Picture Perfect #5 (3 page)

“But why?” Mari asked the next day at school. “All the plans were canceled! The only thing you have left to do is go shopping! Why won't she let you come with us?”

“She said your mom has her hands full with so many kids already,” Gracie replied, dejected. “She said the last thing your mom needs is one more kid to keep track of.”

“That's crazy!” Mari cried. “My mother is used to having this many kids. Normally Kat would be with us, so there would be five kids. If you don't come, there will only be four kids, and then my parents will spend all their time thinking they have the wrong number of kids with them.”

Gracie smiled. “Okay, but it's not like Kat needs to be taken care of. She's in college. Your parents would be trading a college kid for a sixth grader. I think that's what my mom means.”

“Because you're so hard to take care of?” Mari said sarcastically. “Gracie, you're more responsible than most adults I know! You're not going to wander off and get lost, or whatever your mom is afraid of. I mean,
I
might wander off if you're not there to stop me.
That's
what she should be worried about. Remember when I got lost at the school fair last year?”

“Because you jumped out the wrong side of the big bouncy obstacle-course thingy!” Gracie cracked a smile for the first time all day. “Who could forget that?”

“But it only took you two minutes to find me,” Mari said. “You need to remind your mom of that. Tell her I need you to keep me safe since Kat won't be there.”

“You know she won't buy that—she thought there should've been more adult chaperones at the fair and then you wouldn't have gotten lost in the first place,” Gracie reminded her.

Mari grinned. “My parents just laughed at me when I told them about it.”

“Your parents don't treat you like a six-year-old,” Gracie replied.

“They don't even treat Jimmy like a six-year-old, and he
is
six,” Mari joked. “I wish they'd make him go to bed earlier so he would leave me alone when I'm trying to do my homework.”

Gracie couldn't imagine how it would feel to have a little brother distracting her while she sat at her desk, working away. It sounded a lot more fun than the usual silence and boredom.

“The point is, you're every parent's dream kid. You'll be so well behaved that my parents won't even notice you're there,” Mari went on. “It's not going to make things harder on them to bring you along.”

“I know, but my mom still thinks it's too much of an imposition. She said your mother probably just asked to be polite.” Gracie kept her eyes on the lockers they were passing on their way to Social Studies. She couldn't bear to look at her best friend's disappointed face. “I tried to convince her. She just kept saying it would be way too much chaos for your parents.”

Mari groaned. “Your mother thinks being late for dinner is chaos!”

“She's an only child,” Gracie said, trying to explain. “I'm an only child. Even my gram was an only child. My mom just doesn't understand how anyone can handle more than one kid.”

“Your gram isn't such a control freak,” Mari grumbled.

“Yes, she is. And Pops is even worse. They're just willing to bend the rules for me,” Gracie said. “Gram really helped me out—she pretended they were
actually going to take a spontaneous trip! I don't think my mother even knew that spontaneous trips existed.”

Finally Mari laughed. “Gram was awesome for doing that.”

Gracie nodded. “I just wish it had worked. I knew it was too good to be true.”

“Nope.” Mari stopped walking and grabbed Gracie's arm. “Nope, nope, nope. You sound like you're giving up. You can't give up!”

“What do you mean?” Gracie asked, surprised. “We did the whole plan, and my mother still said no.”

“So what?” Mari waved her hand in the air like that could make reality disappear. “Close your eyes.”

“What? Why?” Gracie asked.

“Just do it!”

“Okay, but not in the middle of the hallway. People are crashing into us,” Gracie pointed out.

Mari looked around as if she hadn't even realized they were blocking traffic. “Fine.” She grabbed Gracie's hand and pulled her over to the side. “Close your eyes.”

Gracie did, feeling kind of silly.

“Now visualize the mountain,” Mari ordered her, in a calm, relaxing voice like a hypnotist. “Fresh powder, a sunny day, and you and me flying down the slope at a thousand miles an hour.”

“We'd be dead if we went that fast,” Gracie said.

“Five hundred miles an hour,” Mari corrected herself.

“Still dead,” Gracie told her.

“We're going really fast,” Mari said, her hypnotic voice sounding a little annoyed. “The wind in our hair, the cold air on our cheeks . . .”

“It would be amazing,” Gracie said, trying to imagine skiing with her best friend. She never got to ski with anyone but her family.

“And at the end, the chocolatey-est hot chocolate that we ever tasted,” Mari went on. “And then ghost stories at night.”

Gracie opened her eyes, shaking off the images of their perfect weekend. “You're making it worse,” she complained. “My mom isn't going to let me go, and now I want to go even more.”

