My So-Called Family (16 page)

“I get it,” I said. “That's a good one. I'll have to tell Charlie.”

Grandma Diane came over to our table, and we all smiled so she could take a picture.

“You know that means you guys will be on next year's poster,” I told them after Grandma Diane had walked away to take someone else's picture. “I hope you come to the Ross reunion every single year from now on. It's really cool to have my whole entire family all in one place.”

We finished up our hot dogs. Simon came over and asked us if we wanted to play touch football with him and some of the cousins. Andrew, Henry, and Tate said they wanted to. Samantha and I picked up the paper plates to throw them away and walked around to the side of the field. I watched Simon divide everyone up into teams.

“Twenty-four, twenty-seven, hike one, hike two,” Simon yelled out.

“You know what I've always wondered,” Samantha said. “How do they know what numbers to say when they play football? They always say different numbers, and I can never figure it out.”

“I have no idea,” I told her. “But all the guys seem to know what to do.” Andrew had the ball and was running across the grass. I thought how, if he was the kind of brother I lived with, I would've probably watched him in a hundred football games by now. I would probably know the names of all the kids on his team. Maybe I would even have made posters to hold up at the games. Or maybe I would just take him for granted, like lots of sisters did with their younger brothers.

Andrew made it to the end of the field and Henry high-fived him. “Go, Andrew!” Samantha shouted. “Woo hoo!” He turned to Samantha and me and waved, and we waved back.

“That was a touchdown, right?” I asked.

“I think so,” Samantha said. “I'm really not into football.”

“Me either,” I said.

“God, we're such girls,” Samantha said.

“They have these paths through the woods over there,” I told her, pointing across the field. “Do you want to take a walk or something?”

“Sure,” she said. She linked her arm through mine and we walked around the picnic benches. Mom was sitting with Amy. She had baby Asher up on her shoulder, and she waved to me as we passed by.

“Hey, Leah. Leah!” Charlie called. “Where are you going?”

“Just for a little walk,” I said.

“Can I come?” he asked. I hesitated for a second, since I kind of wanted it to just be Samantha and me. After all, we barely ever got to see each other. It was only the second time I'd ever seen her in person. “Please,” Charlie said.

I turned to Samantha and shrugged. “Do you want a piggyback ride?” she asked him.

“Yes, please,” he said.

Samantha bent down so Charlie could climb up on her back, and then she went racing ahead of me toward the trees. “Come on, Leah, come on!” Charlie cried.

We followed one of the paths in the woods. There are little signs along the path that label the trees—they're all named for people who have donated money to the park. I'd been on the path about a hundred times, but Samantha never had, and she stopped in front of every little sign. Charlie asked Samantha to put him down, and he stepped up to one of the trees. “If I was Spider-Man, I could climb this,” he said.

“That would be cool,” I said.

He walked around to the other side of the tree, which was farther back from the path. “Come on back, Char,” I said. “You know we're supposed to stay on the path.”

He took one more step away. “Hey, Leah, do you think it's possible that no one ever stepped here before? Since it's not on the path? Do you think that maybe I'm the first person ever to step here?”

“I don't know,” I said.

“I definitely think it's possible,” Samantha said.

“Yeah, me too,” Charlie said.

“All right,” I said. “It's possible—now come back here!”

Charlie bounded back over to us. “Hey, Samantha, come on! I'll be Batman and you be Robin, and I'm saving you from the evil monster. Hurry up, it's chasing us!”

“Hurry up, Leah,” Samantha said. “It's gaining on us!”

Charlie ran all the way to his favorite tree. It's his favorite because the little sign in the front says
FOR CHARLES
, and Charlie thinks that means it's his tree.

Charlie wrapped his arms around the trunk of the tree. “Leah, look, it's my tree. Just like in the poster you made. Now I have to interview Samantha,” Charlie said.

“For what?” Samantha asked.

“My family tree,” Charlie said, and then he turned to me. “She's family, right? That's why she's at the family reunion.”

“Right,” I said. “But you know it's not Family Month anymore.”

“No, it's State Month now,” Charlie said. “But it's okay because we're in another state, so it can be like a combination.”

“A combination?” I asked.

“Yeah, a combination Family and State Month,” he said.

Charlie looked so cute right then. I loved the way he sounded when he used big words. I mean, what kind of five-year-old uses the word “combination”? “I love you, Charlie,” I said.

“Love you too,” Charlie said quickly, automatically. Then he turned to Samantha. “Leah helped me make my family tree so it's better than Aaron's, even though Leah said Aaron's the teacher's pet.”

“Don't tell Mom that,” I said.

“So now I have to interview you,” Charlie said.

“What do you want to know?” Samantha asked.

“What's your favorite color?”

“Um, I think red.”

“What's your favorite sport?”

“I don't really have a favorite, except maybe cheerleading. I'm trying out next year when I get to high school.” I hadn't known that Samantha wanted to be a cheerleader. It sounded like something Avery would want to do. “What's your favorite sport?” she asked Charlie.

“I like bikes,” he said. “Have you ever heard of Lance Armstrong?”

