Sincerely

by Courtney Sheinmel

  He was standing next to Morgan wearing the track team’s shirt. I tried to take a deep breath but it came out more like a gasp and Mr. Gallagher looked over at me. He just glanced at me for an instant, but I could tell he thought I was nervous about speaking in front of everyone. Mr. Gallagher put his hand on my shoulder. “And now I’d like to introduce one of our Hillside students, Katie Franklin.” He stepped away from the microphone and lowered his voice to a whisper so only I could hear. “Knock ‘em dead, Katie.” I smiled at him so he would know I was okay and I stepped forward. I thanked all of the sponsors and then I paused dramatically, just like they do on television. “Let the jog-a-thon begin!” I yelled. There was cheering, and then everyone started running. I wanted to talk to Jake but I knew I couldn’t. There were too many people, and besides, we wouldn’t be able to run as many laps if we were talking the whole time. I spotted Doriane and Sophie jogging together, and I jumped off the podium and raced to catch up with them.

  Nineteen

  BY THE TIME the halftime show started, I’d already run twelve laps around the track. Someone blew a whistle, and I heard Mr. Gallagher at the microphone again. “Let’s take a break, runners,” he said. He introduced the band and the cheerleaders. I headed over to the refreshment stand with Doriane and Sophie.

  “Hello, Katie,” Mrs. Katz said. She was helping Mrs. Sutton out with the refreshments. “What can I get you?”

  “Three waters, please,” I said. I figured it was important for Doriane, Sophie, and me to drink before we started running again.

  “Here you go,” she said.

  “Thanks,” I said. “Are you making a lot of sales here?”

  “Oh, yes,” Mrs. Katz said. “While you guys were running, the high schoolers and all the parents were buying up a storm. You guys are raising a lot of money today.”

  “Good,” I said. I handed Sophie and Doriane their waters.

  “I’m going to get a cookie, too,” Sophie said, pulling a dollar out of her pocket. “Can I have one of the black-and-white ones?”

  “Of course,” Mrs. Katz said. She handed Sophie a cookie. “I don’t recognize you. Are you in Mr. Bohensky’s social studies class?”

  “Oh, no,” I said. “This is Sophie Turner—my pen pal from Pen Pals Across America. She came in from New York.” I knew Mrs. Katz would be happy to hear about Sophie because she was the one who’d signed us all up for the pen pal project in the first place.

  “Oh, how wonderful,” Mrs. Katz said. She handed Sophie the cookie. “You must be pretty proud that your pen pal organized all this.”

  “I am,” Sophie said. I felt my eyes start to well up just a little and I blinked quickly to make it stop. Sophie broke the cookie into three to split with Doriane and me, and we walked over to the bleachers together. My parents and Aunt Jean were sitting with Mrs. O. I heard Mom telling Mrs. O that the jog-a-thon would be good for our college applications, and I knew that Mr. Gallagher must have told her so. “These kids need to be well rounded,” Mom said. “It’s not just grades anymore.” I decided not to worry about college today, and I popped the rest of my cookie into my mouth.

  My mouth was full and it was hard to chew because I had eaten too much cookie at once. “Katie,” Doriane said softly. She sounded worried. I didn’t answer because I was trying to swallow, but I knew why she sounded scared. Jake was walking right toward us.

  I swallowed hard. Now was as good a time as any to talk to him. “Hey,” I said as he got closer. “We need to talk.” Jake started to move past me like he didn’t see me. I grabbed his arm. He looked from my face to my hand that clutched his arm, and for a second I thought he might hit me. I let go. “We really need to talk,” I said.

  I thought for sure that he was just going to keep walking away. But he said, “Okay.”

  “Let’s go over there,” I said. I motioned to the side of the bleachers, and Jake followed me. He stood in front of me, and behind his head I could see the cheerleaders standing in a pyramid. I wasn’t sure what to say to him and I shook my head.

  “What?” Jake said.

  “I didn’t think you were coming today,” I said.

  “I’m on the track team,” he said. “The coach said we all have to run.”

