Bri and Fia found their moms huddled together during Bri's birthday, whispering for a long time.

   "What do you think they're talking about?" Bri asked Fia.

   "I dunno," Fia shrugged.

   After Fia's birthday, she had a long conversation with her mom. Fia tried to explain to her mom why her birthdays had to be more simple from now on, but Greta wouldn't hear it. She was told her preferences didn't cut it. They needed to be more... extravagant, pretty, flashy, and just overall better than they were right now. By then, Fia stopped trying to talk to her mom about the birthdays.

   However, never in her little mind did she think they were talking about their combined birthday party for the next year.

   The two moms had plenty of time ahead of them, especially since there would be no Mona to compete with. Even with Joanna and Beth's moms in the picture or even Alfonso's more enthusiastic parents, Greta and Phoebe were energized to outdo themselves the next year.

   "Another simple birthday," Joanna was walking around the Richard house, "that's so you, Bri."

   She made a soured face when she spotted the sparse decoration.

   "Really claiming that simplicity," she added soon after.

   "I guess so?" Bri said with a smile, having not seen Joanna's expressions.

   Beth didn't see it either and commented sweetly, "I love that we always get a ribbon on the chairs, Bri."

   Bri grinned, "Yeah? Do you like those? My mom doesn't usually bring them out, only on special occasions."

   "They're so smooth," Fia told her.

   "Yeah..." Joanna raised a brow. "At least you have an appetizer table."

   She walked off, dragging Beth with her.

   "Where's the food? I'm starving," Alfonso got up with his group of girls, "Bri- food?"

   "There," Bri said, pointing to a table of what Joanna had called appetizers.

   "Cool, appetizers."

   "They're not appetizers," she corrected them, pressing her lips into an awkward smile.

   "They're the usual ones Bri serves," Fia said, tagging along. "Did you guys forget?"

   "Oh," was all the rest of their classmates said.

   Within the first three hours, most of the guests had left except for the usual three and Joanna.

   "Sleepover?" Joanna was smiling.

   "Uhh..." Bri looked to Fia first then to Beth. "For us, yeah..."

   "Oh, I invited her," Beth said.

   "It's not your birthday, Beth," Fia informed her, emphasizing with her eyes.

   "I know. But the more the merrier, right, Bri?"

   "Um..." 

   Bri didn't know Joanna know well. She felt the pressure the two girls were pressing her with.

   "You don't have to say okay to this."

   Fia reached out for Bri's shoulder.

   "No... it's okay. Joanna can join us."

   Fia sighed and said in a mumble, "You're totally gonna take that back."

   Joanna was ready with her pajamas and sleepover necessities all neatly packed in a weekend child's duffel. It was almost similar to the one Beth owned.

   "That's your pjs?"

   Joanna's pearly whites were exposed when she spotted Bri in a ruffled oversized long-sleeved shirt.

   "My Gramms gifted this to me a few years ago."

   Since she hadn't outgrown it, Bri felt no need to replace it. Plus, her Gramms had sewn it meticulously. It was in a bright yellow-orange, made only more prominent by her red hair.

   "It's cute, right?" Beth said, entering with Fia in their pajamas.

   "I guess. Yours is definitely!" Joanna said.

   "Oh, thank you."

   Joanna examined Fia's pajamas next.

   "In true fashion," Phoebe interrupted the girls, "You're clad in black, Fia."

   "Thank you, I think, Mrs. Richard."

   "I like it," Phoebe held Fia by the hand and twirled her.

   The girls all giggled.

   "Me too!" Joanna shot to her feet. "Please spin me too!"

   Phoebe did as she was asked and spun the girl, one time each.

   "Okay, the hot cocoas are ready for you girls. I prepare the s'mores you like, Bri."

   "Thanks, Mom!"

   It was Joanna's first sleepover, so she didn't know what she was supposed to do. She pulled Beth away.

   "Hey, do we do anything else?"

   "Sometimes we play games. Usually, for Bri's sleepover, we drink and eat, and then we play hide and seek. They don't have other games because her brother used to toss them around when he was a baby. After that..." Beth tried to think of why the games weren't replaced. "I think they just didn't want to buy more."

   "I did think she was poor," Joanna said, not thinking about it much.

   "What's poor?" Beth asked.

   "You know, someone who doesn't have money. It makes sense that she doesn't throw big birthdays like us."

   "Oh. What are called then?"

   "Rich, Beth. We're rich. Fia too."

   "Oh... is Bri the only poor one?"

