Friends of a Feather by Lauren Myracle

Author:Lauren Myracle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2015-03-25T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

When we’re back inside from lunch, Lexie takes one look at me and says, “Where’d your bandage go?”

“Mmm-MMM-mmm,” I say, shrugging.

I side-eyeball Breezie. She’s pretending to organize her desk, but her face says la-la-la, this time I’m choosing with Ty.

Lexie doesn’t let up about it, and Taylor and Chase say things too, like, “Yeah, Ty, do you have magical healing powers? Is that how your arm got better so fast?”

Breezie doesn’t join in, and neither does Joseph. I’m glad about that, but I feel guilty for abandoning him at lunch. Also, I’m embarrassed about “alone time.” So even though I know that Joseph is on my side, it doesn’t feel like we’re a team.

• • •

I don’t wear the bandage the next day, since duh, I buried it. But I wouldn’t have anyway. My bandage days are over. Lexie bugs me about it anyway, copying Chase by asking if I have healing powers and if I’m a wizard and if I can turn people into frogs, stuff like that. To the frog question, I say, “Yep, people like you,” and keep doodling in my notebook.

So ha.

Joseph and I sit together at lunch, but it’s not just us. There are other kids, too. I help Joseph with his fractions worksheet, because he wasn’t here when we started fractions. Everything’s fine, I guess. But I don’t know. We both might be pretending we’re back to being best friends more than we really are.

Breezie’s opinion is that Joseph is everybody’s new best friend. That’s what she says to me by the water fountain. “He thinks he’s so important,” she adds, picking an invisible piece of dust off her dress.

“I don’t think he thinks that,” I say.

“Well, I do. It’s annoying.”

I guess she’s missing Lexie. I guess she wants Lexie to leave Joseph and come back to her.

I guess I wish that, too.

I imagine the universe the way I drew it on Monday, with the planets all in the wrong places and space junk floating randomly. I’m beginning to wonder if the universe is ever going to line up straight again.

• • •

After school, Mom picks me up and tells me we have one errand to run.

“Blah,” I say, feeling sorry for myself. I just want to go home and watch cartoons, but I don’t get to, so I roll the car window up and down. I lock and unlock my door. I do both of these over and over.

“Ty? Stop,” Mom says.

I slump. Next to me, Baby Maggie wiggles in her car seat, kicking her chubby feet to make her socks come off. It’s cute, because she doesn’t even need socks. She’s a baby. But how come she’s allowed to be squirmy and I’m not?

Mom glances at me in the rearview mirror. She says, “What’s going on, bud?”

I press my lips together. How do my mom and my sisters always know when to ask that question?

“Well, it’s just . . . Joseph,” I say. “He thinks he’s so important, just because he’s finally back from the hospital.

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