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have a nickname,” Jules explained. “I already have one, obviously, and nobody calls Abi ‘Abigail,’ so Makayla had to be Mak. Oh, and all the counselors were named after food. Like we had Cupcake, Lollipop, Snickers, Funyun—”
    â€œWait,” I said, giggling. “ ‘Funyun’?”
    â€œAnyway,” Abi said loudly. “So on the last day of camp, when we were all at the lake, Mak kept showing off her swim-team strokes. To get Nick’s attention. And it totallyworked. He didn’t pay one bit of attention to me; when he got on the bus, he didn’t even say good-bye.”
    â€œHuh,” I said. “Are you saying she was trying to steal him from you, Abi? Maybe she was just practicing for swim team.”
    â€œYou want to know the truth, Lia? Mak is always so competitive with me! It got really, really bad this summer. It’s like she has to be the best all the time, and she won’t let me have anything. ” Abi’s voice wobbled.
    Jules put her arm around Abi’s shoulder.
    â€œDid you talk to her about it?” I asked.
    â€œI tried! She just denied the whole thing. The worst part was that she didn’t even care that she hurt my feelings.” Abi sighed. “Oh, never mind, Lia. I didn’t mean to talk about all this. I really just wanted to invite you to my sleepover this Saturday night. Can you come?”
    â€œSure,” I said quickly.
    â€œYay!” Jules beamed at me. “Marley’s coming too.”
    â€œBut not—?”
    â€œOf course I invited Mak, but who knows if she’ll even come,” Abi said. “It’s totally up to her, you know?”
    Then they both left, leaving the sea glass on my bed.

Truth or Dare

    THAT SATURDAY AT FIVE-THIRTY, MARLEY showed up at my door wearing a Chicago Cubs jersey, blue gym shorts, and blue and red rubber bands on her teeth. We were walking over to Abi’s together, which was definitely awkward, because Abi had told me not to tell “anyone” about the business with Makayla, and “anyone” included Marley. But then I realized that Abi and Jules had already invited Marley before they came to my house, so maybe they’d told her the whole Makayla story first.
    Although I doubted it. It wasn’t just because Abi hadsaid all that stuff about telling me because she trusted me. It was also because of a feeling I had, a feeling I didn’t like to admit—that Marley was connected to the group through me. That the other girls didn’t see her coolness the way I did. That she was sort of on the edge of things, like a moon that could slip out of orbit one day and just kind of drift away.
    I worried: What would Marley think when we got to Abi’s if Makayla wasn’t there? Would Abi (and Jules) even give her any explanation? Or make up a lame excuse— Mak said she had her period and just felt too bleh to see her best friends?
    But it turned out that I didn’t need to worry about any of this. Because when Marley and I arrived at Abi’s house, Makayla was already there, in the kitchen, sitting on a stool and eating cherry Twizzlers.
    â€œNo more braces!” she shouted as a greeting. “They came off yesterday, and now I can eat Twizzlers again, my long-lost loves!”
    â€œThat’s so great!” I exclaimed. My eyes darted over to Abi, to see if I could detect any weirdness between them. But Abi was beaming.
    So was Makayla. “Although I still have this stupid retainer, but I don’t care! I don’t care if I turn into a Twizzler!”
    Abi, Jules, and Marley laughed.
    Abi put her arm around Makayla’s shoulder. “Careful, dahling. Or you’ll end up like Ren!”
    â€œWho’s Ren?” Marley asked.
    â€œOmigod,” Makayla exclaimed. “This girl at camp? All she ate was ice cream and carrots, ice cream and carrots.”
    â€œTogether?” Marley made a