Pack Your Bags, Maggie Diaz, page 8
But whatever their answers are, Zoey and Julian will figure this one out. They have to. But perhaps Caro was right. (I said perhaps!) And Julian hasn’t really changed or abandoned us. He just needs me to be a better friend right now. Maybe this is like his stinky onion phase all over again.
And being his friend is something I’m very sure of.
* * *
After another picnic lunch of packed sandwiches, apple slices, and assorted bags of chips, we head to the alligator park. There are some other animals there, but gators are definitely the stars of the show.
Now that Julian is back on solid ground, he’s mostly chilled out. He thanked me for listening and made me promise not to say anything to Vanessa. He didn’t say to keep it from Zoey, though. I really need to figure out how to tell Zoey without breaking her heart. I don’t want to make everything worse for her. She’s going to feel so left out.
Abuela, on the other hand, refuses to be left out.
At least having Abuela glued to my side distracts me from anxiously worrying about my friends. On account of how embarrassing it is that she’s loudly laughing and cheering her head off over the alligators’ antics and the animal trainer’s silly jokes. All while wearing an alligator hat she picked up in the gift shop. She keeps trying to get me to wear the matching one.
I shove the hat in the gift bag again. “Abuela, can you please—”
“¡Ay, es como los programas de animales favoritos de tu abuelo!”
My complaint disappears like a popped bubble. The old memory hits me like a sudden wave in the ocean. My abuelo used to love to watch those Saturday-morning wildlife shows. They always came on after my cartoons and he’d sit with me as we learned about pandas, polar bears, and alligators. His favorite were the crocodiles, though. He loved telling me facts about them, like how crocodiles can go a year between meals and live in the water or out of it. Abuelo loved how they could survive almost anything.
I haven’t thought about that in a long time.
Remembering those cozy Saturdays at their house makes me see this silly scene in front of me differently. I suddenly can’t help but see the whole field trip differently. This isn’t just my first time going some- where without my family.
It’s Abuela’s first time going on a trip without Abuelo.
Abuela’s chaperoning and trying out dance classes and book clubs because she’s trying to figure out who she is after losing Abuelo. That’s way harder than seventh grade.
And it’s definitely something to root for.
We return to the hotel after dinner and I pretty much fall asleep the minute my head hits my nice, cold, fluffy hotel pillow. In the morning, I hit up the beautiful continental breakfast again, where Vanessa and I decide to go for broke and put every-thing we can on our waffles. She even shares some of the candy she bought at the chocolate factory’s gift shop.
After breakfast, we move out of our tiny house of a hotel room, where I say goodbye to everything.
“Goodbye, tiny coffeepot.”
“Goodbye, TV with weird channels.”
“Goodbye, fully stocked fridge I never touched.”
Out in the hall, I sigh. “It was nice while it lasted,” I say morosely.
“Yeah,” Vanessa agrees. We pat the door goodbye.
We drag our suitcases back onto the bus and hit the road. And just like that, our big seventh-grade field trip is … over. Finito. Kaput. Level Complete.
I glance around at the quiet bus. The ride home is less rowdy than the one here. I guess everyone is as tired as me.
It’s gray and cloudy and looks like it’ll start raining soon. I can sometimes see Eddie’s reflection in his window in front of me, but he doesn’t turn to talk to me like he did on the way here, so I mostly watch the passing cars. I can’t help from looking at his profile again and again. And the truth of it hits me like a flutter in my stomach.
This whole field trip was supposed to be about making hilarious memories between the three caballeros. The terrific trio. Cue the catchy theme song about being best friends forever! But it didn’t work out that way at all. Zoey isn’t here, Julian is stressed out about math, and I’m looking at Eddie again while wondering what his favorite song is and what it might be like if I was sitting next to him again.
I sink into my seat, feeling a little sick after those sugar-loaded waffles, but mostly just very ready to be home.
