Abigail

Chapter Eight

     English class was very unusual after the prank. Since Mr. Smith was down in the office with Michelle and her friends, they temporarily had no teacher. Of course, all anybody could talk about was what they just witnessed in the hallway.

     "That was hilarious!" one boy said. "Whoever thought that up is a genius!"

     "That was so not funny," said a girl from Michelle's extended group. "That was mean. Who would ever do that to poor Michelle?"

     Kendra quietly sat into her seat, trying to keep her expression neutral. Rachel sat down next to her.

     "Where were you during lunch today?" asked Rachel. "Trinity and I missed you."

     Kendra had completely forgotten. She was so excited to meet up with Abigail she forgot to check in with her friends. And afterwards, she was so deep in thought, she didn't even think to go sit by her old friends. "I am so, so sorry, Rachel. I, um, forgot that there was a test today and I needed to study in the library."

     "Oh," Rachel said. "We could have helped you study. What subject?"

     "Art?"

     Rachel gave Kendra a questioning look, but was interrupted before she could say anything else.

     "Quiet down, class," came Mr. Smith's voice. He had returned after all. All at once, everyone stopped talking. For some reason, Mr. Smith could get any class to listen. He wasn't big or scary. He just had the type of voice that made you want to show respect.

     Mr. Smith came to the front of the room. "There has been an unfortunate event after lunch today. Somebody pulled what seemed like a prank on four girls in seventh grade. This is not a joking matter. Whoever did this is going to face some serious consequences. I hope none of you were involved." Mr. Smith made eye contact with everyone in the room to see if he noticed anyone squirm.

     Kendra still was confused as to what happened. Why was Millie pranked? She and Abigail only made three glue bombs. Millie was not in the plan. In fact, she thought they were getting revenge, for Millie. Suddenly, a moment of realization hit Kendra and her stomach dropped into her heels.

     Abigail did this.

     Abigail had left some of the glue mixture behind. Could it be that after Kendra went back to lunch, Abigail planted a fourth glue bomb in Millie's locker? She felt sick to her stomach just thinking that she pranked her best friend. Well, technically ex-best friend. But still, a friend is a friend for life. And the fact that Abigail pranked Millie really bothered her.

     Kendra also began to worry she might get caught, but she realized two very comforting facts. One, nobody knew. Nobody saw her and Abigail so no one would turn them in. Two, nobody would suspect her. Kendra was a straight A student and never got in trouble. All her teachers liked her and she always did her homework. She was late to class the other day, but that was completely unrelated.

     For the rest of the day, Kendra kept her eye out for Abigail, but didn't see her anywhere. When the end of the day came, Kendra started to feel panicked. She needed to talk to Abigail now more than ever. She had to find out for sure if Abigail was behind the glue bomb in Millie's locker.

     "Oh, yeah, like that doesn't look suspicious at all."

     Kendra turned around. "Abigail! We need to talk." She noticed there was nobody else was in the hallway, so she proceeded her interrogation session with a serious expression on her face. "Did you prank Millie, too?" she whispered.

     Abigail grinned and raised her dark eyebrows. "What do you think?"

Kendra groaned. "Why did you do that for? I thought the plan was to get back at Michelle for stealing Millie. Not prank Millie. Millie didn't do anything."

     "Sure she did. She dropped you for Michelle in a heartbeat. She made fun of you behind your back. She sent you emails and acted like everything was fine, but was embarrassed to be seen with you in public. Does that sound like a good friend to you, Kendra?"

     Kendra stopped to think about what Abigail just said. To her horror, it was true. But still, she was upset with her and didn't want to give her the satisfaction of being right. Friend or ex-friend, Kendra cared about Millie, and nobody was allowed to mess with her. "That may be true now, but you don't know the Millie I know. Millie is sweet and caring and would do anything for her friends. Maybe she will turn back that way someday, or maybe she will stay what she has become. I can't predict the future, but I do know that I don't want to stoop to their level. Pranking them makes us just as bad."

     Abigail just grinned, looking amused at Kendra's rant. "That was very nice, but I'm always right. It's best you learn that now before you embarrass yourself. See you tomorrow." With that, Abigail turned around and walked away.

     Kendra didn't even realize until later that night that she never told Abigail anything about Millie's emails.