11. Iris The Full Moon
Iris The Full Moon
I am in Merit McDonald’s car , I wanted to text everyone . But the hope that people would actually see me get out of his car in the parking lot was even cooler. That would say more than any text ever could and would deliver the kind of wow factor that would leave people talking about my potential maybe “thing” with Merit instead of my imprisoned father. So, that would be a nice change of pace.
Wordlessly, Merit handed me a phone. Then he handed Emma twenty bucks. “Is this it?” I gasped.
“Must be,” Emma said. “Because Merit only gives me twenty bucks when he wants me to keep quiet.”
“What about beach house rules?” I said, trying to swallow my nerves. “Wouldn’t this fall under what happens in the beach house stays in the beach house ?”
“Nope. Because what happens in the school parking lot, I’m going to tell Mom.”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
Merit said, “Your bright, shiny new burner phone.”
Guilt pulsed through me. I didn’t want to lie to my mom. Plus, I thought of myself as a good person. But I wasn’t really lying to my mom. No. I was lying to Alice. And, while I liked Alice, I didn’t really owe her anything. Right? Although, I mean, yeah, she was currently keeping us from being homeless. No way around it: I sucked.
“Wow,” I said, trying to seem thrilled and grateful. Merit didn’t have to know how nerdy my thoughts were. “I don’t know what to say. But I need to pay you back for this.”
“Nah,” he said. “It’s not fancy. But it can handle your apps. Basic texting. Obviously, you’ll have to give your friends your number. But if I were you, I’d be careful who you give it to. You don’t want to give it to someone who’s just going to get mad at you and tell their mom or something.”
“Did you ever think that maybe it’s kind of sad that you guys can’t be without your phones for, like, two hours?” Emma interjected.
“Maybe if you had a social life, you’d understand,” Merit shot back.
Kind of mean. I glanced over my shoulder at Emma, who rolled her eyes. “Yes, Merit. You are God. How could your subjects exist on a planet where they didn’t have access to you for a few hours after football? The world would surely end.”
Merit gave me a look that said, This baby doesn’t understand. My heart raced. Merit McDonald was giving me secret looks. Could he possibly like me? Did you get burner phones for girls you didn’t like?
“Anyway,” he said, “just make sure you keep it in your backpack when you aren’t using it.”
I nodded seriously.
“Because if you get caught, that implicates me too. If anyone gets suspicious about you, they’ll get suspicious about all of us.”
“And then Merit can’t text his girlfriend ,” Emma said in a singsong voice.
My heart sank.
“I don’t have a girlfriend, Emma,” Merit said as he pulled into a parking spot.
“Yeah, okay. Tell that to Sophie Parker,” Emma said.
Not only was Sophie Parker the prettiest girl in school, she was a senior. Merit was cool, but he was only a junior. Sure, he was a cute, smart football star, but could he get Sophie Parker? I wasn’t sure. As if clearing up the situation, she walked up to the car only seconds after we pulled in. Merit rolled the window down and gave Sophie a smile that I had never seen Merit give anyone. That wasn’t a good sign.
I mean, if I was really honest with myself, I had to admit that any flirtation Merit was sending my way was probably in my head. I was a freshman. He could get a senior girl. But next year I’d be a sophomore, higher up the food chain. That would help, right? I just had to bide my time until then, keep him from falling in love with Sophie, and, most of all, keep him from demoting me to the role of “sister.”
As Sophie kissed Merit on the cheek, I realized I was staring. Emma sighed. “Come on, Iris. We have to get to school .”
I shot her a look. “Bye, Merit,” I said.
He threw me a wave but never took his eyes off Sophie. Sophie was amazing. She had big boobs and a tiny waist and wore fake eyelashes and hair extensions and had these perfectly pink glossy lips. In comparison to her, my tinted ChapStick and the tiny bit of mascara my mom let me wear seemed babyish and ridiculous.
I got out of the car and fell in beside Emma, putting on my backpack. I glanced once over my shoulder, to see that Sophie had her arms crossed on Merit’s windowsill and her chin resting on her hands. She was inches from his face. I hated her with every fiber of my being.
Emma and I walked up the steps and along the sidewalk that led from the high school building to the middle school building. The high school was unadorned brick, while the middle school doorways were flanked by huge wooden cutouts of flowers that said, Juniper Shores Middle Picks YOU .
“Iris, you’re going to get in trouble for that phone,” Emma said. “It’s totally not worth it. Merit just has one to seem cool, and he’s really just a huge nerd who can play football. He’s probably using his phone to play Wordle or something. He’s the last person you need to act cool for.”
That surge of guilt pulsed through me again. I was not only lying to my mom, but I was also being a bad example for Emma. This multifamily household stuff was tricky. I’d never had anyone younger looking up to me. “Emma, you’ll get it when you’re older,” I said. “It’s a dumb rule.”
