Freaky Tuesday #17 Page 11

  “The most fun I had at my party was talking to you,” she blurted out.

  “Really?” Drew asked. “That’s—really?”

  “Drew, we need you up here again,” the drama teacher called.

  “I’ve gotta—” Drew took a step toward the stage.

  Candace couldn’t let him leave. If she didn’t ask him now, she might never do it. “Stop!”

  Drew froze. “Am I supposed to put my hands in the air?” he joked.

  “No. No. I just…Do you want to go to the movies? With me?”

  A grin spread across Drew’s face. “Are you kidding?”

  Candace shook her head. “I’m not good at that.”

  “Absolutely I want to go to the movies with you. Anywhere. Anytime,” Drew answered.

  “Drew! We’re waiting!” the drama teacher called out.

  “I’ve gotta—” Drew said. Then he leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek.

  Samantha would die if she saw that, Candace thought.

  And she didn’t care at all.

  “Feed me!” Rosemary was yelling as Brynn pushed open the door to the auditorium. “FEED ME!”

  “Okay, let’s take a quick break,” Mr. Saunders called out. “Everybody back in ten. We’ll start with Audrey and the dentist.”

  Drew leaped off the stage with a move worthy of a stuntman. He headed straight to the front row—where Candace was sitting—and plopped down beside her. They smiled at each other like they had the biggest, best secret.

  And Brynn suddenly had a pretty good idea what Candace had done that she thought her friends—at least her old friends—would think was a bad idea. Good for her!

  Brynn was getting ready to change her own life. If it wasn’t too late. She made her way down the aisle to where Mr. Saunders was sitting, three rows back from the stage. He looked up and gave her a smile. “I didn’t expect to see you here,” he said.

  “I know. Do you mind if I sit down?” Brynn asked.

  “Of course not.” The advisor moved a stack of script notes out of the way, and Brynn perched on the edge of the seat next to him.

  “The plant looks good so far,” she said.

  “Yup. The art department makes us some more greenery every day. Soon enough we’ll have the entire Audrey II.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “But something tells me you’re not here to talk about the sets.”

  “No.” Brynn bit her lip. “I want to be back in the play,” she burst out.

  Mr. Saunders studied her face for a moment. “You know, Brynn, I had to give your part to somebody else,” he said. “I can’t take the role of Audrey away from Ana just because you’ve changed your mind.”

  “I know.” Brynn couldn’t help feeling a stab of disappointment. Still, she knew it wouldn’t be fair to give her back the lead role after she’d acted like such a flake. “That’s okay. I still want to be in the play. I’d be psyched just to be part of the chorus. I just want to be involved.”

  “You really love it, don’t you?” the advisor asked. “Drama?”

  “I do,” Brynn confirmed. “Acting is my favorite thing in the whole entire world. And I’m not going to stop doing it just because some people think it’s stupid or uncool.”

  “Then I’d say you’ve learned a valuable lesson about sticking to your guns,” Mr. Saunders told her. “Welcome back to Drama League, Brynn.”

  Brynn let out a whoop of pure joy. “I’m a drama geek again!” she shouted.

  “All right!” Drew yelled.

  “She’s back. Our Brynn is back!” Rosemary called.

  The rest of the kids in the auditorium gave her a round of applause. Candace hurried over to her. “I know I’m the one who said you should go out for debate, but I was wrong. You love drama. It makes you happy. You shouldn’t give it up for anybody.”

  “And what about you? Does it make you happy hanging with Drew? I saw you sitting with him,” Brynn answered.

  “Yeah. It makes me happy, happy, happy!” Candace said. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to eat lunch with my friends again, but I’m still happy.”

  “There’s always a place for you at the drama table,” Brynn told her. “We might not be popular. But we have fun!”

  chapter

  TWELVE

  “Have you decided yet?” the man at the mall taco stand asked Gaby on Saturday afternoon. He was tapping his finger impatiently, but she saw no reason to hurry. Why should he care if she took a long time figuring out which value meal to eat? It’s not like he had anywhere else to go. His job was to wait on people. Now if there were people behind her in line at the food court taco stand, then she would have a reason to hurry. Because it wouldn’t be nice to make other customers wait. And Gaby was a nice person.

