Giving Up the Ghost

by Phoebe Rivers

  “How did you—how can we—I can’t believe you actually—” I couldn’t finish the sentence.

  “We must have read your mind,” said Lady Azura drily.

  My dad patted my hand. “Lady Azura and I decided to chip in together and get you something special. Is it the right kind of gizmo?”

  “Yes!” I squealed. “It is totally the right kind of gizmo!”

  My dad looked relieved. “I called Lily and asked her to help me order the right thing. She seemed pretty sure this was the right model. It’s a little overwhelming for old guys like me to know what to get.”

  Lady Azura sniffed. “Well, I’m sure I don’t know what you see in such a gizmo, but I hope you like it all the same. Now go. We’ll clean up. Try it out. Show us what sort of magic that flashy-looking device can do.”

  I leaped from the table and gave them both a huge hug. Then I ran upstairs to my craft room to try it out.

  It would be the perfect thing for making a going-away present for Jayden. I called up a picture that we’d had taken at the semiformal a few weeks ago. Then I figured out how to use the electronic pen and spent a happy hour manipulating the photo of the two of us in a bunch of different ways, printing out the versions I liked, until I had one I was happy with. Basically the original picture, but with enhanced colors and cool special effects and a psychedelic, patterned background, which I thought was a huge improvement over the dull, fake-blue-sky backdrop that the photographer had been using. The finished product looked pretty cool.

  Then I took an ordinary frame I had bought on sale and spent another half hour painting and decorating it to make it personalized just for Jayden. When the frame was dry and I put the photo into it, I was pleased with the result. I wrapped it up.

  I spent the rest of the night playing with a bunch of other photos, manipulating them, enhancing them, changing the effects, drawing stuff on them. Before I knew it, my dad was knocking on the door.

  “Time for bed, kiddo,” he said, after he’d admired what I’d done. He stared at some of the pictures and shook his head in admiration. “Your mother would be proud. You’re so much like her. So creative and talented.”

  I put an arm around his waist. “And what about you? Did she teach you how to take good pictures? I love the one you took of her. It’s really well composed.”

  He gave me a sideways grin. “Believe it or not, I used to be pretty into art myself,” he said. “Painting, actually. But that was a long time ago. Before marriage and baby and mortgage and—” He stopped.

  I’d guessed what he was going to say without needing to read his mind. He’d been about to say, “And before I lost your mom.” Or something to that effect.

  I hugged him tighter.

  “Why don’t you try painting again?” I asked him quietly.

  He looked down at me and stroked my hair. “Maybe I will sometime soon,” he said. “Maybe I just might.”

  Chapter 14

  When I woke up the next morning, I could smell the warm air. It was going to be a beautiful day. A beautiful spring birthday day that was also a Saturday. I jumped out of bed feeling happy. No matter how much I wasn’t going to be celebrating, it was still my birthday.

  “Hey! Back in bed!” I heard my dad’s voice at the door. He was carrying a tray. Breakfast in bed. Giggling, I scrambled back under the covers and shimmied backward so I was propped up and ready for my breakfast tray.

  He’d made my favorite breakfast in the world: cinnamon toast, hot cocoa, and a perfectly ripe mango, cut into cubes.

  “Happy birthday, kiddo,” said my dad, sitting down next to me while I took a sip of cocoa. “I can’t believe my baby is a teenager! Where did the time go?”

  I smiled and offered him some toast. He took a piece.

  “So have you and Lily talked about your, uh, disagreement yet?” he asked.

  I felt my love for my dad rise up in me. I knew he was trying to show me that he was there for me, to talk with me about my day-to-day troubles and stuff. He was so charmingly . . . awkward doing it. Not his fault. He was the same way with talking—or not—about my powers. He knew I had them but was clueless about how to advise me. That was a huge reason he’d moved us from California to live with Lady Azura. So I’d have someone to talk with about them.

  “Not yet. But I will,” I promised him. And I meant it.

  “What do you say you and I do something special today?” my dad proposed. “Just the two of us?”

  “I thought you had to fix the garage,” I said.

