Frenemy

School started the next week. For as long as I could remember it had been me and my two best friends, Brooke and Savannah. Our memories were filled with a mental scrapbook of sleepovers, silly moments and blowing things up in Brooke’s microwave until her mother caught us one summer day and told us the microwave was off limits — FOREVER! I couldn’t imagine that any friends could be closer than the three of us. We had been friends forever and would be friends forever. My mom called us the tripod, because we were like three legs all working toward the same goals.

“Kate!” Brooke ran up and threw her arms around me in a big bear hug. We’d just seen one another the day before, but she acted as though we hadn’t seen one another in months. Her enthusiasm and joy in living had started to rub off on me this last year. My mom said she’d brought me out of my shyness shell and I guess she was right.

“Let me see your schedule.” I handed her mine, hoping we had at least a couple of classes together.

“We have lunch together.” She squealed and jumped up and down, her pale blonde hair bouncing around her shoulders with each move. “Let me see your schedule, Savannah.”

Brooke snatched Savannah’s schedule out of her hands and glanced at it. “We have three classes together.”

Savannah always wore her blonde locks in a ponytail. Savannah was petite where I was tall. She was blonde where I was brunette. Her hair was straight. Mine was hopelessly curly; an eternal curse of frizziness and thick tresses. We were different, yet we were alike. We were opposite, yet we complimented one another perfectly.

“Want to come with me to Joy’s after school?” Savannah asked us. “I start babysitting with her today.”

“Sure!” Brooke clapped her hands.

I looked away, feeling uncomfortable, but not sure how to explain my feeling of unease. “I guess I’ll come.”

I had worked with Joy all summer. She ran a daycare out of her home and had hired me to work with her. One thing I had learned this past summer was that just because your name was Joy didn’t mean you had any joy in your heart. In fact, Joy was about as opposite from her name as a person could be.

“Well, don’t put yourself out,” Savannah said, looking a little miffed.

“No, I’ll come. I’m sorry. I’m happy you have a job.” I was happy for her. She’d have her own money, which I knew was important to her. I just worried about her.

The warning bell rang. In a ritual that we’d been doing for years, we circled up and each put a hand in the middle of the circle.

“One…” said Brooke.

“Two…” I added.

“Three…” Savannah finished.

“Let’s go tripod. Let’s go!” we shouted together, lifted our hands, turned our backs to one another and blew a kiss over our shoulders.

We all laughed as we walked away. I was truly the luckiest person in the world. When I’d moved to the little town of Henryville in the fifth grade, I had worried that I’d never make friends like the ones I’d had when I lived in Greenfield, Indiana. Then, I’d met Brooke and Savannah and the purpose and reason behind our move seemed to be set. I had to move here. A tripod couldn’t stand with only two legs.

When the school bus pulled up in front of Joy’s little house with the tan siding and small picket fence, the three of us exited, laughing and happy to be together. I saw Joy watching us from her front living room picture window. Her expression was unsmiling. In fact, she had a frown on her face.

Great. I knew that look. Joy was mad at someone. There was no telling who. Maybe I’d have my mom come get me soon. Even though I wanted to spend time with my two best friends, I really didn’t want to hear any more gossip and negative talk from Joy. I’d had my fill this summer. On top of that, she was constantly yelling at her babysitting kids and especially at Collin, the cutest baby that ever lived. I admit that I had a real soft spot for Collin. He laughed and smiled, flashing dimples every time he saw me. He was also a baby, and I really only liked kids before they got old enough to start talking. After that, you could keep ‘em.

Joy opened the door. “Hey Brooke, I knew Savannah was coming, but you didn’t tell me that Kate was too.”

The words weren’t that rude, but her stare was icy. “Is it okay?” I asked. “I can have my mom come pick me up.”

“My door is always open to you kids.” She waved me inside.

The words sounded right, but they didn’t feel right. It was hard to explain the uneasy feeling I got when I was around Joy. However, I still thought she was overall a pretty good person. She said the right things. Did the right things. There was just something that seemed a bit off, but I swept it out of my mind, believing it was me and not her and that I was reading her incorrectly. One of these days I am going to learn to trust my instincts about people. If I’d only trusted them when it came to Joy.

“Did you see the look Miss Tabitha gave me at cheer practice yesterday?” Joy asked.

“No. What look?” Brooke flopped onto Joy’s soft couch, sinking into the cushions.

I thought about joining her, but feared I’d never get back up. Instead, I walked over to Collin and clapped my hands and held my arms out to him. He was trapped in his high chair yet again, where he seemed to perpetually live while at Joy’s house. He squealed, waved his chubby little arms and reached for me. I laughed, pulled off the tray, released him from the belt and swept him into my arms. He patted my face with dimpled fingers and gazed up at me with obvious love. I cuddled him close, realizing he probably hadn’t been given a hug all day. Joy really didn’t seem to care much for Collin and while she wasn’t outright cruel to him, she verged on it.

