by Clare Hutton
All around, her family was exclaiming and asking questions. Emma’s mom caught her eye and came over, kneeling on the grass next to the picnic table.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you before,” she said quietly. “But I didn’t want to get your hopes up. Grandma didn’t make up her mind to let us have the house until today. Are you happy?”
Emma took a deep breath, the world steadying. Was she happy? What a ridiculous question. “We’re moving to Waverly. We’re going to live here! This is what I always wanted!” She could hardly believe it.
“This is amazing,” Natalia said in Emma’s ear, and Zoe bounced in her seat.
Emma smiled around at everyone, feeling light-headed with joy. Waverly had always been home in a way nowhere else was, a place where generations of her mother’s family—her family—had grown up. She’d always wanted more time here, more time with her family and especially with her cousins, her two best friends in the whole world. And now, like a huge, unexpected gift, she was going to get what she wanted.
A warm glow was building in her chest. “I can’t wait,” she said. “This is going to be perfect.”
Six weeks later, Emma’s best friend in Seattle, Amelia, dropped her head down on the restaurant table and wailed, “This is terrible!”
In a few days, Emma and her mother were going to move to Waverly. Two weeks after that, school would start. Her dad would move out to Waverly as soon as he had hired and trained a new chef at Harvest Moon.
Emma loved coming to Harvest Moon, with its rich food smells and the way that the waitresses always treated her like she was special, and she loved bringing her friends here. Her dad had invited her to bring her best friend, Amelia, for a special good-bye lunch. Now, though, she was almost regretting it.
“What are we going to do without you?” Amelia asked, raising her head to look at Emma accusingly. “The soccer team’s going to lose all their games, for one thing.”
Emma almost felt bad that she didn’t feel worse about leaving. She was going to miss her friend, of course. But there was this happy little bubble inside her that kept reminding her: She was getting what she’d always wanted.
“No, you’re not,” Emma reassured Amelia. “You’ll get someone really good in.” Not that it felt great to think of someone else taking Emma’s spot as star forward on their team—she’d worked so hard to get there, and they’d gotten to the point where they won most of their games.
“And what about school?” Amelia continued. “This is the year we get to take a ferry out and go camping in the San Juan Islands.”
Emma’s heart sank a little. The weeklong sixth-grade camping trip to the San Juan Islands was something she’d looked forward to for ages. She hadn’t really thought about the fact that it was finally time and she wasn’t going to be there. Did Waverly Middle School’s sixth-graders get to do anything special? And, even if they did, would it be as much fun for her, if she was the new girl? Not really new, she reassured herself. I’ll have Zoe and Natalia. But, even so, she couldn’t help feeling just a little anxious. Beneath the table, she twisted her fingers together, trying not to worry.
Julia, the nicest of Harvest Moon’s waitresses, came over and began putting plates down on the table. “How are you doing?” she asked, as she placed Emma’s fried chicken and waffles in front of her.
“Good, thank you.” Emma untangled her fingers and smiled at Julia, reaching for her fork—she loved the cinnamon her dad added to the crispy waffles in this dish.
“Your dad has a special surprise dessert made up for you girls.” Julia sighed and shook her head. “We’re going to miss you all coming in here on the weekends. You were just finishing third grade that first summer. Remember your ninth birthday party?”
Emma nodded. “It was a lot of fun.” Her dad had gotten them the private party room in the back, and they’d played games and eaten a whole tower of cupcakes in every flavor from chocolate with raspberry frosting to creamy butter pecan.
She’d had so many celebrations at Harvest Moon—not just birthdays, but family dinners and last-day-of-school parties.
And now she never would again.
As Julia walked away, Emma turned back to see Amelia smile wanly.
“It’s more than just the team and school and everything,” she said softly. “I’m just going to miss you.”
“Yeah,” said Emma, swallowing. Her throat was suddenly dry, and her eyes ached like she might cry. “I’m going to miss you, too.” And it wasn’t just Amelia. Now that she was moving to Waverly, now that she was getting what she had always wanted, it suddenly felt like she was leaving a lot of good things behind.
