4

By ten o’clock Mama had a big platter of pancakes in the center of the kitchen table and us all gathered around. JJ’s eyes were almost as big as the pancake he stabbed.

“You’re sure you slept all right, Caleb?” Mama passed him the platter.

“Yes, ma’am. It’s a nice room.”

I sighed. He sure was working on winning Mama over and it almost made me sick enough to pass on breakfast. But the pancakes smelled good and it had been so long since anything good-smelling had come from our kitchen that I ended up eating two.

The phone rang and Mama answered it. I carried my plate to the sink and turned to go, thinking that Mama and Aunt Maureen would be on the phone for a good hour, but she put her hand over the receiver and said, “Ivy, wait. It’s for you.”

I took the phone and said, “Hello?”

Ellen said, “What are you doing this morning, Ivy League?”

Ellen using my nickname was just like old times. “Just going to Ellen Waite,” I said. I should explain about our nicknames. There’s a sign at Jonsey’s Hardware Store that says, “Helen Waite is our manager. If you don’t like our service, go to Helen Waite.” We were in fourth grade when we asked Jonsey who Helen was because we’d never seen a woman working there. He explained it was a play on words. Instead of “Helen Waite” it could be “H-E-double-toothpicks and wait.” We laughed so hard, so I changed it to Ellen Waite. And mine? First time we heard the term “Ivy League schools,” we asked our teacher what that meant, and she said, “top-notch.” So Ellen decided I was a top-notch friend.

“I’ve been shopping. Meet me at McDonald’s. I can’t wait to show you what all I bought.”

“Just us?” I tried to keep my voice light.

“Just you, me, and sacks of goodies.” In a singsong voice she added, “There might even be something in them for you.”

I took a quick shower and didn’t even dry my hair. It was such a warm day I figured it would dry on its own, anyway. Then I went to ask Mama if I could go.

“Sure,” she said. “Oh, and, Ivy, here. Take this.” She handed me two dollars and a quarter.

“Mama … no.” Don’t get me wrong, I really wanted that money, but I knew how broke we were.

She smiled and shoved it into my pocket. “Go on. Take it. You think I don’t know how hard it’s been on you kids? Go get yourself a Coke and some fries from the dollar menu.”

Mama stood there in her bathrobe with a crooked smile and tucked her hair behind her ear, not knowing that the whole back of her head looked like a squirrel’s nest. My heart melted a little. I gave her a quick hug and ran out the door.

I waved to Ellen when I saw her in a booth at McDonald’s. Relief surged through me that Alexa wasn’t around. I went straight to the counter and ordered a Coke and fries. I felt so generous that I put the eight cents change into the Ronald McDonald House container.

“You should have gotten the Happy Meal,” Ellen said. “They’ve got promos for the new Daisy Dog movie.”

She tore open the plastic bag to show me the dog that stuck its tongue out when you pushed its ear down. Then she hopped it over to her bag of fries and kept pushing its ear so its tongue licked at her fries. She raised the dog to her ear and said, “What’s that, Daisy? You’re not hungry? You want Ivy?” She put the dog next to my face and tapped its ear so it licked my face. I cracked up.

“Oh, look! She wants to go home with you.” Ellen sat the toy next to me.

“You’re crazy,” I said.

“Oh, you love me. You know you do,” she said.

I rolled my eyes but she was right. I did.

“So!” she said. “I’m changing my bedroom.”

“What’s wrong with your bedroom? I thought you loved it.”

“I did. When I was in my purple phase. But I want something different. Mom said I could so I’m thinking green. Not a chartreuse, not a lime, more neon, I think.”

I listened as I ate my fries. Ellen always had a project going. It felt like Ellen was back to normal. Dragging those hot fries through the ketchup, listening to Ellen, well, it was a good day.

“That’s about it for me,” she said. “What’s new at your house?”

