Perfect (Book Three)

Thirty: Change Is Good...Except When It's Not.

On Saturday evening, Emily laced up her rental ice skates until she could barely feel the circulation in her feet. "I can't believe we have to wear three pairs of socks," she complained to Becka, who was next to her on the bench, lacing up the pair of white skates she'd brought from home.

"I know," Becka agreed, adjusting her lace headband. "But it keeps your feet from getting cold."

Emily tied her stake laces in a bow. It had to be about fifty degrees in the rink, but she was only in a Rosewood Swimming short-sleeve T-shirt. She felt so numb, cold didn't affect her. On the way here, Emily told Becka that her first Tree Tops session was Monday. Becka seemed startled, then happy. Emily didn't say much else the rest of the ride over. All she was thinking about was how she'd rather be with Maya.

Maya. Whenever Emily shut her eyes, she saw Maya's angry face in the greenhouse. Emily's cell phone had been quiet all day. Part of her wanted Maya to call, to try to get Emily back. And then of course, part of her didn't. She tried to look at the positives—now that her parents saw that she was really making a commitment to Tree Tops, they had been kinder to her. At Saturday swim practice, Coach Lauren had told her that the U of A swim coach still wanted to meet her. All the swim team boys were still hitting on her and inviting Emily to hot-tub parties, but it was better than them making fun of her. And as they were driving home from practice, Carolyn had said, "I like this CD," when Emily slid some old No Doubt into the player. It was a start.

Emily stared at the ice rink. After The Jenna Thing, she and Ali used to come here practically every weekend, and nothing about the place had changed since then. There were still the same blue benches that everyone sat on to lace up their boots, the machine that dispensed hot chocolate that tasted like aspirin, the giant plastic polar bear that greeted at the main entrance. The whole thing was so eerily nostalgic, Emily almost expected to see Ali out on the ice practicing her backward crossovers. The rink was practically empty tonight though—there were clusters of kids, but no one Emily's age. Most likely, they were all at Mona's party—in a parallel world, Emily would have been there too.

"Becka?"

Emily and Becka looked up. A tall girl with shirt dark curly hair, a button nose, and hazel eyes stared at them. She had on a pink A-line dress, white cable-knit tights, a delicate pearl bracelet, and hot pink lip gloss. A pair of white ice skates with rainbow laces dangled from her wrists.

"Wendy!" Becka cried, standing up. She went to hug Wendy but then seemed to correct herself and stood back. "You're...you're here!"

Wendy had a big smile on her face. "Wow, Becks. You look...great."

Becka smiled sheepishly. "So do you." She inspected Wendy almost in disbelief, as if Wendy had been resurrected from the dead. "You cut your hair."

Wendy touched it self-consciously. "Is it too shirt?"

"No!" Becka said quickly. "It's really cute."

Both of them kept smiling and giggling. Emily coughed, and Becka looked over. "Oh! This is Emily. My new Tree Tops friend."

Emily shook Wendy's hand. Wendy's short fingernails were painted seashell pink, and there was a Pokemon applique on her thumb.

Wendy sat down and started lacing up her skates. "Do you guys skate a lot?" Emily asked. "You both have your own skates."

"We used to," Wendy said, glancing at Becka. "We took lessons together. Well...sort of."

Becka giggled and Emily glanced at her, confused. "What?"

"Nothing," Becka answered. "Just...remember the skate rental room, Wendy?"

"Oh my God." Wendy clapped a hand over her mouth. "The look on that guy's face!"