Crush Alert

by Annie Bryant

  Mr. Ramsey handed his daughter the phone. “There’s a young gentleman who wants to speak with you,” he said in a formal voice, then turned to leave.

  “Okay, thanks, Dad,” Charlotte gulped, struggling to keep huge waves of excitement from crashing through her voice.

  “Charlotte?” Nick’s voice on the phone was muted, soft even. Charlotte thought she could just sit there and listen to him say her name again and she would be happy. “Charlotte, you there?” he said again.

  She smiled. “Yes, it’s me.”

  He was quiet for a little while, and she listened to him breathing.

  “Ummm…,” he said finally. “Did you get my e-mail?”

  “Yes.” Charlotte lay back on her windowsill with the cordless phone in one hand, watching cars go by on the street below. “And it’s okay, I was being a dork too. I thought…well, it doesn’t matter!” she laughed, and Nick laughed with her.

  “Charlotte?”

  “Yes, Nick?”

  “I really missed not talking to you this week. You’re, well…you’re really…special…interesting. You know.”

  “Special? And interesting?” She liked the way those words sounded.

  “Yeah, you, well…you understand me. Maybe this is weird, but I think sometimes you know me better than anyone else. You really get that whole adventure thing I have….” He fumbled for words.

  “I do?” Charlotte curled up with her knees against her chest.

  “Yeah…it’s hard to explain….” Nick’s voice trailed off.

  “I think I know what you mean,” Charlotte answered him, feeling all the words she’d held up inside so long come pouring out. “I like to talk to you…I mean, because I know you listen and you’re, like, really interesting and different from most boys.”

  They both laughed again. This time, a relaxed laugh, not a nervous one.

  “You know, isn’t it weird what this Valentine’s Day Dance is doing to everyone?” Charlotte joked, all of her worries washing away. “I mean, Betsy’s going with Yurt, and Isabel can’t go, and Maeve’s going crazy and…well, I guess I was acting pretty crazy too.”

  “It’s okay,” Nick soothed. “While we’re on the subject, can we go together to the dance?” he asked. “I’ve been trying to ask you all week, and somehow, with all this craziness, it never happened.”

  “Really?” Charlotte’s voice came out all high. She was smiling so hard, she couldn’t help it.

  “Really,” he assured her.

  “Oh. Well, okay. I mean sure, of course I will go to the dance with you!” Charlotte sat up and leaned forward, cradling the phone against her shoulder. It seemed so ridiculous and silly now that she had been so afraid to talk to Nick.

  Nick laughed. “Cool! What time should I come by to walk to the dance with you, then?”

  “Oh, anytime…” Charlotte switched the phone to the other ear. “Maybe six forty-five? The BSG are all coming to the Tower beforehand to get ready, and then a group is coming to walk to the dance.”

  “Right. Awesome.”

  “Okay, see you then?” Charlotte said.

  “Yeah. See you tomorrow, okay?”

  “Okay.” Charlotte held the phone against her ear for a few minutes after she heard the click, then jumped straight up in the air.

  “Yesssss!” she shouted to the empty room. Marty jumped away and barked a few times. Charlotte picked him up and spun him around. “I’m going to the dance with Nick!” she sang while the little dude yipped along. “I have a Valentine!” Then she kissed Marty right on the nose, not even minding his salty dog smell.

  Promises to Keep

  Isabel and Elena Maria opened the door to the welcoming smell of frying tortillas. Mama and Aunt Lourdes sat together in the kitchen, laughing and listening to the radio. Isabel hadn’t seen her mother so animated in days. She had multiple sclerosis, which made it hard for her to move around sometimes. Today was one of those days. She sat in her wheelchair while the girls’ aunt flipped the homemade tortillas, but her laughter was genuine and happy.

  “We’re home!” Isabel and Elena Maria chorused, and they both ran over to give their mother a big hug.

  Mrs. Martinez kissed each daughter on the cheek. “You’re just in time! The tortillas are almost finished.”

  “Oh, Mama, we already ate….” Elena Maria touched her mother’s dark hair with one hand.

  “Now you eat again!” Aunt Lourdes smiled and thrust a tortilla-covered plate at her oldest niece.

