Take Charge (7 page)

All the girls got quiet now, as if they were holding their breaths so they could listen to her answer. As far as Carlie knew, Morgan had never mentioned her dad to any of them before. Of course, none of them had ever asked either.

“My parents split up when I was really little,” said Morgan. “All I know is that my father was from New York and he was really into his music — more than he was into being a husband or a daddy.”

“So you never see him?”

“Nope.” Morgan rolled over onto her stomach, propping her chin in her hands. Carlie could tell that this was making her uncomfortable. But what was Chelsea’s point?

“Was he black?” asked Chelsea. “Or African American? I mean, your skin doesn’t seem as dark as your mom’s, and I was —”

“Can you guys believe it’s only
eleven days
until school starts?” said Carlie suddenly, making a feeble but desperate attempt to change the subject.

“I can’t wait!” said Amy with real enthusiasm.

Carlie groaned. “That’s right, Amy
loves
school! Can you believe it, Chelsea?”

“No way!” Chelsea turned her attention to Amy now. “Only geeks love school.”

“She’s not a geek,” said Morgan in a flat voice.

“No, she’s just a brainiac,” teased Emily. “Ask her a math question and you’ll see how fast she can answer it.”

“I’ve heard that Asian kids are supposed to be really good in math,” said Chelsea.

Amy seemed to bristle at this comment, but then she just smiled. “Well, your dad’s a banker, Chelsea, I’d suppose you’d be good at math too.”

Chelsea laughed. “Hardly.”

“Well, if you ever need tutoring, you’ll have to give me a call,” offered Amy.

“Yeah, right.” Now Chelsea reached over and flipped one of Morgan’s braids. “How do you take care of these anyway?”

“Huh?” Morgan studied her for a moment.

“You know, how do you wash your hair and stuff?”

Morgan kind of laughed, but it didn’t look like she thought it was funny. “Probably the same way you do, Chelsea, you know, with
shampoo and water.”

“Hey, did I tell you guys I’m getting my hair cut?” asked Carlie, although she knew for a fact she had already told them.

“Yeah,” said Emily quickly. “But you didn’t say
how
you’re getting it cut. What are you going to do anyway?”

“I’m not really sure,” said Carlie. “I was thinking I should ask Morgan, since she’s our local design and fashion expert.”

Morgan brightened as she sat up and studied the shape of Carlie’s face. “Well, you have kind of a heart-shaped face,” she said as she pushed Carlie’s wet hair back. “So maybe you shouldn’t get it cut too short.”

“Why not?” asked Chelsea quickly. “I think she’d look good with it short. And I’m going to get mine cut short. You know we’re going to get our hair cut together.”

“I know,” said Morgan, not even looking at Chelsea. “But I think you’d look better with it coming just below your chin, Carlie. Maybe layered a little around your face
to bring out your eyes.”

Carlie nodded as she considered this. “But how am I going to remember how to explain that to the haircutter person?”

“We’ll find a picture,” said Morgan, “in a magazine.”

“So how do you know so much about hair?” Chelsea asked Morgan with a creased brow, like she didn’t really think Morgan knew what she was talking about.

Morgan just shrugged. “I pay attention to fashion. That’s all.”

“Well, so do I,” said Chelsea. “And I think short hair would look totally cool on Carlie.”

And suddenly the two of them started arguing about Carlie’s hair. Carlie glanced nervously over at Emily and Amy, hoping they might help to end this craziness, but they looked just as surprised as she felt.

“Anyone want to run down to the beach?” asked Carlie, suddenly standing. “There’s a trail nearby. I’ll bet I can beat all of you guys down to the water!”

“I’ll bet you can’t,” said Morgan, leaping to her feet.

Not waiting for anyone else to join, Carlie took off and Morgan was right on her heels. Carlie knew that she and Morgan were the fastest runners of the group and, as expected, they made it to the beach far ahead of the others, tying as they reached the surf.

“They’re not even running,” said Carlie as she looked back at the beach behind them.

“Wimps,” said Morgan as she bent over to catch her breath.

“Hey, Morgan,” said Carlie between breaths, “I’m sorry Chelsea is being so —”

“It’s okay,” said Morgan quickly. “No biggie.”

“The first thing she told me about herself was that she has no impulse control. That means she just says whatever pops into her head without thinking whether or not it will hurt someone.”

