Five Times Revenge
Page 18
Adam, Perk, Ray, Dutch, and Pearl were normal, ordinary eighth graders … but what is ordinary?
Adam was groggy, having not even gotten back to his room and into his bed until four-thirty, a little more than three hours ago. But thrill still rushed through him.
Everyone looked about as awake as he did, and just as excited.
Perk was already sitting on the curb, his laptop on his lap as he checked the website and made sure it was live. Then he listed Mr. Parmar’s Shelby Cobra on as many car auction sites as he could.
“How’s it going, Perk?” Adam asked.
He didn’t respond but gave them a quick thumbs-up and went back to clicking.
“Dutch, I think it’s time to call the paper and TV station using your Hill voice. Make sure they know you’re Principal Parmar’s proud son. Ray and Pearl, we’ll all hang up signs on the doors telling everyone to go straight to the cafeteria. Then all we need is the main attraction.”
“Parmar.”
CHAPTER 94
Perk
The scene an hour later in the cafeteria was Oscar-worthy—from the set design, to the lead actor, to the paparazzi, to the exciting beginning, all the way to the glory-filled ending.
The crowd gathered in the cafeteria wasn’t waiting long before Mr. Parmar rushed in and pushed his way through the sea of clapping students, teachers, and cameramen. Once he reached his car and read the banner, his face turned so white, Perk didn’t think any makeup artist would be able to replicate it. “A reporter called me … I thought it was a joke. What’s the meaning of this? I …”
“That was me, Mr. Parmar.” A woman stepped forward with a microphone. “We received a call from your son”—she looked down at her notebook—“Hill Parmar. He let us know about your generous donation for the special education program at the high school. He’s so proud of you. Truly, it is such a touching gesture. Please, tell us, what made you do this? What was your motivation?”
“What? I didn’t call anyone.” Hill’s face drained to match his dad’s. He looked around at the crowd. “Dad, I didn’t call anyone. I promise.”
But the woman ignored Hill and shoved the microphone closer to Parmar’s face. “Mr. Parmar?”
Parmar’s face was like a chameleon, first pale, then splotched with pink, then finally settling on a fierce red. “I … I don’t know what to say.”
“Can you tell us instead how long you had been working on the website to auction off the car and how you managed to keep it hidden from everyone? That is quite a feat.”
“Website? Well, I just … wanted it to be the best.” He held one of the signs they had hung up on the doors in his hand, slowly crumpling it in his fist.
“And, I’m sure you’ll be happy to know that since the website went live this morning, the bidding from people all over the country has already exceeded seven hundred forty thousand.”
“I … I …” He wiped his forehead. “Yes, very surprised.” Would he pass out?
“Is there anything else you want to say?”
Mr. Parmar tried to smile, but it looked more like he had to go to the bathroom or he was going to be sick. “I think this gesture,” his voice cracked, “umm, speaks for itself.”
Perk, for the first time, agreed with him.
It spoke for Tommy and Nish and Dutch and Pearl and Ray and William Bubert and a hundred other kids. Things were gonna change.
CHAPTER 95
Adam
“How about a toast?” Adam said that night.
It was the spring dance, and the five of them stood around the punch bowl just off to the left of Parmar’s 1966 Shelby Cobra. The school board thought it would be a good idea to keep it there so that the special education kids who had also, just that day, been invited to the dance, could see the car.
Perk raised his cup of punch to the middle of their group. “To Parmar and Hill,” he said.
“Yep. To Parmar and Hill,” they all repeated, and took a drink. Adam looked at each of them and then out at the crowd of dancing, chasing, and chitchatting students. “Well,” he said. “We did it.” He tried to think of something more, but he didn’t know what.
Tommy ran up, his cheeks flushed red. “Hi, guys! This is so much fun! Did you see the car?” He pointed to the Shelby Cobra, its paint glinting in the flashing of the disco bulb. “The money goes to us and my school for chairs and windows and computers and stuff.”
Perk put his arm around him. “You’re right, Tommy. It’s all yours.”
Adam grinned as his friends congratulated Tommy.
They had all been only yearbook pictures and student files just a month ago.
Now they were 3-D, alive, real. He’d known there was something more, but he never imagined how much more.
He took another swig of punch.
CHAPTER 96
Perk
Tommy dragged Perk onto the dance floor.
Perk had a general rule: no dancing in public … ever.
But he let himself join in the ocean of people—Pearl, Dutch, and Ray surrounding Tommy in a circle and chanting his name.
He never would’ve thought that he would trust these three random people, but he did. He never thought he’d ever call them friends. But he did.