  No matter what Chelsea thought.

  “Um…” she said. “I think I’m going to have the number three.”

  “Bad choice,” a boy said from behind her. “The refried beans here stink. You should go for the number two, and then just add some Spanish rice on the side.”

  Uh-oh, Gaby thought. Was there somebody behind me this whole time and I didn’t realize it? She put a friendly smile on her face and turned to the boy.

  “Leland,” she said, her smile vanishing. “You’re Leland. From Home Away From Home.”

  “Actually, I think this taco place is my true home away from home,” he replied. “Hola, Pedro.”

  “Hola, señor Leland.” The taco guy smiled at him. “You want your regular?”

  “Not today. I think I’m going to try something new,” Leland said. “Hit me with the Hot Hot Chili taco.”

  The taco guy whistled. “Bold move.”

  “And whatever my friend here wants,” Leland added.

  Pedro raised his eyebrows, looking at Gaby. “I’ll do the number two with Spanish rice on the side,” she told him. “Thanks for the suggestion,” she added to Leland.

  Pedro slid a tray over the counter and Leland handed him a few dollars. “I’ll grab the drinks,” Gaby offered. She picked up the two large cups and followed Leland over to an empty table in the crowded mall food court.

  “Thanks,” Gaby said. “For lunch. You really didn’t—”

  “Look, I was totally rude to you the other day,” Leland cut her off. “The least I can do is buy you a couple of tacos.”

  Gaby knew her mouth was open, but she couldn’t think of anything to say. She was too surprised. So she took a bite of her taco.

  “Anyway, I’m sorry,” Leland went on. “I know you were there to help out and I was a brat. I just…I was worried. My little brother came back from chemo that day and he was super sick all afternoon. I just didn’t feel like being nice.”

  “Okay,” Gaby said.

  “I was upset and I took it out on you.”

  “That’s all right,” Gaby said. She couldn’t believe he was apologizing to her. She had thought she was the one who had been rude. “Sometimes I don’t feel like being nice, either.”

  He chuckled.

  “So let’s start over,” she suggested. “I’m Gaby.”

  “Hi, Gaby,” Leland said. “It’s nice of you to volunteer at Home Away From Home.”

  “Thank you,” she said. “I really want to help. I’m trying to be a nicer person.”

  “Nicer than what?” Leland asked.

  “Well…I haven’t always been the sweetest girl to be around,” Gaby admitted. “Some of my friends let me know that I could be kind of a pain.”

  “You can’t be that bad,” Leland said. “You’re volunteering at the Home. You and your friends are running the activity night tonight, right?”

  Gaby made a face. “Uh, not really,” she admitted.

  “What do you mean?” Leland asked around a bite of his chili taco.

  “We were supposed to run the activity night,” Gaby said. “But my friends are so annoying! I mean, it was my idea to volunteer there in the first place. So I should get to be in charge, don’t you think? And then they didn’t want to
do what I wanted to do and they kept trying to take over. Especially Chelsea. She’s the blond one. She’s totally bossy.”

  Leland didn’t say anything. He just kept eating.

  “Like, for tonight we finally agreed that there would be a three-part competition, and everyone would be divided up into teams,” Gaby went on. “So I got T-shirts for all the kids that said what their teams would be. Then Chelsea makes these nametags that hang right over the T-shirt logos I designed.”

  Leland finally finished his taco. He looked up at her. “Are you serious?”

  “Yes!” Gaby cried. “Can you believe her? So anyway, I quit. She’s such a jerk. I’m not going to work with her.”

  “Wow. I guess maybe I wasn’t too hard on you the other night,” Leland said. “You’re unbelievable.”

