Bex and Andi gawked at each other after the waitress slithered away.
“That was crazy!” Bex whispered, grabbing a few peanuts from the silver bucket in the middle of the table, cracking them open, and tossing the shells on the ground—which was apparently expected at the place. “What a character!”
“Seriously,” Andi agreed, taking a few peanuts herself. “As in a character from Lord of the Rings?”
“Yes!” Bex pressed her lips together so she wouldn’t burst out laughing again. “And she’s obsessed with rings, too! My ring…the onion rings!”
“She is the lord—or at least the lady of the rings!” Andi giggled and put on her best raspy voice as she grabbed Bex’s hand and stared at her ring. “Ohhh, my preciousss! I mussst have it!”
Bex wiped the tears of laughter that were rolling down her cheeks, then sighed. “I can’t believe how much has already happened, and we only left home a couple of hours ago.”
“Right? And even though some of it has been crazy and even terrifying, I wouldn’t trade any of it for anything,” Andi said.
“Neither would I. You’re a pretty great road trip companion, Andiman.”
“Yay.” Andi clapped her hands. “So are you—and a really great mom, too.”
After polishing off two plates of truly delicious onion rings and burgers, along with about half the bucket of peanuts, Bex and Andi were eager to get back on the road. But when Bex reached into her brown patchwork suede purse to find her wallet so they could pay the check, she groaned.
“What’s wrong?” Andi asked.
“My wallet…” Bex said, dumping out the contents of her bag on the table and searching through a mess of keys, sunglasses, lip gloss, receipts, and phone. “I can’t find my wallet!”
“Are you sure?” Andi grabbed the purse and checked to make sure the lining was intact, then looked in all the little zippered pockets. But Bex was right: her wallet wasn’t there.
“Oh, man.” Bex sighed. “That means we have no money and it also means we have no tickets to get into Mountain Jam!”
Andi couldn’t believe it. How could this have happened? “Did you maybe leave it back at the repair shop?”
“I guess it’s possible—or maybe it fell out somewhere between there and here.” Bex frowned. “I’m really not doing so well with this whole responsible thing, am I?”
“Don’t say that!” Andi insisted. “You’ve been awesome at helping me feel safe, even during some super-scary moments…like I was even kind of scared of Jagger and his friends at first, but they wound up totally saving us!” Andi laughed.
“I know—that was pretty funny,” Bex said. “I could tell you were worried when they got out of the truck, but Jagger’s the best. They were all so nice.”
“They were,” Andi said, but then thought back to that moment in the truck when Luke chewed on his lower lip. “I’m not so sure about that Luke guy, though. I actually think he was lying about having VIP passes.”
That was when something else occurred to Andi. “Oh my gosh! What if he does have VIP passes—what if he has our VIP passes?”
“Huh?” Bex screwed up her face.
“What if Luke is the one who took your wallet?”
Bex shook her head. “No way. Although I guess it’s possible that the wallet fell out in the truck.”
“Maybe.” Andi shrugged. “But either way, I bet they have it.”
“Well, there’s only one way to find out,” Bex said, grabbing her phone from the table and scrolling through her contacts until she found the number Jagger had programmed in.
“Yeah, but if Luke took it, he’ll never tell us,” Andi pointed out.
“But Jagger might.” Bex tried the number once…twice…three times but then set her phone down on the table in frustration. “Or not. I can’t get any service up here.”
“Ssso sorry,” the waitress said, slithering back to the table. “The cell service can be ssspotty on the mountain. It’s better when you get a bit higher up.”
“Oh.” Bex sighed.
“Can I get you anything elssse?” Tara asked.
“Not unless you have my wallet,” Bex replied. “I can’t seem to find it. It’s either lost or stolen. So I have no way to pay our check.”
“Oh, dear!” the waitress said. “What a messs.”
“Is there any way we can give you an IOU and then go try to find it?” Andi asked.
“My bosss would never allow that, I’m afraid. One of you will have to stay here while the other looksss for the wallet.”
“But we’re on our way to Mountain Jam. We don’t want to be late!” Andi said, frowning.
