I turn off my alarm with a new sense of purpose. Today I must pay close attention to what's going on around me. I don't want to miss a single opportunity to help anyone. I grab an extra notebook from my desk and title the first page: THINGS I DID TODAY THAT HELPED PEOPLE. By the first period, this is what my list looks like:
1. Untwist one of Spongebob's streamer arms. He looked uncomfortable. I'm sure he would have thanked me if he wasn't, you know, a balloon.
2. Brought Dad a goody bag full of sick-person stuff — tissues, lozenges, bags of tea, a Peanuts anthology (he loves Charlie Brown and I heard laughing when you're sick helps you get better), and pink eye-shades. He was very grateful and said I was an excellent daughter.
3. Exchanged posters between Mom and Kylie. Mom hugged me, and Kylie grunted. I'm pretty sure I heard a "thank you" embedded in the grunt. I told Mom that I hope her presentation goes well, but that she's a great person and her job is not a measure of her worth. (I came up with that after looking online last night for "things to say when someone you love gets fired.")
4. When Ruby climbs on the bus I offer to help her with her large duffel. She does not accept my help.
5. When Stephanie gets on the bus I offer to help her, too, and she says, "sure," and then gives me a birthday hug.
6. When I get to my locker I pick up the lollipop and ask everyone in the vicinity if it is theirs. Vinnie Prinz says it's his! I gave it to him and he says, "Sucka!" so I guess it really wasn't his after all.
7. When Suzanne Griggs announces she doesn't have a pen for the test, both Leo and I jump up to give her one instead of letting Ms. Gottlieb do it, which is what has happened every other time.
I'm about to stick the notebook back in my bag and start the quiz when Ms. Gottlieb appears at my side. She holds out her hand. "The rest of the class removed their belongings from their desk for the pop quiz when I asked. Yet still you scribble. What are you writing so intently, Miss Ellerby? Not planning on cheating on the quiz, are you?"
"No, of course not," I reply shakily. I've never been accused of cheating before.
"I'll be watching you," she says. She walks away slowly, her eyes never leaving mine.
"Yikes," Leo mouths from across the room. I sink into my chair. Just to be on the safe side, I get a few answers wrong.
Bee Boy is as happy today as yesterday when I give him the periodic table. Happier even, because this time I drew it in black pen. At lunch I make sure to do a better job of cutting the cupcake so it doesn't crumble. A small thing, I know, but I'm not taking any chances. After the last bell rings I force myself to go to the gym and change back into my gym clothes. I know that if i made the team, it would be helping out Stephanie, so I have to do this for her. When I see Ruby in the locker room and she asks me in that snide way of hers if I'm excited about tryouts, I answer honestly that I'm not likely to make it, but that I'm sure she will. Instead of telling me about other girls freezing up like she did in the past, this time she actually gives me a small smile.
As I'm standing up there with Stephanie cheering me on, I suddenly understand something, I can do a back handspring. And not only because I've practiced over the past few days. I probably could have done it the first time. I was just scared. But it would take a lot more to scare me now, after everything I've been through. So I swing my arms a few times to get momentum, and then fly backward, my hands landing perfectly behind me. Well, not perfectly, exactly, but at least they land and I don't fall. Stephanie and some of the other girls clap for me, and I return to the bench with a spring in my step.
"That was amazing!" Stephanie squeals, grabbing my arm. "I've never seen you do that before!"
"Oh, I've been doing that for years," I reply, laughing. Instead of running out to wait for her mom to pick us up, I sit with the other girls. Coach Lyons consults her clipboard for a few minutes while we grasp hands. Mena, Heather, Jess, and the other girls who are already on the team stand with her while she reads off the list of the girls who made it. Ruby's name is called first, then two other girls who I don't know very well, then the transfer student Jana Morling, then Stephanie, and then last of all, me! I made it! I'm kind of stunned. I'm kind of stunned. I used to love gymnastics. Maybe this will be a good thing? Stephanie's really happy and on the way home her mom takes us all for ice cream.
When I get home I tiptoe in so I don't wake Dad on the couch. He's wearing the pink eye-shades I gave him this morning. I carefully tuck his blanket around him. Instead of hiding up in my room, I finish setting up the basement for the party. If all goes according to plan, this will be the last time I have to do this.
Instead of only eight kids, this time thirteen show up! All the other kids who made the gymnastics team are here! They came with Stephanie. Everyone's having a good time dancing (I replaced Dad's CD selection) when the phone rings. It's too early for Mom to get her bad news, so I can't imagine who it could be.
"It's Leo!" Mom says excitedly, shoving the phone at me. She motions for my dad to turn off the CD player. Everyone crowds around. Leo and I had kept our distance all day so as not to complicate things. Now I'm going to have to pretend this is our first conversation in a year.
"Um, hello?" I say.
"I'm not on speaker, am I?" Leo says quickly.
"No, but everyone's hanging on my every word," I warn. My friends grin and move even closer. I cup my hand over the phone. "So, um, what's up?'
"I think we better have our parties together," he says. "The journal says they celebrated the harvest together. Maybe we have to do that, too, or it won't work!"
Loudly, I reply, "You say you're really sorry for everything you said? You have a big present for me and want me to bring everyone over?" The crowd squeals in delight.
On the other end of the phone Leo groans. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. Just get everyone over here."
"Okay, I'll try. Happy birthday to you, too!"
"Oh, right, happy birthday." He hangs up and I hand the phone back to Mom who looks like she's going to burst.
Everyone's watching me expectantly. "Um, how would you all like to see a really great band?"
It's unanimous. Everyone wants to go. I suggest to Mom that she invite Mrs. Grayson, who is surprised but seems excited to come. Between the three cars we're able to fit everyone.
On the way there Stephanie keeps pestering me. "So exactly what did he say? Are you guys friends now?" I give her my standard reply, "I'll tell you tomorrow." Then I realize if this works, I'll actually have to make good on that promise!
"Nice shoes," Leo says as soon as I step out of the car.
"You haven't spoken to me in a year, and that's the first thing you say?"
He looks around at the crowd surrounding us. "Um, sorry, I mean, hey, great costume!"
I look past him and can't stifle my gasp. Tiki torches line the path from the driveway to the whole backyard, where a huge tent has been set up, complete with hanging strobe lights. I even spot a cotton candy machine! I grab Leo by the sleeve and tell the group, "Go have fun, Leo and I have a few things to talk about in private." I drag him to the far side of the yard.
"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