Between Us by Cari Simmons

take in the fact that her friends had left her out.
    â€œWell, you’re here now!” Olivia patted the chair nextto her. “Sit down!”
    Before Bailey could, her phone rang. She checked the screen. “My mom,” she told her friends.
    â€œWhere are you?” her mother demanded as soon as Bailey answered. “I just called your grandmother’s and you aren’t there.”
    â€œI’m at Gianni’s with Olivia and Tess and Vivi,” Bailey explained.
    â€œWell, come home. You know you’re not supposed to go anywhere but your grandparents’ without permission,” her mother told her.
    â€œI have to go,” Bailey announced. “Have fun,” she forced herself to add. Tears stung her eyes as she headed to the door. She blinked them away. There was nothing to cry about. Her friends were still her friends.
    Even though they were avoiding her.
    â€œSorry, Mom,” Bailey said as soon as she stepped into the house. “I just really wanted to see Olivia, and I thought I could catch her on her way out of karate.”
    â€œNext time, ask first,” her mother said.
    â€œI will.”
    Bailey thought about trying something else on her list of how to cheer up after a hard day, but her day had been so hard, she was sure nothing would help. Thenshe heard the yips, yaps, and woofs that meant Gus was nearby with his pack of hellhounds.
    â€œIs it okay if I go meet up with Gus?” Bailey asked. When it looked like her mother was about to say no, Bailey quickly added, “We’ll be right in the neighborhood.”
    â€œOkay,” her mother said. “Be back for dinner.”
    â€œI will, probably with Gus,” Bailey promised, then hurried back outside. She really needed to be with a friend right now. She didn’t care if Gus spent the whole time talking about monster movies and telling fart jokes.
    She quickly tracked him down. He was standing in front of the Averys’ house. They were the ones who had Hans and Franz. George was probably trying to go pick up the wiener dogs, but it seemed like Bruce was having some kind of sit-down strike. When the massive Saint Bernard decided he didn’t want to move, everybody had to wait.
    â€œHey!” she called over the dogs’ enthusiastic greetings.
    â€œYou can walk one dog. One,” Gus told her. He handed her Ginger’s leash. The reddish dog was the most obedient one in the pack. Then he stared at Bailey. “What’s wrong with you? You look like you’re about to puke.”
    It was like the question smashed a wall inside her and all these words came spilling out. “None of my friends want to hang out with me even Oh because wherever I go Hannah goes and they all think she’s so annoying because she copies me all the time and it’s like she’s tofu and I don’t know what to do because Hannah’s my cousin and I know it’s a hard time for her but now she’s making me as crazy as everyone else and—”
    Gus held out his hand like a crossing guard stopping traffic. “I thought you just ate a bad hot dog or something. You can’t talk about this—”
    â€œI have to talk about it and I know you hate stupid girly drama but all my other friends are involved in the stupid girly drama which isn’t stupid by the way it’s my life and so you have to let me talk about it because—”
    â€œHannah, Bailey’s coming with us!” Gus yelled.
    What? Hannah?
    â€œGreat!” Hannah called back. She was crossing the Averys’ front lawn with Hans and Franz. The volume of the dogs’ barking went up, and Ginger flopped down onto her back as soon as Hannah joined them. “You want belly scratchies, huh?” Hannah asked.
    She dropped to her knees on the sidewalk. Hans and Franz immediately started competing to see who could lick her face the most times, while Bruce drippeddrool on the top of her