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She shook her head “It’s jealousy” But I didn’t think it was jealousy I thought it waspart of a pack of wild animals that drive one animal out into the wilderness to die

It was scary, how a girl couldn’t live without friends

“Ignore it,”Lali will come around You’ll see”

My nore it and Lali’s birthday cah, four days later Lali and I were ain

For weeks afterward, however, when Lali irls to an amuse shunned When I finally asked Lali why I wasn’t invited, she looked at me in surprise “But you did come, didn’t you?”

I shook my head

“Oh,” she said “Maybe you were acting like a jerk or so”

“That Lali is a dope,”an insult she reserved for those she considered the very lowest for

I let it go I figured it was the way of girls But this—this betrayal—is that the way of girls as well?

“Hey,” The Mouse says, discovering me in the stacks “He wasn’t in calculus And she wasn’t in asseuilty”

“Or ”

“You can’t let theet to you, Bradley You can’t let them win You have to act like you don’t care”

“But I do care”

“I know But sometimes, you have to act the opposite of what people expect They want you to go crazy They want you to hate theer they become”

“I just want to knohy”