* * *
I am five steps into our house when I drop my suitcase and melt onto the living room floor with an exhausted groan. Dad laughs and Lucas makes a happy sound as he spider crawls over to climb on top of me.
“How was Saint Augustine?” Dad asks. “Was it as haunted as Abuela feared?”
“¡Sí!” Abuela says just as I whine, “No, it wasn’t!”
“Did you have fun?” Dad asks me as Abuela unzips her bag at the kitchen table. She’ll be completely unpacked before I even peel myself off the floor.
I definitely had fun even though I am exhausted and it feels like this crush is a heavy thing to carry.
The front door opens and Mom walks inside with Caro, both of them holding takeout bags. Mom grins when she sees me. “My baby is home, safe and sound.” Abuela pouts and Mom goes to kiss her cheek. “You too, Mami.”
Abuela waves toward me—still a melted Maggie on the floor but holding Lucas up like an airplane. “Mira a tu hija,” Abuela complains, setting a hand on her hip. “Y todos ustedes pensaron que yo sería la que era demasiado vieja para viajar.”
“Ay, Mami, ya. Dejar de decir mentiras.” Mom rolls her eyes as she goes past her into the kitchen. “No one said you were too old to travel.” Mom sets the bags down. I sniff the air and my stomach grumbles. That is definitely not cold sandwiches!
Mom opens the bag and I spring up from the floor. Taco night! We got home just in time.
“So that’s when Abuela tried to baptize me after a ghost tour.”
Everyone is laughing at our stories, even Abuela, who’s got plenty of gossip about the teachers and chaperones I mostly try to ignore. She’s now decided that she loves Saint Augustine and that we should all travel more. She’s also taking it upon herself to plan our next family vacation.
“Speaking of vacations, where are the souvenirs?” Dad leans over to snoop through Abuela’s bag. Dad is usually the one coming home from working out of state and he always brings home the best gifts from all the different coastal cities he visits for work. Funky socks from Charleston, South Carolina. Witchy charm bracelets from Salem, Massachusetts. Gummy lobsters from Boston. Abuela and I have a lot to live up to.
Abuela waves me over and I finish the rest of my Jarritos soda—mandarin, my favorite flavor—and jump up to do the honors.
“We begin with our youngest, second cutest, and the only one who drools more than Caro.” I duck away from the balled-up napkin Caro just threw at me. “To young Lucas Diaz, we present this plush turtle toy for you to slobber all over.
“Next we have said championship drooler—”
“Mom!” Caro interrupts.
“Maggie …”
“Okay, okay. We were going to get you some water from the fountain of youth, but I decided against it seeing as you’re already a vampire. Just kidding, Mom! Okay, we got you …”
“And now to Dad, it’s usually you gifting us tacky and delightful souvenirs from the many ports you’ve seen, so it is you who we gift … a sealed treasure map and your very own pirate eye patch.
“And last but never least, we have Mom. Our shining star, controller of chaos, and matriarch of math. You are tough and unbreakable, so to you … we gift these very cute animal figurines made out of seashells.”
Abuela and I get a round of applause. Who knew the silly souvenirs would end up for my family instead of my friends?
After a shower and some unpacking, I pace my room as I call Zoey. When she doesn’t answer, my stomach drops. I send her a text letting her know I’m home. I’m anxious to talk to her and make sure she’s okay. That we’re okay. I can’t help the hot, twisty feeling of guilt when I think about all the fun stuff I did without her. I grab my laptop to log on to BioBuild. It’s not a school night, so Mom is letting me play until nine tonight.
Those are weekend hours on a Thursday, people! I love spring break.
Once the game loads there’s a moment of excitement when I see Julian’s name in my friend’s list. And then I remember.
I close my laptop with a sigh. Julian was the last holdout to also play BioBuild. I still love this game so much. Him outgrowing it feels like an ending I wasn’t ready for.
