Monkey Business

by Leslie Margolis

  After another thirty seconds of agony I decided to give Oliver a call so I could explain that my fingers had slipped and I had only meant to use one exclamation mark. Except when I began dialing, Oliver texted me back.

  Awesome!!!! With four—count ’em, four—exclamation marks. I breathed a sigh of relief. Obviously, I was in the clear. We were equally enthusiastic. No, actually he was 25 percent more enthusiastic than I was, which meant I was more than in the clear. If anyone examined the evidence, they would know that Oliver was the more enthusiastic one in our relationship. Unless he used all those exclamation marks to make fun of my use of exclamation marks …

  Need help unpacking? he asked next.

  I smiled down at my phone in relief. Oliver was being sincere—I was sure of it. As much as I wanted to, I resisted the urge to hug my phone, because that would have been just weird. Still, I felt all gushy toward Oliver and wished I could give him a real hug. Unpacking is dull, dull, dull. That Oliver offered to help merely confirmed the fact that I seriously had the sweetest boyfriend in the world.

  I wish—Mom says I can’t have anyone over until my room is finished, I texted back.

  He replied with a sad face.

  Tomorrow! I typed, with one exclamation mark because I was cool like that.

  I kept unpacking, now with a huge grin on my face. The next box was labeled PLUSH, and when I tore open the cardboard flaps, a giant stuffed unicorn tumbled out. This made me smile. “Hey, Zilda,” I said as I picked her up and stared into her purple-with-sparkles eyes. “I haven’t seen you in ages.”

  Okay, yes, it could be seen as dorky, talking to my stuffed animal, but it was no biggie because I was alone in my room. Also, I hadn’t seen Zilda or the rest of my stuffed animals since forever. Yet here they all were! Curious and excited, I dumped the entire box onto my floor.

  I stared at every single animal I’d ever owned, with the exception of Snowball, my favorite mouse ever, who I’d insisted on taking to Disneyland when I was six because I wanted her to meet Mickey even though my mom warned me she’d probably get lost. Guess what? My mom was right. Snowball disappeared in Adventureland—an hour before we even spotted Mickey—and I haven’t seen her since. It still kind of makes me sad. Back when it happened my mom told me animals that get lost at Disneyland are lucky because they get to stay at “the happiest place on Earth” forever. And I knew she was making it up, even at the time, but I still liked to picture Snowball and Mickey riding Alice’s teacups together when the park was closed at night.

  Anyway, back to the stuffed animals that didn’t get left behind at theme parks … When I was younger, I slept with each and every one of them at my side. It was a rule, like, I wouldn’t go to bed without them—this despite the fact that every morning when I woke up, half the animals would be on the floor and others would be stuck in the narrow space between the wall and my bed.

  It’d been a lot of years since then. And it was fun to reconnect with old friends. I decided to sort them all by type.

  Buttons, my favorite beat-up old stuffed hippo, sat at the top of the pile. My grandmother gave her to me when I was born. She’s fat and blue with blond braids and sparkly red shoes. Not my gran—she’s skinny and white with gray hair. I was talking about Buttons, who used to have actual gray buttons sewn onto her chest, as if her body were a cardigan sweater, but all the buttons fell off. Then a few months ago Pepper mistook her for a chew toy. And the results weren’t pretty. Still, Buttons was a keeper. I placed her on the top shelf of my bookcase.

  Then I turned to the rest of the animals. I had three more unicorns; two elephants; one giant goldfish; eight dogs; three cats; four rabbits; five monkeys; a hedgehog; one purple, three-eyed Uglydoll; and two turquoise one-eyed Uglydolls—twin Uglies! I forgot about how cute they were. I put all the Uglydolls on my bookshelf and then went back to sorting. Turns out I also had a complete set of Sesame Street puppets: Bert and Ernie, Big Bird, Grover, Mr. Snuffleupagus, Cookie Monster, Elmo, and Animal.

  I wasn’t sure what to do with them. I didn’t want them on my bed—that was for sure. I was going to be twelve in a few weeks. I was way too old to sleep with a gazillion stuffed animals.

