When We Had Summer, page 9
He watched and listened to Jules for a few beats, then started drumming a rhythm to match.
Without a word, Margot stood up and opened her violin case. She took out her violin, put the open case on the sidewalk in front of them, and started playing the same “Señorita” melody as Jules.
Jules stopped long enough to flash them a wicked smile before getting right back into the song.
Plink.
The elderly man tossed two quarters into the case, winked at Daniella, and continued down the street with his companion.
Oh my God, this is happening! Daniella thought. This crazy idea that had been a joke for the Summer Sisters was currently a right-in-front-of-her reality. She frantically dug out her phone and shot a bunch of photos, then some video, of her friends playing.
The song ended and everyone clapped—a few more people had stopped to listen. Now all those people were tossing coins and bills into Margot’s violin case.
It won’t count if you’re not part of it, Daniella thought, the voice in her head sounding a lot like Carly. She knew, suddenly, that if she didn’t join in, she’d always regret it. Always feel that she missed her chance to do something Carly had wanted her to.
Daniella picked up her oboe case and popped it open.
“Yes!” Adrian shouted as they finished up the song.
She assembled her instrument as quickly as she could, then stepped in between Jules and Margot.
“What do we play next?” Jules asked her.
The answer came to her, crystal clear. Carly’s favorite song: “Riptide.”
Looking at Jules, Daniella started to play the song. Jules recognized it almost immediately and began to play along. It took Margot a few bars before being able to jump in with her violin. For a really painful minute, they didn’t sound so great. Fortunately, Adrian was drumming so loudly on the chairs, it was hard to notice anything else.
Then, suddenly, they weren’t bad anymore. They sounded okay. Maybe even…great. Or at least, good enough for random people on the sidewalk to keep throwing money into Margot’s case.
Jules led them from “Riptide” into some Lady Gaga, then Fall Out Boy, and then Taylor Swift.
These strangers, their audience, didn’t know who Daniella was. She could be anybody. From anywhere, with any one of a thousand stories. In between songs, she pulled the oboe away from her face and took a deep breath of muggy summer city air. To her, it felt like the first true oxygen she’d had in a long time.
After five songs, Margot did a quick count of the money.
“We have eighteen dollars and seventy-five cents,” she said. “Is that enough for dinner?”
“Depends on how hungry we are,” Adrian said.
Daniella didn’t feel that hungry; maybe because her stomach was full of happy butterflies. I love, love, love this. The music, her new friends, the joyful looks on strangers’ faces. She wanted to keep going. “Let’s play for a little longer,” she suggested. “And then let’s go to the first pizza place we find.”
Three more songs and ten dollars later, Daniella, Jules, Margot, and Adrian packed up their instruments and began walking downtown.
Daniella felt her phone vibrate and checked it; she had three missed calls from Zoe.
UGH.
Zoe picked up on the first ring when Daniella called her back. “Where are you?” Zoe asked breathlessly.
“I’m so sorry,” Daniella said as she walked. “I had to stay late and practice some music with a few other kids.”
Margot, who was walking in front of Daniella, glanced back over her shoulder with a questioning expression. Daniella shrugged at her. So it wasn’t the complete truth, but not a complete lie, either.
“Mom picked up some food for us to eat at the park,” Zoe said. “Are you on your way back?”
Daniella stopped walking and held the phone against her chest for a moment. She knew the right answer to that question.
Yup, I’m headed to the subway now. Can’t wait!
But the honest answer was something else. It sounded like I’m having a really great time with my friends and somehow I don’t feel so sad with them and sorry I want to stay.
Daniella took a deep breath and brought the phone back up to her ear.
“Zoe, can we do the park tomorrow? I’m in the middle of something with these guys.”
Adrian realized Daniella wasn’t right behind them and motioned for everyone to wait. Daniella heard Zoe breathe out heavily, then pause before speaking. Her voice shaky.
“But you promised…”
Daniella winced. “I know. It’s just that we can have a picnic at the park any day and today I really have to work on this assignment for my music program. I’ll make it up to you, okay?”
