Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares

nodded. “Okay.”
     
    Tibby quickly learned the ground rules with Bailey. It wasn’t hard. There were only two of them: 1) Don’t lie. 2) Don’t ask her how she’s feeling.
    Other than that, the conversation over brownies with ice cream and chocolate sauce ranged far and wide. Tibby found herself talking with unusual interest and openness about the movie she was planning. Bailey acted like she was fascinated, and Tibby wasn’t immune to a person thinking she was cool.
    It made Tibby wonder about herself—if maybe she missed her friends even more than she had realized. Was she so lonely that she’d open up to any random annoying twelve-year-old?
    Bailey seemed to have the same suspicion. “Do you have any friends?” she asked at one point.
    “Yes,” Tibby said defensively. But as she began to describe her three fabulous, beautiful, and amazing friends and the awesome places they were spending their summers, she realized it really sounded like she was making them up.
    “Where are all of your friends?” Tibby finally asked, throwing the burden back to Bailey.
    Bailey rattled on about Maddie, who lived in Minnesota now, and somebody else.
    Tibby looked up at one point and saw Tucker Rowe standing at the counter. Her heart started beating faster. Was he the only other person in their class who was home this summer? She’d figured out by now that he worked at the ultrahip indie record store that shared a parking lot with Wallman’s. It was a whole four stores over, past a Burger King, a pizza place, and Calling All Pets, so running into him wasn’t a definite. But it was highly likely. It had happened once already.
    Some people go out of their way to run into their crushes. Tibby did everything she could to avoid it. Mostly, she’d observed, Tucker parked in the back of the strip mall. So she always made it a point to park her bike in the front. And it seemed to work okay. Except for now, in this ice cream shop, which happened to be on the other side of Calling All Pets. Tibby silently berated herself for such bad planning.
    Tucker was wearing a slight scowl and a squinty face that made him look like he’d only just gotten out of bed. He was probably hanging at the Nine Thirty Club all night while she was resting up for her next shift at Wallman’s. She seriously hoped he would think that Bailey was her little sister and not her new best friend.
    “Why are you holding your face like that?”
    Tibby glared at Bailey. “What do you mean?”
    “You know, with your cheeks all sucked in.” Bailey did an exaggerated imitation.
    Tibby felt her face warm. “I wasn’t.” When had Tibby started lying? She prided herself on being direct—with herself especially. But Bailey was far more ruthlessly direct than even Tibby, and it was causing Tibby to hide and shrink, just what Tibby accused other people of doing.
    Bailey wasn’t done yet. Her eagle eyes scanned the front of the store. “Do you like him?”
    Tibby was about to pretend she didn’t know who Bailey was talking about, but she stopped herself. “He’s okay,” Tibby agreed uncomfortably.
    “You think?” Bailey looked unconvinced. “What do you like about him?”
    “What do I like about him?” Tibby was annoyed. “Look at him.”
    Bailey stared at him baldly. Tibby felt embarrassed, even though she hated the whole giggly “Don’t let him see you’re looking at him” routine.
    “I think he looks stupid,” Bailey announced.
    Tibby rolled her eyes. “You do, do you?”
    “Does he really think those earrings are cool? And, I mean, look at his hair. How much gel went into that hair?”
    Tibby had never considered that Tucker actually spent time trying to make himself look like he looked. It was true that the height of his hair looked less than accidental. Even so, she didn’t feel like admitting that to Bailey.
    “Um, no offense, Bailey, but you’re twelve. You haven’t even hit puberty yet. Please forgive me if I don’t accept your