The Friendship Matchmaker Goes Undercover Read online

  I laughed back at him. “I have no idea. Don’t worry. It’s just something people say.”

  “Do you like Ms. Pria?”

  “Yeah. Sometimes she can be annoying but she’s okay.”

  “I like her. She treats me like everyone else. Except when I do ESL and see Ms. Clarity. Then I’m different.”

  I sat down. “Lots of kids do ESL. It’s no big deal, really.”

  “What is a ‘big deal’?”

  I giggled. “I have no idea! Let’s just say you shouldn’t worry about it.”

  “Ah, back to the worrying again.”

  He looked at his feet. Then he slowly took out a pen and signed the paper, throwing a glance my way, daring me to scold him.

  What did it matter? It was a stupid rule anyway. Make a call and give a kid a break. I shrugged. “It costs four dollars,” I said. “Do you have the money?”

  He fished through his bag and took out some coins. “Two dollars fifty.” He dug deeper. “Fifty-five.”

  He bit his bottom lip and then looked at me and grinned. “So?”

  “So what?”

  “Now is when you should be helping,” he said. “You like helping. So help.”

  I laughed and opened the pocket of my backpack and gave him the money, part of the money Mom had given me to buy an ice pop.

  “I pay you back tomorrow,” he said.

  “You better,” I said.

  And we grinned at each other.

  Chapter 24

  When Ms. Pria asked Tanya to collect all the permission slips and money in homeroom, Majur casually handed his to Tanya. She took it and he stole a glance at me and winked. I smiled.

  For the first time in a long time I worried about who I was going to sit next to on the bus. Back in my FMM days, that kind of stuff didn’t bother me. I was above all that kind of anxious-nail-biting-who-will-sit-next-to-me business. I was a Loner by Choice, and too busy helping other kids find a bus seat buddy.

  But here I was during roll call, moments away from boarding the bus, wondering whether Tanya was going to sit next to me.

  I’d figured out that it all came down to that old saying “out of sight, out of mind.” The problem was that for the past few weeks I’d been too busy with unofficial FMM duties to spend much time hanging out with Tanya. Just that morning, after my chat with Majur, I’d been on my way to meet Tanya at the school gates when a kid from the sixth grade cornered me, wanting advice on how to get invited to a birthday party. I could have told him I didn’t have time but he was really upset. Especially since the birthday boy had been his best friend last year. So I lost the morning talking to him, and when the bell rang and I rushed to join the line in front of our classroom I found Tanya and Emily deep in conversation. They were talking about who’d been eliminated on Junior Master Chef the night before. Since I’d been busy answering messages on my FMM account I’d missed it. So I just stood there.

  “Okay, that’s the last name,” Ms. Pria said, standing up. “Form two lines in front of the door and we’ll head over to the parking lot. Stick to the person sitting next to you so we save time boarding the bus.”

  There was a bit of chaos as everybody paired up. I didn’t waste a second. I quickly turned to Tanya and said, “Come on, let’s get in line.”

  Emily was standing beside her, looking as casual and calm as ever as she slowly collected her things off her desk and put them in her bag.

  Tanya looked from Emily to me and back again.

  “How about we try and find a seat in the back row so we can all sit together?” Tanya said.

  “Sure,” I said, putting on my cheeriest voice.

  “Sounds good to me,” Emily said.

  Except when we got to the bus Bethany, Jemma and Claire had already hogged the back row and there was only space for one other person.

  “I’ll sit there,” Emily said.

  Good idea, I thought to myself, as I sat in the window seat in the two-seater in front of the back row.

  “Come on, Tanya,” I said, patting the seat beside me.

  “Sorry, Emily,” Tanya said guiltily.

  Emily laughed. “Don’t be silly,” she said.

  Tanya sat down beside me, squashing her bag under the seat in front of us.

  I suddenly felt insecure. What were we going to talk about? What interesting topic of conversation could I open with? I racked my brain thinking about all the suggested conversation openers I’d included in my FMM Manual and cursed myself for not making a copy. I’d thrown it out and now all I had was my memory.

