1. February 21 February 21 James Ramos got a haircut yesterday, but so what. I mean, nothing against his hair: he had a perfectly regular-shaped head and un-clownish ears. And now you could see his eyes (brown), if that was super important to you. But not to me. Unlike my two best friends, Kailani and Maisie, and probably a whole bunch of other girls in the seventh grade, I wasn't obsessed with James Ramos, or with his hair. So while we walked to school that morning, and Kailani went on and on about James Ramos And His Haircut, I tried to click on a different mental link. Think about other stuff, I told myself. The crayfish we're getting in science lab. The fish tanks we're designing. All the cool experiments we'll be doing-- Now Maisie tugged my jacket sleeve. "Don't you think, Zinny?" she was asking. "About what, specifically?" I glanced at Kailani, hoping for a clue. "That James likes Kailani! That he has a crush!" "Oh, definitely," I said. "Zinny." In the chilly air, Maisie's skin was pale, and her freckles stood out like punctuation marks. "No offense, but you're doing that thing again." "What thing?" "You know," Kailani said gently. "Tuning us out. Pretending we're not here." "That's not true," I protested. "I mean, okay, sometimes my mind wanders a little--" Maisie snorted. "Can I ask you something, Zinny? Why are you walking with us if you don't want to be with us?" I couldn't answer that question. Even though the words were all in my head: But I do want to be with you. To be honest, with all the stuff going on in my family, if I didn't have the two of you, I couldn't go to school at all. Excerpted from My Life in the Fish Tank by Barbara Dee All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.