"What if something goes wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing will go wrong," Franklin promised. "And if the authorities interrogate you, just say, *Why would I vandalize something in my own locker?' "

"I'm going to be interrogated?"

Franklin shrugged. "Maybe. You'll probably be suspect number one. But you'll have been with Amanda all morning. And they've got no reason to suspect me. We should both be safe."

The first-period bell rang, so I ran to my locker and dropped off my lunch (which was squished a few seconds later) and half my books and then headed to cla.s.s with Amanda a few feet behind me.

"Are you okay?" Caroline asked when I sat down. "You look all red."

I ignored her, like I had all day yesterday.

We listened to Mrs. Wakefield explain our new unit on symbolism. Then she pa.s.sed out poems for us to read aloud. Language arts finally ended and we split up for math, science, or social studies and headed out into the hall. Franklin gave me a small salute when no one was looking.

After fourth period we headed to our lockers on the way to the cafeteria. I was a little shaky as I fished my squashed lunch out from the bottom of the locker. Amanda daintily reached up to get hers from the top shelf. I looked up just enough to see that the bag was a bit puffier than usual.

"Why are you always in the way?" she barked. "Get up."

While I got up, I slammed our locker doora"before her lunch had entirely cleared the metal frame.

Plpphpht!

The bag exploded. Amanda and I both got covered in pink, fragrant shaving cream. The other kids cleared a circle around us and began to clap.

Amanda shrieked as she wiped shaving cream from her eyes. "I'll kill you!" She threw herself at me.

"What did I do?" I hadn't planned on a shaving-cream explosion. I shoved her to keep her off me, but she grabbed me by the shoulders. Soon we were both spinning around, sliding in the shaving cream and yelling at each other.

And that was how I landed in the princ.i.p.al's office.

When you're sitting in the princ.i.p.al's office awaiting your fate, time seems to pa.s.s incredibly slowly. I could hear every click of the clock over the desk. The smell of fake berries on my sweatshirt was almost unbearable.

Ms. Hadley walked in and sat down behind her desk. She contemplated both of us. Finally, she said, "Amanda, why don't you tell me what happened?"

"I went to take out my lunch and Elise tried to shut my hand in the locker. She got my lunch instead and shaving cream went everywhere."

"Why was there shaving cream in your lunch?"

"I don't know."

"Why do you think there was shaving cream in your lunch?"

"Elise put it there."

Ms. Hadley didn't react to that hypothesis, but she put up a hand to keep me from speaking.

"So then you verbally threatened and attacked her?"

Amanda couldn't come up with anything to say.

Ms. Hadley said, "Elise, why don't you tell me what happened?"

"Amanda said I was in the way, so I tried to get up and shut our locker. I didn't know her lunch was there."

"Did you know there was shaving cream in it?"

"No."

I felt my fingers start to tremble against the legs of my jeans. Be cool, be cool, I willed them. Be still.

"We'll talk about the shaving cream in a minute," Ms. Hadley said. "My first concern is the physical fighting. You were seen fighting, both of you. Is that true?"

I looked at my lap and mumbled, "Yes." I was surprised to hear an echo from the chair next to me.

"Did you know that fighting is grounds for suspension?"

We shook our heads.

"As is verbally threatening another student, Amanda." Ms. Hadley paused. "I don't think I am going to suspend either of you, though. Neither of you is injured and neither of you has engaged in physical fighting before."

Before relief had time to reach all the way to my trembling fingertips, Ms. Hadley added, "However a "I am very curious as to where the shaving cream came from. It seems to me that shaving cream in a lunch is a prank, which is something premeditated with the intent to humiliate another student. That seems a more severe offense than loss of temper, and I won't tolerate it. Amanda, tell me again how you believe shaving cream got in your lunch."

"Elise put it there."

"Why do you suspect Elise?"

"My lunch was in our locker."

c.r.a.p.

"Elise, how do you think the shaving cream got there?"

Be cool. "I don't know."

Ms. Hadley was silent for a minute. Then she said, "I take things like this very seriously. You really don't know how shaving cream got in Amanda's lunch?"

"I don't. I was in cla.s.s all morning. Ask my teachers."

"Are you two the only students who know the combination to your locker?"

About a thousand thoughts whirred rapidly through my head.

