Zoey checks her watch. “Uh-oh, only twenty minutes left and we still need so many things.”
I throw the car into drive and head out of town. Katy takes out her list and crosses off the newspaper and the underwear. “What about the model of a spaceship?”
“Uh, we have one of those,” a male voice pops up from the back row.
Katy shakes her head. “Against the rules.”
Rob used to have a plastic Star Trek Enterprise hanging from his ceiling in his pre-cool days, but my mother sold it for a dollar at a garage sale last summer. But come to think of it, I saw a spaceship in my house just this morning. “Hey, do you think a piñata shaped like a spaceship counts?”
“I don’t see why not,” Katy says.
“Do we have time to swing by my house?”
“Just barely,” Zoey replies. “Don’t you think we have enough stuff to win?”
“We can’t be sure,” Megan says. “I mean, if someone stole all the newspapers in Celebration, they’re playing to win too.”
I go as fast as I can without speeding. As we approach my house, Katy points to a Jeep parked in front. “Who’s that?”
I pull up next to it, trying to get close enough to see in without scraping the side. Of all people, Grant Brawner is sitting in the passenger seat. His friend Stu is next to him. I pull past them into the empty driveway. No one else is home yet.
“What are they doing here?” Megan asks.
Katy turns to me with wide eyes. “Maybe Grant is going to ask you to the prom!”
“Really? Do you think so?” I glance in the rearview mirror to check how I look. A bit ragged. More than a bit, actually.
“Doubtful,” Zoey says.
“Hey, it’s possible!” I say indignantly.
“No offense, Josie,” she says, “but it’s more likely he’s here staking out your brother. Waiting for him to show up so they can ambush him with darts. I’ve seen it before.”
“We’ll just find out for ourselves,” Katy says, getting out of the car. She marches right over there, totally not heeding my begging her not to. I have no choice but to catch up with her. The boys get out of their car when they see us coming. We’re like two rival gangs heading toward each other. The two of them, and the six of us, because I forgot for a minute the Davis twins were with us.
“Hey,” Grant says to me when we meet on the front lawn. “Hey,” I reply.
“You live here, right?”
“Uh, huh.”
“Would it be okay if we used your bathroom?”
Okay, so it wasn’t an invite to the prom. “Both of you?”
Stu steps forward. “We drank a lot of Coke running around town this afternoon.” He holds up his dart gun. “Gotta have the caffeine to stay on our toes, you know.”
Zoey puts her hands on her hips. “Are you going to leave your guns in the car?”
“Sure,” Grant says, holding up both hands to show they’re empty. “No problem.”
“It’s okay,” I tell them. “Rob isn’t home anyway.”
Grant looks surprised. “Oh, Rob Taylor is your brother? I hadn’t put that together.”
Zoey looks doubtful, but I ignore her. Megan is busy checking out Stu.
“You can come in,” I tell them. “But we only have two minutes, so you better be fast.”
“That’s fine,” Grant says.
“We really appreciate it,” Stu echoes. “It was your house or the woods.”
I open the front door and hear that Mom left the television on in the den. She does that sometimes to ward off burglars, since our alarm broke last month. I point out the guest bathroom, and Stu takes off around the corner.
“Wow,” Tyson Davis says, taking in all the streamers and signs. “Your parents really do it up for your birthday.”
Grant turns to me. “It’s your birthday today? Happy birthday.” I can’t help but feel a little weak in the knees. “Thanks.” “Fourteen minutes, Josie!” Zoey warns.
I run into the kitchen to get the scissors and hand them to Katy. She reaches up and is about to cut down the piñata when we hear Stu yell, “Gotcha! You’re out!”
Rob comes running into the hallway from the den, rubbing his right arm. Stu gives Grant a high five and then takes off again, this time presumably to use the bathroom for real.
“What the hell, Josie?” Rob says angrily. “Why did you let them in the house?”
My mouth falls open. Zoey mumbles, “Told you so.”
“But...but...your car...it’s not here, and Mom said you were gone.” I stumble over my words. “I’m really sorry. If I had known you were home I would never have let them in.”
He grabs a juice box from the fridge and slams the door shut. He must really have wanted to win. I haven’t seen him this angry in a long time. The Davis twins edge closer to the wall.
“I left the car at Danny’s,” he says through gritted teeth. “As a decoy.”