“Sure,” Zoe said, sounding half-furious, half-disappointed. Then she ended the call.
Daniella had lied. In her mind, she scooped up that lie with both hands, then put it down on the sidewalk in front of her to get a good look. As lies went, it wasn’t too bad. She’d leave it right there by the fire hydrant and move on.
She hurried to catch up with the others.
A block later, Adrian spotted a place called Giacomo’s New York Pie across the street.
“Are you Giacomo?” Margot asked the guy behind the counter as they all poured in through the door.
“I’m Ted,” the guy replied. “Giacomo is my boss’s great-grandfather. He died like a million years ago.”
“Condolences,” Margot said. “We’d like to order a New York pie and some sodas.” She held out all the crumpled bills and started dropping quarters and dimes on the counter. “Do we have enough to get a basket of garlic bread, too?”
Ted began to count, but after a minute, he gave up. “Let’s assume you do,” he said. “Grab your drinks from the fridge and we’ll get that food started.”
Margot grinned and turned to Daniella. “Glorious Oddballs play for pizza!”
Daniella laughed. She took a quick photo of all the money on the counter, then she and Margot chose their drinks and sat down with Adrian and Jules at a table in the window.
“So, what did your friends think of the Glorious Oddballs hashtag?” Jules asked.
“Not sure,” Daniella said. “They ‘liked’ the post but haven’t said anything else yet. We haven’t really had time to talk.” What Daniella left out: She was afraid to ask Penny and Lainie directly.
“If it’s going to go viral, we need to post more,” Adrian said. “Maybe we could take pics of random weirdos we see in the city and post those.”
“That feels mean,” Daniella said, shaking her head. “We can’t just decide someone’s an oddball for them.”
“And I think it’s probably wrong to post people’s pictures online without telling them,” added Jules.
“What if we ask their permission?” Margot suggested.
Before Daniella could respond, Margot jumped up, went over to Ted behind the counter, and held up her phone.
“Hey,” she said to him. “We’re doing a social media project on people who are weird and proud. Can we take your picture for it?”
Daniella cringed. Margot really had a talent for being…direct. Ted stared at Margot for a moment, and Daniella braced herself for whatever string of curse words was about to come. Great, we’re going to get kicked out before our food comes and I really wanted some garlic bread.
Then Ted burst out laughing. “I do consider myself weird. I never thought about whether or not I’m proud of it but yeah, maybe I am. Normal is boring. Weird is…”
“Glorious!” Jules exclaimed.
Ted laughed again. “Yeah, glorious. Why not?”
Daniella couldn’t believe it.
“So we can take your picture and post it on FotoSlam?” Margot asked. “We won’t put in names or anything.”
Ted shrugged. “Okay.”
Margot turned to Daniella and pointed at her with a dramatic You’re up! gesture.
Daniella went up to the counter to snap some photos of Ted. First, he simply leaned against the cash register and flashed a cheesy grin.
“Wait,” he said after a few shots. “Let me try something else.”
He picked up an empty pizza box, opened it, and put it on his head like a pointy hat. Instead of smiling, he took on a dead-serious expression and crossed his arms over his chest. Daniella laughed.
“Oddball enough?” Ted asked. Daniella nodded and took a few more pictures.
“That was perfect,” she told him, amazed she’d just made that happen. “Thank you.”
When Daniella sat back down at the table, Adrian high-fived her.
“Two Bucket List things going at once,” he said. “You’re killing this. Is it like, a contest? How are your other friends doing?”
“Not a contest,” Daniella said, trying to find the right way to explain it. “We’re simply, um, dividing up the work.”
“So what have the others done so far?” Jules asked.
Daniella paused to think for a moment. “Well, Penny and Lainie did the candy thing together. That’s about it so far.”
“What about your other friend? There are four of you, right?” Jules looked at Daniella with an innocent, questioning expression. They had no idea that those words, there are four of you, caused Daniella physical pain.
