Chapter 4 Then
Then
“The Powerpuff Girls?” Caroline asked.
“Yes, sounds perfect,” I said.
“Or maybe Alvin and the Chipmunks.”
“Ew, no,” Ava said. She was on the floor in front of my full-length mirror, touching up her makeup.
“My mom says we should go as Charlie’s Angels—the Lucy Liu version.
” Her mom sometimes called us Charlie’s Angels because we sort of fit the visual: Ava was Asian, and Caroline and I kind of looked like the other two angels in that we were white with the right hair color. She called Beau our Charlie.
I would shake my head at Beau whenever she’d say this and mouth, In your dreams.
He would say, out loud, “My little angels.”
Ava’s mom found this very charming. I would never let him know that it kind of was.
“I don’t think anyone our own age will get the reference,” Caroline said now, “unless we write it across our foreheads or something. Angel.” She pretended to draw angel on her forehead.
“Plus, without Beau, who would be our Charlie?” Ava said, uncapping her lip gloss.
“We are spending way too much brainpower thinking of these costumes,” I said. I was lying on my back on my bed, my head over the side, looking at the world upside down.
“We only have like three weeks until the party,” Caroline said. She was scrolling her phone, looking for good choices. Caroline liked to have things planned. It helped her feel less anxious if she knew exactly what was going to happen. “Harper didn’t give us a whole lot of notice.”
“I don’t think people will take it too seriously,” I said. I didn’t want her to stress over something that was supposed to be fun.
She continued to scroll. “You heard what she said. She won’t let people in who aren’t dressed up. That sounds pretty serious to me.”
“What are Beau and Harper going as, again?” I asked.
“They won’t tell us because they said we’ll try to highjack their costumes and be the villains from their story, or something,” Ava said, rolling her eyes, her mascara wand close to her face.
I laughed. That’s exactly why I had asked. I’d wanted to go as the villains in their story. I lifted my legs in the air and flipped off my bed, landing on my knees on the floor. “You ready?”
“Yes,” Ava said, tucking her makeup bag back into her purse and standing up.
They followed me out of my room and down the stairs.
My mom stood from where she’d been sitting on the couch. “Hi, girls! You off?”
“We are.”
“Be back by curfew,” she said.
I gave her a hug. “Okay, I will.”
We hadn’t quite made it to the front door when my dad appeared in the hall to our right. “Indy, a minute.”
Ava gave me an alarmed expression, but I was used to my dad’s speech patterns.
He was about to ask me a business question, not a dad question.
Like how much money did I anticipate needing for school supplies next semester or was the balance on my lunch account sufficient.
I guess those were kind of dad questions too, but they were more business.
I actually appreciated the warning that I wasn’t sure he was even aware he’d given.
“I’ll meet you in the car,” I said to my friends, and they walked out the front door.
“You have your serious face on,” I said to my dad.
“Do I?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Mom said you used my printer the other day,” he said.
“My printer is out of ink. I keep forgetting to tell you.”
“Okay, I’ll pick some up. But while you were in there, did you take some papers?”
“Papers?” I asked, confused. “No.”
“Maybe by accident?”
“Were they in the printer?” Could I have grabbed them when I grabbed mine?
“No, on the desk.”
Suddenly I remembered the papers my backpack knocked to the floor. “Oh! I accidentally knocked some papers off the desk and the shredder. I put them all back, though.”
“The shredder?” he asked.
“Yes, there were some sitting on the shredder. I’m sorry.”
“And when you put them all back, you didn’t combine a page or two with the ones you printed off? Maybe turned them in to a teacher?”
“Did I?” I asked, alarmed. “Did my teacher call you? Does she have some client documents or something? I’m so sorry.”
“No, no,” he said, waving off my worry. “Nobody called me. I’m just asking, in case that jogged your memory.”
“I’m pretty sure I only had my homework. I’m sorry, Dad, I should’ve told you I scattered some paper. I thought I put them back right.”
“It’s okay. I’m sure you did. I’ll double-check at work.”
I pointed over my shoulder, toward the front door.
“Yes, of course. Go. I’ll see you later.”
“See you later.”
“Everything okay?” Caroline asked when I climbed into the car.
“Yeah, why did Serious Dad come out?” Ava chimed in, starting the car.
“He lost some documents or something. Was asking if I’d seen them. He’ll just print some new ones off, I’m sure.” I felt bad. Maybe they were signed documents. Maybe he’d have to get them signed all over again. I’d check my backpack when I got home.
“Do you have to work tomorrow?” Ava asked.
“Yes,” I said with a curled lip. I tutored at a local center for mostly grade-school kids, sometimes middle schoolers.
When your whole identity was the fact that you were smart, that was the kind of job you got.
