Friend or Fiend? with the Pain and the Great One by Judy Blume

Author:Judy Blume [Blume,Judy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-375-89103-8
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2009-05-20T16:00:00+00:00

The next morning on the school bus, I didn’t look at Sasha. She didn’t look at me, either. It was the same in class. And on the playground.

That afternoon Mr. Gee called us up to his desk. Before he even asked what was going on, I blurted it out. “That story Sasha read yesterday … she stole it from me.”

“My mother says copying is the highest form of flattery,” Sasha repeated.

Mr. Gee looked at Sasha, then he looked at me. “I hope you two can work this out on your own.”

Madison Purdy got all the girls in our class to choose sides. She made it me against Sasha. I can’t stand Madison Purdy. One time at ballet she called me a weed. Now she acted like she was in charge of the whole world. Emily sided with me. Kaylee sided with Sasha. My stomach hurt almost all the time.

On Friday, Mr. Gee called Sasha and me up to his desk again. “This has gone far enough.”

“But …” I started to say.

“No buts,” Mr. Gee said.

“If only Madison …” Sasha began, but Mr. Gee stopped her, too.

“No if onlys.”

“Give us one more chance,” Sasha said.

“Okay,” Mr. Gee said. “But this is it.”

On the playground my group huddled to one side and Sasha’s group huddled to the other. Everybody had ideas of what we should do. But we couldn’t agree on anything. Finally, Sasha and Kaylee came over to us. The other girls backed away until it was just me and Emily, and Kaylee and Sasha. Kaylee said, “Sasha has something to say to you, Abigail.” She gave Sasha a little nudge.

“I’m sorry I used your story,” Sasha said.

“You mean stole my story,” I said.

“She didn’t steal it,” Kaylee said. “She borrowed it.”

Emily said, “You can’t borrow something if you don’t ask first.”

“I never thought of that,” Kaylee said. She looked at Sasha. “Emily’s right. It’s like you can’t borrow my jacket unless you ask and then I say okay.”

Sasha was quiet for a minute. “From now on I’ll ask,” she said.

“And when a friend tells you something that’s private you won’t blab it all over town?” I said.

“I didn’t blab it,” Sasha said. “Nobody knew it was your family until you blabbed it.”

That was probably true, I thought. But still …

Mr. Gee came over to us. “How’s it going?”

Now Kaylee and Emily backed away, leaving just me and Sasha. “You want to know why I did it?” Sasha asked. “Because my family is so boring. Nothing ever happens in my family.”

“Sasha,” Mr. Gee said. “Can you understand why Abigail feels you betrayed her?”

“I guess.” Sasha choked up. “But she dissed my mom. She said my mom steals from her friends.”

“I said maybe your mom steals from her friends.”

Mr. Gee rocked back and forth on his heels.

I knew what I had to do. I just didn’t want to do it. “Okay,” I said, and I took a big breath. “I’m sorry I dissed your mom.”

“You’re really sorry?” Sasha said.

“Yes.”

“Good.”

“Well,” Mr. Gee said. “I’m glad you two worked out your problems.

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