NINA

Friends and Frenemies

by

Allie Peterson

Copyright 2011 by Foenix Publishers

Published by Foenix Publishing at Smashwords

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This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright 2011 by Foenix Publishers

Published in the United States by Foenix Publishers.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage retrieval system, without the permission in writing from Foenix Publishers.

Request for permission to make copies of any part of this publication should be e-mailed to publisher@foenix.com.

First Edition

Chapter 1

...Tomorrow is going to be SO awesome! I'm so excited...except that Annika Cooler's in my class. Ugh. What a stuck up stupid snob! I can't believe how much she's changed. She's so mean!!! I haven't seen her all summer, though. Maybe she forgot all about last year and will leave me alone tomorrow…

"Nina!" mom yelled.

"What?" I replied, putting down my pen.

"Did you hear me? It's time for dinner!"

I climbed out of my big beanbag chair, put my journal on my desk, and headed for the kitchen. It was fish and onion soup. Barf!

"Why couldn't you make something good?" I whined, seating myself at my usual spot. "Tomorrow is my first day of fifth grade. We should be celebrating. You know this is not my favorite meal."

"It's my favorite!" replied Nora instantly.

Nora is my snobby older sister, who thinks a lot of herself. She's starting high school tomorrow.

"That's why we're having this. I'm a freshman in high school!" shrieked Nora.

"Well...well, I'm in fifth grade!" I argued.

"Honey, that's great you're in fifth grade, but Nora's going into high school! That's a big deal," said my mom.

I took a nibble of my fish. "Can we talk about something else?" I asked.

"You brought it up, Nina," Dad said.

"Oh, so you're all on her side. Great. I'll just eat my food now."

"Hey, teenager," dad said.

"Yes?" Nora answered.

"Not you. I was being sarcastic. I was teasing Nina, because she sounds like a moody teenager," dad said.

"I am not a teenager!" I said.

"What's wrong with being a teenager?" Nora asked. Now she looked hurt.

"Nothing honey," mom said quickly.

"Good," Nora said, taking bites of fish.

Nora is such a brat. She and Annika have a lot in common!

...Well, anyway, dinner was gross, but as I was saying, I'm going into fifth grade and I'm so excited! Tomorrow's the first day and we'll rule the school. My best friend Laura and I have been emailing all summer about how great it will be to finally be the oldest in the school. Nora thinks it's stupid though. She says, "Why get excited about fifth grade? High school is so much cooler." I'll tell her why. In high school you start kissing boys and get a lot more homework, and I am definitely not looking forward to that! But Nora just walks away with her nose in the air, tossing her long blonde hair. She thinks she's so hot. But Laura tells me I'm prettier than Nora, which is quite a compliment. My sister is so pretty and everyone likes her. She knows it, too! But Laura tells me she wishes she had my long and silky light-blonde hair and she wants my glittering blue eyes, too. Laura calls her own hair and eyes boring brown and says, "You are so lucky! And way prettier than Nora." Whenever she says that, I blush, and say, "No way! You and Nora are prettier than me!" and change the subject. It's nice of her to say, but compliments make me feel so weird!! Anyway, I can't believe Annika Cooler is in my class!! She says she's cool because of her last name. But no, she is NOT cool. She used to be nice and Laura and I were friends with her since kindergarten...the three musketeers. But last year she kind of became our frenemy...started being really bossy and acting like a mean teenager, so I didn't really want to hang out with her. So over spring break, I invited Laura to go roller-skating, but didn't invite Annika, and of course Elise saw us there and had to open her big mouth and tell Annika we went without her. And Annika has made my life miserable ever since.

"Bedtime!" yelled mom.

Nora stole the bathroom immediately and locked the door, so I wrote in my journal until her insanely long bathroom time was up. I timed both of us once, and Nora takes 30 minutes and 11 seconds. I only take 7 minutes and 19 seconds. What can possibly take her that long? Pounding on the door doesn't help, so I just have to wait.

It sounded like Nora was almost done, so I closed up my journal and locked it. It isn't one of those journals that have the exact same tiny key as everyone else. Nora has one of those, so I researched it and found one with a special key. I don't want her invading my privacy! I hid my key under my bed, way under the mattress, and turned on my computer. Nora was still in the bathroom, so I checked my email. Laura hadn't emailed me, so I wrote to her.

Do you think Annika will be on the bus tomorrow? She's so mean! And she's even worse since she started being BFFs with that witch Elise! Now I have two creeps hating me! Who wants to be around that stuck up brat anyway? Not me! All she cares about now are boys and being popular and trying to be cool. Ugh. No one even likes her! But if Elise wouldn't have opened her big mouth and told Annika she saw us at the skating rink, then Annika wouldn't hate me, right? Elise should just mind her own business! Oh well, besides those jerks, fifth grade is going to be great! See you tomorrow!!

I got distracted when Nora stuck her head in and sarcastically said, "Emailing, your boyfriend? Oh that's right, you don't have one!" and walked away laughing her head off.

"Aaagggh!" I screamed. I wish I were an only child!

I looked back at my computer screen to see if the email sent, but I couldn't tell if it did or not, so I pressed the outgoing mail button and - OH, NOOOO! WHAT DID I DO?? I felt sick. I accidentally sent the message to Annika instead of Laura. Their names are right next to each other in my address list!