by Cari Simmons
“I can usually see the Little Dipper,” Mari replied. “I don’t think we can see the big one from here. The window is too small.”
“It’s amazing how many more stars you can see in the mountains,” Gracie said happily. “Thanks for taking me along on this trip, Mar.”
“I still can’t believe you’re here,” Mari replied. “I thought we’d never be allowed to have time together.”
“And I’m glad we do, because there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you,” Gracie said. “You know how in our band class—”
“Somebody has to bring me a towel!” Jon called from the bathroom, interrupting. “I forgot mine!”
“Oh! I’ll get it.” Mari jumped down from the bunk bed and went over to the twins’ bed to grab the towel hanging off one post.
Gracie felt a prickle of irritation. She’d finally been about to tell Mari about Alex Parker, and as usual, something happened to stop her. Who went into a shower without a towel?
When she glanced at her watch, she felt even worse. It was already six o’clock. “Mari!” she said as her friend wound her way back across the crowded room. “Jon’s not even out of the shower yet, and we have to be at the Old Barrel in half an hour! How long does it take to get there?”
“I don’t know. Not long,” Mari said.
“You know what? You should go ahead of me,” Gracie told her. “Your hair is longer than mine, so it takes longer to dry. And I don’t have to wash mine every day, anyway.”
“Okay, if you want,” Mari replied.
“But hurry up,” Gracie added.
“Don’t get crazy, Grazey,” Mari teased her. “I promise I’ll go as fast as I can.”
“We told Juliana we’d be there at six thirty. We can’t be late,” Gracie insisted. “We have no way to get in touch with her to tell her, and she’ll be worried. She might even leave if we’re really late.”
“Okay, okay,” Mari said. “I understand. But you know, not everybody worries about the things you worry about. Juliana might not even notice if we’re a little late.”
“You’re right. Sorry,” Gracie told her. “You know how much I hate being late, especially when you’re meeting somebody. It’s so rude.”
“Next!” Jon yelled, coming out of the bathroom with his wet hair styled like a shark fin on top of his head.
“Me!” Mari cried, jumping off the top bunk. “I’ll be fast,” she promised Gracie.
“Don’t forget your towel,” Gracie called after her as she headed for the stairs.
Mari crossed her eyes and chuckled. “It must run in the family,” she joked, coming back to grab her towel.
Gracie pulled out her notebook, figuring she could use the time to work on her paper for Mr. Ferrone.
Big Differences, continued, she wrote. THE BATHROOM. Only children don’t have to share with anyone besides their parents. Multiple children have to share everything, all the time. I’ve never had to wait in line before for the bathroom, unless I was at a restaurant or something!
She chewed on the end of her pen, thinking. It wasn’t just the bathroom that was different between Mari’s family and hers. It was the fact that none of the other kids seemed to mind waiting, or sharing. None of them seemed to find it odd that they had to take turns in their own bathroom. Maybe multiples are used to splitting things with other people all the time, she wrote. Only kids aren’t used to that.
Jimmy had come upstairs in his pajamas and was bouncing on his bunk bed. Jon was busy combing his wet hair, making sure to spray as much extra water as possible at Robert as he did it.
But why do the multiples spend so much time trying to annoy each other? Gracie wrote. And why do they turn everything into a contest?
Maybe that was just the O’Hagans, though. Juliana had said she didn’t compete with her brother all the time. The thought of Juliana made Gracie look up again, and this time she realized something. Jimmy was in his pajamas. Why? He shouldn’t be dressed for bed when they were going out to eat. Was it okay for six-year-olds to wear pj’s to the Old Barrel? With no little siblings or little cousins, she didn’t know the rules for young kids.
“I ordered from Tony’s!” Ms. O’Hagan called up the stairs. “It should be here in ten minutes.”
The boys all cheered.
“What’s Tony’s?” Gracie asked.
“The best pizza in town. Probably the best in the whole state,” Robert replied.
Gracie’s brain felt like it was full of cotton. She was confused. Why had the O’Hagans ordered pizza? They were supposed to be meeting Juliana for dinner. Hadn’t Mari told them about the plans? Gracie had just assumed that she had.
