chapter 9
Molly pulled on Justin’s Mets cap. She had borrowed it from him the other day when they played beach volleyball with several other kids. The sun was fierce, but after Justin gave Molly the hat, she could see much better and had spiked the ball over the net. It had hit the ground hard, earning a point for their team. “I should have given you the hat fifteen minutes ago,” Justin joked. At the end of the day Molly had forgotten to give it back—and Justin hadn’t asked for it. Since then, she found herself reaching for his cap instead of her own.
Mr. and Mrs. Brewster were spending the day on a friend’s boat out on the Atlantic Ocean. Molly hadn’t had to take care of Charlotte and Nathan by herself for an entire day before, and she was worried that they would run out of things to do. Already they had played with all of the kids’ toys and read every book twice.
“It’s just you and me, Nate,” Molly said cheerfully to Hathan after she put Charlotte down for her afternoon nap. What do you want to do now?
Nathan frowned, deep in thought. Suddenly his face brightened as he had an idea. “I want an ice cream sandwich!” he announced. “Please, Molly, please?”
“Okay. let’s see if we have any,” Molly replied, leading Nathan into the kitchen. But when she opened the freezer door, all they had was plain vanilla ice cream. With a sinking feeling, she turned back to Nathan. Sorry, buddy, no ice cream sandwiches. But we have vanilla ice cream. How does that sound?”
Nathan screwed up his face. “No! Yuck! I want an ice cream sandwich!” he pouted. “Not plain ice cream!”
Molly sighed. “But we don’t have—” she starred to say patiently. Then she had a brilliant idea. We can make ice cream sandwiches! Molly thought excitedly. They’re just cookies with ice cream in the middle! That’s easy enough. “Hang on, Nate,” she said, as she started opening the cupboards. Flour, sugar, butter, eggs, baking soda—they had almost everything they needed for the fudgy chocolate cookies.
Except cocoa powder.
Rats!Molly thought. I can’t walk to the store to get some with Charlotte asleep. But then she had another great idea. Maybe Justin’s aunt has some cocoa powder we could borrow!
Molly picked up the cordless phone and dialed information to get Justin’s aunt’s phone number. She punched in the number quickly.
“Hello?” Justin answered.
“Hey, Justin, it’s Molly she began.
“Hey, Molly, what up?” asked Justin.
“I was wondering if I could ask you a favor,” she said. “I was going to make cookies—Nathan and I want to have some ice cream sandwiches—but we don’t have any cocoa powder. Um, does your aunt have some we could borrow?
“Hang on, let me check,” replied Justin. A moment later, he was back on the phone. “Sorry we don’t have any. But I’ll run to the store and bring you some,” he volunteered.
“Oh, no, I don’t want to bother you,” Molly said quickly.
“No prob! But only on one condition—you give me some of those cookies. I remember what an awesome cook you are!”
Molly grinned. “You got it,” she said. “See you in a bit!” As she hung up the phone, she leaned down to Nathan and picked him up. “Guess what, buddy?” she asked. “We’re going to make ice cream sandwiches. And they’ll be awesome!”
Molly and Nathan measured and mixed the flour, salt, and baking soda. Molly was creaming together the butter and sugar when she heard a soft rapping on the screen door. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Justin standing there, holding a can of cocoa powder in front of his face.
“Super-Chocolate-Man here, saving the day,” he called out.
“Come on in,” Molly said with a laugh. Justin walked into the kitchen, dropping the can on the kitchen counter.
“Nice hat,” he commented, nodding his head at his Mefs cap that Molly was wearing.
Instantly, she started blushing. Oh, man, that’s so embarrassing,she thought. I can’t believe I’m wearing his hat around! “Oh, sorry,” she said, trying to laugh it off. “I didn’t want to forget to give it back to you. Nice save! she cheered herself as she took off the hat.
“No, no, that’s cool,” Justin said with his slow smile. “You can hang onto it. I have other hats.”
“Oh...thanks,” replied Molly She cleared her throat. “Okay, let’s do these cookies!”
“Let me know if I can help,” Justin offered.
“Would you preheat the oven to three-fifty?” asked Molly, measuring the cocoa powder. After Molly mixed the cocoa powder into the sugar and butter, she gradually added the dry ingredients. Soon there was a rich, chocolate cookie dough. She carefully dropped large spoonfuls of the dough onto the baking trays and slid them into the oven. “Yipes!” she exclaimed suddenly. “I forgot to take the ice cream out of the freezer to soften it!”
“I got it,” Justin said, moving toward the freezer.
“Thanks,” Molly said. I guess Justin’s hanging around to wait for his cookies, she thought.
Ten minutes later, the first batch of cookies was done. As Molly carefully took the baking trays out of the oven, the delicious aroma of warm chocolate filled the kitchen. “Mmm...smells good, doesn’t it, Nathan?” Molly said, lifting him up so he could see the cookies cooling on wire racks.
“You bet.” Justin announced. “I’ll just take my payment now.” He laughed, reaching for a cookie.
“Hold it,” Molly said, lightly smacking his outstretched hand with a wooden spoon. “they have to cool first!” But after about five minutes, the cookies were cool enough to sample. And they were delicious!
“Wheres my ice cream sandwich?” Nathan demanded.
