Odessa Again (18 page)

Words count. There are so many to choose from, and Dad had chosen
love
.

That was all that mattered.

And yes, things change. Odessa knew this better than anybody, because she had the power to change things.

Things change.

*

Before he drove her home, back to her attic, Odessa apologized to Dad. It was harder to know what to say to Jennifer.

She couldn’t look her in the eye.

“It’s not about you,” Odessa said. “Truly. You’re nice. You’re always nice to me. You let me wear your lip gloss. And you gave me that dictionary with all the purple words. And your dress is so pretty.”

Jennifer put a hand on Odessa’s shoulder and squeezed. Odessa understood that squeeze:
It’s okay.

Still she added, “What can I do to make you feel better?” She wasn’t just repeating what Mom had forced her to say when she upset Oliver. She really did want to make Jennifer feel better. She didn’t want to hurt her.

Jennifer smiled. “You’ve already made me feel better.”

Odessa wasn’t sure she believed Jennifer, but it didn’t matter. Soon enough that dress would be back hanging in the closet. The scissors would be back in the drawer. No one would stare at her with shock, or go red-faced with anger.

Unfortunately, it was too late to do anything about her lavender dress. She’d ruined it Saturday morning and she couldn’t go back that far. She did so love that dress. But that was okay. She wasn’t going to need it.

There would be no wedding between Dad and Jennifer. Odessa was going to change that too.

3 Hours

It was time for Odessa to admit that her GMOP needed an accomplice. Her GMOP was now a GMOOP—a Grand Master Oliver/Odessa Plan.

Plan to Go Back and Fix What Really Matters.

Plan to Re-Hyphenate the Family.

Plan to Get Our Old Life Back.

A plan this big required a coconspirator.

Though Uncle Milo was always her first choice when it came to a partner in crime, he was an adult, and he was Mom’s brother. Odessa crossed him off her list.

It was time to fix things with Sofia.

Time to tell her everything.

Sofia was coming for a sleepover. They still talked on the phone all the time and played
Dreamonica
online, but it had been months since they’d had a sleepover. Time had almost erased Odessa’s anger about the Theo haircut incident. It was funny how time could do that—change things without your even knowing.

Or it could have been that Odessa didn’t care as much about what Sofia did or didn’t say about Theo, because a miraculous thing had happened on Monday.

Theo asked her about math camp.

He asked
her
. Not Sadie Howell.

He told
her
his mom was signing him up, and he wondered if Odessa might want to sign up too, because, he said, applications were due at the end of the week.

Theo Summers. He asked if she wanted to go to math camp.

Math
camp.

What a magnificent pair of words.

Mom had already signed her up for Camp Kattannoo, the same place she and Oliver went every summer—she had a collection of tie-dyed T-shirts and a drawerful of lanyards to show for it. Though she planned on getting her
old
life back, that didn’t mean she couldn’t go to a
new
summer camp.

Their conversation went like this:

THEO:
Hey, what are you doing this summer?

ODESSA:
(too embarrassed to say the word
Kattannoo
out loud) Going to camp. It’s pretty cool. We design clothes and do weaving.

THEO:
Oh. Sounds cool.

ODESSA:
(Did she really just say she do weaving?)
It’s okay, I guess.

THEO:
Well, my mom signed me up for math camp. Applications are due by Friday.

ODESSA:
Math
camp?

THEO:
Yeah. I thought maybe you might, you know, wanna go too.

ODESSA:
Me?

THEO:
(scratching his buzzed head) Yeah, you. You know, since you’re like my math buddy, I thought you might want to go.

ODESSA:
(cheeks in full Red-Light mode) Okay. I’ll talk to my mom.

When she got home that afternoon, she wondered if the conversation had really happened. It seemed too good to be true. She’d always been told she had an “active imagination.” Maybe it had run wild. Willy-nilly. Maybe she’d lost her marbles.

She wished she could go back and relive it, but she couldn’t, because although it had happened at the end of the school day and she had the time, she only had three opportunities left to fix the Things That Really Mattered. It would be selfish to use an opportunity just to hear Theo say those words again, and she was no longer Odessa the Selfish.