  He shrugged. “The garage can wait. It’s a beautiful day. What say we drive to the aquarium? It’s only a couple of towns over, and it might be fun to drive there in the Boat.”

  “I’ve been wanting to go there since I heard about it, so that sounds great!” I said, nodding my head.

  He swallowed. “I haven’t been back since, since—well, it’s been a long time. The last time your mother and I went there, she was pregnant with you. It was one of your mother’s favorite places to go. I was trying to come up with something special for us to do today, and I thought of that.” His eyes grew a little shiny.

  I squeezed his hand. “That would be the perfect thing to do today, Daddy.”

  We spent the day at the aquarium. It was a huge place, with penguins, belugas, and an enormous fish tank that rose three stories high. You could walk around and around it on an inclined ramp that went all the way up. We watched a diver dive into the big tank to feed the fish, including several large sharks. I guess the sharks were so well fed, they weren’t interested in eating the diver, but I was nervous for him just the same. Then we went to a petting area where you could pet tiny sharks and flat fish called rays that swam around in a shallow, open petting tank. Finally we walked outside and visited the bottlenose dolphins.

  We got home late in the afternoon. I’d forgotten to bring along my phone, and I found a bunch of texts from Marlee, Miranda, Avery, Tamara—all wishing me a happy birthday. And three were from Lily. She’d sent the last one just half an hour before, telling me to come to her house early so she could give me my birthday present before Jayden’s party.

  Since it was my birthday, I put slightly more thought than usual into my outfit, choosing a silky pink top to wear with my jeans instead of my usual T-shirt and wearing my hair down, all loose and wavy, instead of in its usual sloppy ponytail. I looked around my room, wishing I had some sort of great accessory to add to my outfit to jazz it up, but all I had was my necklace with the crystals, and that was mostly hidden under my shirt. Oh well.

  An hour later I was on Lily’s kitchen doorstep, carrying Jayden’s wrapped picture. My mind was swirling with conflicting emotions: happiness that it was my birthday, jealousy that Miranda seemed to be Lily’s new best friend, sadness that Jayden was leaving. The drama of middle school didn’t suddenly change when one had a birthday, I discovered.

  “Saraaaaaaaa!” yelled Lily, opening the door and throwing her arms around me. “Happy birthday!”

  She pulled me into the kitchen, which smelled of delicious things cooking. I was immediately engulfed in Randazzo warmth and chaos. Mrs. Randazzo also gave me a huge hug as Lily’s brothers and little sister swirled around the place, yelling, talking, eating, singing, laughing.

  “We’re baking ten zillion cupcakes for Jayden’s party,” said Lily with a grin. “It was Mom’s brilliant idea to have cupcakes, so we don’t have to bother with forks and plates. Come. Help me frost this batch.”

  For the next hour, Lily and I frosted cupcakes, lugged bags of stuff to the car, and chatted and laughed. All my jealousy and hurt feelings evaporated. Maybe Lily made everyone feel like they were her best friend, but I was content to feel that I held that status at the moment, anyway.

  “What about the decorating?” I asked as we carried the last two trays to Mrs. Randazzo’s car.

  “Miranda, Avery, and Marl
ee are handling that as we speak,” said Lily. “But let’s walk over to Scoops now to help them. There’s no room for us in Mom’s car, anyway.”

  “I’ll text you when I’m on my way,” said Mrs. Randazzo.

  “Wait!” yelled Lily. “Almost forgot your birthday present!” She raced upstairs and returned a few minutes later with a small box carefully wrapped in pink paper with a silver bow on top.

  “Here. From me. To you.”

  “Thanks, Lily,” I said, suddenly feeling shy around my best friend.

  “Open it!” she urged, smiling and bouncing on her heels. She was obviously eager for me to see what was inside.

  I carefully tore away the paper and opened the box. Inside was a silver charm bracelet with three charms on it. A heart. A camera. A seashell.

  “The heart is for our friendship,” Lily explained, peering into the box with me. “And the camera is because you’re an awesome photographer and I want everyone to ask you why you have a camera on your bracelet so you can say, ‘Oh, because I’m an awesome photographer.’ And the shell is because of all the fun we’re going to have at the beach together this summer!” She looked at me anxiously, waiting to see how I would respond.

