Read Online Friendship According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney - Free Book Online

he could understand me.
    “See how much fun it is to play with your friends?” I asked. It probably sounded like “Squeak-squeak-squeak,” but he could have at least responded with a “Boing!”
    I decided to squeak up louder this time. I couldn’t even hear myself because of all the yelling.
    Yelling?
    I looked around to see who was making all that noise. It wasn’t Lower-Your-Voice-A.J. or Repeat-It-Please-Richie. It was Gail. She had stopped giggling and started shouting. The person she was shouting at was her best friend, Heidi.
    “You cheated! I saw you!” she yelled.
    “I didn’t,” Heidi said. “I wouldn’t cheat.”
    “You must have. You always win. I’m never playing with you again, cheater,” Gail shouted.
    Mrs. Brisbane quickly moved toward them. “Girls, please!”
    “I didn’t cheat,” insisted Heidi. “I’m not a cheater.”
    Gail put her fingers in her ears. “Did too, cheater, cheater, cheater!”
    Everyone else in the class stopped playing and stared at the two girls. Mrs. Brisbane was right between them now. “Girls, please calm down and be quiet.”
    Heidi and Gail were quiet, but they glared at each other angrily.
    “Tell me what happened, Gail. Calmly.”
    Gail wiped away some tears. “She was supposed to move her man five spaces and she moved it six spaces. That gave her a bonus jump and she won. She cheated!”
    “Did not!” Heidi shouted. “I only went five!”
    The teacher held up both hands. “Stop. I want you two to cool off before we talk about it. You’re such good friends, let’s work this out.”
    “She’s not my friend anymore!” said Gail. She was crying harder.
    “Thank goodness!” Heidi shot back. “Because I can’t stand you! Crybaby!”
    “Cheater!”
    Mrs. Brisbane shook her head. “Heidi, you go over there by Humphrey and Og,” she said firmly. “Gail, you go sit at my desk. Try and settle down.”
    The girls did as they were told. I think they were glad to get away from each other. Soon, Heidi was leaning up against the table where Og and I have our homes.
    “Crybaby,” she whispered so softly, only we could hear her.
    It was hard for me to believe that Heidi would cheat her best friend. It was hard for me to believe that Gail would lie about Heidi. I thought friends always got along, no matter what.
    “First, all she does is giggle. Now all she does is cry,” Heidi muttered.
    At Mrs. Brisbane’s desk, Gail glared over at Heidi and wiped away a few more tears.
    When recess was almost over, Mrs. Brisbane took the two girls out into the hall to discuss the argument. They came back in and quietly returned to their seats. But as soon as Mrs. Brisbane turned her back, I saw them stick their tongues out at each other. Maybe friendship wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
    It was snowing by afternoon recess, so Mrs. Brisbane divided the class into four teams. Each team had questions to answer. They had to decide as a group what the answer should be. Mrs. Brisbane kept score.
    She wisely put Heidi and Gail on different teams so they wouldn’t argue or make faces. Both their teams lost.
    The winning team had Miranda, Kirk, Seth and Tabitha on it. And, to my surprise, the reason they won was Tabitha!
    Mrs. Brisbane asked each team questions about all kinds of things: flowers, books, poetry, sports, animals (but not hamsters, I’m sorry to say) and countries. Nobody knew much about flowers. Everybody knew a lot about animals. Sayeh was the best at answering questions about countries. (Would you believe there’s a country with a capital called Tegucigalpa? I had to write that one down.)
    But Tabitha was the best at answering questions about sports. She knew soccer teams, volleyball rules and golf champions. The boys all seemed amazed. As the quiz went on, there seemed to be more and more questions about sports. Maybe that was an accident, but when Mrs. Brisbane is involved, things don’t usually happen by chance.
    By the end of the recess period,