“You’ll get used to it,” Anna said. “Trust me. I don’t even smell the farm anymore.”
“That’s worse than a farm!” Lexie cried.
“I might have to agree with you about that,” Danielle said.
“I’ll have to wash my clothes a million times after sitting in there,” Lexie carried on. “That stench will eat the nail polish right off my fingers.”
“Don’t worry,” I told her. “You don’t have to go in there if you don’t want to. We’re going to set up for the bake sale right there.” I pointed to an area in the hallway a short distance from the gym.
Lexie let out a big sigh. “Good,” she said.
It took us about twenty minutes to get the tables set up and arranged with all the food on display. In addition to Danielle and her grandmother’s many delicious-looking treats, Danielle had also whipped up some fancy signs listing the various prices for our different items. At fifty cents a pop, we were set to make a couple hundred dollars on brownies alone.
Anna came prepared with her camera. She and I had talked about that ahead of time. She was going to be busy getting potential pictures for the yearbook, but we also discussed getting as many shots of Mr. Terupt as possible, knowing we might find a purpose for them later on in our campaign.
We had barely gotten ourselves situated when people started coming up to our tables and buying goods.
LUKE’S SEVENTH-GRADE SURVIVAL GUIDE
TIP #17: Should you find yourself in need of money, a well-organized bake sale—one featuring a variety of tasty choices—has the potential to be a terrific fund-raiser, especially one that takes place at a wrestling tournament.
Between Vincent, Miss Catalina, and Danielle and her grandma, we had a few hundred brownies and cookies, and another table loaded with pies and breads. We were busy selling all day long.
I hated leaving Mom alone, but she told me to go.
“You sitting at home isn’t helping me get any better,” she said. “If I can think of you as being happy, that does help, so go. Your friends need you, and besides, Margo will keep me company.”
As much as I wanted to be there with the gang, it was only because of Mom’s insistence that I ended up sitting outside that smelly gym full of gross boys. But I’m glad I did, ’cause like, the girls and I had a lot of catching up to do. In between all our selling, the four of us huddled together and got back to being besties.
“So, like, what’s new?” I asked them.
The way Anna and Danielle looked at each other, it was obvious there was something new with them. Something they couldn’t wait to tell me and Jessica. “What is it?” I asked.
“We’ve got another wedding coming up,” Anna said, all giddy. “Charlie proposed to my mom.” She and Danielle went on, telling us all about Charlie’s romantic proposal. “…and the ring…and a snowman…and words in the snow…and it was all just so lovely.” She had us laughing. “I’ve got a dad now!” she cheered.
“I saw mine,” Jessica said.
Things went from fun and light to serious real fast.
“You did?” Anna and Danielle said in total disbelief. “How? Where?”
Jessica told us everything. First, she filled Anna and Danielle in on the crazy plan we had hatched to get her to the retreat, and then she told us about running into her father, the divorce papers, and all that they said to each other in those few minutes.
“A couple of days after the retreat, his letters started arriving,” she said. “I get one from him every day. He sends them to my mother, too, but she hasn’t opened any.”
“What do they say?” I asked.
“Nothing really.”
She’d had enough. I understood. I could talk about Mom’s cancer only so much. So when Jessica grew quiet, I reached into my purse and pulled out the surprise I had for Danielle.
“I made this for you,” I said, handing her my creation. “It’s a designer bag for your diabetes kit. If you’ve got to cart that thing around with you everywhere, you might as well do it with some style. Like, make it a fashion accessory.”
“I love it,” she said.
“And like, just so you know, I think the way you’re handling everything is amazing.”
“Thank you, Lexie,” Danielle said.
“You should be around her when her sugars are out of whack,” Anna said. “That’s when she’s amazing.”
“Oh, be quiet,” Danielle said.
The two of them carried on like an old married couple.
“Lex, you’re really getting good with that sewing machine,” Jessica said. “The bag is beautiful.”