“Look, if your gram and your pops can lighten up, so can your mother. We just need to think of a different way to make her say yes,” Mari insisted.

Gracie wished she could be as optimistic as Mari. “Like what?” she said doubtfully. “We need to face it—my mom will never say yes, to anything, ever. I bet she's going to follow me to college just to make sure I'm still okay and following a schedule. Maybe you should see if Kat's life-swap partner wants to come
skiing with you after all.”

Mari's eyes lit up. “OMG, that's perfect!”

“Bringing some strange girl? Really?” Gracie asked.

“You know, for someone with genius ideas, you really don't even notice your own genius ideas,” Mari commented. “Gracie, you can say it's an experiment! Just like Kat's college experiment.”

“But . . . I'm not switching lives with anyone,” Gracie protested. “Unless you want to go hang out with my parents for the weekend and have the boring only-child experience while I hang out with your family.”

Mari raised her eyebrows and waited.

“Oh,” Gracie said. “
Oh!
We can say it's a life-swap experiment just like your sister's! I see what it's like to live with a giant family, and you see what it's like to be an only child. But wait . . .”

“It won't be a swap,” Mari assured her. “We'll say it's an experiment to compare the experience of an only child to one with multiple siblings.”

“That sounds pretty official,” Gracie said, impressed.

“And if it's an actual project for school, your mom can't say no to it,” Mari added. “Because you're supposed to do everything the teacher says, and if your mom said no, she wouldn't be following the rules, and you know she loves the rules.”

Gracie bit her lip. “But it's not a project for school. You know I can't lie.”

Mari began walking again, so Gracie followed. “Where are we going?”

“To talk to Mr. Ferrone. That way it
will
be a real project, and you won't have to lie!”

“Remember that ski trip you didn't want me to go on?” Gracie said that night at dinner. She didn't even wait for her dad to finish filling their water glasses before speaking. She knew she'd lose her nerve if she didn't get this over with fast.

“We're not going to talk about this again, are we?” Mr. Hardwick asked. “Your mother and I already told you—”

“I know, but I had already written it down as my social studies project,” Gracie said quickly. “Mr. Ferrone wanted us to do social experiments over the long weekend, and I said I would write a paper on the differences between one-child families and multiple-child families based on my experience with the O'Hagans. I guess I shouldn't have, but I didn't think you would say no.” At least she hoped they wouldn't say no, since not only had she convinced Mr. Ferrone to let her do the project, she had also told him she would write that paper. “Anyway, I talked
to him about it at school today, and he's expecting my report the Thursday we get back,” Gracie went on.

Ms. Hardwick dropped the big wooden salad bowl onto the table and stared at Gracie. “Did you tell him we said you couldn't go?” she demanded, exasperated.

“Um, no,” Gracie admitted. “He thought it was such an interesting idea for a sociology experiment. I think he'll give me a good grade on it.” Both of those things were true. Mr. Ferrone had been impressed with the idea, and he usually gave high marks for extra credit work. “I . . . I wasn't sure how to tell him you didn't want me to go. He knows that Mari's parents say I can come with them. So I couldn't figure out how to explain why you won't let me. Because
I
don't exactly know why you won't let me.”

Her mother's mouth opened, but no words came out. Her father chewed on his lip, thinking.

“Did you call Mari's mom to tell her no thanks?” Mr. Hardwick finally asked his wife.

“No,” Ms. Hardwick replied. “I just assumed it was another crazy plan the girls cooked up. I didn't want to seem like I was asking her to take Gracie along on their family trip.”

“Ms. O'Hagan invited me along,” Gracie protested. “For real. It wasn't our idea, it was hers. The O'Hagans
don't mind having lots of kids around. They're used to it.”

“Mr. Ferrone is a good teacher. He's right that it's an interesting idea,” Mr. Hardwick said. “I'd like to read that paper!”

Ms. Hardwick nodded but said, “He shouldn't have assigned a project like this without checking with us.”

Gracie held her breath. Her parents seemed to be thinking about it. Really thinking about it! “I agree, but since he's expecting Gracie to do it, I think she'd better do it,” Mr. Hardwick said. “We already know that we won't be hiking and the soup kitchen doesn't need us that weekend.”

“And Gram and Pops are going away,” Gracie put in.

“Right, their spontaneous vacation,” her dad agreed. “It seems to be the weekend for that! If Gracie goes skiing, everyone except you and me will be taking an unexpected trip.”

“I don't know how people do that,” Ms. Hardwick murmured, wrapping her arms around herself. “Planning a vacation with no notice? No time to do all the proper research?”

