Real Friends

Shannon begins the fifth grade. She gets put in a different class than most of the girls in The Group. Only two of the less popular girls from The Group, Amy and Nicole, are in her class. Shannon invites them to camp over the summer before school starts and hopes that with them in her class, fifth grade will be a good year. On the last day before school starts, all the members of The Group play together without inviting Shannon; she only learns about it much later. 

Shannon’s class is a five/six split class, so half of the kids are in the sixth grade. She does not make friends in her class, and she drifts further from the other girls in The Group. Adrienne transfers to a different school to start a Gifted and Talented program, leaving Shannon more isolated than ever. Jenny tells Jen that Shannon is sick of everyone in The Group, and that is why she requested to be in a different class. When Jen asks Shannon about this, Shannon insists that she did not know that all the other girls requested to be in the same class. Jenny and Shannon fight, and Jenny says that Shannon is just going to run away and cry.