“I’ve been sewing more lately,” I said. “Like right now I’m making a purse for Margo, but before that I made Mom a few different things….” My voice trailed off.
Anna and Danielle looked at me without saying anything. They weren’t stupid. They’d heard something different in my voice when I mentioned Mom. Like, I couldn’t help it. It was hard for me to hide my feelings when talking about her. Jessica didn’t say a word.
“I’ve been praying,” I said, “but, like, I don’t know if I’ve been doing it the right way.”
“There is no right way,” Danielle said. “As long as it comes from your heart, he’ll listen.”
I told them about Mom’s breast cancer and her chemo and her recovery. I talked about it until I got tired of talking about it, like Jessica.
It was good having my friends back, and it was just in time. The Budget Bake Sale had gone smoothly, but things were about to get really rocky.
The last time I squared off against Winshall I couldn’t calm my nerves, especially after seeing that Coach Terupt was there—and that Anna wasn’t. Her absence had me angry and upset, and anything but focused. I remember getting mad at myself for even thinking about her at that moment.
Today was a different story. Having Coach Terupt there made me excited. He believed in me, just like I believed in him. Asher was propped up on my dad’s shoulders, cheering. And I found Anna sitting in the bleachers, smiling down at me. She’d taken a break from the bake sale so she could watch my match. She gave me a small wave and mouthed the words good luck. There were no nerves today. When I looked across that mat at Scott Winshall warming up, I knew I had everything on my side.
The amazing thing about a small school gym is if you put enough people in there, and give them a reason to scream and holler and go crazy cheering, the place can become deafening. You might as well be in a football stadium, that’s how loud it can get. Still, when I zeroed in on my match with Winshall and visualized getting my hand raised in victory, the sounds all around me disappeared. I was ready. Peter had just won his match, capping off his undefeated season. I had trained with Peter, and seeing him win gave me even more confidence. Now it was my turn.
Every ounce of me felt strong, starting with our handshake. But Scott Winshall hadn’t “won them all” for no reason. He was ready, too. And when the whistle blew, he came at me. We fought with our arms, pushing and pulling on each other, battling to get position. Winshall struck first. He darted in on a single-leg. I fought and fought to defend it, but he was able to finish the takedown as we rolled out of bounds. Winshall took an early 2–0 lead. On my way back to the center I glanced off to the side, and though I couldn’t hear anything, I saw Coach Terupt and Peter hollering. I saw Asher clapping. And I spotted Anna up in the stands cheering.
I got set on bottom, and when the whistle blew, I exploded to my feet. Winshall couldn’t keep me down. I escaped, making the score 2–1, and, with less than twenty seconds to go in the period, I found my opening. I snapped Winshall’s head down, and as he fought to straighten back up, I blasted him with a hard double-leg, tackling him to the mat. The period ended with me in the lead 3–2. The gym was going nuts. Looking at Winshall, it was clear he knew he was in a dogfight.
The second period was more of the same back-and-forth struggle, and so was the third. It all boiled down to the end. With less than thirty seconds to
go in the match, Winshall was up by one point. The score was 10–9, and we were on our feet. Takedown wins it, I told myself. I turned up the pressure, thinking of all my early-morning runs and extra push-ups. I went after it, knowing that if I didn’t let go, there would be no happy ending. With time dwindling, I faked a shot to one side. Winshall reacted, setting up my single the other way. I hit it quick and got in on his leg. He fell over my back in a sprawl, and I immediately scooted my knees under me. As I lifted my head and came out the back door, I saw the final seconds ticking off the clock. I scored the winning takedown at the buzzer.
The gym went bonkers. Scott Winshall had been defeated! The referee raised my hand, and I sprinted off the mat and into Coach Terupt’s arms. Coach Brobur and Peter were there to slap me on the back and congratulate me.
“You won the war, kid,” Coach Brobur said. “Way to go.”
“You were awesome!” Peter cheered.
“That’s the first of many, Jeffrey,” Coach Terupt said. “You looked terrific. Way to fight!”