I actually enjoyed my job. The kids were adorable, but I really wanted to sleep in tomorrow.
I generally only worked on the weekends, the main reason I’d only saved six hundred dollars in seven months for a car. The other reason was I liked to spend my money on books and chais. And movies. Not really that last one, but that’s where we were going now and it cost money.
“Are we taking bets on if Beau and Harper cancel on us right now?” Ava said.
“They better not,” I said. “Half the reason we’re doing this is because they wanted to. We would’ve gone to the bookstore if not for them.”
“True,” Caroline said.
“You two would’ve gone to the bookstore,” Ava said.
“What movie are we seeing, again?” I asked.
“That horror one,” Caroline said.
“The horror!” I screamed in a fake scared voice.
“Don’t scream while I’m driving. Seriously, Indy. What’s wrong with you?”
“So much,” I said.
She laughed.
On the way over, Ava really did bet twenty bucks that Beau would cancel last minute. I took her up on that bet, so when I saw him as we crossed the street, I let out a loud “Yes!” and ran the rest of the way. “You’re here!” First I hugged him and then Harper.
“You haven’t been this happy to see me since…ever?” he said.
That wasn’t true and he knew it, but I said, “You just earned me twenty bucks.”
“I don’t want to know,” he said.
I put my hand over my heart. “I bet on you, Beau, and you came through. That’s all you need to know.”
“That’s because he’s a come-through kind of guy,” Harper said.
He really was.
Caroline and Ava caught up with us and we walked toward the theater together. Beau looked at my feet as we walked. I was wearing flip-flops.
“Your toes are going to be cold,” he said.
“They aren’t.”
“Your toes are always cold.”
This was true. “I should’ve brought a blanket.”
“I have socks in the car,” Ava said. “Want them?”
“No, I’ll be fine,” I said.
“Guess who you get to tutor tomorrow?” Beau said to me. He worked at the center too.
I hadn’t looked at my schedule beyond my hours. I usually had the same kids every week. “Who?” I asked.
“Brady.”
“Your brother needs tutoring?”
“Not really,” he said. “But you know my mom.”
“I do.” She was a perfectionist and she expected her kids to be too. Perfect in every way. Her dad was a politician and she’d grown up with her whole city looking at her. She still felt like everyone was looking, even though they’d moved away from her hometown.
“He’s struggling in math, though. He will not let me explain anything to him. My mom offered him you and he reluctantly agreed. Which is the only kind of agreeing he does these days.”
“She offered him Indy?” Harper asked. “You make it sound like she’ll be served hot.”
“I think I’d be a cold dish,” I said. “If I were to be served on a silver platter.”
“I agree,” Beau said. “Cold as ice.”
I shoved him, and so did Harper.
“What?” he asked in exasperation. “She’s the one who said it!”
“I’d be a hot dish,” Ava said.
“Like spicy?” I asked. “Or temperature?”
“Both,” she said.
“I’d be popcorn,” Caroline said thoughtfully. “Something everyone looks forward to.”
“But they only actually want on occasion?” I asked.
“Rude,” she said.
“Just kidding,” I said. “I want you all the time, my little snack.”
“What am I?” Beau asked, as if this was something he desperately needed to know.
“You’re a whole meal,” Harper said.
He laughed and said, “Thanks, babe,” but I could tell that wasn’t the answer he wanted. He didn’t want a compliment. He really wanted to know what he was, as silly as that sounded.
We scanned our phones at the booth and got our tickets, then walked inside.
“I hope your brother doesn’t hate me after our tutoring session,” I said. “For forcing him to learn.”
“Please, all the kids love you the best.”
“It’s because I bribe them with candy.”
“Do you really?”
“Yes. You don’t?”
“They told us not to,” he said. “They” meaning our bosses. But they only said that for liability. I didn’t give candy to the littles, only the older kids. And only after asking them if their parents were okay with it.
“It’s amazing the doors that a single Jolly Rancher or mint can open for you,” I teased.
“Do you have any right now?” he asked. “I’d like to see if your theory works.”
“Your doors are already wide open.” At least for me they were. There wasn’t much we didn’t tell each other.
We filed down the assigned row in the theater. I ended up between Ava and Beau, Harper on his other side, obviously. Caroline on Ava’s.
As the movie started, Beau leaned over. “Your toes are freezing, aren’t they? Like ice.”
“Shut up,” I said, and he chuckled. Why was the air-conditioning always on so high in the movie theater?
“You want me to go get Ava’s socks for you?”
I shook my head. Then after a few minutes I whispered, “You’re one of those Cinnabon balls from Taco Bell. Kind of crunchy on the outside but all soft and gooey and sweet inside.”
He rolled his eyes at me but then smiled.