I don’t wanna go in. Please don’t make me go in!” For once, Brady was helping me out, without even knowing it.
Mom shook her head. “I wish you would have told me you needed these folders earlier. I would have left Brady home.”
“It’s okay, Mom. We can go in by ourselves. We’re old enough now, don’t you think?”
Mom parked our mini-van as close to the exit as she could get. “Okay, hurry up. You’ve got fifteen minutes before I storm the building. And don’t talk to anyone you don’t know.”
“What about the checker-outer?”
“You know what I mean.”
Rusty rushed out of the car so fast she forgot her backpack. We needed that to put the groceries in, but since I couldn’t tell her anything in front of my mom, I just grabbed mine.
“Riley — come back here!” Why was Mom calling me back?
“What? I was just hurrying like you said.”
“You need money for the folders, right?” Mom reached into her wallet and pulled out a five-dollar bill. “Go ahead and buy Rusty’s too.”
That would help. Now we could spend the whole twenty on food.
“Oh, thanks.”
Rusty was almost at the grocery aisles by the time I caught up to her.
“What should we buy?” I didn’t know anything about buying groceries. Not where anything was or how much anything cost.
“Peanut butter and crackers, string cheese, some apples, mac and cheese . . .” Rusty obviously knew what to do. She’d even thought to get a hand-basket to put it all in.
The clock was ticking.
“You go get some granola bars and nuts.” Rusty pointed over at the produce aisle. “I’ll grab some oranges.”
We joined back up at the checkout. Rusty frowned as we looked at the filled-up basket. “I don’t think we have enough money,” she said.
“I hate this! You need everything in here to make it to Monday.”
“It’s okay. Let’s just put the oranges . . . uh . . . um . . . no. We’ll put the nuts back. Yeah, the nuts cost the most.”
I wanted to cry. This was all Rusty would have to eat for the next three-and-a-half days.
The total came to $19.33. Whew, just made it.
“Okay, somehow we’re gonna have to transfer this to your backpack in the car without my mom or Brady seeing.”
“What about the folders?”
“Oh no! We’re running out of time!”
We whipped around to go back to the school section and almost knocked down the Walmart greeter.
We picked up the first folders we saw and made it through the checkout and to the car with two minutes to spare. That was important, because when my mom says she’s going to storm a building, she really will.
“Did you get what you needed?” Mom looked back at our bag of folders and frowned. “Riley, we have some just like that at home.”
“Oh, uh . . . sorry. I forgot. Well, thanks for taking us anyway.”
Mom shook her head.
Now we had to figure out the food exchange. For some reason, Brady just wanted to stare at us for the whole ride to Rusty’s house, so it wasn’t going to happen the way we planned. Ugh, he’s so annoying sometimes! I took out my phone, typed out a memo, and showed it to Rusty:
Switch backpacks.
Don’t let Brady see.
Will trade tomorrow.
Rusty nodded. She looked at Brady. He looked at her. Then he looked at me. Ughh!
I erased my memo, and then my phone buzzed. A new text.
“Who’s that?” Brady wanted to know. Ah, a distraction!
“I’ll look later.” I pretended not to be interested. Brady can’t stand that.
“What if someone needs something right now?”
“They can wait.”
He was falling right into my trap. “Lemme look. Please?”
I knew it could be a big mistake, ’cause who knew what was in that text. But I had to switch backpacks.
“Okay, but don’t mess my phone up.” I gave it to him. He looked at it for a moment. That’s all we needed. Rusty grabbed my backpack handle, and I grabbed hers.
“It’s from TJ. She says, why are you hanging out with E-girl? Who’s that?”
“None of your business.”
“But you let me look at it.”
“So what? I don’t have to tell you what it means.” Unfortunately, E stands for error, and now Rusty knew that TJ thought of her as Error Girl. Great.
“Mom, Riley’s being mean!”
“I am not. But I will be if you don’t stop bugging me.”
“Knock it off, you two! I hear enough of this stuff at work. Can’t I get a little peace around my own family? Sorry about them, Rusty.”
“It’s okay, Mrs. Hart.”
“So, where do we drop you off?”
“Just a few more blocks. South Street Apartments.”
“O . . . kay.” Mom’s eyes narrowed.
I found out why when we got to the apartments. This was the bad part of town.
Rusty lives here?
“You can just drop me off on the corner.” Was she kidding?
“Oh no. I’m walking you in. Kids, you come with me too.” Mom got us out of the car, locked it, and did her usual “area scan” before we went up the stairs to Rusty’s apartment.
We got to Rusty’s apartment, and she took out her key.
“Isn’t anyone home?” Mom continued her scan. Brady tried to run down the stairs, but Mom grabbed him by the shirt sleeve. “Stay near me, buster.”
“My dad should be getting here any minute. It’s okay, I’ve stayed by myself before.” I was hoping my mom would be so concerned about Rusty staying alone that she wouldn’t notice that she had my backpack.
“Okay, but I want to go in with you. Then I want to hear you lock the door as we leave. Use all the locks.”
So that’s what we did. The apartment was clean, but it didn’t have much in it. A couple of chairs and a TV, a filled-up laundry basket in the corner, and some boxes stacked along the wall.
“We just moved in so we’re not unpacked yet.” Rusty looked embarrassed.
“It looks fine, honey. Very cozy. I love the new carpeting.” Mom knew how to make someone feel better. The place did have nice carpet.
“Here’s my phone number. You call me if you have any trouble after we leave, okay?”
“Thanks Mrs. Hart. I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
After hearing all the locks click, Mom led us back to the car.
“I’m glad you’re Rusty’s friend.” Mom patted me on the back.
We made it all the way home and into the living room before Mom took me aside.
“Make sure you get your backpack from her tomorrow.”