Almost Identical #1 by Lin Oliver

instead of watching the ball.”
    â€œI can’t help it. I told you, she makes me uncomfortable.”
    Charlie scowled at me as she took out her hair tie and shook her hair loose. “That’s your problem, not hers, Sammie.”
    â€œAnd a pretty weak reason to lose a match,” my dad added.
    I knew they were right, but I didn’t care. Couldn’t they understand? I didn’t
try
to make us lose. This was something I couldn’t control. And now I was being blamed for it. It wasn’t fair.
    I stomped off the court, over to the chairs where our tennis bags were. I unzipped my bag and pulled out a towel to wipe the giant beads of sweat off my face. I was beet red from the heat, and I was so hot that a little trickle of sweat actually ran down my leg from under my pink, pleated skort. I reached down to wipe it off, and when I looked up, who was watching me but Lauren Wadsworth.
    I swear, that girl must have a magic wand that makes her appear every time I couldn’t look more gross.
    â€œI’m sorry you lost the match,” she said.
    Ryan, who was standing next to her, said, “Yeah, what was with you, Sam? You usually play much better.”
    I could feel a little trickle of sweat running down my leg again.
    â€œMaybe it’s the heat,” Lauren said as if she could actually console me. “You look really hot.”
    Thank you, Lauren, for making me even more aware that rivers of sweat are pouring out of inappropriate parts of my body.
    â€œThat’s our Sammie,” Ryan said. “She’s a sweater.” Then, as he heard what he had said, he cracked up. “Did you hear that? A sweater. She’s a bright-red, pullover sweater. I am so
punny
.”
    Lauren cracked up, too. I had to get away, but there was nowhere to go, so I stuck my face in my towel.
    â€œSee you in school tomorrow, Charlie,” I heard Lauren say from outside my towel bubble. “I hope we have some classes together.”
    â€œMe too,” Charlie answered.
    â€œIf not, I’ll see you at lunch. Meet me at the SF2 table.”
    As I pulled my face out of the towel, I realized that no one had asked me to lunch. I wasn’t invited to the SF2 table; Charlie was.
    Oh well,
I thought.
Chubby little me probably shouldn’t be having lunch, anyway.
    Charlie and I have a tradition where after every competition, win or lose, we go to our favorite pizza place called Barone’s and get our favorite pizza, which is sausage and mushroom, and two vanilla Cokes. It’s just the two of us, no parents or brother or friends. We call it Pizza Bonding, and we haven’t missed one Pizza Bonding since we were ten. So as Lauren and Ryan walked off the court, she turned to me and said, “So how’s a sausage and mushroom pizza sound?”
    â€œFattening.”
    â€œWe could order a small one.”
    â€œJust the two of us?”
    â€œOf course, Sammie. Just the two of us. Like always.”
    That sounded good to me. It’s the way it had always been: just the two of us. But as Lauren reached the gate and waved good-bye, she shouted, “See you tomorrow, Charlie,” and I had a feeling all that was about to change.

The First Day
    Chapter 5
    â€œIt’s your fault they make you uncomfortable, Sammie. You’re the one with the crummy attitude,” Charlie said as we hurried down Third Street to Beachside Middle School for our first day of school.
    It was Monday morning at quarter to eight, and we were rushing. We had gotten a notice to go to the registration office to pick up our schedules before actual classes began. Ryan had left really early to meet with the volleyball coach, so Charlie and I were walking by ourselves. Even though we had done a test run with our dad to see how long it would take us to walk, it was taking longer than we had planned because we had to go up a really steep hill called the California Incline to get from the beach to the