 
# Diary of a 7th Grade Drama Queen

## Ayla Hashway

### Contents

About Me, Taylor

First Diary Writing Attempt

Monday, August 27

Tuesday, August 28

Wednesday, August 29th

Thursday, August 30th

Friday, August 31st

Saturday, September 1st

Sunday, September 2nd

Monday, September 3rd

Tuesday, September 4th

Wednesday, September 5th

Thursday, September 6th

Friday, September 7th

Saturday, September 8th

Sunday, September 9th

Monday, September 10th

Tuesday, September 11th

Wednesday, September 12th

Thursday, September 13th

Friday, September 14th

Saturday, September 15th

Also by Ayla Hashway

Acknowledgments

About the Author
Copyright © 2019 Ayla Hashway

All rights reserved.

* * *

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual places or people, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. No part of this book may be reproduced, copied, or recorded without written permission from the author.

* * *

The author acknowledges the trademark status and trademark ownership of all trademarks mentioned in this book. Trademarks are not sponsored or endorsed by the trademark owners.
This book is dedicated to my friends.

# About Me, Taylor

Full name: Taylor Raegan Quinn

Age: 12

Grade: 7

School: Pine Lake Intermediate

Pets: Dog (Hadley) and Cat (Zoe)

Older brother: Marcus (8th Grade)

Older sister: Alyssa (9th Grade)

Little twin sisters: Angelica and Cece (5th Grade)

Little brother: glad not!

Cousins: Gracyn (7th Grade) Elizabeth (4th Grade DEVIL)

Hobby: Ballet

Best friends: Lauren and Ethan

Dance friends: Angelina, Melinda, and Sophie

# First Diary Writing Attempt

Dear Diary, so here I was about to sit down to write in my new diary, when my older brother, Marcus, walks into my room without knocking and goes on and on about his new girlfriend like he has known her forever. Best part is not once did he mention her name. Like a twelve-year-old cares about something like that! Great! Now my first ever entry is about him, when this diary is supposed to be about me, Taylor Reagan Quinn, and my life, not his! If he really wants to talk to someone about it, he should get his own diary.

"Taylor, did you take my phone?!?!" my older sister, Alyssa, said angrily. "Cece said you took it."

"You believe the ten-year-old?" I shot back. Cece and Angelica are my two little twin sisters and the definition of ANNOYING!

Maybe tomorrow I can write. Sorry, Diary.

# Monday, August 27

It is officially the first day of school at Pine Lake Intermediate, and there is nothing that can get my spirits down.

"What team are you on this year?" I ask my best friend Lauren.

"Silver!" Lauren said excitedly. "What team are you on?"

"Blue," I said sadly. Not only was the blue team the one with strict teachers, but also now my BFF is on silver. We'll never get to see each other.

"Oh," Lauren replied. "At least, we'll see each other on the bus and walking to the bus like we are now."

Knowing Lauren, she'll make a new BFF on the first day. I try not to show how upset I am, but it is like trying to lift a car with one arm.

We finally reached the bus stop as the bus was pulling up. When I stepped on the bus, the driver said, "Taylor! Good to see you again, dear."

"Oh hi, Miss Kimberly!" I said sweetly. I know her from Mom bringing me to pick up Marcus and Alyssa. That's only when they have after school Robotics, though.

"Lauren!" called a popular girl named Leslie. "I saved a seat for you."

Of course, Lauren went and sat with her. So much for us hanging out on the bus.

"Hey, Taylor," called my other best friend Ethan from the back of the bus. "There's an empty seat here if you want."

I waved and walked over. "Nice jacket," I said.

"Thanks," he said. "My cousin gave it to me as a belated birthday gift."

"Your birthday was in May, though."

"Very belated," Ethan said.

"Didn't he see you sooner?" I asked.

"Yeah, he said that he didn't have time to get me a gift with all the nothing he was doing," Ethan explained.

"Wow!" I said.

Once we were at school, I finally had the guts to ask Ethan, "What team are you on?"

"Blue."

"Same," I said, my brown hair flowing in the wind.

I looked at my watch. Oh no! "We are going to be late!" I exclaimed.

"Taylor," Ethan said, "the bell didn't ring yet."

"I know, but I have to make a good impression by showing up"—I look at the time—"seven minutes early."

"Relax. All teachers care about is that you show up, aren't late, pay attention, get good grades, and—" Ethan started to say, but I didn't hear the rest because I was long gone.

I walked to my first class—homeroom, which I guess isn't a real class. More like attendance.

"Hello," said who I guessed was my homeroom teacher. "Welcome to homeroom."

"Hi," I said a bit shyly. "I'm Taylor Raegan Quinn."

"I'm your homeroom teacher, Mrs. Lucykanish," she said, shaking my hand. "Nice to meet you," she finished.

I could tell she was just as nervous as I was. I walked in and read the board.

_Welcome to homeroom. Please pick any seat of your choice._

I scanned the room, and surprisingly someone beat me to class. She had long brown hair and chocolate-colored eyes. Her nails were painted a bright pink.

So, I decided to sit next to her and make a friend.

"Hi," I said, sitting down.

No answer. What was going on? Was she ignoring me? No one had ever ignored me! I decided to force my way into a conversation with her. "I'm Taylor Raegan Quinn," I started. "Is it just me, or is it extremely quiet in here?"

"Oh, hi," she said, turning to me. "I'm Violet D."

Yes! She was talking to me. I wondered what the rest of her name was.

"I guess we are the only ones who like to be early," I said.

"Guess nobody else wants good seats," she said.

"But we're in the back row," I said a little confused.

"Yeah, exactly. My friends and I hate being in the front," Violet explained. "The teachers always stare at you. It's so uncomfortable."

"I guess. I never really noticed that before," I said. "I only think of the advantages."

"Plus, if you lose something, the teachers check the front rows first, giving me more time to find it," Violet stated.

More people started to come. Mrs. Lucykanish closed the door and went to the front of the room. "Good morning, everyone. I'm your homeroom teacher, Mrs. Lucykanish. Although if you'd rather call me Mrs. L. that is fine, too. On to attendance. Samantha Collins?"

"Here," said a soft yet powerful voice from the second row. Samantha had blonde hair with dark purple streaks in it. Her sparkly hazel eyes shot right at Violet after she said that.

"Um, what was that about?" I asked Violet.

"Oh, Samantha and I are always head-to-head in everything," Violet explained. "If either of us come in first, we always give each other a look saying 'ha-ha, I was first and you were not!'"

"Violet DeRobertis?" Mrs. Lucykanish called.

"Here," Violet said, her perfectly manicured hand shooting up.

"Last but not least, Taylor Quinn?" she called.

"Here," I said a little too loudly, making everyone turn and stare.

"Good, now I know most of you already have this, but some might have lost them. I am passing out your schedules," Mrs. Lucykanish said, picking up the papers from her desk.

As soon as Violet and I got the schedules, we both checked our first class.

"I got Math. How about you?" Violet said.

"Oh, I got English," I replied.

Finally, the bell rang. I walked down the hall to the room labeled 202.

"I am Mrs. Trauschke, your English teacher," said a tall blonde woman with glasses and a big smile. "Welcome to seventh grade English."

"I am Taylor Raegan Quinn," I said, shaking her hand.

"Sit wherever you'd would like. It will be your class seat for the year," Mrs. Trauschke said.

I was first to class, so I chose my seat first. The front row, second desk.

Suddenly, Samantha Collins walked in and took the first seat in the first row. Right next to me! I didn't want to become BFFs with someone who hated V's guts. By the way, diary, I'm just going to call her V for now. (Violet=V)

"Hey, Taylor!" Samantha said in an almost questioning girly-girl voice.

I felt bad because I just sat there frozen, looking at her in complete confusion of what to do.

"Hey," I finally said. "What's up, bro?" I quickly covered my mouth.

"So, can I trust you enough to keep my secret?" Samantha asked.

"Y-yeah, sure. I mean, absolutely," I stuttered. _Why on earth is this girl telling me a secret? I don't even know her._

"You know Lucas from homeroom? The one in the second row, third desk?"

"Oh, right. Y-yeah, of course," I stuttered again.

"Well, he was in my school last year," Samantha said.

"Okay, so what about that is a secret?" I asked.

"Well, I kind of have a huge crush on him," Samantha said, blushing.

"Dude! No way!" I said. "Bro, trust me, I won't say a word."

"Um," Samantha said.

"Oh, sorry. Forgot you are not Ethan or my brother," I said, fiddling with my friendship bracelet Lauren had given me.

"Call me Sam, by the way," Samantha Sam said, giggling a bit.

Come on! You have to admit I was rocking this whole first day thing.

"Taylor?" Mrs. Trauschke said. "Are you listening?"

"Yes, ma'am," I said.

"What did I just say?" Mrs. Trauschke asked.

"Words?" I said.

The whole class started laughing. Mrs. Trauschke wasn't amused.

"Class clown, huh?" Mrs. Trauschke said. "That's a detention."

No!!! Great. Now I have detention on my first day! I take back what I said earlier.

"Yes, ma'am," I said sheepishly.

# Tuesday, August 28

"Rise and shine!" Alyssa said perched on the dresser above my bed with her head leaning above mine.

"Ahh!" I screamed.

"Happy second day of school!" Alyssa said, jumping down.

Why must she be so weird?

After we got downstairs, my mom asked, "How was your day at school yesterday, Taylor? Sorry I had to work late on your first day."

It was time to tell the truth. Today was detention. She was going to find out anyway.

"Good," I lied. "But, this girl—her name is Samantha but she lets me call her Sam—she was talking to me in class, and the teacher gave us detention," I said quickly.

"So, you weren't talking?" she asked.

I know what you're thinking. I said I was going to tell the truth, but it's not that easy. "No," I finally said.

"I'm calling your school and filing a complaint," my mom said angrily. "How dare they accuse my innocent daughter of doing something she didn't do?"

"No!" I yelled. "You cannot do that!"

"Why not?" she asked both suspiciously and confused.

"Sam is my new friend, and I don't want to make her think that I rat my friends out," I explain. I cannot believe that came to me so quickly.

"Fine," Mom said. "You are just going to have to serve the detention if that's how you want to be."

"Thanks for understanding, Mom," I said.

"When I was your age, I had a friend that I stuck up for all the time. But then—"

"Mommy, get me more juice!" Angelica interrupted, skipping into the room.

"Angelica, I asked first," Cece said.

"Yeah, well Mom didn't hear you." Angelica stuck out her tongue.

Their dark brown curls swayed and whipped back and forth as they yelled at each other. Their blue eyes glistened in the light.

"Mom!" they screamed in unison.

"Marcus," Mom called, making our lunches. "Can you get the twins juice please?"

"Whatever," Marcus groaned.

Marcus has been mad lately because he cannot do robotics since he barely passed summer school. That was his punishment since robotics would take away too much study time.

"Here," he said, putting the twins' drinks in front of them at the kitchen table.

Sometimes I wish that my mom thought _I_ was responsible enough to do stuff around the house.

Once lunch was over, surprisingly, Samantha walked with me to science. I still wasn't sure why she wanted to talk to me. She also gave me a note right before she left. My science teacher, Ms. Dahl, was great. She went through everything so fast she let us have free time. I took out my note right away. It was kind of confusing at first because it wasn't in my bag.

"This yours?" A tall boy with brown hair walked up to me, holding the note.

"Um, no," I said, not even looking up yet. "Wait, yes!"

"I'm Lucas," he said.

"Taylor. How did you find this?" I asked, taking the note.

"I was behind you and Samantha when it fell out of the pile of stuff you were carrying," he said.

"Thanks for grabbing it," I said.

After that, we talked the whole rest of class. He's cool, but now that I know him, I'm almost worried that I like him. That cannot happen. Sam will hate me! Wait, the note!

Taylor,

Remember yesterday when I said I like Lucas? Well, it was a secret because I'm dating this 8th grader. And it gets worse because yesterday, I met this even cuter guy. So I think I'm over the whole Lucas thing. My mom says I barely talk to him anyway, and I don't even know his last name. So I guess I just like him as a friend. But there's still the 8th grader. Anyway, meet me outside under the bleachers during free period.

~Sam <3

Squee! She doesn't like him. But he doesn't like me. ☹️ Great.

After math was free period. So I went outside and met Sam under the bleachers.

"What's up?" I asked.

"I want to break up with my boyfriend," Sam said, biting her lip.

"The eighth grader?"

"Yeah," she said. "I really like the other guy I met."

"Maybe my brother Marcus could help. He's in eighth grade," I offered.

"Marcus?" she asked.

"Yeah, so yes or no?" I said.

"No, I'd rather you help."

"Okay, but I have to go. Free period is almost over," I said, backing toward the school.

_Detention! Detention!_ was all that pounded through my head as I walked to homeroom where I was to serve it.