Tell her how horrible Amanda's been all year. Tell her about the prank she played on you just a couple days ago.

Grown-ups don't care. She'll just give you a list of grown-up solutions again.

Amanda would be even worse from now on if I did that right in front of her.

There's a way out.

But it's against every kid rule.

"Elise." Ms. Hadley halted all the whirring. "You are facing suspension."

I couldn't do it. I couldn't rat out Franklin. But I looked at Amanda, whose face had twisted into an evil smirk.

"There is someone else who knows the combination," Amanda said. "Elise's boyfriend. He gets her work if she's out sick."

"He's not my boyfriend," I mumbled, staring down at my jeans. My heart thundered in panic. What had Franklin planned to do with the empty shaving-cream can? Was it in his backpack? His locker? A trash bin in a cla.s.sroom? Franklin was thorough, right? He took care of details like that?

"Who is this friend?" Ms. Hadley asked.

"Franklin White." Amanda was very excited. She knew that this would be the best way to get me back.

Ms. Hadley paged someone to go get Franklin out of cla.s.s.

When Franklin arrived, he seemed to have trembly fingers, too.

"Do you know why I have called you in here?"

"No." Franklin sat down.

"Do you know why Elise is here?"

"No."

"There was an incident involving Elise, Amanda, and a great deal of shaving cream. Were you aware of that?"

"No." I think he made a tiny mistake here. A friend who didn't know that I was involved in an incident with Amanda and shaving cream would have acted more surprised and concerned.

"It seems that there are only two people who could have played a prank on Amanda like the one that was performed today, and both of those people are sitting in front of me. If it's true, Franklin, that you had nothing to do with it, the blame shall fall solely on Elise. Would that be fair? We are talking about suspension."

"I confess!" Franklin wailed dramatically. "I confess!" He threw his arms up and then slumped in his chair.

"You did it?"

"Yes. I filled Amanda's lunch with shaving cream as an act of retaliation for the cruelty she has shown my friend Elise from the very first day of school."

"I see," Ms. Hadley said. "No such cruelty has been brought to my attention before. While normally I would suggest that students work out their differences, I feel in this case that I will rea.s.sign your locker, Elise, to prevent another scene like today's." She wrote something on a slip of paper and handed it to me. "Bring that to the secretaries and they will rea.s.sign you."

"Now, as for the matter of this prank," she continued. "Franklin, did you act alone, or did you and Elise act together?"

"I a I acted alone," Franklin said.

"Elise?"

This was the part when I was supposed to jump in and help Franklin, the friend who had tried to help me. This was the part when I would share the blame.

I tried not to look at Amanda.

How bad would things get if I said I was behind it? Even if I didn't admit to it, Amanda would still a.s.sume I'd done it anyway, right? We wouldn't be sharing a locker anymore, but she could still do awful things.

What about everyone else, though? Would things go better with them if I didn't have Franklin to make me look so silly? Hadn't all the trouble started because people thought we were both little kids, Elise and Franklin, a pair, together all the time, exactly alike? I thought about the playing pretend and my injuries and the Star Wars toys all over the hallway. I could show now that I wasn't so tied to him, that I wasn't just a baby like him.

I looked at Franklin, who would never let me down, and I suddenly felt so angry at him. He trusted me completely, and that hurt. I didn't deserve that kind of trust.

My mouth stayed shut.

"Elise didn't have anything to do with it?" Ms. Hadley turned to Franklin.

"No," Franklin said. "I acted entirely alone."

"Elise? Did you help?"

I said, "No."

And Franklin got suspended by himself.

I Am Garbage.

I curled up in my bed as soon as I got home.

Aunt Bessie found me there a little while later. "Are you okay?"

I didn't answer.

She tried again. "Lise?"

She gave me another minute, then she said, "School called. Are you in your bed because you got in a fight? Are you hurt?"

"I am garbage."

"You aren't garbage."

"I am. Garbage."

I was garbage for knowing Franklin wouldn't turn me in and saying nothing. For wanting so much to please Uncle Hugh and Aunt Bessie but not taking their advice.

"Why didn't you talk to a grown-up before fighting?" Aunt Bessie asked. It sounded like she was asking herself, not me.

"When we tried to tell Ms. Hadley what Amanda had been doing, she didn't really care."