11 Birthdays

Chapter Twenty-One

"A tent? Cotton candy? I think you left out a few details about your party. You could have just told me. I'd have found out anyways."
Before he can answer, a boy holding cotton candy in one hand and a snow cone in the other calls out, "Great party!"
I grit my teeth. Leo gives a halfhearted wave in return and says, "I figured if tomorrow never came, no one would tell you about it."
I watch as some huge guy in an orange-and-black football uniform — who could only be Paul the Ball — teaches a group of adoring boys how to properly hold a football. I know it shouldn't matter after everything we've been through, but it does. To think that this is how he was celebrating his birthday without me really hurts.
"Look," he says quietly, "I told you I didn't ask for this. It only made me feel worse, not better, that you weren't here."
I kick at the grass with my red shoes. I wish I'd gone upstairs to change before coming over.
Leo steps a little closer. "You're here now, right? So this is OUR party, not my party."
At that moment Bobby Simon walks by. "Cluck, cluck!" he says with a wave.
I can't help but smile. "Guess I missed the hypnotist?"
Leo nods. "Yup, poor Bobby. He doesn't have a clue. The hypnotist said it will wear off by tomorrow."
I watch Bobby greet Mena, Heather, and Jess with clucks. They laugh at him. He slinks away, confused. "If we can't make tomorrow come, he'll be clucking for the rest of his life!"
"There you are," my mom says, reaching out her arms and giving Leo a big hug. "I missed you, you little rascal."
Leo grins and lets my mom ruffle his hair and pinch his cheeks. My mom's not usually the cheek-pinching type. Dad comes up from behind and slaps Leo on the back. He might have been a little enthusiastic because he almost knocks Leo over. Dad starts to apologize but ends up in one of his sneezing fits. Across the yard the band is starting up. Raising his voice over the twang of the electric banjo, Leo says, "Run, save yourselves. Trust me, you don't want to hear this."
"Nonsense," my dad says, swinging my mom around to the dance floor. "This is knee-slappin' music!" Mom giggles and lets herself be twirled around.
Leo leans in closer and shouts, "I guess she didn't get fired yet?"
I shake my head and shout, "I took her cell phone out of her purse before we came!"
Leo nods appreciatively. "Nice!"
"Let's go inside," I shout.
We make our way through the crowd of laughing kids — many holding their hands over their ears — and stumble into the kitchen. Piles of plastic cups line the countertop, along with soda and juices of every kind. Leo pours us each cup of lemonade and says, "A hundred years ago, our great-great-grandfathers made a toast to their friendship, so I thought we should, too."
He raises his cup into the air, but I lower mine. "Are we just doing this because they did it?"
"What do you mean?"
"Having our party together, and this toast. Are we doing it to break the enchantment, or because we want to?"
He lowers his own cup. "Well, if all of this wasn't happening to us, wouldn't you still want to have our parties together?"
"Yes," I say without hesitation. "And if I had to be stuck in time with anyone, I'm glad it's you."
"Me too." He raises his cup again and I tap mine to it. We both drink and then grab our throats. He chokes out the words, "Real lemons, no sugar."
Stephanie walks in, arm in arm with Mena. "Hey, Leo!" she says. "Great party! Really bad band!" Mena just looks bored. But that's how she usually looks.
"Nice ears," Leo says, pointing at Stephanie's elf ears.
Stephanie unlinks her arm and reaches up. When she feels them, her face reddens and she tugs them off.
"So Amanda," Mena says, digging through a bowl of chips. "You'll have to work on that back handspring over the summer if you want to be ready to compete."
"Compete?" Leo asks, turning to me.
"Oh, yeah. I made the gymnastics team!" I say with more excitement than I feel. I hadn't thought at all about the competing part.
"You did?" Leo couldn't be more shocked. "Wow, you've been busy today."
"C'mon, Steph," Mena says, "let's go find the bathroom." They link their arms together again, and Steph waves as Mena pulls her down the hall.
"I only tried out because I thought it would help Stephanie, you know, to have me with her on the team."
"But I thought you didn't want to do it."
"I just want this birthday to end. I wasn't really thinking about the consequences. It doesn't really matter. I'm the worst person on the team, I'll probably never have to compete."
Kids are starting to make their way inside, away from the band. Jimmy Dawson calls out, "Hey, Dorothy, how's Oz these days?" but he says it in a nice way.
Before we're completely surrounded, Leo whispers, "If we did everything right today, then you'll have the whole summer to practice. And if we didn't, you'll just have to try out again tomorrow."
"We did," I whisper confidently. "I know we did. What more could we have done?"
Leo's mom sticks her head in the room. "Amanda! You're wanted on the dance floor!"
I put any doubts out of my mind as I let Mrs. Fitzpatrick drag me onto the dance floor where I finally get to kick off my shoes. The band is playing some kind of jig that's totally impossible to dance to, but I'm having fun. I finally feel right where I'm supposed to be — celebrating my birthday with Leo and all our friends and families. For a split second I think I catch sight of Angelina by the snow cone machine. Does she know about the break-in? Is she going to tell our parents? But when I look closer, it's just a crowd of kids jostling to scoop out cups of purple ice. I shake my head to clear it of the image of a waddling duck. After all, Leo pout the journal back behind the drawer, and we closed the back window. At least I'm pretty sure we closed the back window.
If we forgot, we'll just go tomorrow and apologize. Maybe even volunteer for a couple of hours answering visitors' questions about Willow Falls's history. Somehow Angelina is involved in all this. And someday I'd like to know how. But for now it's enough that it's over. Tomorrow I'm going to sleep for a long, long time. And then I'm going to open up my presents.

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A/N: Now that it is summer, I will be trying to update more. Yes there is spelling mistakes because I'm trying to copy each word for word. AND YES I KNOW THIS IS BY WENDY MASS I HAD SAID THIS MANY TIMES. This is all credited to Wendy Mass; I just post this because some people can not afford the book.

I am so sorry that it took a long time to post this. Please stop pointing out spelling mistakes, I'm trying to have this done.

There are 3 chapters left. I will be posting the series when I can since I have all books.

Series:
11 Birthdays

Finally
13 Gifts
The Last Present
Gracefull