I spend the next day transforming from field trip social butterfly into an introverted caterpillar. I even spin myself into a silky cocoon—aka my blanket. I mostly stay in my room to catch up on Commander Bunny—my favorite streamer—videos. They’re playing BioBuild again, and watching them makes me feel better because at least someone out there is still playing it, too.
One thing I did not take into account when planning for the field trip was how exhausting it would be to be around other people for four straight days. I see them at school, sure, but at least then I get to go home and socially unplug. Having to be School and Friend Maggie all day took more out of me than I thought.
But I’m awoken early Saturday morning—during not weekend hours—and I know my cocooning days are over.
Abuela technically may be an old lady (don’t tell her I said that) but she always plays her music so loud on the weekends. Even louder than Dad, who still loves listening to screamo songs from when he was a teenager.
Abuela and her karaoke partner of a mop stop by my open bedroom door. “¡Levantate, niña!”
I refuse to get up and stay wrapped in my blanket. I am a caterpillar.
“¿Vas a dormir todo el día?”
I indignantly pop my head up. “All day? It’s only seven in the morning! I haven’t even slept in yet.”
Abuela keeps singing to her outrageously loud song in Spanish as she and her mop dance down the hallway, calling over her shoulder, “¡El piso está mojado!”
I yank on a pair of socks and carefully follow the grout lines of our freshly mopped and still dangerously wet tile floor into the kitchen. “Why does she announce the floor is wet like some kind of threat?” I grumble.
Caro is wiping sleep from her eyes, her messy topknot a total bird’s nest as she follows the same careful path ahead of me. The floor is lava game has nothing on an abuela with a mop.
Mom’s in the kitchen drinking her tiny cup of Cuban coffee. She smiles when she sees us. “Look at my sleepy girls. Hurry up and get dressed.”
“But it’s Saturday,” I whine. “And I don’t have a track meet today.”
“No, but it’s prom,” Mom says in a singsong voice with a smile.
Caro’s eyes widen and she’s fully awake in a snap. “It’s prom!” she cries, and she sounds both excited and terrified. Her hands go to the top of her head and she screams. “My hair appointment is in like four hours!”
“Four hours, wow,” I say, deadpan.
“I need to take a shower!” Caro spins around and runs back down the hall. A second later, there’s a crashing sound and a yelp.
I shake my head with a tsk. “She forgot to stick to the grout lines.”
* * *
A couple of hours later and I’m the one who’s ready to scream. Mom promised fancy doughnuts if I came along, but I should have learned my lesson with the mall pretzel. Because every high school in Miami seems to also be having their prom today, which means the salon is super busy with shrieky teenagers.
I’m bored and hungry and Mom’s pretty sick of my whining, so she distracts me with a manicure. At first, I don’t want to bother with one, but then I see the wall of pretty colors and cool designs.
While my fingernails are drying, my phone buzzes. It’s a text from Zoey!
Zoey: Happy Saturday … I’m hanging out at Dolphin Park today, can’t wait to hear everything
Dolphin Park is right down the street. Mom takes pity on me when I beg her to let me go. Or maybe she’s relieved to get me out of her hair, because she even buys Zoey and me lunch before dropping me off at the park.
“I’ll be back as soon as your sister is done!” she calls out. That’ll be a while since every teenager in Miami is getting a blowout in this humidity today.
I spot Zoey at a bench by the playground with a book. She jumps up and we run into a hug, squeezing the bag of French fries and nuggets. But I don’t care. It’s such a relief to finally see her after so long.
“Tell me everything!” Zoey says as she digs into the fries.
And I do! And she doesn’t seem jealous or like she feels left out at all! She’s smiling as she tells me about watching movies with her cousins and going fishing with her dad and actually sleeping without an alarm clock. She sounds so relaxed, and it unties the big stressful knot that was all tangled in my good feelings about the trip.
“Nice nails,” Zoey says around a fry.
“Thanks.” I admire them again. What’s not to love about glittery stars?