  “Oh,” I said. It figured he was there because he had to be, and not because he wanted to be. I heard the band in the background and thought about how Jake had wanted there to be a famous band instead. He was probably still mad.

  “I guess Doriane’s your best friend now, huh?” he said.

  “Well,” I said, “you weren’t talking to me anymore.”

  “I know,” Jake said. “I just hated to see you with Doriane so much. I really like her, and she made up some stupid reason for not going out with me. I guess maybe she didn’t like me back. And you didn’t seem to need me at all anymore. It was like you took her side and didn’t care about anything I had to say anymore.”

  “Me?” I said. “But you were the one who liked her so much and started leaving me out of things. I had to be her friend just to see you.”

  “You were still my best friend,” Jake said. “Anyway, you’re still friends with Doriane now even though I’m not around.”

  “Well, you were right,” I said. “She’s really cool. But that doesn’t mean I wanted to stop being your best friend. You’re the one who stopped. It’s like you didn’t care about me at all.”

  “It’s not like that,” Jake said. He looked down and dug the front of his shoe into the ground. His voice dropped and he got quiet, just like Doriane did, which wasn’t like Jake at all. “I care. I even got my parents to be Super Sponsors.”

  “But their companies aren’t listed on any of the signage,” I said.

  “I know,” Jake said. “By the time I asked them about it, the signs and T-shirts and everything had already been printed up. But they’re Super Sponsors. You can ask them. You could even ask Mr. Gallagher.”

  “That’s okay,” I said. “I believe you.”

  “Anyway, it’s been no fun without you,” Jake said.

  “It hasn’t been that much fun without you, either,” I said. “And I’m sorry about the band.” I was sorry about a lot more than the band. I was sorry about everything with Doriane, and how awful I had been.

  “That’s okay,” Jake said. “You were right. I never heard back from Dozer. I did get a letter back from that band Razor’s Edge, and they said they couldn’t do it. They sent me an autographed picture, though.”

  “That’s cool,” I said.

  “Yeah,” Jake said. “I’ll let you have it if we can call a truce.” He looked up from the ground and held out his hand.

  “You mean you’ll be my friend again?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” Jake said.

  “Okay,” I said. I took his hand and pumped it with in my firmest handshake. “You’re still my best friend.”

  “You’re still mine,” Jake said.

  “Come on,” I said. “The jog-a-thon is gonna start again.”

  We went back over to Doriane and Sophie. Jake and Doriane eyed each other awkwardly. Mr. Gallagher got back on the microphone and told the runners to get ready. “I’m going to leave you in the dust, Franklin,” Jake said to me. He jogged back over to where the rest of the track team was waiting.

  I thought about how Jake had tried to leave me out of things, and how I’d tried to leave Doriane out of things so I could have Jake to myself. Jake might have been my best friend, but Doriane was my friend now too. I had to make it up to both of them, not just Jake. Even if it was too late to take back what I’d said, I could still make it right. I turned to Doriane. “By the way,” I told her, “Jake told me he still likes you.”

  “But what about Lexi?” Doriane asked.

  “Jake doesn’t care about Lexi,” I said. “He really likes you.” Doriane smiled. I knew she and Jake would probably be friends again. Maybe she would even be his girlfriend. And I knew that I would have to tell Jake and Doriane what I had done. We were fri
ends, so I had to be honest. Things might not work out the way I wanted them to. Like Julie said, I’d have to accept it. Something started to swell up inside me. I was still scared but at least I was sincere. I looked over at Sophie and she smiled at me. Then the whistle blew, and we were off again.

  Twenty

  WE WERE THE last ones to leave the jog-a-thon, mostly because people kept coming up to talk to me. I shook everyone’s hand. By the time everyone left, my hand was almost as tired as my legs. I guess that’s what you get for having a firm handshake. But I didn’t mind feeling tired at all.

  The track emptied out slowly. Doriane and her family left to go home to her brother. The high school volunteers were cleaning up the bleachers and the refreshment stand. My parents said good-bye to Mr. Gallagher. I shook hands with him one last time. “Ready to go, girls?” Dad said.

