Freestyle with Avery (14 page)

I got into my bathing suit, grabbed Maeve’s mix CD, and dashed downstairs. This was one of my all-time fave things about Dad’s:
the Jacuzzi
. I scooped up Marty on my way out to keep me company.

“No Jacuzzi for you, little guy, but how ’bout a big comfy towel?”

“Arf, arf!” Marty barked back. He was psyched to come outside and hang out with his favorite pal—well, one of his favorites. Dad had fenced in the yard back when he first bought the house to keep the coyotes out. That made it safe for me and our fam … including Marty!

When I walked outside I was instantly out-of-control freezing! “Brrrr!” I chattered. Just before I turned into an icicle, I splashed into the steaming hot tub. “Ahhh!” I sighed and closed my eyes.

I tried to relax in the bubbly water and think about absolutely nothing, but all this stuff kept popping into my head. Before this trip I really thought I was a Snurfer contender. AS IF I could actually beat Kazie with just a few days of practice. How could I? In a few more years, she’d probably be an Olympic hopeful herself! I suddenly had the urge to burst out laughing. Me … Avery … NOT trying to win a serious sporting event? Hah! “Let’s keep this between us, okay, Marty?” I whispered with my eyes still closed.

“Keep what between us?” said a voice.

Startled, I sat up out of the water and felt the icy sting of the cold air hit my face. A long yellow braid twisted around orange ribbons dangled down above me. “Yikes!” I yelled. It was Kazie, and she wasn’t alone. A skin-crawling “
Rooooooow, yeoooooow
” told me that right away.

“Scare you? Sorry, dude,” she said. But she didn’t look sorry … not even close.

I wasn’t the only scared one. Farkle’s second,
“Rooooooow,
yeoooooow”
sent Marty scrambling for shelter in my pile of towels underneath the deck chair.

Kazie just laughed. “That is SO funny! Your dog is totally the scaredy-cat! Just look at him.”

Marty was huddled underneath a towel. Poor lil’ dude, being shoved out of his own place by the monster Frankencat. “What are you doing here?” I had to ask. Since when was it okay to just
show up
at people’s houses with your possessed monster pets? That’s what I wanted to know.

“Jake said I could come and use the hot tub anytime.” She took off her bathrobe and took two steps back. “Stay here Farkle, my love,” she instructed, setting Farkle down on top of the chair Marty was hiding under.

Kazie held her nose and shouted. “One, two, three, CANNONBALL!” She took a running start and launched herself—curled in a ball—into the tub. Water exploded everywhere. It stung my eyes! Kazie was just as bad as her evil Franken-cat.

“RAAAAAAR!” screeched Farkle.

“Yoooow!” howled Marty.

Both of the animals were soaked, and boy, were they mad! Kazie shot out of the water, laughing hysterically. “Oh, man! I got you guys. Sorry, Farkle!”

Marty was cowering away from one very, very grouchy Maine coon. “I’m outta here,” I said. I slipped out of the hot tub, shivering like crazy, and wrapped myself in a towel.

“C’mon, Avery. I was just trying to have a little fun. Don’t be a baby.”

Have a little fun? Don’t be a baby?
Now she’d really gone too far! “You know what?” I began.

Kazie was back-floating in the tub … happy as a clam. She bent her head back and blew bubbles out of her nose. “What?” she asked.

I was about to tell her that Avery Koh Madden was no baby and THE QUEEN of fun.
Wait a minute
, I thought. What’s more babyish than lecturing someone that you’re fun? Kazie had trapped me. How’d she do that? “Never mind!” I snapped.

I grabbed up Marty and wrapped him in a towel. Without saying a word to Kazie, I sloshed into the house, leaving a trail of icy puddles. What was it about that girl that always bugged me? Back at school I could tell anybody anything, no prob. Kazie seemed to have a special talent for always making me look and feel like someone’s dorky baby sister.

I went upstairs to get showered and dressed. I tried my hardest to shampoo away my frustration with Kazie. I mean, everyone could be a little annoying sometimes, right? I knew I could be. I turned off the water and actually felt a little better. Kazie was just messing around. No big deal.