"Sit down, and do not talk," Mrs. Lucykanish said.

I sat three rows behind Sam. I didn't want her to talk to me in detention. Most of all, I didn't want another detention.

After detention, I went to my locker to gather my stuff when suddenly a paper airplane flew into my locker. I looked around, and no one was there. I opened the airplane. Inside was a portrait of me signed "Your secret admirer."

OMG! Who sent this? It's soooooooooooo cool and...sweet. Who has great art skills and could like me? Blank, blank, blank. My mind is blank!

What would Alyssa think?

# Wednesday, August 29th

The sound of a ringing phone woke me up way too early this morning. It was just to say robotics was canceled due to the teacher not being able to make it. It was still only 4:56. I still had to wait one hour and four minutes! Ugh. Might as well get a glass of water.

When I walked downstairs, I tripped on a wire, causing a net to fall and trap me under it. Suddenly, Alyssa, Cece, and Angelica jumped out from behind the counter.

"Ahh!" I screamed. "Wait. What?"

"Taylor?" Cece said confused.

"You are the cookie thief?" Angelica asked, shocked.

"No. I came for water," I said, still in the net.

Alyssa came over and helped me out.

"What cookie thief?" I asked.

"Someone has been stealing our cookies at night," Angelica said, and Cece nodded.

"Why is Alyssa here if they are _your_ cookies?" I questioned.

"She takes robotics," Cece said. "She made the trap."

"Well, I think I know who's stealing the cookies," I said, pointing at Alyssa, who was shoving two cookies into her mouth while Cece and Angelica weren't looking.

"Alyssa!" Angelica fumed.

"That's me," Alyssa said, her mouth full.

"Double agent!" Cece said, snatching the cookie jar.

"No!" Alyssa said, reaching for the cookies. "Not my babies!"

"What is going on down..." Marcus started to say before a net fell on him. "Here?" he finished.

"He got the worst trap," Cece said as a machine tied a rope to close the net and hung him upside down on a hook on the wall.

Alyssa burst out laughing.

"You better get me out of here!" Marcus yelled.

"Eh," Alyssa said, walking away.

Once everyone was up and everything was cleaned up, Angelica said, "I feel like we forgot something."

"Because you did," Marcus said, still hanging upside down from the hook.

Right before we left the house, Alyssa said, "Oh, don't forget to pick me up from robotics."

"Robotics was canceled, remember?" I say confused.

"Oh, uh yeah. Right. Forgot." She bit her lip and picked up her backpack.

"Is that makeup in there?!" I asked.

"No," she said quickly shutting the bag.

"I see it, Alyssa," I said. "Mom won't be happy if she finds out."

"Yeah, but just like this morning, no one will ever have to know," Alyssa said with a wink.

What is going on? This is so unlike her. Maybe I shouldn't ask her about the drawing. I wish she would tell me why she's acting like this. Whatever it is, I'm not a fan of it.

At school, I opened my locker to put my stuff inside, and I saw a rose next to my science notebook. First a note and then a rose? Who could my secret admirer be?

On my way to homeroom, Lucas came over and started asking me about clubs and if I was joining any. I was so nervous and concerned about Alyssa I could barely talk to him.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Sister," I said. "She's acting strange, and I'm worried about her."

"Sorry to hear," he said. "Anyway, gotta get to my class. See ya around!"

"You into Lucas?" V said, catching up to me.

"Uh, no. I...uh—" I said.

"Uh-huh." V elbowed me. "What do you see in him?"

"Violet!" I said.

"What? Just asking," V said.

"Have you ever liked anyone?" I asked V.

"Taylor!" Violet said.

"What? Just asking," I quoted.

V laughed.

Sometimes I feel like V doesn't trust me all that much. I mean, yeah, we've only known each other for two days, but she barely talks about herself, doesn't tell me any secrets, and yet she always hears about me, and I always tell her my secrets.

We entered homeroom, and Mrs. Lucykanish said that instead of our assigned seats, we could sit wherever, so we get to know everyone. Which I don't get. I mean, does she want us talking in class?

I still sat by Violet. I kept asking her questions, and she kept turning them around on me.

Uh-oh! Samantha walked over to the seat next to me. Double uh-oh, she sat down.

"Um, Taylor," V said, annoyed. "Why is she here?"

What was I supposed to say?

1. I don't even know

2. I'm helping her with something

or

3. Say nothing and just run!!!

Not gonna lie, the third option seemed pretty good.

"She's my friend," I said. What did I just do?

"Friend?" Violet screamed. She got up and changed her seat.

"So you think you can help me now?" Samantha asked.

"Uh, yeah, I guess so," I said, still looking at Violet in a seat across the room.

"How do I break up with him?"

"Um, well, I don't really know."

"You said you could help me."

"Um...sorry. Nature calls."

"Wait. What?!" Sam said as I got out of my seat, taking my stuff with me.

I spent the rest of my morning dodging both of my new friends. Luckily, I didn't run into Violet or Sam before lunch, and I acted like I didn't see or hear either of them when I went to sit down.

"Hey, Taylor," Lucas said, walking over to me. "I want you to meet my friend Bethany. She just moved into the house next to mine from New York."

"Oh, cool. I like your necklace," I told her.

"Thanks. My friend from New York gave it to me," she said, playing with her hair. "Call me Beth by the way."

"Her mom runs the Jewels and Tools store by the Pine Lake Mall," Lucas said. "Bethany has been donating some of her paychecks from working there to the no-kill pet shelter."

"That's awesome! I guess you like animals. Do you have any pets?" I ask.

"No, but I love bunnies," Beth said. "My cousin has two bunnies and a dog who recently had five puppies. They are adorable!"

"Aw, that's so cute," I say. "I have a dog and a cat. But my cat lives in the laundry room, and my dog pretty much sleeps all day so you barely even notice they are there most of the time."

"Well, nice meeting you," Beth said and walked over to another lunch table and sat down.

When she was walking it almost looked like she was going down a red carpet with the way she swayed. Her auburn hair with darker tips bounced with every step. Way too fancy for me. If she didn't hurry up and sit down, I would have barfed all over her bright red dress. I don't know why, but something about her just annoys me to no end. Yet she is soooo nice. OMG!!!!!! The popular kids are practically swarming her! HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!?! Violet is hanging out with her, too?! It is like she is steeling my life and waving it out in front of me just to taunt me! I ABSOLUTELY HATE THAT GIRL!!!!

"Hey!" Lauren said, walking by my table.

"Oh, hey. Can we talk? You would not believe what is happening with my life right now!" I said desperately.

"Sure, wha–?" Lauren started to say before Leslie and the popular crowd cut her off.

"L, let's go,"

"One sec," she replied.

"Oh hey, I need her. Find her when she is free next time. Thanks!" Leslie said to me, grabbing Lauren and pulling her away.

"Oh yeah? Well, find your own best friend, would ya, or why don't _YOU_ find her when she's free! I was talking to her first, and you do not control her!" I screamed. But only in my head. No way would I actually say that out loud. I cannot get in more trouble at this school.

So, there I was all alone at the lunch table once again. I wish I could just throw myself into a bottomless pit and DIE! As if today wasn't already going badly enough, Sam walked in and rushed over to me.

"There you are! I have been searching for you literally everywhere. So what should I do?" Sam said, sitting down.

Violet gave me a look that said, "I cannot believe you, and don't expect me to _ever_ talk to you ever again."

"Just say that you think that maybe it's time to take a break and mention how he is one year older and things have just been a little awkward," I said. I had no idea where that all came from. I guess I just was in a hurry to think about something else.

Once I got home, I finished my math homework and then tried to call Lauren.

4:00 = No answer

5:00 = No answer

6:00 = No answer

7:00 = No answer

8:00 = No answer

9:00 = No answer

☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️

Well, Diary, I don't know what is going on but wish me luck that I can fix it and everything goes back to normal. Good night, Diary.

# Thursday, August 30th

As soon as I woke up this morning, I immediately checked my phone to see if Lauren had at least texted me back. Sure enough she didn't. Wait. What?!? For some reason my phone notification says Bethany added me on Snaptweet. UGH! I soooo want to decline, but I don't want her going on and on to Lucas about how awful I am. 😐☹️

I hovered my finger over _accept_. WHAT DID I JUST DO?!?! Great. Just GREAT! Now I am _friends_ with the person who I cannot stand for the life of me! Anyway, she has been nonstop messaging me all day, even in class. I had to silence my phone. Like what is this girl's deal? Doesn't she understand I HATE HER? She needs serious help. Plus, today after school I have to go to dance and audition for a recital. The lead role auditions are last, so some people have parts already because we had auditions for different parts on Sunday. I have only been thinking about the main role, and I am worried that I won't be in the recital at all if I don't get this part.

"Hey, Tay-Tay!" Beth said, waving from the other side of the cafeteria.

Ugh!

"Hey, Bethany!" I said, waving back. I sound so girly and annoying right now.

"So, I was thinking you know how we both need partners for the math project in Mrs. Dickerson's class?" Beth asked, sitting down next to me.

Oh no. Don't. Please do **NOT** ask to be my partner. I bravely said, "Yeah." My eyes now closed with fear.

"Do you want to be my partner?" Beth asked.

NOOOOOOO! "I really don't want you to be my partner, no offence or anything, but I hate you to no end little-miss BEAUTY QUEEN! No one in there right minds would ever want to be _YOUR_ partner **EVER**!" I wish I could have screamed that in her face. Here is what really happened.

"Of course! This is going to be so fun. You should come to my house and work on it with me after school tomorrow," I said. It is like she brainwashes me while I am talking! Is she an ALIEN or some kind of paranormal creature?

"Yeah, that sounds great! Snaptweet me your address later," she said getting up and doing that stupid red carpet walk again.

"Yay! See you there," I said, still thinking she brainwashed me or something because no way would I really have said yay.

Great! "This day just keeps getting better and better!" Now I am stuck with a brainwashing alien or paranormal creature coming over in my free time after school. Worse yet my mom has no clue, and I have to give that freak my address! I am sooo DEAD.

When I got home from school I headed into my room to do my homework when I overheard my older brother, Marcus, on the phone talking to his girlfriend. I know I probably shouldn't have been doing this, but I had to. So I pushed my homework aside and stuck my head by the doorway of Marcus's room to try to eavesdrop. I really want to know who it is. I looked the other way for a second to make sure no one knew what I was doing. Then I turned back and saw Marcus staring angrily at me.

"Go away, or I'll tell Mom and Dad what really happened with the detention!" Marcus said, pushing me into my room.

"Wait. How do you–?" I started to say, getting really mad.

"That's none of your business. Just do what I say!" Marcus said, smirking.

What?!?! How does he know? The only ways he would know is if one he was spying on me or two ... this is sooo hard to say, he read my diary! How dare he have the nerve to read you, Diary! He will blab to Mom and Dad faster than I can say I AM SOOO DOOMED!

I should call Sam to see if her boyfriend knows who Marcus is dating so I can use that against him. 🙂 I should call her now.

NO ANSWER?! Come on! You have to be kidding me.

At dance, I was sitting on the bench waiting for my turn watching people who were so nervous they practically wobbled across the stage.

"Hey, Taylor," my friend Lia and Sophie said in unison, sitting next to me. Lia had dark brown hair and eyes that seemed to change color depending on the lighting. While Sophie had dark brown hair and dark chocolate brown eyes.

"Hey," I said. "Do you guys know if you got the parts you auditioned for?"

"Melinda got both parts," Sophie said angrily.

"Yeah, it's so unfair. She should only get one," Lia agreed.

"Maybe there was a mistake and really she only got one. Plus, she cannot do both parts at once," I said, trying to cheer them up.

"I doubt it," Lia said, looking at the ground.

"Oh well," Sophie said. "We will always have next year."

"Next year? Oh well?" Lia said confused. "No, not next year. Not oh well. We are going to get her back."

"No, that's not a good idea," I said.

"I'm in," Sophie said. "But how are we going to get her back?"

"A prank," Lia said with an evil grin. "Taylor, you in?"

"No, this is wrong," I said. "Plus, I don't want her to hate me."

"Chicken!" Sophie said.

"Am not!" I fight back.

"I hear she is going for the lead, too," Lia said. "If she gets the part, you are left with none, just like us."

"Taylor Quinn?" my dance teacher, Mrs. Aura, called. "You are next."

I went up on the stage and started the routine. I was nervous, but I wasn't missing any steps and I even wasn't shaking. Even though I didn't have to, I spun up and twirled three times in the air and landed on my perfectly pointed toes like later on in the scene.

"Very good, Taylor," Mrs. Aura said, clapping. "Last is Melinda."

Sophie, Lia, and I, watched as Melinda twirled and leaped along the stage. Then that's where I couldn't believe my eyes. Melinda had copied me.

"Very good, Melinda," Mrs. Aura said. "And the lead role goes to Melinda. Taylor Quinn is your understudy, dear."