“I know,” said Morgan. “Really, it’s no big deal. Just chill, Carlie.”

“Okay … ”

Then Morgan waded out through the breaking waves until it got deep and she started to swim. Carlie followed her lead, watching as the other three girls slowly made their way over to the edge of the water. Soon all five of them were swimming and splashing in the waves, and Carlie told herself that whatever had happened back at Chelsea’s house wasn’t a big deal. Carlie had probably just made too much of it. She should take Morgan’s advice and just chill.

Two pizzas had already arrived by the time the girls got back. Fortunately, Maria had put them in the oven to stay warm. The girls all jumped into the pool to rinse off the salt water and then sat around the deck munching on pizza and drinking soda. The dip in the ocean seemed to
have cooled everyone off. And Carlie decided that her worries about Chelsea were probably silly. Even so, she was relieved when it was 4:30 and time to go home.

The girls all thanked Chelsea and her mother for everything, and Morgan invited Chelsea to come spend the day with them sometime.

“You can see our clubhouse and our beach,” she said with a smile.

“How about tomorrow?” asked Chelsea.

Morgan looked slightly surprised. “It works for me,” she said, glancing at the others.

“I’ll be around until three,” said Amy. She frowned. “Then I have to go work at the restaurant. Friday is one of its busy nights.”

“I’m always around,” said Emily.

“I’ll be free,” said Carlie. “Unless I have to babysit. But Mom hasn’t mentioned it.”

“So tomorrow then?” said Chelsea.

“Come in the morning,” said Amy eagerly. “So I’ll have more time to spend with you before I have to leave.”

“How about ten-ish?” asked Chelsea.

“Sounds great,” said Morgan with a bright smile.

As they rode home, Carlie wondered if Morgan was as happy as she acted about tomorrow’s plans. But Carlie wouldn’t question her. She sensed that she’d already offended Morgan by being too concerned about Chelsea’s
behavior today. Besides, Morgan was a strong person. She could speak up if she needed to. Even so, Carlie felt guilty as she went into her house. It seemed that her connection to Chelsea could go either way. Why did it have to get so complicated?

“Friend trouble?” asked Tia Maria as Carlie walked through the kitchen.

“What?” asked Mom with a concerned frown.

“Our Carlie is such a popular girl,” said her aunt with a wink. “I think some of her friends are fighting over her now.”

“Not really,” said Carlie, wondering where her aunt was getting her information or, rather, misinformation.

“Just be good to your friends,” said Mom, “and they will be good to you.”

Carlie nodded, telling herself that her mom didn’t understand either. If only it was that simple. “I’m going to dump my stuff in my room,” she said, eager to escape their weird comments.

“Rinse the chlorine out of your swimsuit before you hang it to dry,” warned Mom.

Carlie was barely in her room when she heard the phone ringing.

“It’s Chelsea Landers,” said Mom, handing her the cordless phone. “Keep it short. Your dad is supposed to call soon.”

“Hi, Chelsea,” said Carlie without much enthusiasm. “I’m sorry,” began Chelsea. “I made a complete mess of things today, didn’t I?”

“Oh, I don’t know … ”

“Yes,
you do too know
. And I totally did. I stuck my foot in my mouth again. I offended Morgan. And I probably offended you too. I’m such a social freak sometimes.”

Suddenly Carlie felt sorry for Chelsea. “No, you’re not. It’s just that you don’t know my friends very well … and then you sometimes talk without thinking.”

“I know. I know. It’s that old no-impulse-control thing. I’m such a loser, Carlie. I’ll probably totally bomb at school. Oh, help me, please.
Please
!”

“Look, I’m not supposed to be on the phone too long. My dad’s going to call and —”

“You don’t have call waiting?”

“No.” Carlie took in a quick breath. Did Chelsea think everyone was made of money? “But listen, Chelsea, just try to chill, okay? When you come here tomorrow, don’t try so hard with my friends. And don’t turn everything into a stupid fight, okay?”

“Okay.”

“And just be yourself, Chelsea. I mean, you’re a cool girl and I do like you. But you can come on kinda strong sometimes. Just try to relax and it’ll probably go okay.”

“Okay.”

“Now I gotta go.”

“Thanks, Carlie. You’re my best friend.”

“What about Audrey?”