So instead she inscribed the conversation into her journal, and while she did, she was able to decode the true meaning behind Theo’s words:

Theo: Hey, what are you doing this summer?

(What he meant: I like you so much more than Sadie Howell.)

Theo: Oh. Sounds cool.

(What he meant: You are brilliant, just like me.)

Theo: Well, my mom signed me up for math camp.

(What he meant: I prefer girls with brown eyes.)

Theo: Yeah. I thought maybe you might, you know, wanna go too.

(What he meant: I can’t face the summer without you.)

Theo: (scratching his buzzed head) Yeah, you. You know, since you’re like my math buddy, I thought you might want to go.

(What he meant: I know we’re only in fourth grade, but we’ll be in fifth grade soon, so I think we should get married.)

So maybe it was this, the fact that Theo wanted to marry her, that made Sofia’s comment those months back about his hair seem insignificant.

So she’d forgiven Sofia.

Odessa
the
Absolver.

Mom had ordered pizzas. There was talk of make-your-own-sundaes. It was shaping up to be a great sleepover.

Up in the attic, Odessa asked Sofia to swear herself to secrecy.

“Cross your fingers.”

Sofia did.

“Now cross your toes.”

Sofia removed her slippers. Four crossings were enough to gain Odessa’s trust.

Odessa knew that most stories began at the beginning, so she started with the night she smashed Oliver’s I Did It pottery. She told Sofia how she’d come downstairs to a plate of carrot cake. She told her about all the embarrassing things that had happened at school that Sofia didn’t know about because Odessa had wiped them off the map. She told her about breaking into Mrs. Grisham’s house. And Oliver’s fall in the cafeteria.

Sofia hardly moved, hardly breathed. Her eyes barely blinked.

Odessa didn’t tell her about the hundred-dollar bill, because she still felt a little guilty about it, just a little, and she didn’t tell her what had happened with Theo and his haircut, because she figured there was no point in bringing up Sofia’s less-than-perfect behavior when they were right in the middle of patching things up.

“So,” Odessa said. “I realized this all must be for something. It has to have a purpose, right? And I don’t want to go back to change the small things. I want to use these last opportunities to change what really matters. I want to get my old life back.”

“Are you for real?” Sofia asked.

Odessa nodded.

Sofia made a face. She looked to Odessa, then to the attic floor, and back to Odessa again.

“Show me how this works,” she said.

“I just roll up the carpet, close my eyes, and jump.”

“That’s all?”

“Yep.”

“Show me.”

“I can’t,” Odessa said. “I think there’s only three times left and I have to make them count.”

“Well,” Sofia said, twirling a strand of blond hair on her finger, “if you want my help you have to show me how this works.”

Odessa tried explaining again to Sofia why she didn’t want to waste the opportunity when there wasn’t something she needed to undo, but Sofia said, “Show me.” She crossed her arms. “Or I’ll tell.”

“You’ll
what
?”

“I’ll tell. I’ll tell your mom, or my mom, or somebody, everybody, about how you think you can turn back time by stomping on the floor.” Sofia chuckled.

It wasn’t a friendly sort of laugh.

Odessa couldn’t believe her ears. Her ears that were turning bright red with anger. She and Sofia were best friends. They had identical mansions and a dozen puppies, and they talked on the phone every day, and Odessa had hurt Claire terribly just to please Sofia, and they could communicate sometimes without using words.

Odessa tried this now. She looked at Sofia. She tried saying with her look:
Do
you
even
know
what
you’re doing? How you sound? What it means for our friendship? I’m asking you to catch me and you’re stepping out of the way and letting me fall and split my head open.

Sofia stared back. “Show me.”

Odessa began to roll up the rug.

She stashed it next to her bookcase, made her way to the middle of the floor, and glared at Sofia.

“Hold on,” Sofia said, scrambling to her feet and over to where Odessa stood. “I want to go with you.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re my best friend.”

In a flash, Odessa played out two scenarios. In the first one she grabbed Sofia by the hand and they jumped together, back three hours to find themselves in their own homes preparing for their sleepover. She’d pick up the phone and call Sofia and listen to her marvel about the magic of time travel, and maybe even apologize for doubting her. Then she’d come over and they’d stay up all night whispering and plotting and putting the final touches on her GMOOP.