“I’m going to Mountain Jam, too,” Tara said, and her watery eyes zeroed in on Bex’s ring. “Perhapsss we can make a deal!”
Bex cringed. “Please don’t say it has anything to do with taking my firstborn!”
Andi laughed and rolled her eyes.
“No—but that ring!” Tara was practically leaping from one foot to the other. “That ring, that ring, you can give me that ring! It will look so nice with my fessstival dresss.”
“Oh, um…you mean I can give it to you as collateral?” Bex proposed. “You can wear it to the festival and then return it when I get my wallet back and come back to pay the bill?”
“Yesss!” The waitress clapped her hands and stretched them toward Bex, eager to get the ring. It was pretty loose when she put it on, given how bony her fingers were, but she still seemed delighted by the deal they’d made.
Bex winked at Andi and smiled, then said to Tara, “Please just be careful with it. It’s pretty old, but very preciousss.”
“Oh, of courssse!” the waitress quickly agreed, admiring the ring as she spun it around on her finger.
With that, Bex and Andi were free to return to the repair shop, pick up the motorcycle, and head for Mountain Jam—where, hopefully, they would be able to find Jagger and Bex’s wallet. Unless it turned up somewhere in between.
Bex and Andi didn’t find the wallet lying anywhere on the road between the diner and the repair shop, making Andi even more certain that it was in Jagger’s truck—or, more than likely, in Luke’s pocket. Bex tried to send a text to Jagger and also to Bowie, letting them know that her wallet was missing, along with the VIP passes to the festival. Alas, the messages weren’t going through because of the patchy cell service.
At least Manny had done a great job fixing up the tire. Plus he told Bex not to worry about paying him, let alone giving him some jewelry for collateral. (“Not just because you’re a friend, but because you’ve got no money! Good luck finding that wallet and have a great time at the festival!”)
Fortunately, the rest of the drive to the festival grounds was pretty smooth. Better yet, even though Bex and Andi no longer had their tickets to get into the festival itself, they would still be able to check in at the Summit Suites—Mountain Jam’s exclusive VIP campsite—since Bowie had reserved that separately for them.
“Oh my gosh!” Andi gasped when they got to the check-in area. “This isn’t a campsite—it’s a glampsite!”
Bex nodded slowly, taking it all in. “It really is. I’d heard about places like this, but I’ve never gotten this close to any of them before!”
Unlike the crowded, dusty, and sometimes muddy camping areas Bex had described from other festivals, the Summit Suites compound was situated on a lush grassy part of the hillside, with several rows of white tents that sat on wooden platforms, each one with its own parking spot. At first, the bald, heavily tattooed guy at the check-in villa gave Bex a hard time because she didn’t have her driver’s license. But when she explained that her wallet had been lost or possibly even stolen, and then produced a photocopy of the license, along with a backup picture of it on her phone, he was blown away by her impressive planning skills and directed her to tent number twelve.
“Responsible mom for the win!” Bex whispered to Andi, pumping a fist in the air as they headed for their tent.
“Yeah, if only you’d taken a picture of our VIP passes, and stored your credit card information in your phone like I keep telling you to do, and—”
“Okay, okay.” Bex rolled her eyes. “Baby steps, right?”
Andi laughed and agreed. “Sure. Baby steps.”
After they pulled up to tent number twelve, Bex and Andi jumped off the motorcycle and headed inside to unpack their bags, change into their day-one festival wear, and check out the digs—and they were not disappointed. Not only were there two full-sized beds with dark wood frames, crisp white linens, and fresh towels rolled up at the foot of each, but the floors were made from gleaming laminated wood and covered with bright orange-and-navy tribal-print rugs. There was also a lounge area with a couch and mini-fridge, as well as a coffee table and a huge welcome basket full of fresh fruit and other goodies.
“Guess we won’t be needing those sleeping bags after all, huh?” Bex smiled and fell back onto one of the beds. “Maybe we don’t even need to find my wallet and go into the festival. I’d be pretty happy hanging out here all weekend.”
