Mia's Baker's Dozen (10 page)

I
must be in big trouble,
I thought. So I packed my bag and put on my coat, and then Dad and I headed out to Jo
h
nny's.

Jo
h
nny's has the best pizza in our neighborhood, and maybe even in the whole city. They cook it in a brick oven with real wood, and the crust gets nice and crispy. Mom and Dad and I ate there a lot when we all lived together.

I shivered the whole walk there, but once we got inside it was warm and toasty. Mom was already sitting at a table, waiting for us. She had her hair pulled back, and she looked kind of tired.

Mom stood up when she saw us. “Hi, Mia,” she said, giving me a hug. But she didn't hug Dad.

Dad draped his coat around the chair. “I'll go place our order,” he said, and then he got in line.

Mom looked at me and shook her head. “Mia, your father told me about that note from your Spanish teacher. Why didn't you tell me?”

“I don't know,” I said, looking down at the table. It was too hard to explain.

“You know can talk to me about these things, Mia,” Mom said. “I just don't understand.”

Dad sat down. “It should be ready in a few minutes,” he said. “So, Mia, I guess you know why we're all here.”

I nodded.

“It's like I said the other night,” he said. “You can't keep secrets from us. Especially when it's about school and especially when you need help.”

“That's right,” Mom said, and she sounded angry. “Mia, your only job right now in life is to do well in school. Baking cupcakes, going to fashion shows, that's all good, but school is the most important.”

“I know!” I said. “I really do. I'm doing well in my other classes. But you guys put me in Advanced Spanish without asking me. It's not my fault.”

Dad and Mom looked at each other.

“I'm sorry about that,” Dad said. “We didn't realize we were pushing you into something too hard for you. Sara, can they put her in a different class?”

“I'm not sure,” Mom replied. “But I'll ask. I don't know if they can switch her schedule until the spring.”

“In the meantime, we can get you a tutor,” Dad said. He handed Mom the note. “Her teacher suggested a few.”

“We might not need one,” Mom said. “Eddie majored in Spanish in college. He's a translator at the company he works for.”

I was surprised. “He is?” I asked.

“I thought you knew,” Mom said. “What did you think he did?”

I shrugged. I knew Eddie was a lawyer, but I didn't know he also translated. “I don't know. I thought he just went to an office and . . . did stuff.” Now I felt kind of silly not asking for help when I had an honest-to-goodness translator living right under the same roof as me.

“Then let's see if Eddie can help,” Dad said. “But if not, we'll get you that tutor, okay?”

“Okay,” I said.

“And no more secrets,” Mom said sternly. “In fact, you can live without screens this week while you think about that. No phone, TV, music, or computer. And if you keep any notes from teachers from us in the future, it will be
two
weeks.”

I saw her look at Dad, and Dad gave a little nod.

I didn't even protest. With a sigh, I handed over my music player and earbuds, and my phone.

Luckily, Dad saw our order appear at the counter right then. “Food's ready! I'll be right back.”

The rest of the lunch was a lot easier. We ate salads with vinegary dressing and these light green peppers that were sweet and hot at the same time. Then we had our usual—pizza with mushrooms and olives. (I
know it sounds weird, but it's really good, trust me.)

For a minute, it almost seemed like old times, like nothing had changed. Except really, everything had. Before, Mom and Dad would have been talking and laughing the whole time. Now they couldn't even look at each other. Just like that other day, they both talked to me instead of each other.

And then, instead of all of us going back home, Mom and I got into a cab and headed to the train station. Back to Maple Grove. Back to our new life.

Things were never going to be the way they'd been before. I knew that. But knowing that didn't make it any easier. Was everyone really happier?

A Cheesy Problem

W
hen
we got home, Mom and I met Eddie in the kitchen, and she told him the whole story.

“I think I can help you,” Eddie said. “Let's take a look at your homework together after dinner, okay?”

I nodded, grateful that Eddie didn't give me a hard time about it all. After dinner that night, he and I sat at the kitchen table, and I showed him my worksheet.

“It's verbs I have trouble with,” I told him. “There's, like, a million different ways to say and spell each one, and I can't keep them straight in my head.”

“Let me see,” Eddie said, taking the sheet. He looked it over and then smiled. “I used to have
trouble with this too. But let me show you a trick I figured out.”

So, I won't bore you with a whole Spanish lesson, but you need to know that by the time Eddie was done helping me, I actually understood what was on the sheet. I answered every question, and Eddie didn't even have to help me with the last two. It was the first time I'd ever felt good about handing in my Spanish homework.

“Thanks, Eddie,” I said when we were done.