She shut her eyes for a moment and thought fiercely to herself: I’m not going to worry about this. It’s going to be amazing.
This is definitely not amazing.
Emma shifted uncomfortably on the air mattress on her cousins’ floor, trying not to make too much noise. There was a weird lump under it. As she turned over, the mattress suddenly squeaked loudly and then went flat in one spot so that her shoulder hit the floor.
“Shh!” Zoe said irritably, mostly asleep, and pulled her pillow over her head.
Emma sighed and shifted around again to get off the flat spot. She definitely wasn’t going back to sleep, she thought grumpily. Was it too early to get up?
The renovations at Seaview House had started in the summer, while Emma and her mother were still in Seattle. The roof repairs were done, but, as Emma’s mom had explained, what you really needed for a bed-and-breakfast was a lot of bathrooms and a professional kitchen, which were still being installed. And so the plumbing and the kitchen were currently unusable, which meant Emma and her family couldn’t move in.
Worse, her dad wasn’t even with them. He was still in Seattle, because Harvest Moon didn’t have a new chef to take over for him yet.
Emma’s mom was staying up the road in Uncle Dean and Aunt Bonnie’s guest room, but everyone had thought Emma would have more fun with her cousins. She’d spent the last week sleeping on the floor of Zoe and Natalia’s room. It was pretty fun. Mostly. Especially at first.
They’d had a campout on the beach behind the house, just the three of them in a tent on the soft sand. They’d caught up on their summers and painted each other’s nails, and Emma had shown both her cousins how to make perfect folded origami boxes the way one of her cabin mates at camp had taught her.
It was great to be with Zoe and Natalia again, Emma thought, but she definitely wasn’t getting enough sleep and, after a whole week, Emma was tired. On top of the uncomfortable air mattress, Natalia snored. And Mateo still had to be woken up and walked to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Every time Aunt Alison or Uncle Luis went into his and Tomás’s room to get him up, Emma heard them in the hall and woke up, too.
There was definitely something digging into her back, it wasn’t just an air mattress lump. Emma sat up and wiggled her hand under the half-deflated air mattress. She just managed to touch something smooth and cool with the ends of her fingers. Metal? She slipped off the side of the bed and sat on the floor to get her arm underneath. Scraping her fingers against the carpet, she dragged it out. A tiny toy car. Tomás and Mateo. They were cute, but their toys got everywhere, and it was no use telling them to stay out.
Emma wasn’t used to having little kids around. At her own home, things had always stayed where she put them, and strange objects that didn’t belong to her never wandered into her room. There are too many people in this house, she thought, then felt disloyal.
She sighed and sat up. Even with the car out from under the mattress, she was still too uncomfortable to go back to sleep. Peering at Zoe’s alarm clock, she saw that it was only seven o’clock.
Emma got up and looked at her cousins. Zoe seemed to have gone back to sleep with her head under her pillow and her arms and legs sprawled across her bed, but Natalia’s eyes fluttered open and she looked up at Emma, yawning. “What’s up?” she asked.
“I�
��m hungry,” Emma whispered. “Want to get something to eat?”
“Sure.” Natalia bounced out of bed. Emma looked at Zoe, but Natalia grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the door. “Ugh, don’t wake her,” Natalia said. “She’s such a grump in the mornings; it’ll be more fun if it’s just us.”
“Okay,” Emma said, but she looked back at Zoe’s sleeping face. She didn’t want to wake her—it was true that Zoe was definitely not a morning person. But it felt weird that Natalia didn’t want her with them. Emma didn’t think Natalia was right—things weren’t more fun without Zoe, they were more fun with the three of them together.
Down in the kitchen, it was warm and sunny and smelled of cinnamon. Abuelita was standing at the counter, rolling out a rectangle of dough, while Grandma Stephenson sipped coffee at the kitchen table.
“You’re up early,” she said approvingly.
“Good morning,” Emma said to them both. “Yeah, I woke up earlier than usual.” She didn’t add how uncomfortable she had been, or that Natalia had accidentally stepped on her face in the middle of the night when she’d gotten up to go to the bathroom, and that it had taken her hours to doze off again.