  But even though I didn’t want to sleep with my stuffed animal collection anymore, I couldn’t fathom parting with it for good. No, the animals were all way too important to be hawked at some garage sale. So what was I supposed to do?

  I packed them up and shoved the box into the hall. I’d talk to my mom about it later. Maybe I could save them for my new brother or sister. Not to keep—just to borrow for a few years. Babies love stuffed animals! And my baby brother or sister would have an instant collection. Lucky kid!

  I unpacked three more boxes, feeling like the greatest future big sister in the world. I put all my schoolbooks on my bookshelf and placed my spare printer paper in a stack on one corner of my desk, and my socks in my sock drawer.

  Then I took a quick break for lunch and got back to work.

  I found a bunch of stuff to give away—some sneakers that were too tight. The flats I wore to my mom and Ted’s wedding that were never comfortable in the first place, and a white T-shirt with a mysterious red stain on the middle of it. And when I finally finished dealing with all the boxes, my stomach was growling, so I wandered downstairs. Luckily, my mom was just coming inside with a big takeout bag from Gino’s, our favorite Italian restaurant.

  “Hungry?” she asked.

  “Starving!” I told her.

  She laughed. “Good. Me too.”

  Ted came in behind her carrying two big bags filled with groceries. “Hi, Annabelle. You’ve been quiet all day,” he said. “I kept meaning to check on you to make sure you weren’t trapped under an avalanche of boxes.”

  “It’s all good,” I said, sitting down at the kitchen table. “And I’m finally finished!”

  “Well done. The house is coming together so fast,” Ted said as he sat down next to me. “And don’t worry, Annabelle. We’ll get your basketball hoop installed by the end of the week. Tomorrow, even, if I can track down the hardware.”

  “Excellent!” I said. “And what about the trampoline?”

  Ted grinned at my mom. “I thought the trampoline was going to be a surprise,” he said.

  My mom turned bright red. “It was,” she said carefully. “Hmm. I wonder who told her.”

  We all laughed because the answer was obvious. Anyone who knows my mom knows that she’s terrible at keeping secrets.

  “I was surprised when I found out you were getting me a trampoline,” I said as diplomatically as possible. “And I’ll be thrilled once it’s here. You guys are amazing parents!”

  “Spoken like someone who really wants a trampoline,” said Ted.

  “We’ll order it as soon as we unpack the house,” my mom promised.

  “My room is done,” I said. “Remember?”

  “I guess that means you can invite your friends over,” said my mom.

  “Oh, I already texted them twenty minutes ago,” I said. “As soon as I started on my last box.”

  “You are exceedingly efficient,” said Ted.

  I stood up and looked out at our backyard. “I was hoping the trampoline would be set up already so we could bounce tonight. And I know just the spot for it—at the deep end of the pool. I’ll bet I can figure out how to do a reverse flip into the water.”

  “Um, having you fall off the trampoline and crack your head open is my biggest nightmare,” said my mom. “So keep talking like that and the trampoline may never arrive.”

  “Sorry. Never mind,” I said quickly.

  The doorbell rang as I was finishing my sandwich. “I’ll get it,” I said, jumping up and then moving my dishes into the sink.

  Pepper beat me to the entryway and barked like crazy. He always went nuts when someone came over—don’t ask me why.

  I raced toward the door and tried to stop short but ended up skidding in my socks halfway across the entryway. “Yikes, our new floors a
re slippery,” I called to no one in particular.

  Through the stained glass window in the middle of our door I spied three figures: a tall blurry person with long red hair who could only be Claire; a short blurry person in a blue Dodgers cap with short black braids sticking out on either side who had to be Yumi; and a medium-size, slightly slouchy person with long brown hair parted in the middle who had to be Emma.

  I opened the door with a big grin on my face. “Hey, guys!” I said. “You’re right on time. Welcome to my new house!”

  “Thanks for having us over!” said Claire, coming in and giving me a big hug. “This is so exciting.”

  “I’m missing the second half of the Dodgers game for this,” said Yumi. “But it’s totally worth it.”

  My friends all dropped their stuff inside and then looked around.

  “Your entryway is so fancy,” Yumi said, gazing up at the crystal chandelier overhead.

