B0075M2D1U EBOK

by Julie Cassar

  “ARRGGhhhh!” I yelled and whipped my pillow at him. He caught it and continued jumping. “And quit the jumping!” I screamed, “Yer gonna make me hurl!” Leo laughed and finally stopped. “Mom told me to wake you up. She’s got new flowers you’re supposed to help her plant… ‘member? Awww, c’mon,” he started shaking my leg and taunted, “I’ll give you a Scooby snack.”

  “GET OUT!” I yelled as I leaned forward to shove him off my bed. He leaned away just out of my reach and ran towards the door. “Slow on the uptake Scoobs!” and with that, my brother bounded down the stairs.

  I lazily stretched my arms above my head and yawned. “RUUUUBBYYYY!” I heard my mother yell up the stairs. Geesh. It’s like Grand Central Station around here. For Pete’s sake, it’s Sunday morning! I dragged myself out of bed, pulled on some cutoffs and an old t-shirt and headed downstairs.

  As I walked into the kitchen to pour myself some cereal, my mother was heading out the back door. She paused when she saw me enter the kitchen. “Those new Moon Flower plants came yesterday evening from Aunt Sue! Remember? You said you wanted to help me transplant them!”

  “That’s right, Ma. I remember. Just lemme eat my cereal first, ‘kay?” My mom gave a quick nod, “See you out there in five!”

  My mother was like a kid in a candy shop when it came to her flowers. Although, I can’t say I’m much different. I just loved being in the garden with her. We didn’t share a lot of things, but we both loved working in the garden. My mother always told me, “You can bury a lot of your problems in the dirt.” I had to agree. Plus, seeing the magic of the fairies playing in the garden always put a smile on my face.

  I finished my cereal and walked barefoot out the back door to see what my mother had in store for me.

  I had never seen a Moon Flower before, but my mother had described them to me with great detail. I looked around at the potted plants scattered across the lawn waiting to be transplanted and tried to imagine them blooming. My mother told me that it was a beautiful bright white, flower, round like a full-moon. In my opinion, the coolest thing about this flower was that that it bloomed in the evening and it can be pollinated by night-flying moths. The flower stays open and is fragrant all through the warm summer evenings, but the petals shrivel and die when touched by the morning sun. It reminded me of an enchanted flower out of a fairy tale…something I used to read about in storybooks when I was a kid. As my mother babbled on and on about this new flower we were planting, she began laughing as she told me about my Aunt Sue’s experience with the Moon Flowers. My Aunt Sue is kind of a hippy. Okay, not kind of. She is a hippy. About twelve years older than my mother (yeah, you could say my mom’s birth was a “surprise,”) Aunt Sue was like a flower child of the sixties. Apparently, the Moon Flower seeds can be hallucinogenic. Without getting into details, let’s just say that Aunt Sue tended to have a wild streak in her and her early experiences with the Moon Flower involved my Grandpa having to drive three states away to bring her home. I couldn’t believe how nutso my Aunt Sue was sometimes. The more stories I heard about her, the more I wondered how my mother turned out so normal and boring.

  As I helped my mother transfer the delicate plants from the pots into the ground, she warned me for the hundredth time, “Be sure not to touch your mouth. The seeds are poisonous, especially for animals. Now go put some over there, in the garden bed near the path to the lake. I think the white flowers will really stand out against all the green over there,” she ordered as she crawled around on her hands and knees, carefully tending to the soil and watering what we had just planted. I walked barefoot through the grass and carried a tray of the potted plants over to the back of the yard. As I knelt down in the cool, soft ground, I quickly scanned the garden for fairies. Huh. That was weird. Not one in sight. Usually, I see at least a few fluttering about. I started turning the soil with my small shovel, then dug several holes. I gently placed the plants in the freshly dug holes and packed the dirt in around them. I glanced at my hands and let out a big sigh. So much for my freshly painted Silver Moon Mist fingernails. They were covered in dirt. Well, at least the polish was named appropriately! Moon Mist polish, Moon Flower. I chuckled at my own little joke.

  It was after noon by the time my mother and I finished up with the planting. Thoroughly covered in mud, and sweaty from all of our hard work out in the hot summer sun, we retreated to the air-conditioned house for some cold lemonade and lunch. I couldn’t wait to see what the flowers looked like when their roots were established and they opened in the setting sun. Mom said it would take several days, but hopefully we would soon have the beautiful, white Moon Flowers glowing in the evening.