  “Oh, Aunt Lourdes”—Elena Maria looked over at Isabel with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes—“I am so stuffed with pizza, but I am sure Isabel would like one. Wouldn’t you, Izzy?” Elena Maria knew that Aunt Lourdes would flip out that they preferred pizza to her tortillas.

  But Isabel was not in the mood for Elena Maria’s little jokes this evening and said through gritted teeth, “I’m not really hungry either.”

  “Well,” her aunt responded in a huffy voice, “I made enough for four.”

  Then she scolded both girls, “How many times do I tell you? You change your plans, you call. We pay for your cell phone, no? It is not for talking to boys, it is for calling your aunt and mother who are slaving away in the kitchen making everyone’s favorite tortillas!” She put her hands on her hips and glared at her nieces, “So what do you have to say for yourselves…eating pizza?”

  “We’re sorry, Aunt Lourdes,” they apologized in unison.

  Aunt Lourdes was completely over the top, especially when it came to pizza versus tortillas. In her mind there was no comparison. Isabel had to bite her lip to keep from giggling. She glanced at her sister, who was doing the same thing.

  “Lourdes…” Mama held up a hand for her older sister to calm down, then looked into Isabel’s eyes. “Isabel, honey, let me see your dress.”

  Isabel shook her head slowly as tears leaked from the corners of her eyes. Mrs. Ramirez looked to Elena Maria with an expression that said, What did you do to your sister?

  “You tell Mama, Izzy. Tell her your promise.” Elena Maria dropped her purse on the table next to the untouched plate of tortillas, and began to move toward the door.

  “What promise?” a suddenly alert Aunt Lourdes asked.

  “Aunt Lourdes,” Elena Maria interrupted, “do you think you could help me in the bedroom with the new dress I bought? I think it might need to be hemmed.”

  Lourdes hesitated for a second, looking back and forth at each sister. Then she said, “Oh, of course, Elena Maria. Let me just take my apron off.”

  That’s the thing about Aunt Lourdes, Isabel thought as she sat down next to her mother. Her aunt might be strict and a little cranky sometimes, but she was a nurse and she loved taking care of people, especially her family. The sisters knew that anytime they asked, Aunt Lourdes would drop everything to help them, even if was just about a dress.

  Isabel flashed her sister a grateful smile as Elena Maria grabbed Aunt Lourdes’s arm and disappeared into the bedroom she shared with Isabel.

  “So, mi hija, what is this promise you have made?” Her mother looked at her younger daughter with a sympathetic smile.

  While Isabel explained about Kevin and the dance, Mama filled a tortilla with steaming chicken and vegetables waiting in separate bowls.

  “Mama, I have to go to this dance!” Isabel cried, wiping her nose with the back of one arm. “My friends are all going, and I made the posters, and the decorations, and…”

  “And you don’t have a dress,” Mama pointed out.

  Isabel shook her head. “But I could borrow one of Elena Maria’s old dresses, she said so.”

  “That is not the point. You will not be borrowing a dress,” Mama said gently. “You already made your decision, no? You gave your word. And this boy…Kevin…is he not counting on you to help him?”

  Isabel rested her head on her mother’s shoulder. “But…”

  Mama nodded once, a smile on her lips. “You are my responsible daughter. You know what is the right t
hing to do.”

  “I know, Mama, but this is so hard. All my friends will be there and I really wanted to go. The dates got mixed up…it’s not my fault!” She leaned her head on her mother’s shoulder.

  “I know,” her mother said, patting her daughter’s arm. “But one dance will not make up for the bad feeling that you will have for breaking a promise to a friend.”

  Isabel understood what she had to do.

  From: Isabel

  To: Kevin

  Subject: Art Class

  Kevin,

  I’ll will meet you at the homeless shelter on Friday. Thank you for inviting me to help and I’m sorry I got so upset in the art room…but I really thought it was on Saturday. Oh, well. The kids will be so happy, and that’s what matters.

  See you tomorrow,

  Izzy

  CHAPTER 15

  Decorating Committee

  After school on Friday, Isabel showed up in the art room to face her giant pile of cardboard hearts. All this work…and I won’t even get to see the dance. Even though she knew that honoring her promise was the right thing to do, Isabel just couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for herself.

