Mixed Messages

by Tina Wells

  Chloe raised an eyebrow. “What does that mean?”

  “It means I’m probably going to have to know a secret code to open a cabinet, go up steps, or lift the toilet lid.”

  “Perhaps we should start hanging out at my house more,” Jasper joked.

  “But what about Mrs. Carmichael’s snacks, Jasper?” Chloe asked. “Wouldn’t you miss them?”

  “I already do,” Jasper responded, exaggerating a frown.

  Jen laughed loudly.

  “There weren’t any,” Zee said. “Again.”

  “Maybe your mom just didn’t have time, because the baby-proofer was coming,” Ally suggested.

  “I bet it just slipped her mind,” Mrs. Chapman called from the driver’s seat in her British accent. “I remember when I was pregnant with Jaspy.”

  “Jaspy?” Zee silently mouthed.

  Jasper buried his hands in his face.

  “What happened?” Chloe asked.

  “I forgot everything,” Mrs. Chapman began. “I would pick up the phone and forget who I was calling. I’d drive to the grocery store and end up at the bank.”

  “Is that normal?” Ally asked.

  “It doesn’t happen to every woman, but a lot of people do have trouble remembering things when they get pregnant.”

  “When my mom was pregnant with my little sister, she wore slippers to work once,” Jen told them.

  The seventh graders laughed.

  “See, Zee? It’s perfectly normal,” Chloe said.

  “I guess,” Zee agreed. “I can’t worry about it now, anyway. I need to focus on the performance on Saturday.”

  “We all do,” Chloe said, looking at the others. “Right?”

  “Now that Bluetopia is running smoothly, I will be able to practice as much as it takes to make The Beans the stars of Brookdale Day,” Jasper said.

  Zee turned to Jen. “That was a really good idea to mention Brookdale Day in your update,” she said. “We’re all going to do that.”

  “Thanks!” Jen said. “I love Bluetopia. I’m making so many new friends.”

  “Oh, that reminds me, José sent me a bunch of doodles right before I got home from school.” Chloe blushed. “He says he likes my green eyes.”

  “How does he know you have green eyes?” Zee asked.

  “I have a bunch of photos on my Bluetopia page.”

  “So what does he look like?” Ally said.

  “Like a model,” Chloe said.

  “Really?” Zee asked.

  “Yeah. He only has one picture, but I swear it belongs in a magazine. He’s so gorgeous.”

  “Wow, Chloe!” Jen exclaimed as the minivan stopped in front of Kathi’s house. “That’s so awesome.”

  Zee looked from one friend to the next. It was great to see Chloe so happy, but was she the only one with a funny feeling about mysterious José?

  As Zee and her friends approached the Barneys’ house, the front door flew open. Mrs. Barney stood inside it with a huge smile across her face. “Welcome, everyone! Please come inside. It’s so nice to have you here. I was so pleased Roxy—I mean, Ms. Vardolis—told us that Kathi had stepped up and shown her strong leadership skills. I think that’s what a group like this needs.”

  Ally stared at Kathi’s mother with wide eyes. “Uh-huh.”

  “Of course, she gets it from my side of the family. I’m sure you can see that in Ms. Vardolis—and me.”

  Chloe nodded. “Totally,” she said unenthusiastically.

  Zee looked around. “Um . . . where is Kathi?”

  Mrs. Barney placed her hand on her chest and gave a phony chuckle. “Oh my! I almost forgot.” She pointed toward the back of the house. “She’s all set up on the patio.”

  “By the pool?” Zee asked.

  “Yes! I know that most of your families don’t have swimming pools as big as mine, so I thought this would be fun.”

  Zee began walking toward the back of the house. “Definitely,” she said. The others followed.

  Kathi clapped when she saw the others. “Yay! Everyone’s here now.”

  But Zee could barely hear because she was so distracted by the scene before her. The patio had been transformed into a Hawaiian luau. Tiki torches surrounded the pool. Landon was piling his plate with food from a table full of colorful platters. Missy wore a real flower lei around her neck. Conrad and Marcus were sitting on lounge chairs, sipping drinks in hollow pineapple shells through straws.