Understudy?!?! Nooooo!

I turned to Lia and said, "I'm in."

Sophie and Lia smiled at each other.

"Just as a reminder of the parts, I will have the list outside in the lobby on the TV," Mrs. Aura said.

"Like anyone would want to see that!" Sophie said.

"Everyone call me later to plan the prank," Lia said. "Seven thirty sharp."

"Okay, see you later," I said, walking out into the lobby, when suddenly I noticed that because Melinda got the lead, Lia and Sophie got their parts.

They shouldn't be pranking Melinda. And neither should I. I turned back into the studio, but Sophie and Lia were already gone. The only one still there was Mrs. Aura.

"Can I help you?" Mrs. Aura asked.

"No," I said. "Just waiting for my dad to pick me up." I know I should have asked what I did wrong, but it was too late now.

"Okay, see you Sunday," Mrs. Aura said, leaving the building as my dad entered.

"How did it go?" he asked. "Did you get the part?"

"No," I say sheepishly.

"Who did?" he asked.

"My friend Melinda," I said. "She copied my audition."

"Did you ask what you did wrong?" my dad said.

"No, it feels like I'm being selfish and asking why does she deserve the part and not me," I explain.

The rest of the night, I had a lump in my throat. I was so distracted I even forgot to call and tell Sophie and Lia. I ended up talking to Beth about it! That's how pathetic I am! Wish me a whole lot of luck, Diary.

# Friday, August 31st

5:00 a.m. Yes, this morning at 5:00 a.m., Lia and Sophie group FaceTimed me.

"Huh?" I say 90% asleep.

"HOW RUDE!" Sophie screamed.

60%

"Yeah, how could you completely bail on us like that?!" Lia fumed. "You left us hanging there for so long that we had to plan the whole prank without you!"

0%

"What?!?!" I said. NOOOOOOOO!!!! Why did they do that? Why did I forget? Why am I soo DEAD?

"I know. I know. We should have waited, but we couldn't," Sophie said. "Plus, _you_ left _us_ hanging."

"We texted you like a zillion times!" Lia said.

I check my phone. Sure enough, there were 53 unopened text messages. I had assumed they were just from Beth when my phone buzzed.

"I am really super sorry I forgot," I said. "About the prank, though–"

"Okay, so first we put itching powder in her costume. Then we switch her ballet slippers for a way bigger pair so she is sure to trip," Sophie started.

"Next we rig a bucket of water above the stage so it spills all over her, and we put a clown wig with the costume and write a fake letter from Mrs. Aura saying how she has to wear the wig and that the one scene was rewritten," Lia continued. "The script will be on the back of the letter, and then she will get all of the moves wrong, too."

"Guys, I really need to tell you something," I insisted.

"We know it is an awesome plan," Lia said.

"We also know it is more of sabotage," Sophie added. "But that's not it. We put cookies with expired eggs in them on her dressing room vanity."

"Her stomach acts up when she eats eggs that are expired," Lia pointed out.

"How do you know that? Why does she know that?" I asked scared to know the answer.

"She was dared to eat an expired egg every day for a week, and within the first hour, she had already been to the bathroom SEVEN times!" Sophie explained.

"TMI!" I said. "Anyway, I have to–"

"You have to go already?" Lia said, interrupting me.

"Well bye, see you Sunday!" Sophie said.

Before I could even say anything else, they had already hung up. Great. How am I going to fix this now?

"Sis?" Marcus said, walking into my room, rubbing his eyes. He was wearing his crown pajamas. "It's five in the morning. Go to bed. Or else."

I quickly took a picture of him in his pajamas. It was so funny.

"I think we both know what or else is," he said, glaring at me.

UGH! I HATE HIM! That annoying, diary reading, and eavesdropping, brother of mine.

Later that morning, Marcus came into the kitchen looking like one, his twin just died and two, like the Minnesota Vikings (AKA the thing he hates most in this world) just won the Super Bowl.

"What's wrong?" I ask dangerously.

"None of your business, you creep. Just worry about making me pancakes pronto!" Marcus yelled.

"Um, no way am I being your slave," I shot back.

"Well, you better hurry. Mom will be up soon, and there is some news I doubt she'd want to hear first thing in the morning," Marcus said.

"I guess you didn't change as much as your expressions say you did," I said, starting to take out the ingredients.

He cannot win every time! I have to figure something out that I can use against _him_.

NOW PREPARING TOP-SECRET OPERATION: BLACKMAIL

BY: TAYLOR RAEGAN QUINN

* * *

"By the way, I have a lot of nothing to catch up on this afternoon. So I was thinking, you have nothing ever planned except homework and writing in that stupid diary of yours. In other words, you are doing my homework," Marcus said.

"No way!" I said. "I was planning to ask Mom if I can have a friend over after school. We have a project to do."

"Well, I guess you'd better cancel," Marcus said, smiling. " _Or_ you and your little "friend" will have a little extra work cut out for you."

"I haven't asked Mom yet. I don't know if my _REAL_ friend is coming over or not," I said. Okay, part of what he said was correct. I would never in a million years consider Bethany my friend.

"Whatever, you are still doing my homework," Marcus said, rolling his eyes.

I put down the plate of pancakes in the middle of the table and took two bowls of fresh fruits and put one on both sides.

"You cannot keep doing this forever, you know," I said, sitting down.

"Can't keep doing what forever?!" Alyssa yelled, popping out from under the table.

Marcus was so startled he fell onto a chair. _Crack!_ The chair broke into pieces.

"Ha! Breakaway chair!" Alyssa said, taking pictures of Marcus on the ground on the broken wood.

"Classic!" Cece said, laughing and sitting in a chair with Angelica.

"Send me a photo of that!" I said. 🙂

Somehow, Alyssa's annoying pranks and loudness helped make my morning a little better.

"What is going on out here?" Mom asked. Then she saw Marcus and looked really mad. Then she burst out into laughter.

" _Mom!_ " Marcus whined.

"Right. Sorry. Are you okay?" Mom said, becoming more serious.

"This is better than the morning talk shows I watch!" Dad said, laughing. He took out his phone and started taking pictures of Marcus until Mom elbowed him. "Ow! I mean are you okay, Son?"

"Thanks," Marcus said sarcastically as he got up.

"Who did this? This was a perfectly good chair," Mom said.

"Alyssa!" everyone said at once.

"Angelica!" Alyssa said.

"Hey! I did not," Angelica said, crossing her arms.

"Oh, come on! It was a breakaway chair from the prop store that is closing. It was outside with a sign that said free on it," Alyssa said.

"No more breakaway chairs!" Mom said, sitting down. _Crack!_

"It just keeps getting better and better!" Dad chuckled. Mom hit him on the leg. "I mean are you okay, honey?"

Dad sat down in a chair and reached for a pancake when, _Crack!_

Now even Mom was laughing.

"Wait, Alyssa, are Angelica's, Cece's, and my chair going to break as well?" I asked.

"No, there were only three," she said, looking disappointed.

Once everything was cleaned up and we had our actual chairs back, I decided to ask Mom about Beth.

"Hey, Mom?" I asked. "Can I have a friend over after school to work on a school assignment?"

"Sure, which friend?" Mom asked, taking some blueberries and sprinkling them over her pancakes.

"Bethany," I said.

"Okay, sounds good. Thank you for the pancakes by the way," Mom said.

"No problem," I said.

I got off the bus from school and started walking home with Alyssa, Angelica, and Marcus. Cece was sick and got sent home early.

"Where's your 'friend'?" Marcus asked.

"She is coming at three thirty," I shot back.

"Great, that gives you a little over half an hour to do your homework and mine," he whispered.

"Why are you being so rude to her lately, Marcus?" Alyssa asked.

"None of your business, that's why," Marcus said. "Why do you care anyway?"

"Just go easy on her. She's just a kid," Alyssa whispered to Marcus.

I cannot believe her. I am so much more than just a kid! I don't need to have someone go easy on me. I can handle the hard things in life.

"Can someone help me with my homework? I don't get it at all!" Angelica whined.

"I can't. I already have a bucket load of homework to do," Alyssa said.

"Marcus has nothing to do," I said.

Marcus glared at me. "Taylor, why don't you do it?"

"Because I already have so much homework it feels like I am doing two people's homework," I said, smiling at Marcus. There is nothing he can do about that. "In fact, Marcus has no homework he said."

Marcus shot me a look that said, one shut up and two I hate you.

We entered the house and Marcus started to help Angelica with her homework.

I went straight to my room with my backpack and sat at my desk to do my homework when I forgot I needed Marcus's homework as well. So I went in the living room and looked through his backpack when I saw Marcus's texts blowing up his phone. They were from his girlfriend. So of course, I decided to snoop. I took the phone and homework in my room.

Breakup bubbled through my head as every text was talking about their breakup.

Her name isn't labeled. It is just a heart. Which means his girlfriend broke up with him and that's why he's upset today.

"Taylor have you seen my phone?" Marcus asked, walking in the room. "What are you doing with that?"

"I found it tucked in your homework," I lied.

"Give it to me!" Marcus yelled.

He grabbed his phone and read the notification. When he did, he went into his room and slammed the door shut. "Had to happen?! Yeah right!"

Even though he is so rude all the time, I kind of feel bad for him. Sounds like his former girlfriend broke up with Marcus. I decided that it would probably be best if I did my homework. Wait a second; I don't have to do anything for Marcus. I have blackmail on him. He doesn't like anyone to know anything embarrassing about him, so I could say if you tell Mom and Dad, I'll post those pictures of you.

"Taylor, your friend is here," Mom called.

"Coming!" I said and quickly put everything away.

"Hi," I said when I get to the door.

An awkward silence filled the room as my mom and Beth's mom sat there and glared at each other.

"Long time, no see," Mom said, breaking the silence.

"Not long enough," Beth's mom added rudely.

"Don't talk to my mom like that," I mumbled.

"What was that?" Beth's mom asked.

"Nothing," I said.

"It was surely something," Beth's mom said.

"Margret, don't be like that to my daughter," Mom said. "The children stay out of this."

"We are allowed to know what the children say," Beth's mom said. "A good mom would know that."

"I said don't talk to my mom like that before, and I'll say it again!" I yelled.

"You don't get to tell my mom what to do!" Beth yelled back.

"And your mom gets to talk to my mom like that?" I asked, my face heating up.

"I have to use the bathroom," Bethany said.

"Down the hall, last door to the left," I said, glaring at her as she walked into the house.

Why is she taking so long? Did I leave my light on? I'll go shut it off.

I walked down the hall to see Beth READING MY DIARY!!!!

"What are you doing?!" I asked.

"I was getting paper for the project," she said, dropping the diary.

"In a locked diary?" I fumed.

"This is your diary? Oh sorry, didn't mean to invade your privacy," Bethany said.

Yeah right! I knew that girl was a no good, too fancy, evil soul! I hate that girl sooo much! Like just go, and get your overly done fancy face out of my life!

"Get out of my house! You and your mom!" I screamed and pointed to the door. "Go find a new partner!"

That was the worst day ever! I really hope tomorrow will be much better than today and I never ever have to see Beth or her mom ever again!

# Saturday, September 1st

Good morning, Diary! Is what I would have said if I wasn't going to flunk the assignment because I have no partner. My mom had this idea that maybe we should take a trip to the mall today to cheer up a bit. Which didn't completely sound all that bad. But wait until you hear what happened in the car.

"Hey, Mom?" I asked.

"Yeah," she said. She didn't seem that focused, but I figured it was worth a shot anyway.

"How did you know Beth's mom?" I finally got out.

"Oh," she said uncomfortably. "We used to be best friends when we were little."

"Then?" I urged.

"She started spreading rumors and lies about me just to get into the popular group," she started. "But really she didn't get in for being herself. She lied about herself and changed her personality. She got mean and bullied people, shot rude comments left and right at anyone who was within a twelve-foot radius. She pushed me around and thought she was the boss. She hated being a regular, 'unnoticed by the popular kids' kind of person."

"What happened to you?" I asked.

"I didn't like the so-called popular kids. The only things they were popular for was bullying, cheating on tests, and wearing too much makeup," she went on. "The only reason everyone liked them was because they were scared that if they didn't they would be the next person they bullied or gossiped about. Everyone was afraid. I ignored them every chance I got."

"So when Bethany's mom joined, you and her started fighting and ignored each other?" I guessed.

"Pretty much," she said, pulling into the mall parking lot.

We got out of the car. Not knowing what to say, I suddenly had the urge to tell my mom about how school was going. That was until I saw Lauren and the popular girls inside Zoe's Frozen Yogurt.

"Hey, Mom? Can we get some frozen yogurt? I'm starving," I asked.