“Carly,” Daniella heard herself say. “I’m not sure. I hope she’s working on something.”
It didn’t feel like a lie. Not here, in New York with the Glorious Oddballs. Completely by accident, Daniella had made a world where Carly wasn’t gone, but simply…somewhere else. And she had only one thought about that world:
I don’t want to leave yet.
A TOUGH-LOOKING GUY WITH A PIZZA BOX ON HIS HEAD.
Two older women wearing purple-sequined baseball hats, sitting on a park bench.
A toddler in a stroller, sticking out his tongue at the camera.
Each post had the same caption:
Are you one of us #GloriousOddballs? Show us, tag us, and be proud.
Penny scrolled through the photos on Daniella’s feed, making sure she’d “hearted” all of them. It still felt strange, and really not okay, that Daniella had (a) tackled two Bucket List items before checking with her and Lainie first, and (b) done them with random people she’d just met. WTF?
But still. She couldn’t not like the photos. That would be plain wrong.
She thought about taking a selfie of her best crazy face to post and boost the hashtag, but a petty something held her back. If Daniella wants to take over this part of the Bucket List, it’s on her to make it go viral. As for the post with Daniella and her friends playing music on a street corner and using the money to buy pizza…Penny would never have believed it without photo proof. She’d never known Daniella to do something so brave, which only made her more annoyed that she wasn’t there to be part of it.
Then she glanced up from her spot at the rental hut counter.
There was Dex on the beach, pushing an elderly man in a special sand-friendly wheelchair, laughing as they made small talk.
Actually, no. She’d rather be right here.
“Are you ready for the invasion?” a voice behind her said.
It was Zohar, another beach attendant. He was fifteen, like Dex, but spent most of his time training in the Junior Lifeguard Program.
“You mean, Fourth of July?” Penny asked. “I think so. Are you?”
“I’m preparing for the worst. If we survive, we’re going to need to celebrate, so I’m having a party tomorrow after the beach closes. Lots of Anderson’s peeps will be there.”
“Oh,” Penny said. “Nice.”
She glanced back at Dex, who was now setting the elderly man up with an umbrella.
“Hey. Hello?” Zohar said. Penny looked over again. “I’m inviting you to aforementioned party.”
Penny laughed, surprised. Something told her this was going to be a party party. Not a bunch of kids playing video games in someone’s basement, downing cupcakes and juice boxes. A party like the ones her brother Nick went to and described with words like epic and insane.
“That’s…um…cool,” Penny stammered, trying and failing to hide her excitement. “Thanks.”
“No problem. Feel free to bring friends if you want.”
Zohar grabbed a Beach Gear Rental Agreement from the clipboard on the counter, flipped it over, and wrote an address on the back. Penny began mentally browsing her closet, wondering if anything she owned would be good enough for this older-kids-and-probably-alcohol situation.
Dex returned to the hut and smiled at Penny, which had the effect of making her legs feel suddenly boneless. She leaned against the counter for support.
“That guy was really interesting,” Dex said, pointing with his thumb at the man he’d just wheeled across the sand. “He’s been coming here for decades and used to surf here in the sixties.”
“Wow,” Penny said.
“That’s old-school, dude,” Zohar added.
“He said he even met his wife here, right on this beach. She passed away a few years ago, but he still makes the trip on their anniversary every year. I know this sounds corny, but that could be the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard.”
Dex had said the word romantic so naturally, so comfortably. The boys at Penny’s school would rather get pantsed in public than talk about romance. Last year, Penny had seen one of them pretend to throw up when a girl gave him a red carnation on Valentine’s Day.
But Dex was different, and he knew it, and he was more than okay with it.
Maybe if I got to spend more time with him, Penny thought, some of that confidence would rub off on me.
“Come onnnnnnn, Lainie!” Penny took a bite of a Dulcie’s red velvet cupcake and didn’t even swallow before adding, “It’ll be fun.” It came out as Ilbefuh.
Lainie wiped crumbs off the Dulcie’s counter and bit her lip. “I’m not going to a party with a bunch of people I don’t know.”