  “I’m so happy we live closer now,” said Emma, flashing me the screen of her phone, which was on its timer setting. “It took me ninety-five seconds to walk here, and I wasn’t even hurrying.”

  “That’s great! Let’s go upstairs and I’ll show you my room,” I said, grabbing one of Claire’s suitcases. She’d brought two, which was so Claire. She changed outfits at least three times a day. At the moment she had on a purple-and-blue paisley long-sleeved shirt and cutoff jean shorts with a rainbow peace sign embroidered on both front pockets. Most likely she’d done the embroidery work herself.

  “Rachel texted to tell me she’d be late,” said Yumi. “She’s stuck at her grandparents’ house for dinner tonight and she couldn’t get out of it.”

  “No worries,” I said, leading them upstairs and into my brand-new bedroom. “I haven’t had a chance to put up my posters yet, but here we are. …” I spread out my arms.

  “Wow, your room is huge,” said Claire as she looked around. “And check out your closet! I dream of having a walk-in closet!”

  “You do,” said Emma.

  “I mean one of my own—and a room that I don’t have to share with Olivia.”

  Claire has an older brother and sister. They’re eighth-graders and twins named Olivia and Charlie.

  “I like Olivia,” I said. “She’s cool and super-sweet.”

  “She is,” said Claire. “As far as sisters go, I’m lucky. She never minds when I borrow her clothes and she doesn’t hide her diary that well, so I always know what’s going on with her.”

  “You read her diary?” I asked, shocked.

  “Shh!” Claire said, raising her finger to her lips. “Let’s not publicize that fact.”

  “You kind of just did,” said Emma.

  “Right—but I’m trusting that the information won’t leave this room,” said Claire.

  “Got it,” I said with a nod. Then I thought about this for a moment. “Do you think my future baby brother or sister is going to read my diary?” I wondered.

  “Probably,” said Claire, wiggling her eyebrows. “So consider yourself warned.”

  “That’s going to be so annoying!” I cried. Then I thought about it for a minute. “Oh, wait. Except I don’t actually have a diary.”

  Everybody laughed, and Emma said, “Make sure you don’t start one now.”

  Then Claire unzipped her orange duffel bag and pulled out a pair of white Converse sneakers. On each side were hand-painted little black-and-white dogs. They looked sort of like Pepper in miniature.

  “Those are so cute!” I said.

  “Glad you like them because I made them for you,” Claire said.

  I gasped. “This day keeps getting better and better and it’s not even my birthday!”

  “This is your housewarming present,” said Claire. “You’ll need the new shoes because you’ll be walking farther to get to and from school from now on.”

  “True,” I said, giving Claire a quick hug. “Thank you. You’re the best.”

  Then I looked more closely at the sneakers and said, “You did an amazing job!”

  “Thanks. It was easy,” Claire said proudly as she tucked her hair behind her ears. “Fun, too, since Pepper is the most adorable puppy.”

  Right when she said his name, Pepper hopped into her lap. Claire giggled and scratched him behind his ears. “Hi, cute guy!”

  He licked her face in response.

  “Thanks for making me look bad,” said Yumi. “I didn’t bring a thing!”

  “Neither did I—except for my sparkling personality,” said Emma as she batted her eyelashes at us.

  We all giggled.

  “Oh yeah, I have that too,” said Yumi.

  “That’s certainly enough,” I assured them as I stepped out of my flip-flops and then sat down to try on the new high-tops.

  “They fit perfectly,” I said.

  “You should probably wear them with socks or you’ll get blisters,” Emma pointed out.

  “I guess so.” I crossed my room to my dresser drawer and pulled out a pair of white tube socks with chunky red and blue stripes.

  “Those are so retro,” said Claire. “Perfect for the Converse.”

  “I’m glad you approve,” I said as I pulled them on. “And thanks again. I’m so excited to have another one-of-a-kind Claire original.”

  “Can I commission a pair?” asked Yumi. “Maybe blue shoes that say, ‘Go Dodgers’ on each side?”

  “Sure,” said Claire. “I’m picturing it now—a little baseball with red stitching and letters all in silver. What size shoes do you wear?”

  “Six,” said Yumi.

  Claire pulled out her phone and plugged in the information.

  Then suddenly Pepper shot out of the room and down the steps, barking all the way.

