Part 7 (1/2)

*What?' Caroline looked stunned. *That's not true. That's not the worst thing that can happen at all. The worst thing that can happen is that your parents could be killed in a car crash. Or that you get that thing you keep talking about . . . that flesh-eating virus. Who cares if Prince Peter knows if you like him? I mean, you do. So. So what?'

*Oh!' Sophie said, sucking in her breath like she was about to cry. That's because she was. *You would say that, Caroline Wu! Because it doesn't affect you, does it? This is all your fault anyway! You're the one who told Cheyenne about Prince Peter in the first place!'

Caroline shook her head, looking as upset as Sophie. *What? My fault? But . . . I didn't meana”'

*Shut up!' Sophie shouted just as the bell rang. *Just shut up!'

Then she ran off crying.

That's really when it all became clear to me. That everything had changed. Not just in Mrs Hunter's fourth-grade cla.s.s, but among the four of us queens as well.

And all because of a single sleepover.

Rule #9.

Sometimes It's Better Just to Say Things Will Be OK.

(Even If You Know This Isn't True).

Sophie asked Peter Jacobs to go with her during morning recess.

And he said yes.

But this didn't cheer her up, like you might have thought. We found her sitting on one of the swings, very depressed. Almost as depressed as Joey Fields had looked, pretending to read his Boxcar Children books, back in the simple days of the Kissing Game, when none of the girls would chase him.

*But,' Erica said, confused. Caroline wasn't with us. Caroline had decided to give Sophie some *breathing room' to *cool off', and was playing kickball with Rosemary and the boys, *I don't understand. If he said yes, why do you still look so sad?'

*Don't you get it?' Sophie seemed like she was about to cry. *He only said yes to be polite. He didn't want to upset me by saying no. He didn't want to be rude.'

*Oh, no,' Erica said, sending me a desperate glance over the top of Sophie's woolly hatted head, *I'm sure that's not true. I'm sure Prince Peter wouldn't do something like that.'

Sophie shot Erica a dirty look from her perch on the swing. *Of course he would,' she said. *He's a prince.'

*He's not a real prince,' I thought it was important to remind her.

But it turned out this was the wrong thing to say, since Sophie responded to it by bursting into tears.

*Oh dear,' Erica said, taking my arm and walking me a few feet away so we could talk without Sophie overhearing us. Not that there was any danger of this happening, since she was sobbing so loudly. *What are we going to do? This is awful. Sophie is miserable, and I don't think, the way things are going, she's ever going to forgive Caroline!'

*I know,' I said. I was sort of wis.h.i.+ng I was Rosemary. Because if I was, I'd have just walked up to Cheyenne and punched her in the face.

But I wasn't Rosemary. I was just me, Allie. And I'm not the type of girl who walks up to people and punches them in the face. I'm more of a non-violent-conflict-resolution kind of girl.

By lunchtime, Caroline and Sophie were in a full on fight. It started out as Caroline was apologizing (again) for telling Cheyenne about Prince Peter as we were picking up Kevin from the kindergarten cla.s.sroom on our way home for lunch.

But Sophie wouldn't say anything back to Caroline. She just took Kevin's mittened hand, looked straight ahead and started walking.

*Did you hear me, Sophie?' Caroline said. *I said I'm really, really, really, really sorry.'

Sophie didn't say anything. At least, not to Caroline.

Kevin, not understanding what was going on, went, *Sophie? Did you hear what Caroline said? She said she was really, really, really, really sorry.'

*I heard her,' Sophie said to Kevin. *My, isn't it cold out today?'

Kevin looked at me. We had to walk pretty slowly down the sidewalk because Mom had put Kevin in his snowsuit again, and he was waddling. *Is everything OK?' he wanted to know.

*Everything is fine,' Erica told Kevin in a nervous voice. *Isn't everything fine, girls?'

But of course everything wasn't fine. Everything was falling apart.

*Sophie,' Caroline said. You could tell she was getting mad now. Caroline doesn't get mad very often, but when she does, watch out. *I don't know what you expect me to do. I said I was sorry.'

Sophie just kept walking like she hadn't heard anything. Erica and I, behind them, glanced at each other. Erica looked like she was going to throw up, she was so upset about the whole thing. Erica hates fights.

*I mean, I admit I should never have said anything to Cheyenne about Peter a”' Caroline said.

Kevin gasped. *Caroline told Cheyenne about Prince Peter?'

*Kevin,' I said, *stay out of it.'

*Buta”' Kevin said.

*Stay out of it,' I warned him.

*See,' Sophie said. By then we'd reached the stop sign where Caroline and Sophie turn to go to their houses, *even Kevin knows that was a stupid thing to do! And he's four!'

*Five,' Kevin corrected her.

*Whatever,' Sophie said. She'd started to cry again. *You just don't know. You don't realize what you've done!'

*Oh, for heaven's sake,' Caroline said, rolling her eyes. *Do you have to be such a drama queen all the time, Sophie?'

Sophie sucked in her breath again. Then she let out a wail, turned around and ran down the street to her own house.

Caroline, realizing what she'd said, cried, *Sophie!' Then she ran off after her.

But ever since Sophie's broken toe has gotten a bit less tender, she's been walking and running without her limp. So I doubted Caroline would catch her.

Left alone at the stop sign, Erica and I looked at one another. Kevin was the one who said, *If you ask me, they're both acting like drama queens.'

*Shut up, Kevin,' I said, taking his hand.

*Well,' he said, *it's true.'

Lunch wasn't much fun that day. I had grilled cheese at Erica's house. We tried to figure out what to do about Caroline and Sophie, but couldn't come up with any solutions that made sense. When it came time to walk back to school, though we waited at the stop sign for both of them, neither showed up. We didn't know if they'd taken a different route to school to avoid us (or one another), or just hadn't felt like coming back to school at all.