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.I crane my neck to see more.“Come on, Caryn, no gawking.We’re on a schedule here,” Annabeth says, hustling me down the hallway.“Why?” I ask, but her sly smile is her only answer.I follow her into what must be her dad’s private study, but looks more like an office in some luxury high rise.“Wow!” I need a new vocabulary, but there just isn’t any other way to describe the opulence in this house.She puts the food down on the dark wood desk and says, “Okay, ready for your surprise?”“This is driving me nuts, Annabeth,” I say, depositing the water bottles on the desk, hoping they won’t harm the polished surface.“What’s going on?”“You’ll see,” she says in a singsong voice.She sits down in the large, leather armchair, pulls the TV remote from a desk drawer, and flips on the widescreen television that’s roughly the width of our apartment’s living room.There’s a baseball game on and it’s really loud, so Annabeth mutes the sound.Then she boots up the laptop on the desk which has one of those extra-wide monitors.“You know how you can predict phone calls?” Annabeth is fiddling with the mouse pad.I nod, trying to peek around the computer to see what she’s doing.“Well, now it’s my turn,” Annabeth says, a grin spreading across her face.“In about five minutes, this phone’s gonna ring.”“That phone?” I point to the multi-line phone on the desk.“Isn’t that your dad’s business line?”“Well, yeah.It’s not… Oh, never mind.Make yourself comfortable.” She pushes away from the laptop and turns up the sound on the TV.What IS going on?I sit down on the leather loveseat she indicates but I can’t relax.My fingers are cold and I tuck them under my legs, trying to pay attention to the game.“Great base hit!” Annabeth swivels a complete 180 in the desk chair.I roll my eyes.“Is this what you’re being so mysterious about? Baseball?”She doesn’t answer me.We sit there in silence for several minutes watching the game while I tap my toe on the ground, not sure why there are tingles chasing each other up and down my spine.And then the phone really does ring.“Hello?” Annabeth says, snatching it up on the first ring.“Yeah, we’re all set.” She clicks a few keys on the laptop then waves at the screen.“Hi, honey! It’s so good to see you!” A familiar voice is coming from the laptop.I jump up and run over to the monitor and that’s when I notice the webcam on top of it.“Dad!”Yes, it’s him, sitting next to Michael in what looks like their favorite Internet cafe in downtown Houston.“Dad!” I exclaim again, feeling tears stinging my eyes.“You don’t have to shout.It’s just like a regular phone, except with video,” he smiles at me.It’s so good to see his face.He looks a little thinner than when I saw him last September, but other than that, Dad is the picture of health.“How did you… ” Seeing him after all these months brings a tightness to my throat and chokes off my voice.“Your mom called me and told me how sad you were that you couldn’t come visit during spring break, so we figured out a way for us to see each other anyhow, with your friend’s help,” he says, smiling, although his voice wavers a little bit, as if he’s choked up too.“What do you think? Your old dad’s pretty clever, huh?”“I love you, Dad,” I say, trying to choke back sobs.Annabeth tiptoes out of the room once she’s sure we’re all set, waving as she pulls the door closed behind her.Dad and I talk for about an hour.I tell him all about school, Mom’s shop, my encounters with Uncle Omar, and my crush on Quince.Dad and Michael tell me some of the plans they have for our summer vacation once school lets out in June and I can fly to Houston.After Dad and I finally hang up, Annabeth peeks in the door with a huge grin on her face.“Well… ?”I’m overcome with emotion.“You’re a great friend!” I give her a big hug.I’ll bet no kid at school had a better spring break than I did.Chapter 12Full CircleSo now it’s mid-April and everything at school is a mess, mostly thanks to Megan.I haven’t seen her since her mother pulled her out of Love of Lit class this morning.Megan’s book bag is still in the classroom, so I pick it up when the bell rings and head off toward her locker, which is right next to mine.I stand there hoping she’ll show, juggling both her bag and mine as I search up and down the hall for her.Finally she comes around the corner with an exasperated look on her face.“What’d your mom say?”She rolls her eyes.“Stuff about my sister’s wedding.”“Megan, seriously, you don’t expect me to believe that, do you?”“See you at lunch,” she says, taking her book bag from me and hurrying off down the hall.Rumors about the dress code have gone from bad to worse since we got back to school after spring break.Warm weather is here to stay and I’ll be the first to rejoice about that, but honestly, the way some of these kids come dressed for school, it’s enough to make a stripper blush.Take Kensi, for instance.Today she’s wearing a midriff-baring blouse with a jeans skirt that someone could mistake for a large belt.The boys all have their tongues hanging out of their mouths, and even though she and Quince broke up in March, I’m scared it’s not going to stick.He could take one look at her half-naked body and forget she was cheating on him all winter.Not to mention how it makes the rest of us feel.Especially me, in my consignment store jeans, faded T-shirt, and off-brand tennis shoes.I’m beginning to see the wisdom in Principal MacGregor’s strict dress code idea.At least if kids weren’t allowed to come to school dressed like Kensi is, I’d have a fighting chance at getting Quince’s attention.I’m bored out of my mind in English class today as we review for a grammar test.I keep thinking about seeing Quince in the hall before school this morning.He smiled and winked at me, but hurried to his locker before we could have a conversation.The lunch bell rings, jarring me out of my latest daydream, one where I imagine Quince is admiring my fashion sense and is turned off by Kensi’s suggestive clothing.But my stomach is growling so I head to the cafeteria, wondering what fresh mischief Megan has gotten into since first period.I get my tray and find I’m the first to arrive at our regular table, so I sit down and open my bottle of juice.Naturally it squirts out and I end up with orange juice all over the front of my Houston Astros T-shirt.As I’m wiping it off, Megan plops down in the chair beside me.“You’re supposed to drink that stuff, not wear it,” she says, smirking at me.I throw the sopping paper napkin down and reach for a fresh one.“Gee, I didn’t know.”Megan laughs, and starts eating as if her mother hadn’t just dragged her to the principal’s office for stirring up trouble.Emma soon joins us at the table, looking glum.“Caryn, why didn’t you tell me I was going to flunk that algebra test this morning? You said… ”“I wished you good luck, like you asked,” I say, shaking my finger.“But I knew you weren’t going to pass it.”“Then why didn’t you say so?” Emma thrusts her test paper in my face, showing me a big, fat F circled in red at the top.I brush it aside.“Because you didn’t ask me.It’s not my fault you were texting Kevin last night instead of studying.”Emma turns to face me and her mouth drops open.“How did you… ? Never mind.” She shoves a bite of sandwich into her mouth.“And where did your mom drag you off to?” she asks Megan.Megan rolls her eyes but instead of answering, makes a big show of biting into her chocolate chip cookie.I try again.“So exactly what did your mom say to you this morning, Megan? And don’t tell me wedding plans, because I know that’s not what she wanted to talk about [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]