She ran quickly downstairs. Maybe if Ms. O’Hagan called the pizza place back fast enough, she could cancel the order.
“Ms. O’Hagan? I think there’s been a mistake,” she said in a rush. “You ordered pizza, but Mari and I are supposed to meet Juliana at the Old Barrel for dinner.”
Mari’s mom looked up from the table, where she was setting out plates. “Well, that’s the first I’ve heard about it.”
“I guess we forgot to tell you,” Gracie said. She wasn’t sure what to do. “Um, maybe Mari thought she and I could walk there?” she suggested. “How far is the Old Barrel?”
“It’s too far to walk, honey,” Ms. O’Hagan said. “Maybe we’ll go there some other night.”
Gracie felt frozen. Mari’s mother didn’t seem to understand that Juliana was planning to be at that restaurant in twenty minutes, expecting them to meet her. Gracie knew she had to get Ms. O’Hagan to see how awful it would be to leave Juliana all alone. But she couldn’t very well order the O’Hagans to change their dinner plans. Mari’s mom was . . . well, she was an adult.
The bathroom door swung open, and Mari came out along with a puff of steam. “Gracie, you’re up!” she called.
Gracie rushed over to her friend. “Mari! Your mom ordered pizza!” she whispered quickly. “You didn’t tell her we were supposed to meet Juliana.”
“Oh.” Mari frowned, running her hand through her wet hair. “We were talking about it at lunch. I figured my parents heard us.”
“Well, they didn’t. And we’re supposed to be there in twenty minutes,” Gracie went on. “You have to do something! Can you ask your dad to drive just you and me there? Your mom didn’t seem to think I was serious when I asked her.”
“Okay,” Mari said. “You better get in the shower before Robert cuts you in line.”
“Right.” Gracie ran upstairs, grabbed her towel and her clean clothes from her open suitcase, and hurried into the shower.
She soaped her body faster than she ever had in her life. Even if she rushed, they were still going to be late to meet Juliana. And poor Mr. O’Hagan would have to miss the hot pizza because he’d be busy driving them to the restaurant. She couldn’t believe how messed up this dinner had gotten.
It will all be okay in the end, Gracie told herself. But I think I need to put something in my paper about how easy it is to get confused with so many people in one family! Maybe communication is simpler when there’re only three people.
When Gracie got out of the shower, she dried herself off and threw on her clothes as fast as she could. Her braids were still wet, but she could just stuff them up under her hat to keep them from freezing when she went outside.
“Okay, Mari, I’m ready,” she called, stepping out of the bathroom.
Mari glanced up from the crowded table, a piece of half-eaten pizza in her hand.
“What are you doing?” Gracie cried.
“Eating,” Mari said. “My mom called the restaurant and told them that if a kid showed up looking for us, to say we weren’t coming. So we don’t need to worry about Juliana arriving at the restaurant and not knowing where we are.”
Gracie stared at her best friend, too shocked to say a word.
“There aren’t any houses in walking distance to the Old Barrel, so Juliana’s grandmother would have to drive her,” Mr. O�
�Hagan said. “She won’t be there alone.”
That was good. But it wasn’t the only thing Gracie was worried about. Juliana was expecting them to be there! They had made plans!
Everyone had gone back to eating and joking around as if nothing was wrong. Even Mari had a big smile on her face. But Gracie felt sick. She had never stood anyone up in her whole life. What must Juliana think of them? Would she wonder if they were playing a mean joke on her? Would she think they weren’t nice people?
Slowly Gracie went over to the table and got a plate. She put a slice of pizza on it and sat down next to Mari. It was supposed to be the best pizza in town, but it tasted like cardboard in Gracie’s mouth, and she put it back down on her dish. She was too upset to eat.
“Something wrong with the food, Gracie?” Ms. O’Hagan asked.
“No. I’m just not hungry,” Gracie replied.
“I’ll eat hers!” Jimmy cried, grabbing the slice off her plate.
“Hey! She didn’t say you could take that,” Mari protested.
