You’re Invited Too (7 page)

I hold my breath.

“What's this?” Mom asks.

Izzy answers for me. “That's Sadie's art homework.”

“You're learning to calligraph place cards in art class?”

“Um, well . . . ,” I stammer. Mom's eyes narrow even more as she squints at the card.

“That's so weird. Isaac Malix is the name of a groom whose wedding I was planning before I . . . before I was . . .” Mom's voice trails off like she's trying to put her finger on something. She gazes off at a spot over my right shoulder.

I swallow the frog that has apparently taken up residence in my throat while I wait for things to click with Mom. She blinks and her eyes widen.

There it is.

Mom turns to me. “Sadie?”

It's like my brain has fuzz growing on it, and I can barely form a sentence that makes sense. “I, um, yeah. No. I mean, I was gonna . . . I was trying to . . .”

Izzy's head swings back and forth between us, and her forehead wrinkles like she's working a long-division problem in her head.

I try again, and this time all my words slur together: “It'sjustthatIwasgonnatellyoubutAlexandraWorthingtonsaidshewantedtoworkwiththebestwhichissillybecauseofcourseyou'rethebestbut—”

Mom holds her hand up. “Stop.”

She pinches the top of her nose with her fingers and shakes her head. Then she takes a deep breath and looks at me. I can't believe this is all going down on the floor under the kitchen table, of all places.

“So, let me see if I have this straight. I was fired by my bride. Who then turned around and hired you and your friends? Am I getting it right so far?”

Mom's voice sounds totally even, so I can't get a read on what she's feeling. Is she mad? Or not?

I nod and avoid her eyes. Izzy inches out from under the table and slinks out of sight (although I'm guessing she goes somewhere she can listen in on every word).

“And when did this all happen?” Mom asks.

“Um, last month,” I manage.

“I see.” Again with that totally even, everyday voice. Like we're talking about what time high tide is or where we should order dinner. “And you didn't think it was maybe something you should mention to me?”

“Um . . .” I trail off and study my palm like the map to Atlantis is hiding between my life line and my love line.

Mom sighs deeply. “I have to tell you, Sadie, I'm very disappointed. Not so much about you planning the wedding, though I'll admit that I'm a little concerned about you taking on the responsibility of such an important event. I'm sure you girls are fantastic at what you do, but I can't really imagine what Alexandra was thinking. The part that
really
bothers me is that you hid it from me all this time. Did you think I wouldn't find out?”

“Well, no, but . . .” I can't think of what else I want to say, so I close my mouth.

Mom sits quietly, waiting. After what feels like forever, she pushes up off the floor and stands. She folds and refolds one of the rags in her hands.

Finally she says, “Sadie, I've given you a lot of freedom and a lot of responsibility, because you've always been mature for your age. But I have to tell you, these are not the actions of a mature girl. You've broken my trust in you, and I'll be honest, it's going to take a while for you to earn that back.”

The frog is back in my throat and it's settling in for a long stay. I can barely swallow. I curl my legs in under the table. Mom grabs her keys off the counter and calls out, “Izzy! Come on, sweets! We're going out to grab more milk.”

I listen to the door click shut and the car's engine start, and, finally, it fades away down the street, but I can't move as tears slide down my face.

This is maybe the worst feeling ever.

First my mom fires me because I'm so incompetent. And now she full-on hates me.

We love sea turtles!

All residents and visitors to the island are invited to watch sea turtle hatchings! Please be respectful of the turtles and follow the tips listed below. Hatching times are unpredictable, so come prepared to wait!

Did you know that North Carolina's very own

loggerhead sea turtles are an endangered species?

Tips for helping the loggerheads:

•
 Turn off all outdoor lights at night. The lights

distract the baby turtles, leading them

to homes rather than to the sea.

•
 Don't disturb turtle nests. Volunteers mark all known nests on the island, and the nests are protected by the City of Sandpiper Beach, Ordinance No. 17.2:1–4.

•
 Spread the word! Let others know about

the sea turtles and how to protect them.

•
 Alert the Sandpiper Beach Volunteer Sea Turtle Association immediately (910-555-1772) if you see a new nest or if an existing nest has been disturbed.

Fun Facts about the Loggerhead Sea Turtle!

•
 We can live up to 67 years old! That's over

four times longer than your pet dog or cat.

•
 Yum! Shellfish are our favorite food.

•
 We can grow up to 3
¹
/
₂
feet long.

•
 One turtle can make an average of 4 nests

in a season. Each nest has between 100 and

126 eggs. That's a lot of turtle babies!

•
 Our two biggest fears: commercial fishing gear

and coastal development. But we're not

afraid of the dark—we love it!