  “Me?” Gaby gasped. “Chelsea is the one who—”

  “I don’t care.” Leland stood up. “You’re really going to ditch Home Away From Home over a bunch of nametags and T-shirts? Do you just not even realize that the people at the Home have real problems, Gaby?”

  “Of course—”

  “We don’t care about stupid shirts,” he interrupted. “All we want is a few hours of fun to take our minds off the fact that our brothers and sisters are sick. Really sick. My baby brother might die, Gaby. Did you even think about that when you were making your little T-shirts?”

  Gaby noticed that her mouth was hanging open again. She shut it. There was nothing she could say. Leland was right. She had been acting like a complete selfish jerk, while the people she was supposed to be helping were busy struggling with serious problems.

  “Enjoy your lunch,” Leland said. Then he turned and stalked off.

  He’d probably be happy if he never saw me again, Gaby thought. Because I’m the worst volunteer, and the most UN-nice person ever.

  “What time do you need to be at Home Away From Home tonight, sweetheart?” Chelsea’s dad asked as she walked by the den on her way to her bedroom.

  Chelsea paused in the hallway. She hadn’t told her parents that she had decided to quit volunteering. And now, looking at her father’s proud, smiling face, she couldn’t bear to tell him the truth. “Um, let me go check the schedule,” she said. Then she bolted for her room and closed the door behind her.

  Her dad had gone through so much. His cancer was in remission, and all the doctors said that his prognosis was good. But he’d lost so much time to his illness. How could she tell him that she’d just bailed on the whole helping-people thing? Especially when her volunteering made him happy?

  Chelsea glanced around her room, looking for something to take her mind off the fact that she was not busy getting ready for activity night tonight. Her gaze fell on her diary, which was sticking out from underneath her pillow.

  “That will help,” Chelsea murmured. It always made her feel better to write things out. Somehow her problems seemed less awful once she had poured out her feelings in the diary. She flopped down on her bed, pulled out the book and a pen, and opened to the first blank page.

  Dear diary,

  I’m supposed to be helping people tonight, but Gaby was so annoying that now I’m not.

  That sounded pretty lame.

  She kept trying to take control of the whole volunteering experience. Just because it was her idea. But I’m the one who knows what it’s like to have sickness in the family. I’m the one who understands what the people at Home Away From Home are going through.

  Chelsea stopped writing. Her heart was pounding hard. She stared at the words she’d just scrawled, and suddenly they began to swim in front of her eyes.

  I don’t want to cry, she thought, wiping away the tears that were forming.

  She reached out and flipped back through her diary until she found an entry from last year.

  Dear Diary,

  I’m scared. I’m so scared. All the time, even when I’m asleep. I can tell because I wake up and I still feel tired. I think I spend all night dreaming about what will happen if Dad doesn’t get better. And at school, my friends talk to me, but I don’t really listen to them anymore. All I can think about is Dad and his cancer. The only time I feel better is when I just veg out in front of the TV because I don’t have to think. But lately even that doesn’t work very well.

  Please please please let this experimental treatment work. Please let my father be okay again. I’ll do anything. Just please let it work.

  It’s okay, she told herself. He’s okay. When did she stop waking up saying thank you for that? When did it start feeling almost ordinary that he’d recovered?

  Chelsea closed the diary. Her throat hurt, and she tried to swallow down the lump that had formed there. Sometimes she forgot how bad it had been when her father was so sick. Sometimes she got sucked into being the same old selfish Chelsea that she had been before.

  The Chelsea who cared more about nametags than about people.

  Those kids at Home Away From Home feel just like I did, she thought. They could just as easily have written that diary entry about their brothers or sisters.

  She did know how they felt. And she was supposed to be helping them, not hiding in her room because she was mad at Gaby.

  “Have a good night, honey,” Val’s stepmother said as Val got out of the car in front of Home Away From Home. “Your mom will be by to pick you up at nine thirty.”

  “Thanks, Sharin,” Valerie said. She turned and trudged up to the door of the huge house. It was pretty much impossible for her to have a good night, she knew. This was basically going to be the most humiliating night of her life. She would have to try to run a huge activity night for a bunch of kids all by herself, and she was worried that she couldn’t do it.