“Seriously!” Andi agreed, grabbing a bunch of grapes from the fruit basket and dropping onto the comfy orange couch. “Although if the tent where we’re sleeping is this amazing, imagine what the VIP tents inside the festival would have been like!”
“I assure you, they’re even more amazing,” said someone with a familiar voice.
“Bowie?” Andi leapt up from the couch and raced to hug her father, who was standing at the tent opening, holding a huge potted orchid.
“Hey!” Bowie smiled as he entered the tent and set down the orchid on the coffee table. “What do you think of your accommodations?”
“Incredible!” Andi and Bex replied in unison.
“I’m so glad you found us!” Bex added. “I don’t know what to do—my wallet is missing, and our passes to the festival were in it.”
“Yeah, I got your text.” Bowie sat down on the couch.
“You did?” Bex tilted her head. “I didn’t think it went through.”
“It did, probably right around the time you pulled up to the festival grounds. There are more cell towers up here,” Bowie explained.
“Oh yeah, the cell service has always been better up here—but things have been so crazy I kind of forgot about that.” Bex grabbed her phone from her bag and scrolled through it. “That means Jagger should have gotten my text, too…but he hasn’t responded yet.”
“I bet he won’t.” Andi crossed her arms and sat back down on the couch next to Bowie. “I bet he has the wallet and the VIP passes and is having a great time on us.”
“Jagger Simon, from high school?” Bowie asked, turning to Bex.
“Uh-huh.” Bex recapped everything that had happened on the way up the mountain, from the tire blowout to Jagger’s taking them to the repair shop to having to use her ring for collateral at the diner.
“Whoa! I’m glad you guys are okay, and it sounds like Jagger actually helped you out.” Bowie turned to look into Andi’s eyes. “So what makes you think he has the wallet?”
Andi frowned. “Sure, Jagger seems like a nice guy. But there was something I didn’t quite trust about one of his friends. I don’t know. Maybe I’m being too suspicious.”
“I guess I can understand that,” Bowie said. “It’s easy to start questioning every little thing after going through the kind of stressful stuff you guys just did. I’m sorry the wallet’s missing, and I wish I could get more VIP passes so you could see the Orchid Arena.”
“But…you can’t.” Andi sighed. When Bowie had shown up in the tent, a small part of her started channeling Ham again, hoping for the best.
“Total bummer, huh?” Bowie put his hand on top of Andi’s. “I tried really hard to snag a couple more after I got the text, but those things are like gold around here. The event organizers are super concerned about keeping the crowds in the VIP areas to a minimum—so they wouldn’t budge on giving me two more laminates.”
Andi didn’t want to get upset, but she could feel her nose starting to tingle like it often did when she was about to cry. “That’s okay,” she said softly. “Thanks for trying.”
“Sure.” Bowie gave Andi’s hand a pat, then stood up and produced two rectangular cards from the back pocket of his jeans. “I did manage to get you a couple of general admission tickets, though.”
“Really?” Andi’s stomach did a little somersault.
“Yeah, I had to scrounge for them, but it’s something, right?”
“Yes! Yes! It’s totally something. Thank you so much!” Andi jumped up and gave Bowie a hug.
“Unfortunately, I have some more bad news, though,” Bowie said, staring at the floor.
“Uh-oh…that doesn’t sound good.” Bex got up from the bed and walked to the lounge area, where she grabbed Andi’s hand and squeezed it tight.
“What is it?” Andi’s voice cracked, and she pressed her lips together as she searched Bowie’s eyes for a clue.
“Um, well…the Renaissance Boys aren’t going to be playing tomorrow after all,” Bowie said. “Rafe got into a motorcycle accident and is in the hospital.”
“Rafe the singer?” Bex asked. “Oh my gosh, that’s terrible. Will he be okay?”
“Yeah,” Bowie replied. “But not by tomorrow.”
Again, Andi’s nose started to tingle. She desperately wanted to focus on all the good things she had to look forward to. They still had tickets to the festival…and they were getting to stay in an amazing tent…and at least they hadn’t been hurt or wound up in the hospital like Rafe. Still, it wasn’t exactly what she had been expecting. Of course, Ham had already pointed out that when you expected the best, there was always the chance you’d be disappointed. What else had he said, though? But I also get to enjoy each moment as it happens.