  Chapter 8

  The next few days were uneventful. Other than the rain storm that came through on Tuesday night, absolutely nothing happened. I worked every day at the craft and hobby store and I only saw Anya once, briefly. I hadn’t seen Brennan since my date with Nick, and I don’t think Leo saw him either. Usually, if Brennan’s not annoying the crap out of me, he’s out messing around with Leo. It was Wednesday evening, and I was scheduled to work until I closed the store at 9 p.m. By the time I finished up with all of my closing duties and rode my bike home, it would be almost ten. I don’t know why the store stayed open that late in the summer. It’s not like someone’s going to have a pipe-cleaner and felt emergency at 8:55 p.m., but whatever. At least I was getting paid. I was sitting on a stool behind the counter working the one register in the store, when the tinkling bells on the doors notified me that a customer was walking in. I looked up from the magazine I was reading and saw Anya breeze through the doorway. I smiled and waved.

  She smiled as beautifully as always, and her ice-blue eyes sparkled, “Hi Ruby! I just wanted to stop in to confirm our outing. We’re still going miniature golfing with Jeremy and Nick tomorrow evening, right?”

  I nodded, “That’s the plan… I hope.” I was a little nervous that Nick may have forgotten. I hadn’t talked to him in four days, so I wasn’t sure if he would remember. Just then, the tinkling bells rang out again, as the glass door pushed open. Geesh, all of a sudden we were getting an evening rush. Anya glanced over to see who was walking in and grinned. I looked over and saw Nick saunter up to the counter. I gulped. God, he was so good-looking. He was wearing flip flops, his orange and white board shorts again and an almost too-tight orange t-shirt that was stretched over his broad, tanned shoulders. “Well,” Anya started, “Speak of the devil!” Nick looked puzzled and looked at Anya, then at me, with a questioning look on his face. “Oh,” I said, “Anya was just stopping by to make sure we were all still going out tomorrow…We are still going, right?” I smiled hopefully at Nick.

  “Definitely,” he smiled assuredly in return. “Here, I brought you this. You said you love ice cream, and since we couldn’t go out tonight and we didn’t get a chance to finish our dessert the other night, I thought you might like it.” He placed a clear plastic container with a strawberry sundae on the counter in front of me. I couldn’t believe it. Nick Martino, Mr. Hotness himself, brought me ice cream. I think I might faint. Seriously, I must be dreaming. “Thank you! It’s wonderful!” I gushed. I wished for a second that it was chocolate and then brushed the thought out of my mind. Ice cream is ice cream. As long it’s not coffee or lemon, I was happy. Plus, who can complain when someone as gorgeous as Nick brings it?

  “Well,” Anya interrupted, “On that note, I think I’ll leave you two alone.” She winked at me and headed for the door. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow night,” she waved as she walked out of the store.

  As I scooped up a spoonful of the sweet strawberry sundae that he brought me, I asked, “So, did you go to the beach today?” I let my eyes wander down his body, gazing at how gorgeous and muscular he looked. I quickly looked down at my ice cream when I realized he was aware of my lingering stare.

  “Yeah,” he knowingly smiled. I blushed, embarrassed of being caught in the act of my inappropriate ogle. He continued, “Did you hear what happened at
the marina though?” I shook my head in response, as I had just shoved another huge spoonful of ice cream in my mouth. After all, it was easier to avoid my nervous word vomit tendency if I kept my mouth full of food. Maybe I’d look like less of a dork. Nick went on, “It was nuts. Almost all of the boats docked there were turned over. You should’ve seen it!” My eyes got huge with surprise as I swallowed my ice cream and my mouth fell open. “All of the boats?!?” I incredulously asked. He nodded, “Just about. There were a few still upright, and luckily, it’s still early in the season so there’s not too many docked there yet. But still…Can you believe it? They figure that the storm last night must have gotten pretty wicked and turned ‘em over.”

  I shook my head in disbelief as I scooped another spoonful of sundae into my mouth. “No way…” I mumbled with a mouthful of ice cream. My dad would have been so annoyed that I was talking with my mouth full. But this was just incredible. Nick patted his hands on the counter and announced, “Well, I gotta run. I told my buddies I’d meet ‘em up at the Cineplex. We’re gonna see that paranormal ghost hunters movie.” I nodded, “Sure thing!” I spooned another bite into my mouth. “Thankssfffthscream!” I mumbled, my mouth full again. He turned and walked back towards the door. As he opened it, he gave me his trademark smile and waved, “Cool. Later!” he yelled as he strutted out to the sidewalk. I finished the rest of my sundae and thought about what Nick had just told me. There’s no way the storm last night could have turned over all of those boats in the marina. Thinking of that reminded me of the mysterious dark hump I had seen in the water days earlier. Maybe it was the Loch Ness monster? I mean, fairies were real. It’s possible, right?