  “Wow!” Jasper exclaimed.

  “I thought we were having pizza,” Chloe said.

  “Oh, I just said that,” Kathi said. “My mom would never serve guests pizza. As soon as I told her everyone was coming over, she called our caterers.”

  “You really didn’t need to go to so much trouble,” Zee pointed out.

  “Yes, I did!” Kathi said, then corrected herself. “The Beans deserve to be treated well, and the Barneys know how to do that.”

  Ally snorted. Then everyone stared at her. “Oh, sorry,” she apologized. “I must be getting a cold.”

  “Anyway,” Kathi said dismissively. She turned to the others and raised her voice. “Let’s warm up with some karaoke.”

  “I thought we were going to practice for Brookdale Day,” Zee said.

  “We are,” Kathi said firmly. “But we’re going to have a little fun first.”

  “Yeah!” Conrad said to Zee. “Let’s have some fun first.”

  Marcus got out of his chair and grabbed the microphone. “I’ll go first!”

  Missy sat down in front of Marcus. “Ally, sit next to me,” she said.

  Ally headed across the patio, and Zee followed. The others found a spot around them.

  Marcus started pushing some buttons on the karaoke machine. “What are you going to sing, Marcus?” Landon asked.

  “You’ll find out when I start singing,” Marcus told him. Then he put the mike up to his mouth and nodded to Kathi.

  “‘If I were a boy, even just for a day,’” he quietly crooned along to the music.

  “Oh no!” Conrad shouted as the others cracked up. Marcus was singing a Beyoncé song.

  Marcus kept singing above the laughter, belting out the chorus as loudly as he could and nodding his head furiously each time he got to the part in the chorus, “I think I’d be a better man.”

  Conrad leaped onstage after him to perform Rihanna’s “Take a Bow.” Each time he sang “How ’bout a round of applause,” he motioned for everyone to clap. When he finished, he yelled, “A standing ovation!” The seventh graders stood and cheered.

  Then Kathi did a serious interpretation of Miley Cyrus’s “The Climb,” and Jen wowed the crowd with Whitney Houston’s classic “Where Do Broken Hearts Go?”

  After that, Missy bounded toward the stage as Ally started to get up. “Ally and I are going to sing a duet.”

  “Really?” Zee asked.

  “Uh . . . yeah,” Ally said. “That’s okay, right?”

  “Definitely,” Zee said, although it sounded more like, “No.”

  Chloe leaned closer to Zee. “I know the perfect song for us to sing together,” she whispered.

  Zee smiled. Good old Chloe! Knowing Chloe was there for Zee made it easier to watch Ally and Missy having so much fun—without her.

  When Ally and Missy finished singing their duet from High School Musical, Chloe grabbed Zee’s arm. “Our turn!” Chloe announced.

  “What are we singing?” Zee asked.

  “It’s a surprise,” Chloe explained.

  “From me?” Zee said. “How can I sing if I don’t know what I’m singing?”

  Chloe shook her head. “Don’t worry. As soon as the music comes up, you’ll know just what to do.”

  Chloe made her selection and the music began to play. As soon as it did, Zee really did know what to do. It was a song from Toy Story.

  “‘You’ve got a friend in me,’” Chloe sang. Zee loved the fact that it was totally corny—and true.

  “‘You’ve got a friend i
n me,’” Zee sang back.

  They sang the song together, switching off parts, joining arms, and kicking their legs in sync to the beat. But the best part was that Zee knew Chloe meant every word of the lyrics.

  “I never realized what a great song that was,” Zee said when the music faded out.

  “Awesome, huh?” Chloe hurried back to her spot in the audience.

  “Who wants to go next?” Zee asked, holding out the microphone.

  “Landon!” Conrad volunteered his friend.

  Landon shook his head. “No way am I doing karaoke.”

  “Are you too cool, surfer dude?” Marcus joked.

  “Pretty much,” Landon said.

  “Jasper?” Zee said, but as all eyes turned in his direction, she immediately regretted saying anything. Jasper hated to be the focus of attention. She hadn’t meant to embarrass him.

