by Cari Simmons
Gracie had never seen so many ridiculous faces on the O’Hagan boys before. “You always look like him, you’re identical,” she said patiently. “But I can tell you apart.”
“I told you,” Robert grumbled.
“No, I told you,” Jon said back.
“She can always tell who I am too,” Jimmy put in.
Gracie couldn’t help laughing. She shook her head and kept walking. The O’Hagans were crazy, but they were fun. Maybe she would never understand the rules—or the not-any-rules—but she could still enjoy being part of this big nutty family while she was here. And she wouldn’t enjoy it if she kept fighting with Mari.
At the top of the sledding hill, Mari was waiting for her. “Race you down?” she asked, not meeting Gracie’s eyes.
Gracie could tell her best friend was as confused as she was about their fight. “Definitely,” she said, giving Mari a smile to let her know everything was okay.
“Excellent!” Mari jumped onto her sled and took off. Jon and Robert were a second behind her. So Gracie threw herself down onto the sled and pushed off, flying down the hill facefirst on her stomach. Bits of snow pelted her cheeks and made her squint, but this position made her faster than usual, and she blasted right by Mari and her brothers.
“Gracie wins!” Jimmy yelled from somewhere behind them.
“Let’s do it again,” Gracie cried. “That was awesome!”
By the time they got back to the cabin for lunch, Gracie was exhausted. After sledding, they had gone skiing for a couple of hours, and each time down the slope was a race. Then getting back to the car was a race. And once Mr. O’Hagan got out all the cold cuts and rolls to make sandwiches, it turned into a competition over who could put the biggest sandwich in their mouth.
“I don’t get it. Didn’t we already figure out who had the biggest mouth in the fry-eating contest the other day?” Gracie asked.
Mari and her brothers all looked confused. “This is a sandwich-eating contest,” Mari said, as if that explained it.
“Are you going to spit your sandwich out like you did with the fries?” Jimmy asked eagerly.
“No,” Gracie told him. “I’m out of the food contests. I’m just going to eat like a normal person.”
“You can judge, then. Robert wants you to,” Robert said. He and Jon had switched sweatshirts since they got back to the cabin. Gracie sighed.
“Robert, I know it’s you wearing Jon’s shirt,” she said.
Robert groaned, but Jon looked impressed. “You really can tell us apart, Gracie. We have to step up our game if we want to fool you!”
“No, just stop,” Gracie said. “I don’t want to judge a contest, and I don’t want to be a contest, either.”
Jon didn’t answer, and everyone else seemed uncomfortable. Gracie bit her lip, feeling bad. Her voice had sounded a little sharper than she had meant it to, and maybe she had hurt their feelings. She didn’t mind if they wanted to keep competing, but she was exhausted from doing it all morning.
“Check it out!” Jimmy said into the silence. “I’m a unicorn!” He grabbed a bun, opened one end a little, and stood it on top of his forehead like a horn.
“Gross! I already put mayo on that,” Jon cried.
Everyone groaned and laughed, and Mari’s mom rushed over with a bunch of wet paper towels to clean off Jimmy’s head. Gracie felt a rush of relief. She hadn’t meant to spoil the fun mood, and Jimmy’s antics seemed to make them all forget what she’d said.
Her cell buzzed in the middle of all the craziness. “It’s my mom on the phone,” she told Mari. She ran upstairs to answer.
“Hi, Mom! How’s the spa?” she asked.
“Actually it’s both of us,” her father’s voice replied. “You’re on speaker.”
“We had to call you early today, because we won’t be allowed to use the phone later,” her mom said. “Again.”
Mom sounds annoyed, Gracie thought. “That’s okay, Mom. I can talk now.”
“I know, sweetie, I just don’t like being told when I can and can’t call my own daughter,” her mother replied.
“Can’t you just go outside if you’re not allowed to talk in the dining room?” Gracie asked.
“It’s not the dining room tonight. It’s a mandatory nature hike,” Mr. Hardwick said. “No phones allowed. They’re going to collect them before we leave, so they can be sure we’ll be able to immerse ourselves in the beauty of the moonlit woods.”
