Chapter Fifteen

Emily felt like she was going to throw up or faint or maybe do both as she entered Lily Cunningham’s house, tagging behind Andrea and Mr. Cunningham. It was different than she expected. Friendlier. Warmer. The carpet was rose-colored and a large, comfortable-looking floral sofa sat in front of the window. Photos of Lily and her brother, Jason, hung on the wall. In the photos Lily had a big smile, something Emily hadn’t seen too often around school.

“Mom, I’m home,” Andrea called.

“In the kitchen,” Mrs. Cunningham replied. “Grandma’s here too. Come in, Andrea. I’d love to introduce Emily to her.”

Emily kicked off her shoes by the front door where the other shoes were lined up. “Uh, where do you want me to put my bag?” Emily looked around. The whole house was perfectly clean, and she didn’t want to mess it up.

Andrea skipped toward the kitchen. “Just leave it there. We’ll get it later,” she called back over her shoulder.

Emily set it on the floor and then followed Andrea into the kitchen.

“Grandma M!” Andrea gave an older, round woman a large hug.

“Emily, I’d like to introduce you to my mother, Mrs. Marley,” Mrs. Cunningham interrupted.

Emily extended her hand. “Hello, Mrs. Marley.”

The older woman took Emily’s hand and shook it politely. “None of that Mrs. Marley stuff. Call me Grandma M. Everyone does.”

Emily shrugged. “Uh, okay.”

Mrs. Cunningham motioned to the dining room chair next to her. Emily sat.

But instead of sitting, Andrea hurried to the fridge, and began rifling through it. “Want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?” she asked.

“Uh, sure,” Emily said.

“Only one.” Mrs. Cunningham wagged her finger in Andrea’s direction. “You don’t want to spoil your appetite. We’re having fried chicken for dinner.”

“Fried chicken. My favorite!” Andrea whooped.

Emily stiffened in the chair. She hadn’t even thought about telling Andrea she was a vegetarian and didn’t eat meat. The last thing Emily wanted was to make a scene at the table. She’d heard her grandma talking about Mrs. Cunningham before. If you told the woman anything you could be sure that the whole town would hear about it by the next afternoon.

Even though they were just relaxing in their home, Mrs. Cunningham seemed like she was ready to walk out the door in her red pencil skirt and black sweater. And, Emily noticed, Lily’s grandmother was even more put together. She wore a long skirt and a bright orange blouse. Her earrings matched her outfit, as did her necklace and nail polish. Emily thought of her own grandma, who wore jeans and sweatshirts most of the time. Even though at the beginning, when she’d first moved to Nebraska, Emily had wished her grandma took more time with her appearance, the way she dressed made sense to Emily now.

“So you girls don’t have any Valentine’s Day plans?” Mrs. Cunningham asked.

The girls let out a collective groan. “Please,” Andrea said. “We are trying to pretend that it is just any other day.”

“Well, that sounds fine to me,” Grandma M said. “I think Valentine’s Day is highly overrated.”

Emily was surprised and happy to hear that. She had been a little bummed that she didn’t have a boyfriend to celebrate the day with, so in a way coming to the Cunninghams was a good excuse to forget about it altogether.

“Where’s Lily?” Andrea asked with a mouth full of sandwich. Amazingly Mrs. Cunningham didn’t seem to notice or care.

“She’s at violin lessons. We’ve started up again. You know, for a while she was quite bored with it—being the best musician and all—but her father insisted that she keep going. He said that in all of life we need to adjust to people who aren’t quite as talented as we are. Owen thought it would be a nice growing experience for her.”

“Of course. Who doesn’t love the violin?” Grandma M took a sip from her teacup.

They chattered on about a zillion different topics over the next fifteen minutes. Emily knew that Mrs. Cunningham talked a lot, but she was an amateur compared to Lily’s grandmother. Grandma M shared gossip about nearly every family between Bedford and Harding, scarcely taking a breath. Most of it didn’t seem to matter. I mean, who really cared that Pastor Evans got a flat tire and had to call a tow truck? Or that the principal of the elementary school was seen exiting an all-you-can-eat buffet in Harding last Friday night?

Still, Emily waited and listened, wondering if the conversation would come back to her family. It did.

“You know …” Mrs. Cunningham turned to Emily. “I was talking to Lily the other day, and she told me that Sam has a new girlfriend.”

“Well, I wouldn’t really say they’re dating.” Emily shrugged. “They’re friends, that’s all.”

“Hmmm…. I heard it’s much more than that, but I suppose you know better than I, my dear,” Mrs. Cunningham said.

“Who are her parents?” Grandma M asked, pouring herself another cup of tea from the china teapot, which looked old but didn’t have even one chip in it.

“I’m not sure. I haven’t met them. I just know Kendall from school.”

“Kendall.” Mrs. Cunningham’s penciled eyebrows arched. “That’s an interesting name.”

“I’ve never heard of a girl named Kendall before. Maybe it’s a family name. That’s the only excuse, really. So. Are the wedding plans going well for your uncle and Miss Simons?” Grandma M switched conversations quicker than one flap of a hummingbird’s wings.