I couldn’t stop smiling. And what I found out is, after a win like that, there are a lot of people who want to congratulate you. I shook all sorts of hands and said lots of thank-yous—to teammates and even kids from opposing schools. Beating Scott Winshall made me an instant celebrity, but eventually, Asher got tired of waiting for his turn. He snuck by all those bodies and ran up and hugged me, wrapping his arms around my legs in his own double-leg attack.
“Yay, Ree!” he said. “You best!”
I bent down to his level. “Yeah, I did it. Thanks, buddy.”
He took a step back and opened his hand to show me the candy hearts he was holding. We still had some left over from Valentine’s. Dad had a dish of them sitting out in the house, and he was always picking them up and giving them to Mom in a playful way, flirting with her. After the struggles they’d had, I was fine with their displays of affection—at home. The letters on the hearts Asher was holding now were beginning to smudge from being squeezed to death in his sweaty palm, but you could still make out what they said.
“You want me to have one?” I asked him.
He nodded.
I took a red candy. “Thanks.”
“Hi, Asher,” Anna said, coming up behind him.
Asher turned to see who had just called his name. “This is Anna, buddy. You remember her?”
Anna’s smile was quickly matched by the one on Asher’s face. He looked back at me and showed me his candies again. “Would you like to give her one?”
He nodded.
I chuckled. Asher had clearly noticed how Dad liked to give the candies to Mom, and now it was his turn. “Go for it,” I said, wondering if he was also planning to give Anna a squeeze or smooch like Dad often did with Mom. I couldn’t wait to see this.
My little brother walked up to Anna with more confidence than I had just wrestled with and gave her his heart. Anna took the candy and said, “Thank you.” Then she read it and burst out laughing. “ ‘Hot stuff’!” she exclaimed. Asher grinned from ear to ear. “You sure know how to talk to a girl,” she told him. Then she bent over, wrapping her arms around him, and he planted his lips on her cheek.
I stood there wishing it was me sharing that hug with Anna. Then I realized Asher had just showed me how to do it. This was my chance. I had to go for it, like I did in my match, or else I’d lose out. I glanced at the candy heart in my hand. The perfect phrase was printed on it. I walked over to her.
“I have one for you too,” I said, holding out my palm. The words BE MINE were faceup, staring at her.
She took my heart and looked at me. “I thought you’d never ask.”
It was like I’d just won my big match all over again. I sucked in a breath so deep that it lifted me onto my tippy-toes. Before that moment, I hadn’t been breathing, but now I felt like I could fly. When I exhaled, I came down and stepped closer to her. Our fingers found each other same as they had during the Everything Fair, except this time we didn’t let go. There’s no telling how long we would’ve stayed like that, holding hands and staring into each other’s faces, if it weren’t for Asher.
“My-my,” he said, pointing.
I looked across the gym, but didn’t see anything.
“My-ill,” he said, this time with more determination, and still pointing.
“It sounds like he’s saying ‘Michael,’ ” Anna said. “Do you know anyone named Michael?”
Asher looked at us and nodded. I thought back to last year, to that night when I was working on Terupt’s wedding gift with Dad, when I told him that I thought Michael had sent Asher to us. I thought about Christmas morning, when Asher had tapped the angel on the cover of his new Bible and said, “My-my.” Michael had been with us all along. He’d always be with us. I squeezed Anna’s hand.
“Michael taught me how to love and not to quit,” I said.
I had a lot to tell her, and I knew now that I would.
The Perry Falls Wrestling Tournament was a day filled with much to remember, but it was what happened after my match that shocked me, and it was what I saw after it was all over that stopped me dead in my tracks—twice.
I capped off my undefeated season with a win in the finals. The kids in my weight class weren’t nearly as tough as Jeffrey and Zack. Having the best training partners was a definite advantage for me. Mr. T knew what he was doing by getting us together.
After having my arm raised, I raced off the mat and got a big hug and congratulations from T and Coach Brobur. Then I slapped Jeffrey’s hand and got set to cheer him on. I’d been more excited for his match against Scott Winshall than I had been for my own.