"Sure, but first I want to go into Hadley's," Mom said, dragging me along. "You need to find clothes for school since you refused to go before school started, and I heard Hadley's started selling clothes, backpacks–"

"Ugh!" I moaned. The only thing I liked about the store was it had the same name as my dog.

"I know you hate getting clothes and–" Mom started.

"You know what, clothes and shoes would be nice," I said. Maybe if I get a makeover, then I can get into Lauren's group.

"Wait. What?" Mom asked. "You? Want shoes?"

"Yes," I said, rushing into the store.

"How about this?" I said, holding up a turquoise dress with sequins along the bottom. Truthfully, I hated it.

My mom nodded. "Here's a nice backpack. You haven't changed yours in years." She pointed to a blue and purple lace backpack on the rack.

"If I can get this lunch bag," I said, showing her a furry pink owl lunchbox.

"Deal," she said.

We came out of the store with seven bags of clothes, shoes, jewelry, and more. I have never felt so unlike me before. We went over to Zoe's and saw Lauren paying for all eleven froyo cups!

"Come on. I hear Hadley's has some really cute stuff!" Leslie said.

"Yeah!" another girl said, "but how are we going to afford that stuff?"

"I can pay if you guys want me to," Lauren offered.

"Thanks BFF!" Leslie said.

"I cannot believe those girls!" I yelled.

"What girls?" Mom said.

"Wait. Did I say that out loud? Sorry," I said. "And I was talking about those girls with Lauren."

"Oh Lauren, you should go invite her over," Mom said attempting to flag down Lauren.

"No! Don't. She has been ditching me for those popular girls. And it gets worse. They are making her pay for everything," I explain.

"Why didn't you say anything about it?" she asked.

"I tried talking to her, but they keep taking her away and I am kind of uncomfortable talking about it."

"Um, Taylor? Isn't that Bethany?" my mom asked, pointing at, sure enough, Beth.

"Yup," I said annoyed. Wait she's with Lucas?!?! Ugh that girl! I hate her SOOO much. Can't she leave my life alone? You know what? That's it.

"I'm going over and talking to her," I said, getting up and walking over.

"Hey, Beth!" I said.

No answer.

"Hey, Lucas!" I said.

No answer. Lucas looked in the opposite direction.

"Beth, listen–" I started.

"Don't talk to me," she shot.

"I–"

"How could you do that to her and her mom? That's not the Taylor I was friends with," Lucas said.

"Wha–?"

"Don't speak to either one of us," Beth said walking away.

What _I_ did?! You have got to be kidding me! That DEVIL is lying straight to his face! And worst of all, he believes her. Wait. He _was_ friends with?! ☹️ Could this day get any worse?

I walked back over to the table and started eating really fast.

"Stress eating?" my mom asked.

I nodded.

"She was mad and lied to him?"

I nodded.

"Now neither will talk to you and you lost him as a friend?"

I nodded.

"That girl is a brat."

I nodded. She was totally eavesdropping, but I didn't even mind.

"No one will believe me!" I said.

All of a sudden, a girl in my math class came up to me. Her name was Josselyn.

"I believe you," Josselyn said. "I never liked Bethany."

"Thanks," I said. "By any chance do you have a partner for the math project?"

"No," Josselyn said. "The only other girl I know who has no partner is Beth, and no way am I going to be her partner."

"Do you want to be my partner?" I asked.

"Aren't you with Violet?" Josselyn asked.

"No, we stopped talking, unfortunately," I said.

"Then sure," she said. "See you in class."

I looked at my mom, and she nodded.

"Wait. Do you want to come over after school on Monday?" I asked.

"Yeah sure!" Josselyn said, waving.

Once she was gone, I said, "Thanks."

"You needed extra time to work on the project, and today hasn't been going very well friend-wise so, I'd say you deserved it," Mom said.

So, Diary, turns out everything might be okay for now. Well, at least after I figure out how to get Lucas to believe me about what really happened with Beth, get Lauren to be my BFF again along with Violet, and rock this project now that I have a partner that I don't hate and want to kill. ☹️🙂 See you tomorrow, Diary.

# Sunday, September 2nd

Great morning, Diary! Today is not just any random, boring day. It is a day that everyone has been practicing for even before we tried out for the parts. Today is Recital Day! Wait, I don't have a part, and I never told Lia or Sophie to call off the prank! I am sooo stupid! How could I:

1. Forget I don't have a part

2. Forget to call off the prank

And

3. Not have a backup plan?

There is no way I can fix this now. Unless...

I have to call Melinda.

"Hello?" Melinda answered.

"Hi, Melinda. It is me, Taylor," I said.

"Oh hey, Taylor," Melinda said. "What's up?"

"Well, I just needed to—" I started.

"I'm really sorry, but I have to go. You can tell me at dance. Okay? Bye," she interrupted.

Nooo!! Now what am I going to do?

* * *

Thank goodness Ethan texted me. Now I just have to get to the show early when we get our costumes so that I can swap out the prank outfit for the real outfit, get rid of the clown wig and letter, along with fixing the bucket of water problem.

I went downstairs so I could talk to my mom about going early.

"Hey, Mom?" I asked. "Is there any way we can get there super early tonight for the recital?"

"I am afraid not. They don't allow viewers to get in until seven, and I don't want to have to sit around in the car for a half hour waiting. Plus, we might be late because of Alyssa's robotics," Mom replied.

Operation Makeup.

"I don't think Alyssa should be allowed to go to robotics today. After all, she did sneak makeup to school," I said.

"Wait, she did what?!" Mom yelled. "You know what? You are right. She shouldn't be allowed. Thank you for telling me."

Yes! Alyssa is no longer in my way. Now I just have to find a way to get into the studio early.

"I was thinking. I _am_ part of the team, so maybe I _can_ get in. Plus, I want to make sure Melinda is okay so I know if I am needed or not," I stated.

"True, I suppose that would be a good idea," Mom agreed. "We'll go around five minutes early. That should give you enough time to check with Melinda."

Not as early as I wanted, but it will have to do. After all, it's the best chance I have got.

"Thanks, Mom," I said as I went to walk out of the room.

Alyssa has robotics on Sundays, too. Her robotics teacher says it is important to exercise our brains when they feel lazy, and weekends make you feel lazy. That is why I never understood why Alyssa did robotics, since she is always lazy and never feels like doing anything.

While I have nothing to do, I might as well figure out how to get Lucas to believe me.

"Taylor!" Marcus yelled. "You told Mom about Alyssa?"

"Um, yes?" I said.

"Awesome! That is my little sister!" He beamed. "Oh, by the way here is my French project for you to do."

"No," I said.

"What do you mean no?" Marcus asked. "You do it or else."

"More like _you_ do it or else," I said, smiling.

"You have nothing against me," Marcus said.

"Actually, I have a lot of embarrassing pictures of you that I doubt you want posted all over Snaptweet," I said, swiping through all the photos.

"Okay, you do," Marcus said. "How about you delete those, and I pretend I know nothing about the detention?"

"So no more blackmail?" I asked.

"No more," he confirmed.

"Deal," I said, pretending to delete them. There was no way I was going to trust him.

Prank, was all my head focused on. Must stop the prank. But that is not what I have to focus on right now. I have to write Lucas a note telling him what really happened.

Lucas,

I know that Bethany told you awful stuff about me, but no part of it is true. Except that I kicked her out. Here is what really happened. She came over to work on a project, and her mom started saying mean stuff to my mom ,so I told her mom to stop and Beth told me to stop. Then, she asked where the bathroom was, and I noticed my bedroom light was on. I went to turn it off when I saw her reading my diary! Like who does that? Next, I asked what she was doing ,and she relocked the diary, slipped a hairpin back into her hair, and said she was getting paper for the project. Then I said from a locked diary? Then she had the nerve to lie to me saying how, "Oh this is your diary? Sorry, didn't mean to invade your privacy," all-innocent like. I hope you believe me. I know I could have handled it better, but it slipped out and so much is happening right now, and my anger and sadness is ready to blow up almost twenty-four seven.

-Taylor 🙂

NO. NO. NO. That was way too sappy! I hate _myself_ right now for even _writing_ this. _I_ wouldn't even believe me.

"Everyone out of the car," Mom said. "Taylor, you go inside."

"Okay," I said, waving.

I rushed inside and straight for the dressing rooms. Yes! I found Melinda's dressing room. Sure enough, the wrong outfit was hanging there with the note and clown wig. I took the whole pile and put the correct one there instead. Next was the water. How could I get up there, though?

"Taylor!" Sophie said.

"You guys need to get dressed!" I said. "You have your parts since Melinda got mine."

"But—" Lia said.

"Just go get changed," I said, pushing them to their dressing rooms.

Suddenly, I saw the wire that the water was tied to. I had to climb it. There was no other way to get to it. I started climbing up until I was next to the bucket. Oh no! The recital was starting! Melinda and everyone else came onto the stage and started the routine. The wire I was on suddenly collapsed to reveal the background. I gripped onto the bucket that was tied to another wire as well. At this point, that was all that was within reach.

I remembered this part. They come into a wide circle and start spinning. Then they all come in and do the same thing. So I did what everyone except me wouldn't do. I let go and hit the bucket with my hand, sending it over to where the pond was in the setting.

I didn't scream or anything, knowing that if I did, the show would be ruined. As planned, I landed in all of their arms safely. Everyone was startled but kept going. The water hit the corner of the wire and tipped into the pond, creating a waterfall affect as it poured. The audience, other dancers, and I were stunned at all of what had happened.

The recital ended perfectly imperfectly perfect. Except when everyone found out why that had happened. Then Melinda, Sophie, and Lia all started fighting, which caused everyone to start fighting.

"Hey," a familiar voice said.

I turned around. "Violet?!" I said, hugging her.

"I'm really sorry," Violet apologized.

"Don't be. I should have been more considerate about how you would feel," I said.

"No, I should have thought about how just because I may not get along with Sam, doesn't mean that you can't be friends with her," V said. "Can you forgive me?"

"Absolutely, I missed having you as a friend," I admitted. "Why did you–?"

"Your friend Ethan talked to me and so did Josselyn," V explained.

"Friends?" I asked.

"Friends," she said.

I group messaged Josselyn and Ethan.

I could never have been more grateful to have Violet back. I am really glad I have such great friends. Hopefully Alyssa can forgive me. I don't know if I feel bad or not. Also, I owe Sophie and Lia a little explanation about what happened, and I hope I can fix the fight. If I don't, dance could be ruined. I guess it might have been weird that I was the only one dancing in jeans and a T-shirt. There is a lot more that has to get fixed, but I am really glad I have somewhat of my life being pulled together once again. Next mission is to get Lucas to believe me without that stupid letter. I know it will be harder than it looks, but hopefully it is worth it.

Well, Diary, looks like I will leave the rest for tomorrow. Good night, Diary. 🙂

# Monday, September 3rd

Good morning, Diary! After yesterday I am kind of split between if the recital went well or not. I kind of think that Alyssa is just flat out ignoring me at this point. Marcus has been really mad that he can't blackmail me anymore. He told me that was the only thing that made him feel better after the breakup. Honestly though, I don't even know how he had a girlfriend. In no way is he attractive. I have seen him scratch his own butt! And then there's the whole Lucas-Beth situation. Today, I figure I'll just take the note to Lucas and fix it at school. I really hope Sophie and Lia—

"Hello?" I said. Who on this earth is calling this early in the morning?

"Taylor Quinn!!!" Lia screamed angrily.

"How rude!" Sophie yelled.

"Guys, I am really sorry," I apologized. "But in my defense, I tried to tell you guys that you got the parts and that we needed to call off the prank. But you kept interrupting me, and I realized I should have never even agreed to do this."

"You did?" Sophie asked.

"Yeah, remember when you called me last? I tried telling you, but you kept interrupting and then hung up," I explained.

"I didn't even realize," Lia said. "We are sorry."

"Why should we be sorry?" Sophie asked. "Without Taylor fixing everything we wouldn't have been famous for our so-called amazing stunts and realistic setting with graceful motions."

"Famous?" I asked. "What are you talking about?"

"We are all over the news, and our next show's tickets are sold out!" Sophie said. "Put on channel 53."

"OMG! Taylor, you are all over the news!" Lia said. "Better yet, I'm on television baby!"

"This is by far the most outrageous dance studio I have ever seen. Nowhere else has such real, authentic settings and such dangerous yet graceful stunts," the man on the TV said. "That explains why the show's next viewing is sold out!"

"No, it can't be sold out because of that," I said worried.

"Why not?" Lia asked.

"Yeah, you should be thrilled!" Sophie added.

"They are coming to see that stunt and waterfall again," I explained. "No way am I redoing that!"

"Taylor, please," Sophie said.

"Yeah, just one more time, and then it is over," Lia said.

"That was dangerous enough. Plus, what if something goes wrong? Like the water spills too early and someone slips or even if I miss the circle?" I explained. "Even if it did end well, everyone will come the next time expecting to see more stunts or something just as amazing, which just so you know, I cannot do every time."