“Yum, cinnamon rolls,” Natalia said, flopping down in a chair at the table. “We can eat them all before everyone else gets up.” Grandma raised an eyebrow at her, and Natalia shrugged. “I’m sorry to have to say it, but once you have five kids in a house, it’s survival of the fittest.”
Five kids was a lot for one house. Emma had thought it herself, but now that Natalia said it, she felt her shoulders tense. She was the extra one, after all. Did Natalia not want her here?
Abuelita blew her a kiss. “My hands are sticky, or I’d hug you good morning, dear. Would you like some juice?”
“I’ll get it for her.” Grandma Stephenson, supporting herself on her cane, began to get to her feet.
“Nonsense, you don’t want to put unnecessary strain on your hip. I’ll get it.” Abuelita put down the bowl and began to wash her hands at the kitchen sink.
“I am perfectly capable—” Grandma was on her feet now.
“I’ll get myself the juice,” Emma said hastily. She opened the refrigerator and took out a carton of orange juice as Grandma sat down and Abuelita turned her attention back to the rolls. “Can I help with those?”
“Sure,” Abuelita said. “Get out about a third of a cup of butter and melt it. We’ll brush it over the top and then sprinkle on the sugar and cinnamon. Should we put in raisins or walnuts?”
“Why not both?” Emma asked, with a smile at Natalia. She popped the butter into the microwave to melt, and Abuelita laughed.
“I’ll get the walnuts,” Natalia said, getting up. “The added protein makes the rolls practically health food.”
“Uh-huh,” Emma said. “Delicious sugary health food.”
“Speaking of sugar, I can mix the glaze at least,” Grandma told Abuelita. “If you insist, I’ll even let you get out the ingredients and I’ll stir it up sitting right in this chair.”
“No, no, you just take it easy.” Abuelita jokingly wagged a finger at Grandma Stephenson, and Emma turned around from taking the butter back out of the microwave to see Grandma roll her eyes up to the heavens. “I like taking care of everyone. Now, Emma, take this brush and spread the butter all over the top of the dough.”
As Emma began brushing the dough, she looked at her grandmother again. Grandma Stephenson had her lips pressed tightly together, as if she was reminding herself to keep her temper. “Well,” she said evenly, after a few minutes. “If I’m not allowed to do anything—”
“The most important part of any recovery is rest,” Abuelita said cheerfully.
“If I’m not allowed to do anything useful, I’d love to hear how my granddaughter is feeling about this move. I imagine Waverly is a big change after Seattle, Emma.”
“It must have been hard to say good-bye to all your friends,” Abuelita added.
Emma glanced up quickly to find two pairs of sympathetic eyes, one clear blue and one warm brown, fixed on her. She stared back down at the dough, carefully covering it with a layer of sugar and cinnamon. It had been hard, that was true.
The thing was, Emma had always wanted to be part of the family’s life in Waverly. She had always wanted to be able to be with Natalia and Zoe, her best friend-cousins.
But.
But it had been really hard to say good-bye to her friends, and they had all cried and promised to keep in touch, but Emma knew it wouldn’t be the same between them. And it had been hard to leave their nice little town house on Queen Anne Hill in Seattle—and her father—behind, and who knew when he would be able to come … Emma realized that her eyes were filling with tears, and she swallowed hard and reached for the raisins.
“She loves it,” Natalia said decidedly, leaning on the counter to grab a handful of raisins. “Emma couldn’t wait to come here.” She said it like she could answer this question just as well as Emma could.
“Well,” Emma said slowly, concentrating on placing the raisins evenly across the dough. She didn’t want to hurt Natalia’s feelings, and it wasn’t like she wasn’t glad to be in Waverly. “I am really happy to be here, mostly. I’ve always wanted to live—”
Quick footsteps on the stairs interrupted her.
“Rolls!” Tomás shouted delightedly. “Can I squinch them up?” He pushed at Emma so he could reach the end of the dough and try to start rolling it. Her juice glass fell to the floor and shattered. “Oh, no! No! I’m sorry!” Tears started to run down his chubby cheeks.
