I hoped Kristy would see me leaving school with Dawn the next afternoon. I hoped she would be surprised. I hoped she would be mad (madder than she already was). I even hoped she'd be a little hurt.

"That would be fun," I added. "Where do you live?"

"Burnt Hill Road."

"That's not too far from me! I live on Bradford Court."

"Great! We have a VCR. We can watch a movie."

"Okay!"

Dawn and I got up and cleared our places.

"Want to eat lunch again tomorrow?" asked Dawn. "Or will your friends be back?"

I paused. What if we'd all made up by the next day? I decided to cross that bridge when I came to it. "I don't know," I answered.

"It doesn't really matter anyway," said Dawn quietly.

"Okay. Well ... see you."

"See you."

We left the cafeteria.

I didn't see Kristy, Claudia, or Stacey again until school let out that day. Just after the last bell rang, I was standing in the front doorway of Stoneybrook Middle School, looking out across the lawn.

Then I saw them, all three of them. They were walking home from school, each one alone, each one still probably mad.

I set out slowly after them. It wasn't until I got home that I realized I had never given Claudia the note I'd written.

Chapter 4.

The first thing I thought when I woke up the next morning was, it's Wednesday. Today is a club-meeting day. We can't stay mad much longer or we won't be able to hold the meeting. And we've never missed a meeting. Suddenly, I was sure our fight was over.

I was so sure, that on my way to school, I stopped at Kristy's house and rang her doorbell. I thought we could walk to school together and apologize to each other.

Ding-dong.

David Michael answered the door. "Hi, Mary Anne!" he said.

"Hi," I replied. "Is Kristy still here?"

"Yup," said David Michael, "she's just — "

"I am not here!" I heard Kristy call from the living room.