Jeffrey wrestled the best six minutes of his life and won it at the buzzer with one of the moves we’d learned at camp. It was awesome! I was so happy for him, and not at all surprised that he’d won. I was more shocked by what happened after that.
Zack came over to congratulate me on my win, which was cool of him, but then Lexie came over, too. I hadn’t seen her all day, so she must have snuck in at the end. I thought she was coming to talk to Zack—and so did he. “Hey, Lexie,” he said, reaching his arm out, expecting her to cuddle into him like she was his girl or something. But Lexie blew by him, and next thing I knew, she was hugging me—and it felt better than when I won my match.
“Great job,” she whispered in my ear, squeezing me.
When she let go and turned back around, you could see in Zack’s face that the score was even now. She’d just crushed him. And even though he deserved it, part of her must’ve felt sorry for him—he wasn’t all bad—because she told him about some Meghan girl who supposedly had a thing for him, and then he left us alone to find her. But trust me, after our hug, I think he got the hint. It was more than a hug of congratulations.
“I thought you had a thing for him,” I said.
“Are you kidding? You tried growing whiskers overnight. That’s the sweetest thing anyone’s ever done for me. Well, one of the sweetest. And dumbest,” she said.
We stayed there for the next five minutes, laughing and talking together. Lexie filled me in on the success of the bake sale. Miss Catalina’s brownies were gone, and so were Vincent’s and Danielle and her grandmother’s. The girls had made a killing.
“That’s awesome,” I said.
Then she told me all about Charlie’s proposal and how excited Anna and Danielle were to be sisters and how romantic the proposal was.
“Charlie wrote the words Will You Marry Me in the snow,” she said. “Isn’t that so sweet?”
“Wow! He must’ve had to pee two or three times to write all those letters,” I said.
“He didn’t do it like that, you butthead!”
Things were getting back to the way they used to be, and I couldn’t have been happier. It had already been an unbelievable day, but there was still more to come.
“My ride’s going to be here soon,” Lexie said. “Will you wait outside with me?”
“Sure,” I said. I pu
lled my wrestling shoes off. “These are T’s old ones,” I told her, holding them up for her to see. “I don’t want to get them dirty.”
She plugged her nose. “It’s a good thing we’re going outside.”
We were only out there for a minute or two before Vincent pulled up. I recognized his car. And then there was Margo going nuts in the window. She was standing on the lap of the person riding shotgun. It was when I finally saw who was sitting in the passenger seat that I was stopped dead in my tracks, my breath taken from me.
Lexie’s mother sat there looking pale, with a scarf wrapped around her head. I knew Lexie was the queen of fashion, but something told me her mother’s scarf wasn’t only a stylish accessory. I might not know everything, but I knew Lexie’s mom was sick.
I stared into Lexie’s face. There was so much I wanted to tell her, but nothing came out. What do you say in a moment like that?
“It’s okay, Peter,” she said.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Well, let me think about that. How about, for starters, we haven’t been talking until now, you stupid-head. But like, now that you know, I don’t need you acting any different around me. Got it?” She jabbed me in the chest with her finger.
I nodded.
“I mean, don’t joke about my boobs, because that’s a sensitive topic, but other than that, I just need you to be Peter. Okay?”
“Okay,” I said.
Lexie was so serious telling me how it was going to be that I didn’t even notice when Margo escaped from Vincent’s vehicle and made a beeline for us. I didn’t realize until I felt my sock growing wet and warm. I jumped and yanked my foot away.
Now Lexie was giggling. She bent down and picked up her fur ball as I danced with my leg in the air. “She’s just marking her territory,” Lexie said. “She likes you.”
“Great,” I said. “I love it when she pees all over me.”
Lexie was all smiles. And then, all of a sudden, she leaned closer and kissed me on the cheek. “That’s my mark,” she said.
Saving Mr. Terupt Page 17