  Betsy was already there, of course, fretting over a tangled mass of hot pink streamers.

  Isabel lifted an armful of hearts. “I’ll take these down to the gym,” she called out.

  “Mm-hmm,” Betsy murmured. “Be careful,” she called after Isabel. Poor Betsy. Isabel shook her head. She was actually obsessing over the length of each streamer.

  Isabel made her way down the halls, dodging crowds of kids hanging out and talking about…what else? The dance.

  “Ooh! Can I have one?” Henry Yurt danced up behind Isabel, trying to grab the purple heart on top.

  “No!” Isabel swung her creations away from the class clown. “They’re for the dance.”

  “Duh…Betsy asked me to help you guys set up. So can I have one?”

  Isabel sighed. “Just don’t bend it or anything. I worked hard on these.”

  “Yes!” Henry held up the heart and cheered. “Dudes, look, I earned a purple heart!”

  “Henry, you better be careful or I will sic Betsy on you.” Isabel almost laughed out loud when she saw his shaken face.

  “Oh, don’t do that, Isabel.” He got down on one knee and pressed the purple heart to his chest.

  “Betsy is my Valentine,” he pleaded.

  “Yurt,” Isabel laughed, “join the drama club. They need goofballs like you.”

  Isabel hurried ahead while Henry followed her like a puppy dog down the hall. The first thing she heard as she approached the gym was a throbbing hip-hop beat and giggling voices that sounded very, very familiar.

  “BSG!” she shouted as she burst through the door. There was Maeve, playing with the settings on a CD player, and Katani, studying the gym walls with a calculating look. Avery was tossing a tennis ball against the wall while Charlotte watched the door. When Isabel walked through, Charlotte ran over and reached for the pile of painted cardboard hearts.

  “What’s this all about, Char?” Isabel asked, so startled, she managed to drop most of her hearts on the floor instead of handing them over.

  “I’ll get those!” Katani picked one up and held it up to the wall, turning slowly.

  Charlotte took Isabel’s hand. “We’re here to help you decorate, Izzy! It’s not fair that you have to do all this work, then miss the dance! So Maeve brought the tunes, and we’re going to have our own little decorating dance party.”

  Just then, Henry Yurt burst through the door, trailed by a few other kids carrying shopping bags full of supplies. “Hey! Nice music!” He grinned, grabbed a roll of masking tape out of his pocket and taped his purple heart next to the door. He couldn’t reach any higher.

  “People will knock it off if you put it there, Henry,” Katani pointed out, and easily moved it up higher.

  The Yurtmeister jumped and grabbed for it, but he couldn’t reach. “Hey, that’s my purple heart!”

  “Come on, dude,” one of his friends called, setting his bag down on the gym floor. “There’s a ton more stuff back in the art room.”

  The boys left, and Maeve ran over to see what was in the bags.

  “Ooh, look! Streamers! Glitter, cupid cutouts…” She dumped everything on the floor while Katani found masking tape, scissors, and string.

  “Let’s get to work, girls!” she announced. In a matter of minutes the gym was a beehive of activity. At one point Isabel reached over and hugged Charlotte. “I just can’t believe you all decided to do this. I have the best friends in the world.”

  When Betsy finally made it down to the gym twenty minutes later with the last bag of decorations and a notebook detailing exactly where every last streamer and heart was to be placed, she stopped in her tracks. “What,” she exclaimed, “is going on?!”

  Henry rushed to her side. “Betsy, your committee has fulfilled your dream. This place is going to rock. Check it out!”

  Maeve was dancing to her favorite song with a masking-tape bracelet on her wrist, handing rolls of tape up to Charlotte, who was standing on a chair and hanging hearts and cupids all over the walls, according to Katani’s directions. Avery was in the middle of the floor with a roll of pink streamers. Squinting to get her aim just right, she wrapped a length of streamer around her tennis ball, and tossed it up into the basketball hoops. A pink rocket shot up, then down on the other side.