“It’s a safety hazard,” Ms. Hardwick complained, her tone worried. “What if Gracie had an emergency and needed to reach us?”
“I’m with the O’Hagans, so they would take care of me,” Gracie pointed out.
“Sure, but you never know,” her mother replied. “I just think it’s very dangerous to take away people’s phones.”
“The hiking guide will have a cell,” Mr. Hardwick said.
Gracie’s mother gave a loud sigh. “Mm-hmm,” she said. Gracie had heard that a million times before—it meant her mom was skeptical.
“Well, I bet the hike will be relaxing,” Gracie said. “But, Dad, what about your broken toe?”
“I’m going in a wheelchair,” her father replied. “They’ve got a guide here who will push me. They say being in nature is important for my healing process.”
“It’s ridiculous. That poor guide pushing him the whole way,” Gracie’s mom put in. “They should just let him stay in the room and meditate or something.”
“How about you, Gracie? Are you having a good time?” her dad asked, changing the subject.
“Yeah! It’s . . . it’s crazy. But good,” Gracie said. “It’s kind of hard to keep up with Mari’s family, honestly.”
“Why?” her mom asked.
Gracie thought about it for a moment. “You know how Mari is always sort of bouncing around? She’s so full of energy all the time?”
“We’ve noticed that,” Mr. Hardwick agreed.
“The rest of her family is like that too. All the time,” Gracie said. “They turn everything into some kind of contest, and they’re all always trying to top each other.”
“That sounds like fun,” Gracie’s mom said.
Gracie was so surprised that she didn’t know what to say. She had never thought that her mother even knew what fun was.
“It is fun,” Gracie admitted. “But I’m really, really tired.”
Her parents laughed.
“And things are not organized,” Gracie went on. “There are so many people! It takes an hour to get into the car every morning. And no one ever seems to know what the plans are.”
“It sounds like you’ll have a lot to write about for your school paper,” Mr. Hardwick said.
“I will.” Gracie felt a stab of guilt, remembering how she’d tricked her parents to make them let her come here. “I’m going to write a great paper.”
“I’m glad you’re having fun, sweetie,” her mom said. “At least you’re getting a vacation! This wellness spa feels more like work than fun.” A loud bell chimed. “Ugh, there’s the yoga bell, we have to go now. You have a good time, Gracie. Say hi to the O’Hagans.”
“I will,” Gracie said, and hung up. But from the sound of the chaos downstairs, she doubted if the O’Hagans would even hear her.
CHAPTER 10
“Where’s everyone going?” Gracie asked when she got back downstairs. The lunch table had been cleared, and Mari was busy putting her coat and hat back on. The twins were halfway out the door.
“Robert and Jon are going down the street to see if that girl they like is home,” Mari replied.
“They both like her?”
“Of course,” Jimmy put in. “They do everything together.”
“What about you? Where are you going?” Gracie asked Mari.
“To build a snow fort in the front yard,” Mari said. “Want to help?”
“Definitely!” Gracie went over to dig her snow boots out of the pile of shoes near the door. “That sounds fun.” And relaxing. A s
now fort wasn’t a race, or a contest, or a huge family activity. A snow fort meant that she and Mari would have lots of time together making blocks of snow . . . and talking.
Mari was already outside by the time Gracie had finished bundling up. The yard wasn’t too big, but there were at least two feet of snow on the ground, and the drifts near the cabin were even higher than that. A light snow was falling, which made everything shimmer. Mari had a shovel, and she was building a hill between two tall pine trees.
“Should I start shaping the walls?” Gracie asked, tromping through the snow to her best friend. “It will be good packing snow because of the fresh powder.”
“Yeah! I want to make the main wall on this side, facing the driveway, and we need to build it up high so nobody can attack us with snowballs,” Mari said.
“Oh. Is someone going to do that?” Gracie asked.
“I don’t know,” Mari said with a laugh. “But it’s kind of the point of a snow fort, to have something to hide behind during a snowball fight.”
“My dad and I usually just build them so he can work on what he calls his ‘architectural skills’—which he totally doesn’t have,” Gracie said. “It’s the same with sand castles. He always wants to try making these big, elaborate things, but they always fall apart.”
