He woke up with a jolt of energy, like he’d just chugged a can of Red Bull. Today was the day!
Milo looked around the basement. Hollis and JJ were curled up next to each other like puppies. When had this happened? Hadn’t they gone to sleep on opposite sides of the room? Abby was a lump inside her sleeping bag. Noah was snoring. Milo thought about waking them all. Rise and shine, kids! It’s Donor Day! But this, he decided, was a bad idea. It would be better for everyone to be rested. Besides, they had time. The Indoor Hat Tournament lasted all day.
Milo crept upstairs, closing the basement door behind him. Hollis’s mom was sitting alone at the kitchen table, holding a flowered coffee mug.
“Good morning,” Milo said.
“Good morning.” Leigh smiled. She looked better than she had when she and Hollis came to Brooklyn. Milo wasn’t sure what the difference was. A haircut, maybe? Makeup? “Anyone else awake down there?” she asked.
“Not yet,” Milo said, taking a seat.
“Can I get you some tea? The water’s still hot.”
“No, thanks.”
“Not much of a tea drinker?”
“Not much of a tea drinker.”
“Are you hungry? I picked up some rice-flour waffles that your moms said were okay for you. And there’s fruit…”
“Thanks,” Milo said. “I think I’ll wait until everyone gets up.”
Leigh nodded and took a sip from her mug. Milo glanced around the kitchen. The walls were painted a soft, buttery yellow. The curtains on the window had little red checks. The counters shone. It was basically the opposite of Hollis’s bedroom, which looked like a Tim Burton movie set with its tapestries and gargoyles and black light. Even the soap in Hollis’s bathroom was Goth. Milo had noticed it yesterday when she gave them the tour. Hollis washed her hands with black raven-wing soap.
“Thank you,” Leigh said suddenly.
Milo looked at her.
“Hollis would never tell you this herself, and she would probably hate me for saying it … but this weekend … all of you being here … it means a lot to her.”
He nodded. “It means a lot to me, too.”
* * *
There were truths and there were half-truths. Everyone ate breakfast together (truth). The rice-flour waffles were delicious (half-truth). Abby’s pre-blow-dryer hair was even crazier than Hollis’s (truth). The siblings wanted to take a “bonding trip” after they ate (half-truth).
“A bonding trip?” Suzanne said, looking at Milo across the table.
“Uh-huh.” He took a sip of apple juice.
“Quality sibling time,” Abby said.
And Hollis said, “I thought I’d show them the sights.” She turned to her mom. “You know … the Peanuts characters in Rice Park. Find the Elf at Lake Harriet. Maybe the Mall of America for lunch.”
“Sounds great,” Frankie said, starting to rise. “I’ll just go brush my teeth—”
“Ma,” Milo said.
“What?”
“Babe,” Suzanne said, putting a hand on Frankie’s arm. “The kids want to go off on their own.”
“On their own?” Frankie said. “But … how will they get around?”
“I have my driver’s license,” Noah said (truth). Then, “I have a clean driving record” (half-truth). Last night in the basement, Noah had told them about backing his mom’s Volvo out of his driveway and into a lamppost, denting the rear fender.
Frankie shook her head. Of course she shook her head. “The only people who can drive the rental car are Suzanne and myself. It’s not that we don’t trust you, Noah, but if there were an accident…”
Right, Milo thought. Go directly to the worst-case scenario.
“They can take my car,” Hollis’s mom said.
Hollis’s mom saved the day (truth).
* * *
As the five of them walked through the front doors of the Recreational Sports Dome at the University of Minnesota, preparing to see Will Bardo for the first time, Milo could have had any number of thoughts, but for some reason he was thinking about Hayley Christenson. Probably because—just as they were walking in—a pair of girls was walking out, and one of them had long, blond hair. And great legs. And a killer smile. All of which reminded Milo of Hayley and made him temporarily forget that he was wearing a bushy gray beard. Which was obviously why the girl smiled at him: because he looked ridiculous.
They all looked ridiculous.
Hollis in her platinum wig. Noah in his Groucho Marx glasses. Abby in her porkpie hat and prosthetic nose that made her sound like she had a sinus infection. Even JJ, who had no reason to disguise himself, insisted on wearing the rotten teeth, which looked even more disgusting inside the dome, under the fluorescent lighting.
“Huh,” Hollis said, looking around when they got inside. “This place is weird.”
It was weird. They’d walked into a big, white bubble—an alternate universe. The turf was an unnatural shade of green. There was a huge maroon-and-gold M painted in the middle of the field. Men of all shapes and sizes were running every which way, and Frisbees were flying, so Milo assumed that the Indoor Hat Tournament was in full swing, but the dome was not exactly packed with spectators.
“So much for blending in with the crowd,” Noah murmured, as they made their way around the edges of the bubble, as inconspicuously as possible, until they were standing in a corner with a handful of other people.
“What color do you think they are?” Abby asked.
Milo shook his head. “I don’t know. I just know they’re the Floppy Discs.”
“Are you looking for the Floppy Discs?” a woman said. She was wearing a blue bandana and holding a squirmy toddler on her hip.
“Yeah,” Noah said.
“Over there.” She pointed to the other end of the bubble. “Field four. The tie-dyed shirts. My husband’s team just played them.”
“Thanks,” Milo said.
The woman smiled. “Is this some kind of fraternity/sorority thing?”
“Pardon?” Milo said.
“The costumes. My sorority sisters used to make me wear all sorts of crazy getups.”
“Yes,” JJ interjected with his rotten teeth. “We’re being initiated.”
“Well.” The woman shifted the toddler to her other hip. “Enjoy it! These are the best years of your life.”
They all nodded like doofuses in their disguises.
As soon as the woman walked away, Milo turned to Hollis and Abby and Noah and JJ. “What do you guys think? Do we go over or watch from here?”
“We go over,” Abby said.
And Noah said, “Let’s do this thing.”