My Life as the Ugly Stepsister (17 page)

I ran for the door. With any luck, I wouldn’t get caught talking to him. I could probably talk Diane into the lock-in. Now, if I could get Caroline to watch Mojo.

“No problem,” Caroline said a few minutes later. “And I’ve been to one of those before, so I know Mom will let you go.”

My heart swelled with friendship for her. She was really starting to feel like a sister. Sleeping with my stinky dog so I could meet up with a boy.

“You’re awesome,” I said.

She waved away my compliment. “You’d do it for me. I’ll just have to grab him from next door after the football game.”

I headed to the shower with a big grin on my face. I was actually going to get to spend time with Jonathan. I guessed he’d probably hang out with his friends some too, but I’d get more than the five seconds alone with him that I was getting now. I could take MC and Madison. They’d love to flirt with Jonathan’s friends. And if he blew me off, I’d have back up.

Dad didn’t go for it. He asked me a million questions on the phone about who would be there, and why did I want to go to a lock-in at some new church when I didn’t even go to the ones at my church.

“Caroline says they’re fun. Plus, MC and Madison will be there.”

“I’ll talk to Diane,” he said, “but I’m not happy with this plan of yours.”

Diane got Dad to cave. I almost hugged her. She called the church and got the number of chaperones and the planned activities.

I went to bed feeling really confused. Diane had actually done something nice for me. But wasn’t I obligated to hate her guts for Mom’s sake? The image of her naked flashed through my mind. And the imaginary allergies. Yeah, she had a lot to make up for.

MC and Madison informed me that their mothers had said yes.

“We know you are totally going to ignore us,” MC said. “But we’re okay with that. Just as long as you find out if Dave and Colin will be there.”

“And if they’re seeing anybody,” Madison added.

It was the least I could do.

Soccer practice on Wednesday was brutal. You’d think the coach wanted us dead, not at the top of our game. I was starting to feel more confident about my abilities. We’d been scrimmaging for an hour each practice, and I’d taken the ball away from some of our best players.

The best part was when Amy was in goal. She didn’t call the ball, so I cleared it. Then, she snapped at me again.

“Call it then,” I said with all the attitude I could muster.

She sulked, but when the forward shot the ball next time, she yelled, “Goalie!”

I moved and she caught it.

“Much better girls,” the coach said from half field. “Now you’re working together. Amy, it’s the goalie’s job to communicate.”

I couldn’t help smirking.

I didn’t run into Jonathan when I got home, so I waited for the sound of his basketball. I never heard that either. MC had called three times. I really needed that information.

Finally, I went next door and got Mojo. I tapped on the back door.

Jonathan came out. “Hey, what’s the verdict?”

“I can go,” I said. “I’m supposed to find out if Colin and Dave are coming, and if they have girlfriends.”

“You can tell MC and Madison that they always come, and neither of them are seeing anyone right now.”

“Have they mentioned my friends?”

He shook his head. “They both like all cute girls. I’m sure they’ll find time to hang with your friends. A lot of girls will be there though.”

Oh. “Is that why you go?”

“No. Just for one girl.”

Caroline appeared at the gate. “Mom’s looking for you.”

“Bye,” Jonathan said. “See you soon.”

Chapter Thirteen

Parents are totally unpredictable. No matter how hard you try, you’ll never understand them.

–Ally’s Brutal Teen Truths

Thursday had to be the slowest school day of my life. I was antsy about the game, and I couldn’t help thinking about the lock-in. School was really interfering with my schedule. We put on our shiny uniforms, Fighting Irish green, for the first time and hit the field. We were playing a rural public school team that no one expected to be very good. Of course, they didn’t expect us to be any good either. The game could go either way.

Coach Borkman told me she was starting me at left fullback. My stomach rebelled, but after a quick trip to the restroom, I decided I might live. Several other girls had hotfooted to the restroom too, so I figured it was normal.

The other team kicked off, and panic rushed through me as the ball headed toward my end of the field. MC was at center halfback, and she was all over the girl with the ball. The girl lost control, and the ball came hurtling toward me. Without any time to think, I got my foot on it and pounded. The ball sailed up the sidelines to Katelyn at left forward. My heart soared. I’d done it, just like at practice. Actually better. Half the time at practice, I kicked the ball out when clearing it.