Before she could respond, my best friend, Chloe Montoya, ran up to me, squealing. “Oh my gosh! Is it true? Were you in Merit McDonald’s car?”
“Chloe, I think you know Merit’s sister, Emma?” I said, smiling at her while simultaneously throwing darts at her out of my eyes.
“Oh, sure,” Chloe said. “You’re in sixth grade, right?”
“Seventh. And I’m going there now.” Emma rolled her eyes like we were too much and headed off toward her classroom. Maybe she did have it more together than the rest of us.
Chloe and I turned and started walking toward the high school building. “How do you already know about me being in Merit’s car?”
“Um, you’ve been scooped!”
“What? Whoa. That JSS works fast.”
“Are you guys, like, a thing?” Chloe asked right as Jessica Frazier ran up too. “Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Does his car smell as good as he does?”
Apparently good news traveled fast, and, as I had hoped, no one was even thinking about my dad anymore.
I wanted to be cooler than this, but I wasn’t. So I squealed right along with them and said, “It does! It totally does!”
“What is he like?” Jessica asked. “Wait, does he like you?”
Dabney Collins, my other best friend besides Chloe, ran up. “Who? Does who like Iris?”
“Merit McDonald!” Jessica and Chloe squealed simultaneously.
Dabney put her hand over her heart. “You have won freshman year. I bow down to you.”
I shook my head, but I couldn’t wipe the grin off my face. “It isn’t really like that,” I said. But I kept my tone and body language noncommittal in a way that meant, He totally likes me; I’m just not telling you .
“You have to tell us everything …” Dabney paused. “You know, later.” She couldn’t say at the sleepover in front of Jessica because we hadn’t invited her.
Chloe’s sleepovers were the best because her mom had the best snacks. Double Stuf Oreos, Cheetos, Hershey’s Kisses, our favorite Cheerwine soft drink… anything amazing you could think of was in their pantry. And she always made us chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. I mean, I liked my friends too, obviously, but when given a choice of sleepover houses, Chloe’s would always win.
“Yes! Oh my gosh! Tell us everything ,” Ben said in a high-pitched voice, mocking us, coming over to see what was going on.
I punched him in the arm.
“Iris rode to school with Merit McDonald this morning,” Jessica said, eyes wide. “Can you even?”
“I can’t even,” Ben said, again mockingly.
The first bell rang, warning us that it was time to get to class. “See you at lunch!” I called to my friends. Ben and I walked inside together, to Honors English. We were reading Little Women , and it might have been the best book I had ever read in my entire life.
“So what’s that about?” Ben asked.
“Well…” I started. “It’s kind of a long story, but my mom and I are living at this awesome beach house—just temporarily, of course—with Merit’s family and this other family.”
He stopped and put his arm out. “Wait. You’re living at the mommune?”
I laughed. “Ben, come on. Yes, okay. We’re living at the mommune.”
“Blink twice if you’re in danger.”
I slapped him lightly on the arm. “It wasn’t like we had a lot of choices. We literally can’t get to any of our money or our house or anything. Alice is really nice.”
“Is it true that you have to do a share-your-feelings ritual at dinner? And yoga with the sunrise?”
Honestly, neither of those things sounded that bad to me. And at the couple of dinners I had been to there so far, all we did was talk about the best part of our day, something we were grateful for, and something we wanted the group’s advice on. Sure, it was a little weird. But it was also kind of great, you know? Like this big family I would never have gotten otherwise.
“And sacrifice virgins on the full moon?”
I laughed at that one. “Ben, it’s totally fine. Although the meals are vegan.”
Ben made a gagging sound.
“No, you won’t believe how good a cook Merit’s mom is,” I said. “She’s, like, next-level. You have to come over sometime to have her cooking.”
He smiled at me. “You name the time. I’ll be there.” Then he held up Little Women . “So, do you like this?”
“I think it is magic. The sisters. The family. The love and the bond between them.”
“I have sisters, and it’s basically a lot of screaming and clothes stealing.”
I laughed, but it occurred to me that maybe that’s what I liked about the mommune. At home, it was just Mom, Dad, and me. And for a minute, it seemed like it was just going to be Mom and me. And now I had this whole big family to hang out with and laugh with. And even when the little kids kind of got on my nerves it was fun to be a part of it.
“Your sisters are great,” I said.
“Uh-huh. Right. Try having them nag you all day every day and then see if you can still say that.”
We walked into the classroom and took our seats beside each other.
“All right, class,” Mr. Friedman said, turning on the smart board. “Let’s talk about last night’s reading.”
My hand shot up. I was eager to discuss all the ways that Jo was so forward-thinking and ahead of her time. In fact, it was the very thing I had talked about with the group at dinner last night, and the other moms—and Merit, surprisingly—had had some cool insights to share.
Before Mr. Friedman could call on me, Ben leaned over: “Don’t forget about dinner.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
Mr. Friedman pointed to me, and as I started to talk, I couldn’t help but notice that Ben never took his eyes off me.