Mr. Hardwick laughed. “It's good to try something new every once in a while. Maybe a spontaneous vacation is just what we all need. In fact, I think we should take one ourselves.”

Gracie stared at him. So did her mother.

“What do you mean?” Ms. Hardwick asked.

“You and I should take advantage of this and go away ourselves,” he suggested. “We won't have anything else to do that weekend. I'll find a place and plan the whole thing. It will be a surprise for you!”

Ms. Hardwick's eyebrows shot up. “I don't like surprises.”

“But this will be a good surprise,” Mr. Hardwick said. “I promise.”

“Does that mean I can go skiing?” Gracie burst out. “Can I?”

Her father shrugged and looked at her mom. Ms. Hardwick glanced back and forth between the two of them. Finally she threw up her hands, smiling. “I guess this is the weekend to do something different. We'll go on a surprise vacation. And Gracie will go on the ski trip with Mari.”

“Are you sure you brought lip balm? And sunscreen?” Gracie's mom asked her for the third time. “You can get burned even in winter, you know. The snow makes the sun reflect—”

“I know, Mom,” Gracie cut in. “I packed sunscreen. And extra socks.”

Her mother frowned, peering through the darkness at the road. It was six thirty in the morning and the sun wasn't up yet. But Gracie felt as if she'd drunk four cups of her parents' coffee. She couldn't help bouncing up and down in her seat, she was so excited. She knew Mari would feel the same way.

“And you have the phone charger?” her mother asked. “That phone is for emergencies. You have to make sure it always has power.”

“I know, Mom,” Gracie said. “Did you pack your phone charger?”

Ms. Hardwick shot her a surprised look.

“Well, you're going away too,” Gracie pointed out. “How am I going to find out where your mystery vacation is if you can't call me?”

Her mother laughed. “I guess you can tell I'm pretty stressed out about this weekend,” she said.

“Which part? Me going skiing or you going someplace you're not sure of?” Gracie asked.

“Both! But at least I know where you are and that Mari's parents will keep an eye on you. I have no idea where your dad and I will be.” Ms. Hardwick shook her head, sending her dark curls flying. “I don't like not being able to plan.”

“Dad planned it. It will be fine,” Gracie assured her. “You'll have a great time.”
But not as great as me,
she thought excitedly. Nobody would ever have as great a time as she was going to have with Mari. She could picture it all—flying down the slopes together, cracking jokes as they rode back up on the lift, sipping hot cocoa by the fireplace, maybe doing some sledding in the afternoons. Whenever she went skiing with her parents, Gracie had a room in the hotel all to herself. It would be so much more fun to share a room with Mari. They could stay up all night talking. One thing was for sure—she would have plenty of time for conversation
with her best friend for a change. By the end of the weekend, they would have the whole Alex Parker crush situation sorted out enough for Gracie to know what to do about it.

“Hmm,” her mother said, pulling into the O'Hagans' driveway. “I don't see any lights on. It doesn't look like they're awake yet.”

Gracie checked her watch. “Mari said to be here at six forty-five so we could leave at seven. They must be up.”

“Well, you go ring the bell and I'll get your suitcase out of the trunk,” Ms. Hardwick said. Gracie got out of the car and hurried over to the front door. She was so excited to be going that she wanted to run, but she forced herself to walk. She half expected Mari to fling open the door before she got there, since she knew her best friend was as happy as she was about the trip. But when she rang the doorbell, there was nothing but silence inside the O'Hagan house.

“Did we get the day wrong?” Gracie's mom asked, pulling the suitcase up to the door. “That would be embarrassing.”

“No, we're definitely supposed to leave Saturday morning at seven.” Gracie pushed the doorbell again.

This time there was noise inside—some banging
around and a few different voices. Then the door swung open, and Mari's brother, Jimmy, stood there in his pajamas. “The sun's not even up yet,” he said accusingly.

Before Gracie could answer, Mari came flying down the stairs. “You're here! It's happening! We're going!” She threw her arms around Gracie and then pulled back to smile at Ms. Hardwick. “Come on in. My mom is making coffee.”

“Mari, I thought we were leaving at seven,” Gracie said.

“We are,” Mari replied.

“But you're not even dressed yet,” Gracie pointed out. Mari was still in her pajamas, just like Jimmy.

Mari yawned. “That's okay. We have our clothes all laid out and we just have to jump into them and then we'll go. We will totally be on the road at seven.”