I looked up, French fry frozen in midair. I wasn’t ready to tell her about Caleb staying with us but I didn’t know why. Ellen and I told each other everything. Or, at least, we always had. But remembering how I felt when she’d given something to Alexa yesterday made me freeze up inside. Stalling for time, I took a slurp of pop, which she mistook as an answer.

“So nothing new then?” she said.

“No. Just, you know, regular stuff.”

“Well, then let me show you what I bought!”

She opened a bag and pulled out a pair of boots and new jeans that she said she would tuck into the boots. Then she showed me a top that looked like it would have fit her in first grade.

“Remember when I said I had something for you?” She thrust a plastic bag at me.

I wiped my greasy hands on a napkin and reached for it. I had no idea what was inside but I sure wasn’t expecting a new outfit. When I saw the blue sweater and jeans, I looked at her and said, “I don’t understand.”

“What’s to understand? They’re for you!”

“It’s not my birthday,” I said. Even if it were, we had a ten-dollar limit on birthday gifts to each other.

She rolled her eyes, then grabbed the bag from me and dumped the clothes onto her lap. “I got the next size from mine so I think they’ll fit you.” She held up the sweater. “This blue is gonna bring out your eye color. I wish I could have gotten you boots, too, but then we don’t want to look exactly alike.”

She looked at me, smiling. I was so confused I just stared.

She sighed, then said, “Look, Ivy, I know you didn’t get new back-to-school clothes this year. And, hey, that’s okay! But I had money to spend and I spent some on my best friend, too.”

I took a sip of Coke to keep my throat from closing up. “Thanks,” I croaked.

“Besides, if you don’t take them, you’ll hurt my feelings. I’ll cry and everyone will stare! It would be your six-year-old birthday party all over again.”

She had me there. She’d given me a stuffed clown, when I hated clowns. I gave it back to her because she loved them, and she cried so hard her mom had to take her home. She always reminded me of it when she wanted to get her way and it always worked.

“Well, thank you. I mean, gosh, it was so cool that you thought of me. But my mom, I don’t think she’ll let me keep them.”

“Well don’t tell her, silly!”

“Trust me, she’ll notice.” I thought of my closet at home. I’d never been one to care about clothes and there sure hadn’t been anything new added in a while.

Ellen ripped the tags off the sweater and jeans, then pulled off the sticky strip with the size. “Now she won’t know they’re new. Tell her they were mine and they don’t fit me.”

Then she set a small bag on the table. “And I got this for me. But I’m going to share with you.”

As I picked up the bag, she seemed so excited she actually shivered.

I slowly looked inside and my heart flat-out sank. Makeup. But she said it was for her and she liked that kind of stuff so I tried to sound enthusiastic. “Wow! That’s a lot of makeup. You’ll have fun wearing that.”

Then I scooted the bag ever so slightly so it would be more on her side of the table than on mine.

“I thought maybe we’d wear our new things next week.”

She dipped her finger into her ketchup and began painting on the table with it.

“Alexa invited us to her party next Friday. We can wear our new clothes then.”

“If Alexa invited me to a party, how come I don’t know anything about it?”

She grabbed a napkin and began swiping at the mess she’d made. “Well, she invited me and a guest.” She looked at me and smiled a little too wide. “You’re my guest.”

I’d been to Alexa’s house before, but not in years. We’d all been in the same grade since we were in Wee Ones preschool. Back then our moms swapped playdates and you thought everyone was your friend. I don’t know when all that stopped, when the fact that someone was in your class at school wasn’t enough to make them your friend, but I definitely didn’t feel any “friend” vibes from Alexa now.

“You know,” I said, “I really don’t think I want to go.”

Ellen sat very still but her eyes grew big with shiny tears. Part of me was trying to figure out how to word what I wanted to say without really putting Alexa down, but the other part of me wondered how Ellen was able to make tears that fast. I’d have had to pinch myself hard to do it and I’m not sure even that would work.

