Picture Perfect #5

by Cari Simmons

  “With seven people? We’ll go through it all,” Mari’s mom said, smiling.

  Somehow, seeing how impossible it was to go outside made being in the tiny cabin even more depressing. Once they’d finished stowing all the groceries, Gracie began to feel restless. How could they possibly survive a whole afternoon of this?

  “I think it’s time for some board games,” Ms. O’Hagan announced. “The boredom in here has reached epic levels.” She pulled out a big plastic bin filled with old, fading cardboard boxes. “I’ve got Monopoly, Clue, and Twister. Oh, and Uno.”

  “Monopoly!” everyone said at the same time.

  “I’m the shoe,” Mari put in quickly.

  “I’m the dog,” Robert called.

  “I’m the cat,” Gracie said.

  “This version is too old for that, there’s no cat,” Mari told her. “You can be the shoe if you want.”

  “No, she can’t, you called it,” Jon said.

  “That means I can give it away.”

  “Nope, if you don’t want it, I get it, because I’m calling it second!”

  “That’s not how it works.”

  “Says who?”

  “Says me.”

  Gracie looked at Mr. and Ms. O’Hagan to see if they were going to stop the argument. Both of them were calmly sitting at the table, reading the newspaper. She felt a wave of annoyance, and she wanted to yell at Mari and Jon to stop arguing over something so dumb. The O’Hagan kids argued over everything! Instead she took a deep breath and said, “That’s okay, Mar, you be the shoe. I don’t care which one I am.”

  “I’m not entirely sure we have all the money,” Robert said, counting out the stacks of fake cash. “This Monopoly game has been here since the olden days. I think money got lost.”

  “Why do you get to be the banker?” Mari asked.

  “Because I got to the money first,” Robert replied.

  “I should be the banker,” Jon put in.

  “You wish,” Mari said.

  “Let me be the banker, and then you can all stop fighting,” Gracie suggested.

  All three of them looked at her like she was crazy. “We’re not fighting,” Mari said.

  “But I’m still the banker,” Robert added.

  “We’re supposed to take turns. Kat was the banker last time we played—” Mari began.

  “That was a year ago!” Jon protested.

  “—so we start again from the youngest,” Mari continued as if she hadn’t heard him. “That means Jimmy is the banker.”

  “He doesn’t even know how to subtract yet,” Robert said.

  “Where is Jimmy?” Gracie asked, glancing around.

  “I don’t know,” Ms. O’Hagan said, looking up for the first time. “He was here a minute ago.”

  “Here I am!” Jimmy called from the stairs. He struck a pose on the bottom step, showing off his outfit.

  Gracie’s socks on his hands.

  Gracie’s pajama top as his jacket.

  Gracie’s long johns as his pants.

  Gracie’s underwear—once again—as his hat.

  Mari immediately grabbed Gracie’s arm, as if she knew that Gracie was about to explode. “Jimmy—”

  “You went into my stuff again!” Gracie yelled. She jumped up from the table and ran over to him. “Take it off.” She snatched the underwear off his head, and one sock off his hand.

  “Gracie, take it easy,” Mari said.

  “Jimmy, give Gracie her clothes back and then you will come here and sit in time-out for ten minutes,” Ms. O’Hagan said sternly. “We told you not to touch her stuff again.”

  Jimmy sat down and pulled off the long johns, then wriggled out of the pajama top. He handed her all her clothes without looking at her, but Gracie could see that his eyes were filled with tears.

  Well, so what? she thought. I feel like crying too.

  The second she had her things, she brushed past Jimmy and went upstairs to put them away. Mari followed her.

  “Gracie, he’s only six. He just wanted attention,” she said.

  “He already got in trouble for doing the same thing!” Gracie pointed out. “But he still did it again.”

  “Well, my mom told you to put your suitcase away, but you left it out again this morning,” Mari said.

  “Yeah, well, in a normal hotel he wouldn’t be able to get anywhere near my suitcase to begin with,” Gracie muttered.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Mari demanded.