“I think I
will
go have a cup of coffee,” Ms. Hardwick said, her eyebrows raised. “Just to make extra sure that this is all okay with your parents, Mari.”

She headed off to the kitchen, and Gracie grabbed Mari's arm. “Did something go wrong? Why isn't anybody ready to go? My mom might change her mind if she thinks anything's wrong.”

Mari looked confused. “Nothing's wrong. We're just not ready yet.”

Gracie thought about pointing out that they were supposed to be pulling out of the driveway in ten minutes and the car wasn't even packed, but the O'Hagans had to know that, right? They just never cared about stuff like being on time. Usually that made Gracie happy, but it was hard to relax when her mom was still here, worrying.

“Hey, Gracie!”

“Hi, Gracie.”

Mari's brothers Robert and Jon smiled at her as they came downstairs. The twins were in eighth grade, so she saw them at school a lot. And she was happy to see that they were both dressed already—it would make her mom feel better.

“Hi, guys,” she answered. Mari shoved past Jon on her way up the stairs, and Gracie tried to follow. She had to stop while Jon shoved Mari back, and then while Mari stuck her tongue out at him and he rolled his eyes. Finally Mari started climbing again and it was safe to follow her. The twins never pushed Gracie, or pulled her braids, or flicked her nose with their fingers like they did to Mari. But sometimes she got caught in the cross fire, so she'd learned to stay out of reach while they scuffled.

“I can't believe this trip is actually happening! We
did it! How long is the drive again?” Gracie asked as Mari flung open the door to the room she shared with Kat. Ever since Kat had left for college, Mari's side of the room seemed to be getting bigger and bigger. Her clothes were thrown everywhere, even on Kat's bed.

“It'll take us five or six hours. We'll stop for lunch on the way. I hope you're ready for the best road-trip food ever!”

Gracie laughed and headed for the bathroom Kat and Mari shared, looking for Mari's toothbrush and some toothpaste, since she knew Mari always forgot hers when she went on vacation. What kind of best friend would she be if she let Mari leave it this time? Meanwhile, Mari grabbed some jeans and a sweater and started getting changed. “I'm so psyched for skiing!” she called through the bathroom door. “Your mother isn't going to change her mind at the last minute, is she?”

“She can't. My dad made plans for a mystery trip, remember?” Gracie brought the toiletries back into the bedroom and tossed them into Mari's duffel bag.

“I can't even imagine your parents doing something spontaneous,” Mari commented. “Where do you think they're going? Do you think they're going to show up at our ski cabin and say they rented the place next door?”

Gracie's heart skipped a beat. They wouldn't do that, would they? She knew her mom always wanted to be able to watch her . . .

“I'm joking,” Mari said. “Wipe that terrified look off your face, Grace!”

“I know, I'm joking too.” Gracie grinned, bouncing up and down on Mari's desk chair. “I can't wait to go!”

“Gracie! Your mom wants you!” Jimmy bellowed, throwing open the door. “Gracie!”

“You have to knock, dummy,” Mari cried, tossing a pillow at him.

Jimmy completely ignored her. “Your mom wants you,” he told Gracie again.

“Okay, I'm coming.” She shot Mari a smile and headed downstairs.

“Have a wonderful time, sweetheart,” Ms. Hardwick said when Gracie got down to the kitchen. “I have to go—your father's mystery trip starts in half an hour.”

“Great. Have fun, Mom.” Gracie hugged her mother extra tight. She felt a little strange as she watched Mom walk out the door. Her mom was so overprotective that they'd never spent more than one night apart before.

The O'Hagans were all over the house now—little Jimmy sliding on the wood floor in his socks, still wearing his pajama shirt; Robert and Jon playing catch in
between the kitchen and the living room; Mr. O'Hagan wrestling a bunch of skis through the basement door; Ms. O'Hagan calmly drinking coffee at the table as if they weren't all running late. It was crazy in here! For a moment, Gracie stood still and just took in all the chaos. An entire weekend with the O'Hagans was going to be so much fun!

“Gracie! Heads up!” Robert threw the ball at her, and she caught it without thinking. She glanced down in surprise. It wasn't a ball. It was some kind of cosmetics bag packed with stuff.

“Nice catch,” Jimmy called.

“Gracie, honey, will you bring that here?” Ms. O'Hagan asked.

“Aw, why did you throw it to Gracie?” Jon complained. “You know she's too nice to keep it away from Mom.”

Gracie wasn't exactly sure what to do. Would the twins really be mad if she handed over the cosmetics bag? But how could she disobey Ms. O'Hagan?

