Devin Verlay
I'm pretty proud of myself, to be honest. Glancing out of the corner of my eye, I spot Erika looking like she's going to grab my mechanical pen and stab out my left eye (it's my favorite eye). Plus, she's sitting on the edge of my side table, which I hate. But Robyn's approval and admiration is too good to give up. I enjoy her praise for a few moments more before reaching over and shoving Erika off the table. She lands with a much louder thump than I expected, and as I glance over in shock, I see a few tears welling up in her eyes. She furiously blinks them out, then gets up and storms out of my room. Eddie gets up and follows her, but not before shooting a venomous glare in my direction. Robyn clams up instantly. I open my mouth, but what comes out is-
"She deserved it."
"Wow," Robyn says slowly. "And I thought you were nice." She gets up and goes out of my room, icily slamming the door shut. I wince as a photo frame falls over. It's amazing how much damage one moment can cause. Slowly, I power off my PC and go down the stairs for dinner. Anne, my oldest sister, has prepared chicken pasta alfredo, and Frida is filling the juice glasses. I join Irene and Gale, who are gathering plates and cutlery. Mom comes out of the dining room with Sunny balanced on her hip. Dad's kneeling at the oven, gingerly sliding out a pan of garlic bread. I help set the table and stick a spoon aggressively into the alfredo, causing Anne to scowl at me, and we all sit down. Dad murmurs a short prayer before he starts serving the pasta, steamed broccoli and garlic bread. My sisters start to chat about school. Sunny crashes her rattle on her high chair tray, and Gale reaches for a piece of garlic bread. I sit and stew, hating Erika, Eddie, Robyn, and most of all, myself. I furiously chew on my pasta, and am snappish. I make Gale cry. In the middle, I get up and stomp away from the dining room and up to my room. I hear them conversing downstairs for a moment, then the usual dinner sounds goes on like nothing happened. Great. I kick my door and sit down at my desk, turning on my PC and scrolling through it randomly, trying to see through a blur of anger. Suddenly I stop and rub my eyes. One of the emails looks important. I tap on it and start reading. As I read more and more, my eyes widen and my heart rate speeds up. Suddenly my room door bangs open, and Frida peeks in, her braided black hair swinging. Stepping inside, she closes the door and sits down on my beanbag, swinging her striped-legging clad legs, looking patient. I hurriedly switch the page and sit back, trying to look guilty and nonchalant at the same time.
"Well?" Frida prods.
"Well what?" I answer crossly, playing for time. My mind is whirling.
"Well, why were you acting like that?" She asks.
"Uh, my friends were being super annoying," I say quickly. "And I guess I just snapped."
"Better apologize to Gale tomorrow," she says, before getting up and scooting out the door. "He's upset."
"Okay, I will.": I answer. "'Night." She nods in response and closes the door, and as soon as I hear her light footsteps recede, I whirl back to my computer and re-open the mail page, clicking on the email. This one I'd overlooked. A boat with a shipment of something called Yamuta seeds is coming in at Boston Harbor two weeks from now at 2:30 a.m. I swallow down my excitement, now mixed with nervousness and a light tinge of fear as I reach for my phone to call my friends. Would they pick up after this afternoon? Evidently, yes. Robyn picks up, her icy manner melting as I tell her about the email.
"Meet in my treehouse tomorrow. I'll call Erika- in case…" Robyn trails off uncomfortably.
"Of course," I say quickly. "I'll try Eddie. If I call you again, you'll have to contact him."
"Right." Robyn ends the call, and I take a few breaths to nerve myself before dialling his number. He picks up, and for a moment I hold my breath, but I blurt out,
"We need to meet tomorrow in Robyn's treehouse because I found out that a shipment for the gang is coming in two days from now."
"Right. Robyn just called me two seconds ago telling me the same thing."
"Good!" I answer. I can almost hear him smile on the other end of the phone. I grin as he hangs up, then I lean back, satisfied. I wonder how Robyn's doing with Erika. I hope she's forgiven me. Five minutes later Robyn texts me with 'Victory!' I sigh, then wash up and hop into bed.
The next morning, I apologize politely to Gale, help make the toast, squeeze the oranges, and hunt for roly-poly bugs with Irene on the driveway. After the sun has risen high in the sky, Irene and I grab juice bars from the freezer, swinging on the porch swing. Slurping up the last of my icy strawberry popsicle, I see Erika's front door swing open and Erika steps out, in an oversized white top with soft denim shorts, squinting in the bright sunlight. She hops on her hoverboard and coasts over, leaving Irene staring, open-mouthed, her mango ice-pop melting onto her fist.
"Uh, Irene," I warn. "It's melting." I pull out a pack of wet wipes and hand it over to Irene, feeling Erika's eyes on me. She gets off the board and flips it up, swinging her red hair out of her eyes.
"Everyone's coming over for lunch. Want to come?"
"Well, um, if you don't mind-" I bluster.
"I'm asking you, doof," Erika says teasingly. "I heard you made a big breakthrough, and they don't tap our walls or anything, so I figured we'd have lunch at my place. Don't worry, I've made sure my brother won't eavesdrop, my parents are out at some Carribean island and my stylist isn't coming until Saturday. I threatened to shred Flynn's favorite linen jacket if he heard and chase after him with my best grapefruit perfume for the rest of his life and hide all of his cologne so he'd smell like me."
"Guess we're safe, then," I can't hold back a grin. This is such an Erika thing to do. Erika turns to Irene next.
"Want to come over later for a makeover?" Shimmying her shoulders slightly and grinning widely, she makes the simple word 'makeover' seem like it'll be a five-star event with Leonardo DiCaprio as the star guest.
"Really?" Irene's face is one big beam of toothy sunlight.
"Yep. You can also check out my closet. I have a bunch of items I've outgrown. You can have the ones that fit you."
"Okay!" Irene bounces on the porch wing. Waving, Erika hops onto her board and coasts off, her reddish hair gently blowing in the breeze, her crisp light green dress rippling.
"Catch you later!" she calls. I get up to toss my stick in the trash, leaving Irene happily licking her juice pop.