Come to the Sandpiper Beach Visitor's Center in the square for more information about the Sea Turtle Volunteers.

dishearten
verb -

to cause to lose confidence or determination

Use in a sentence:

I feel disheartened about everything I thought I could do, even though I planned it all out so carefully.

I
am in what Mom would call A Mood. Since I turned twelve, she seems to expect me to be in A Mood all the time. She always asks me if I'm in A Mood when really I'm just reasonably annoyed or mad about something. Which I guess I am now, too, but the annoyed and mad feelings are stretching out way beyond the thing that caused them.

“Those baby turtles could outwalk you, Lo,” Becca calls from up ahead. She and Vi and Sadie are already at the sea-turtle nest and setting up their chairs.

“I'm . . . coming . . . ,” I growl. The beach chair bumps against my legs, and my water bottle is slipping out of my hands, and I keep dropping my jacket.

Fun. This is supposed to be fun. I am officially in my Fun Time right now. And it would be, if I wasn't in A Mood. But I can't stop worrying about whether I'm making the most of all my different slots of time. Especially the ones I've labeled “studying” and “homework.”

I huff and puff the last few feet to the turtle nest. My friends are already sitting in a neat row next to some other people from town. The chairs line each side of the narrow length of sand the turtle volunteers have smoothed out to make it easier for the baby loggerheads to crawl to the ocean.

A little flutter of something happy tickles my insides. I haven't actually seen a single turtle hatching this year, mostly because I've been too busy with RSVP. When I was younger, Mom and Dad would let me, Zach, and Josh stay up late at least one night each year to watch a hatching. This is one of the last nests on the island that hasn't hatched yet, and word is that it will probably happen tonight. No matter what kind of mood I'm in, I'm not about to let this be the first year I don't see a turtle hatching.

“S'mores cookies, anyone?” Vi uncovers a container and passes it down the line. Becca takes three and hands the container to me.

“I'm not hungry.” I pass it back to Becca.

She blinks at me. Sadie's head pops out around her.

“Are you sick?” Vi asks.

“She's been Lady Grumplepants all day long,” Becca says. “She didn't even touch her milkshake at lunch, and you know we totes deserved milkshakes after running around all morning with Alexandra Worthington. And then she had nothing to say—nothing!—when Alexandra Worthington called about that Elvis thing.”

After spending the whole morning visiting every place on the island and the mainland that could possibly sell or order wedding favors, our bride finally picked out bobblehead dolphins. Sadie ordered 120 from the store before Miss Worthington could change her mind. And then she had the nerve to call an hour later and ask if it was possible to move the whole wedding onto a boat so that an Elvis impersonator could parachute in, and whether that would break her budget. Of course it would break her budget, but I was too busy stewing in A Mood to say that.

Although none of us really said anything until Sadie croaked out, “Well, maybe we could . . . ,” and Becca said, “Elvis is pretty awesomesauce, Alexandra, but what if he landed smack-dab on someone's head or missed the landing and crashed into the ocean? And if you've got everyone on a boat, they might get seasick, and that could get kinda . . . messy. Plus, there are seagulls that could ruin everything.”

And then, as Miss Worthington actually agreed(!) with Becca, Vi elbowed Sadie, who turned bright red because of the whole seagull-doo-doo/bridesmaid-and-dog-overboard complete disaster of a boat wedding that got her fired from Mrs. Pleffer's business in the first place. Though that whole thing is what led us to start RSVP, so who knows what brilliant idea an Elvis boat wedding could've caused.

Vi, Becca, and Sadie are still looking at me. Why did my not drinking a milkshake during my scheduled RSVP work time make them so suspicious? Suspicious: to have a distrust . . . oh, never mind. It doesn't matter anyway.

“So spill it,” Vi says through a mouthful of cookie.

I turn away from my friends and toward the ocean. The sun's just set, and the sky is full of those beautiful dark blues and purples. Plus, there's a full moon casting a pretty trail of light across the water. Or it would be really pretty if I wasn't in A Mood.

“Lauren, if you don't say anything, I will,” Sadie says.

I snuggle deeper into my sweatshirt as the wind picks up. Then I look around to make sure Mom and Dad aren't here. “Fine. You tell them,” I say to Sadie.

Sadie takes a deep breath. “Lauren got a . . . bad grade.”

Becca's mouth makes a little O, and I think Vi actually gasps.

“Don't worry, Lo.” Becca reaches an arm around my shoulders. “You can make it up.”

“I got a D on a test last year,” Vi says. “We all get bad grades sometimes.”

“Remember that C I got in PE?” Becca asks. “I mean, who gets a C in
gym class
?”

“Only people who don't even try to hit the ball,” Sadie says with a grin. It's the first time I've seen her smile since the whole Alexandra Worthington thing happened with her mom last weekend.