Free Stop the Presses! by Rachel Wise

talking to Hailey a little,” Michael said.
    â€œYOU WHAT?” I whisper yelled.
    The librarian, who had been eyeing us the whole time, started to walk over to our table.
    â€œShe’s really hurt, Sam,” Michael explained. “I wish you would see that. She just needed someone to talk to.”
    â€œAnd you’re that someone?” I asked. “She has a whole crowd of people surrounding her in school all the time. Why doesn’t she talk to them?”
    â€œI don’t know, Sam,” Michael admitted. “She called me. I think she just wanted to know if Iknew how you felt. You know, it would be a lot easier if you just talked to her yourself.”
    â€œShe called you?” I hissed. “And you told her how I felt?”
    â€œSam, I think you’re blowing this out of proportion a little,” Michael said. “It wasn’t that big a deal. I know how close you guys were. I just wanted to help. You need to tell her how you feel.”
    â€œYou can help by staying out of it,” I replied, annoyed. “I’m going to go start the draft. I’ll e-mail it to you, so you can make sure I’m unbiased .”
    I started to pack up all my stuff. I could feel that ball of emotions start to rise up in my throat again, and I wanted to get out of the library before Michael could see it too.
    â€œSam, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to do anything wrong,” Michael apologized.
    â€œIt’s fine,” I said, not meaning it at all. “I’ll talk to you later.”
    I rushed out of the library before the librarian could get a chance to shush us. I could feel the tears streaming down my face as I walked home. How could such a great day be ruined? I reallyhated Hailey. I wanted to go home and think about how good it felt to be with Michael and how close we seemed to be getting. Now I was going to think about him and Hailey talking about me ! I couldn’t imagine what they said. Did they make fun of me? Was Michael on her side? Did Hailey tell him any of my secrets, like how I really felt about him? Well, besides blurting out that I had a crush on him. I mean, it was obviously not that big of a secret, and I’m sure he had a little hint that I really liked him, but still, that’s different from having your best friend say it out loud. I would never do that to Hailey. I would never call a boy that she liked to talk about how mad I was at her. Although I wished I could right now.
    At home, I couldn’t stop thinking about everything that had happened. It felt like some awful movie, where the main character is betrayed by her best friend and shunned by everyone she knows. Was that where this was heading? Hailey would be the most popular girl at Cherry Valley Middle School, and I would be a total outcast? The more I thought about it, the more I cried, soI took out the Dear Know-It-All letter, thinking I could at least try to write the column. Even I knew I’d have a hard time writing an impartial draft of the article right now. But when I started typing a reply to the grandma-sweater letter, other words came out of my fingertips:
    Hailey,
    I guess destroying the Voice wasn’t enough for you. You had to hit me where it really hurts by calling my one true love, Michael Lawrence, and talking about me behind my back.
    Guess what? You win. I wouldn’t want to win that fight anyway, because I would never hurt anyone the way you hurt me.
    â€”Sam
    Just then, my door slammed open and Allie came waltzing in my room. I quickly reached for the hide screen key and turned around to block her view.
    â€œDon’t you ever knock?” I asked.
    â€œSorry, Sammy-pants. I thought we were cool,” Allie said.
    â€œSTOP CALLING ME THAT!” I screamed. “And we are not cool if you think you can invade my privacy anytime you want.”
    â€œDo you have a problem?” Allie asked. “Is your little world torn apart because