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friend with the brown ponytail.)
    Meet ya.
    The girls hurried off, sporty ponytails wagging goodbye.
    Owdee, what are you doing at Noble?
    I go here.
(Audri.)
    Lies!
    Audri giggled.
Truths.
    You? Go to. My? School?
    I stepped closer, reminding them I went there too.
    Since when is Noble your school?
(Audri sounding like an alpha.)
    It’s all mine, you know that.
    They started cracking up like crazy.
    After their over-the-top bout of hysteria, Audri finally acknowledged my presence and said,
You should see O play doubles. She calls “mine” on every ball. Even when it’s on her partner’s side. It’s seriously the funniest thing ever.
    That’s against the rules!
(Me as Anna K.)
    You know the rules?
(Audri to me.)
    I pointed at my Adidas logo and flashed extreme wide-eyes to remind her who I was channeling.
    Oh yeah, sorry.
    That’s when Octavia looked at me kind of surprised, like I just showed up, and said,
Oh. Hey. I know you.
    Yeah, we kinda met yesterday.
I folded my arms across my chest so she couldn’t hear my heart.
    You’re the new locker room attendant at my racket club.
    Audri giggled.
    No, we have last period Algebra together.
    We do?
    I wanted to kick her bony undercarriage but I asked how they knew each other instead.
    Camp Wildwood
, they answered at the exact same time.
    Only we didn’t meet until the second-to-last day.
(O.)
    When we played each other in the Wildwood Wimbledon.
(A.)
    Which is such a boo-hoo because we would have been great partners.
(O.)
    Like I would ever be your partner.
(A.)
    Why?
(O.)
    Mine. Mine. Mine.
(A.)
    They cracked up again. (Barf. Barf. Barf.)
    Lies! I wouldn’t do that with you.
    Lies! You would.
    Wouldn’t!
    Would.
    Would not.
    Would yot.
    Not.
    Yot.
    Yot?
(O.)
    Yot.
(A.)
    Laughter.
    Audri, when did you get into court sports?
(Me.)
    I took a tennis clinic this summer. It’s fun.
    Fun?
    Who are you, again?
(Octavia.)
    I’m Sheridan. Audri’s best friend.
    Best friend?
(O.)
    Audri put her arm around me. I grinned proudly and reiterated,
BEST.
    Octavia stepped closer.
Wouldn’t a BEST friend know she plays tennis?
    Her question was a glitter high-top to the gut. But I was Anna K. It was my job to return the ball, not drop it. So I got all up in her tanned citrus-scented face and said,
Wouldn’t a tennis player know not to cross the line?
    What line?
    Theee line.
    The service line or the baseline?
    Theeeeeeeeeee line.
    I’m sorry, I have no idea what line you’re talking about.
    The bell rang.
    Game over.
    Come on, you guys!
(Audri.)
We should get to class.
    Octavia got her Big Cat PUMA from the path and asked Audri if she had early lunch or late. Audri said early. O’course Octavia has early too. Turns out they have the entire morning together so off they ran, leaving me with Zero-Love.
    I spent all morning living for Audri’s cafeteria note but got an apology text instead. Turns out she spent lunch listening to music in O’s golf cart. I’m spending mine like a depressed Niblet—crying in the can.
    Serves me right for channeling a tennis player who’s never won a professional singles title.
    To Be Continued…
    END SCENE.

Tuesday
    According to Hud and Coops, Mandy looks like Kate Hudson and the guys at Noble think she’s hot. Even though she’s a junior and I’m just a freshman I feel like I have to protect her so I tell them to stop talking about her like a regular girl, but that makes them do it more.
    Feeling = Disgusted.
    They think her friends are pretty too. I’ve known them for like ever so I don’t get all shy around them like Hud and Coops do, even though their hair smells like Hawaiian Punch and that’s my favorite juice. Sometimes, when they say the space between my teeth is sexy my face goes red. When that happensI look down at my sneakers and try to name the players on the Knicks.
    Carmelo Anthony
    Earl Barron
    Tyson Chandler
    … like that.
    Junior guys are the worst. Especially when they don’t know Mandy’s my sister. They don’t