  “Okay,” Jasper agreed, standing.

  “Really?” Landon asked.

  “Really?” Zee echoed.

  Jasper took the microphone from Zee. “No reason to be a stick-in-the-mud.” He looked at Landon.

  “Do they say that in England a lot?” Landon asked. “Because I don’t even know what it means.”

  “It means this.” Jasper started the music. “‘One for the money! Two for the show!’” He pretended to play a fake guitar just like Elvis Presley. He slid across the patio and spun around.

  “Whoa!” Landon whispered to himself.

  Zee couldn’t believe her eyes, either! Was this shy Jasper? Her heart tried to jump out of her chest. She’d never seen him perform with so much spirit—having so much fun as he wiggled his hips and tapped his toes in time to the music. Zee wondered if he could see her blushing.

  “Let’s go again,” Kathi suggested when Jasper finished.

  Zee checked the time on her iPhone. “I think we should practice our music for Saturday.”

  “Oh, come on,” Kathi urged. “You’re spoiling everyone’s fun.”

  “My mom’s coming to get me soon,” Zee explained.

  “And I have a ton of homework to do,” Jen said, pulling out her marimba mallets.

  Kathi stared at Jen. She looked like she didn’t know what to say. Then when the other group members started to get their instruments ready, she just said, “Fine,” and took out her violin.

  Kathi had been so proud of how she’d pulled the group together, Zee hated to spoil her moment. But The Beans needed to practice. With so many people hearing about their upcoming performance on Bluetopia, they had to be ready.

  “Let’s practice ‘My Heart,’” Kathi suggested when everyone was in position. “It needs the most work, especially Zee’s part.”

  Zee rolled her eyes, but as the band began to play, she could tell everyone had taken Ms. Vardolis’s advice seriously. The band members hit their parts perfectly. And something inside Zee changed as she sang along with Landon. She kept picturing Jasper on the karaoke stage. The words flowed out of her mouth without her even thinking.

  “Your idea for us to warm up with karaoke helped,” Missy told Kathi. “We sounded great.”

  “Roxy is going to be really proud when she hears us tomorrow,” Kathi said.

  Chapter 11

  Bad Buds

  After rehearsal, Zee, Ally, Chloe, and Jasper waited for Mrs. Carmichael outside of the Barneys’ house. Zee pulled out her iPhone and looked at its clock.

  “That’s about the hundredth time you’ve checked,” Ally told her. “I think your mom forgot again.”

  “But she said she’d come, and she’s not picking up the house phone,” Zee pointed out. “She must be on her way.”

  “Try her cell phone again,” Chloe suggested. “Maybe she turned it back on.”

  “Perhaps we should call my mom to pick us up,” Jasper said, looking around. “It’s getting late, and everyone else has left.” Even Jen’s mom had come to get her after work.

  Zee couldn’t stand the thought that her mother might have forgotten about her again. She was determined to wait until Mrs. Carmichael showed up. But how long would that take? It had already been thirty minutes.

  Zee’s iPhone buzzed in her hand. “A text from Mom,” she announced triumphantly, pleased her mother had not forgotten her after all.

  Where r u? the text read. I’ve been waiting outside BA a long time.

  “BA,” Zee read out loud, then told her friends. “My mom is looking for us at school.” She was picking them up at the wrong place!

  Zee quickly texted her mother back to tell her to come to Kathi’s house.

  Then Chloe took out her cell phone.

  “What are you doing?” Zee asked.

  “Going on Bluetopia, of course,” Chloe said. “To see if José made any doodles in my notebook or sent me any gifts.”

  “I guess you don’t like Marcus anymore,” Ally teased.

  “Of course I do,” Chloe protested. “He’s just not writing me as much as José is.” She looked at her screen. “I got something!”

  “I think José needs to sleep,” Zee said. “It’s like”—she paused to calculate the time difference between California and Spain—“three A.M. there.”

  “There’s your mom!” Ally shouted, pointing to Mrs. Carmichael’s Prius as it came down the block. “I call shotgun!”