Mari grinned and tossed another shovelful of snow toward the growing pile. Gracie got down on her knees and began scooping and patting snow into a mostly smooth wall. She was right; it was good packing snow.
“I’m happy we’re doing this, Mar,” Gracie said. “I keep trying to tell you about something.”
“What?” Mari asked.
“It’s kind of embarrassing. But you know that guy from band, Alex?” Gracie felt herself blush just from saying his name.
“Alex Young?” Mari said.
“No. Alex Parker,” Gracie replied. “Well . . . I kind of—”
“Think fast!” Jimmy yelled, and a snowball came whizzing toward them.
Mari screamed and ducked, and the snow pelted Gracie in the face. “Oh my gosh,” Mari cried. “I’m so sorry! Gracie, are you okay? I didn’t mean for it to hit you.”
“Why didn’t you duck?” Jimmy asked, looking at Gracie like she was nuts.
Gracie sputtered, wiping snow from her eyes. “I didn’t even know you were out here,” she replied, annoyed.
“Of course he’s out here. He’s the one who wanted to build a fort,” Mari said. “Robert and Jon definitely didn’t want him tagging along on their flirting mission.”
Gracie sighed. So much for having alone time to talk about Alex. “I guess I thought Jimmy was inside with your parents. I didn’t know he was hiding somewhere waiting to attack us.”
“I said to think fast,” Jimmy argued. “I warned you. Mari ducked.”
Gracie glanced at her best friend. Mari shrugged. “I have fast reflexes.”
“You have a lot of siblings,” Gracie said. “You have to have fast reflexes.”
Mari gave her a half smile. “I guess that’s something else for your school paper. Only children don’t develop a killer instinct in snowball fighting.”
“The fort is too short,” Jimmy said. “I threw that snowball right over it.”
“We only started building it two minutes ago,” Gracie pointed out.
“Well, it’s lame. It needs a tower and some notches on the top where you can see out,” Jimmy said. “And it needs to be taller than me.”
“How are you going to see out if it’s taller than you?” Gracie asked.
Jimmy’s eyebrows drew together in confusion, as if he’d never thought about that before. Mari shot Gracie an annoyed look. “We’ll build you a snow platform inside it that you can stand on,” she told Jimmy.
“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” Gracie said quietly, hoping Mari would forgive her for being harsh to Jimmy. He was only a little kid, so she shouldn’t have gotten annoyed with him. “We could even make steps up to it for you.”
“Cool!” Jimmy cried happily.
Mari smiled and handed him the shovel, which was almost as tall as he was. “Bring us more snow and we’ll work on making the fort taller.”
“Okay.” Jimmy turned away and began struggling with the shovel and the snow. Mari came over to help Gracie with the main wall. She worked on the outside, while Gracie stood inside, with her back to the two trees. That way, she and Mari could talk to each other over the top of the wall—at least until they made it too tall for that.
“I didn’t realize that Jimmy was going to be with us all day,” Gracie said. “Don’t you get tired of having him tag along all the time?”
Mari shrugged. “That’s what little brothers do. Kat never got mad at me for tagging along.”
“But you can’t talk about things with a little kid around,” Gracie said, frustrated. “You have no private time.”
“I guess not. I never really thought about it.” Mari grabbed a double handful of snow and plopped it on top of the wall, and Gracie patted it into place. “What were you saying about Alex Parker?”
Gracie glanced over at Jimmy. He was ten feet away and completely focused on trying to pick up snow. Plus, he was six. He wouldn’t care about her having a crush on a boy. Maybe she could still talk it over with Mari even though they weren’t alone.
“Who’s Alex Parker?” Jon asked from behind her.
Startled, Gracie spun around to see Jon standing behind one of the pine trees. Robert stood behind the other one.
“Gracie, get over the wall!” Mari yelled, just as Robert flung a snowball. This time Gracie moved fast, jumping over the wall and crouching down next to Mari. Mari was already packing a snowball with her gloved hands. “Here,” she said, thrusting it at Gracie. “Get them!”
