Katie Sprinkles and Surprises (9 page)

Olivia stormed back to the BFC table. I saw some girls at the next table whispering and then pointing over to me, thanks to Olivia and her loud mouth.

“I didn't cheat!” I fumed, and I didn't care who heard it. “Mr. Green just helped me study. He helps lots of kids.”

“Of course you didn't cheat,” Mia said soothingly.

“That is ridiculous!” Emma added.

Alexis looked angry. “She's just jealous. Don't listen to her.”

“It doesn't matter if I listen to her or not,” I said. “What if other kids listen to her?”

“Everyone knows Olivia is a big gossip,” Alexis said, “and half the stuff she says isn't true. Nobody listens to her.”

My friends made me feel better, like they always do. But I no longer felt like doing a happy dance, not even on this blue-skied, fluffy-clouded A day.

Why did Olivia have to spoil everything?

A
fter lunch I had social studies with Mrs. Kratzer. She has short hair and glasses and is just one of those people who looks like they love history, you know? She's pretty mellow, but when she tells us stories about stuff that happened in the past, she gets excited, doing voices and everything.

“Okay, class,” she said in her regular mellow voice. “I'd like you to team up with your partner for the project.”

George carried his chair over to my desk.

“Thanks for being my partner,” George said.

“Thanks for asking me,” I said, and then I cringed a little inside. That sounded really corny.

“Everyone, please get out your project sheets,” instructed Mrs. Kratzer. “By Monday, I'd like each
group to submit a description of your project.”

The project sheet had a lot of suggestions on it. We were studying western expansion—you know, the explorers and pioneers who went out West in the 1800s. We had to pick a subject for our project plus the type of project we were supposed to do.

“It's Friday,” I said. “How are we supposed to finish this by Monday?”

“Mom said you could come over tomorrow to work on it if you want,” George said quickly, as if he had known this would come up.

I was a little surprised. I hadn't been to George's house since he invited his whole class to his dinosaur-themed birthday party in second grade.

“Um, okay. We don't have any cupcake jobs tomorrow,” I said. “I should be able to come.”

“I'm in your phone, right?” George asked quickly. He looked a little worried. I smiled and nodded. “Then text me when you talk to your mom.”

“Okay,” I agreed. “So, anyway, we should check out this list.”

We were quiet for a while as we both looked at the list together. Then we both spoke up at the same time.

“I like Calamity Jane,” I said.

“Calamity Jane sounds interesting,” said George.

We burst out laughing, because it was so weird that we had the exact thought at the exact same time.

Thanks to George, I was on my way to being in a better mood again. Then as soon as class was over, Sophie and Lucy came up to me.

“Is it true that your mom is dating Mr. Green?” Sophie asked.

“Well, yeah,” I said. There was no point in denying it, not after Olivia's outburst. “But it's not serious or anything.” (Okay, that was kind of a lie, but if I wasn't ready for the truth yet, I didn't think the population of Park Street Middle School would be either.)

Lucy got a dreamy look in her eyes. “She's so lucky. He's so cute!”

“Yeah, people seem to think so,” I said, suddenly feeling awkward again. “Okay, gotta get to class!”

I was pretty glad when the day was over. Mom wasn't there yet when I got home from school, so I did my homework until I heard her car in the driveway. I greeted her at the door with my A math paper in front of my face.

“Ta-da!” I announced.

“Oh, Katie, good for you!” Mom said, and I
lowered the paper, so I could see her face. “I'm so proud of you!”

“Thanks,” I said. “Can you believe it? I got a ninety-four!”

Mom hugged me. “You have to tell Jeff!” she said. “He'll be so excited!”

Why in the world would Jeff be excited?
I wondered. It was like Mom wanted Jeff to be part of everything we did. Although he did help me study, so maybe that's why.

Mom was already dialing his number. I could hear it ring a few times on the other side, and then Mom frowned a little. “Oh, that's right, he's out to dinner with Emily tonight.”

That made sense. “You mean like how Mia goes to see her dad every other weekend?”

Mom nodded. “Jeff sees her just about every other weekend, and also one night a week, since he and Emily's mom live in the same town,” she explained.

I was starting to get more and more curious about Emily. “I wonder what she's like,” I mused, following Mom into her office as she dropped her briefcase on her desk.

“Oh, you'll love her when you meet her,” Mom said, looking at me. “She's a lot like you.”

I frowned. “How do you know?”

“Well, I've met her,” Mom replied.

I let this sink in for a second. “You've met her?” I couldn't quite believe it.

“Well, yes,” Mom said as if it was no big deal. “She's such a lovely girl, so polite, and she likes to run just like we all do, and she was telling us about how she wants to try out for the cross-country team in middle school, and—”

“YOU MET HER WITHOUT ME? AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME?” I screamed.

I was having a major freak-out. First, Mom told Jeff about me, but I didn't know about him. And second, now she's met Emily? It's hard to explain why I felt so angry, but to me it felt like Mom was keeping secrets from me. That I wasn't part of this big new thing in her life. And that hurt.

“Katie, lower your voice,” Mom said.

I ignored her. “WHAT ELSE ARE YOU HIDING FROM ME?” I shrieked.