  “It means that this ski trip is no fun!” Gracie exploded, finally saying what she’d been feeling for half the weekend. “None of this annoying stuff would be happening if your brothers would just leave me alone!”

  CHAPTER 13

  “Excuse me?” Mari yelled, her green eyes flashing.

  “You heard me!” Gracie snapped.

  “I can’t believe you said that,” Mari cried. “You are the rudest person I’ve ever met!”

  “Me rude?” Gracie gasped. “I’m not the rude one, you are! You’ve been ignoring me all weekend.”

  “I have not.”

  “Then why were you outside building a snowman while I was inside yesterday?”

  Mari rolled her eyes. “Why were you sulking inside instead of doing something fun like building a snowman?”

  “I wasn’t sulking,” Gracie protested.

  “Yes, you were,” Mari shot back. “You’ve been sulking all weekend.”

  “It’s true, you have,” Robert said from the top of the stairs. Gracie spun to face him, outraged to see that Jon was right next to him. How dare they come up here to listen to a private conversation?

  “You get upset every time you lose,” Jon agreed.

  Gracie’s face turned hot. “I don’t care about losing! I just don’t want to be competing all the time to begin with! You guys make every single thing into some big contest.”

  “So you figure you should spend all your time sulking about it just because you don’t like it?” Mari asked.

  “Stop saying that!” Gracie cried. “I’m not sulking. I don’t sulk. Just because somebody isn’t having fun doesn’t mean they’re sulking.”

  “You could’ve just said you were out of the competition,” Jon told her.

  “I did! I keep saying that, and you guys think it’s weird every single time,” she said.

  “That’s not true,” Jon replied.

  “No, she might be right about that,” Robert told him.

  “Stop! I can’t believe this. You two aren’t even a part of this conversation,” Gracie burst out. “I’m talking to Mari.”

  “You mean you’re yelling at me,” Mari muttered.

  “Yelling is so rude,” Robert said.

  “Aarrrggh!” Gracie threw up her hands in exasperation. “You’re interrupting a private conversation. You’re the rude one. All of you could use some lessons in politeness.”

  “Not from you. You’re not even polite enough to be nice to your hosts,” Mari said.

  “Your parents?” Gracie asked, confused. “I’m totally polite to them.”

  “No, us. The rest of us,” Jon said. “We’re all your hosts.”

  “So my hosts like to go through my things and humiliate me and laugh at me, but I’m the one not being polite?” Gracie said.

  “No, Jimmy doesn’t count, he’s too young to be a host,” Robert said. He turned to Jon. “Don’t you think?”

  “Yeah, Jimmy doesn’t count,” Jon confirmed.

  “But you laughed at me. You all laughed at me,” Gracie said. “You ate all the pancakes—”

  “Because you slept late!” Mari interrupted.

  “And you all went out of your way to pull a twin switch so I’d feel stupid,” Gracie went on. “Is that any way to treat a guest?”

  Robert opened his mouth to answer, but his mother called from downstairs. “Boys, come down and let the girls have a talk.”

  “See? It’s a private conversation,” Gracie said. She watched the twins tromp back
down the steps, and then she turned to look at Mari.

  Her best friend’s eyes were narrowed, her face was bright red, and her arms were crossed angrily over her chest. Gracie had never seen Mari look that mad before. For a moment she felt almost scared. She and Mari didn’t fight. She couldn’t remember ever once arguing about anything more serious than which of their favorite horse books was more realistic. What had she done to make Mari so furious at her?

  “Are you going to apologize?” Mari demanded.

  “Apologize? Me?” Gracie choked out, suddenly just as angry as Mari. “You should apologize! You called me rude.”

  “You yelled at my little brother,” Mari said. “And my older brothers. And me. How is that not being rude?”

  “Well, what about you?” Gracie asked. “You asked me to come with you on this trip, and then you seemed to forget I was even here. Why did you even invite me if you were just going to spend the whole time hanging out with your brothers instead of me?”

  Mari’s mouth fell open. “It’s a family trip. I’m supposed to hang out with my family. That’s the way it works. You knew my brothers would all be here.”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t think we’d have to spend every single second with them,” Gracie replied.

