• "I am so mad!" thundered my friend Erica.
    "What happened?" I asked, not really interested. Erica usually gets upset over nothing, and she has this tendency to go on rampages and talk behind people's backs and after a while, it gets boring.
    "Okay, so this is what happened," Erica started to spill, "so you know how my class in P.E. is starting to play doubles tennis. Well, my partner and I were playing with two of these dweebs and once we started to play, the other team started to cheat like mad! They said our ball was out when it was clearly in! I mean come on!"
    "Slow down a little," I said tentatively, noticing that her voice was rising considerably.
    "Anyway," she started again, with a pinch of irritation in her voice, "So we were winning by one game and they started to tell us to move along a little faster because thy wanted a chance at winning. I mean, how rude is that?"
    "I know, totally rude," I agreed unable to say anything else because my opinion doesn't matter to her. I saw a flash of something in the corner of my eye, and I noticed that it was my other friend, Michelle. She's really conservative and is also super nice and I respect her a lot. She's fun to hang out with, and for a second, I thought to myself, "Why do I hang out with Erica anyway? She probably talks behind my back too." But I soon shoved that thought to the back of my mind. "That's nonsense," I told myself, "She's my friend. I wouldn't bail on her."
    "Done daydreaming?" Erica sarcastically interrupted my thoughts, barely noticing Michelle, "so one person on the other team started to serve the ball and missed, and said that they get a do over cause they didn't hit the ball, so I went to the teacher and asked who was right, and he said that the other team was right. I mean, they're total idiots!"
    "Mmm-hmm total idiots," I echoed.
    "So then they started to win, and so I was like telling them to hurry up and I swear! they dropped the ball on purpose! I was ready to hit their heads with the racket!"
    I saw Michelle shift uneasily. She isn't the kind of person that likes to talk about people behind their backs. She always tells the truth and does what everyone tells her to, even if she doesn't like it.
    "So the other team ended up winning and I was furious! They don't deserve to win at all! Ugh. I hate stupid people," Erica was almost shouting, motioning with her hands for emphasis.
    I suddenly realized that Michelle was in the same P.E. class as Erica, and she is a tennis player and could practically be a professional tennis player, but she's way too modest about it.
    "Hey Michelle," I said, turning my attention away from Erica, "how did your match go?"
    Michelle answered, almost in a whisper, "I was partnered with Melanie, and we played against Erica."