Standing Up to Life

Chapter 18:

THAT DAY ALL of the girls were talking about the end of the year slumber party Amy was hosting. When some of the girls who weren't invited, but thought they were in the 'in crowd,' found out that I had been invited they were jealous. I had several girls make catty comments to me that morning before we were let out at noon.

I honestly didn't care. I was Amy's best friend; of course she was going to invite me! Besides I was a girl too... they just didn't know that yet.

We had yearbook signing that morning, and I was surprised and impressed with the number of people who signed my yearbook. Not only that, but they were giving genuinely kind and decent comments to me in my yearbook. I had a lot of fun that last half day. Looking back at the year I couldn't believe how much things had actually improved. The beginning of the year had easily been one of the darkest times of my life, but things were beginning to look up.

When noon came, and we were released, everyone let out shouts of joy for our freedom. I took the bus home so I could get my stuff together for the slumber party. Amy went to her house to get everything ready, and I told her I'd get there as soon as I could to help.

When I got home I looked through the mail and found something from the Mattel Corporation that could have been a check. I put it in the safe as I was asked. Then I began pacing about at home for about an hour before my mom came home. "Sweetie, do you have everything for tonight?" She asked me.

"Yes Mom. Now can you go ahead and take me over there?"

"I guess let's go." We got in the car to go over there.

We got there at 1:45 and I went in to find Amy working on some decorations. Mom talked with Mrs. Hancock for a minute and offered to help out with the sleepover. Mrs. Hancock told her she had everything covered, so Mom went ahead and left a few minutes later.

"Hey Brandon set your sleeping bag up in the living room, and then come help me out over here okay?" Amy said as she left.

Once I had my sleeping bag out, I helped her put balloons up around the living room and do some other decorations. I was really amazed with how many things that they had done since I'd been over Tuesday. We worked on stuff until 3:30 when she decided that we were done. The girls were all supposed to arrive at 4-4:30.

"So what all are we doing today?" I asked.

"You think I'm going to tell you now?" She said teasingly.

"Well... I was kind of hoping..." I teased back.

"Okay, here's my plan of events. First thing that we'll do when everyone gets here is have a scavenger hunt. Then we're going to have dinner, play with Barbies for a while, so that we can go swimming next without getting cramps, then twister, watch a movie, and all sorts of other things!"

"Sounds like fun." I replied.

"Oh it will be! Umm... Brandon?"

"What?"

"Before tonight starts I want to promise you that no matter what goes on tonight you can trust the girls that are here." I got a little nervous, 'what did she mean by that?' I asked myself. 'On one hand I was reassured that she thought I could trust them... but why would I need to trust them?'

"Even Lindsey and Amber?" I asked as I tried to figure it out in my head.

"Even Lindsey and Amber. I wouldn't have invited them unless I knew that I could trust having them over. I thought about just having it be the 4 of us from the film, but I decided 2 more people would make it more fun."

"That's fine, if you trust them I trust them. Just out of curiosity why are you telling me this?"

"Well... I'm also planning on us doing some other girly stuff."