  Last night’s TV shows. (I hadn’t watched anything.)

  Latest book you’re reading. (I’d been too busy to read.)

  Gossip. (I couldn’t complain about Chris because I didn’t want to tell her about my find-him-a-friend project. Really, all I wanted to do was to complain about Emily, but that wasn’t exactly an option.)

  Interesting facts and trivia.

  Luckily for me my sister was doing a school science project and had been practicing her speech with the family at dinnertime.

  “Hey, Tanya,” I said, “do you know that the most dangerous animal in the world is the house fly? ’Cause they love poop, they spread more diseases than any other animal.”

  “Really?” Tanya said in a distracted tone.

  Okay, not the most exciting conversation opener but for once I was stuck.

  “Yep,” I said lamely.

  “Dad’s getting me a puppy,” Tanya said.

  “Cool,” I said.

  “He said I can choose whatever puppy I like. We’re going to the pet shop tomorrow.” She folded her knees on the seat and turned around to face Emily behind us.

  “So what kind of puppy do you think I should get? I can’t remember the name you told me.”

  I didn’t want to be left out so I got onto my knees and turned around too.

  “Labradors are adorable. Maltese are cute too. It’s so hard to choose, though.”

  “My dad wouldn’t have a clue,” Tanya said. “And I don’t know anything about dogs.”

  “Me either,” I said. Dumb move.

  “Okay,” Emily said. “If you want I can come with you to the pet shop tomorrow.”

  Tanya grinned. “That would be awesome!”

  “I can’t stay long because it’s my gran’s birthday, but I’m sure Mom won’t mind taking me. I’ll meet you at the store, and then we can go to my gran’s from there.”

  I waited for Tanya to invite me too.

  But she didn’t.

  Bethany, Jemma, and Claire, all madly-in-love-with-animals types, heard “new puppy” and went crazy. For the rest of the bus trip the five of them talked about puppies.

  I had nothing to say.

  “Um . . . I feel carsick facing backward,” I eventually mumbled and slumped down into my seat.

  “Here, have some water,” Tanya said gently, handing me her bottle.

  I took it from her but she’d turned away again, facing backward talking with the others.

  I lifted myself up off the seat and surveyed the bus. Majur was sitting beside Ty. I could make out that they were talking about some sport. Antony was sitting next to Chris reading a book called The Rules of Soccer, which I’d overheard Chris order him to memorize.

  Everybody was pretty much chatting happily to somebody else.

  There were only two people who had nobody to talk to.

  Chris.

  And me.

  When we arrived we dumped our bags and waited for the teachers to split us into teams. I stood next to Tanya, praying that the teachers would put us together. Ms. Pria and Mrs. Weston stood up front for roll call and then started assigning everybody to house teams. Chris and Antony were put in the same house, Tigers. Majur was put in Grizzlies. I was put in Cougars. When Ms. Pria called out Emily’s name I squeezed my eyes shut for a second.

  “Bobcats,” she said.

  Then Ms. Pria called out Tanya’s name.

  Not Bobcats. Not Bobcats.
Not Bobcats.

  “Bobcats,” she said.

  Panic swamped me.

  “That’s not fair,” Tanya said, pouting. “They’ve separated the three of us.”

  “Yeah,” I mumbled. “See you at lunch.”

  At least she remembered me enough to give me a sympathetic look before joining Emily.

  The first part of the day was spent on the track events. Emily loved sports, and I wasn’t bad either, and we both collected a couple of blue ribbons. But I could see Tanya struggling, coming in last in almost every event. She had a tortured look on her face.

  When it was finally lunchtime and the competition was over, I met up with Tanya and Emily. The teachers had cooked hot dogs and we were lined up to collect our buns when Ms. Pria announced that our class would play a game of soccer after lunch.

  “No houses,” she said. “It will just be our class.”

  “Do we have to play?” Tanya pleaded, when we approached the table.