“Tabitha gave me a dirty look. I think she’s jealous of me or wants the squad to herself.”

“What kind of look?” I asked. I’d never seen Tabitha be mean to anyone. My mom seemed to like her and appreciated that the squad had a team of three coaches, because it would have been a lot of work for just one person.

“A dirty one,” Joy said and sort of shook her head like I was stupid.

Brooke and Savannah laughed. I didn’t.

“Why would she give you a dirty look?” I asked.

“I told you,” Joy spoke slowly and enunciated every word as though speaking to a small child, “she is jealous of me.”

What was Joy talking about? I just shrugged my shoulders and turned my attention back to Collin. Babies were great. They didn’t talk and they didn’t have ulterior motives other than to get food or attention.

“Why do you think she’s like that?” Savannah asked.

Savannah was a good friend and had always treated me well, but she wasn’t always aware of the motives of other people. She just thought the best of everyone and never saw their fault in anything. Personally, I didn’t think Joy should be talking to us about another coach of our cheer squad. It seemed immature. If she said the wrong thing, she could turn the cheerleaders against one of their coaches. I was smart enough to realize that she really shouldn’t be talking to us kids about something like this, but I wasn’t brave enough to say anything else.

“She’s just born ugly.” Joy laughed and Savannah and Brooke laughed with her. I didn’t join in.

Joy seemed to immediately notice my lack of conformity and stood and walked to me. She put her arm around my shoulders and whispered near my ear. “Have you noticed how Tabitha’s eyes look crossed when she gets mad? Watch the next time.”

But I didn’t want to watch. This was ridiculous and Savannah and Brooke were just going along with Joy and her obvious dislike of Tabitha. I smiled at her and waited a few moments, during which she went on and on about how ugly Miss Tabitha was. After a small amount of time, I slapped my forehead and gave a shout.

“What’s wrong?” Brooke asked.

“I completely forgot I have major homework,” I said. “I’m going to call my mom to come get me. I have to get home.”

I knew I had just told a lie. I didn’t have anything due the next day. I just couldn’t take anymore of Joy’s gossip. This was why I couldn’t work with her. I didn’t really understand how Savannah could stand it, but judging by the hero worship look she was giving Joy the gossip didn’t bother her a bit.

When my mom arrived, I waved goodbye quickly. “Thanks for having me over, Joy.”

“Anytime. My door is always open.” Her smile was a bit cool and her gaze glinted with something I didn’t quite recognize.

“How was school?” my mom asked.

“Good. I guess.” I wanted to tell her my misgivings about Joy, but she and Joy were friends and I wasn’t sure if she would just shrug it off.

“Uh-oh. That doesn’t sound so good. What’s wrong?” Mom had a way of knowing what I was thinking even when I didn’t. I hadn’t been able to get by with much over the years, mainly because she kept pretty close tabs on me and my sister. I liked to gripe and complain to her that she had OCD when it came to us, but I secretly appreciated the fact that she cared so much.

“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “Do you think it’s wrong for someone to talk about someone else behind their backs and not have anything specific. Like to just say ’so and so gave me a dirty look’?”

“Are some of your friends in a fight?” Mom signaled to change lanes and pointed to the local McDonald’s. “Want a soda and we can chat about this before we go home?”

“Sure.” I breathed a sigh of relief at knowing I could share my concerns with someone and not have to worry about it going any further.

After we’d ordered our pops and found a seat away from any prying ears, my mom gave my shin a gentle nudge with her foot. “So, what’s up?”

“Joy said Tabitha was giving her dirty looks,” I blurted.

My mom blinked a few times. “That doesn’t sound like Tabitha. Joy must have misunderstood.”

“But she was telling me, Savannah and Brooke about it. Sort of like we needed to be mad at Tabitha too. It made me really uncomfortable.” I couldn’t really explain the underlying sense that Joy wanted to turn us all against the other coach.

“I love Joy, Kate, but she isn’t perfect. She was wrong to put you girls in the middle of her disagreement with Tabitha. It obviously made you pretty uncomfortable.”

“Yeah,” I agreed.

“Do you want my advice?” Mom usually didn’t ask if I wanted her advice, but just gave it. But I did want it.

“Yes.”

“Forget what she said. It probably is a problem between the two of them and they’ll work it out. I do think Joy is a good person. She just made a mistake because she was angry.” My mom reached across the table and patted my tightly fisted hands. “And if Joy says anything else, just tell her it makes you uncomfortable because you love both Joy and Tabitha. Maybe it will make her realize what she’s doing.”

“Maybe.” I wasn’t so sure, but my mom seemed to know what she was talking about and her advice sounded solid. Hopefully Joy wouldn’t say anything else, though, because I really didn’t want the confrontation.