Free Everybody Bugs Out by Leslie Margolis Page B

said.
    â€œOh yeah.” Rachel blushed.
    â€œAnyway, wouldn’t her dates both want to escort her to the dance?” I asked.
    â€œLook at you, all formal,” said Claire. “Escort!”
    Everyone giggled.
    â€œWhat’s so funny?” I asked.
    â€œThat’s not how it works in junior high,” Rachel explained. “Everyone just goes to the dances with their friends and they meet their dates there.”
    â€œIt all changes in high school,” Claire added.
    â€œBut I don’t think I want to go with either guy,” said Yumi. “And it seems wrong to say yes just so I’ll have a date. Almost like I was using one of them and—” Yumi stopped talking because her phone chimed with a new text message.
    She reached for it, but Rachel got there first.
    â€œWhat are you—hey stop!” Yumi cried, lunging for her phone, but Rachel wouldn’t let go. In fact, she stood up on her tippy-toes and held it over her head, far from Yumi’s grasp.
    â€œThat’s private property!” Yumi yelled.
    â€œI’ll give it back to you as soon as you tell us who you’ve been texting all this time!”
    â€œOkay, fine, but this is so mean to do to me on my birthday!”
    â€œI’m doing it because I care!” Rachel said as she handed back Yumi’s phone. I kind of wished she’d read her text first. Forget that it’s an invasion of privacy—I was curious. We all were.
    â€œDon’t keep us in suspense!” I said.
    â€œI said I’d tell you.” Yumi brushed her hair from her face. “I met a boy in Hawaii.”
    â€œWhat?” Claire asked.
    â€œThat’s so great!” said Emma.
    â€œAnd you’re just telling us now?” asked Rachel.
    â€œYou never asked,” Yumi said.
    â€œThat’s the kind of information you’re just supposed to volunteer,” Rachel said.
    â€œSo what’s his name?” I asked.
    â€œNathan,” Yumi said.
    â€œHave any pictures?” asked Emma.
    â€œOf course. Hold on. Let me just write him back.” Yumi began texting.
    â€œWhat did he write?” asked Rachel.
    â€œWait a sec.” Once Yumi finished, she looked up at us and smiled. “Just Happy Birthday. Surf’s up!”
    â€œSurf’s up?” asked Rachel.
    â€œIt’s an inside joke,” said Yumi. “Too complicated to explain. You had to be there.”
    â€œAnd what are you writing back?” asked Rachel.
    â€œNone of your business!” said Yumi. After she finished, she brought up a tiny picture on her cell phone screen.
    We all huddled around the phone, trying to make out the image. The sun glinted in the background, making it hard to see his face, and her screen was tiny. Almost too tiny for the five of us to be looking at once, but we managed.
    Nathan seemed cute. He wore a green and blue floral print bathing suit and a blue and white rash guard. He was standing on the beach. He had black hair, or maybe it just looked that way because it was wet.
    â€œLet’s see.” Claire moved in closer.
    Rachel took the phone.
    â€œCareful not to delete him!” said Yumi.
    â€œDon’t worry!” said Rachel. “I have my own phone, so it’s not like I don’t know what I’m doing.”
    When the phone finally got passed to me, I quickly scrolled through the shots. There were four pictures—the original of Nathan standing on the beach. Then Nathan biting into a hamburger, Nathan holding a boogie board, and Nathan smiling and waving at the camera.
    None of Yumi and Nathan holding hands or riding horses together on the beach or having a picnic—those are the romantic images that flashed through my mind when Yumi first said she’d met a boy in Hawaii. But I guess if they were both doing all those things together it would be hard to document themselves on film. It’s not like they could hire a