Just then we hear, in a British accent, “Sod off!” and Danny comes running into the hall, naked except for a pair of graying tighty-whities. Stu follows, his dart gun useless at his side. “Ha!” Danny says triumphantly. “I have foiled your dastardly plot.”
Megan starts laughing this big gulping laugh and I cover my eyes. If anyone would take advantage of the underwear clause it would have to be Danny. He doesn’t seem to care that we’re in the room. The four boys start yelling at each other.
“Seven minutes!” Zoey yells over the din.
Katy hurries and snips the rope, careful not to let the piñata fall. I figure this isn’t the best time to ask Rob for a picture of him and Anne kissing. We’ll just have to do without that item.
“Put on some clothes, man,” Stu says as Danny pushes him and Grant out the door.
“I’m really sorry, Rob,” I repeat. I grab the piñata and we run out also.
“It’s been that kind of day,” he says sadly, shutting the door behind us.
By the time we arrive at Jenny Waxner’s house — with two minutes to spare — it’s nearly dark out. Her father points us word-lessly to the backyard. Megan holds the duffle, Katy has the piñata securely under her arm, and the boys trail behind with Zoey and me. There must be eighty kids sprawled around the yard, which is lit by big floodlights. We find the poster with our names on it and practically fall to the ground we’re so exhausted. The first person I see is Missy Hiver, who looks at the Davis twins and sneers. She actually sneers. Clearly she’s jealous that we thought of them first.
Everyone else has their stuff laid out in front of them, so we do the same. I’m amazed at how many things on the list we actually managed to find. I wish it wasn’t so crowded so I could see what the other teams got. I’m sure ours is the only spaceship piñata.
Jenny walks through the yard holding a clipboard and conferring with her fellow class officials. When she gets over to us, the first things she sees are the Davis twins. I can tell she’s about to ask why they’re with our group, when it dawns on her.
“Very good,” she says, nodding. “Extra points for creativity.” Zoey nudges Megan and whispers, “Make sure she sees the panties!”
Megan displays them proudly in her outstretched hands. Jenny leans in for a closer look and asks, “Whose are they?”
“Mrs. Simon’s!” Megan announces with a flourish.
“Who?”
“You know, Ms. Robinson, the biology teacher?”
“No way!” Jenny says, laughing. Her friends take a closer look too. “How’d you get them?”
“Ah, now that’s a secret I’ll take to the grave,” Megan says. “So, do we win?”
“You’ll find out soon enough.” She takes inventory of the rest of our stuff and moves on to the next team.
“Look,” Katy says, pointing a few teams down. “Amelia is here. I bet her team broke every rule.”
We all turn to see Amelia twirling a bra around her finger. She’s sitting right under one of the lights, so I can tell it’s red. And lacy.
“Whose do you think that is?” I ask.
“It’s probably hers,” Zoey says. “I’ll go find out.”
“Ask her if she has any ice cream left,” Megan calls out as Zoey weaves her way through the crowd. We watch as Amelia stops twirling when Zoey approaches. The Davis twins have moved a little closer and are watching too. A minute later Zoey returns, clearly disappointed.
“It’s real,” she says, plopping down. “They got it from the clothesline behind Ms. Connors’s apartment.”
“People still have clotheslines?” Megan asks.
Katy looks stunned. She must’ve really hoped Amelia would get caught in a lie. “But if it was a clothesline,” Katy reasons, “then how did they know for sure it was hers?”
“They watched her hang it up,” Zoey says.
“It’s definitely Ms. Connors’s,” Tom says quietly.
We all turn to stare at him, including his brother.
Tom reddens. “It’s no big deal. I was standing at her desk once and she was wearing a really low cut dress and I saw it. Well, the top of it anyway.”
Tyson looks impressed. Katy just looks pissed.
“If it makes you feel any better, Katy,” Zoey says, “I think they spent so much time getting the bra they didn’t get many other things.”
“Shh,” Megan says. “They’re announcing the winners!”
Jenny holds up a battery-operated microphone and says, “You guys did an amazing job. Almost all of you found a copy of the
Kama Sutra,
and may I remind you now to put them back in your parents’ nightstands!”