“Come on, Perk!” Tommy yelled.
Perk grinned and fist-bumped Adam. It was hard to not move around a little when Tommy was bouncing and yelling and sweating the way he was, so he made a little exception.
After all, everyone has exceptions.
CHAPTER 97
Ray
When the slow song came on, Ray bolted for the side where most of the other students were taking refuge behind glasses of punch and pieces of cake. He grabbed a cookie and spotted Mrs. Potter, the school counselor, standing by the lockers watching.
“What are you thinking?” Dutch asked him. “She’s a little old for you, don’t you think?”
Ray laughed and punched him in the arm. “No, I want to see if maybe I could change some of the classes that I marked down for high school next year. I wasn’t really paying attention when we signed up the first time.”
“That’s cool.”
“Yeah,” Ray said. “It is.”
He glanced at Dutch and grinned. “So are you really going to let her just stand there by the punch bowl?”
“What? Who?” His face reddened when he saw Pearl standing by the half-eaten cake. “Oh.”
“Go for it.” Ray gently pushed him and then walked over to Mrs. Potter.
“Hi, Mrs. Potter,” he said.
“Hello, Ray. Is there something wrong?”
“No, I …” His heart clanged against his chest like a loose bolt in an engine. “I had a question about classes next year. I was thinking that I might want to change some of them if it’s not too late.”
CHAPTER 98
Pearl
Pearl looked up at the clock. Eight-thirty. The dance was almost over.
Then she’d wait outside for her dad and go home. One of her homes. Two homes.
That was normal for her now. Talking and joking and scheming with Dutch, Perk, Ray, and Adam was also normal.
She filled up her cup with punch and watched Adam, Perk, and Tommy bolt off the dance floor and head for the snack table.
“Hey Pearl!” It was Sari.
“Oh, hey, Sari.”
Her friend grabbed a cup and guzzled it. “Oh my gosh, isn’t this so much fun? I’m dying of thirst.”
“Yeah, it’s been a lot of fun.” Dutch was talking with Ray. What were they saying?
The song ended.
“All right, middle school students,” the DJ said. “This is the last song of the night.”
Another slow song started. Was Dutch looking at her? She turned away and smiled as she took a sip from her cup even though there was nothing left.
“Uh, I think that kid,” Sari said, “the one that does that weird thing with his face, is trying to get you to come over. Didn’t you sit with him at lunch one or
two times this week?”
A rush went through Pearl and her fingers pressed imaginary strings.
“Oh my gosh, he’s coming over here. Don’t worry, I’ve got your back.”
Sari was talking but Pearl wasn’t listening.
Someone tapped her shoulder. “Pearl?”
She turned and smiled at Dutch. “Hey.”
“Um,” Sari said. “Sorry, but she doesn’t want to dance.”
“What?” Pearl said. “Of course I do. That is … if you want to dance with me.”
Sari tugged at her arm. “Come on, Pearl, you don’t have to feel sorry for him. I just got a text from my mom and she’s outside. You can totally sleep over tonight.”
Pearl shrugged her off. “No thanks,” she said. “And I don’t feel sorry for him.”
Dutch squinted and smiled, then held out his hand. She took it and they stepped on to the dance floor.
She didn’t want to go back to the before sort of normal. This normal—holding Dutch’s hand and hearing Adam, Perk, Ray, and Tommy “oohing” behind them was where she felt more like who she really was.
She could get used to this.
CHAPTER 99
Dutch
Dutch stood outside in the dark and waited for his grandpa.
“Hey, Dutch!”
He turned and saw Adam. “So, me, Ray, and Perk are all going to a movie tomorrow afternoon. Oh, and of course, Pearl.” Adam raised his eyebrows up and down. “You want to come?”
Dutch squinted and grinned. “Sure.”
“Okay, see you then.”
He watched the three of them get into Adam’s mom’s car and drive off.
“See you, Dutch,” Pearl said.
He smiled. Squinted. “See ya.”
A car horn honked and he watched her leave.
Thinking back on the day and the dance, it almost seemed impossible. That maybe it had all been a vision.
Gramps pulled up then and Dutch hopped in.
“Did you dance with her?” Gramps asked when he pulled away from the curb.
It was real. “Yep.”
Anything was possible.
CHAPTER 100
Adam, Perk, Tommy, Ray, Dutch, and Pearl
Adam, Perk, Tommy, Ray, Dutch, and Pearl all met up at Pearl’s dad’s apartment the day after school let out.
This was the day they’d been waiting for.