So Gracie inched up above the wall, spotted Jon near the tree, and hurled the snowball at him. It hit the tree, and she ducked back down. Mari popped up and threw a ball at Robert. She got hit in the shoulder before she could get down again.
“I’ll make ammunition!” Jimmy called, grinning as he slid on the ground in between them. “You guys throw!”
Gracie automatically took the snowball Jimmy shoved at her, but she felt too annoyed to do anything with it. A minute ago, she’d been having a nice time with her best friend, and now she was back in the middle of a sibling competition. Didn’t the O’Hagan kids ever get tired of one another?
“I thought Robert and Jon were at the neighbors’,” she grumbled.
“Hey, that’s right! What happened to your girlfriend?” Mari called to her brothers in a teasing voice. “Did she kick you out?”
“She wasn’t home,” Robert replied, throwing another snowball. Gracie was crouched down, hidden entirely by the wall, but the cold, wet snow landed on her head anyway.
“Ugh,” she cried, dropping her own snowball to swipe the snow off her hat.
“Did I get you?” Robert called. “All right!”
Mari grabbed Gracie’s snowball before it totally fell apart, stood up, and pelted Robert with it. “Right in the heart!” she cried. “You’re dead!”
“I’m not!” Jon threw a ball as Mari dove behind the wall again. Jimmy thrust another snowball into Gracie’s hands, and this time she used it. Robert was still fighting too, so apparently being dead didn’t matter.
“I’m making a pile of snowballs right here,” Jimmy announced, his little hands working fast to pack them. “That way you guys can just grab them off the top when you need them.”
“Hey, why are you with the girls?” Jon yelled. “You’re a boy, Jimmy! Get over here and make supplies for us.”
“No way!” Gracie cried. “This isn’t girls against boys, it’s singles against twins!”
“Nice one,” Mari said, laughing.
“Hold up. Cease-fire,” Robert called. One more snowball came sailing over the wall.
“Sorry, my bad. I threw it before I heard,” Jon said.
“Let’s stop the fight until we fix the fort,” Robert suggested. “You di
dn’t make it tall enough.”
“Well, you attacked us before we could finish it. We only just started,” Mari protested.
“Yeah, they were going to build me a platform with steps,” Jimmy said.
“Why do we need to make it bigger now?” Gracie asked. “We’re already fighting. The wall works fine.”
“But it’s not a challenge,” Robert said. “I can reach right over it.”
“Yeah, we can stand here and just drop snowballs on your heads,” Jon agreed.
“Then stay farther away,” Gracie said.
“We should make it have towers, like a castle,” Mari put in. “And then we can make shorter walls along the sides.”
“Why? The boys are in front of the main wall. If they attack from the sides, they’ll hit us because the walls are too short,” Gracie replied, exasperated.
“I know, but it will be cool,” Mari told her. The twins were already scooping up snow to make the main wall taller, and Jimmy had pulverized his pile of snowballs to turn it into the start of a side wall.
Gracie blew out a frustrated breath. She’d tried to go along with the surprise snowball fight, but now it had turned into something totally different . . . as usual. Every time she thought she knew what was going on, the O’Hagans changed things. And the worst part was that Mari didn’t seem to care. They had been in the middle of talking about Alex Parker, but Mari obviously didn’t remember that. Or maybe she just wasn’t interested.
“Gracie! Help Jon with the other wall,” Jon said.
“Oh, come on, Jon. Stop with the twin switching,” Gracie groaned.
“Fine. Help Robert with the other wall,” he corrected, making a face at her.
Gracie glanced over at Robert and the new side wall. There would be no way to talk to Mari with all three boys around, but maybe she and Mari could sneak off while the boys were busy building the fort and get some alone time. “I’m not in the mood. I think I’m just going to go inside and have some hot chocolate.” She smiled at Mari. “You want to come? You love chocolate as much as I do.”
“Not until we’re done,” Mari replied, giving her a strange look. “We can all have cocoa later, together.”
“Okay. Maybe I’ll work on my paper, then,” Gracie said. She turned and headed toward the cabin door, half expecting Mari to follow her. But Mari stayed where she was, letting Gracie go in alone.