Too Much Drama by Laurie Friedman Page A

“He thinks the issue is between Brynn and him.”
    â€œThat’s good,” I said. But then I told Sophie I had to go. I didn’t want to hear anymore about what Sophie told Billy or what Billy was planning to say to Brynn. It was late. I was wet. And I’d spent way too much time today on this topic.
    Thursday, January 15, 8:08 p.m.
Talked to Emily
    Here’s a little piece of good news: I fixed my problems, at least the ones with the dance team.
    There has been so much tension all week. Everyone knows Brynn and I aren’t friends anymore, and they’ve all been acting like they had to choose sides. Brynn pretty much had everyone convinced they needed to choose her side, which sucked for me personally, but also has been affecting the group dance the freshman girls have been working on for our next competition.
    And I wasn’t the only one who thought so. When Ms. Baumann criticized our group and told us our timing was off, I knew it was time to act. I appealed to Emily’s sense of teamwork. “Whatever problems exist between Brynn and me shouldn’t affect the team,” I said at break today. “We need to all work together if we want to do well.”
    Emily, who loves dance even more than drama (which she clearly likes a lot), seemed relieved. “I think so too,” she said. When break was over, she made a speech to our group about how we all need to work together. Everyone agreed to do their part, even Brynn. When we started dancing, she avoided dancing near me or looking in my direction, which made things kind of awkward.
    But hey . . . I’ll take awkward over ostracized.
    9:17 p.m.
Feeling pretty good
    I felt pretty good about what happened in dance, so I decided to call Leo (who I haven’t spoken to in a week) and tell him about it. But when I called, he didn’t pick up. I hope he’ll call back.
    11:17 p.m.
Going to sleep
    He didn’t.
    Friday, January 16, 8:13 p.m.
Text from Leo
    Leo: Sorry I didn’t call you back last night.
    Leo: First college test today. I had to study.
    Me: No problem!
    Me: Hope it went well.
    Leo: Me too. Hard to tell.
    Leo: I’ll call you this weekend.
    Me:
    Leo: Is that a smiley face?
    Me: Yes.
    Leo:
    Me:
    Saturday, January 16, 10:35 p.m.
    Leo didn’t call today. That makes it sound like I sat around all day waiting for him to, which I didn’t. I did a lot of things (while I was waiting for him to call), including calling Sophie to see if she wanted to do something. She said she was doing something with Billy. She hesitated, then said I could come along too if I wanted. But the way she said it made me feel like she only invited me because she felt like she had to.
    Maybe I was imagining things. Maybe I wasn’t.
    But I didn’t go.
    Sunday, January 17, 10:02 p.m.
Going to bed
    Leo didn’t call today either.
    But that’s OK because I would have been too busy to take his call. When I woke up, I made a decision to have a positive, productive day versus a day spent ruminating (vocab word) on the fact that Leo hasn’t called back or that Sophie and Billy did something together yesterday and didn’t really (at least, in my opinion) want me to come along or that my lifelong (former) best friend has turned into an out-of-control, manipulative stranger.
    First, I cleaned out my backpack and went for a run. For breakfast I had waffles, bacon, and orange slices and savored (another vocab word) every bite. Then I helped Dad clean out the garage.
    When we were done, I showered, did my Bio homework, and then watched seven episodes of
SpongeBob
with May and June. That’s the second-highest number of consecutive episodes I’ve watched of a show I don’t like. Since I was consciously being positive, I made a lot of upbeat comments while I was watching it like, “Isn’t that stupid sponge funny?” Then I made a scrunched up weird face and told May and June I was trying to imitate