Even though the tutoring went well, I was still feeling pretty down that night. That's because I knew that tomorrow I'd have to tell Sydney about the
quiero
/
queso
mistake.

I could keep the Spanish secret for so long because I was only hurting myself. But the
queso
secret was hurting Jackson, and it would be wrong if I didn't say anything.

But I was dreading it. I saw what Sydney did to Jackson when she was mad at him. She was going to destroy me, I just knew it.

So the next day, Monday, I knew what I had to do. As soon as I got off the bus, I walked up to Sydney. She and Maggie were hanging out by the tree in the front school yard, texting.

“Sydney, can I talk to you?” I asked.

“Busy,”
she said, not even looking up from her phone. “Later, okay?”

I tried again in the hallway, when I ran up to Sydney at her locker. She was talking to Eddie Rossi, but I interrupted her.

“Can I please talk to you?” I asked.

Sydney rolled her eyes. “Excuse me? Talking!”

My face turned red, and I walked away. For a second, I thought I might give up and let her keep torturing Jackson. But I just couldn't do that.

So at lunchtime, I marched up to the PGC table.

“Sydney, I need to tell you something really important,” I said.

Sydney turned to Maggie and rolled her eyes. Then she looked at me.

“What's the emergency?” she asked.

“It's about that text message Jackson sent you,” I said. “I made a mistake. He didn't say you're cheesy. He said he loves you.”

Sydney looked absolutely shocked. “
He
what
?” she shrieked.

“
Te quiero
means ‘I love you,'” I explained. “I got it mixed up with the word
queso
, which means ‘cheese.' I'm sorry.”

Sydney stood up. “Are you kidding me?” she
asked, her voice rising. “Are you trying to ruin my life or something? Are you jealous? I bet you did that on purpose.”

I shook my head. “No. I wouldn't do that. I'm just bad at Spanish.”

Sydney sat down and looked at her friends. She looked kind of embarrassed.

“Can you believe I ever asked Mia to join this club?” she asked in a loud voice. “I must have been crazy!”

“I'm really sorry, and I wanted you to know,” I said. Then I turned and walked away. I had one more person to tell.

Jackson Montano sat at a table in a corner with a bunch of other football players. I usually never went near that table, because you always get pelted with spitballs when you walk past. But today I had to go there.

Sydney ran up behind me. “Mia, no!” she hissed. But I ignored her and walked up to him.

“Jackson, a few days ago Sydney asked me to translate that text you sent her,” I said, talking fast so I wouldn't chicken out. “I thought
quiero
was
queso
, so I told her that you said she was cheesy. That's why Sydney's been spreading those rumors about you.”

Jackson put down his sandwich. “Is she making you say this?”

I shook my head. “No, it's true,” I said. “I should have known that
queso
was cheese.”

“Yeah, you really stink at Spanish,” Jackson said.

“I know,” I admitted.

Jackson stared at me for a minute and glanced over at Sydney. He didn't look mad. In fact, he had a little smile on his face, as if he thought the whole thing was sort of funny. At least that's what I hoped. “I'm really, truly sorry,” I said again.

Then I quickly walked away, leaving Sydney and Jackson to work things out—or not. I'm not sure what I would do if I were in Jackson's place.

When I finally made it to my regular lunch table, all my friends were staring at me.

“What was
that
all about?” Alexis asked.

I sank into my chair. “You are not going to believe this,” I said, and then I told them the story.

For a moment, everybody was quiet. Then we all started laughing at the same time. Katie put her arm around Emma.

“I cheese you, Emma!” she said.

“I cheese you, too, Katie!” Emma said back.

Then Katie picked up her sandwich. “Look! My mom packed me a love sandwich for lunch.”

Alexis held up the wrap on her lunch tray. “Mine's turkey and love with a little mayo.”

“Really? Yum, I really cheese turkey,” Katie said.

“Okay, okay!” I cried. I was laughing so hard, it was starting to hurt. “It was a colossal mistake, I know.”

“So I hope you finally got a Spanish tutor,” Alexis said. “You can't afford to make this kind of mistake again.”

“Eddie's tutoring me, and he's actually pretty good,” I said.

“Yeah, I hear he really
cheeses
tutoring Spanish,” Katie said, and we collapsed into giggles.

I was embarrassed. I had no idea what kind of revenge Sydney was going to take on me. But for the first time in a long time, I felt . . . free. And pretty happy.

I grinned at my friends. “I cheese you guys so much!”

I Figure Out Some Things

T
he next night Eddie helped me with my homework again, and it went really well. Eddie seemed happy.