“It’s fine, he can have it.” Gracie found that she didn’t even want to look at Mari as she spoke. She was so angry! Would Mari ever leave her stranded at a restaurant like that? “I’m going to go call my parents.”
Gracie went upstairs, climbed into the top bunk, and dialed her mom’s number. It went straight to voicemail. Surprised, Gracie hung up without leaving a message. She wasn’t sure what she would say, anyway.
A minute later her cell buzzed with a text from her mom. No phone calls allowed in dining room here. All okay?
All was not okay, but there was no way to write that in a text. Plus, Gracie didn’t want her parents to worry about her. She texted back. All fine. Talk to you tomorrow.
And then there was nothing to do. Downstairs, Mari’s family was as loud and happy as usual, but tonight Gracie just couldn’t get into the spirit. She pulled out her notebook and pen.
Differences, continued, she wrote. Then she stopped. Was the Juliana situation about only children versus multiple children? Or was it just that Mari was more thoughtless than Gracie had ever realized? After all, they didn’t get to spend that much time together outside of school. It was possible that at-home Mari was different than at-school Mari.
Gracie thought about the few times she’d been allowed to sleep over at Mari’s house. It had always been fun because there were so many kids there. Hanging with the O’Hagans was like a party—full of noise and fun and laughter. But maybe that meant that Mari didn’t need anybody else. Maybe she didn’t care much about time with her friends because she always had so much family around.
It had seemed as if Mari was having fun with Juliana, but that didn’t mean she cared about standing her up. Mari had fun everywhere, with everyone. Maybe it didn’t matter to her whether or not her friends were having fun too. Or maybe she just didn’t notice.
Does she even notice if I’m having fun? Gracie wondered. Does she care?
Downstairs, the yelling grew louder, and Gracie could hear that they were having a pizza-eating contest. Mari definitely cared about things like that, like beating her brothers. But she hadn’t spent much time trying to hang out alone with Gracie. She wasn’t even up here asking what was wrong.
Maybe this best-friend ski trip hadn’t been such a great idea after all. So far, it had taught Gracie some confusing things about her very best friend.
CHAPTER 9
“Wake up, Gracie! We’re going sledding!” Jimmy yelled from about an inch away.
Gracie jumped, surprised to see sunlight streaming in through the window over her bunk. She hadn’t even realized she’d fallen asleep over her notebook.
Jimmy grinned at her, his bottom two front teeth missing, and then jumped off the bunk bed ladder down onto the floor.
“Sledding?” Gracie mumbled.
“Yeah, Mom wants to sled in the morning and ski in the afternoon,” Mari answered from the lower bunk. “That way we can all be with Jimmy more.”
There was something strange about her voice, and Gracie was pretty sure she knew what it was. Mari was mad that Gracie hadn’t talked to her last night. When Mari had come up to the bedroom after dinner, Gracie had said she was working on her paper, and then she had stayed there for the rest of the night. But Mari could probably tell that the real reason was because Gracie was angry.
Still, it wasn’t right that Mari was mad at Gracie for being mad at her!
“Breakfast! Mom made waffles,” Jon announced, running up the stairs. “You can sit next to me, Gracie. Jon wanted you to, but I saved you a place first.”
Gracie frowned. “You’re Jon.”
“I told you she wouldn’t fall for it!” Robert yelled from downstairs.
“You’re such a dummy,” Mari said, pushing past him.
“I’m confused,” Gracie admitted, climbing down from her bunk. Her open suitcase was in the way, so she had to jump off the ladder like Jimmy had just to get over it.
“They had a bet that you couldn’t tell them apart,” Jimmy explained. “Now Jon owes Robert a waffle.”
“I’ve known you guys for years,” Gracie told Jon. “Do you really think I can’t tell you apart?”
Jon shrugged. “I wanted an extra waffle.”
By the time she got downstairs, most of the waffles were already gone, but Mari had stuck two on a plate for her. Gracie sat next to Mari and ate, but she still felt weird. Mari didn’t say anything, but Gracie could tell that her best friend noticed the weirdness too.