"Not _every_ time," Sophie said.

"Sophie, you are _sooooo_ lucky you are my friend!" I said angrily as Sophie gulped over the phone.

"Taylor is right. Nobody but the dance crew knows why that happened or that it wasn't planned for," Lia said, backing me up.

"Fine, but don't stress too much. We have till next Sunday to figure this out," Sophie pointed out.

"Well, I have to go. Keep thinking. Well talk on Thursday," I said.

"Bye," they said in unison.

Great. Now what am I going to do? There is no way I can do that again.

"Taylor! You are on TV!" Angelica screamed.

"I know," I said.

"Why are you not excited?" Cece asked, coming into my room with Angelica.

"You wouldn't understand," I said.

"How do you know that unless you tell us?" Angelica asked.

"Fine. You see, that stunt and waterfall wasn't supposed to be part of it. It was a misunderstanding," I started. "My friends from dance were going to prank Melinda because she got their parts. Stupidly, I joined."

"Why did you join?" Cece asked.

"I was mad she got my part," I explained. "Then I saw the sheet with the roles and saw that since Melinda got my part Sophie and Lia got theirs. I realized I needed to call it off. But Sophie and Lia cut me off and planned the prank already, so I couldn't stop them."

"Why couldn't you just text them? They can't interrupt you then," Angelica asked.

I feel so stupid right now! Why am I not smart enough to figure that out, but she is?

"Wow, I should have told you guys sooner," I said. "Anyway, on the day of the recital I fixed everything before the recital got ruined. But there was still a bucket of water rigged to spill on Melinda, so I climbed the wire it was attached to. When it dropped for the scene, I was left with the bucket, so I let go and hit the water over, knowing it was my best shot."

"Why can't you tell everyone that?" Cece asked.

"Because that mistake was the reason everyone liked the show so much. Although the dancers do know, and now everyone is fighting," I answered.

"Let me guess. You think you are going to mess up if you try to do it again," Angelica started.

"And you are afraid no one will want to come again because of it?" Cece finished.

"Were you guys eavesdropping?" I asked.

"Yeah, but we figured you needed to talk to someone about it," Cece explained.

"Thanks," I said, pulling them in for a hug.

I started walking down the hall when the strangest thing happened.

"Hey, Tay!" Leslie said, coming toward me.

I looked around expecting to see another girl named Taylor in the popular group. I don't even know if there is a Taylor in the popular group, to be honest.

"Quinn, I am talking to _you_ ," Leslie said.

"Oh, uh sorry," I stuttered.

"Why do you look like you just saw a ghost?" Leslie asked.

"I just...well... never expected _you_ to be talking to _me_ ," I admitted.

"Well, I am," Leslie said as one of her popular friends came over.

"Did you get your hair done recently?" the girl asked.

"No," I said.

"I would have _never_ guessed," she said sarcastically.

"Are those hand-me-down clothes you are wearing?" another girl said laughing.

"Scram!" Leslie yelled at the girls.

"I see your group is nice," I said, rolling my eyes. I couldn't just sit there and say nothing.

"Don't push it, Quinn," Leslie said.

"Why are you here again?" I asked. "To tell me all about how you stole my friend?"

"Bad day much?" Leslie said.

"Sorry," I said.

"And it is about your friend. I know you noticed that Lauren was paying for everything," Leslie explained. "Listen. You are right. We are only hanging out with her because she pays for everything. It wasn't my idea, though. It was Beth's idea. She told me to tell you that if you tell Lauren, she will tell Lucas your little secret."

"Wait. What?!" I yelled.

How does she know? Wait. That diary-reading drama queen. Have I mentioned that I HATE THAT GIRL?!!!!!! She is the DEVIL! I am telling you. She probably came here just to ruin my life!

"You heard me, Quinn," Leslie said, walking away. "If I were you, I'd be _very_ careful." As she walked away, everyone in the hall swarmed her. Including Lauren. ☹️

"I don't care if she tells Lucas at this point. I need to tell Lauren. She is _way_ more important. Lucas is just a stupid boy." Oh no! I said that out loud. Luckily no one heard me since I muttered it.

All of a sudden, Beth walked by with her phone in her hand, playing a voice recording of the words that came out of my mouth last: "Lucas is just a stupid boy."

# Tuesday, September 4th

Awful morning, Diary! I cannot believe that Beth would be sick enough to do that at this point. She probably already played it for Lucas! That little FAKE! She might as well lie to the—

"Taylor Quinn, please report to the principal's office. Taylor Quinn to the principal's office. Thank you," said a voice over the intercom.

Great! Now what? I don't think I did anything.

I got to the office and saw the worst thing I possibly could see.

"Taylor, please have a seat," Principal Baker said.

"Yes, sir," I said, sitting in a chair next to Bethany.

"You know that this school is very against bullying, fighting, and rumors. You see, I really would hate to hear this is true," Principal Baker said.

"Excuse me Principal Baker, but I don't know what you are talking about," I said.

"Yeah right," Beth said.

"Bethany," Principal Baker warned.

"Sorry, sir," she said.

"Miss Quinn, is it true that you have been using Lauren Bradley to pay for everything?" Principal Baker asked.

Are you kidding me? No! She is the one doing that!

"No, sir," I said truthfully. "She is a close friend of mine. I would never."

"Well, Bethany here is saying otherwise," Principal Baker said.

"Sir, it is not me doing this. It is Bethany. I promise," I explained.

"I am offended! You are accusing me of doing your crime?" Beth lied. "Principal Baker, this girl is a liar. She deserves to be suspended."

"Taylor is this true?" Principal Baker asked.

"No, sir," I said.

Wait a minute. Beth wouldn't have known I was going to say that about Lucas right that second. She would have been recording longer. Which means she even has Leslie telling me about what Beth did.

"Okay, ladies, your first class is starting, and neither of you has proof that the other is lying. You both should come by tomorrow. Tomorrow one of you will have to fess up," Principal Baker said. "Understood?"

"Yes, sir," Beth said.

"Wait, no. Sir, listen, please," I pleaded. But it was too late. He had already pushed us out the door.

"I can't believe you!" I said.

"Believe it, because soon enough you will learn there is no proof you can use on me. Then you will be stuck at home, suspended," Beth said, walking away.

"Hey," Josselyn said.

"I hate that girl," I said.

"What did she do now?" Josselyn asked.

"She is trying to frame me for bullying Lauren Bradley," I explained. "And I have no proof that I didn't do it."

"That stinks," Josselyn said. "Hey sorry I couldn't make it yesterday. Any chance I can come over tonight?"

"Yeah," I said. "The only proof I have is her recording, but it has me saying that Lucas is stupid, which would get me in trouble."

"Why would you say that? Don't you like him?" Josselyn asked.

"I do. I meant to say that Lauren is more important than him knowing I like him. But it came out wrong. It wasn't even supposed to come out," I explained while Josselyn took photos with her camera.

"Well, this camera can record videos, too. I can stay close to Beth and see if I can get dirt on her about how she is a bully, not you," Josselyn offered.

"If you could, that would be great," I said.

"Okay, well I am going to go get started," Josselyn said.

"Bye," I said, waving.

"Everyone in the auditorium for an assembly," a voice boomed over the loud speaker.

Through the crowd of people, I spotted Lucas. "Lucas! Wait!"

"What do you want Taylor? Aren't I just a stupid boy?" Lucas asked.

"No, it came out wrong. I meant to say that I care more about Lauren getting her feelings hurt than you finding out I like, like you," I explained.

"Oh, well, now I feel stupid," Lucas said.

"Don't. I would have thought the same if that were all I heard," I said. "Anyway, about me kicking out Beth–"

"I know what happened," Lucas said, holding up the letter. "You dropped something, again." He laughed.

"Oh, I didn't even notice," I said, looking at the pile in my hands. "So are we friends again?" I asked.

"Yeah," Lucas said.

"False alarm, everyone. Go back to your classes. There is no assembly," the voice said.

I entered gym class to see that today was dodgeball and our teams were already made. Are you kidding me?! Beth is on the opposite team! I am so dead! I noticed Josselyn taking pictures from the bleachers.

"Begin!" Mr. Bealer said.

_BAM!!!_ Everything went dark. The gym went silent. My mind was blank.

I woke up in Nurse Cannell's office.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Bethany shot the ball and hit you right in the forehead," Mrs. Cannell explained.

I sat down at lunch with Violet and Josselyn.

"Who is that?" Violet asked.

"That is my friend Josselyn Cantres," I explained.

Ethan sat down at our table. Everyone just stared at him confused.

"What? I switched lunch tables," he explained.

"What's wrong, Taylor?" Violet asked.

"Yeah, you look awful," Ethan said as Violet elbowed him.

"Beth," Josselyn explained. "That reminds me. I have a video where Beth is telling her friends how she is planning to knock you out with the dodgeball. We can use that against her."

"She what?" Ethan asked.

"She knocked me out in dodgeball," I explained.

"Yeah, I know. You have a huge red bump on your forehead. I just felt like the moment needed something dramatic," Ethan said.

"Ugh," I said. "Is it really that bad?" I asked.

"No," Violet said.

"She is lying. It is awful. It looks like a volcano about to erupt," Ethan said.

" _Thanks_ ," I said sarcastically.

"No problem," Ethan said, smiling evilly.

Violet elbowed him again. "You can't stop talking, can you?"

"Nope," Ethan said.

"We need more proof that it is Beth," Josselyn interrupted. "All that I have is proof she is cruel."

"You are right. But we have to do it tomorrow," I said. "We don't have any more classes together today. Plus, we have a math project to get done, and there can't be any major or minor distractions."

"But tomorrow is when Mr. Baker meets with you and decides if you get suspended or not," Josselyn pointed out.

"I will figure it out," I lied.

# Wednesday, September 5th

Good morning, Diary. Today is the day that I have to talk to the principal. ☹️ I still cannot believe Beth would do something that cruel to me. Oh wait... You can probably guess how much SARCASIM I am using right now!

"Taylor?" Marcus asked.

"What?" I groaned.

"Were you looking through my phone?" Marcus asked. "When I caught you on it, did you read any messages?"

"No," I lied. Now that I think about his texts, I wonder if he knows who Sam was dating. "Wait! Do you know who Samantha Collins was dating?"

"What?! Are you kidding me? That is something that if your little friend wanted to tell you she would've!" Marcus said.

That was weird. She must be dating Marcus's friend! Let's see. Who is his best friend? Adam! She was dating Adam! I can't believe it!

"Never mind. I know who it is," I said.

"Wait. What?! You do?!" Marcus asked.

I entered the school building and went into the office ready to be falsely suspended. When I got there, Beth was waiting outside the office. Her arms were crossed, and her devilish eyes were glaring in my direction. She flipped her wavy red hair. She wore her bright yellow flowy top along with her ruffled white skirt.

"Hey," Josselyn said, pulling me aside. "I brought the camera for proof that she is out to get you."

Beth came over, and her high heel came out and stepped on Josselyn's foot. "Oops! My bad," Beth said. She faked falling, and her hand slapped the camera out of Josselyn's hands, causing it to break. "I am so sorry. I'm so clumsy!"

"My camera!" Josselyn yelled. "I cannot believe you!"

"It is just never enough for you, is it?" Violet said, coming up to Beth.

"Get out of here!" Beth said to V.

"Whatever. You will be the one leaving soon. Once the principal realizes you are the one bullying people," Violet said, walking away.

All of a sudden, one of the secretaries opened the office door. "Ladies, I am sorry if you are looking for the principal. He is sick today, and he won't be back for the rest of the week so far," Mrs. Karen said. "I will try to keep you posted."

"Thank you," I said.

"For nothing," Beth mumbled.

"What was that, dear?" Mrs. Karen asked.

"For everything, thank you for everything," Beth quickly changed.

Have I mentioned I HATE THAT GIRL? She gets away with everything! I don't even know how it is possible for someone who is evil 24/7 to not get caught 24/7.

"No problem," Mrs. Karen said. She looked over at Josselyn. "What happened to your camera, dear?"

Josselyn looked over at Beth.

"She tripped on the stairs," Beth lied. "She dropped her camera and boom! So, so sad."

"Poor thing," Mrs. Karen said. "I hope it didn't damage too badly. Anyway, have a good day, ladies!"

As we were walking back to our class, Josselyn said, "This is so unfair! How could you do that?"

"Life is unfair. Get used to it," Beth said, flipping her hair before doing her red carpet walk down the hall.

I could just punch her! I wish she would leave my life and me alone! Beth is going to be the reason I don't pass 7th grade.

"Good morning, Miss. Quinn," Mr. Laur said as I walked into art class.

I just smiled.

"Are you feeling alright?" he asked.

"Yeah," I lied.