  “Yeah,” I said. Sophie and I were going to go to dinner with Dad and Aunt Jean. Mom and Julie were going straight home, where Stephanie was meeting them. Julie had her first test at Stanford the next morning.

  “We’ll all go out Sunday night to celebrate,” Mom said. “That’s when Julie will be done with the first part of her tests. Sound good?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Sophie will still be here on Sunday night. We can go to Round Table Pizza. You like pizza, right, Sophie?”

  “Of course,” Sophie said.

  “I was thinking we could go somewhere nicer than Round Table,” Mom said. “Maybe that place in Palo Alto with the outdoor garden that you like.”

  “Ah, come on,” I said. “Round Table’s the best. Right, Aunt Jean?”

  “It’s pretty good,” Aunt Jean said. “But I won’t be able to go with you. I’m sure you’ll have fun wherever you go, though.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “I’m going away,” she said. “I leave Sunday morning.”

  “Where are you going?” Dad asked. He and Mom both started to smile.

  “I’m not going to Europe, Peter, so don’t get too excited,” Aunt Jean said. “I’m going to Mexico.”

  “Seriously?” Julie said.

  Aunt Jean nodded. “I’m going to go down there and volunteer at one of the children’s hospitals. What do you think, Katie?” she asked.

  “When do you come back?” I asked.

  “I don’t know yet,” she said. I didn’t say anything. “They need me. You know that. So it might be for a while.”

  “That’s so awesome,” Julie said.

  “Thanks,” Aunt Jean said.

  “I guess we got you the wrong books,” Dad said.

  “I don’t think I’m going to do much sightseeing while I’m there,” Aunt Jean said. “But it will be nice to travel a little.”

  “I think it’s great,” Dad said.

  “Well, I don’t think it’s so great,” I said. I looked right at Aunt Jean. “What’s wrong with staying in Redwood City? You’re the one who said you were perfectly happy here!” I saw her face change and I noticed lines around her eyes that I hadn’t noticed before. She opened her mouth to say something, but I didn’t want to hear what she had to say. I just stormed off.

  It’s hard to storm off when you don’t know exactly where you are. I had never been anywhere in the high school before besides the track, so it wasn’t like I could go hide in a classroom or something. I wouldn’t even know which building to go into. So I just headed toward the parking lot. Before long I heard footsteps behind me. Then I heard Mom’s voice calling, “Katie! Katie, wait!” Of all the people in my family, she was the last person I expected to be following me. But I just kept going. I didn’t want to listen to anyone. “Kathryn Lyn,” Mom said. Now she sounded mad. I turned around and looked at her. “You can’t just run away,” she said. “That’s not like you.”

  How would she know what was like me? She hardly paid any attention to me at all. But I stood and waited for her to catch up to me. I felt so tired. My legs were sore from running for so long. Maybe I would just go home with Mom and Julie. I could take a hot bath and luxuriate like Julie always did. I could watch the bathroom get all steamed up and forget about Aunt Jean and Mexico and earthquakes and kids I would never meet. “I just want to go home,” I said.

  “What about Sophie?” Mom asked. “She’s your guest. You should at least go to dinner with her.”

  I shrugged.

  “Come on,” Mom said. “This is a great opportunity for Aunt Jean.”

  “Big whoop,” I said. “Now you’re gonna tell me that I shouldn’t bother her or mess up her plans, because everyone is more important than me.”

  “That’s not what I was going to say,” Mom said.

  “Whatever.”

  “Oh, Katie,” Mom said, “you are so much like me.” I rolled my eyes and turned away from her. What did Mom know about me? She barely ever paid any attention. “I think Julie takes after your dad’s side of the family,” Mom continued. “They spend most of the time just being sad about the way they are, without doing anything to change them. You’re not like that. You were born with determination.”

  “Oh, yeah?” I said, turning back to Mom. “Then how come you never tell me I can do anything I put my mind to? You always tell Julie. How come you never tell me?”

