Monkey Business (20 page)

When Rachel saw me, she stopped midhop. She didn't smile or say hello or anything, but she didn't ignore me either.

“Hi,” I said, approaching carefully.

Before she said anything, Sienna tugged on her arm and said, “Rachel, it's your turn.”

“I know,” said Rachel. “I need to take a quick break, though. Okay?”

“Then I won this round,” said Sienna, placing her hands on her hips and pouting a bit.

“Okay, that's fair,” Rachel told her. “Let's go inside and get your mom, okay? I think you guys are heading out pretty soon.”

“Wait, tell your friend about my swing,” said Sienna.

Rachel turned to me and explained. “Sienna has a swing in her bedroom. Isn't that cool?”

“A real swing?” I asked.

She nodded. “My daddy hung it from the ceiling.”

“You're lucky,” I said.

“You can come over to my house too,” said Sienna. “But you may be too big for the swing.”

“Thanks,” I said. “But we have some things to talk about. Maybe we can stop by another time. Okay?”

“Promise?” asked Sienna.

As I nodded, Sienna's mom came outside and joined us. She was carrying something lumpy in a sling wrapped around her chest. When she got closer, I saw it was a baby.

“Sienna, are you a big sister?” I asked.

She nodded proudly. “I am. That's baby June.”

“That's awesome. Give me five,” I said, holding up my hand.

Sienna jumped and gave me some skin.

“I'm going to be a big sister soon too. My mom is having a baby in two months.”

Sienna looked at me suspiciously. “Aren't you kind of old for that?” she asked.

I laughed. “Old for being a big sister? Um, no one's ever asked me that before. But no. I'm not.”

“Okay,” Sienna said, but from the way she drew out the word, I could tell she didn't believe me.

“Sienna's from Australia,” Rachel told me as we crossed the street. “That's why she says ‘mum' instead of ‘mom.' ”

Now that we were alone, I decided to cut right to the chase. “Jackson tracked me down last night and told me you guys were moving,” I said.

Rachel huffed out a breath, annoyed. “My brother should mind his own business.”

“It is his business,” I said. “It affects your whole family, right?”

“Well, yeah. Obviously. But I can't believe he told you,” said Rachel.

“I can't believe you didn't.”

“We weren't supposed to tell anyone. My mom told us not to,” said Rachel. “She said we shouldn't air our dirty laundry and that doesn't mean we shouldn't wear old clothes. Because that's what I thought at first, and Jackson would never go for that. Haven't you noticed how he's worn the same blue nylon shorts practically every single day this month?”

“I thought he had a bunch of pairs that looked the same,” I said.

“Nope.” Rachel shook her head. “They're the same ones. He wears them for a few days until my mom insists on washing them, and then he puts them right back on again. He doesn't let her wash them too often because he doesn't want them getting worn-out.”

“That's funny,” I said, smiling. I felt the same way
about my favorite pair of jeans, and I was surprised to have this or anything in common with Jackson. I decided to keep this discovery to myself.

“Anyway, it's not definite. We may be able to keep the house, and I've been trying to help out. I take care of Sienna sometimes when her mom's busy with the baby. She pays me, and I've been saving all the money. I made fifty dollars this month.”

Suddenly something occurred to me. “Is that why you're not contributing money to the Panda Parade fund?” I asked.

Rachel nodded. “We were doing so well with the sock puppets, and I figured my parents needed the money more. That was my plan, anyway. I gave it to my mom because I thought it would help us stay in the house and I thought she'd be all happy, but it turned into a disaster.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. “Wasn't she glad you were trying to help out?”

“Well, I brought it to dinner and handed it to them, and my parents looked at it, and my dad got this horrible expression on his face. Like he was mad and humiliated and wanted to be anywhere else. I've seriously never seen him like that. It was awful. But my mom? She was even worse. My mom started crying. And then Jackson started yelling at me and he called me dumb because my parents need fifty
thousand
dollars, which I could never make taking care of Sienna. And seeing my mom cry and having Jackson
be all mean and my dad acting so uncomfortable, it made me cry too, and so the entire night was ruined. Kind of like my life will be if we have to move.”

By the time Rachel finished telling me all this, there were tears in her eyes and I felt like crying too.

I gave her a hug and said, “I had no idea this was going on. I wish you'd told me.”

“Probably I should've. It's awkward. Promise me you won't tell our other friends.”

“I promise,” I said. “But we've got to make things right. Otherwise no Panda Parade.”

“That would be awful,” Rachel agreed. “I'm sorry I ruined your birthday party. It's not your fault you got to move into a fancy house.”

“It's not,” I said. “But I think it's okay for me to like my new house. And with the jean jacket and the new phone too … I never meant to rub those things in. They just sort of happened, and I don't think I need to be embarrassed about them.”

“True, but it's hard for me because you get so much new stuff all the time,” said Rachel.

“But who cares?” I asked. “It's all just stuff. What people have—it doesn't make them who they are. You know that. My mom always says that how you treat people is the most important thing. And like with the Panda Parade. It's fun to make money, but it's also just fun to be all together making the sock puppets, and it's fun to have created a successful business.”

Rachel nodded. “Yeah. I know what you mean.”

“Everyone is counting on us to make up and get back to work,” I said. “They all got together and texted me and said we had to or no sock puppets, which means no Panda Parade and that would be the worst.”

“Yeah, they texted me the same thing,” said Rachel.

“It would stink to drop out now, when we're so close.”

“You're right. I've been unfair and I'm sorry.” Rachel kicked at the ground with the toe of her sneaker. “Can we forget about it? Please?”