  “Yes,” Ms. Pria said. “Everybody is joining in.” She slapped her hands together and flashed Tanya a big smile. “Today is about fun and fitness, Tanya. You will have fun and you will get fit!”

  “Yeah, sure,” Tanya muttered to me. “More like I’ll drop the ball and people will make fun of me.”

  Emily beat me to it and patted Tanya on the arm. “You’ll be fine,” she said.

  Samuel won the toss and took the kickoff. He ran down the field, teasing the ball, tossing it from his right ankle to his left. Tanya, who was on Samuel’s team, shrieked as he headed in her direction. She jumped out of his way, a look of relief on her face.

  Samuel passed the ball to Lila (whose walking obsession made her one of the fittest in our class), and she traveled halfway down the field with it, passing it to Emily who hovered near the side.

  Emily, the ball landing at her feet, took possession. David charged toward the ball and Emily kicked it hard along the ground all the way to Terry. But Pamela was too slow and Majur slid in front of her and kicked the ball to Omar. The ball flew through the air a few inches off the ground. Omar caught the ball with the side of his foot, lined it up for a goal, and kicked with all his might. The ball sailed past Jemma and landed in the goal. Majur’s team grinned and cheered and pumped their fists into the air, teasing Chris’s team.

  It was all good fun and standard behavior (I’d seen Chris do more to rub it in) but that it was Majur’s team that was winning and Majur who was running around letting out happy hoots with the rest of his team made it a million times worse for Chris.

  On the soccer field Majur wasn’t a refugee. There was no room for feeling sorry for him. He was just another soccer player.

  We called time and Chris gathered us around him in a huddle.

  “This is crazy! They’re winning. We’re better than that! Antony, you’ve gotta go for the ball. Chase it! I told you your best talent is your speed. Just get possession, kick it to me, and leave the fancy ballwork to me and the others. But you gotta get onto Majur. He’s too fast for the rest of us!”

  On and on he went. I had to hand it to him, he knew the game inside out. He knew what it meant to work as a team. Out on the field he was a different person from the obnoxious pig he could be in the halls and classroom.

  Ms. Pria blew the whistle and the game began again. Lila stopped and stepped back on her left foot ready for a big kick. She looked in Majur’s direction and kicked the ball straight to him.

  “Chase him!” Chris yelled out to Antony.

  Majur trapped the ball with his leg and then kicked the ball to Ty before Antony could intercept. But he kicked too high and Chris cut into Ty’s advance, stealing the ball in one smooth move and dribbling it past A. J. and Jackson.

  Then, miraculously, Antony latched onto a perfect long pass from Chris. Ty yelled out, “Stop him!” to Bart, who was playing keeper. But Antony played the ball past Bart, and lined up his kick. Chris went crazy.

  “You’ve got it!” he screamed, punching the air with his fist. “You’ve got it!”

  And he would have had it. Only Antony got a bit too excited and ran up to the ball. He was going to try and blast it in.

  “No!” Chris yelled.

  But it was too late. Antony kicked with all his might and the ball, which was an easy gentle kick into the goal, sailed up high and missed.

  The class went crazy.

  Ty, A. J., David, Bart, and Terry all burst into hysterical laughter, leaning on one another for support as their bodies shook. Even Majur was laughing.

  They hooted and shrieked with laughter, pointing at Antony.

  Antony was shattered.

  “Chris, man!” Ty cried out, laughing as he stumbled over toward Chris and put his arm around his shoulders. “That was tragic!” he spluttered sympathetically. “You lined it up for him and he killed it!” The others burst into another round of laughter. Antony was standing alone, silent, a look of shame on his face. A. J. and the others stood around Chris, offering words of support, as they joked and made fun of Antony.

  Everything had suddenly changed. Antony’s mess-up had brought Chris back into the group.

  I studied Chris’s face. For a second his eyes flickered with relief. I realized it had been a long time since I’d seen the guys rally around him like that. Talk to him. Notice him. No wonder Chris started to grin.

  I looked over at Antony. His face fell as he stared at Chris. Then he turned away, dragging his feet over the grass toward the sideline.