When the rest of the class saw me, one kid yelled out, "Hey! There is Dodgeball Disaster!" Then the whole class burst out laughing.

I sat down next to Ethan and buried my head in my arms.

"Don't let them get to you. They are just jealous they didn't get to skip class to sleep," Ethan said. "I gladly would have switched places."

I could tell he was just trying to make me feel better, but I didn't want to talk about it.

"Wait a second. How do other people know?" I asked.

Ethan took out his phone. "Josselyn was on the bleachers. She took the video and posted it," Ethan explained.

Beth walked by with a bowl of paint in her hands and fake tripped pouring the paint on Ethan and me. I got up and ran out of class. I headed straight for the bathroom.

When I entered, a girl started taking photos and said, "Look. There is Dodgeball Disaster!"

I felt like I was being eaten alive, so I ran and slammed my locker door shut with me inside. I didn't lock it, but I didn't want to be seen by anyone else so they could take more pictures of "Dodgeball Disaster" covered in paint. Also, BTW, paint tastes awful! Worse yet, I felt paint going down my pant leg. Don't even ask how. I couldn't answer that even if I tried.

# Thursday, September 6th

Diary, I just want you to know that I refuse to call this morning good. I won't even try to describe it because no word is awful enough to even describe it.

Yesterday, I was so mad I skipped the rest of my classes so that I could stay in my freezing cold, dark, boring, and old locker. Which before you ask, "Well didn't you get in trouble?" the answer is no I didn't. The rest of my day was:

  1. Lunch
  2. Study hall
  3. Gym

I am pretty sure the only reason that I didn't get in trouble for not showing up to gym was because I don't think that after last class, anyone thought I was going to play dodgeball again.

I was also late to the bus and ended up chasing after it. The bus driver looked in the mirror and probably thought I was a pile of running confetti barf chasing after it. I am sure that tomorrow I will have a new nickname because of that. Anyway, the bus driver went faster when she saw me. Like who does that?!?! I get it if I were wearing a ski mask and wearing all black, but I wasn't! So, I ended up sitting there waiting for my mom to come and pick me up.

I found a nearby rock and sat on that until she arrived. While I was sitting, a little girl around 8 years old stuck her head out the window and yelled, "Daddy! There is a unicorn on the side of the road!"

"Sweetie, that's not a unicorn!" the dad said and drove faster.

Like what is wrong with people?!?! I am not a kidnapper! And that guy should be happy. I am better than a unicorn.

When I finally got in the car, my mom was so confused that she just sat there speaking what seemed like Baldorian (Alien language).

Today Alyssa has robotics, which BTW stinks. I have dance today, which means one of us is going to have to skip their activity. ☹️ To make sure that doesn't happen to me, I woke up early and made breakfast, did dishes, and did the laundry.

Mom finally got up and went into the kitchen. "Wow, honey! You have been working so hard lately,"

"Um, yeah, I guess so," I said.

"You know you and Alyssa have an after-school activity..." she started. "Your sister missed out for a couple weeks now. Maybe you should take a little break from dance."

"No, Mom, I can't," I said. "If I miss a class, I will fall behind."

"Sweetie, yesterday you came home looking like a chameleon gone wrong," my mom said.

"Wait, I get to go to robotics?!?!" Alyssa asked excitedly. "Thank you so much, Taylor!" She grabbed me and pulled me in for a hug.

Mom gave me a look, saying, "See, you will make your sister happy."

I gave her a look saying, "PLEASE, MOM!"

She gave me another look that said, "You can't ruin her spirits now. You will have to deal with it."

I gave her another look that said, "Fine." ☹️

We do that a lot when we don't want my siblings to know what's going on. We understand each other's emotions very well, so we always know when the other is lying.

"You guys should get going," Mom said.

Once I got to school, everyone's eyes were practically glued to their phones. They all seemed to be looking at a meme, because they all were laughing so hard.

I saw Josselyn on her phone laughing, too. I went over and was humiliated. Everyone was in a group chat sharing embarrassing photos of _ME!!!!_

"How could you do this to me?!?!" I asked Josselyn furiously.

"Oh, uh, Taylor," Josselyn said in full-on panic mode.

"You were one of the only people I could trust, and now _YOU_ are a part of the problem!" I said.

"I didn't post anything. I promise," Josselyn said.

"That is not the point!" I said.

I ran to the locker bay, opened my locker, and stuffed myself inside. I am not kidding. This is going to be as used as my bed by the end of the school year!

All of a sudden, I heard a loud click outside my locker. I tried to push the door open, but I was stuck. Someone had locked me inside! That is when I heard the last voice I wanted to hear.

"Now she is definitely going to get in trouble!" Beth said outside my locker.

She was probably right. Lauren and Josselyn turned on me. Violet didn't have a phone just yet. Ethan had an away baseball game today. That left SAM!

I took out my phone and texted Sam.

Come on, ANSWER ME!!!!

That was when I saw the glorious light.

"Thank you!" I said.

"How did this happen?" Sam asked.

"I will explain later. I have to get to class," I said, rushing off.

"Okay?" Sam said confused.

I ran into Lucas. He was gathering his stuff for some reason.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Turns out I am supposed to be on the opposite team," he said.

"Oh," I said.

"Well, nice knowing you," Lucas said. Then he walked away.

"You too," I said a little too late. He was already gone.

So that was it. He didn't even say bye or see you around! Just nice knowing you like he was moving and we'd never talk again. Maybe that will be what happens.

After school today as you guessed, I missed dance. ☹️ So there I was lying down on my bed doing nothing. After all, if I were to go on social media, I would probably just be more humiliated.

"Taylor, time to pick up your sister," my mom called.

I rushed into the car with my phone in hand. Just in case.

When we got to the school to pick up Alyssa, we ended up standing there for ten extra minutes! Like what could possibly take this girl so long? Finally, she came out from the school.

"Sorry I was late," Alyssa said.

"Why were you late?" Angelica asked as we walked toward the car.

"Oh, um, bathroom," Alyssa answered.

Wait a second. The bathroom is in the opposite direction she came out of, along with the robotics room. Is she hiding something? No. She wouldn't. Or would she? ☹️

# Friday, September 7th

Good morning, Diary. Today is my favorite weekday, Friday! The last day I have to survive the drama, until next week.

"Taylor!" Ethan screamed in my ear.

Oh no! I didn't. I couldn't have! I was sitting there in the middle of Mr. Guida's social studies class. I had fallen asleep in class!

"It is time for next period," Ethan said. Oh, also you are in huge trouble. He gave us info for the test on Monday."

"Ugh, you have got to be kidding me!" I said, gathering my stuff. "I cannot flunk this test! If I fail one test, I can't dance anymore!"

" _One_ test and you can't dance? Yeesh," Ethan said. "I'd be freaking out right now. Matter a fact, I would just start saying good bye now."

"Thanks," I said, elbowing him.

He started laughing. "Relax. It'll be fine," he said as we walked out of the classroom.

"It better be," I said. Then I turned and entered my French class.

" _Bonjour_!" Mrs. Luhrs beamed as I walked in.

" _Bonjour_ ," I moaned.

She just sat there looking confused for a second then came over to my desk and asked, "Is everything _pas mal_ , Taylor?" ( _Pas mal_ means alright or okay in French.)

" _Qui_ ," I lied. ( _Qui_ is yes in French. It is pronounced "we.")

She smiled and went up to the front of the classroom and began our everyday class.

By the way, I am sorry to use French. I am not trying to confuse you, Diary, but it is what she actually said.

Beth walked in after the late bell. "I am sorry."

"Do you have a late pass?" Mrs. Luhrs asked.

"No, I... was helping someone because they couldn't get their locker open," Beth said.

Yeah right! If anything, she probably locked them in their locker.

French class honestly has one of the most-strict teachers. Well, at least that is what my older brother said. Although, I don't think he was such a great student in French. The teacher sighed when she found out I was Marcus's sister.

"Today we will be talking about French culture," Mrs. Luhrs said. "Then you will write an essay in French explaining why it is important that we learn about French culture."

The whole class groaned. Learning the language was fun, but no offense, sitting there hearing about immigrations and stuff was _BORING!_ Don't get me wrong. French is awesome. On the other hand, when I fell asleep in the last class, don't teach more that will make me snore.

"You make me bore, so I snore," this kid said.

Everyone but the teacher and I laughed.

"You made me bored, so I snore," I corrected.

"What?" he asked turning to me.

"It is grammatically incorrect," I explained.

"Oh yeah..." he said angrily. "Well... you are grammatically incorrect!" he pouted.

The class stared in confusion of what had happened. I was kind of confused, too. I had beaten him with a really bad defense.

Later that day at lunch, I sat down at my regular table and watched as all the popular girls walked by.

All of a sudden, Leslie sat down next to me. "I am really sorry if I made it seem like I was trying to steal Lauren from you," she said, not making eye contact and looking in the other direction.

I knew what she was doing, but I didn't bring it up. She was acting like she wasn't talking to me so she wouldn't look uncool. "It's okay," I replied. "I am mostly mad about Beth. I can't even focus on you or Lauren."

"Well, I need to know I can trust you with something else," Leslie said.

"Of course," I said. Why did I just agree to get into more?! I have been trying to get out of it, not in it!

"You know your friend Ethan?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said.

"I need you to keep your friend Samantha away from him. I like him, and she does, too," Leslie explained.

"What?!" I asked. That is who she likes? Girls actually like him?! How? He is so... so... so not attractive! Yet a popular girl like Leslie would like him?

"Wait. You didn't know that?" Leslie asked.

I furiously shook my head. "No, I know she has a crush, but I didn't know who it was."

"Oops. Do me a favor and keep that a secret too please?" she asked, turning around and looking at me finally.

"Sure," I said. "You better get going before someone notices you are hanging out with me." Do you think she noticed that I caught onto what she was doing?

"Oh, uh," Leslie said, getting up and trying to think of what to say. "Sorry." She walked away. I didn't really mind what she was doing. I just wish she didn't care about being popular.

"Tay! I have been looking for you for like ever!" Sam said, rushing into the cafeteria. She quickly sat down next to me. "Where have you been?"

Then my life saver, AKA, Violet, came and sat down across from me. "Oh, Samantha is here?" V said a little on edge. She stabbed her food with her fork.

"Nice to see you, too," Samantha said sarcastically.

Talk about AWKWARD! The table was filled with silence. Until Ethan walked over and sat down.

"Ah, the awkward silence has attacked again," Ethan said.

Sam giggled.

"Well, silence is gone now. What's up?" Ethan asked.

"Nothing much. Just same old lunch, except with an add-on," Violet said, looking at Samantha.

"That is why there was silence," Ethan said.

Sam giggled. AGAIN!

Ethan and Sam started talking, while V gave me an evil glare. Her glare said, "How could you just invite her like that?"

I sent her a look saying, "I didn't invite her. She just came."

Oh no! I just forgot I am supposed to keep Sam away from Ethan! Or would that make me a bad friend to Sam? Wait she didn't even tell me she liked Ethan! Why should I help her? All of a sudden, I looked over and saw Leslie staring at me with a disappointed yet mad expression on her face. What did I just do? Should I even feel bad? Should I be helping anyone?

# Saturday, September 8th

Good morning, Diary. I am super nervous because I just realized that my cousins, Gracyn and Elizabeth, are coming over tomorrow for Gracyn's family birthday party. You might be wondering, why am I worried about that? Well, I never had time to get Gracyn's gift, and I don't think I'll have enough time to get her a gift.

I hobbled downstairs to my mom. I don't know why, but my leg was stiff this morning. "Morning," I moaned.

"Good morning, sweetie," my mom replied, getting breakfast made. "Are you excited for tomorrow?"

No. "Yeah," I lied.

"What did you get Gracyn, again?" Mom asked.

Oh no! "Uh," I mumbled.

"You did get a gift for her, right?" Mom clarified wearily.

"Okay, okay, I forgot," I said. "Did you get her a gift?"

"Uh," Mom mumbled.

"We are so dead!" I said.

"Calm down. Maybe we can all go bowling as a present," Mom said.

_RING! RING!_

Mom and I looked at each other with worried expressions.

I walked over to the phone and answered it. "Hello?" I said, putting the call on speaker.

"Taylor! Sweetie!" my aunt said into the phone. "Listen, I heard the weather would be bad tomorrow, so we wanted to know if we could come today?"

"Uh..." I stuttered. "I...I'll let...let you talk to my...my mom." I quickly shoved the phone into my mom's hands.

"Oh, hi," my mom said, her voice shaky.

"Hi, I know the party isn't until tomorrow, but we were just wondering if we could come over a day early because of the weather," my aunt explained.

"Okay, great! Bye!" Mom hurried off the phone.

"Grab your siblings. We are taking a birthday shopping trip," Mom ordered.

Once we were at Five Below, we practically filled the basket with gifts. We all split up and grabbed a bunch of items. By the end, we were all tired and decided to stop at the pizza place for lunch.