“It’s just that—” I shut up because Ellen reached across the table and grabbed both my arms.

“Don’t do this to me. You have no idea how much this means to me. Go with me and you’ll be giving me my birthday and Christmas gifts all rolled into one.”

“Ellen.” I tried to pull away and she held on harder. For a skinny girl, she had an amazing grip. “You’re hurting me.”

“Say you’ll come.”

“Let go!” I yanked my arms away. Then her eyes sprang a leak. Big tears rolled down her face.

“Since when did you and Alexa start hanging out, anyway?” I said.

“We barely started.”

“It’s just that, I thought we were best friends.” I hated the hurt tone my voice had. “You’ve never talked about wanting to go to parties and shopping with her until this week.”

“You are my best friend, Ivy! And going to this party could mean a lot for us. It’s so hard to get an invitation to Alexa’s party and I got one! Please don’t make me go alone, Ivy. Please.”

I sat back and sighed. I felt stupid being almost jealous of Alexa. I looked around the place and thought, heck, it’s just one night. One stupid night out of my life and it’s not like I had anything else to do except go home to a house that got weirder by the day.

“Okay.”

“Oh, Ivy Greer, you’re the best friend in the whole world!”

I tried to feel good about that but deep down I wondered whether I’d still be her best friend if I’d said no.

When I got home I ran to my bedroom. For the first time I let the feelings that had been tugging at me rise to the top. Did Ellen think I dressed bad? Was she embarrassed to be seen with me in my regular clothes? What kind of best friend worried about something like that?

I stuffed the jeans and sweater into my dresser drawer. At the bottom of the bag was the Daisy Dog Happy Meal toy. After I closed the drawer, I set Daisy Dog beside my bed because getting it was the only thing about today that had felt good.

*   *   *

Mama sent us all to bed early that night because we’d be getting up at seven o’clock to get ready for church. JJ groaned. I suppose Caleb was used to going anyway, being a missionary’s kid, so no reaction from him. My eyes bored a hole through Mama, just willing her to ask me what was wrong so I could tell her I was onto the real reason she wanted to go to church. But she didn’t. She glanced at the look on my face and just got busy wiping her nail polish off. I finally gave up. What good is staring at someone when they don’t even notice?

The next morning I was in the world’s worst mood. First of all, it had rained that night and the thunder kept me awake, giving me lots of time to think about Alexa’s dang party. Now church. I glanced into Caleb’s room on my way downstairs and couldn’t believe what I saw. His mattress was on the floor! After JJ, Mama, and I had just about killed ourselves to get that mattress onto the bed frame!

Caleb was sitting on the mattress.

“What is wrong with you?” I yelled at him. He jumped.

“What?”

“This mattress! Do you know how hard it was for us to get it up here for you? What kind of idiot takes his bed apart?”

“Ivy!” Mama called. “Get down here this instant.”

I stomped down the stairs.

“What’s all that yelling about?” she asked.

“Caleb! He put his mattress on the floor!”

“Is that all? Maybe he has a bad back. Now hurry and eat your breakfast.”

I followed her into the kitchen. “Don’t you think that’s a little odd, Mama?”

“Well, I don’t want to sleep on the floor and maybe you don’t, but let’s not make a fuss. After all, this is new to him.”

“It’s new to us, too, having him here, but we’re not acting odd, are we?”

“Is ‘odd’ the word of the day, Ivy? You’ve certainly said it enough.”

“I just think he’s odd. You can’t tell me you don’t.” I wanted her to say he was. She’d said it to Aunt Maureen on the phone but she’d told me he wasn’t. That was a lie. I guess I thought if she said it now, it would make the lie a truth and I would feel better.

Instead she said, “What I think is he’s quiet and polite. Those certainly aren’t odd things. Well, maybe around here they are.” She wiggled her eyebrows at me to make me laugh. It usually worked but this time I turned away from her. Mama lying stung more than an eye wiggle could fix.