“That’s the point of going to parties,” Penny said with a sigh. “So you meet people. Then after you meet them, you know them. Also, there’ll be boys there. Older ones.”
Sasha, who was sitting at a corner table and decorating bakery boxes with Sharpie drawings of dolphins, suddenly glanced up. “Those are the best kind,” she said.
Lainie rolled her eyes at Sasha. “Thanks for sharing.”
Sasha glared back at Lainie and returned to her drawing.
“Lainie, please,” Penny urged. “We’ve had almost no time to hang out this summer. Also, I don’t want to go alone.” She paused. “If Carly were coming with us, you’d say yes.”
Lainie looked at Penny like she’d just been slapped. “That’s not fair.”
“Maybe not fair,” Penny said, shrugging, “but totally true.”
They were both silent for a few moments, until Penny wished she could un-say that thing about Carly.
Finally, Lainie sighed and said, “It’s the Fourth of July, Pen. We go out on Papa’s boat to eat sandwiches and watch the fireworks from the water. You know that.” Lainie looked down at her hands, and Penny noticed the nails bitten to shreds. “Actually, I was, uh, hoping you’d come with me this year. Since, you know, it’s the last—”
Lainie’s voice choked up and she bit her lip again. Penny could tell she was on the verge of tears.
“I get it,” Penny said. “I’m sorry I pushed. You should do the boat.”
Lainie nodded, trying to pull it together. “And you should, you know, have a good time with that guy Dex.”
“Eh, I don’t even know if he’ll be there,” Penny said. “And that’s not why I want to go.”
“You keep telling yourself that!” Sasha piped up from the corner.
Lainie glanced at Sasha, and Penny could almost see death rays coming out of her friend’s eyes. Suddenly she understood just how sad and angry Lainie was.
“Let’s get together on Sunday, okay?” Penny suggested. “And bring your candy.”
Lainie managed a small smile. “Okay.”
As Penny left the bakery, she tried not to think about Lainie’s about-to-cry face. Why did she have to be so emotional and serious all the time? Things change for everyone. Deal with it. It was probably a good thing, Lainie not coming to the party. She probably would have ruined it for Penny.
But did she have the guts to go on her own?
Penny rode her bike home and walked in the door to find her little brother, Jack, vacuuming the living room. Nick was doing dishes in the kitchen. Her brothers only did chores when their mom was desperate to clean and offered them cash, so something was up.
“Oh good, you’re back,” Penny’s mom said as she popped her head out of the bathroom. “They’ll be here soon.”
Penny rolled her eyes closed. She’d totally forgotten that her mom’s best and oldest friend, Kathy, was coming to stay for a week. Along with her daughter, Jamie, who was sixteen. She and Penny saw each other several times a year and for as long as Penny could remember, Jamie had the life Penny wanted. First, it was simply bigger, with more privileges because she was two years older. Then, Jamie was…Jamie. She had tons of friends, the best clothing style, listened to new music before anyone else discovered it, and was able to rock any hairstyle or makeup look she saw online.
Unfortunately, Jamie was also one of the nicest people Penny had ever met, making it impossible to hate her for any of it.
Penny went to join her mom in the bathroom. “What else do you need help with?” she asked. “I’ll do anything except set up a beach umbrella or chairs.”
“Can you finish up in here?” Mom said. “Also, I would like it on record that if either of your brothers ever manages to clean their own hair out of the shower drain, I will die of shock.”
“I’ll make sure to tell that to the police when they’re investigating your death,” Penny said.
This made Mom laugh, a laugh that always lit up a place, even if was the bathroom. Penny realized she hadn’t heard it in a while.
An hour later, Penny was in her attic room when she heard the screen door slam and a lot of high-pitched shrieking. She followed the noise outside, where her mom and Kathy were hugging and somehow also jumping up and down. Would she be that way with Lainie and Daniella, when they were older? With Carly, she would have. No question. But Daniella and Lainie? She wasn’t so sure.