As usual, it took forever to get the whole family into the car and over to the sledding slope. Once they got there, though, Gracie felt a little better. It was hard to stay mad when you were flying down a hill on a toboggan. She and Mari got to the bottom at the same time, so they had to trudge all the way back up together. Jimmy came running after them as soon as he hit the bottom of the hill. “Wait up!” he yelled.
Mari rolled her eyes, but she stopped and waited. Gracie did too.
“They should make ski lifts for sled hills,” she joked.
“Yeah,” Mari said quietly.
Gracie knew she had to say something. They couldn’t spend the whole day acting strange. She took a deep breath. “Why don’t you care that we stood up Juliana last night?”
“Who says I don’t care?” Mari asked.
“You didn’t even seem upset,” Gracie pointed out.
Mari shrugged. “Sometimes plans fall through. What’s the point of freaking out about it?”
“Who’s freaking out? What are we freaking out about?” Jimmy asked. “You want to see my freak-out face?” He pulled off his gloves with his teeth and turned his eyelids inside out. “See? This freaks girls out.”
“Put your gloves back on, dork face,” Mari told him, reaching out to fix his eyes.
Gracie didn’t know what to say. She wasn’t sure exactly why the Juliana situation seemed so bad. It just did. “I figured you would explain to your parents while I was in the shower that we had to go, but instead you just sat down and ate pizza!” Gracie said when they started walking again.
“I did not. I begged them to let us go, but my dad said no. He said the whole point of a family trip is for the family to spend time together, and you and me going out to dinner isn’t spending time together,” Mari said. “I didn’t mean to leave Juliana there on her own—but my parents said no. It wasn’t up to me.”
Gracie didn’t answer. She tried to concentrate on dragging her sled up the icy hill—and on ignoring Jimmy, who was imitating her walk and her sour expression.
“You should be used to not doing stuff because your parents won’t let you. It happens to you all the time,” Mari went on.
“My parents would never make me miss an appointment I made, or a dinner plan or whatever,” Gracie protested. “I just wouldn’t make a plan if I knew it went against our family schedule.”
Mari burst out laughing. “That’s the same thing!”
“It is not. Our rules are really clear,” Gracie
said. “I mean, you even know what the Hardwick schedule is, and you’re not a Hardwick!”
“So?”
“So everybody knows what to expect and when things will happen,” Gracie said. “I wouldn’t make a plan to meet a friend when I knew that I couldn’t do it. I don’t make plans if I can’t keep them.”
Mari stopped halfway up the hill. “But you still never get to do anything. So what’s the difference?”
“Yeah, what’s the difference?” Jimmy demanded.
“The difference is that you said we could meet Juliana for dinner. It was your idea!” Gracie cried, ignoring Jimmy.
“Well, I didn’t know my parents would say no,” Mari told her. “How could I know that unless I asked them?”
“But . . . but that’s what I mean. You shouldn’t have made the plan unless you were sure you could do it!” Gracie said. “Why did you think we could meet Juliana for dinner?”
“I was hoping my parents would say yes,” Mari replied. “But they didn’t.” She kept going up the hill, pulling her sled. Gracie watched her go. She’d always been a little bit jealous of Mari’s easygoing family, but now she didn’t know what to think. Mari was acting a little bit too easygoing—she didn’t even care that she’d blown off their new friend.
“Want to see my freak-out face again?” Jimmy asked.
Jimmy was cute, but Gracie couldn’t get excited about the goofy stuff he was doing when she and Mari were having what felt like their first-ever fight. “Maybe later.”
“Here, Gracie, I’ll pull your sled up for you,” Robert said, grabbing the rope from her hand as he jogged by. “I want to prove to Robert that I can pull two as fast as he can pull one.”
Gracie glanced over her shoulder to see Jon jogging up behind him. “Robert, I know that’s Jon,” she said. “You guys can’t fool me. And you already ate all the waffles.”
“Now the bet is for dessert, not waffles,” Jon told her.
“What if I make a doofus face like Jon does? Do I look like him now?” Robert asked, stopping to cross his eyes and stick his tongue out one side of his mouth.