“It’s okay.” Emma hugged him. “It was an accident.” Tomás sniffed and wiped his eyes on the shoulder of her pajamas.
“Nobody move until I clean that up,” Abuelita said, going for a broom.
There was a shout from upstairs. “Mommy! Mommy!” and Aunt Alison answered, her footsteps padding down the hall.
Zoe came into the kitchen, her usually smooth hair wild and unbrushed. “I wondered where you were. You could have woken me,” she said. “Oh my gosh, cinnamon rolls. Tomás and Mateo are going to be on a sugar rush all morning.”
“Don’t step another foot,” Abuelita warned, sweeping.
Uncle Luis wandered in, his eyes half-closed, and fumbled at the coffee maker. “Careful,” Grandma Stephenson warned him. “There’s still some glass on the floor.”
The moment to tell Abuelita and Grandma what she was feeling had passed, Emma decided. Maybe she’d talk to them later. But not in front of Zoe and Natalia.They were both just so sure that everything about this move was great for Emma.
There wasn’t a chance to talk about anything much to anyone at all over breakfast; everyone was grabbing cinnamon rolls and bacon and fruit and talking over and around each other.
I’m just not used to this kind of thing, Emma thought. She was used to a quiet bagel at a table with usually just her mom, since her dad worked late hours at the restaurant and then slept in. Four adults and five kids at the same table was a lot louder than Emma’s regular mornings.
After breakfast was cleared away, Uncle Luis announced that he was taking all the kids to get their school supplies.
“Oh,” Emma said, startled. “My mom usually takes me.” She and her mom would take a whole morning on it, picking out folders and notebooks and pencils, and then have lunch at a restaurant together. It was calm and orderly, and Emma found herself twisting the bottom of her T-shirt, feeling worried at this change, even though there was no real reason to be. It was just another thing that was different, was all.
“It’ll be more fun with us,” Natalia said confidently.
“Your mom and I have a meeting with the contractors this morning,” Aunt Alison said, and Emma nodded. After all, she figured, Uncle Luis was a high school teacher, so he was probably especially good at picking school supplies.
At the school supply store, though, Uncle Luis just set them loose to pick what they needed. Mateo, who was starting nursery school and only needed
things like crayons and safety scissors, took up all his attention because they had to be the exact right crayons and scissors and everything needed to be inspected, slowly and carefully. Tomás tagged along with them, grabbing his own first-grade supplies and dumping them in the cart with only a quick glance.
Emma was used to looking at everything with her mom, and, despite being surrounded by her cousins (and about a million other kids and parents getting set for school), she suddenly felt a little bit lonely.
“I’ve got the list,” Zoe said. “I know you want to carry it, though, Emma.” Emma nodded and took the sheet of paper. She did feel better, seeing exactly what she needed, carefully laid out for her. They were all in the same class, so they all needed the same supplies.
As Emma checked things off the list, Zoe efficiently steered them from one aisle to the next, and Natalia kept wandering off and coming back with pencil cases that unzipped to show mouths full of zipper teeth or notebooks with pictures of kittens in funny poses. After a while Emma started to have a good time.
“Ooh,” said Natalia, as they got to the far end of the store. “Look at how cute that backpack is.” It was light blue, with a darker blue and teal butterfly spread across it.
“Pretty,” Emma agreed.
“Let’s all get them,” Natalia suggested. “We can be a team. Team Butterfly Girls.”
“Okay.” Emma liked the idea. She’d start the new school already visibly belonging, one of a matched set of three.
“I am definitely not getting matching backpacks,” Zoe said firmly. “I’m getting that pink-and-white one.”
Emma felt a little hurt. Still, it would be fun to match Natalia. And of course, Natalia and Zoe were already a matched set, even without the backpacks.
“Fine, evil twin, be that way.” Natalia made a face at her sister and hooked two of the butterfly backpacks into the cart.
“That’s the whole list,” Emma said, checking off backpack or satchel. “We are officially ready for sixth grade.”