Andi decided, right then and there, that that was what she was going to do. No matter how many disappointments came her way on the trip, she was still making the best of it, and she would continue to do that. Yes, she was going to seize the day, embrace and enjoy each moment as it happened—even if those moments didn’t include VIP passes or seeing the Renaissance Boys.
As it turned out, even without VIP access, being at Mountain Jam was better than anything Andi could have expected. From the moment she and Bex stepped off the Summit Suites shuttle, there was so much to see. Sure, it was a music festival, but it was also a festival of other arts. So every aspect of the venue was set up for maximum visual appeal.
Even before she and Bex got to the entrance, Andi could see brightly colored structures everywhere—giant polka-dotted totem poles in every imaginable fluorescent hue, a massive mirror-ball octopus soaring high in the sky, and huge towers of lights near the main stage for the nighttime concerts. Once inside, Andi marveled at all the creative outfits people were wearing—headdresses and belts with dazzling sequins that resembled mermaid scales…sheer animal-print scarves fashioned into long robes…crocheted skirts and tops and hats…and fringe. So much fringe! It was almost like they’d stumbled into a crafting convention, and Andi was already getting all sorts of awesome ideas for things she could make when she got home.
On their way to one of the side stages for the first band’s set, Andi and Bex couldn’t resist stopping at the petting zoo, where they played with lambs, goats, piglets, and tiny chicks. However, they opted against going into the area containing what amounted to a mini-city made entirely of bounce houses. Andi also declined Bex’s invitation to go on any of the carnival rides—especially the Ferris wheel. After all, she still had some pretty bad memories of Jonah’s ex-girlfriend, Amber, abandoning her at the top of one after convincing Andi to sneak into the local fairgrounds during that one bizarre sleepover they’d had. That was a long story, and one Andi would rather forget.
Coincidentally, as soon as Amber popped into her head, Andi spotted Jonah, even with the vast sea of people all around—and sure enough, he turned around almost as soon as she set eyes on him. When he sa
w Andi, he took off his sunglasses and his whole face lit up. He grabbed the hand of a girl who looked like a taller, long-haired version of him, and headed straight for Bex and Andi.
“Hey! You’re here!” Jonah dropped the girl’s hand and leaned in to give Andi a quick, awkward hug before making introductions. “This is my cousin Mona. Mona, this is my good friend Andi and her mom, Bex.”
“Love your outfits!” Mona said, pushing her heart-shaped sunglasses onto her head and doing a quick scan of Bex and Andi.
“Thanks—you too,” Andi replied, admiring the glittery butterfly wings Mona had attached to the back of her strappy tie-dyed minidress.
“You do look great,” Jonah agreed, nodding approvingly at Andi’s green embroidered top before reaching out to run a finger over the scarf in her hair. “Cool scarf!”
“Thank you.” Andi smiled. Jonah wore plain black cargo shorts and a white graphic skater T-shirt—his typical guy uniform—but Andi said he looked great, too.
“So, Bex,” Mona interjected, turning to grab Bex’s hand and batting her long, dark, spidery lashes. “Jonah mentioned that you’re a makeup artist. Do you maybe want to go check out the beauty stations with me? Jonah absolutely refuses, so I am in desperate need of some girl time with someone my own age, like, now!”
Bex glanced at Andi, unsure, but Andi insisted that it was fine; she and Jonah could go check out some other stuff for a while, and they could meet up later.
“Are you sure?” Bex looked uncharacteristically nervous about leaving Andi. “I thought we were going to see the Hemlock Brothers’ set together.”
Andi checked the time on her phone. “They’re not going on for another hour, though. Maybe we can meet up then? I’ll set a timer on my phone to make sure we get there before they start.”
Bex sighed. “Okay, that sounds good. But first…safety first!”
Bex reached into her leather backpack and produced the smaller red bag. In a flash, she was coating every bit of Andi’s exposed skin with a thick layer of sunscreen and handing her the floppy hat, water bottle, and bandanna. “Promise me you’ll use these,” Bex demanded.
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