Ninety minutes later, I walked off the field with an unparalleled feeling of elation. Why had I wasted so many years not playing soccer?

The water in my bottle had gotten warm, but I didn’t care. I gulped it down. I’d sweated at least two gallons. I set down my empty bottle and turned to find MC and Madison when I heard my mom calling my name.

Maybe I’d lost too many electrolytes because I knew my mother was nowhere near Charlotte. I swiped at my brow as I caught sight of my mother. She really was there! She ran down the bleachers and hugged me even though I got sweat all over her pristine track suit.

“Oh, Ally. I missed you. I just caught the end, but you were fabulous! I didn’t know you could do that!”

“Me either.” I pulled out of her hug. “Mom, what are you doing here?”

She wrinkled her nose. “It’s a very long story, but the bottom line is that I’m home for good.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“It was a four?” I searched for some sadness in her eyes and didn’t find any.

She shook her head. “More like a one point five.”

“Sorry,” I said.

“I’m not.”

MC squealed behind me. “Mrs. Wright!”

Mom waved and MC and Madison mobbed her for hugs. Mom responded enthusiastically despite the sweat rolling off of them.

“I think we all need showers,” I said.

Mom laughed.

She dropped me at Dad’s and picked up Mojo from next door. Then, she came back for me after I’d grabbed a shower and packed enough stuff to tide me over until the weekend.

When Diane told me goodbye, I just barely resisted saying that it was good I left now before she showed any little sign of allergies.

“Tell me about the one point five.” After dropping my stuff in my room and taking Mojo out to pee, I joined Mom on the couch.

Mom rolled her eyes. “It wasn’t good. First of all, he never wears pants when he’s at home. Just boxers. Even though we’d just met, and he should have been trying to impress me. At least a little.”

Ew. I pictured the guy from the Internet in boxers. Luckily, his bottom half was cartoon on the website. I didn’t want to picture…Eeeewww!

“Then, I realized that he didn’t know anything about his own business. His secretary did all the work. He had to ask her questions about everything.”

Mom hated when people didn’t stay on top of their jobs.

“And I liked the firm, but I had to work seventy hours a week to keep up. They have a huge caseload, and I had to learn all the local rules. It took much more time than I thought. I started to wonder why I was there to spend time with Donald when I wasn’t even seeing Donald.”

“Sounds reasonable.”

“But the kicker was the gifts.”

“He gave you gifts?”

“He gave me all this gawdy gold jewelry which he had custom made. I couldn’t refuse it because he couldn’t return it, right? It was bad enough that the stuff wasn’t tasteful, but then I found out what it really was.”

“Huh? What was it?”

Mom had really gotten into the telling and didn’t answer my question. “You know how he had that comic book obsession. Well, one day I noticed that one of the comic book characters was wearing a necklace just like the one he’d given me. Let me tell you, that was a creepy realization. So I put all the jewelry in a bag and took it down to the comic book store. The guy identified all of it. The pieces were all jewelry from comic books.”

“That’s weird.”

“Yeah! My spine crawled when he told me. I didn’t even discuss it with Donald. I just told him I was leaving and gave the jewelry back. And instead of being upset, he just pulled the jewelry out of the bag and started laying out the pieces to look at.” She shivered. “It was disturbing. I’ll tell you that.”

“Was he crazy?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I think he was just weird. In an eerie, unsettling sort of way.”

“That’s better then,” I said, with sarcasm evident in my voice. “Are you disappointed?”

“Not really,” she said. “I’d rather find someone right for me who lives on this end of the world.” Before I could speak, she said, “And I know you would too.”

I laughed. “You do realize that every gift I ever give you from now on is going to be from a comic book.”

“That’s fine,” Mom said, crossing her arms. “And every gift I give you will be as well.”

I immediately saw the error of my ways. “Truce?”

“Truce.” She put her arm around me and gave my shoulders an affectionate squeeze.