  “Oh, kiddo,” Mom said. “I guess I didn’t tell you as much because I didn’t worry about you as much as I worried about Julie. But I’m sorry. We’re a team—you know that. And every player needs support. So I’ll tell you now: You can do anything you put your mind to. Anything at all. You can change the world, if you want.”

  “It’s not true,” I said. “I can’t even change Aunt Jean going to Mexico.”

  “Katie,” Mom said, “you’re the reason Aunt Jean is going to Mexico.”

  “So you’re saying it’s my fault?” I asked.

  “I’m saying you taught her something the rest of us never could. When her husband died, she just stayed in that house for weeks. We couldn’t get her to do anything. She didn’t want to see her friends, or go anywhere, or even think about meeting anyone else. And now it’s been years, and she still hasn’t traveled anywhere or dated anyone. Then she watched you organize this jog-a-thon. You did it because something horrible happened and you wanted to do something positive to help. I think it gave her hope and taught her to be brave.”

  I thought about Jake and Doriane, and Mr. Gallagher, and all my dreams about the earthquake, and how afraid I was about Aunt Jean leaving. Suddenly I understood why Mom acted the way she did about Julie’s schoolwork. “Sometimes I imagine things the way I want them to be but it doesn’t always work out that way,” I said.

  Mom put her arm around my shoulder and squeezed me to her, and I let her. It had been a long time since she’d held me like that. I was almost as tall as she was. “I’m still very proud of you,” she said.

  “You know what I learned?” I said to Mom. “I learned you can’t fix everything. You can do your best and you can try to be brave, but sometimes things aren’t going to be the way you want, and you just need to chill out.”

  “You’re right,” Mom said. “I’m learning it too. It’s a tough lesson, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah,” I said.

  “Come on,” she said. “Let’s go find everyone. Julie and I have to get home to meet Stephanie, and I’m sure Sophie is waiting for you.”

  Twenty-One

  Dear Sophie,

  I can’t believe how fast the time went when you were here. It felt like I was waiting so long for the jog-a-thon, and to meet you in person, and now it’s all over. Mr. Gallagher said we raised more than twenty-four thousand dollars—that’s almost two and a half times our goal! And he said we can make the jog-a-thon an annual event at Hillside, and each year we’ll raise money for a charity that really needs it.

  A lot of other stuff has happened since you left. Jake is friends with Doriane and me again. I didn’t tell you before, but the whole fight started because of me, and then I was really scared to tell the truth because I though
t I would lose everything. After the jog-a-thon, I told them what I’d done. Doriane forgave me right away. She’s really sensitive and understanding, but it was harder with Jake and he was pretty mad at me. Now things with him are getting better too. Sometimes it’s hard to be patient, but it’s worth it in the end.

  Things are going well for Julie. She took all of her tests at Stanford, so she’s really happy to be done with them! On the last day, Mom let me go to Stanford with her to wait for Julie. It’s really cool there. They have tons of buildings, and even a tower. I think maybe I’ll end up going to college there. I know a lot of kids want to go to college far away, but I think it would be nice to be so close to Redwood City. Especially since I might have a new cousin by then.

  That’s right—Aunt Jean went down to Mexico and she’s helping out in the hospital. Her cell phone doesn’t really work there. It’s strange because I’m used to talking to her so much, but she’s only been able to call us twice. There’s one little girl named Maria who Aunt Jean has become especially close to. Aunt Jean says she’s going to try to adopt her. I think it would be nice for Aunt Jean to have a daughter. Maria lost her family in the earthquake, so Aunt Jean is all she’s got. I know you can’t control everything that happens, like the earthquake and what happened to Maria’s family, but maybe Maria will have a happy ending too.

  In the meantime, Jake and Doriane are sort of dating again. I’m really okay with it, though. I think that even after everything that happened, I’m still Jake’s best friend. Julie’s going to be taking classes at Stanford over the summer instead of going to camp. She was pretty upset about that since this year she was going to be a junior counselor, so to make up for it, Mom said we could spend a week in New York before Hillside starts again in September. You have to let me know when you’ll be around, because I want to make sure we go when you’re there.