“He's a biker, right?”

“He's a cyclist,” Charlie corrected. “But don't you think his name should be Lance
Leg
strong? I mean, he uses his legs mostly, not his arms, when he rides his bike.”

“You're totally right about that,” Samantha said.

“Hey, I felt a raindrop,” Charlie said.

As soon as he said it, I felt a raindrop plop onto my arm, and then another on my head. And then they were falling all over us. “Come on, come on!” I said. The three of us raced back up the path to the rest of the family. We came out of the woods, and everything was all wet. Mom and Anna Holland were pulling the posters off the trees and rolling them up. Simon was still playing football in the rain with Andrew, Henry, and Tate, and a couple of the cousins were splashing in the puddles. Everyone else was huddled on the picnic benches with umbrellas over them. Grandma Diane was holding Asher tight to shield him from the rain.

“I don't think this will pass, Ma,” Amy said. “Maybe we should move this to your house. Is that all right?”

“Of course. Rain is lucky anyhow,” Grandma Diane said. “Didn't you know that? It's a very lucky thing if a bird poops in your hair or if it rains on your wedding day. So it must be lucky if it rains during a family reunion. As a matter of fact, I think that since it didn't rain until after we finished barbecuing, the rain is extra lucky.”

“Mom's a real lemonade-out-of-lemons kind of woman,” Amy said.

“I've just been lucky,” she said.

I stood back and looked at my family, my whole family, all there together in the park. Simon threw the football to Tate. I heard him yell out, “Tate-man, what a catch!” Mom was bent in conversation with Anna Holland. Samantha was next to me, pulling her sweatshirt over her head to block out the rain. I felt lucky too. I decided I took after Simon's side of the family.

A
few weeks later Mom's publisher called to say her book was ready to go and would be sent out to bookstores the next month. Mom says writing a book is kind of like having another kid—you worry about what it will look like and whether people will like it. You work as hard as you can to make it the best it can be, and then you send it off into the world and hope for the best. When it does well, you feel proud and happy. When it doesn't sell, you feel like it's all your fault and you're a complete and utter failure.

Mom's publisher always sends a few free copies of her books to our house before they're actually sent out to bookstores, and Mom told me I could invite Avery, Brenna, and Callie over for a little book party. She would read part of her book out loud to us, just like she does when she's on tour. Avery, Brenna, and Callie could even ask questions about it if they wanted. Then Mom would sign a copy of the book for each of them. She always writes little notes to people when she signs her books, like “Best Wishes” or “Good Luck on the SATs!” I wanted Samantha to come to the book party too, but she had a big history test the next week and Anna Holland said she absolutely had to stay in Haverford and study that weekend. But we made plans to get together the week that school let out for the summer, and Samantha was planning another donor sibling reunion for August. I really couldn't wait. I hadn't spent enough time with the boys at the reunion, and I wanted to get to know them better. We had started e-mailing one another every week. Tate e-mailed me jokes, just like Samantha said he would. Sometimes I told them to Charlie. And Andrew and Henry wrote me about the things they were up to. But still, e-mailing is not the same thing as getting to see your brothers in person. Mom said she would definitely let me visit everyone in August, and in the meantime she would sign a copy of the book for Samantha and send it to her in Haverford.

Anyway, I think the main reason Mom wanted me to invite people over is because she gets nervous whenever her books first come out, not just because it's like having another kid to worry about, but also because she has to go on tour and speak to strangers in bookstores. You'd think after being a writer for so many years, she'd be used to it and stop being so nervous, but she gets scared every time. She likes to practice reading passages before she actually has to be in front of a crowd of strangers, so reading in front of my friends would be a good warm-up before her tour.

Mom had arranged for Charlie to have a playdate with Aaron, so he wouldn't interrupt the reading or make us all watch
The Lion King
with him instead of listening to Mom. Avery, Brenna, and Callie came home with me after school.

We dropped our backpacks in the front hall. “Mom!” I yelled. “We're home!”

“I'll be there in a minute,” Mom yelled back from the kitchen. “I'm just finishing up an e-mail.”

We walked back toward the living room. I saw that Mom had put out chips and salsa on the coffee table. There was also a plate of carrots and celery because I'd told Mom that Brenna ate only healthy food. “I guess she's doing the reading in here,” I said. “So, you know, make yourselves at home.”

“Does it matter where we sit?” Brenna asked.

“I think my mom will sit in that chair,” I said, pointing to a chair that was usually at the dining room table but was now set up facing the couch. “But we can sit anywhere else—on the couch, or the floor, or wherever.”

Avery sat on the couch, but she was acting all fidgety. “This is awesome,” she said. “I've never met a real author before.”

“What are you talking about?” I said. “You've met my mom a bunch of times.”

“I know,” Avery said. “But she was just a mom then. Now she's a writer. I'm sort of nervous.”

“You're crazy,” I told her.

“Whatever,” she said. “You love me anyway.”

“So where's the book?” Callie asked.