I had my room pretty much set up when my cell rang.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Ally. It’s me, Jonathan. I found my phone.”

Jonathan. I shut my door. Having Mom listen in made me nervous.

“Hey,” I answered, trying to sound peppy.

“What the heck!” the deep voice on the other end complained. “I get home late and you’ve been kidnapped.”

“Sorry,” I said, glad to hear some distress in his voice. “She surprised me.”

“I didn’t even get to say goodbye to Mojo.”

“We could probably work out some kind of visitation.”

He laughed. “We may have to.”

“I’m glad my mother came back. But it does suck that we aren’t living next door to each other anymore.”

He sighed. It warmed my heart. “I guess we wouldn’t have seen each other much anyway with your father all ticked off.”

“True. Actually, I may be able to see you more with Mom here. Like the other day when your mother invited me in, and my dad said no. My mom would have been cool with it.”

“Your mother isn’t upset about the, um, situation?”

I shook my head although he couldn’t see me. “No, she’s not. She gets it.” I lowered my voice. “It probably helps that she feels guilty about the whole Mojo adjustment problem.”

“Whatever works.” I could hear his smile through the phone. “So I’ll see you at the lock-in tomorrow.”

The lock-in! Oh crap.

“Ally, does that silence mean no?”

“I don’t know, Jonathan. I had forgotten about it. I don’t want to miss it, but I can’t exactly bail on my mother right when she gets home.”

He groaned. “We are never going to get to see each other.”

“That’s not true. I just. I have to think about it.”

“The rate things are going we’ll have to join the Explorers after all.”

“We will if we have to. I’ll crawl through the woods with you if it comes to that.”
Please, God
, I prayed.
Don’t let it come to that
.

Caroline called on my cell soon after. It was the first time she’d ever called me.

“Hey,” I said, plopping down on my bed beside Mojo.

“I’m so sorry I missed you, Ally. But I know you’re glad your mom is back.”

“Yeah. I did miss her.”

“So now I don’t have to babysit Mojo while you go to the lock-in? Because Liam asked me out for pizza after the game.”

“Oh, right. Yeah. I guess you don’t need to worry. I probably shouldn’t go to the lock in anyway with my mother just getting home.”

“You cannot miss it, Ally. It’s your chance to spend some time with Jonathan.”

“I know, but there will be other chances. Mom wants to go see a movie.”

“Did you even tell her?”

“No.” She’d had a hard week.

“You should tell her.”

“Thanks, Caroline. I appreciate it and all, but I really think it would hurt her feelings.”

“I think she should know.”

Mom walked in so I lowered my voice. “Thanks for calling, Caroline. And again, I’m sorry I’m missing you cheer tomorrow.”

She growled, but said, “Talk to you later, Ally.”

Mom has a pensive expression. “Do you want to go to her football game, honey? It’s okay if you do.”

“No. I’ll catch her next week. It’s not like it’s something that only happens once a year or something.” Like the lock in.

Mom came to watch soccer practice on Friday. I thought it was really going above and beyond. I mean, our practices were pretty dull.

MC and Madison were disappointed about the lock-in.

“You guys can still go.”

MC shook her head. “Not if you won’t be there.”

“Plus, we don’t even know if Dave or Colin will come.” Madison had a point.

Mom let me jump in the shower, and then we headed out to dinner. We were almost to Chili’s when she got a call.

A strange call.

“Hello,” my mother answered.

Then, she said, “Oh, hi. Uh huh.”

After a few minutes of listening, she said, “Yes, dear. Okay, thank you for calling.”

“What’s up?” I asked after she disconnected.

“I’m not really in the mood for Chili’s after all. How about we just run through a Subway?”

Mom was always in the mood for Chili’s. “Are you sick or something?”

“No. I’m fine.”

“You aren’t leaving me again, are you? Was that Donald apologizing for the freaky jewelry?”

“No. You are safe. I promise. Now let’s grab some Subway.”

I was chewing my sandwich when she said, “I don’t think I really want to see a movie. Let’s just order something on Pay-per-view.”

I nearly choked trying to swallow a half-chewed bite. “Mother, what is wrong with you? Who called? I know something’s wrong!”