pack her suitcase, backpack, and ice chest.
âWhy did you bring so much stuff?â I complained. âThis was a sleepover, not a vacation.â
âI believe in being prepared.â
âYou call this being prepared?â I held up an empty CDcase. âAnd whatâs this for?â I pointed to a vial of candy sprinkles and a Ziploc of crushed pecans.
âI thought we might want to make cookies. And I brought this sewing kit just in case a button fell off. The flashlight is for a power outage, and the Nutty Buddy Bars, peanut butter cheese crackers, pickles, popcorn, and carrot sticks were for midnight snacks, in case we got hungry. I brought my backpack and all our textbooks because we mightâve wanted to study if we got bored.â
âWe never study when you spend the night,â I said. âEven when weâre supposed to.â
âTrust me, Windy, the one time I donât bring my books, weâll be in the mood to study, and the one time I forget my exercise DVD, weâll feel like doing aerobics, and the one time I leave my Los Barrios cookbook at home, weâll feel like making pumpkin empanadas .â
âBut did you have to bring your Mini-Vac, too?â
âOf course. What if we made a mess?â
âGirls!â Mom called again. âIâm going to be late if you donât hurry up.â
âIn a minute, Mom.â
Just then, she came to the bedroom door. âIâve got to leave right now,â she said, pointing at her watch. âYou donât want to be late for your new friend, do you?â
âOkay, okay,â we said.
While I grabbed Elenaâs suitcase and while Mom grabbed her ice chest, Elena slipped her arms through her backpack and purse, tucked her pillow beneath her arm, and with her free hands, picked up her piccolo and the case with her portable DVD player. We lugged Elenaâs stuff to the car, cramming everything but the piccolo into the trunk. Then we clicked on our seat belts and headed to Pleasant Hill, so I could spend time with Mrs. Vargas.
Iâm lucky enough to have three grandmothers â my two abuelas from Mom and Dad, and my adopt-a-grandma, Mrs. Vargas. Iâve been visiting her since I was ten, the year Pleasant Hill sponsored an Adopt-a-Grandparent program. The old people had lined up along one side of the rec room while the kids lined up along the other. Then the kids reached into a sack to pull out their adopted grandparentâs name. At first, I felt shy about hanging out with Mrs. Vargas, but after we went Christmas caroling with the other Adopt-a-Grandparent pairs, I realized that she was one of the sweetest people on the planet. And weâve been friends ever since.
âSo,â Mom said to Elena when she reached the first stop-light, âdo you have any plans for summer?â
âYes, Iâm going to band camp. I went last year and had a superific time.â
âSuperific?â
âSuper and terrific. Get it?â
Mom nodded and laughed. âMaybe thereâs a camp for you, too, Windy.â
âI donât think so, Mom.â
âIt doesnât hurt to investigate. Isnât there a space camp in Alabama?â
â Youâre the one with the astronaut dreams. Not me. All I want to do this summer is watch soap operas and buy cold raspas when the snow cone truck comes by.â
âSoap operas and raspas are not interests,â Mom said. âDonât you think youâd have fun at something like a band camp?â
âMaybe. If I played an instrument.â
âI love playing my piccolo,â Elena said. âRight now, weâre practicing famous movie tunes for the spring concert. Like the themes for Star Wars and The Simpsons .â
âDo you get to play any solos?â Mom asked.
âNo. There isnât much for a piccolo to do, but Nina has a really cool solo. She gets to do Indian drumbeats from this movie
Sarah Hall
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