She didn’t laugh. But she didn’t scream, either. She just stared at the doodle, then at the book, and for a split second, her sneer softened into something almost like… curiosity.
They all froze. It was the unmistakable symphony of an iPhone camera and a perfectly manicured thumb.
But as Nikki stared at MacKenzie’s smug face, a line from page one-seventy-two echoed in her head: “Sometimes, the best way to deal with a bully isn’t to fight back. It’s to make them laugh… at themselves.”
Click. Snap.
Chloe and Zoey gasped. Mr. Grumbles looked up. And MacKenzie… MacKenzie blinked. Her lips twitched. The carefully constructed fortress of her coolness cracked.