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together before moving on, but Ms. Baumann moved really fast through the steps. It was hard to keep up and remember everything. Anytime anyone messed up, she noticed and told them to pay attention. Emily was standing next to Kate and Vanessa and me, and every time Ms. Baumann let us take a break, Emily would go back over the steps with us to help us remember them.
    â€œI’ve been dancing since I was four, so I’m used to this,” she said. I’m not sure if she was trying to make us feel better or worse, but I didn’t care. I was glad to have the extra help.
    When practice was over, Emily and I stopped at Smoothie King on the way home. She ordered a Gladiator. “It has the least amount of calories of any smoothie on the menu. As a dancer, you have to watch what you eat,” she said.
    â€œI hadn’t really thought about that,” I saidand ordered a Gladiator too.
    â€œStick with me,” said Emily in her confident way. “I’ll give you the crash course on how to be a dancer.”
    As we were walking home drinking our smoothies, Emily said she was really glad we both made the dance team. “I’ve wanted to be friends with you for a long time, but it always seemed like you were supertight with Brynn.”
    I took a long sip of my smoothie. I wasn’t sure how to respond. “I am, but I can be friends with other people too,” I said.
    Emily smiled. “Friends it is,” she said.
    Even though Emily lives around the corner from me and we’ve gone to school together our whole lives, we’ve never been close. It’s not like I never wanted to be friends with her, it’s just that Emily is pretty and popular and I never thought she wanted to be friends with me. Brynn has always said there’s something about Emily she doesn’t like. But I like her.
    When I got home, Mom wanted to hear all about dance. “Tell me everything!” she said like we were best friends at a sleepover.
    I didn’t really want to tell her everything. What I wanted to do was call Billy and tell him, so I just told Mom that Ms. Baumann is tough and that being on the dance team will be a lot of hard work.
    When I called Billy, I told him most things, but the truth is, there were some things I didn’t feel like telling him either. Like about my new stretchy headband or my “big sister” or that I get to perform at the high school homecoming game, because I knew he wouldn’t get why those things were important. The person I wanted to tell them to was Brynn. She’s the one I always talk to about stuff like that, but I didn’t feel like I could talk to her about anything related to dance.
    Things have been weird between us since tryouts. All weekend she said she was busy with her parents. Yesterday was Labor Day, so we didn’t have school, and today at lunch, she grabbed a yogurt and said she was going to the library to study. Brynn NEVER goes to the library during lunch to study. When I saw her in math, I said, “How did your studying go?”
    All she said was, “Huh? Oh yeah, fine.” It was like she wasn’t even sure what I was talking about, and then she barely spoke to me for the rest of the day.
    It feels weird to go to bed without talking to Brynn.
9:47 P.M .
    I can’t go to bed without talking to Brynn. I’m going to call her, not to talk about dance, but just to call her like I always do. There’s nothing weird about that.
9:50 P.M .
    I just called Brynn. She didn’t pick up. Or answer my text. I’m going to try to go to sleep. Hopefully, things will get less weird very soon. Like tomorrow.
Wednesday, September 4, 5:57 P.M .
    Things with Brynn are not less weird. They’re more weird.
    Today at lunch, Brynn was in the library for the second day in a row, studying and eatingyogurt (which is starting to make me wonder if she’s suddenly a believer in my Kim Kardashian theory and is hoping to