Things Change

     "Ew, yeah." Juliet pulled out her floral perfume and sprayed a few pumps.

     "Not the room, my LIFE!" I put a few plushies on one of the wooden beds.

     We'd already decided who would get which bed when we saw pictures of the cabins, so I made sure it was the right one.

     "She's upset over not being able to see Jordan," Annabel chimed in.

     The orange Aisha knew me so well; she always was able to guess things about me. It had been that way since fourth grade, possibly earlier if you count the time in first grade when my friends were on a field trip that I forgot to turn in the permission slip for so I talked to her at lunch. We didn't really converse again after that.

     Next to her, Jordan was my closest friend. We were supposed to be, that's how it was ever since I brought the Snorkle from my Usuki play set to school. I was the first in the class to get one. We had eaten lunch together after waiting in a ridiculously long line on Pizzaroo day—the one day a year Money Tree Elementary School actually provided edible food.

     "Why do you get the bag of chips and pudding on Pizzaroo day?" I had asked him.

     "To be different," he said as he peeled the top off his chokato pudding.

     I admired that about him. He was proud to be a social outcast, unlike me who had only wanted to fit in since third grade. I'd given up on that idea when I met Annabel, Juliet, and Lola, and embraced my quirks.

     "Maybe Jordan will visit the reserve," Juliet suggested. "you could Neomail him telling him where you are."

     "I don't remember his address," I said to the floor. "He hasn't neomailed me in a while."

     "Well, I'm starving," Lola said. "Let's head to the cantine for lunch."

     We dropped our luggage by our beds to resume setting up later and headed out to the building labeled 'CANTINE' in old wooden letters, as if it had been sitting that way for years.

     It was much colder up in the reserve than on the beach. I should've worn my sweatshirt.

     The bubblegum pink sweatshirt I'd had since second grade was incredibly soft on the inside, and surprisingly still fit me. I'd worn it all the time. People often recognized me better if I had it on.

     It was the sweatshirt I was wearing in that drawing a girl in our class did of Jordan and I at our field trip to the Rainbow Pool.

     "Smells good in here," Lola observed.

     It smelled like vegetable soup mixed with fresh baked bread and well done steak.

     "Hey, guys!" someone called. I looked to see Catarina waving in our direction. "Sit here with us!"

     She was seated with a red Koi and a green Kacheek.

     "Who's she?" Juliet asked, furrowing her pink eyebrows.

     "She was on our shuttle," Lola said. "Sage knows her."

     "Barely," I said.

     "Ooh, I promised Blaire that I would eat with her." Juliet pointed to a skunk Usul, dressed much like the one she was boarding the shuttle with.

     "Okay…" I watched her walk off. "…Annabel?"

     "Sorry, Sage," she said, in a similar manor to when she told me the shuttle groups were assigned. "Margo's gonna teach me how to do braids."

     I wanted to point out that neither of them had nearly enough fur, but the Ixi had a couple of Magical Hair Usukis on the table and Annabel had already skipped off.

     "Have fun," I said under my breath.

     This was great. We were all on different shuttles, made new friends, and *poof* like clockwork, the Fab Four becomes the Fab Two.

     Well, not forever. We'd have to go back to the cabin eventually.

     Lola walked towards Catarina's table. "Come on," she called after me.

     I made a mental note to get myself a magical hair Usuki. I didn't get one because I wasn't a big fan of the appearance, but apparently it would've saved me a lot of trouble. Oh, and a guide to hairstyles. I could braid Margo all the way to the Lost Desert.

     We sat between the Koi and the Kacheek.

     "Sage and Lola, these are my best friends: Ruby is the Koi, and Emerald is the Kacheek. Guys, I met Sage the Kacheek on the shuttle and her friend Lola is the Poogle," Catarina explained.

     "Hey!" Emerald waved, "I've been dying to talk to Sage ever since that story faire…but she always looks busy."

     "We all loved your story," Ruby said.

     "Thanks…" I said awkwardly.

     "Is Jordan your best friend?"

     "Did you cry when he moved?"

     "When's the sequel?"

     "He's not my best friend," I said. "My best friend is Annabel, who's sitting over there with that Ixi, Margo. And Lola is also one of my best friends. " I felt weird leaving her out since she was sitting right there. "Jordan and I are close friends, almost as close as best friends, I don't know when my next book will be finished, and no, I did not cry."

     Lie.

     It was the last time I'd ever cried to this day.

     But I wasn't going to admit that to a group of strangers when I'd told my best friends, "It was tough, but I stayed strong for Jordan."

     I looked over at Annabel and Margo who were happily braiding the Usuki doll's hair and eating their grilled cheese sandwiches.

     "And we also have another best friend Juliet." I pointed to the Cybunny and skunk Usul.

     "In the book you said Jordan was moving back to Mystery Island…have you seen him yet? Are you going to?" Catarina asked.

     I sighed but tried not to sound too upset. "He lives off the reserve."

     I hated sympathy. I felt bad whenever people showed sympathy towards me, like I didn't deserve it or something.

     Why were all these people obsessed with a twenty or less page story I wrote in three days? Sure it was good for a fourth grader but honestly it was an awful story. I'm embarrassed by it now.