“I don't know,” I said. “I haven't even seen it yet. My mom's publisher was sending it overnight, and it was supposed to arrive this morning. I don't even know what the cover looks like. It's not going to be in stores until next month.”

“I can't believe we get to see a book before it's even in stores,” Avery said. She bounced up and down a little, the way Charlie does when he's really excited about something on television. Brenna sank onto the couch next to Avery. “Aren't you excited?” Avery asked her.

“Yeah,” Brenna said. “But I'm also so depressed!”

“What's the matter?”

“You know,” Brenna said. “Chase.”

“What about him?”

“That he's back with Lizzie,” Brenna said, and she sighed loudly. “It's just so awful. I saw him walking down the hall with Lizzie. He had his arm around her shoulder. She was leaning up against him and you should have seen how he was looking at her. Like he was completely in love. His eyes were half-open, half-closed—you know, that dreamy look guys always get in the movies. Even though Lizzie's totally wrong for him!”

Avery had stopped bouncing and rolled her eyes. “What? And you're right for him?”

“I could be,” Brenna said. “If he would just dump Lizzie for good, then maybe he would look at me like that.” Brenna cocked her head and batted her eyelashes. “Don't you think he could love me?”

“That's how Ian looks at me sometimes,” Callie said.

“You're so lucky,” Brenna said. “Unrequited love is so tragic!”

“Oh, puh-lease,” Avery said.

“Seriously,” Brenna said. “It's really hard to love Chase so much and see him running after Lizzie instead of me. I just don't understand it. I mean, they're barely speaking half the time. I wouldn't fight with him like she does. He's so hot. What's there to fight about?”

“You are totally pathetic,” Avery said.

“But it's true,” Brenna insisted.

Avery looked at me and rolled her eyes again. I knew she thought it was really dumb that Brenna was always falling all over Chase. I guess it was kind of silly, but I sort of agreed with Brenna anyway, and I decided not to worry anymore if Avery thought I was being stupid too. After all, she was the one who told me you can't waste time worrying what other people think about you. “The thing is,” I said, “Chase
is
really hot.”

“Oh, no,” Avery cried. “Not you, too!”

I shrugged my shoulders. “You see?” Brenna said. “He's irresistible!”

“Well, I have some news for you,” Avery said. “Chase decided last night where he's going to college, and he's going to be geographically unavailable to you both.”

“Where's he going?” I asked.

“Stanford.”

“Is that in Connecticut?” Brenna asked.

“No, it's in California. It's practically the best school in the whole country too.”

“Your dad must be happy,” I said. “Even if it isn't Yale.”

“Please,” Avery said. “Now that Chase is planning to go to Stanford, Lizzie says she's going to go to college in California too. My dad's worried Chase is going to grow his hair really long and become a surfer. And then he and Lizzie will run off and get married, and have little surfer children.” I pictured Chase in California, with his dark hair lightened from the sun and falling in front of his face the way it did when he was leaning over the stairwell.

“Well,
I
love California,” Brenna said. “And my aunt Rose said I have a really strong love line.” She waved her palm in front of Avery. “You see?” she said.

Avery squeezed her eyes shut and put her hands over her ears. “I can't take it anymore,” she said. “When's your mom gonna come out here?”

I remembered something just then, and I held my palm out toward Brenna. “Hey, Brenna, can you check out my family line?”

“Huh?”

“My family line,” I repeated. “Callie was telling us about you learning how to read palms when you were in New Mexico, but I can't remember which one was the family line.”

“None of them,” Brenna said. “There's no such thing as a family line.”

Avery dropped her hands from her ears. “See, Callie, I told you so,” she said.

Mom came out then, with a stack of books in her arms—one for each of us. “Hey, girls,” she said. “Thanks so much for coming.”

“Oh, thanks so much for having us,” Avery said.

“My pleasure,” Mom said. “I really need the practice.” She handed us each a book. I ran my fingers across the cover.
How to Talk So Your Parents Will Listen
it said in bold blue letters. Above the title, in a different shade of blue, it said “Meredith Hoffman-Ross.” The letters in Mom's name were raised up slightly.

“This is so unbelievably cool,” Avery said.

“The cover looks really good,” I told Mom.

“Open it up,” Mom said. “There's a surprise for you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just open it,” Mom said. “You'll see.”

I opened it carefully so I wouldn't break the binding. It had that brand-new-book smell, and the pages were crisp and white. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be looking for, but I turned the pages slowly—past the title page and the copyright page. And then I saw it: “
Dedicated to my wonderful daughter, Leah Isabel Hoffman-Ross, who taught me how to listen
.” “You dedicated it to me?” I asked. “Really?”

Mom nodded.

“But I thought you didn't believe in dedicating books to your kids,” I said.

“I've been rethinking a lot of things lately,” Mom said.

“Oh, Leah,” Avery said. “I can't believe your name is in an actual book—like, anyone can just go to a bookstore and buy this book, and there's your name right there. It's just so awesome. Your mom is so awesome.”

I was looking across the room at Mom as I answered Avery. There was no other mother I could ever want more. There was no other family that I wanted to be part of. “I know,” I said.