  My heart broke for him.

  The guys were still laughing and joking around. I stared at them again. And that’s when I noticed Chris’s face change. He looked over at Antony, sitting on the bench, head down. He looked at Ty, A. J., and the others.

  And he walked away.

  To sit beside Antony.

  Chris let his hand fall on Antony’s shoulder for one moment. And then he apologized.

  Like a true friend would.

  Chapter 25

  Stephanie sat beside me in the back room of the library, the recorder on the desk between us.

  “Okay, so what’s this all about?” she asked.

  “I just need a couple of minutes of the program to send out a message.”

  “So what should my intro be?”

  I ran my fingers through my hair. “Um, this is a message from Potts County Middle School’s Former Official Friendship Matchmaker.”

  Stephanie’s face brightened. “Ooh! Sounds dramatic.” She cleared her throat and took a massive gulp from her water bottle. “Okay, ready?”

  I nodded and she pressed the record button, grinned at me, and started: “Hello to Potts County Middle School. Today we have a very special guest. The one and only Lara Zany. Anybody who’s anybody would know that last year Lara quit her role as this school’s Official Friendship Matchmaker. Naturally we were all devastated. Almost everybody knows somebody who’s been helped by Lara. Believe it or not even I’ve been lucky enough to have had Lara help me . . .”

  I tried not to groan and sat patiently waiting for silence. I’d decided to set the record straight and send out one last message to everybody at school, hoping Tanya would understand.

  “. . . and she taught me and others . . .”

  And, just maybe, forgive me. Yet again.

  “Over to Lara!”

  I looked up, startled. “Oh, okay,” I stumbled, smoothing out the piece of paper I’d written my speech on.

  “It’s all yours!” Stephanie said cheerfully, edging the recorder closer to me.

  “Um, well, hi, everybody,” I said. I cleared my throat, took a deep breath, and started to read. “Some of you know I’ve been helping out at the playground again . . . kind of doing some unofficial friendship matchmaking . . . I know there are some people, well, one person, who’d be hurt to know this, especially that I didn’t tell her. If you’re listening I just want to say I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to go behind your back. I was just trying to help people, but I know I put everybody else before our frie
ndship and ignored you a lot. So, um, sorry.

  “I also want to let everybody know I’ve closed my FMM account for the second and last time. But this time you all deserve to know why. It’s not because I don’t care. It’s because I don’t have the answers. I kind of only thought I did. And believe it or not, it took a bully to show me that.

  “I do know two things, though. The first is that nobody is always good. Or always bad.” I let out a short laugh. “Except in the movies, of course.” Stephanie grinned at me.

  “The second thing is that people will tell you to be true to yourself and expect people to accept you for who you are. That’s true. But don’t kid yourself into thinking everybody will accept you for who you are. The world is tougher than that. Sorry, but there are people out there who will hurt you and maybe even hate you for who you are.

  “So I guess the only thing I can say is this: find the ones who won’t. And when you do, hang on tight and never take them for granted!”

  Stephanie posted the “interview” on the MyLibrary page, where Mrs. Weston loaded all the radio podcasts and student Blogs on Books. There wasn’t anything really heroic about what I’d done because most people didn’t listen to Potts County Middle School FM Radio.

  That night I sent Tanya and Emily a text telling them to listen to the most recent program. They both said okay, and I waited on the edge of my bed, biting my nails.

  Half an hour later my phone beeped.

  UR a nut. I’ve known U went back 2 doing the FMM thing 4 a while. So has Emily. I was waiting 4 U 2 tell me. Course I forgive U. OK @ first I was upset but Emily told me I was being stupid. U were just trying 2 help pple. & yesterday I heard Mandy talking to Aliya about what U did 4 me. Giving up UR invyt 2 her party. That wuz so sweet of U. i don’t know anybody who stands up 4 others like U do.

  I grinned madly as I read and reread her text.

  Emily had also sent me a text:

  I know UR msg was 4 tanya but just want U 2 know its all cool with me. Always has been

  The three of us stayed up late texting each other.