Trying to Float by Nicolaia Rips

Author:Nicolaia Rips
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scribner

FRIENDSHIP AND CHOCOLATE

EVERYTHING ABOUT JANIE FIELDS was inoffensive. She wore the right things (circulation-squeezing jeans, bright graphic T-shirts paired with jelly bracelets called Silly Bandz), ate the right things (PB&J sandwiches with the crusts cut off), and had subscriptions to all the teen magazines. She had brown hair, brown eyes, and a medium build. She was an average student. And she was grating in a hard-to-identify way.

Because Janie was my friend, I took the time to study what was happening to her. I came to understand that it was going to happen anyway, and finally accepted it as a natural part of life, like butterflies burning in campfires or puberty.

Janie became a Popular Girl.

As Janie migrated to the other side, she spent less and less time with me and Maria. When it became clear that Janie was no longer our friend, Maria was hurt.

She started to pace, all four feet seven inches of her.

“Janie’s embarrassed by me. She doesn’t want to be seen with a midget.”

There were, no doubt, a lot of bad things in Janie’s character, but hating midgets wasn’t one of them. Besides, there was a more obvious explanation.

“It’s my personality,” I offered matter-of-factly. “Janie needed me when she didn’t know anyone else in the school, but now that she has other friends, she’s ready to move on.”

This was something I had come to understand. In my quest for friendship, I had developed the ability to repel people upon first serious conversation. Janie had lasted a surprisingly long time.

“I’m going to get her back for this,” Maria declared.

One thing that could be said for the Rips family gene pool (a thing which, in my opinion, should have been drained years ago) is that we lack a thirst for revenge. It was why my father was more than happy to apologize to the tailor, and why I, listening to Maria, was thinking of nothing other than getting my daily chocolate bar from the local deli. My friendship with Janie was all but the faintest unpleasant aftertaste.

“Maria, it is my experience that if you let bad fortune alone for long enough it ripens into something amusing. A funny story, that sort of thing. Besides, a couple of our friends will stay with us.”

“I’m going to kill her.”

She wasn’t listening.

“I have a plan,” Maria continued.

“We go to the deli and get my candy bar?”

“No!”

“No?”

“We give her the Look.”

“Okay. But first, let’s go to the deli.”

“No! First the Look, then the deli.”

The message of the Look, also known as the evil eye, is something like: “Oh yeah? You think you’re going to go and leave your friends? Well, you can bet that when you come crawling back to us, we’re not even gonna look at you! Yeah, and we’re gonna have a lot of fun without you! Ha!”

Maria and I needed to find Janie as quickly as possible so that we could deliver the Look and get to the deli before class started. We searched the school.

As soon as we caught sight of Janie’s group, Maria started to speak out of the side of her mouth.

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