The next day though, Louisiana found another girl sitting in her seat, Dakota talking to her about Louisiana.
“Louisiana was acting so dumb. She wrote a story about the sun yesterday!”
Both girls laughed while Louisiana looked on, sadly.
“Well, you colored the sun, and gave it eyeshadow! A sun with eyeshadow! isn’t that funny!?” Louisiana laughed, but found she was laughing by herself.
“A sun with eyeshadow? That seems stylish.” said the other girl.
“Well, anyway, you're in my seat.” said Louisiana.
“So?” said Dakota.
“Get out of her seat,” yelled the teacher from her desk, and the girl had to move.
That day, Louisiana and Dakota didn’t talk to each other. Their friendship had been hot and cold since then, always not friends and then back friends again.
When Dakota pushed Louisiana’s baby brother, Dakota and her ended up in a fight and they weren’t friends for two days. Then Dakota started ganging up on Louisiana with her new friends, and then they weren’t friends for a week. Finally, when Dakota had thrown eggs at Louisiana’s garage on Halloween, Mom and Dad said that that was the last straw and she couldn’t hang out with Dakota anymore, since she was always causing trouble.
At first Louisiana was sad, since she had always had trouble making friends in her life, but her mother said she would make friends soon enough.
“Mom, can I go to Dakota’s house?” Louisiana asked.
“‘Ana, you know she isn’t a true friend. And besides, we have to finish up cleaning the whole house so it looks presentable.” Mom told her.
“Please? I don’t have any friends. And she’s the only one I can actually say goodbye to.”
“She egged our house! Does that seem like something a friend would do!?”
“No, but she was 9! She’ll be 10 by now! Common, I bet she won’t do that again. Plus, it won’t even matter tomorrow.” Louisiana argued.
Mom sighed very loudly. “Fine. But as you hang out with her now, I bet you’ll see she’s not really a true friend.”
It had been six months since the egg incident, and Louisiana was going to Dakota’s house.
She knocked on the door, and Dakota herself swung the door open.. She had highlighted weave in her hair. One hand held a candy bar, the other sat on her hip.
There were girls in the background laughing and watching TV. uh-oh. Whenever other girls their age were around, Dakota got to acting rude and unbelievable, like a completely different person.
“What’chu want little girl? Finally got lonely playing with yourself on your tablet?” Dakota laughed and the other girls behind her laughed too.
Mom had been right. Dakota wasn’t a true friend. The difference was that now, Louisiana knew she didn’t have to take this. “No. I just wanted to tell you that I’m moving tomorrow, you little rat. You think you can call me a little girl, but my birthday comes before yours, and I’m eleven, so really you are the little girl, loser.