Andrea looked at Emily and held back a chuckle.

Emily ignored Andrea and thought of the conflict she’d had with Dana concerning the wedding dress. Everything was fine now, but it had been a hard couple of weeks. Still, she didn’t want to tell these women that.

“Oh, yes. I think everything’s going good. My grandma’s just happy that Uncle Pete found such a nice girl.”

“That’s nice, dear. I’m sure her wedding dress will be lovely.”

“Yes, it is, and the cool thing is that I’m designing the bridesmaids’ dresses,” Emily said. She didn’t know why, but she had a strange desire to please this woman.

“You?” The woman pinched her lips together as if trying not to smile. “That’s unique.”

“Yes, I suppose it is.” Emily shrugged, not knowing what else to do or say. She had to admit that she also found it funny that she was talking like they did. Talking like a middle-aged woman having tea.

“Yes, well, Miss Simons is lucky to find your Uncle Pete. I heard that she’s been engaged two times before—you know, when she was away at college, but I’m not sure if I believe that. I hope this one sticks. I heard her mother saying the other day Dana would have a simple but happy life with Pete.”

Simple? Emily didn’t like the way the woman said that word—as if simple were the same as boring or unsatisfactory. Her grandparents had a simple existence, but their lives were anything but boring.

The conversation turned to the new computer Mr. Cunningham was buying Lily for her birthday.

Emily quickly ate her sandwich, wiped her mouth, and then stood. “Thank you for letting me come over. Andrea and I better get to our school work now. We have a lot to do.”

Andrea motioned for Emily to follow, and as soon as she left the kitchen Emily released a slow breath. She followed Andrea down the hall.

“Are they always like that?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, do they always talk about everyone and everything? And do they always talk that quickly? I was having a hard time keeping up with who was doing what with whom and why.”

Andrea opened the door to a bedroom. It was large, and there were two twin beds against the walls. One bed was perfectly clean, and painted wooden letters hanging above it spelled out L-I-L-Y. The second bed was hard to spot under the piles of clothes, books, makeup, and other stuff.

“Isn’t everyone in America like that? I mean I thought all families talked and talked and talked.”

Emily moved to Andrea’s bed and pushed aside some things to sit. “No, not really. I mean, my grandma probably talks the most, but sometimes my grandpa goes through a meal hardly saying anything. Sam sometimes stays quiet too. I mean—”

The door swung open, and Lily entered with her violin case swinging in her hand. She was smiling, but as soon as she saw Emily her smile faded and she stopped short.

“Hey, Lily.” Emily offered a quick wave, and her stomach knotted up. She thought about asking about violin practice, but that sounded stupid. She then thought about mentioning what they had found at the library, but she didn’t want Lily to think she’d only come to work. Instead, she just sat there, waiting for Lily’s response.

“Oh, hi. I forgot you were coming over.” Lily looked at Emily. Then she turned to Andrea. “Hey, I was looking for my red sweater—you know the one you wore last week. I couldn’t find it in your clothes pile.”

Andrea didn’t seem to mind Lily’s curtness. She pointed to the closet. “That is because Mom came in and took out the dirty clothes. I saw it hanging on your side.”

Lily opened the closet. “Oh. I just wasn’t expecting it to actually be put away.”

“Hey, Lily, do you want to watch a movie with us later?” Andrea approached her sister, her smile in direct contradiction to Lily’s frown.

“I don’t know. I might not be here.”

“But if you are?” Andrea didn’t miss a beat. “We’ll watch something good.”

“Yeah, fine, whatever.”

In the large walk-in closet, Lily had what looked like a sewing table. Emily stood to take a better look.

“Wow, I really like your sewing machine.” Emily forced a smile as she eyed it, hoping the whole night wouldn’t be as awkward as this. Unlike Grandma’s old sewing machine, it had all types of buttons and levers.

“Grandma M gave it to me for my birthday last year. I swear that woman is intense. The year before she gave me a guitar. And the year before that a video camera. If I show one bit of interest in something, she thinks I’ll be the best ever at it. But I do like to sew.” Lily tugged the red sweater off the hanger and slipped it on.

“Me too.”

“Yeah, I remember. You made that really cute shirt that one time.”

Emily paused, surprised by the kind words coming out of Lily’s mouth. She remembered Lily’s comment. It had been the one time Lily had seemingly been nice to her.

“My grandma’s not like that at all,” Andrea butted in. “She doesn’t ever think about what I like. Instead, she buys me strange things.” Andrea sat on the floor with a flourish.

“Like what?”

“One time dishes were on sale, and she bought them for me. She says they are for when I am married, but I’ve never even had a boyfriend! My mom says my grandma is like this because she lived under communism and everything was so expensive. Now she buys things because they are not expensive, even if she doesn’t know what to do with them.”

Emily still eyed the sewing machine, checking out the various buttons. “I suppose I never thought about that before.” Emily turned back to Andrea. “My grandma buys sale stuff too—mostly food, but that’s because Sam eats like a horse.”