When I opened the bathroom door, Marty was waiting right outside, curled up on a towel he’d dragged over. He was staying close to me, and far, far away from freaky Farkle. Even smarty-pants pooches like Marty knew their limits. I wrapped Marty in my warm fleece blanket and gave him a hug. “It’s okay, lil’ guy,” I assured him. “Farkle’s a creepy, mean, mean cat. Just stick to fun, sweet Border Jacks like Crud and your posse at home. Remember Louie, La Fanny, Bella, and the rest of your pals? They
think you’re the man.” I scratched Marty behind his little ears.

I threw on my jeans and my favorite blue ATS hoodie. Unfortunately, I noticed something not-so-good in the window’s reflection.
Oops
. The shoulder was still stained with tomato sauce … remains of a little food fight I had with Scott. If I showed up in tomato sauce, Kazie would find some way to tease me about it, and I’d be so annoyed.

I chose a red sweater that Katani helped me pick out a few weeks before. She had all these special reasons for why the color of it was supposed to be just right for me or something, but I wasn’t paying too much attention. Now I could see, though, that Kgirl was totally right-on. I was still comfy, but I also looked good.
Sweeeeet
! I thought.
Thanks, Kgirl
!

It was darker now. I peeked outside to check out the hot tub below and sure enough, Kazie had finally gone home. “Yessssss!” I slapped Marty a paw-five, and I swear, if dogs really did smile, Marty was grinning from ear to ear now that there was no sign of the Farkelator.

Downstairs, Dad was in the kitchen shaking out a bag of my ultimate favorite Telluride Organic Spicy Chips into a bowl on the table. Not only that, next to the bowl were two plates, and on top of those plates were two awesomely delish-looking turkey subs. My mouth watered instantly.

Dad looked nice. Really nice. He was wearing a brown sweater with a brown matching jacket. Wait a minute, weren’t we going to Andie’s for dinner? I looked at Dad, then at the sandwiches, then back at Dad.

“Okay, Dad, spill it. What’s going on?”

“Well, the truth is, Avery …” he leaned over the counter and looked slyly from side to side. Then he said in a quiet voice, “Andie’s a terrible cook.”

I covered my mouth with my hand. “No way!”

“Way.” Dad put a finger over his mouth and pointed to the door of the downstairs bathroom. I could hear the shower running. “Kazie’s in there,” he explained, then went on extra-quietly, “so we’ve got to eat up fast.”

“Why doesn’t Kazie just use her own shower?” I grumbled, looking around for the Farkle-monster.

Dad pushed a plate over to me. “Be nice, Avery,” he cautioned. “There’s plenty of water to go around.”

I sighed and sank my teeth into a mustard-covered sandwich. I had to give Dad credit—it really hit the spot. “So … Dad … I want to know more about Andie being a lousy cook.”

Dad raised his eyebrows. “Hey, don’t get me wrong. Andie’s an unbelievable store manager, she’s an excellent mother, an independent woman, and, most importantly, a really great friend. But when it comes to cooking …” Dad made a grossed-out face that was so funny I really had to cover my mouth—to NOT laugh out loud.

“Like Mom,” I noted. Mom wasn’t a great cook either … which is why we usually ordered out.

“Exactly,” said Dad. We concentrated on our sandwiches for a while without talking. I thought about what Dad said. He’d never had a real girlfriend before—not since I’d been alive, anyway. Andie must have been someone he liked. A lot. It made me wonder …

“Dad, I know I asked you this before but …” I stopped
and looked at him. I was serious now. I wanted him to know it. “Do you think you might marry Andie … someday?”

Silence. Ugh. I
hated
silences like that. “It’s impossible for me to answer that question now, Avery. I really care about Andie, but—”

“Okay, Snurfman!” Kazie called from the hallway. “I’m ready to go! Let’s get this show on the road.”

Not now
! I wanted to scream.

Dad grabbed the plates and dropped them into the sink. It made me feel kind of good that we had this little secret dinner, just the two of us. “We’ll finish talking about the, um, Snurfer later, Ave,” Dad said as Kazie burst into the kitchen holding a hissing beastie thing in her arms.