“You guys are so immature,” Mari said, jogging down the stairs. She grabbed the bag from Gracie and brought it over to her mother. “Besides, we'll never leave if you don't let Mom finish packing.”

The boys turned away and began wrestling. Gracie
sighed in relief. She hadn't wanted to start out making anybody mad at her.

“Are we going soon?” she asked Mari, happy to see that she was dressed.

“Of course,” Mari said. “Dad just has to load the car.”

“I could use some help with that,” Mr. O'Hagan commented as he dragged another load of skis and poles up from the basement.

“I'll help,” Jon cried.

“I'll help faster!” Robert put in. Somehow they managed to race over to their father while still wrestling. Gracie laughed.

“Mari, toast up some waffles for everyone and we'll eat in the car,” Ms. O'Hagan said, pulling a turtleneck over Jimmy's head as he tried to make a break for the living room. “Did you eat, Gracie?”

“Yes, thanks,” she said. Her mother had woken her up in plenty of time to eat the scrambled eggs and toast she usually had on Saturday mornings. But when the sweet smell of toasting waffles began drifting through the house, her stomach rumbled. She was never allowed to eat in the car.

“Do you think I can have one?” she asked Mari as her friend packed a bunch of hot waffles into aluminum foil.

“Of course.” Mari grinned at her. “Road-trip food is the best!”

“Hurry up!” Robert said, coming into the kitchen to steal a waffle. “We're leaving.”

Gracie and Mari shared an excited smile, then they hurried out to the driveway. Mr. O'Hagan was busy packing things into the big storage box on the top of the minivan, and Jon was handing up the suitcases and skis to be put inside it.

“Mari and Gracie, will you go tell Jimmy we're leaving?” Ms. O'Hagan asked, passing them with a box full of canned food.

Mari stuck the pack of waffles on one of the car seats. “He's probably playing a video game,” she told Gracie. They headed back inside to look for Jimmy, but he wasn't in the family room where the Xbox was. “You stay down here,” Mari said. “I'll go upstairs and try to send him down.”

“Why do I have to stay here?” Gracie asked.

“Because Jimmy will think it's a game and keep hiding from us. He always does that when he wants attention. So you stay here and grab him when he gets down the stairs.”

Before Gracie could answer, Mari bounded upstairs.
How am I supposed to grab him?
she wondered. She
didn't have any little cousins to practice on or anything, and it seemed weird to actually take hold of someone who didn't want you to.

Jimmy came flying down the steps with a grin on his face.

Not knowing what else to do, Gracie reached for his arm. He ducked under her hands, scooted around her, and kept running. “Ha ha! You can't get me!” he called.

“What? Yes, I can,” Gracie cried. She took off after him, catching up as he reached the kitchen. This time she just grabbed on to whatever she could—so she ended up with his shirt in her hand. She held on tight while he twisted and pulled, and by the time Mari arrived to help, Jimmy was halfway out of his turtleneck. He was giggling and screaming, and Gracie laughed.

“Got you!” Mari wrapped her arms around Jimmy and dragged him off toward the door. “Gracie, you hold his other arm. We won't let him escape!”

Jimmy kept giggling all the way out to the car.

“Strap him in before he runs again,” Jon joked.

Ms. O'Hagan crossed her arms, and Jimmy stopped giggling. He climbed into the minivan and got into his booster seat, then smiled like a little angel. Ms. O'Hagan chuckled.

“Okay, let's get going,” she said.

“We can't; Robert's missing,” Mr. O'Hagan told her.

Gracie looked around in surprise. “Wasn't he out here a few minutes ago?”

“Yup. But now he's gone.” Mari's dad took off his baseball cap and fanned himself with it. His face was red and sweaty even though it was cold out—Gracie figured loading suitcases and skis for seven people was hard work.

“I'll go find him,” Jimmy offered.

“No!” everybody said at once.

“I'll go.” Mari went into the house. Gracie wondered if she should go along, but maybe it was better to stay where she was. She glanced at her watch. It was eight o'clock. Had she really been here for more than an hour? She'd been so busy watching Mari's family run around that she hadn't noticed the time.

“Here he is.” Mari appeared at the front door with Robert.

“What? I was in the bathroom,” he said.

“Let's go,” Ms. O'Hagan said again.

“Wait! I forgot my phone.” Mari's dad jogged toward the house. “I'll be back in a sec.”

“We should all get strapped in,” Robert suggested. “Then we can leave as soon as Dad gets out.”

Gracie climbed into the minivan, then turned to ask Mari where she was supposed to sit. But Mari wasn't there. “Where's Mari?” she asked.