A snicker burst from Lily’s lips, catching Emily by surprise. Her cheeks reddened slightly, and Emily wondered what that was about. Emily was going to make another comment about Sam, just to get Lily’s reaction, but more words spilled from Lily’s mouth before Emily had the chance.

“My mom says my grandma is the way she is because she grew up on a homestead and had nothing,” Lily explained. “She lived in a soddie and only had one dress. The other kids teased her so she always has to look nice now. I think she’s trying to be perfect because she never wants to be teased again. Not only that—she wants my mom and me to be perfect too.”

“Lily?” The voice caught all three of them by surprise, and they all turned toward the open door. Lily’s grandma was standing there. She wore a smile, but it looked as if it had been ironed on her face. Her eyes appeared downcast, and Emily was sure Grandma M had heard at least part of Lily’s comments.

“Lily, dinner is ready. Your mom told me to come get you.”

A sick feeling rushed over Emily, and she wrapped her arms around her stomach.

“Uh, okay.”

“Unless you’re not hungry.” Grandma M tilted her head.

“No, we’re coming.”

Grandma M nodded and then turned back toward the kitchen. Emily released the breath she’d been holding. Lily didn’t say anything, but Emily could tell from her face that she felt bad about the comment. And, for the first time ever, Emily wished she could actually do something to help Lily.

They ate dinner in the dining room, and thankfully no one commented when Emily ate only salad and mashed potatoes. The conversation around the table was pleasant, but Emily could tell that Grandma M was watching her words more carefully than before. She even brought up a story about when she’d tried to sew a dress and she sewed the sleeves on backward and had to throw it away—maybe to prove that she wasn’t perfect after all.

Afterward, the three girls worked on posters that showed some of the first train routes across the Great Plains. During the evening they cracked jokes, and Lily seemed different than she did at school. Nicer.

After they’d done enough homework for the night they watched Ever After—one of Andrea’s favorite movies. The only time they weren’t all together was when Grandma M left and Lily walked her to the door. Yet when Lily came back she didn’t have a happy look on her face. Instead she sat quietly on the couch, chewing on her fingernails as she watched the movie. Emily wondered if Lily’s grandma had said something. Or if something else was bothering her. Emily looked at Lily from the corners of her eyes and suddenly felt sorry for her. She couldn’t imagine living in a household where everyone expected you to be perfect all the time.

When the movie was over, the three of them lined up in sleeping bags across the living room floor. Emily wasn’t sure how, but she found herself sleeping in the middle.

The room was dark. The house was quiet, and Emily could hear Andrea shuffling around in her sleeping bag.

“Do you two have many of the same classes?” Andrea’s voice sounded like it was beginning to fade.

“We do, I guess.” Emily said. She waited, thinking of what else to say, and wondering if Lily would comment.

“You should study together more often.” Andrea yawned.

Neither Lily nor Emily said anything. Emily knew the main reason they didn’t hang out or even talk very much was Nicole. From the first time she met Nicole Evans, it seemed, the preacher’s kid had been out to get her.

“Yeah, maybe. That would be nice. And maybe sometime you could both come and spend the night,” Emily answered.

“Well, I did stay the night once.” Lily shuffled around in her sleeping bag.

Emily leaned up on one arm and turned toward Lily, even though she couldn’t see her in the dark. “Yes, I remember. It was last summer when Shae Lynne was in town filming that music video.”

Emily chewed on her lower lip, remembering how horrible that sleepover had been. With her grandmother’s encouragement she’d tried to forgive Nicole for the conflict in the past, but it had turned out to be a complete flop when she caught Lily and Nicole making fun of her room and her clothes.

“Maybe the next time will be a better experience,” Emily said.

As she lay there, she thought about how angry she’d been when she walked into her bedroom and heard Lily and Nicole talking about her. The hardest thing, though, was the fact that she’d been trying to be nice. She had tried to forget the stuff from the past and start over. It just hadn’t worked that way.

But now, as she lay in the dark, Emily realized that Lily was different than she’d thought. There was a hidden part of Lily she hadn’t known, a part she wished she could see more often.

“Tomorrow I will sing you a Czech song,” Andrea announced.

Both Emily and Lily chuckled.

“Okay. Uh, is there any reason why?” Lily asked.

“It’s a song about a train. Maybe we can use it.” Andrea’s voice was no more than a mumble.

Emily patted Andrea’s head. She smiled even though she knew Andrea couldn’t see it. “What a great idea. A song about a train in a language that no one in the class can understand. It’s exactly what we need.”

Andrea answered with a snore, and Emily heard the slightest giggle coming from Lily.

“Emily.” Lily’s voice was no more than a whisper.

Emily turned her head slightly. She tried to see Lily’s face, but all she saw was darkness.

“Thanks for being Andrea’s friend.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Emily waited for more, but there was only silence. She wanted to say something to Lily about standing up to Nicole—standing up about allowing Andrea to join their group and everything else—but she didn’t. Things were going well. Emily didn’t want to mess it up. “Good night, Lily,” she said instead.

“Good night.”

Then Emily snuggled down to go to sleep.

The day had been completely different than Emily had expected.

Better.