Free Friends of a Feather by Lauren Myracle Page A

part of her Pop-Tart. She throws the foil wrapper in the trash. “Go back to first grade.”
    â€œI know
my
name, just not
yours
.” Joseph and I go to her cubby.
    â€œGuess what?” Joseph says.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œTy and I caught a bird yesterday.”
    Other kids’ ears prick up, probably because of the bird-catching recitation I did last week.
    â€œWhat kind of bird?” Lexie says. She turns from her cubby. “A stuffed bird?”
    Elizabeth comes closer. So do Chase and Taylor and Breezie. No one says anything about Joseph not wearing his hat, and I’m proud of them. Maybe they don’t even notice, but still.
    â€œNope,” I say. “A
real
bird, with real feathers and a real beak and a real heart that beat super fast.”
    â€œDid you really?” Chase says, while at the same time, Lexie says, “You did not.”
    â€œThey might have,” Breezie says. “You don’t know everything, Lexie.”
    Which means that Breezie is still mad at Lexie.
Hmm
. Too bad they didn’t have a working-it-out like Joseph and I did.
    Lexie folds her arms over her chest. “Where is it, then? Did you bring it to school?”
    â€œWhy would we bring a bird to school?” Joseph says.
    â€œTo feed to Lester!” Taylor say.
    Everyone looks at him like,
Really, Taylor? Really?
    â€œWe didn’t bring him to school, and we never would,” I say. “Unless it was pet show-and-tell day. But, even so, we couldn’t, because we had to let him go.”
    â€œHa!” Lexie says. “You ‘had’ to let him go? Boo-hoo. Too bad, so sad.”
    â€œNo, because he was sick. We rescued him, or he would have died. But now a veterinarian is taking care of him.”
    â€œWhen he’s better, he’ll be released back into the wild,” Joseph says.
    â€œUh-huh,” Lexie says. “Where’s your proof?”
    Joseph and I grin at each other. We hoped she’d ask that question. I take a piece of computer paper out of my back pocket and unfold it. Everyone crowds around.
    â€œIt
is
a bird!” Breezie exclaims.
    â€œWhy is the picture black-and-white?” Chase asks.
    â€œI have a raccoon trap in my backpack,” Taylor announces. He stands on his tiptoes at the outside of the circle, trying to see in. He moves from spot to spot. “I do. I’m not even kidding.”
    â€œMy sister took a picture of him on her phone,” I say. “She printed it for me on the printer.”
    â€œWhy don’t you have colored ink?” Chase says.
    Lexie holds out her hand. I give her the picture. She glances at it, snorts, and gives it back. “Fake.”
    â€œWhat?” Joseph says.
    Lexie sticks her nose up in the air. She is an expert at sticking up her nose. “Who says
your sister
took that picture? Who says it isn’t just a random bird you found on the computer?”

    â€œI do,” I say.
    â€œCan I see?” Breezie asks.
    I pass the picture to her. She studies it for longer than Lexie did. She doesn’t just skim her eyes over it.
    â€œThe bird’s in a shoebox,” Breezie says.
    â€œYeah,” I say. “That was to keep him safe.”
    She lifts her head. “Ty, show me your arm.”
    I’m confused, but I stick out my arm.
    â€œYour other arm.”
    I stick out my other arm.
    Breezie nods and hands me back the picture. “It’s a real bird, and Ty and Joseph really did catch it,” she pronounces. “Because of the bracelet. See?”
    Oh yeah! The rubber bracelet from Chipotle! When Winnie took the picture, I was holding the shoebox in my lap.
I’m
not in the picture, at least not my face, but my arms are. On my wrist is my blue rubber bracelet. The same blue rubber bracelet I’m wearing right now!
    â€œI have one, too,” Joseph says, thrusting out his arm.
    â€œYou’re lucky,” Breezie says. She touches it.