  “Bull’s-eye!” she shouted, and ran to pick up the tennis ball. Streamers were hanging through all the hoops, irregular and twisted.

  “Betsy!” Isabel ran up to her, eyes shining. “Isn’t it wonderful? We’re almost done!”

  Betsy shook her head soundlessly and opened her notebook. “But, but…I had it all planned out! The streamers are for the doorways! And the hearts are supposed to be lined up in a pattern above the bleachers! I even got the key to the janitor’s closet to get a ladder!”

  “Chill, girl!” Katani laughed. “It’s going to look great.”

  Charlotte stepped down from her chair and dashed over to the pile of backpacks next to the CD player. “I know just what you need, Betsy!” she returned with a bag of Swedish fish in one hand, and M&M’s in the other. “Refreshments!”

  Maeve grabbed a handful of Swedish fish, laughing. “You’re right, that’s exactly what I need!”

  Betsy eyed the candy suspiciously. “Well, I guess…I guess the hearts look okay…but we have to do something about those streamers!”

  “This is only step one!” Avery protested as Betsy headed toward the janitor’s closet for a ladder. “Maybe if I used a basketball?”

  Everyone laughed, even Betsy.

  Isabel looked around at her friends, “You guys are the awesomest ever!” she shouted, then spun around in a circle as a new song came on the radio. This was the greatest decorating dance party ever!

  The Tower Princesses

  That night, Charlotte stood in the middle of the Tower room with Katani and Avery. Katani looked absolutely fabulous in the halter-top sunshine yellow dress with beaded detail at the neckline that she had sewn herself, and Avery wore her simple but elegant white dress with the black sash. Charlotte was spinning around in front of the mirror, admiring her lilac perfection, shimmering with little rainbows of light as she moved.

  “Girls, the BSG are looking fierce tonight!” Katani announced.

  “We’re like princesses preparing for a ball!” Charlotte laughed. Nick was coming in half an hour, along with a bunch of other friends, but it was mostly the thought of seeing him again that put her in a giddy mood. She’d talked to him at school, of course, all through lunch and study hall! But that seemed like such a long time ago.

  “You can be a princess,” Avery said. “But I’m a dance ninja…watch this!” she made a high-pitched squealing noise and sliced the air in front of Marty with one foot. The little dog jumped back and barked softly. Then Avery broke into one of her signature dance moves. She flailed her arms and
legs, bobbed her head, hopped on one foot, and completely failed to look like the guys in the rap videos.

  “Avery,” Katani said, bent over with laughter, “you need to stop.”

  Charlotte warned, “Watch out, innocent bystanders of Abigail Adams Junior High, Avery Madden is on the loose!”

  Even Avery lost it at that comment, and the girls collapsed together in a huddle of colorful fabric and jewelry, shaking with laughter. The fancy dresses were forgotten for a moment as they relished their moment of zany togetherness.

  “Didn’t Maeve give you lessons a few months ago?” Katani asked in between gasps of air.

  Avery grinned and spun away from the group. “Yeah, that ended when I broke her mom’s favorite antique vase.”

  Marty whined at Avery, and she patted his head. “Poor Mr. Marté! I didn’t mean to scare you, little guy. How is the little dude doing?”

  “He’s a little better,” Charlotte sighed and then turned and asked Katani, “So where’s Maeve?”

  “If Maeve ever arrived on time,” Katani said, “we’d know the world was about to end.”

  “Okay, everyone, remember…we can’t say a thing about why Dillon asked her!” Charlotte reminded them. “We have to pretend we don’t know.”

  “Uh-huh,” Avery promised. “But I still think it’s not a big deal. I mean, we’re all walking over in a big group, right? What does it matter who goes with who?” Avery picked at the sash on her dress, managing to undo the bow.

  Katani sighed. “Let me fix that,” she straightened Avery’s dress,

  “It matters because…well, because it just does!” Charlotte commented, realizing that, for once, she couldn’t think of the right words to explain.

  Avery looked at her like she had two heads. “Whatever you say….” Avery reached up and tightened her ponytail.

  Katani frowned. “Hmm…we have to do something about that hair! I can’t let any of my girls walk out of here looking less than fab. I have my reputation to protect, you know.”