"I am hungry!" Angelica whined.

"I'm thirsty!" Cece joined in.

"I'm Alyssa," Alyssa said, making herself laugh so loud everyone was staring at us.

That was when everyone started laughing. My whole family and this random guy whose table was next to ours.

The waitress came out with a large pepperoni pizza and a plain cheese pizza. The plain one was for Cece and Angelica.

This is when I saw my aunt, Gracyn, and Elizabeth coming in.

"Mom!" I said, pointing at them. "They must have stopped for a quick lunch on the way to our house."

"We have to go, kids," Mom said as she left the amount of cash to pay and grabbed to-go boxes.

We all scrambled out of the restaurant, trying not to be seen. They couldn't see that we went out because if they did, they would know we forgot about Gracyn's gifts!

We got settled at home and wrapped all of Gracyn's presents.

"Phew! We are finally done!" Alyssa said. "Angelica, get me my phone please," she said, seeming like she was wiped out.

No answer.

"Angelica?" we all yelled.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. I went and opened it to see it was my aunt, Gracyn, and Elizabeth, and...Angelica?

"Angelica?" I said.

"You left me behind!" said a very cranky ten-year-old. Angelica crossed her arms.

"What was she even doing at the pizzeria?" my aunt asked.

"I'll tell you all right!" Angelica said.

Oh no! She got so mad she was going to tell them!

"We went out for lunch," Angelica said. "Then I went to throw my napkin away as you guys left."

"Why didn't you look for the car?" Mom asked.

"I forgot what the car looked like," Angelica said.

We all laughed.

"I had a blank in my head. Was it blue? Was it gray?" Angelica continued. Which made us laugh even more. "So then I found Elizabeth and asked for a ride."

Well, Diary, as for the rest of the night, not much else happened. So, I guess we will wait till tomorrow's adventure.

# Sunday, September 9th

Good morning, Diary. We went to the bowling alley for Gracyn's birthday party today. Gracyn had on a purple T-shirt and jeans. She was wearing her dog tag necklace, too. I picked up a bowling ball and ran toward the lane. When I released the ball, it headed straight down the alley and hit 9 out of 10 pins.

"Ugh!" I said, getting another ball.

"You can still get a spare," Gracyn said, putting her auburn hair into a ponytail.

In case I didn't mention this, Gracyn is super tall. So, she looks like she is in high school, while making me look younger than Elizabeth.

I went again for my spare, but just as I let go Elizabeth came and bumped into me. I think you can guess what happened after that. My ball went straight for the gutter.

"Nice gutter!" Elizabeth said, smirking. I hate that kid!

"Elizabeth! Get back here and apologize to Taylor!" Gracyn scolded.

Elizabeth stomped backward and moaned. "Sorry," she said as she stomped on my foot.

Cece and Angelica started laughing up a storm. Nobody else saw. Not one adult! No one except the three evil musketeers.

"I'm hungry," Elizabeth whined. "I want pizza!"

"And I wanted to have more time after school at..." Alyssa said, stopping herself. "Robotics," she finished.

I tugged on her arm and pulled her aside. "Alyssa?" I asked.

"Huh?" Alyssa said.

"I know you aren't really at robotics after school," I said.

"What? Taylor, if this is something the twins made up, don't listen to them." Alyssa explained.

"The twins said nothing," I said. "And you know what I'm talking about."

"Tay, stop losing your mind."

"Alyssa!" I shouted. "I know you aren't because of your lie!"

"What lie?" Alyssa asked.

I was done with Alyssa! She was annoying me to no end. "You said you were late because you were using the bathroom," I started. "But where you came from was not in the direction of the bathroom nor the robotics room."

"Wow," she said. "I didn't think you would figure that out."

"Where were you?!" I asked.

"Truth is I have been hanging out with these tenth-grade girls," Alyssa spilled.

"Alyssa!" I said. "What girls?"

"Karen, Kayla, and Katherine," Alyssa said.

"Alyssa!" I said. "No, you didn't! Those girls are nothing but trouble, and even I know that."

"Taylor—" Alyssa started before I cut her off.

"Mom would not approve!" I said.

"Don't tell Mo—"

"You should in no way hang out with them!"

"Tay—"

"You shouldn't skip robotics!"

"Listen!"

"You especially shouldn't lie! Most importantly not to me!"

"Taylor!!!" Alyssa screamed.

I sat there all red with tears streaming down my face. I was silent. I probably looked like a baby.

"Why are you crying?" Alyssa asked, pulling me into the bathroom.

"I'm worried about you," I stuttered. More tears spilled out.

Alyssa grabbed paper towels and handed them to me. "Why would you be worried?"

"You have been lying, sneaking makeup into school, and now this!" I said blowing my nose. I sounded like an elephant.

"Taylor, listen," Alyssa explained. "I didn't know I was worrying you this much."

I sat there blowing my nose, and this lady walked out of the stall, took one look at me, and ran out of the bathroom.

"Hey," Alyssa said before the lady was out of hearing distance. "Aren't you going to wash your hands?"

The woman stopped, walked over to the sink, washed her hands, and left. The whole time she glared at us.

Alyssa and I started laughing so hard I almost peed my pants.

"Listen, I will stop hanging out with them and go to robotics. Okay?" Alyssa said.

"And stop wearing makeup?" I asked.

Alyssa nodded. "And I'll stop lying to you guys."

"Thanks," I said, leaning in for a hug.

Alyssa backed up. "Fix that first," she said, pointing to my teary, red face.

We started laughing.

"Don't tell Mom though, please," Alyssa said.

"I won't," I said.

Once we got home, everything felt normal now that I know what Alyssa's been up to. So everything is fine. Well, everything except the fact that Elizabeth is still here and the three musketeers are on the loose. I may not be able to sleep tonight.

"Ahh!" Elizabeth screamed, jumping on me.

Then came Cece and Angelica, following her lead.

"Oh, come on!" I said. "Get off!"

Well, Diary, there is no need to make you suffer. So, I'll see you tomorrow for school. ☹️😐 Wish me luck.

# Monday, September 10th

Good morning, Diary. I am going to go into today with a good attitude. So when my alarm went off this morning I just danced to the music, as I got dressed. Usually, I would slap my phone, and it would fall to the ground. I marched downstairs and ate breakfast.

" _Good_ morning, Pine Lake Elementary! This is Cece Quinn with your morning announcements coming at ya!"

Cece was chosen for Student Council and gets to do her school's morning announcements. The students will vote who they think did the announcements best. Whoever wins, will do it every morning.

The only bad part about her getting to come up with the speech is she will try so hard that it will come out hilarious.

"So let's have a _GREAT_ day kids!" Cece finished.

Mom clapped. "You are going to rock this, kiddo!"

Cece started munching down on her toast, her legs kicking under the table.

"Mommy, I want to be in Student Council!" Angelica whined.

"You have to be chosen," Cece said.

That made Angelica furious. "How come they chose _you_ and not me?!"

"Now, now, girls. Get along," Mom said.

"You know, I wasn't in Student Council," Alyssa said, trying to make Angelica feel better.

"I figured that," Angelica said.

The three evil musketeers laughed.

Once I got to school, I went to my locker. Josselyn came over to me.

"Hey, listen I just wanted to try to explain again," she said.

I rolled my eyes and ignored her.

"I just—"

"Wanted to help humiliate me?" I asked. "I get it. Apparently, everyone wants to."

"Taylor, that is not it at all," Josselyn said. "I didn't know what they were laughing at. I just felt left out and joined in not knowing. When you got mad, it all clicked. I am really sorry."

I didn't answer.

"I shouldn't have done that anyway. What I did was wrong, and I should be more careful about things like that," Josselyn continued.

I knew she meant everything she said. The thing was, I am tired of friends turning on me, laughing at me, and having people who I think I can trust turn into the last person I would trust. I just couldn't do it.

I shut my locker and grabbed my books. I started walking past her. Pretty soon, she was out of sight. I felt awful. Why did I do that?! I _can_ trust her! She was just like me. She tried to fit in and then lost a friend out of it. If I fixed things with V, I need to fix things with Josselyn as well.

# Tuesday, September 11th

So I am not even going to bother saying "Good morning" because it is not.

Once I got to school, I walked over to my locker and my lock was gone! "How could this happen?" I said. Wait ... did... Beth...NO! NO! NO! NO! She couldn't. She doesn't know my locker combo. Only Lauren does. Lauren?! No! She wouldn't. She'd NEVER! Or would she? ☹️

At this point I barely know my ex-best friend. For all I know, she might have taken my lock.

I opened my locker and a note was inside.

Taylor,

If you ever want your lock or stuff back, you have to give up Lucas. You cannot under any circumstances talk to him, look at him, or write letters to him. You have to avoid him. Leave a note in your locker agreeing to this. If you break the promise, I will tell everyone that you like him, and I'll tell your sister's secret to your parents. If I don't get a note, I won't give your stuff back.

~ Anonymous

OMG! Everything was gone, and I was getting threatened. Worst of all, whoever it is knows Alyssa's secret! As if that isn't enough, they like Lucas, too!

I closed my locker and ran to Josselyn. First thing is first.

"Josselyn, wait!" I said, trying to get her attention. "I thought about what you said yesterday, and I am sorry for ignoring you. I know I can trust you. It is just... difficult to trust people right now."

"Thanks, but I would have taken an 'I forgive you.'" Josselyn laughed.

"Listen. I didn't just forgive you because I needed help. I wanted to forgive you yesterday. I just needed to sleep on it. But I need you to help me with something really serious," I said.

"Okay, relax. I believe you," Josselyn said. "Now what happened?"

So, I told her the whole story. The only thing I left out was what Alyssa's secret was.

"Honestly, how much do you like him? I mean would you _really_ give up your _sister's_ secret and yours _just_ for a _dumb boy_?"

"No, I care about my sister way more," I said.

" _Then_ you can write back to that person, _or_ you can try to find out who it is," Josselyn said smiling.

"Find out who it is," I decided.

"I have an extra lock from home I have never used. You can put in a new combo for yourself and use it for the time being," Josselyn offered. " _This_ time, _don't_ tell _anyone_ your combo!"

"Thanks, and I won't," I said. "Also, how are we supposed to find out who wrote it?"

"Easy. Handwriting," Josseslyn said. "I have to sit with Beth during English. I can take a photo of her hand writing, if you think it is hers."

"Great idea!" I said.

"We'll talk at lunch," she said before rushing off to homeroom.

There was no way I was leaving all the sleuthing to her. I grabbed the note and stuffed it in my binder.

When I got to homeroom, I snatched out the paper. There had to be something other than handwriting as a clue. I unfolded the paper and read it over and over again. I had noticed it was spotless. No clues left behind. Clearly this person had it down pat.

No doubt that it was Beth anyway. Who else hates my guts so much?

"Hey, what are you looking at?" V asked, sitting down.

"I have to tell you this. So when I got to my—" I started to say.

_DING! DING! DING!_

The bell rang, saying we needed to get to class. I would have to tell Violet another time.

So I rushed off to English. Mrs. Trauschke stood at the door.

"Taylor, do me a favor and don't sit with Samantha today, please?" Mrs. Trausche asked.

"Yes, ma'am," I said.

Sam came in confused. That was when I noticed Sam and Violet had the same manicure. Were they all of a sudden friends? I mean V had called her an add-on package to our table at lunch a couple days ago. Was it just a coincidence? If they were friends, why didn't I know?

# Wednesday, September 12th

Good morning, Diary. I can't stop thinking about the letter. I have been looking at it all night now. I refuse to tell my parents or siblings. They would want to tell the principal, and they would know about Alyssa. My siblings would want to know about Lucas.

When I got to my locker today, I opened it and another note was there. All my stuff was untouched, and my new lock was fine. They must have slipped it through the cracks of my locker. I opened the letter and compared the handwriting. Same. NO difference. This time, I noticed a piece of chipped nail polish in the envelope.

I am so excited. Could this be a clue? I will have to find someone who has this nail polish on. I opened the letter.

Taylor,

Think you are clever, huh? Not writing back. You thought that you could get away with that? I might not have had any punishments for that, but I could make one. I noticed how clever you were. You got a new lock and combination, huh? Well, that won't get your stuff back. I'm guessing you are going crazy trying to find out who is writing these. Well, you are basically trying to find a needle in a haystack. There is one person writing this, and how many people are there in your school? A lot.

~ Anonymous

OMG! How does this person know what I am doing? This is a little creepy. I don't know what to do but stick with my original plan.

"Josselyn!" I said, catching up to her. "It happened again."

"How did they get into your locker?" Josselyn asked. "Taylor, don't tell me you told your code to someone?"

"No, I didn't. And that person didn't get in my locker. They gave me another note," I explained. I handed it to her. "This time, I found a piece of chipped nail polish on it," I said, pointing it out.

