Free The Friendship Matchmaker by Randa Abdel-Fattah

Pria and she nodded. “Go ahead, girls,” she said.
    “What’s going on?” Tanya whispered to me.
    I shrugged, as intrigued as she was.
    “Hi,” Emily began. “For our project we need everybody to follow us to the basketball court.”
    There was an eruption of excited voices as we filed out of the classroom and made our way to the basketball court. Ms. Pria walked with us, yelling out orders to stay in two lines and to keep our voices down because it was still class time. With each step, I felt more anxious. What did Emily and Bethany have up their sleeves? And, more important, would it be better than our project?
    When we arrived at the basketball court myheart sank. There were three big cardboard boxes painted red, green, and yellow spaced at various distances from the free-throw line of the court. The first box was labeled Reuse, the second box Recycle, and the last box Discard.
    Two large boxes were at center court.
    Emily and Bethany stood next to Ms. Pria, who shouted at us to all be quiet and then nodded and beckoned to Emily and Bethany to take over.
    “Okay, we need you to form two lines,” Bethany commanded, “one behind each box at center court.”
    “What nerdy thing have you got planned for us, Bethany?” Chris taunted as we all shuffled along and divided up behind the boxes.
    “Ah, let it go, will you, Chris?” Jemma yelled. “This beats being in class any day!”
    “Definitely!” somebody said.
    “It’s unreal!”
    “If you don’t want to play with us, Chris,” Bethany called out, “you can always wait for us in the classroom.”
    “Ooh!”
    “Go, Bethany!”
    I couldn’t believe my ears. Bethany had never dared to talk back to Chris before. What had Emily done to her?
    “Nah,” Chris said with a casual shrug. “I want to see what this is all about.”
    “It’s a recycling relay,” Bethany explained. “Each team has a box of garbage. Don’t worry, it’s all clean. You have to take an item and then run to the three boxes and decide which box it belongs to: Reuse, Recycle, or Discard.”
    “Reusing is the cheapest option,” Emily said. “It uses fewer resources. Recycling is the second-best option. Discarding or landfilling is the least-best option.”
    “The winner is the team who has the most items in the correct boxes. We’ve got a stopwatch too. So remember, it’s a race!”
    There was another buzz of excitement through the class. Everybody was pumped up to play. I overheard people’s comments:
    “It must have been Bethany’s idea. She’s the one who’s so into the environment. It’s awesome!”
    “Wow, I never even thought about reusing stuff. I hope I know which box to put it in! What a cool idea!”
    “What a smart project,” Tanya said to me.
    “Yes, smart,” I said through clenched teeth.
    Needless to say, the relay was a massive success and Emily and Bethany won the prize.
    I wanted to curl up somewhere and hide from Emily. Did she think I didn’t notice her smug grin? That self-congratulatory expression on her face?
    Bethany was surrounded by a group of kids patting her on the back and congratulating her. They didn’t even seem to mind her close-talking. Even Chris joined in and asked Ms. Pria if Bethany could take over class from now on so we could run math and science relays too.
    Bethany suddenly locked eyes with me and bounded over.
    “What did you think, Lara?” she cried excitedly.
    “It was great,” I said, trying to sound enthusiastic.
    “It was my idea but I would never have beenable to do it if Emily hadn’t encouraged me. I remember in our first induction session you told me I shouldn’t do or say anything that would make me look like an environment nut, so I wasn’t sure, but Emily told me to take a chance. And look! It worked!”
    Just then Claire and Jemma grabbed Bethany’s hand and led her away. Emily joined them and they walked together back to class, laughing and joking. And when Emily left them to go to the bathroom,