They walked down the sidewalk to the corner of Parmar’s street, then cut through a dirt path up the hill above the house. Adam had scoped it out earlier. It was grassy and wide with trees scattered around but open enough. It was the perfect spot for a perfect view.
When they reached the top, they pulled out the blankets and snacks and sat down.
“So when is the bus supposed to come?” Ray asked.
Adam glanced down at his watch. He rubbed his hands together. “Any minute, folks.”
“What if Parmar backed out?” Pearl asked.
But the sound of a bus answered her question. They all looked at one another. This was it. When the bus screeched to a halt, a man and a woman in army uniforms stepped off. They looked down at their clipboards and then up at the house.
“This is better than a movie,” Dutch said.
“Look! There’s Parmar,” Perk said.
Mr. Parmar motioned to the front door and then a moment later, Hill slumped up to him, a backpack on his shoulder. He dropped it on the ground and turned to his dad, clearly pleading for him to change his mind.
“It wasn’t me that did it. Promise,” Dutch said in Hill’s voice.
The others laughed.
Mr. Parmar picked up the backpack and slung it over Hill’s shoulder again. Then he took the clipboard from the officer and signed a paper.
The two officers saluted and escorted Hill onto the bus.
The door closed. A moment later the bus spit out a cloud of gray smoke and chugged down the road.
“Happy trails, Hill!” Perk said.
Tommy laughed. “Yeah.”
Ray knocked Tommy on the arm. “Checkmate, Tommy, right?”
Tommy looked confused for a second then laughed. “Yeah, checkmate! Checkmate.”
They all watched the bus disappear. Then they turned and smiled at one another.
It was over.
They’d done it—all of it.
It was over.
“Who wants some snacks?” Adam asked. “I’m starving.”
They sat there for a long time. Eventually Adam brought out his lantern and some headlamps. They sat together on the blanket in the grass.
They would be there when the moon came out and they would meet up again in the morning.
Actually, it was just the beginning.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I want to thank my agent, Rebecca Sherman, and my editor, Martha Mihalick, for all the love, support, and care they gave to this book. We’ve wanted to work together for a good eight years, and now here we are! Martha, I’d do a hundred more revisions under your amazing direction. For the entire team at Greenwillow: copyeditor Anne Dunn; managing editor Tim Smith; cover designer Paul Zakris and illustrators Victoria Jamieson and Mary Kate McDevitt; and Katie Fee, Nellie Kurtzman, and Gina Rizzo in marketing and publicity. I want to give a special thank you to my dearest friend, Kim Nicolas, for not only giving insight into some of the elements of the story but constantly keeping me honest and laughing. To my cousin, Kristin Jiggets, for sharing her and her sisters’ experiences growing up—I’m forever grateful and send you huge hugs and crepes—though not cooked inside the belly of a shark. For Monica, who let me sit in her salon while I peppered her with questions about her heritage. To Johanna and her awesome mocha lattes—it was at CuppaJoe where most, if not all, of this book was written and rewritten and revised and then revised again. To my family at SCBWI and all the authors and illustrators in the Rocky Mountains—you make me smile. To my critique group, for just being plain awesome and because I wouldn’t be able to write a sentence worth reading without all of you, Thank you always to my beloved family: my mom, dad, Suzanne, and Alisa. I love you so dearly. And to all my nieces and nephews, for asking when my next book is coming out and being little marketers on my behalf: Khloe, Caleb, Sophie, Zach, Sierra, Savannah, Anna, Michael, Daniel, Ryan, Alisa, Judah, Jane, and Caleb. To the furry and scale-y creatures that keep me company at home: Cowboy, Wally, Duchess, Larry, Ulysses, Trixie, and Evie. And last but never least, to the people that make my heart beat: Gracie, Isaac, Ella, Noah, and John-boy. Finally, to God who has done, and continues to do, abundantly more than I’ve ever thought or imagined. My heart is grateful. My heart is full.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
LINDSAY ELAND is the author of Scones and Sensibility and A Summer of Sundays. She lives in Breckenridge, Colorado, with her husband, four children, three dogs, and four lizards.
WWW.LINDSAYELAND.COM
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CREDITS
Cover art © 2016 by Victoria Jamieson
Cover hand lettering © 2016 by Mary Kate McDevitt
Cover design by Paul Zakris
COPYRIGHT
This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used to advance the fictional narrative. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.
FIVE TIMES REVENGE. Copyright © 2016 by Lindsay Eland. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 978-0-06-239730-0 (trade ed.)
EPub Edition © May 2016 ISBN 9780062397324
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FIRST EDITION
Greenwillow Books
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