My Extra Best Friend by Julie Bowe Read Free Book Online Page B

button on her watch. “Quick!” she says. “Catch me. It’s time for campfire.”
    Just like that, Jenna falls. We scramble to catch her.
    “Are you going to fall?” Elizabeth asks me as Jenna grabs her clipboard and hurries to lead the way back to Chickadee.
    I shrug, and head after the others.
    But Elizabeth takes my arm, stopping me. “I will if you will.” She makes her eyes go all serious behind her glasses.
    I make my eyes go all serious too. Because I’ve heard her make that promise lots of times before.
    When we were finally tall enough to ride the big roller coaster at the fair.
    When we discovered her sister’s diary.
    When we wondered what Champ’s dog biscuits tasted like.
    But, most of all, she made that promise when she asked me to be her best friend forever. Right before she moved away and wrote to me exactly zero times.
    I wiggle my arm free and walk away.
    I brush the marshmallows out of my teeth after campfire, change into my pajamas, and join the other girls in Alex’s room. She’s showing Stacey and Brooke some of the jewelry she’s made.
    Randi and Jolene are sitting on Alex’s bed, posing with her stuffed animals while Meeka takes pictures.
    Jenna is sitting on the floor, using some ofAlex’s markers to draw a border around the trust fall schedule on her clipboard.
    “Do you have any paper with lines?” Elizabeth asks, looking over Jenna’s shoulder at her clipboard.
    Jenna looks up. “Yes,” she replies.
    “Can I borrow some?”
    Jenna looks down. “No. I only brought enough for me.”
    “I have paper,” Alex says, glancing over from her desk. “Lined…blank…whatever!” She opens a drawer. “Help yourself.”
    “Thanks,” Elizabeth replies, taking a few sheets of notepaper back to her bunk.
    “Ida’s desk is stuffed with paper too,” Stacey says, holding a beaded hoop up to her earlobe and looking at herself in Alex’s mirror. “She’s a great artist. You should see her sketchbook!”
    All the girls nod.
    I do a shy smile.
    “Cool!” Alex says to me. “I lead crafts every day. We draw and paint and make stuff out of beads and glitter. You should come!”
    I give her a smile.
    Brooke gasps, dropping one of the necklaces she’s trying on. “Did you say
glitter
? I’m the
queen
of glitter!”
    “The more the merrier!” Alex replies.
    Brooke squeals. “I’ll bring Nat and Emillie!”
    I sigh.
    Alex starts putting her jewelry away. “Time for bed, girls. Get snuggled in. I’ll read you a story before lights-out.”
    Brooke sniffs, putting the necklaces back in a box. “We’re too old for bedtime stories.”
    Alex picks up a flashlight and a book. “You’re never too old,” she replies.
    “Make it spooky!” Randi says, hopping up from Alex’s bed.
    “Not
too
spooky,” Meeka adds, clicking off her camera and following the others to their bunks.
    “I’d love to see your sketchbook sometime, Ida,” Alex says, dimming the lights.
    “Maybe,” I reply, and hurry to my bunk too while she gets ready to read.
    I unzip my sleeping bag, squish George to one side, and climb in. But something pokes me in the back.
    I roll over and turn on my flashlight.
    A rock is lying there.
    Red with white swirls.
    “It’s the agate me and Jenna found,” I whisper to George. “But how did it—”
    Then I see a crumpled note next to the agate. I pick it up and read the words to George.
    Ida,
    Here’s the rock you dropped.
    I know you meant it for me, but that was before you knew who I was.
    So I’m giving it back.
    Liz
    “Who are you talking to?” Jenna pokes her head over the edge of her bunk.
    I hide the note with George. And hold the rock up for Jenna to see. “It’s the agate we found,” I whisper.
    Jenna glances over at Elizabeth’s bunk. I glance too. Elizabeth’s tucked inside her sleeping bag, staring at the empty bunk above her, listening to Alex read about some girl who lives with wolves.
    “Keep it,” Jenna tells me. “Agates are rare.” Then