I set the phone down. And you know what? I began talking to God instead of Jennie, crying, “Thank you, God!”
I guess for another chance—I guess because Jennie forgave me for all my meanness—I guess because after all this terrible year—I am the one who is a success. For Paul and now for Jennie, I am the one who saved them.
So success isn’t writing musicals, or getting A plus, or being interviewed in the newspaper.
Success is being proud of yourself.
That’s why I hated Jennie. I wasn’t proud of myself. But now I can help her, now I am stronger, now I can let go of that terrible jealousy and just be her friend.
Of course, I don’t have a car to get her in, and I promised not to tell my parents or hers, and she thinks—and she’s right—that Hillary is still as jealous as ever—so that leaves … who?
I never had a stranger ride.
Emily came over at eleven o’clock at night.
Jared and Ansley had just gotten in from a date and we were watching a movie before Jared took Ansley on home, and Emily walks right in, takes a handful of popcorn, and says with her mouth full, “Jennie just telephoned me. We have to go get her. She’s in Albany. It’s a four-hour drive.”
“Why did you have popcorn before you told us?” demanded Ansley.
“Because I’m nervous. I always eat when I’m nervous.”
Jared leaped up, whooping and hollering. He did an Indian war dance around the room and yelled, “I love it! My life is perfect! I’ve always wanted to drive off in the middle of the night, a knight in shining armor, and rescue somebody. A four-hour drive! I love it. Maybe it’ll snow! Maybe we’ll have a hard time getting there! Maybe we’ll get hijacked!”
“Nobody hijacks cars, Jared.”
“A person can always dream.” Jared laughed and told us how we would all squash into his Porsche and be a party of White Knights in Shining Armor, racing up to the bus station!
“Good thing it’s a Friday and everybody’s parents are out,” said Jared happily. “Otherwise they’d ruin this by going themselves, or telephoning the police in Albany to get her. Oh, this is wonderful! Ansley, get everything in the refrigerator so we’ll have plenty to eat. Emily, choose some good tapes for the drive! Paul, add up everybody’s cash. We need money.”
I collected wallets and purses and threw it all in a pile.
And I began laughing with Jared.
It was pretty wonderful.
Jennie was okay—and I am too.
I made it. Everybody I know helped me, whether I wanted it or not. And Jennie, she’ll make it too. And my mother: I think Mom is going to make it.
Some of the anger and jealousy and worry seeped out of me.
My laughter was real.
Life could begin again.
Unclassified.
Emily said dubiously, “I’m not sure we should make a party out of this. Do you think Jennie wants us to arrive celebrating, with Cokes and cassettes?”
Ansley said, “Darling, Jennie wants friends. Four is better than one.”
She was all right. I knew she would be.
She was dirty and hungry, but she wasn’t suicidal or anything.
We all hugged.
It was slow, and it was circular, first me hugging her, and then Jared (and we’re the two who matter least of all), and then Paul Classified, and then, at last, Emily. And the hug with Emily—oh, the hug of a friend who forgives you and you forgive her—oh, that was a hug to see.
Paul asked me out.
Paul asked me out.
Paul asked me out.
Paul asked me out!
Paul !!! asked !!! me!!! out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(He did. It’s true.)
I never thought I would do a normal thing like go out on a date with a girl. I thought I would spend the rest of my life trying to keep my mother afloat. Mr. Lowe said bit by bit being normal will come back to me and it won’t really be that hard.
Emily was so pleased that I asked her. I didn’t know she would be that pleased. I thought she would say yes, or I wouldn’t have asked her—but I didn’t know she would get all happy and giggly and give me a hug.
I haven’t had a hug in a long time. Friday night I hugged everyone I know.
It was pretty great.
I could get into that kind of thing.
The journals were due today.
Miss MacBeth was late to class, and we all sat there, hugging our diaries. Afraid to let go of them.
Hillary tore half hers out. She doesn’t think Miss MacBeth will notice but I know Miss MacBeth will. I bet she doesn’t grade Hill down, though. She’ll figure if the entries meant so much they had to be destroyed, then Hill’s diary was the best of all.
Ansley asked who was going to keep on with a journal now that we don’t have to. If anybody is, nobody admitted it.
Well, I’m going to keep a diary forever, and I’ll never tell a soul. Not The Awesome Threesome, not my mother, not Miss MacBeth, not even Paul. This diary will be for me. I have a new stenography notebook clipped inside my American history three-ring notebook. I’m writing in it now, and nobody in this room has noticed. They’re watching—who else?—Jennie.
Jennie doesn’t have a diary to pass in. She lost it in the bus station. “You’re going to get a zero,” Jared said to her.
Jennie shrugged. Imagine Jennie Quint shrugging. She said, “It’s only a diary I lost. I found the things that count.”
Emily’s Diary Number Two.
May it contain the things that count.
About the Author
Caroline B. Cooney is the author of the following books for young people: The Lost Songs; Three Black Swans; They Never Came Back; If the Witness Lied; Diamonds in the Shadow; A Friend at Midnight; Hit the Road; Code Orange; The Girl Who Invented Romance; Family Reunion; Goddess of Yesterday (an ALA-ALSC Notable Children’s Book); The Ransom of Mercy Carter; Tune In Anytime; Burning Up; The Face on the Milk Carton (an IRA-CBC Children’s Choice) and its companions, Whatever Happened to Janie? and The Voice on the Radio (each of them an ALA-YALSA Best Book for Young Adults), What Janie Found, What Janie Saw (an ebook original short story), and Janie Face to Face; What Child Is This? (an ALA-YALSA Best Book for Young Adults); Driver’s Ed (an ALA-YALSA Best Book for Young Adults and a Booklist Editors’ Choice); Among Friends; Twenty Pageants Later; and the Time Travel Quartet: Both Sides of Time, Out of Time, Prisoner of Time, and For All Time, which are also available as The Time Travelers, Volumes I and II.
Caroline B. Cooney lives in South Carolina.
Caroline B. Cooney, Among Friends
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