“I hope you don't have to move,” I said. “But even if you do—you'll still go to the same school and we'll still be best friends.”

Rachel looked up at me and asked, “You still want to be best friends with me after I've been so mean?”

“You apologized,” I said. “And you're going to stop. Right?”

Rachel gave me a hug. “Of course!”

“Should I call everyone and tell them we're cool?” I asked.

Rachel grinned. “Definitely!”

We spent the rest of the day at Claire's and finished our final round of sock puppets, tricking them out like never before.

When we got to school on Monday, we announced this was our final sale and word spread fast. We were mobbed, and sold out in record time.

Back at Claire's we counted our cash.

“You guys, we made more than a thousand dollars!” said Emma.

“We can get tickets
and
T-shirts,” said Yumi. “And probably even—”

“Can we take a helicopter there?” asked Claire, interrupting.

Everyone cracked up.

“I'm serious!” said Claire.

“Not quite,” said Emma.

“Well, maybe we should make puppets for another few weeks,” said Claire. “And really go for it.”

I shook my head and said, “Let's quit while we're ahead.”

“No, let's just get our tickets,” said Emma. “Immediately!”

To which there was nothing to do but cheer.

School was out. Summer was here. And before we knew it, fourth of July weekend had arrived.

“I have amazing news,” Rachel said, grinning like crazy as she climbed into the van. She was the last person we picked up on our trip around Westlake. Claire, Yumi, Emma, and I were already in the car. “We don't have to move!”

“Are you serious?” I asked.

Rachel nodded.

“Move where?” asked Claire.

“Yeah, what are you talking about?” asked Yumi.

“It's a long story,” said Rachel, explaining everything in a rush. “We were almost going to have to move but now we don't have to because my dad got a new job and then my grandparents decided to sell their house and lend us some money. They were moving in a few years anyway, when my grandfather retires. They said they'd sell now and move into a smaller place. And now that my dad has a job, he can pay them back over the next few years, so everything is okay.”

“That's amazing!” I said, giving her a hug. “I am so happy you don't have to move!”

“Yeah, me too! We should celebrate,” said Rachel. “I have an idea—let's go to Indio for the weekend. I hear there's this awesome benefit concert thing happening.”

All of us cracked up. Now that we were together, we could finally be on our way.

Claire's mom Vanessa was driving, and Yumi's mom, Yoko, was the other chaperone. They sat in the front seat, leaving the rest of the car to us.

Minivans are basically living rooms on wheels, as far as I'm concerned. So even though we hit a ton of traffic and the drive down took more than three hours, it wasn't so bad. We were having our own party. I sat in the way, way back on the bench seat in the middle.

Rachel was on my right. Claire was on my left. Yumi and Emma were in the bucket seats in the middle, but the seats were swivel chairs so we were all facing one another. We had snacks, we had awesome music, and yes, we had to keep our seat belts on, but we were still able to do some pretty awesome minivan-seated choreography.

“Oh, I love this song!” Claire said, clapping as the new Lorde song came on.

“Me too!” I agreed.

“When do you think she's going to perform?” asked Claire.

“Hopefully first,” said Yumi.

“I think they save the best acts for last,” said Rachel.

“Isn't Katy Perry the best?” asked Emma.

“No, Taylor Swift for sure,” said Claire.

“I think they're equally amazing,” I said.

“I guess it doesn't matter who's first since we're going to get to see everyone,” said Yumi.

When Yoko called, “We're here!” we all screamed.

As soon as Vanessa parked, we scrambled out of the van and joined the tremendous line. It seemed to snake on forever.

“I need to pee,” said Claire.

“You can't pee now,” said Emma. “There's nowhere to go until we get inside.”

“This line is crazy,” said Yumi.

“It's moving fast, at least,” said Rachel.

“I hope we don't miss anything,” I said.

“Don't worry, girls,” said Vanessa. “These things never start on time.”

“And you'll still hear the music from out here even if we haven't gotten inside the gates,” Yoko said. She probably meant to reassure us, but the thought of not getting inside in time sounded too awful to bear!

I had my ticket in my hand, but I got sweaty and the ticket got damp and I was afraid that maybe a damp ticket wouldn't be valid anymore.

“What's wrong?” Rachel asked, because I guess she noticed me fidgeting.

“Nothing,” I said. “I just can't believe we're really here. It's unreal, you know? We've been looking forward
to this day for so long. I keep waiting for something to go wrong.”

“Like the tickets won't work,” said Claire.

“Exactly, because mine's all wet.” I showed her the damp piece of paper.

“Except they will. Don't worry,” said Yumi, squeezing my hand. “Wow, you are sweaty.”

“Told you so!”

When the moment finally came, I handed over my ticket, half expecting the ticket taker to congratulate me, because getting here hadn't been easy.

We'd sold almost two hundred sock puppets. We'd suffered through fights and squabbles and bee stings and severely chapped lips and I'd even accidentally stapled the sleeve of my favorite shirt to a sock puppet.

I figured there'd be some sort of acknowledgment about the hardships we'd endured and everything we'd accomplished. Except she simply scanned my ticket with her little scanner and handed it back to me and said, “Enjoy.”

“I will,” I said.

My friends and I walked through the gates and looked around. The place was mobbed!

“I've never seen so many people in one place!” Rachel shouted over the noise.

I had to agree. The place was huge and there were people everywhere. I kept getting jostled by random people and really had to focus on not losing my friends. There was a gigantic stage straight ahead, except we
were so far away, the people looked like tiny toy figurines.