Mom sighed, and her voice got firm. “Katie, I know there's a lot of new stuff here, and I know you are upset, but that's no excuse to yell. Please go to your room and calm down, and we'll talk about it when we've both had a chance to cool off.”

I stormed up to my room, stomping hard on
each step on my way up.
What does Mom have to cool off about?
I fumed.
She's the one who's messing things up, not me.

I slammed the door behind me and flopped onto my bed. I didn't feel like texting Mia or even putting on my headphones and listening to music. I just lay there like a log, staring at the tiny little flowers on my bedspread.

I guess I'm really good at doing nothing, because when Mom finally knocked on my door, I looked at my clock and saw that a half hour had passed. I didn't say “Come in,” but Mom came in anyway.

“Can we talk now?” Mom asked.

I nodded, but I still didn't say anything.

“Okay,” Mom began, sitting on the edge of my bed, “I know you think I ‘hid' Jeff from you. But we just wanted to wait until the time was right, honestly. And then I met Emily, and then Jeff met you. We thought that was the best way to do it. There is no instruction book for this kind of thing, Katie. Jeff and I are trying to do our best to make this easy for everyone, but there are going to be some bumps along the road.”

“Big bumps,” I said. “Potholes. Craters. Giant valleys . . .”

Mom smiled a tiny bit, and I almost smiled
myself. I knew I was being kind of silly.

“Jeff and I were planning on doing something with both you and Emily very soon,” Mom said. “I know there are a lot of changes here, Katie, but I need you to roll with me a bit and know that I have your best interest at heart. I'm trying to do the best that I can.”

“But you don't see my side of it,” I said. “You just get to go on fun dates and stuff and meet everybody, but I have to see Jeff at school and stuff, and it's weird.”

Part of me wanted to tell her about Olivia's big scene today, but I held back.

“I get that,” she said. “Okay, how about from now on, I promise to consider your side of things?”

“That would be good,” I said.

“And maybe you can promise to trust me a little bit,” Mom said. “And talk to me when you're upset. We don't need to yell at each other.”

“Sorry,” I said, looking down at my bedspread again.

Mom hugged me. “It's okay, sweetie,” she said. “I love you so much. You will always be my number-one priority.” (Which is just what Callie had said, remember? But it felt good to hear Mom say it.)

“Thank you,” I said. Then I had an idea. “Hey, can we go out to dinner?”

“Well, I already defrosted some chicken . . . ,” Mom said, but I could tell from her voice it was going to be easy to sway her.

“Come on. We need to celebrate my A,” I reminded her.

Mom smiled. “Then the chicken can wait.”

So Mom and I went out to eat at our favorite Indian restaurant, and I had honey ice cream for dessert, and I guess by the time the day was over, I was ready to do a happy dance again. Almost.

H
ey, Katie, come on in,” George said.

I waved to Mom as she pulled away, and stepped into George's home, a brick house with white shutters on a perfectly mowed lawn. I could hear the sound of a radio blaring from somewhere inside the house, and George's twin brothers were running around the living room, screaming.

“Dad! Could you turn that off? Katie is here and we need to work,” George yelled.

The radio went off, and George's dad stepped out of the kitchen, wiping his hands on a towel. “Sorry. Loud music helps me do the dishes,” he said, and then he held out his hand. “Hello, Katie.”

“Hi, Mr. Martinez,” I said.

George nodded to me. “We can work in here.”

I followed him to the dining room, where George had a laptop, notebook, pencils, and a plate of cookies set up on the table.

“I was going to make cupcakes, but I figured they wouldn't be as good as yours,” he said.

I picked up a chocolate-chip cookie and bit into it. “That's okay. I love cookies! Did you really make these?”

“Dad helped,” George admitted.

“They're really good,” I said. “Thanks. So, um, let's get started.”

I was kind of worried that it would be awkward to be in George's house, but we had so much to do that I didn't really have time to worry about that kind of stuff.

“So, Calamity Jane, right?” I began. “I was thinking that doing a skit might be fun. But the timeline would probably be easier.”

“Let's go for the skit,” George said. “It'll be more fun. And I bet we can make it funny.”

“Definitely,” I agreed. That's one thing I really like about George. He has a great sense of humor.

We figured it out, and then we did our list of props for the skit and decided who would get what. As George sent the file to the printer, his mom walked into the room.

“Why, hello, Katie,” she said. “How's the project going?”

“I think it's going to be good,” I replied.

“Alexis sent me some sketches of your cupcake designs,” she said. “I'm very impressed. I know you girls are going to do a great job at the exhibit opening.”

George came back in with our printed-out work. “Yeah, I told Mom how awesome you guys are.”

“Thanks,” I said. George and his mom were being so nice, but it only made me feel nervous. I was starting to feel really pressured about this cupcake job.

Then Mom came to pick me up.

“How did it go?” she asked, and she had a goofy smile on her face, like she was going to tease me about George or something.

“We got it done,” I said, and I didn't give any more details.

Mia was with her dad that weekend, so the rest of the weekend was kind of boring. Mom and I went for a long run on Sunday, because the weather was cool and beautiful. We didn't talk about Jeff or Emily or even George at all, and that was kind of a relief.