2/8
BEFORE DINNER

DEAR NEW DIARY,

I'm pretty upset about what happened today.

My new friend Zara asked if I'd heard about Chuck.

"No, what about him?" I said.

"He and Kelli are going out," she said.

"How do you know?" I asked because this did not seem possible, and, well, Zara has kind of a big mouth.

She said Chuck was on the bus minding his own business when Kelli hopped on and sat right next to him without asking. She was wearing one of her sparkly headbands-she has about a million-and sneaking bites of banana bread even though you're not supposed to eat on the bus. She offered him a piece. And he took it.

Later, in homeroom, Kelli passed Chuck a note that said, "Do you want to go out?" Zara said it had two circles, one marked YES and one marked NO. At first Chuck didn't answer, but Kelli made a sad puppy face, so he put an X in the YES circle and passed it back.

And now they are "going out"!!

I have to say, this really bugs me.

Number one: we're only in fifth grade.

Number two: Chuck and I have been friends since the apple-picking field trip in kindergarten, and Kelli just moved here last year, and I've never once noticed him notice her.

It just doesn't seem right that they've said about five sentences to each other-total-and all of a sudden they're "going out"! How long has she even liked him? Did she start today?

And how can they be going out when none of us is allowed to go anywhere anyway?

Lunch was spaghetti and meatballs, which I usually love, but my insides felt like cold, stuck-together spaghetti. It didn't help that Zara and my best friend Maybelle were talking about Valentine's Day, which is Saturday.

Our grade has three Emilys, but only one Ava, one Maybelle, and one Zara, and lately the six of us have been sitting together at lunch. Well, it's usually all-girl or all-boy, but today, Kelli plunked her tray down at Chuck's table! I was in shock! The Emilys just giggled, and Emily Jenkins said, "Kelli and Chuck make a good couple." And everyone agreed!

I swear, that made me want to throw up my meatballs. (Sorry if that's gross.)

The problem is that I'm not supposed to care as much as I guess I do. Last month, Zara asked if I liked Chuck, and I said no.

Why do I care anyway? Chuck is sweet and funny, but I think of him as a brother.

At least I think I think of him as a brother.

A sweet, funny brother.

Nothing more.

We're just friends.

H-U-H. That's a weird expression, isn't it? "Just friends." As though years of being friends is less important than hours of "going out."

AVA, ANNOYED

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Excerpted from Ava XOX by Carol Weston
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.