  “I guess I’ll take the hump in the back since I’m the smallest,” Zee volunteered. But as she crawled into the car after Jasper and settled into the small space between him and Chloe, she realized she’d forgotten how squished she’d be—right next to Jasper. As a warm, happy feeling rushed through her body, she realized she didn’t really care. She waited until she got home to write on her blog.

  * * *

  Hi, Blogness,

  Problem #1: I’m trying to be really positive about the idea of having new sibs. Babies are incredibly cute. I guess that’s why it’s a problem. Being adorable will get them a lot of attention. Maybe all of it.

  Solution #1: The Beans’ performance is taking my mind off my mom and babies. Plus, Ms. Vardolis is giving me all of the attention my mother isn’t. She’s not exactly my mother, but I really like her and am flattered that she thinks I’m so talented. So until Mom can start paying attention to me again, I think I’ll just focus on all the nice things Ms. Vardolis says about me.

  Problem #2: I don’t get what is going on with Ms. Vardolis and Kathi. Something doesn’t feel exactly right. Kathi is trying so hard to impress her—too hard. And I think Kathi is blaming me when things go wrong.

  Solution #2: Watch out for Kathi! She might take her anger out on me.

  Problem #3: I’m 99.99999 percent certain I have a crush on Jasper. Here are the signs:

  • my heart beats fast when he’s around

  • my palms get sweaty (which is really gross) when he’s around

  • everything he says sounds super-smart

  • my head gets all mushy when I think about him

  • I think the school uniform actually looks good on him

  I don’t get it. Why do I like him so much now? He’s one of my very best friends. Am I going to ruin that because of a crush??!!

  Solution #3: Forget about Jasper being my boyfriend. Right?

  Zee

  * * *

  After Zee finished her blog entry, she visited the Fashionista Club. She wanted to see what people said about the photos she had posted. But she definitely wasn’t ready for what she read.

  Next to a photo of Zee in a flowing cotton skirt and a denim midriff top with a camisole underneath, someone had posted: When was this ever in fashion?

  Under a picture of Zee’s favorite homemade sundress, a red tank top sewn onto a floral skirt, was the message: Time to milk the cows!

  Scrolling down the page, Zee saw that all of the messages were similar. At first, Zee thought she had finally found a compliment. Very American! Then she kept reading. Leave fashion to the French.

  Zee’s heart sank to the bottom of her shoes. Ally’s French friends we
re posting these mean comments. Zee knew her style wasn’t like everyone else’s, but that’s what she liked best about it. It wasn’t French—or American. It was Zee.

  But Zee had an even bigger problem than fashion. How was Zee going to tell her BFF that some of her new friends weren’t very nice?

  “Look at what people are saying in the Fashionista Club notebook,” Zee said as calmly as she could.

  Ally looked at the computer screen, then shrugged. “They aren’t being mean. They just think about fashion in a different way.”

  The comment stung. Ally was supposed to be her very best friend. How could she stick up for them? I’m the one she should be defending, Zee thought.

  “But—” Zee stopped herself. Ally would be in town for only a few days, and Zee didn’t want to fight with her. It wasn’t Ally Zee was mad at. It was those French girls.

  Still, the comments hurt, so when Ally went to play Wii, Zee sent a private message to Chloe and Jasper.

  C&J,

  Check out the Fashionista Club and you’ll see how horrible Ally’s French friends are. She must be so happy to be in Brookdale with us, because they are really really mean. I’m lucky to have you guys. So is Ally.

  Zee

  Almost immediately, Jasper sent a message back.

  Do you want me to take the comments down? The administrator can do that.—J

  How sweet! Zee thought, smiling. Jasper would do that for me? Then she typed a response.

  No, if it doesn’t bother Ally, it’s OK with me.

  Secretly, though, Zee hoped that Ally would ask the French girls to take down the comments.

  Ally’s friends weren’t the only things bothering Zee at that moment. She kept thinking about how her mother had forgotten her that afternoon. Chloe, Ally, and Jasper told her everything was going to be okay. But based on the way Mrs. Carmichael had been acting, Zee found it hard to believe. Zee realized there was only one person who would know for sure . . . Missy.