The Secret Language of Girls by Frances O'Roark Dowell Page B

“I’m going to give you a phrase, and you’ll have two minutes to write everything that comes to your mind about that phrase, okay? The first phrase I want you to free write on is ‘Best Friend.’ ” Sara Catherine Toole checked her watch. “Ready? One, two, three, go!”
    After a minute Kate glanced over at Marylin, who had started writing immediately. “Best Friend” was printed across the top of her paper. And right beneath that, in very small letters, Marylin had written “Squirrel Butt.”

    Kate had discovered that lunch was the worst time of the day if your so-called friends were ignoring you. She had tried reading a book while she ate her sandwich, but she got too caught up in the story. Twice that week she hadn’t heard the rest of her class get up and go outside to the playground after everyone wasdone eating. It had been very embarrassing to look up and realize she was the only person from Ms. Cahill’s class left in the cafeteria.
    On Thursday Kate ate her sandwich as fast as she could and then got permission to go to the library. She had decided to look for books about people who got ignored by their friends. Maybe some famous author had been ignored by her best friend when she was a kid and had some interesting opinions on the subject.
    She found three books on friendship, but they were no help at all. One of them was called A Friend Is . . . , by Margie Majors-Reinholdt. Every page had “A Friend Is . . .” at the top, a picture of two girls picking flowers or baking cookies in the middle, and at the bottom a sentence like “Someone who cheers you up” or “Someone who cares about you.” A Friend Is . . . , by Margie Majors-Reinhold, made Kate want to throw up.
    Kate flipped through the encyclopedia and the dictionary, but neither of them had anything to say about being ignored, so she started roaming at random through the shelves. She found a good book on famous Olympic athletes, and another on rainy-day activities such as making a phone with two cans and a piece of wire that looked pretty interesting, but nothing on friends who suddenly act like you’re the dumbest, smelliest person who ever lived.
    It really was enough to make a person feel tired, Kate thought as she sat down at a long table by the window. For one thing, being ignored was not exactly a private matter. At home it was just Marylin, Flannery, and Kate, but when you brought your life to school, it started to spread out to other people. So now Brittany and Ashley were acting weird around her, and today during P.E., when she and Elyse were waiting in line to take their turns at the broad-jump pit, Elyse had leaned over to herand said in a low voice, “You know, it might help if you got your ears pierced.”
    Kate had pulled at her left earlobe. “What would getting my ears pierced help?”
    Elyse shrugged. “Your image. You’d seem more mature if you wore earrings. And makeup. At least fingernail polish.”
    Elyse sounded as though she represented a committee that had spent hours in meetings deciding on how Kate could improve herself.
    “I’m not allowed to get my ears pierced until I’m twelve,” Kate said. By this time they were at the head of the line, and Elyse had started doing deep knee bends to warm up. “Besides, I’m not really the jewelry type.”
    “That’s too bad,” Elyse said, turning to make her jump. “Because people really respect pierced ears.”
    Kate had a hard time believing Flannery and Marylin were ignoring her just because she didn’t have two minuscule holes poked intoher head like they did. What kind of people would stop talking to you over dumb stuff like that? She thought about how she and Marylin had practically spent their whole lives together. How could you be best friends with someone forever and then stop talking to them? Had Marylin forgotten the time last summer when her parents wouldn’t stop fighting and she’d spent three nights in a row over at Kate’s house, no questions