“Coming right up!” Molly promised. She took a cookie and put it top-down on a plate. Then she smeared the softened vanilla ice cream evenly over the bottom of the cookie. To finish the ice cream sandwich, she topped it with a second cookie and gently pressed them both together. “Ta-da!” she announced proudly as she handed Nathan the ice cream sandwich. The little boy’s eyes shone with excitement.
“Yum-yum-yummy!” he crowed happily, biting into the treat and getting ice cream all over his face.
“Normally, you would freeze these for a couple hours after you make them so that the ice cream hardens again,” Molly said to Justin. “But I don’t think Nathan could wait that long.”
“Yeah, I don’t think I could, either,” Justin replied as he squished together his own ice cream sandwich. “These are awesome! The best ice cream sandwiches I’ve ever had.”
“Thanks,” Molly replied with a smile. “We couldn’t have made them without the cocoa powder.” She cleared her throat. “Well, I’d better give this sticky little boy a bath. Do you want to take a few cookies with you?”
“Absolutely,” Justin replied, stacking five cookies atop one another. “Hey, I’ll call you tomorrow. Maybe we can hang out again.”
“Okay,” said Molly as she walked him to the door. “Sounds cool. See ya later.”
After Justin left, Molly got Nathan ready for a bath. I’m glad Justin’s here. she thought. He’s making my “working vacation” way more fun!
Early one morning, Peichi awoke to her grandmother, Ah-Puo, gently tapping her on her shoulder. Peichi rubbed her eyes sleepily and looked into Ah-Puo’s warm brown eyes. Gesturing for Peichi to get out of bed, Ah-Puo handed her loose, steely-gray pants with a soft tunic made of matching material. Ah-Puo silently crept out of the bedroom, leaving Peichi to dress in the soft, flowing outfit. Ah-Puo and Iare almost the same size, Peichi thought. As soon as she had finished dressing and pulled her long black hair into a low ponytail. Peichi hurried into the living room, where Ah-Puo was waiting. Ah-Puo’s face crinkled into a large smile when she saw Peichi dressed in her clothes.
Together. Peichi and Ah-Puo left the apartment; though it was still early in the morning, the Beijing street was already busy. Several people on bikes whizzed past the cars stuck in traffic. Those guys must be in amazing shape, Peichi thought, as she watched the pedicab drivers furiously pedaling the large pedicabs that held a few passengers. They’re keeping up withtheresl of thetraffic!
As Peichi and her grandmother walked in silence down the street, Peichi found herself thinking again, I wish I knew more Chinese...I wish we could lalk to each other. I have so much I want to ask her!
Soon Ah-Puo and Peichi had arrived at Ditan Park, where hundreds of people were gathered for early morning exercises. Ah-Puo turned to Peichi, then gestured to a group of elderly people performing slow, fluent movements. “Taijiquan,” Ah-Puo said simply. Peichi nodded, recognizing taijiquan as a type of shadow-boxing strength training she had learned about in Chinese school. She and Ah-Puo joined the group, which was mostly elderly people, and Peichi tried to follow her grandmother’s smooth, fluent motions. In the early morning light, surrounded by people practicing calm, deep breathing and gentle, easy movement, Peichi felt more relaxed than she had in a long time.
At the end of the exercise, Peichi turned to Ah-Puo. “Xièxie,” she said, thanking her grandmofher-and feeling proud that she could do so in Ah-Puo’s language.
Amanda re-read Molly’s letter and smiled to herself. She’s totally right! Amanda thought. Why should I let Bree ruin my summer? Glancing at her watch, Amanda realized it was almost time for scene rehearsal. She carefully hid Molly’s letter in her pillowcase—It would be pretty bad if Bree found it!—and hurried off to Theater Four in the practice hall. She hadn’t felt so energetic, so charged, since the disastrous Inanimate Expressions exercise. Now she felt ready for anything.
When Amanda stepped onstage for her scene a few minutes later, all of her extra practice during free time gelled into one of the best performances she’d ever given. As the scene began, she turned to Bree and looked her in the eye. “Listen, Nora,” she said, delivering her first line in a strong, clear voice with the perfect pitch of determination and sympathy she’d been working on. “I can’t live your life. It works for you-not for me.” Amanda felt like she owned the stage as she turned on her heel and walked away from Bree, thinking, I’m doing it! I’m finally nailing this scene!
The rest of Amanda’s scene was just as powerful, and as she spoke the final line in the scene, she felt happier and more confident than she had all summer. As the scene ended, the class and Carol, the instructor, broke into spontaneous applause.
“That was excellent!” Carol raved. “Amanda, you did a stellar job. You really drove that scene—your timing was excellent, and your motivation for each moment was clear and distinct. It’s obvious how much prep you’ve put into your performance. Well done!”
“Thanks,” Amanda replied, blushing and beaming at the same time.
“And Bree—nice job playing off Amanda’s performance. For the first time, you two were believable as sisters. I could see all the levels of your relationship—admiration. envy, devotion. The scene worked so much better today-if you keep it up, the whole camp will be wowed on Performance Might!
Amanda, still grinning, had a sudden thought as she took her seat in the audience and the next pair of scene partners took the stage. Acting is so give-and-take-when I do a better job, Bree does a better job, too. I wonder if she getsthat. Amanda glanced at Bree. As the girl’s eyes met, Bree smiled tentatively at Amanda. Amanda smiled back and settled into her seat. She does!