  I have the props for the scavenger hunt, she thought. And I have all my cards for charades. As for the singdown, I’m just going to have to wing it.

  She was as prepared as she could be. But it wasn’t enough, and Val knew it. There were just too many events, and too many teams, and only one Valerie. How was she supposed to oversee three things at once?

  Emma and Samuel burst out the front door. “Valerie! What are we going to do tonight?” Emma called as she and her brother skidded to a stop in front of Val.

  “You said it was going to be something awesome. What is it?” Samuel exclaimed.

  “You’ll just have to wait and see,” Valerie told them. “But I’ll tell you this. Part of it involves marshmallows. That’s all the info you’re getting.”

  “Cool!” Emma said. She and Samuel raced toward Home’s playground.

  I’m going to do the best I can. Emma and Samuel and all the other kids are counting on me, she told herself.

  Val took a big gulp of air and pushed open the heavy door. Inside, little kids were running around the lobby. Older kids stood in little groups, talking. The place was packed. Everybody was gathered for activity night.

  Manny wandered by in a bright orange T-shirt that said “Home Rangers” on it with a drawing of the Lone Ranger underneath.

  “Cool shirt,” Valerie said.

  “Yeah, I was supposed to be a Home Fires. But I made them switch me to Rangers. The Fires T-shirts are pink,” Manny answered, heading toward a table where cupcakes had been laid out.

  It sounded very much like he was talking about team T-shirts! A tiny bit of hope spiraled through Valerie.

  “Manny!” she called after him. “Where’d you get the shirt?”

  “Dining room,” he answered, the words muffled by a large bite of cupcake.

  Was Gaby in the dining room? She pretty much had to be, didn’t she? Unless there was a T-shirt fairy, cousin to the tooth fairy, that her parents had never told her about.

  Manny turned away from her to grab a second cupcake, and Valerie saw a loop of braided cord dangling from his back pocket.

  Now hope was zinging through her. She very much suspected that the cord was attached to a nametag. And unless there was a nametag fairy…

  Valerie didn’t finish the thou
ght. She dashed into the dining room. Neat rows of T-shirts and nametags were lined up on the long wooden table. And behind the table—

  Chelsea and Gaby.

  “We figured out a way to make the T-shirts and nametags work together,” Gaby announced calmly, as if she hadn’t had a fit and quit.

  “We combined them!” Chelsea said happily, as if she also hadn’t had a fit and quit.

  “It was your suggestion,” Gaby put in. “We just made the nametags shorter. Chelsea figured out that if we loop the cords twice, the nametags will be short enough that they won’t cover the team logos.”

  “And you don’t have to redo the cords and fray the holes,” Val guessed.

  “Exactly.”

  “Great. But back up. I thought you guys weren’t coming,” Val said.

  Chelsea and Gaby exchanged a look. “We weren’t,” Chelsea replied. “But then I realized that I was supposed to be helping these kids because I really understand what they’re going through.”

  “And I realized that being nice means thinking about other people, not about myself,” Gaby said.

  “And we both realized that we had completely dumped this whole thing on you, and that’s really not fair,” Chelsea added. “Will you forgive us?”

  “Are you kidding?” Val replied. “You’re here to help. This is better than I could possibly have hoped! With the three of us running it, tonight will be the best activity night in the history of Home Away From Home!” She held out her arms, and the other two grabbed her in a group hug.

  “So let’s get started,” Chelsea said.

  “Just one minute,” Gaby replied. “I have to find a guy named Leland.”

  “Leland Keyes?” Chelsea asked. “His shirt and nametag are right there on the end.”

  “Great.” Gaby snatched them up. “I want to give these to him personally. Now that I’ve apologized to you two, I have to apologize to him.” She hurried out into the lobby.

  Val turned to Chelsea. “I’m really glad you guys came,” she said. “I don’t think I could have done this without my Camp Lakeview team!”