Everyone laughs. She continues. “And many of you realized there are no paper menus at Donald’s Hot Dog Hut and found interesting ways to compensate for it, including writing the menu on your stomachs.” The guys next to us stand up and pull up their shirts. Megan whistles. “We’ve tallied up the points and I will distribute the prizes to the winning teams, so stay seated.” The four of us grab each other’s hands as she makes her way around the yard distributing Sizzler gift certificates to the seven third place winners. She hands the last one to Missy Hiver, who immediately tosses it to her friend Tara like it burns her.
“We have a tie for second place,” Jenny announces. Katy grips my hand tighter. I think we’d all be very happy with second place.
Jenny walks past us and hands an envelope to the team of boys with the menus written on their stomachs. They whoop it up and high-five each other. Somehow I can’t picture them choosing the spa treatments.
Jenny waves the second envelope in the air and then heads straight for us. She drops it in the middle of our circle. “Congratulations.” We drop hands and hug each other. The Davis twins join our group hug even though they can’t come with us to the spa.
“I bet if we had just gotten that half-eaten burrito it would have pushed us over the top,” Katy says cheerfully, checking her list. “We forgot about that one.”
“That’s okay, boy bands are so last-century anyway,” says Zoey. Megan holds the envelope high in the air. “Free massages, here we come!”
“Last but certainly not least,” Jenny says, “are our first place winners. They got every item on our list, including what must surely be the last bottle of
Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific
in the state of Florida, and, to top it off, these!” She holds up a pair of plain white boxer shorts. “Principal Harrison’s boxers!” The team in question jumps up and down, hugging each other. One of the girls is in my math class and she’s pretty nice. I’d love to know how they got the boxers. I glance over at Amelia to see how she’s handling her defeat. If she didn’t look so sad I would gloat.
I drop the Davis twins home with the reminder that lunch is on me tomorrow. After driving around all day I feel like an old pro. As I pull into Katy’s driveway Megan exclaims, “Oh my god, we almost forgot to give Josie her present!” She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a small, unsealed envelope with my name on it. “This is from all three of us.”
I turn the envelope over in my hand. I can’t imagine what’s in it.
For a second I wonder if it could be Katy’s note from earlier, but that wouldn’t make any sense.
“Go ahead,” Megan urges. “Open it.”
I reach in and pull out a small piece of paper. “Wally’s Hot Air Balloons. See the World in a Different Way.” I reread it a few times to make sure I am seeing it correctly. Did my friends just give me something that falls into the category of Things That Fall From the Sky?
As believably as I can muster, I exclaim, “Thank you guys, this is great!”
Katy explains, “We figured this would be something you’d like since you’re always looking up at the sky. We can all go up together.”
Maybe it would have been smart if I had ever explained exactly
why
I’m always looking up at the sky. The picture of the balloon on the card does look really beautiful, though. “When would we do it?”
“We’ve got a year from today,” Megan says.
A whole year to get used to the idea sounds great to me. By the time we get back to Katy’s house her mother is home from work and offers to drive me the few blocks home. I grab my bookbag from upstairs and climb back in the minivan, this time in the passenger seat.
“Be ready at eight-thirty for the lake,” Zoey calls out as we pull away.
“So,” Katy’s mom says. “What are you girls actually doing at the lake? Katy won’t tell me.”
“I honestly don’t know. No one will tell me anything either.” She looks doubtful.
“So, did that kid recover from drinking the water?” I ask. She nods. “He’ll have a stomachache for a while.”
“What exactly is in that water?”
“Believe me, honey, you don’t want to know.”
“Uh-oh,” I say as my house comes into view. “We have to go back.”
“What did you forget?”
“My spaceship.”
She raises her eyebrows at me. “Teenagers these days,” she says, swinging the car around. “I don’t even know what you’re talking about half the time.”
5:10
P.M.
– 6:45
P.M.
Missy Hiver and her teammates, Tara, Rachel, and Shira, run into the Celebration Deli and almost knock the newspaper stand over in their hurry to grab a paper.
“I’ve got an idea!” Missy says. The other girls glance at each other uneasily. Missy’s ideas could be dangerous. Shira and Rachel didn’t really want to be on her team in the first place. Tara had to convince them that besides an unhealthy obsession with the Olsen twins and a small anger management problem, Missy is really not that bad. Tara doesn’t mind being friends with her because she thinks Missy is very lonely.