  Chapter 9

  It was Thursday night, and after another boring day, I was running around my house like a chicken with its head cut off. (As my mom would say.) Oh gross. I just thought about what that actually looks like. Ewww, yuck. The last thing I needed to be thinking about were headless chickens running around my house when I’m trying to prepare myself for another outing with Nick. Actually, I spent half of the day sleeping and then I sat in the garden and read for a bit. After a quick swim in the lake and an even quicker shower, I was now rummaging through my drawers, frantically looking for something to wear tonight. It was my second date with Nick. Okay, it was more like a group outing, but still, it counted. Since we were going to play miniature golf, I definitely wanted to be in shorts. I could only pull off that dress-wearing thing so many times. Tonight was definitely not one of those times. I pulled on some white shorts and a bright green tank top. I had a pair of bright green Converse that would match perfectly. Of course, I didn’t have enough time to fix my nasty toenail polish so my tennis shoes would camouflage them nicely. I quickly dressed, threw on a white headband and silver hoop earrings and skipped down the stairs so I could wait for Jeremy and Anya to pick me up. I heard a car horn honking and yelled that I was leaving to my parents.

  “Me too!” I heard my brother yell as he followed me out the door. I turned abruptly and asked, “Where the hell are you going?” I watched my brother run in front of me and grab the front door handle of Jeremy’s mom’s huge Buick. “Crashing your date Scooby!” He squeezed into the front seat next to Anya, pushing her closer to Jeremy. Leo was a little smitten with Anya. After all, she was beautiful. Who wouldn’t be smitten with her? As I stood there, stunned, on the front porch with my mouth hanging open, I noticed Brennan walking around the back of car and opening the back door for me. “What the hell are YOU doing here?” I exclaimed, “This is supposed to be a four-some! Not a… a SIX-some!!”

  Brennan laughed, “Nice. Is that even a word, Kansas? Relax. It’ll be a fun little trip to Oz. Come on…your carriage awaits!” With that, he made a big sweeping motion with his arm, as if to usher me into the back seat, and deeply bowed. I rolled my eyes. What a sarcastic ass. I shook my head as I climbed inside the car.

  “Just what is going on here? I thought it was going to be just the four of us?” I whined to Anya, who had twisted around in the front seat, squished between the two boys, to see me. She was craning her neck up and could barely see me over the seat as she said, “Ohhhh Ruby. Your brother really wanted to try this place out. He doesn’t drive, none of his friends drive yet… I didn’t think it would be a big deal if he and Brennan joined us.” She looked apologetic. Brennan climbed in the car beside me and flicked Jeremy on the back of the head with his hand, “All in!”

  “Heyyyyy!” Jeremy whined as he rubbed the back of his head, “That hurrrrt!”

  “Oh, quit being a baby,” chimed Leo, “You’re worse than Ruby.”

  I leaned back in the seat and shook my head. Sure, this was going to be no big deal. Ha! Anya had no idea what she was in for. I only prayed that the immature antics of Brennan and Leo wouldn’t scare off Nick.

  We pulled into Martino’s Pizza a few minutes later, and I jumped out of the car to get Nick. He was waiting out front, so I didn’t have to go inside. I took a moment to take in all of his gorgeous yumminess. As usual, he looked perfect. Wearing plaid cargo shorts, and a green t-shirt that set off his gorgeous green eyes combined with his glistening golden shoulder-length hair, he looked like preppy California God. And he was with me. I smiled at the fact that we also happened to have coordinating outfits on. How cute is that? Maybe I could get Jeremy to take a picture of us with his cell phone. That would probably be too cheesy, but Jeremy could totally get away with it. My heart started racing just looking at him walk towards the car. I climbed back into the backseat and tried not to pant as Nick slid in next to me. He looked around noticing there were six of us packed in like sardines. Before he could speak, I said, “Oh, my brother and Anya’s brother are crashing. They’re losers and couldn’t get dates though. So tonight, they’ll be courting each other.” I smiled and Nick smiled back.

  “Ha ha,” my brother fake-laughed from the front seat. Brennan reached out and put his arm snugly around my shoulder and slyly said, “Actually, I thought I’d share Kansas over here with you, Nick.” He smiled coyly and winked. I punched him in the side and leaned away from him.

  “Just ignore him. He’s an ass,” I retorted.

  Nick smiled, but seemed a bit puzzled and said, “Why did he call you Kansas?”

