Always, Abigail (4 page)

1.
“Miss Hendrick must have a method to her madness.”

2.
“Once you get to know Gabby, you might feel differently about her.”

3.
“Maybe it's
destiny
, Abs.”

1.
“I think madness is a good way to describe Old Hawk.”

2.
“The problem is I don't
want
to get to know Gabby.”

3.
“Old Hawk's friendly letters and Gabby Marco CANNOT be my
destin
y
!”

Dear Ms. Gabriella Marco,

I am your letter partner.

The most important thing in my life is pom-poms. Alli and Cami from 6B are my best friends, and we all can't wait until we're officially part of the squad.

Here are a few other things about me. I am in sixth grade like you. I have one older brother like you. My favorite food is pizza. My favorite dessert is chocolate cake. My favorite book is
Ella Enchanted
. I hate mushrooms, pumpkin pie, and that stupid book
Hatchet
we read last year for Mr. Kirby.

Sincerely,

Abigail Walters

1.
Write first friendly letter
to
Gabby.

2.
Dread getting my first friendly letter
from
Gabby.

3.
Begin counting down the 179 days until this insanely stupid friendly letter assignment is over.

4.
Pray Gabby's weirdness doesn't rub off on me.

5.
Celebrate after writing my very last friendly letter to Gabby.

(Alli and Cami are not only in the same homeroom, but they're locker partners too. Soooo lucky!)

Dear AlliCam,

Old Hawk is a real prob. We have to write “friendly letters” to ASSIGNED partners. Guess who I got? GABBY MARCO. Can you believe it?

You guys are so lucky to be in 6B TOGETHER!!!!

SPF—Sisters, Poms, Friends,

Abigail

Dear Abigail,

We miss you!!!! Wish you were here. Blah, blah, blah.

Gabby Marco?! EEEEK! We're sorry!

SPF,

AlliCam

1.
We sat at the same table the first day of kindergarten, and as they say, the rest is history. All that coloring, finger painting, and playing dress-up bonded us for life.

2.
All three of us LOVE the same thing: talking. When Cami's dad drove us to camp last summer, it took five hours to get there. We NEVER ran out of things to talk about. Cami's dad thought we should enter the
Guinness
World
Records
book for the longest conversation.

3.
None of us have sisters, so in fifth grade, we did a Native American sister ritual. (There wasn't really anything Native American about it, but our teacher had just finished reading
The
Indian
in
the
Cupboard
, so we were sort of in a Native American phase.)

We did the ritual in Alli's backyard one night when we slept over at her house. We put some paint stirrers in the barbecue grill and lit them on fire. Then we held hands and walked in a circle around the grill chanting,

“Sister fire from long ago,

Make us sisters from head to toe.

Flames and smoke keep us strong.

Forever we'll sing our sister song.”

(Cami made up the chant. She's really good at stuff like that. She won first prize in the school poetry contest last year.)

Then we danced around and sang,

“We are family.

I got all my sisters with me…”

(It wasn't a Native American song. We'd heard it on the oldies station, but it was perfect for our ritual.)

After a few choruses of “We Are Family,” Alli's dad came outside, and we got in big trouble for being too loud, but when he saw the fire, we got in even bigger trouble for that. He told us if it wasn't so late, he'd send Cami and me home.

We thought getting into trouble for doing the ritual just made our sisterhood bond even stronger. And once Alli's dad went back upstairs, we couldn't stop laughing about how hysterical he looked standing on the back porch in his boxers with his hair all messed up and yelling, “Are you girls out of your minds? It's one o'clock in the morning! Get your butts inside right now or you're going to be singing ‘Sorry.'”

When we got back inside, Alli kept standing on the fireplace hearth and imitating her dad. “You girls are gonna be singing ‘Sorry.'”

Cami and I kept raising our hands like we were in school and saying, “Excuse me, Mr. Martin, but we don't know that song.”

Then the three of us collapsed onto the floor in a heap of laughter. Every time we did it, it got funnier.

It just proved the three of us were meant to be best friends
and
sisters.

1.
Inside jokes. When we go to each other's houses after school, Cami and Alli are always talking about things that happened in school. I never know what they're talking about. Yesterday, they looked at each other and put their thumbs under their chins, waved, and then burst out laughing. I laughed too even though I didn't know why it was so funny. When I did it later, they looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Is this how the whole year's going to be?

2.
Extra pom practice. Every day AlliCam and I practice poms together after school. Alli and Cami also practice at school after lunch. But since I don't have the same lunch period as they do, they're getting a lot of extra practice without me. What if I'm not practicing enough?

3.
Mr. Blue Eyes. While I'm stuck with Old Hawk, AlliCam's class has a brand-new teacher. You should see him! He's gorgeous! He looks like a surfer from California with all that bleached blond hair and those bulging biceps. That's why everyone calls him Mr. Blue Eyes. (Well, not the boys.) I don't see how
anyone
could learn
anything
from someone who looks sooooo good. I should really write another anonymous letter to the principal.

Dear Mr. Buckley,

Are you aware that there's a swimsuit model here at Crestdale Heights disguised as a first-year teacher? Sixth-grade girls CANNOT learn from someone like this. Think about how impossible it is to underline nouns and circle verbs in a sentence when you're drooling over the teacher. This man should be removed from the premises immediately.

Maybe Mr. Whitmar could come out of retirement until you find a replacement. (Hopefully one who is not so cute!)

Yours truly,

Anonymous