Free Thirteen Plus One by Lauren Myracle

shoplifter, too?”
    “Winnie!”
    Hey, can’t blame me for asking, I thought. Since there’s so much else you haven’t told me.
    “You’re making me feel worse instead of better,” Dinah said. “I’m not a shoplifter, and I would think you would know that.”
    “I would think I would, too,” I shot back.
    “Mary has a problem,” she repeated, and now her words came out forcefully. “Shoplifting is an ad dic tion, and it’s really hard for her, and it’s not your place to judge her.”
    “Dinah—”
    “And I let her keep her stuff in my locker because ... well, I don’t know why.” She sniffled. “And I promised I wouldn’t tell, but I broke under pressure! I broke, all right? Are you happy?! ”
    I wasn’t. I’d started off mad, and I still was. But now a thread of fear moved through me. She was being ... so not Dinah.
    “Okay, um ... wow,” I said at last. I sounded flat. “That really sucks. I’m so sorry.”
    “No, I’m sorry.” The fight had gone out of her, and if I sounded flat, she sounded ... well, a step below that, even. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’ll, um, talk to you later.”
    She hung up.
    She didn’t come to school the next day, since she was serving her suspension. I still couldn’t believe it. Dinah.
    “Well, maybe that’s why,” Louise said at lunch.
    “Maybe what’s why?” Cinnamon said.
    “Why Dinah did it. Maybe she wanted to prove there’s more to her than people think.”
    “That’s ridiculous,” I said.
    “Is it?” Louise said, taking a bite of her sandwich. She was sitting with Cinnamon and me, and I think she liked being a member of our group, even though it was only for today. “Maybe she was sick of always being the good girl.”
    “But she is a good girl,” I said. “That’s who she is . Weird Mary just corrupted her.”
    “Personally, I think people are making too big a deal out of it,” Louise said. “What she did wasn’t even all that bad.”
    “Are you kidding me?” I said. “She’s a shoplifter!”
    Other kids glanced over. I blushed, realizing I was being a little loud.
    “I’m talking about Dinah,” Louise said. She regarded me quizzically. “Dinah didn’t shoplift.”
    “Yeah, well, she was an accomplice!” I was aware that I couldn’t have it both ways: Dinah is bad right up there next to Dinah is my sweet, innocent Dinah. My emotions were all tangled up, though. I’d known Mary was bad news. I’d written myself that note on my iPhone application: FIND OUT WHAT’S UP WITH MARY WOODS!
    But then I’d ignored it. I’d made progress on my To-Do-Before-High-School list— whoopee —but I’d let the Mary Woods issue slide.
    Was it too late? Should I add “Kick Mary Woods’s Butt” to my To-Do-Before-High-School list, or would that be cheating?
    “Gail says it’s abandonment issues,” Cinnamon said. “Lucy Blare thinks she’s got bulimia.”
    “Lucy Blare is an idiot,” I said.
    “True dat,” Cinnamon said. “I was like, ‘Lucy, Dinah’s not bulimic. She’s chubby.’ ”
    I gaped at her. I flung out my hands to say What?!
    “If she was bulimic, she’d be throwing it all up,” Cinnamon explained. “Hence, no calories. Hence, not chubby. Get it?”
    “You do know how wrong that is, right?” I stated. “On so many levels?”
    Cinnamon pushed a French fry into her mouth as a single piece, from tip to end. She drew out her finger with a pop.
    “Go see her,” Louise suggested.
    I looked at her from beneath my bangs.
    “I’m not saying cut class,” Louise said. “Just, after school. And instead of you talking, let her.”
    She made sense. It ticked me off.
    “Think Sandra would take us?” Cinnamon asked me. “Probably,” I said reluctantly.
    “Can I come?” Louise said. Cinnamon and I shared a glance.
    “Maybe it should just be me and Winnie,” Cinnamon said. “But, um, we’ll tell her ‘hey’ for you.”
     
    Dinah lived in a white brick house with yellow flower boxes.