nice.
âHave you lived here your whole life?â he asks me.
âYup. I think itâs the best town in the world. Youâll like it. Just wait until summerâthatâs when itâs really the best.â
âReally?â he asks, and we make eye contact. His eyes are green with little brown specks. It almost looks like someone painted them that way.
âYeah. Definitely. And itâs hard to tell how great a place is in the winter. I mean, I know you moved in September, but still. You need to see Old Mill in the summer to really appreciate it.â
âOkay, I canât wait.â
We get in line at Hotdogger & Co., and Evan starts to tell Travis and Gavin all about the hot-dog-eating contest last summer.
âIt was crazy,â he says. âYou would not believe how many hot dogs Lucy ate.â
âHow many?â Travis asks me.
âLike, fifteen, maybe?â I say, half-embarrassed, half-proud.
He high-fives me. âThatâs insanely awesome.â
This Travis kid is growing on me. And even though itâs only been a few hours, I can totally tell the twins apart now.
We stay at the mall until five in the afternoon, and then Sunnyâs mom calls and says she has to pick us up because they have dinner plans.
âWe gotta go,â Sunny tells the boys. âMy parents are going out tonight, so this is our only ride.â
âOh, party at Sunnyâs house!â Gavin says. Iâm getting the feeling that he may be the wilder one of the two.
âNah, not tonight.â Sunny smiles. âIâll keep it in mind for another night, though.â
I canât imagine Sunny throwing a party. Maybe Yamir. But Sunny, no.
Weâre waiting for Sunnyâs mom to pick us up, and the boys are waiting for Evanâs mom. This weekend was not at all what I expected when school ended on Friday. I donât know what I expected exactly, but it wasnât this. Erica and Zoe at the spa, an impromptu sleepover at Sunnyâs, a middle-of-the-night talk with Yamir, and then a mall day with a new boy who may have a crush on me.
I know Iâm going to have trouble falling asleep again tonight.
Lucyâs tip for surviving eighth grade:
Be polite even when you donât feel like it.
Mrs. Deleccio finds me as soon as I get to school Monday morning.
âLucy, the school board tells me theyâll have a final decision this afternoon. Theyâd like all of you to meet with them at 3:45 in the school library. Can you do that?â
I run over my schedule in my head; I donât have anything going on. âSure. I think so.â
âOkay, great. Iâll try to tell the others, but if you see them before I do, please let them know.â
âOkay, thanks.â
She caught me off guard, and I had to think for a minute to figure out what decision she was talking about. But of course this is the big moment for our green cafeteria plan! Now I have to get through the rest of the day wondering what the decision is going to be.
If it was bad news, they probably wouldnât want to meet with us. Theyâd just e-mail or something. But if it was good news, would they really need a meeting? They could just say that everything looks perfect, and we could move on from there.
I have no idea what the decision will be.
And I wonât see Sunny until third period. Today is a gym day, so our regular schedule is different. Weâre not in the same gym class. And I have band and she has orchestra.
I walk into the band room, and Travis is the first person I see.
I had fun with him Saturday, but Sunnyâs comment about his crush on me is irking me a bit. I mean, I donât even know if itâs true. But if it is true, I donât know what to do about it. I still like Yamir. He drives me totally crazy, but heâs Yamir. Heâs in a class of his own. I canât abandon all hope that things will work out between us.
âHi,
Annabel Wolfe
Abigail Graham
Holly Bush
Vera Caspary
Kieran Scott
Erin Kelly
Patricia Duncker
Liz Mugavero
Nora Roberts
Erica Stevens