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It was at the 7th grade science fair. I had just won—my first time ever. Or since. I was so ecstatic. My parents rushed over to hug me, Amanda was there, and I kept waiting and waiting for Matt to show up. He was in the convention center that night—he’d been competing, too—and I couldn’t imagine why my best friend in the whole world hadn’t come over to congratulate me the way I’d done all the years when he won.
So I went looking for him. Amanda came, too. I’d just started being friends with her a few months before when she got switched into my English class. I thought she was so funny and nice and talented, and we ended up hanging out a lot during school. All the rest of my free time I still spent with Matt.
So there Amanda and I were, happily walking along, me so excited to share th