  Mari stared at her for a few seconds, her eyebrows drawn together in confusion. “Why not?” she asked finally.

  “I thought we’d have our own room, and they’d have their own room,” Gracie said. “You never told me they would be around all the time.”

  “I never told you they wouldn’t, either,” Mari retorted. “But that’s obviously what you expected. I can’t believe I never realized before how stuck-up you are.”

  “I am not!” Gracie cried.

  “Yes, you are. You think everything should be perfect, which means it should be the way you want it. And when it’s not, you get mad,” Mari said.

  “You’re wrong. I’m fine being with your family most of the time. I just don’t want to have to deal with so many other people in my space all the time,” Gracie said.

  “Fine. You know what? I’ll leave you alone if that’s what you want. I don’t want to be in your space.” Mari turned away.

  “Where are you going to go?” Gracie asked. “That’s the whole problem! There’s no place to go to have alone time. You can’t even leave the house because of the rain.”

  “I don’t know! Maybe I’ll go downstairs and hang out with my family, because that’s what I came here for!” Mari yelled.

  She spun around and started toward the stairs, but Gracie’s open suitcase was in the way. Mari didn’t notice it in time, so she stepped on the cover, which gave under her weight and made her stumble. That flipped the rest of the suitcase on its side, spilling Gracie’s clothes and toiletries everywhere.

  “Whoa!” Mari tried to get her balance without stepping on any of Gracie’s things. It didn’t work. She fell forward, landing on her knees in a pile of Gracie’s stuff. The bottom part of the suitcase swung up even farther, hitting her in the head.

  Gracie gasped.

  “See? Your suitcase is still open,” Mari cried. “You’re so self-centered, Gracie. All you care about is what you want, and if you’re happy. You don’t even think about any of the rest of us!”

  That’s not true, Gracie thought. Is it?

  She stared at her best friend, lying in her suitcase . . . that everyone had been telling her to put away all weekend. Mari’s face was still red, and her eyes were brimming with tears as she struggled to get up. Gracie knew they were tears of anger—Mari was still furious at her.

  And Gracie deserved it.

  CHAPTER 14

  “Oh, Mari, I’m so sorry,” Gracie said. She reached down to take Mari’s hand and pull her up out of the clothes. “I can’t believe I left it out again.”

  “You’ve left it out pretty much the whole time we’ve been here,” Mari grumbled.

  “I know. You’re right. I’m sorry,” Gracie said. “You kind of looked like Jimmy, though, lying there with your head covered by my underwear.”

  Mari looked surprised. Then she laughed. “I did not have anything on my head.”

  Gracie laughed too. “Are you sure?”

  Mari swiped at her hair, making sure there was nothing there. But there was a smile on her face.

  “Let me put everything away.” Gracie knelt and began refolding her clothes and packing them back in the suitcase for the millionth time. “You’re right, Mari, I have been rude.”

  “No, I shouldn’t have said that—”

  “Yes, you should. I just yelled at your brothers. All three of them!” Gracie said, embarrassed. “I’m a guest in their cabin, and I yelled at them. I mean, who does that? A rude girl.”

  “No.” Mari shook her head. “You know who does that? A girl with no brothers.” She knelt down next to Gracie and helped fold. “You’re not used to having annoying boys around.”

  “It’s more than that. They aren’t really that annoying,” Gracie said. “Except Jimmy.”

  “Well, he just wants you to pay attention to him because he likes you,” Mari told her.

  “What?” Gracie asked. “What do you mean, he likes me?”

  “You’re a girl, you’re pretty, you talk to him . . . so he has a crush on you.” Mari shrugged. “He’s six. It’s not that complicated.”

  “Huh.” Gracie sat back on her heels, thinking about it. “That would never have occurred to me.”

  “Again, you have no brothers. And you’re not used to little kids,” Mari pointed out. “They don’t mean to be annoying. They just don’t know any better.”

  “Oh, no, and I’ve been so mean to him,” Gracie groaned. “The poor little guy!”

