’t think the luau was very fun. The music felt too goofy and it didn’t make you want to dance. Our class was going to love our disco theme. When I closed my eyes, I could imagine everybody in my class dancing theirbutts off. Too bad I couldn’t tell anybody about our disco theme yet.
    “Theme parties bum me out,” Mint said.
    “Why?” my mom asked as we turned down a road lined with aging, mud-colored, stucco homes.
    “Because you don’t get to be yourself. You have to pretend to be a totally different person.”
    “Good point,” my mom said, giving me a quick smile.
    “I totally disagree,” I said. “I think theme parties are awesome. They give you the chance to be yourself and wear interesting costumes. And this year we have the best theme ever.”
    “Ooh. What is it?” Mint asked.
    I wasn’t even tempted to break my allegiance to my class captains and tell her. “We don’t tell anybody until we make the official announcement at school.”
    “Ooh. I hope I’m around long enough to find out what it is,” Mint said.
    “Yeah,” I mumbled. But that wasn’t how I felt at all.

11
    Mint may have driven me nuts, but she drove Ava totally bonkers. One day, out of the blue, she started sending me text messages about how to get rid of her.
    Ava: Go on a hunger strike until your parents send her back.
    Ava: Lucia and Rachel and I will join you on the hunger strike. Ava: Poison her.
    Ava: Put her into contact with people who have the flu until she gets it.
    Ava: Or find somebody with chicken pox! Does Javier still have them?
    Ava: Turn your back on her! Save yourself!
    I never knew how to respond to these texts. It felt as if Ava wasn’t joking around.
    Mint’s arrival also put a real strain on my relationship with Todd. Because even though Ava had clearly explained girl code to Mint at our pj party, Mint was terrible