Free Best Friend Next Door by Carolyn Mackler

you for months?”
    I shake my head. “Then Ms. Linhart will hate me even more, like I’m accusing her of letting this go on. Gina and the rest of them will make fun of me for telling.”
    “I see what you mean,” Hannah says. “But it’s just so …”
    “Awful,” I say, blowing my nose.
    I glance around the little room with only a cot, a box of tissues, and a barf basin on the floor. They had the same barf basin at the nurse’s office on Captiva Island. But back in Captiva, I was actually sick when I went to the nurse. I wasn’t hiding out.
    “Can I tell you the real truth about something?” Hannah says, chewing at her thumbnail.
    “For the Og Twins?” I blot my eyes. “Of course.”
    Hannah leans in close to me and whispers, “Margo’s pregnant. My dad and Margo are having a baby.”
    I’m so relieved she finally told me that I smile.
    “What’s so funny?” Hannah asks.
    “It’s just …” I pause. I’m not sure how to tell her this.
    “Kind of obvious?”
    “Yeah,” I say, exhaling. “She’s huge. She looks like she’s going to have the baby any day now.”
    “Not until February,” Hannah says quickly. “ Late February.”
    I can tell she looks upset so I squeeze her hand back.
    “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before,” Hannah says. “Plus, there’s this other thing going on.”
    As Hannah pauses, I think about how we’re in the nurse’s office and the phone keeps ringing and there’s a barf bucket (with a weird brownish stain in it) on the floor and yet it actually feels cozy and safe in here. I had good friends in Captiva, Olivia and Lucy, but we’ve been talking less and less since I moved. And really, I feel closer to Hannah than I ever was to them.
    “The thing is,” Hannah says, “Margo is adopting me.”
    I totally didn’t see that coming. “She’s adopting you? But what about your—”
    “Real mom?”
    “Birth mom,” I say. “Margo is your real mom.”
    Hannah nods like she hadn’t thought about that before. “My, uh, birth mom never wanted kids,” she says quietly. “She gave me up to my dad when I was born. I’ve never talked about that to anyone before. Not even Sophie.”
    Mom C says I always have a comment or question about everything. But at this moment, I can’t think of a single thing to say.
    “They’ve been working on the adoption for a while,” Hannah says. “It’s going to be finalized soon. We’re waiting for a court date any day now.”
    “Wow,” I say. “Congratulations.”
    “I guess.” Hannah sits on her hands and rocks side to side. “I’m scared, though.”
    “Me too,” I say.
    “I’m glad we’re Og Twins,” Hannah says. “I feel like this is what it means to be best friends. To tell each other things we wouldn’t tell anyone else.”
    Best friends. I’ve been thinking it. She said it. Best friends.
    “Me too,” I say.
    Hannah stretches out her foot and kicks the barf basin under the cot.
    “I couldn’t look at that for one more second,” she says, laughing.

    The next day is Saturday and we practice hard. Coach Missy has us do the usual warm-ups of freestyle, backstroke, and freestyle again. Then we get into kicking with the board while she’s timing us, which is brutal for me because my legs are short (I’m much better when it’s all about the arms). Then Coach Missy has us do breast and free sprints with descends, which means our times have to be faster with each lap.
    By the end of practice, my upper arms are sore and my neck is stiff. I stand under the shower for several minutes, trying to decide what I want to do when I get home. Eat (I’m so hungry) or sleep (I’m so tired). Or can I eat and sleep at the same time?
    “Too hot to hoot!” Hannah sings when I finally wrap myself in a towel and meet her at the lockers. She’s dressed and packing her wet bag.
    “Huh?” I ask.
    Hannah snaps her goggles at me, but they hit a locker instead. “You’re too hot to hoot . A palindrome.”
    “Ah.” I