  “He’ll get over it.” Mari laughed. “He probably already has.”

  “It’s not that your brothers are a pain in the neck, though. It’s that you don’t seem to be bothered by them,” Gracie said. “You seem to think they’re funny, and normal, and not annoying. You’d rather hang out with them than with me.”

  “Nuh-uh,” Mari replied. “I’d rather hang with you. But my whole family is here, and I can’t just ignore them. Believe me, I think my brothers are a huge pain in the neck.”

  “Then why do you keep going off to play with them?” Gracie asked. “I’ve been trying to tell you something all weekend, and you haven’t paid attention at all.”

  Mari frowned. “You mean your private conversation thing?”

  “Yeah,” Gracie said.

  “Well . . . you said to never mind, that you didn’t want to talk about it with everyone in the house,” Mari reminded her.

  “I know. I thought you would maybe try to find some time alone for us to talk,” Gracie said. “I’ve been dying to tell you this since last week.”

  “Then let’s go for a walk. It’s not sleeting anymore.” Mari pointed to the window over their bed. “I’m willing to walk through some slush if you are.”

  “For some best-friend time? Definitely.” Gracie grabbed her warmest socks from the suitcase, then hesitated. “I haven’t been a good guest, Mar. I’m really sorry.”

  “It’s okay. We probably should have realized that it would be overwhelming for you. Your family is so small, and us O’Hagans are used to being a crowd. I didn’t even think about how nuts it must seem to you.”

  “But I shouldn’t have expected you to change the way you act just because I’m here. I should have tried to go with the flow more,” Gracie said. “I’m not so good at that.”

  “You’ll be better at it after this weekend!” Mari pulled her duffel out from under the bunk bed and began rooting around for socks and sweatpants. She shot Gracie a smile. “See? If I listened to you, I’d be dressed and ready to run out the door right now. Instead I’m still in pajamas.”

  “So I’ll try to relax more, and you try to follow the rules more,” Gracie suggested. “Deal?”

  Mari stood up and threw her arms around Gracie. “Deal.”

  Gracie
hugged her back, so relieved that their fight was over.

  “Let me get dressed and we’ll go have some best-friends hang time,” Mari said. “I can’t wait!”

  “So the plan is to act really casual, like you’re not even surprised that he knows your name,” Mari said, jumping over a slush puddle on their way back to the cabin.

  “Right, like we’re friends. He knows my name and I know his,” Gracie agreed, although she wasn’t sure she could really pretend to be casual about Alex Parker. She got too nervous around him. She’d avoided him ever since the day he had said good-bye to her, just because she didn’t know what to do. She didn’t want to get all awkward and ruin everything, but when she was nervous, the awkwardness always happened.

  “You can do it,” Mari said, as if she’d read Gracie’s mind. “Think about it—you don’t even have to make believe. You two are kind of friends. He does know your name, and you do know his.”

  Gracie held out her hand and saw tiny snowflakes landing on her mitten. She smiled. “You know, you’re right. All of that is true. I just have to act normal.”

  “Because it is normal,” Mari said. “You guys are in band together, and you know each other, and sometimes you talk to each other. He doesn’t need to know you have a crush on him.”

  Gracie bit her lip, trying to imagine having an actual conversation with Alex Parker. “I don’t know if I’m ready for us to talk to each other.”

  “Okay, then here’s the new plan,” Mari said. “On the first day back, you say hello to him. And that’s all you have to do.”

  “Just say hi?”

  “Say ‘Hi, Alex.’”

  The snow was falling harder now, so Gracie held up her hand to shield her eyes. “I can do that. I can say hello.”

  “Good. It’s a plan!” Mari stuck out her tongue to let the snowflakes land on it.

  “I knew you’d help,” Gracie said quietly. “You always know what to do—you never get scared or awkward. You’re so much braver than me.”

  “Nah,” Mari replied. “I just don’t think about things before I do them. If I planned anything out, I’d probably be scared of talking to a boy I like too. Instead I just plow ahead, that’s what my mom says.”