“Well, she
used
to be my best friend. But, as you know, that’s all over with. Now you’re my best friend. Is that okay with you?”

“Sure,” said Carlie. She wanted to reassure Chelsea that she was her best friend too, but somehow she couldn’t bring herself to say those words just yet. “See ya tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay. And I promise to behave better.”

Carlie laughed. “Well, don’t be too good. That’d be boring, not to mention weird.”

She hung up the phone and went outside to water her garden. It was weird thinking that Chelsea considered her to be her best friend now, especially after they’d known each other only a few days. Still, Carlie had been wanting a best friend for months.

Carlie had already accepted that Morgan and Emily were best friends. Not that they ever said it. But it seemed like they shared something that Carlie was totally missing. Maybe it was because they were both Christians and went to the same church. And while Carlie considered herself a good Catholic, she still felt maybe she was different than them — like maybe she didn’t really get it.

She bent down to pull out a few small weeds that had sneaked into her petunias. Maybe that was why she got
paired off with Amy most of the time. Because in some ways it seemed like Amy didn’t get it either. And while Amy was nice enough, not to mention super smart, she sometimes got on Carlie’s nerves with all her “Little Miss Perfect” kind of talk. Besides that, Amy just didn’t seem to get Carlie most of the time. Or maybe Carlie just didn’t get Amy.

Even so, Carlie wasn’t totally convinced that Chelsea would make a
better
best friend than Amy. In fact, Chelsea kind of scared Carlie sometimes.
Still
, she told herself,
maybe any best friend was better than none
. Especially when you were about to start seventh grade in a town where you only knew a few kids anyway. Maybe Carlie couldn’t afford to be too picky when it came to best friends.

Carlie tried not to wig out over the idea of Chelsea and her mom coming to the trailer court this morning. She tried not to imagine their shocked faces when they drove up to her house, so totally different from what they were used to. Still it was all she could think about.
Okay, don’t blow this all out of proportion
, she told herself as she went outside.
Just chill
.

She went out to her garden to distract herself by watering her flowers and picking off dried up blooms. Usually her garden cheered her up, but today she could only see it through the Landers’ eyes. It was so small and frumpy compared to their big landscaped yard. And the little fountain she and her dad had worked hard to make suddenly looked so ordinary as she remembered the Landers’ luxurious swimming pool and the massive fountain that flowed into it.

“Carlotta?” called her mom from the backdoor. “Your friends are here.”

Carlie turned off the hose and hurried back into the house. It looked so weird to see both Chelsea and Mrs. Landers standing in the center of her living room. Chelsea’s
mom looked totally out of place in her sleek white pantsuit, but Carlie’s mom just smiled at her as if all this was perfectly normal. Carlie desperately hoped that Pedro wouldn’t suddenly dash around the corner with jam-smeared hands to wipe on those perfectly white pants.

“I was just telling your mother about our plans for the trip to Portland,” said Mrs. Landers. She handed Carlie’s mom a piece of notepaper. “Here are the phone numbers and whatnot, in case you should need to reach us.”

“Thank you,” said Carlie’s mom. “It’s so nice of you to invite Carlotta to go with you this weekend.”

Mrs. Landers smiled at Carlie. “So your name is really
Carlotta?”

Carlie sighed. “Only Mom calls me that.”

“But it is your name, mija,” her mother reminded her.

“Yeah, yeah.” Carlie turned to Chelsea now. “Want to see my garden?”

“You have a garden?” asked Chelsea.

Carlie nodded as she tugged Chelsea through the kitchen and toward the backdoor. “Yeah, it’s out here.”

“Bye, girls,” called Mrs. Landers. “Call me when you want to be picked up, Chelsea.”

“I will.”

“Have fun!”

“This is it,” said Carlie once she and Chelsea were outside. She gave her friend a quick tour, telling her the
names of the flowers and showing her the fountain and the planter boxes she’d helped Dad make.

“It’s pretty small back here,” said Chelsea.

Carlie nodded. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“But it’s pretty,” said Chelsea.

“Really?” Carlie felt hopeful. “You really think so?”

“Yeah. I’m impressed you know how to do this. We have landscapers that come and take care of all this stuff for us.”

“I know …” Carlie held her chin up now. “I want to be a landscape designer some day. I’ll have my own business.”

Chelsea looked surprised. “You’d want to go and work in people’s yards when you’re a grown-up?”