"That is great! We have another clue," Josselyn said. "In English yesterday, we did everything on the computer, so I couldn't see Beth's handwriting."

"That is okay. You can try again today. Also, now we have another clue," I said, feeling a bit hopeful.

"Okay, see you in math," Josselyn said.

I took the letter and shoved it into my binder with the other one. When I got to homeroom, I was about to tell Violet about the letters when I noticed she wasn't in school yet. By the time she got to homeroom, it was too late once again to tell her.

# Thursday, September 13th

Good morning, Diary. I spent all last night thinking about that nail polish. I am almost positive that it will be easy to identify the person by their nails now. I will have to talk to Josselyn about it before homeroom.

Once I was at my locker I examined the polish one more time and went over to Josselyn.

"Hey," she said. "Ready to find out who did it?"

"Yeah, but there is something that feels off here," I say, looking around. That was when I noticed almost every girl had that exact nail polish on!

How was that possible? What were the odds? There was only one thing that came to my mind right then, I AM SOOO DOOMED!

"They all have the same nail polish on!" I said.

"What?" Josselyn asked.

"Look at all of the girls' nails!" I said.

"Oh my God!" Josselyn said. "This _is_ going to be like finding a needle in the haystack."

Once I got to homeroom, I realized even V had that nail polish on.

I quickly asked V, "Where did you get that nail polish?"

"Oh, why? You like it? Thanks!" V said.

"No," I said.

"Oh, okay?" V said.

"Sorry, I didn't mean for it to come out like that," I explained. "I meant that's not why I asked."

"Oh, then why did you ask?" V said.

"Why is everyone wearing that nail polish?" I asked.

"We all went to Beth's party," V said nervously. "Don't be mad, please. I know you don't exactly like her, but in my defense, she throws great parties."

"I'm not mad," I said. "Anyway, so everyone who is wearing it went to her party?" I asked.

"Yup," V said.

"Violet, if you don't mind me asking though, did you write the letters or know who did?" I asked.

"You really think I would do that to you?" she asked. "Not going to lie, that hurts."

"No, I don't think you did it," I said. "I just need to know who did, and I am going crazy!"

"Who knew your locker code?" she asked.

"Just Lauren," I said. "Wait! I told Sam, too!"

"Why did you tell Samantha?" V asked.

"I was stuck in my locker because someone locked me in," I said. "I had to text her my combo to get me out!"

"Wow! I always knew we couldn't trust her!" V said.

"I have to go," I said.

I found Sam in the hall later in the day.

"Why do you look so mad?" Sam asked. "Are you mad at me or something?"

"I know what you did!" I said.

"What?" Sam said.

"You know what I am talking about," I said. "You think you can just do that?"

"Okay, listen, Taylor, I am sorry I broke up with your brother," Sam said. "I really didn't think—"

I cut her off. "You broke up with Marcus?!" I exclaimed. "Wait. You dated Marcus? How could you not tell me?"

"You're saying that isn't what you were accusing me of?" Sam asked.

"No," I said.

"Then what else do you think I did?" she asked.

"I thought you were leaving me blackmail letters. You did say that you liked someone, but I thought it was Ethan. The letters were talking about Lucas. I thought maybe I was wrong about Ethan, and you _do_ know my locker combo," I explained.

"Taylor, I promise I never did that," Sam said. "Also, I do like Ethan. So, I am sorry for not telling you about Marcus or Ethan, but I never blackmailed you or gave your combo away."

"I'm really sorry for accusing you," I said, feeling a bit foolish.

"It is fine. I guess," Sam said.

"Who else was at the party?" I asked.

"Who wasn't?" Sam asked. "Oh, wait. I didn't mean that!" she quickly added, realizing I wasn't there.

"To be honest, I didn't want to go anyway," I said.

"Well, if this helps, anyone wearing the nail polish definitely went to the party," she said. "Although, that is common sense."

That is when V and Ethan joined us.

"Taylor!" V said.

"What?" I asked.

"Sam didn't do it," they said in unison.

"I know that now," I explained. "How did you figure it out?"

"Sam, didn't paint her nails until last night," V said. "The party was two days ago. Last night is after you got the note."

"How did you know she did it last night?" I asked.

"Sam and I had a sleepover last night," V explained. "We wanted to become friends because of you."

"Oh," I said shocked. "That is a great idea. I am glad you guys are better."

Just then Beth walked by me with no nail polish on, and it all came to me.

"I know who did it!" I said.

# Friday, September 14th

Good morning, Diary! I can't believe today I can turn in the real culprit behind everything. But first, I need proof. Logic isn't good enough this time.

First thing once I stepped in the building, I ran over to Josselyn.

"Do you have pictures or videos of Beth from two days ago?" I asked.

"Yeah why?" Josselyn asked.

"I think I might have a lead to who is writing those letters to me," I said.

"Trust me I won't have any helpful pictures," she said. "If someone else were to look through my photos, they would think I was a stalker."

"I just need to see her hand," I said.

"Here is my camera," Josselyn said, handing me her camera. "You can look to see if any have her hand in it."

"Okay," I said, blocking everything else out. I just wanted my attention on those photos.

"Why do you need to see her hand, though?" Josselyn asked.

"Well, more like her nails," I explained.

"Oh," Josselyn said. "You think the nail polish will match?"

"Yup," I said.

"But even if it does, it won't be a shocker," Josselyn said. "Everyone is wearing that nail polish."

"Yeah except, yesterday I realized Beth wasn't wearing any nail polish," I said.

"Really? That is really unlike Beth," she said.

"Exactly," I said. "She could have taken it off because she realized the note had chipped her nail polish."

Finally, I found the photo. Beth was putting her hair behind her ear. I zoomed in, and sure enough her nails were painted that color and one was chipped.

"Look," I said.

Josselyn looked over my shoulder. "The one is chipped," she said.

"Exactly!" I exclaimed.

I rushed off to homeroom and caught V up on everything.

"How are we going to get her to confess, though?" V asked.

"Confess? We have proof!" I said.

"No offense, but she can deny all of that and make up a story," V said. "You have to lock in all the facts."

"Lock in the facts?" I asked.

How on earth did I do that? What did that even mean?

"Can you translate that to English?" I asked.

"You need to know her alibi. You have the motive, we think," V said.

This still made no sense, so I just nodded and acted like I understood.

"Okay, thanks, V!" I said even though I had no idea what I was thanking her for.

After homeroom, Sam came up to me.

"Taylor," Sam said. "I really am sorry about never telling you about Marcus, but I didn't want things being awkward between us."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about the whole, you-were-dating-my-brother thing," I said.

I totally forgot to confront Marcus about that and tell him Sam is my friend.

"So are we cool now?" Sam asked.

"We were always fine," I said. "I don't really care who you date."

"I thought you were mad because I broke up with him, though," she said confused.

"No. I am not going to lie. I feel like Marcus is a bit softhearted now," I admitted. "Which is a total upgrade if you ask me."

Sam laughed.

The whole day, not once did I get to talk to Beth. It was like she was avoiding me. Now that I am saying it, that would make a lot of sense. I am waiting to pick up Marcus from after school. He stayed after for extra help.

OMG! Beth is sitting outside on the steps of the school. She is even writing a note! I caught her pen handed!

Finally I get to confront her. Wish me luck, Diary.

I walked over to her and sat down.

She quickly hid the note.

"You don't have to hide it," I said. "I already knew you were the one blackmailing me."

"Taylor, I am so sorry," Beth said.

_No you aren't! You are Beth! You hate my guts remember? This girl needs to decide what side she is on!_

"You are?" I said.

"Here," she said, handing me the next letter.

Taylor,

I have decided that this was all messed up. I gave your stuff back. Forget what I had said about Lucas. Just please don't tell anyone about this.

~Anonymous

"Why did you just give me all my stuff back out of the blue?" I asked.

"Well, now that you see me like this, I guess I should tell you," Beth said. "For one, I am here because my mom forgot to pick me up from dismissal. I wrote those letters to get my mom's approval since she hates your mom. Lucas was my only real friend, and I thought I was going to lose him because of you. Which I realized is wrong of me. I have been acting mean because that is how the popular group is. I wanted to blend in."

That backfired.

"When I read your diary, that is when I found out about your sister. It was all to get my mother's approval. I'm serious. I honestly hate the popular crowd, and I feel awful. You are a really nice person, and I treated you like that," Beth finished.

I knew she wasn't lying because she was starting to cry.

"Listen, it's okay," I said.

Not.

"I feel bad for you. I can't even imagine. I'm not going to turn you in to the principal, and I won't tell anyone about this," I said. "If you really hate the popular crowd, then drop out. You can hang out with me and my friends."

Ugh. This was painful but not as painful as before. I was starting to feel a little sad for her.

"Thank you, Taylor," Beth said. "Turns out I might end up having a friend after all."

"Do you need a ride home?" I asked.

"It's fine," Beth said. "Eventually, my mom will show up. Once her work shift is over."

"I'll go ask my mom if you can get a ride from us," I said. "You shouldn't have to wait here."

Sure enough, we ended up driving her home, and I won't lie, the actual personality of Beth isn't half as bad as I thought.

# Saturday, September 15th

Good morning, Diary. Yesterday was a bit odd. I am honestly not mad at Beth anymore, which makes me think I might be sick, but when I checked my temperature this morning I was perfectly fine. Figures.

Sophie and Lia called me.

"Taylor?" Sophie asked.

"What's up?" I said.

"Do you want to hang out at the park today?" Lia said.

"Um, yeah just is there any way it can be a group hang out with all my friends?" I asked.

"Sure," Sophie said.

"I've always wondered what your friends at school are like," Lia said.

"Why?" I asked.

"I don't really know," Lia said.

We laughed.

"I think we should invite Melinda, too," I said. "We all need to get over what happened with the whole prank stuff."

"Agreed," Sophie said.

"But do you think she will even want to talk to us?" Lia asked.

"She might not want to, but it can't stay like this forever," I said. There was no way I was dealing with those three every dance practice and show after that.

"Taylor is right," Sophie said. "I miss being her friend."

"Yeah," Lia agreed. "I can't stand all of the drama anymore. It needs to stop."

All of a sudden, someone knocked on the door.

"I have to go. I'll see you guys later," I said, hanging up.

I got up from the couch and answered it. It was Lauren.

"Lauren?" I asked I little bit confused. Like why would she out of nowhere come to my house like we were still best friends?

"Taylor, we have to talk," Lauren said.

"Yeah," I said. That was what I had been trying to do all year so far. I mean it's okay if _now_ is when you want to talk. NOT.

Diary, it is only 8:30 in the morning! I am in my pajamas with morning hair! You have no idea how bad my hair is. I could be coming out of the '80s right now.

"Beth has been blackmailing you," Lauren said, stepping inside.

"I know," I said.

"Wait," Lauren said confused. "You knew, but never turned her in?"

"I have my reasons," I said. I was not going to tell her about my conversation with Beth yesterday. I didn't even want to tell Lauren anything.

"Taylor, this is wrong, though," Lauren said angrily.

"I talked to Beth about it," I said. "There are reasons that I can't be mad at. No offense, but I don't think I can tell you."

She sighed. "Are you sure?" she asked.

"Yup," I said. "In fact, we are even friends now."

"Well, that reminds me," Lauren started. "I am dropping the popular crowd."

"Really?" I said. THANK GOD!

"I realized they were just using me for my money, and you were right. I should never have hung out with them," Lauren explained.

I gave her a hug.

"I am glad you are back," I said.

"Me too," she said. "So what else have I missed?"

"A lot," I said.

"Well," she said, "tell me!"

"How much time do you have?" I said.

We both laughed, and I caught her up on everything.

Later that day, I met up with all my new and old friends at the park. We just had pizza and played soccer, but it was the most fun I have had all year.

It was just Lauren, Ethan, Violet, Sam, Josselyn, Beth, Lucas, Sophie, Lia, Melinda, and I all hanging out and having fun.

Oh, and Leslie called Lauren and apologized. So we invited her, too.

Beth came up to me and asked, "You didn't tell anyone about what I told you yesterday, did you?"

"Nope, I wouldn't do that to you," I said. "I'm a secret keeper."

Beth smiled. "Thanks," she said.

Honestly, I don't think that seventh grade is going to be so bad after all. 🙂

# Also by Ayla Hashway

_The Secret Sister_

_The Lost Island_

# Acknowledgments

I want to thank my mom for always helping and inspiring me with my books. I want to also thank my grandma for helping revise this book.

# About the Author

Ayla Hashway is twelve years old. She loves reading, writing, and playing basketball. _Diary of a 7th Grade Drama Queen_ is her third book, although she has been writing for years. She believes if you keep trying, you can make your dreams come true.

For more information, check out Ayla's blog:

<https://readingwritinglovinglife.blogspot.com>