  Now it was my turn to give her a hug. “It is perfect,” I said. “I love, love, love it.”

  She beamed.

  “I especially love the heart,” I croaked awkwardly, feeling my shyness creep over me. “I, well, I kind of thought you and Miranda were becoming best friends these days.”

  Her eyes widened. “Miranda? Why on earth would you think that? You’re my bestie, Sara! You know that!”

  I shrugged. “No reason. I guess I was just being silly.”

  I didn’t even consider reading her thoughts.

  Lily helped me clasp the bracelet around my wrist as we set off for Scoops. I loved the way it jingled and tickled my wrist ever so slightly as I walked and swung my arms. I smiled as I thought how just a little while ago I had been wishing I had an accessory to wear with my outfit, and now I had one. The most perfect one.

  Lily linked arms with me as we walked to Scoops. “So Uncle Paul closed Scoops just for us tonight!” she chattered. “The trade-off is that people are welcome to buy their own ice cream, and since half the middle school is coming, he’ll probably do a better business with it closed than open! Dawn Marie will be there, of course, but the rest of the staff got the night off.” Dawn Marie was Lily’s sort-of cousin—they weren’t related by blood, but Lily called her a cousin all the same. Dawn Marie was in high school, and I know Lily looked up to her almost like a big sister.

  We approached Scoops, which did look very much closed. A closed sign was in the window, and no lights were on.

  “I thought Miranda and Marlee and the others were here decorating,” I said, puzzled.

  “They are,” said Lily, rapping on the door. “But Uncle Paul told us to turn off the lights while we were stringing up the decorations, so we wouldn’t get a shock or whatever.”

  The door opened. It was Avery.

  “Hey, guys,” she said.

  “How’s the decorating going?” asked Lily as she nudged me ahead of her.

  Avery stood aside to let us enter. “Great. Just great. We’re—”

  “SURPRISE!”

  The lights flicked on. I stood there, blinking, in total shock, as fifty or so people stood in a huge semicircle in front of me. They were smiling. Giggling. And looking straight at me.

  I still didn’t get it. Confused, I looked behind me to see if Jayden was standing there.

  “We so got you!” I heard Jayden’s voice in front of me and turned. He stepped out of the crowd. “I cannot believe you thought this party was for me! I’m not moving for, like, two more weeks!”

  Everyone laughed. When I had time to gather myself a little, I looked around. There were all my friends from school. Plus a bunch of Jayden’s friends. Practically the whole boys’ soccer team. The whole boys’ basketball team. All of Lily’s siblings. Dawn Marie. Mrs. Randazzo. Lily’s aunt Angela. My dad. Lady Azura. Both of whom knew enough to hang in the back with the few other adults who were there. They knew it was a kid party. But I was really happy they were there.

  I had to sit down. I staggered to a chair.

  Suddenly Lily was right in front of me. “So were you truly, genuinely surprised?” she asked eagerly as she pulled up a chair and plopped down next to me.

  I nodded. “Um, yes. Yes, I definitely was.”

  “Lady Azura was a huge help,” Lily prattled on. “She and I talked about what your favorite cupcakes were, and what food we’d have, and of course your dad wanted to help too, and he suggested he take you to the aquarium today because what would I have done if you’d just shown up at my door?”

  “I had no idea,” I said. “I was so thrown off because I . . . I thought you and Miranda went shopping for Jayden’s present yesterday!”

  “We did, but we went shopping with him, not for him! He needed help picking something out for you!”

  I sat back, stunned. “Oh. I thought—” I thought back on the chain of events of the past few days. Now it all made sense.

  Lily’s face grew serious, and she scooted her chair closer. “You of all people are not an easy person to surprise,” she said in a low voice.

  Just then Jayden loped over. “Hey,” he said, grinning. “Recovered yet?”

  Lily jumped up. “Got to go help Mom unload the cupcakes from the car,” she said, and raced away.