     "I'm gonna use the washroom." I stood up and walked over to Annabel and Margo's table.

     Annabel seemed off-guard when she noticed me. "Sage, hi." A pause. "This is Margo."

     The brown Ixi waved. "Hi, I'm Margo."

     "It's nice to meet you," I lied, wishing that the Fab Four had their own table. "Those guys are over-obsessed with my story, so I thought I'd eat with you guys."

     "Well, it's nice to meet you, too." Margo giggled. "Annabel mentioned you two were close friends."

     "Uh, Sage, could I talk to you for a minute?" The orange Aisha motioned to the washrooms, where I was supposed to be according to my tablemates.

     "Sure." I stood up and followed her back there.

     When we reached the chemical scented room, she whispered, "What on Neopia do you think you're doing?"

     "What do you mean?" I asked, confused.

     "You barge over to the table, sit down without asking, and go bragging about your story."

     "I wasn't bragging," I said. "I just needed to get away from the paparazzi."

     I looked up. It hit me that this room was blindingly white, fluorescent lighted to the extreme, heavily overpowered with the smell of cleaners, yet much more clean than the rest of the cantine, which was old-timey but cool.

     "There you go again!" Annabel said. "Telling me all about the people who are just TOO interested in your story. Some of us would LOVE to have a paparazzi."

     "Then go ahead, take them," I said. "I wish I'd never even sent in that story and just kept it for us to read in the circle."

     "Well… I just kinda wanna eat with Margo today."

     No matter how sweetly said those words were, they stung for some reason as if I was trying to swallow a glass of water that was full up with sugar and it stung the back of my throat.

     I nodded and decided to try Juliet's table. I approached the pink Cybunny and asked, "Can I please sit here?"

     "Of course," she replied cheerfully. "Blaire, this is one of my best friends, Sage. Sage, this is Blaire, from my shuttle."

     The skunk Usul waved sweetly. I waited for any mention of my story, three seconds passed, and finally, I felt welcome at the table.

     Blaire was nice. It turned out she was the other girl in our grade to be accepted into the faire, so she was cool about not obsessing. She'd had her share of paparazzi. She'd written a horror story with a twist of friendship. It was, er, it sounded really cool. I made a point of visiting the school library to check it out when we got back. I added it to my list:

     THINGS TO DO UPON RETURN:

     - Purchase a Magical Hair Usuki

     - Learn how to do hairstyles with it

     - Get that Twisted Roses CD that Catarina had

     - Read "Behind the Terror" (Blaire's book)

     - Purchase a reusable water bottle

     - Black nail varnish: yay or nay?

     Of course, we also talked about things that Juliet could relate to like our love of petpets.

     "That was fun," I said to Juliet since we were the first ones back to the cabin. "Maybe we should hang out with Blaire more often."

     "Yeah, she's nice," Juliet said.

     Then, I said something that I never thought would ever come out of my mouth.

     "Maybe she could join the circle. She's really cool."

     "I thought we needed an even number…and aren't we the Fab Four?" Juliet asked.

     "Fab Five has a nice ring to it," I said, shocking myself with each word.

     "Even number?" Juliet reminded me.

     "True…and Fab Six doesn't sound nearly as nice. We can't use Inner Circle because the teachers don't like that one…how about Innermost Circle of Best Friendship?"

     "Who's number six though?" Juliet asked.

     "I dunno, Annabel was real interested that Margo girl," I said, pondering whether or not that was the best idea. "And maybe we could also let Terrah and Nina in?"

     What was I saying? I couldn't stop the insanity from spilling off my tongue.

     "How about Catarina?" Juliet asked. "That Gelert you were with at the beginning of lunch?"

     I shuddered. "Not if we were the last pets in Neopia. The paparazzi should not be groupies."

     "Paparazzi?" Juliet asked.

     "Her whole table was going on and on about how my story was just the greatest thing to the point where I wished I never wrote it," I said. "What I don't get is, why now? Why not a year ago when I actually wrote it?"

     Juliet shrugged. "You sorta didn't talk to them back then."

     That was true.

     Annabel was the next to enter. She seemed cheerful as if nothing had happened in the cantine. I hated when people did that. It had never actually happened to me, but I read about it in the Times a lot and now that I'd experienced it I knew exactly how all those fictitious pets felt.

     Juliet waved. "Hey, Annabel. We were thinking of expanding the group."

     Annabel raised an eyebrow, confused. "I thought we were the Fab Four."

     "Long story," Juliet said. "It's now the Innermost Circle of Best Friendship. We're gonna ask Blaire from my table, Terrah, Nina, and your friend Margo."

     "I'll try," Annabel said, "but she sort of already has a group. And Innermost Circle of Best Friendship sounds a little long, don't you think? Can't we call it the IC for short?"

     "Sure," I said, temporarily forgetting the stinging feeling.

     It had felt like that sting you get when you know you're about to cry, but without the rest of the feelings, just the sting at the back of my throat. But it was gone now. Because sometimes, you just have to shrug it off and pretend that everything's fine.

     To be continued…