“Are you going to get your hair done, too?” she teases.
I roll my eyes.
“Prom’s a pretty big deal.”
“I guess.”
“And next week’s the seventh-grade dance.”
“Really?” we both ask each other at the same time.
With a shrug, Zoey admits, “Yeah. My mom said I can go, and I don’t want to miss another thing.” She no longer sounds super chill or relaxed. Maybe she does feel left out?
Worry starts to gnaw away at my earlier relief. I dust the salt and sand from my hands. “Well, I don’t want to go with anyone.”
Zoey eats another fry. “I don’t think that’s a requirement.”
I look out at the ocean and think about Caro panicking this morning about her hair and don’t envy her at all. I don’t want all that stress and worry. But then I also think about her talking on the phone to Alex, laughing like she’s having the best day ever, and how excited she was to find the perfect dress. I even overheard her saying they have a song now, and how cheesy is that? How embarrassing and ridiculous. I bet Eddie would never listen to a whiny soft song with sweet lyrics.
“Wait, you do want to go with someone,” Zoey accuses me.
I snap out of my wandering thoughts. “I don’t want to go with him!”
“Him who?”
Zoey asks so quickly—too quickly—that I immediately admit, “Eddie.” My eyes widen. “Wait, no! That’s not what I—”
And if that wasn’t the worst thing ever, it’s two voices who parrot back a surprised “Eddie?”
Seagulls loudly caw overhead, and I almost jump out of my skin again. This has to be a heart attack.
“Maggie, you are very red,” Zoey says, then looks at Julian. “I didn’t think she could blush.”
Julian sets a hand on my forehead like he’s checking if I have a fever. With a growl, I push his hand aside. “And what are you doing here?” I demand.
He shrugs. “It’s Saturday.”
It’s such a simple answer, but it says so much. Because ever since I got my bike-riding privileges extended beyond school and the park, the three of us have hung out here after school and on Saturdays when we weren’t busy with other stuff. But that was before. Before the field trip and Vanessa and … maybe Eddie? But definitely all these new feelings and stomachaches.
“I do not like Eddie.” Why am I lying about this? I fully intended on confessing my crush to Zoey, but now my heart is racing and my face feels hot.
Zoey tips her head and studies me more closely. It reminds me of Mom. “I think you do …”
Julian cheers and shakes my shoulders and I feel like I’m made of a bunch of pieces that are now falling apart.
“He totally likes you, too,” Julian tells me with so much confidence that my chest gets too tight to say anything. “Why didn’t you tell me when I told you?”
Zoey looks at him. “Told her what?”
In my total and complete panic that Julian is about to break Zoey’s heart, I flip to Latina Mom Mode™ to quickly put a stop to this.
“No one has a crush!” I yell.
Zoey and Julian just look at me like I told them to go to their rooms.
“What did Julian tell you?” Zoey asks again, and this time she looks upset, like she is definitely feeling left out now. I can’t keep this secret a second longer.
“Julian likes Vanessa!” I blurt.
Julian gasps. “Maggie!”
“What?” I shout. “This is all your fault!”
“How is this my fault!”
I scramble for an answer. “You never play BioBuild anymore—”
His mouth drops open. “My mom needs to renew my subscription!”
“And Zoey likes you likes you!”
“She … what?” Julian spins toward Zoey in a panic.
“No, I don’t!” Zoey yelps.
I jump forward to reassure her. “It’s okay! I was freaking out, too, when I realized, because what is this going to do to our friendship? What happens if he likes you back? I mean, of course he’ll like you back, because you’re amazing, but oh my gosh … what if you two start going out?” I start pacing in front of the bench as my thoughts fly out of me too quickly. “I didn’t even think that far ahead. Will I be a third wheel? Will I have to stop hanging out with y’all so much? But wait … will you two hang out without me? But then what if you break up? Will I have to choose a side?”