  Jayden occupied the chair Lily had given up. “So, were you surprised?”

  “Just a little!” I said, laughing.

  He laughed too, and then held out a small wrapped box. He pushed it toward me. “Here,” he said. “I got you a little birthday present. No big deal or anything. Just a little something.”

  I was so glad I had a present for him too. “Well, I got you something too, because I was the only one who didn’t get the memo that this party wasn’t for you!” I said, placing my wrapped picture in front of him.

  He grinned. “You first,” he said.

  I had to stop myself from tearing away the paper. Instead I calmly peeled away the paper to reveal a small brown box. Inside was a charm. Of a soccer ball.

  “To remember me by,” he said. “They had all these charms, and I wasn’t sure which one you would like best, so I chose the soccer ball because that’s my favorite sport. Remember the times you took pictures of me playing?”

  I smiled shyly and nodded. “Thanks,” I said. Little did Jayden know, I had joined the school paper as a sports photographer just so I could take pictures of him playing! Blushing slightly, I showed him the bracelet Lily had given me.

  “Yeah, I know. We all went shopping together,” he said. “Good thing, too, or I would have picked you up some dumb thing, like golf clubs or something.”

  The charm had a little clasp on it so I was able to hook it right onto my bracelet.

  “Your turn,” I said after I held my wrist out so we could both admire the new charm dangling from my bracelet.

  He tore off the paper and stared at the picture.

  “This is awesome,” he said quietly. “You did this?”

  I nodded, trying to read his expression. What did he really think? What if he thought it was too personal? Too silly? Maybe his friends would tease him about it. Maybe it was not what normal girlfriends gave to normal boyfriends. . . .

  “This is like, totally, completely awesome. I can’t wait to show it to the guys over there. I’m going to be reading about you in the art section of the paper in a few years,” he said, marveling at the picture. “You’re really talented.”

  “Thanks,” I said, feeling myself blush up to the roots of my hair.

  My dad and Mrs. Randazzo carried out a big stack of pizza boxes, and everyone ate pizza for the next half hour. I moved through t
he throngs of people to talk with Lady Azura, who had parked herself primly in one of the booths. She sat there looking like a queen surveying her subjects, dressed up for the party in a bright-blue flowered dress with matching high-heeled shoes. Crimson lipstick and purple and blue eye shadow completed the look.

  “I really appreciate your coming,” I said to her.

  She nodded, a little smile playing on her lips. “It has been a rather dramatic week, has it not? You have been through a lot. I am happy it was able to end this way.”

  “Thanks for all your help,” I said, reaching down and pulling out the crystal I was still wearing around my neck. My charm bracelet tinkled pleasantly.

  “You helped yourself, my dear. I simply provided some guidance along the way.”

  And then the lights dimmed, and Lily’s mom came out, carrying a huge platter of cupcakes. One had a candle. And everyone sang “Happy Birthday” to me.

  It was an amazing party. I was the happiest I’d felt in ages. Pretty much everyone I loved was in one room, gathered there for me. I couldn’t remember ever feeling so special.

  While people were finishing their cupcakes, laughing and talking, I looked for Lily. Something she had said to me before, about how hard it was to surprise me, was nagging at me. I wanted to see her and check in and just make sure everything was okay. I was fairly certain I was reading too much into the comment . . . but I needed to know for sure.

  I found her standing near her mother, stacking dirty cups to recycle. I took her by the arm and led her to a quiet corner.

  “Hey, Lil? What did you mean before? About me of all people being hard to surprise?”

  She suddenly grew uncharacteristically serious, her face scrunched up in thought. “Well, you know, the biggest problem with surprise parties is that you have to be so mean to the person you’re planning to surprise. You have to pretend that nobody cares about her, or remembers her birthday, or that they’re all too busy to spend any time with her on her birthday. I felt so terrible pretending I didn’t care that this was your birthday. It was actually Jayden’s idea to pretend that the party was for him. Because I knew there was no way you wouldn’t notice that I was getting ready for some type of party. Or someone would slip up and mention the party on Saturday in your presence. I thought that was a rather brilliant suggestion on his part.”