   "Probably. She's the only one with this kind of decoration."

   Beth laughed. "No, Fia too. Oh wait, I can't be the only rich one of us three. I should be called poor too."

   "No, Beth. That's not how it works. Fia is rich like us because her parents have good jobs. My parents have really great jobs. Yours too. But Bri's parents don't."

   "What do Bri's parents do then?"

   Joanna shrugged and said, "I don't know. I just know they're poor."

   Beth nodded, still not completely understanding. She would later ask her mom about it and be told, "Arisbeth, sweetie. Brianna's parents are just teachers, so they don't make a lot of money. That's why sometimes, you give your old clothes to Bri, remember."

   Beth did remember.

   "But don't ever tell her those were your clothes, okay?"

   "Okay, Mom. But Joanna called Bri, poor. Can I call her that too?"

   "Oh, goodness, no! Never, Beth. Never call her that, alright. She's your friend and that is not a nice word to call her by."

   "Is it a bad word?"

   "Not that it's a bad word, Beth. We just don't call our friends that."

   Lina had been poor once before she met her destined one. She knew better than anyone how degrading it was to take leftovers from the families of her classmates and neighbors. She sat Beth down plenty of times after that to really drive it home for her girl.

   Beth relayed what her mom told her to Joanna, who shrugged it off.

   "My parents don't care what I call people, so whatever."

   But Joanna slipped once during Beth's birthday sleepover.

   "Brianna's so poor, she's probably never tasted that Beth." 

   It made Beth angry to hear the word that her mom had made sure to tell her never to mix with Bri's name.

   An ugly argument between the two girls ensued and words only eight-year-olds would know were said. Lina couldn't follow it, but she surmised something had happened.

   When she tried to break them apart, Joanna doubled down.

   "What's wrong with calling the poor, poor, Beth? I'm just telling the truth."

   Lina figured it out from there.

   It was the worst sleepover Joanna had ever been to, but for Beth, it was a defining night.

   She explained to Bri that they couldn't be friends with Joanna anymore. The topic of Bri's lack of wealth popped out. Beth had to explain what she'd learned. Then much later, Lina had to sit Bri down after calling Phoebe, to explain the differences in their families' financial states.

   Bri, for the first time, learned that her family was not as well off as most of her classmates.

   Her home had been inherited. Her parents worked as Professors and made good money, but not enough to compete with their neighbors in terms of gaudiness. She also learned that day that many of her favorite clothes had once been Beth's, the same ones she had pointed out were particularly pretty compared to others at one point to Beth.

   "It doesn't matter," Beth told her. "You'll always be my bestest friend, Bri."

   "Aw," Fia said, bringing the two girls in her short arms. "I love you guys."

   "I love you too," Bri and Beth said together.

   It needn't be said, but Joanna wasn't their friend anymore after that day. Beth made sure to air out Joanna's meanness whenever she could.

   Fortunately for Bri, Alfonso had always known that she was poor and continued to hang out with her after the fact was revealed to the rest of the school.

   Arian and Louis treated her the same too, not that they ever cared about the riches of their classmates.

   "How can I be going to the same school as Beth and Fia?" Bri asked her dad.

   He smiled at her and said, "The school your mom and I teach at is the sister school. We got lucky, Brianna."

   Luck followed her later to her dream high school too.

   "There she is, the bully," Alfonso coughed.

   Patrick continued to hang out with Joanna, their parents having hit it off, but he liked to sneak off sometimes to hang out with Beth.

   "You have to pick, Patrick," Beth announced during lunch.

   "Do I really have to?" He asked. "I like hanging out with you both."

   "How can you like her? She was mean to Bri!"

   "But she's right, right? Bri is poor."

   "And I'm an elephant," Fia snorted, placing her arm in front of her like an elephant's trunk. "Leave him be, Beth. You can choose not to be friends with him too."

   Patrick gasped, "Fia! We've been friends since kinder!"

   Fia shrugged and said, "You gotta pick a side then."

   Patrick looked at his friends and started to get teary.

   "He's a crier!" Someone joked.

   "Such a pansy," Another said.

   Neither Beth nor Fia defended him.

   More teasing was made, making Patrick even more teary, on the verge of ugly crying.

   "Stop!" Bri slammed her hand to the table.

   Her face was red.

   "You can be friends with anyone you want, Patrick. I am poor. And that's okay."

   Bri stormed out, not to be seen again until the next class. By then, everyone had resolved their issues and returned to how they'd been before Joanna rocked the boat.