Real Friends

At school, things continue to be hard for Shannon. She imagines The Group as a royal court, with Jen as the queen and herself as the court jester. She worries that Jen will order her banished if she complains that Jenny is telling lies about her. She knows that she only really needs one good friend, but she also knows that if she leaves The Group, she will lose Adrienne. To make things better, she tries to apologize to Jenny for whatever she did that made her mad. Jenny seems to take it well and even invites Shannon over after school, but then, a boy named Justin asks Jenny if he can borrow her eraser. Jenny’s eyes light up, and she tries to find her eraser, but Shannon beats her to it, offering her own eraser to Justin. Jenny looks angry. 

The Group likes to call the popular boys anonymously on the phone and ask them to rate the girls’ looks and personality on a scale of 1 to 10. Jen, Jenny, and Adrienne always get high scores, while Shannon’s are often lower. One day, the girls call Justin. Jenny asks Justin to rate Shannon, and Justin says that he does not like redheads. He suggests that Shannon does not dress well, either. Shannon is devastated and tries to hold back tears. She tries to dress more fashionably, but Justin does not notice her. Shannon’s teacher starts a creative writing unit with the class, and Shannon starts to imagine becoming a famous author when she grows up. She imagines her friends worshiping her and Wendy begging her for forgiveness for how she treated her when they were children.

For Christmas, Shannon’s family gets a computer. She wants to write a story on the computer “like a real author” (94). Shannon suggests to Jen, Jenny, and Adrienne that they all write a story together and that they can act the story out first before they write it down. The friends imagine that they are orphans running away from evil orphanage masters. They all have a lot of fun playing out their story, and Jen observes that “Shannon always has the best games” (98). Jenny looks jealous. 

One day, on the way to school, Jenny walks with Shannon. She compliments Shannon on her game ideas, and Shannon excitedly tells her another idea that she has for a game. Later, at recess, Jenny tells The Group about the game but insists that it is her idea. Shannon is upset that Jenny stole her idea, but Jen and Adrienne think that she is just jealous that Jenny came up with an idea for a game. Jenny teases Shannon and calls her a baby. She continues to bully Shannon, and Shannon realizes that Jenny wants her out of The Group. Shannon wants to respond maturely to Jenny’s bullying, but instead, she tells Jenny that she hates her and then runs to the bushes and cries.

Shannon spends a lot of time hiding in the bushes outside her house, too. She and Wendy fight constantly. Shannon’s mom tells her that when she tries to stand up to Wendy for Shannon, Wendy gets more upset. She is going to stay out of it, leaving Shannon and Wendy to sort out their issues. Shannon feels like the bear has been let loose. She realizes that her mom is not always on her side and begins to withdraw. She stops talking to her mom about how school and her friends are. When riding in the car, she obsessively flexes her legs whenever they pass a tree. She only feels normal when she spends time alone with Adrienne. She dreams about convincing Adrienne to leave The Group with her, but she does not dare ask her. 

One day, Shannon and Adrienne are reading a magazine in Shannon’s living room. Behind them, Wendy is on the phone with a friend whom she invites to go shopping with her; the offer is declined, and Wendy hangs up. She immediately turns on Shannon, berating her. She asks Adrienne if she thinks that Shannon is obnoxious. Adrienne admits that Shannon is sometimes obnoxious. This devastates Shannon, and she runs to her room, crying. Wendy follows her and keeps yelling at her as she cries.

Shannon’s mom takes her to the doctor because she is complaining about stomach aches. The doctor suggests that she might be allergic to milk and tells her to stay away from dairy for a while. Shannon knows that it is not dairy that causes her stomach aches. She spends a lot of time crying in the bushes because Jenny is so mean to her. In the bushes, she meets another girl with mean friends. Her name is Kayla, and she is a bit younger than Shannon. Shannon wishes that she had a big pet lion named Shasta who would scare all the girls in The Group into apologizing to her and being her friend. She tries to write this idea down and turn it into a story, but she cannot get the words out. 

Jenny invites Adrienne to her birthday party in front of Shannon. Shannon asks Adrienne if she knows why Jenny is not talking to her, and Adrienne says, “Nope.” She asks Adrienne if she wants to come over after school and work on their book, but Adrienne does not want just to sit there while Shannon types. Shannon insists that she is the one who types because she has the better ideas, and Adrienne gets upset with her. Jenny tells Shannon, “Everyone talks about you behind your back” (118). Shannon knows that Jenny lies a lot but that sometimes she tells the truth; she is not sure about the veracity of this claim. 

Shannon finally gets up the courage to ask Adrienne to quit The Group, but Adrienne does not want to because she likes being friends with more people than just Shannon. Shannon starts to imagine being dead and what The Group would do at her funeral. She tries to run away but sees an image of Jesus that makes her go home. Finally, she imagines disappearing entirely. In this daydream, Jen and Jenny are glad that she has disappeared. Jenny says that she never liked Shannon anyway. Shannon sits by herself, invisible and forlorn. Jesus assures her that he likes her.