  Seconds later the doorbell rang.

  “Oh, that must be Rachel!” I said, jumping up and following Pepper to the front door. “I should lock up Pepper.”

  Rachel is allergic to dogs—they give her hives. And the only reason she was able to sleep over tonight was because I’d promised we’d keep Pepper out of my room and away from her in general.

  I ran to the front door just as Ted opened it. Rachel stood in the doorway with her trusty red backpack slung over one shoulder, and her green sleeping bag tucked under her opposite arm.

  “Hold on. Let me put Pepper outside,” I said, grabbing him by the collar.

  “I’ll take him,” said my mom. “And hi, Rachel. We’ll keep him away. Don’t worry.”

  “Thanks,” Rachel said. Her eyes seemed red and puffy already.

  “Wow, you really are allergic, huh?” I asked.

  “What?” asked Rachel, blinking at me. “Oh. Yeah.”

  “Hi, Rachel. Now let’s see,” said Ted, counting on his fingers. “That’s one, two, three, four of you. Annabelle’s friends have all arrived, which means the five musketeers are together again!”

  “I don’t even know what that means,” I said. “But please don’t say it again.”

  “You’ve got it, boss,” Ted said with a smile and a salute.

  I stared at him silently as if to say: “please don’t embarrass me.” Except obviously it was too late!

  “I’ll take that as my cue to leave,” said Ted as he backed away. “Have fun, girls!”

  “Sorry I’m late. I got stuck at dinner with my grandparents,” said Rachel as she walked inside and readjusted her rainbow-striped ski cap. It’d been pretty hot out these days, but Rachel doesn’t wear her ski cap to stay warm. She wears it to keep her curly brown hair under control because, according to her, it gets too frizzy. Especially in the spring and summer, when the humidity index increases. So yes, when winter ends and most people are putting away their jackets and boots and scarves and things, that’s the exact moment when my best buddy Rachel breaks out her ski caps.

  “It’s okay,” I said. “You didn’t miss a thing. Everyone just got here.”

  “Come on upstairs, Rachel,” Yumi called from the top of the steps. “You should see Annabelle’s ne
w room!”

  Rachel followed me up the steps and into my bedroom. She took one look around and exclaimed, “Wow!”

  Then she dropped her backpack and sleeping bag to the ground and narrowed her eyes at me. “This whole house is ridiculous, Annabelle. Please don’t tell me you’re going to turn into a Canyon Ranch snob now.”

  Silence fell over the room. My friends and I stared at Rachel, wide-eyed.

  A Canyon Ranch snob? What was Rachel even talking about?

  Chapter Three

  The Panda Parade

  That silent moment between me and my friends seemed to last for a long, long time. No one seemed sure what to say or do. Moments before, we’d been having the best time. Then Rachel showed up and accused me of being a snob? Not cool! Everyone seemed too shocked to say anything, myself included.

  Eventually Claire broke the silence. “Ha-ha. Very funny, Rach,” she said.

  My other friends giggled too, but it all seemed forced. Like they wanted to believe Rachel was joking but they weren’t quite sure.

  I wished I could have joined them, but it felt too weird. Almost like I’d be laughing at myself. Because what Rachel said? Maybe she’d been trying to make a joke. But it wasn’t funny. Not the least bit. Still, I felt like I had to say something. Plus, Rachel was staring at me, and her big brown eyes seemed colder than usual. She looked as if she wanted to pick a fight. Or was at least putting the bait out there with her comment and waiting to see if I’d take it.

  Was I going to take it?

  “That’s a good one,” I said. Except my voice sounded harsh too. I couldn’t hide my anger and I didn’t want to. I was mad at Rachel for ruining my good mood and for putting me in this awkward position. It was as if we were suddenly in a showdown, but what were we fighting over, exactly?

  Rachel didn’t respond or even look at me, and everyone seemed to feel the tension in the room.

  “Let’s talk about something else,” Emma said gently. She turned to Yumi. “What’s the latest with Nathan?”

  “We’re back together,” said Yumi.

  “That’s great!” said Claire, clapping her hands. She was probably happy for Yumi and relieved that we’d changed the subject. I know I was!