  I shook my head in embarrassment, “It’s a Wizard of Oz thing…never mind.” Brennan smiled as he looked out the window and Anya cranked up the radio. There was an awkward silence as I sat squished between Brennan and Nick in the backseat, and Anya sat squished between Jeremy and Leo up front. This was going to be the longest 15-mile drive of my life.

  “Soooo…Nick!” Jeremy started as he began tapping his fingers in time with the song on the radio and glanced in the rearview mirror, “I love your ensemble! That shirt is great – super spiffarific! Like minty-fresh zing! And just look how cute the two of you are! All matchy-matchy!”

  Oh God. Jeremy is flirting with my date. Kill me now. Who the heck says “ensemble” anyway? Does he think he’s Tim Gunn from Project Runway or something? Nick nervously cleared his throat. “Ahh. Thanks?” (And yes, he said it like a question.) Because how else is one supposed to respond to my dorky friend’s remarks? I was like a deer in the headlights. Completely stunned. All I could think was, somebody else, say something! Please! I fiddled with my hands in my lap and tried not to let my feet touch either Brennan or Nick. Finally, Anya spoke up, “So has anyone heard anything about this place yet?”

  Then, suddenly a good song came on the radio, and Leo cranked it up even louder as he turned to look at us and shouted, “I love this song!” Then he started doing air guitar and making wah-wah noises. Nick smiled in agreement, “Yeah, yeah. Cool.” The next thing I knew, we were all singing along at the top of our lungs, playing imaginary instruments and playfully joking. The conversation flowed from music, to different bands, to people we knew in school…and before I knew it, the not-so-long drive to Cadillac was over and we were pulling into the golf place. It was a pretty spectacular miniature golf course.
It was carved into the side of a hill, and featured a huge pirate ship, waterfalls, landscaped rocks and winding paths with treasure chests and little ponds and streams running through it all. I felt like I was at the Pirates of the Caribbean ride in Disney World.

  We each grabbed a club and a brightly colored golf ball. Jeremy stuck an extra one into his pocket and made Nick take an extra one for him too. Then we all took off for the first hole. Brennan leaned over and whispered to me, “Why did Jeremy take extra golf balls?” I smiled and answered quietly, “Jeremy sucks at miniature golf. He loses balls all the time.” Brennan was perplexed. “But don’t you just hit them on the little green patches and they bounce around until they find the hole they’re supposed to go in?” he asked. I smiled again, “Just wait, you’ll see.” I sometimes forget that Anya and Brennan don’t live in our world all the time. They haven’t had as much exposure to all of these pop-culture activities and things. They were in for a special treat…watching Jeremy play miniature golf was definitely a sight to see.

  We all strolled onto the course, Jeremy and Anya in the lead, Leo and Brennan next with Nick and myself lingering towards the back. “I’ll have you know, I am an expert mini-golfer,” I told Nick, with a sly look on my face.

  “Oh yeah?” he glanced sideways at me. “Cool.” I heard Brennan snicker. Ugh. He is going bug the crap out of me tonight. I didn’t think anyone could annoy me worse than Leo, but Brennan is sure winning that race this evening. As we played through the first few holes, Jeremy soon made his suckiness at the sport apparent. He hit his ball way too hard and it ricocheted off the side of the fake-rock wall of the green, went flying into the little stream next to it, and then quickly floated away. “DAMMIT!” he yelled. “I lost my first ball already and it’s only the third hole!” He stomped off the green, while pulling his extra golf ball out of his pocket and impatiently waited for the rest of us to take our turns. He kept letting out big sighs and stood there tapping his foot with his arms folded across his chest. I looked at the score card. There were 18 holes. I started laughing. Yep. Jeremy was screwed. Nick and I chatted casually as we walked through the course, and I was really trying hard not to stare at his biceps every time he took his turn. My goodness. His arms looked rock solid as I watched the muscles flex as he gently swung his putter. “Ahem,” Leo cleared his throat loudly as he caught me staring at Nick’s arms yet again. “The ball’s going that way, Scooby,” as he pointed in the opposite direction of Nick. I flashed my brother the evil eye, silently warning him to shut his mouth. Leo looked away like he didn’t see me, and then Brennan playfully punched him in the stomach, which of course, made Leo retaliate. Great. Now the pains-in-my-ass were going to start play-wrestling right here on the miniature golf course in front my date, Mr. Hotness. How embarrassing. We continued on, and Jeremy began making inappropriate small talk with Nick again. Even though I love the kid, sometimes he just never knew when to quit. Anya caught on and quickly steered Jeremy away from Nick. I had to remember to thank her for that.