The Snurfer
. I wished he’d said anything but that. When Kazie heard the word Snurfer, she made this happy/goofy face, like she was so sure she had the whole competition in her pocket. “Hi, guys. You talking about the Snurfer?”

How come she was so calm and friendly? Didn’t she get that she was just really rude to me outside? Half of me felt dizzy and the other half felt like flicking a potato chip at Kazie’s head. Ugh. I didn’t do either, though. I just grabbed my coat and followed Dad and Kazie out the door.

Hello! Welcome!” Andie opened the door to her little red house on the other side of town. Kazie whooshed by her mom and Farkle bounded by too. “Boots, Kazie!” Andie reminded her. Kazie groaned and stopped to take off her wet, snowy shoes.

The walls inside the Walkers’ house were painted bright yellow. There was artwork everywhere, paintings that looked like someone had blasted paintballs on a canvas, I thought, and lots of bronze sculptures of horses and cowboys. It was like a mini-museum, but cooler because everything was so colorful. Navajo rugs covered the floor, and the lamps were made from stumps of trees that had been coated in gloss—totally western style! A fire crackled in the fireplace. Dad’s house had the cozy thing going for it, but Andie’s was plain-old cool! I think I’d feel happy 24/7 if I lived in such a fun, bright place.

Andie looked all dressed-up tonight. She was wearing a white blouse with a long, dark green skirt. Her
silky-straight hair was tucked behind dangly silver earrings.
Welcome to the world of grown-up dates
! I thought. She gave me a hug and kissed my cheek in that weird adult way. Then she kissed Dad too but not on the cheek. For some reason I glanced at Kazie at that instant and saw her make a
blech
face. I realized that I was making one too! We both cracked up.

“What are you two giggling at?” Dad asked. He gave me a noogie on my head.

“Ouch! I surrender, I surrender!” I laughed.

“All right.” Andie’s cheeks were pink. “Let’s get this party started. Can I get you something to drink, Avery? I’ve got cranberry juice, fruit punch, iced tea …”

Whoa. She’d remembered that I didn’t drink soda. That was pretty nice. Usually parents forgot about that one right away. “Cranberry juice, please,” I replied.

“Can I have a root beer float, Mom? Pleeeease? Jake made me one last time!” Kazie begged.

“It’s true,” Dad said. His eyes sparkled with mischief. “Can I have one too?”

Andie threw up her arms but smiled anyway. “What in ze vorld am I going to do viff you?” she said in her funny fake accent. “Root beer floats et iz.”

Kazie looked me up and down. “Come on,” she finally offered. “I’ll show you my place.”

I realized pretty soon that Kazie wasn’t kidding when she said
her
place. As we walked through the den, dining room, and kitchen, one thing was obvious: The whole place was like a Crazie Kazie shrine. And when it came to the Kazie Fan Club, the president was none other than
Andie Walker herself. Maybe it was because Kazie was all Andie had, I mean, without a husband or any other kids or anything. There was Farkle too, I guess, but come on. I’d rather put up photos of Bigfoot in my living room than of that Franken-cat McEvil!

Kazie’s baby pictures cluttered the tables, and boarding trophies were randomly stuck on different shelves. It reminded me a little of Charlotte’s house, and how her dad kept tons of pictures of her around. Except Kazie was the polar opposite of Charlotte … in more ways than one.

I wondered what it was like for Char and Kazie, only having one parent. I felt pretty lucky that I had two people to turn to. Even though Dad was far away most of the time, he was always there for me on the phone to make me laugh if I had a bad day or talk me through a sticky situation. I remembered once when Dad took a red-eye flight at three a.m. all the way from Telluride just to get to Boston in time to see my soccer tournament on Saturday morning. He’d been my biggest fan that day too. He cheered so loud that all the kids kept looking up in the stands to see what the racket was all about. I figured Kazie and I were both lucky that our parents thought we were totally awesome.

Kazie told me about how Andie was a total art nut and how all the pieces of artwork were gifts from her friends who she went to art school with. “Mom’s into photography too,” Kazie explained. “Which is why …” she used her hands to frame her head and smiled like she was in a picture.

“Picture overload!” I exclaimed.

Kazie laughed. “Exactly.”

As we walked back into the kitchen, a strange (and scary) odor hit me right away.