26

Grounded

Later that week, Adam was sitting across from me during lunch—Adam sitting across from me had somehow become an everyday event—and I was wearing the bubble-gum-tasting lip gloss that I’d sort of permanently borrowed from Jade. Day by day it was getting easier and easier to talk to him. Also, my shyness was seeming to show up less and less and less. I supposed having to talk to someone I barely knew every day was why.

Adam quizzed me about the carnivorous plants in the Wonderland and finally asked if he could see them, and I was about to say yes—until I remembered I was still grounded.

“I’m grounded,” I told him.

“Because you ran away from school that day?”

“Yeah.” Until right then, being grounded hadn’t really mattered and I hadn’t even thought about it. Now Adam wanted to come over, so it mattered. And then I remembered Quincy was coming back this weekend. That made being grounded the worst.

Maybe the Reindeer parents would let me make it up another time—like a make-up test. I sure hoped so!

That night, I caught Daddy and Mom together on the sofa. Since their fight, I hadn’t heard any more arguments about money. They were laughing at some TV show and they seemed happy.

Jade and Harper weren’t around. Jade was out with her friends and Harper was in the garage, deep into his latest science project. So I’d caught the Reindeer parents alone and in good moods—perfect timing to plead my case.

I smiled my sweetest smile and spoke in my sweetest voice. “Since Quincy’s coming home this weekend, can I be grounded another time?” I asked. “I’ll even be grounded for another whole month,” I pleaded. “Please say yes. Plus, Kendra is finally getting out of the hospital, and I really want to see her. I’m begging.”

“So you’re willing to extend your sentence for another whole month?” Daddy asked.

“Sentence? It’s not jail, is it? I’ll even clean the greenhouse for free.”

They stared at each other hard, like they were using their Reindeer parent superpowers to communicate. Finally, Daddy said, “It’s a deal. Just clean the greenhouse for free and you’re off punishment, but only while Quincy is here, understand?” He had his best Daddy-is-being-serious look on his face. “Understand?” he repeated.

“Yes,” I replied. “Thank you so much!”

And I knew I shouldn’t push it any further, but I did. “Also, there’s a boy from school who wants to come over and look at the carnivorous plants. So I was wondering—”

Mom interrupted, “Not part of the deal, Zoe.” She waved her index finger no. “Not part of the deal.”

“Thank you. I understand. G’night,” I told them. But before I headed to my room, a thought suddenly popped into my mind. Wait a minute. “Clean the greenhouse for free for how long? Not forever, right?” I asked Daddy. Was one weekend with my best friend worth forever?

“How about two weeks,” Daddy answered.

“Okay,” I agreed. Quincy was definitely worth a whole lot more than thirty bucks. “G’night. And thank you again.”

“G’night, Zoe.”

I headed to my room, did some homework, and took out the book Ben Rakotomalala had given me. I was more than halfway done. I thought about him being an astronomer with a telescope, gazing at all sorts of stuff in the nighttime sky. Lately, at night, I’d been looking up more and more at the moon and stars, thinking about what was way up there past the Milky Way.

At that moment, I wondered how much a telescope costs. I’d look it up online tomorrow. Seeing as Daddy was worried about money, asking for one for Christmas seemed out of the question. As soon as I started getting paid for cleaning the greenhouse again, I’d start saving my money to buy one. Ben’s book was getting me more and more curious about all kinds of things. I cracked it and read on.

Right then, someone turned the doorknob to my room and cracked the door. Harper stuck his face inside.

“You’re supposed to knock!”

“Sorry.” He closed the door and knocked.

“What!”

“Can I come in?” he asked.

“Why?”

“Just want to.”

Huh? What was the snox up to now? My curiosity won. “Okay!”

“Hey, Zoe,” he said. His eyes were fixed on the book Ben had given me.

So that was it. He’d probably been snooping in my room when I wasn’t home and seen it.

“What’s that book about?”

I held it up for him to read the title. “Just what it says, genius.”

“Where’d you get it? I couldn’t find it online.”

Just like I thought—he had been snooping. “From this astronomer guy named Ben Rakotomalala who’s from Madagascar but works at JPL,” I bragged.

Harper squinted at me jealously. “The Jet Propulsion Lab? How’d you meet him?”

“He came into the nursery when I was working there.” I decided to boast some more. “He says people with good imaginations, like me, are sometimes more important than people who have their heads full of facts.”

“Is that what you’re doing when you zone out . . . imagining stuff?” Harper asked.

I nodded.

“Oh. I thought you were just daydreaming.”

“They’re kind of the same thing,” I told him.

“I suppose,” Harper agreed, then asked, “What else did that man say?”

“He calls the sun ‘the star of day.’”

“The star of day? Wow. Hugely cool.” Harper glanced at the book. “Can I read it when you’re done?” His eyes had that begging look.

An itty-bitty piece of me wanted to say yes, but most of me was still mad at him for stealing my science project idea and for being such a constantly annoying snox.

Zoe G. Reindeer thought for a minute. I finally had something Harper desperately wanted. But I wasn’t about to give him something for nothing. “If you help me clean the greenhouse for a month, I’ll let you read it.”

Harper eyed the book. He hesitated for a few seconds, then said, “Deal.”

“And one other thing . . . stop snooping in my room. Promise?”

“Promise.”

He was at the door when he turned and smiled at me.

“What?” I asked.

“Thanks, Zoe.”

“You’re welcome.”

“And the next time that man comes to the nursery, can you come get me so I can meet him too?”

Hmmm. I wasn’t too sure about that. With Harper-geek-super-smart-boy around, Ben might lose all interest in me—even if I am an imaginer. And I really didn’t need one more person treating me like just Zoe. “Maybe.”

“Okay . . . G’night,” Harper said in a nice way.

I watched him close the door to my room. “G’night.”