It’s all right, though. Everything’s more than all right, and the reason she’s incapable of giggling isn’t because she’s stressed. It’s the opposite.
“Ma’am?” Preston says more urgently. Milla gives Max a delighted look. What is this nutball doing? they ask each other without words.
“Ma’am!” Preston calls, jogging up behind a waitress. The waitress jumps. Milla jumps, too, and this time she squeezes Max’s hand.
“Oh!” the waitress says. “Can I, ah …?” She keeps walking, her tray held aloft. “Can I help you, little guy?”
“Little guy,” Max whispers.
“Hee hee,” Milla whispers back. Little guy! Preston must hate that. For a millisecond, Milla wishes Katie-Rose was with them to enjoy this strange, strange play unfolding before them. Then, loving the warmth of the hand in hers, she realizes she most definitely does not.
“Yeah, listen,” Preston says to the waitress, keeping pace with her as she strides across the carpeted floor. “I was wondering if you could mumble-bumble-bumble …”
They exit the room together, Preston and the waitress. Milla glances at her and Max’s moms. They’re chatting comfortably, each with a glass of red wine in her hand. They seem to be giving Max and Milla their own space, for real this time.
“Could you hear what he said?” Milla asks Max.
Max shakes his head. “Nip. You?”
Nip? Milla frowns. Ohhhhh. That silly Max.
“Nip, me neither,” she says. “Oh well.”
“Breadstick?” Max says, offering her the basket with his free hand.
“Why, thank you,” Milla replies.
Thursday, November 11, 9:33 PM
To: Yasaman Tercan
From: Camilla Swanson
Subject: You were right!!!!
* * *
Yaz!!! I know you’re prolly in bed already, and I should be too, but I had THE BEST NIGHT EVER!!!! And I just wanted to tell you that you were right: It *does* pay off to be brave. Omigosh, you were sooooooooo right.
Anyway, dinner was awesome … and I don’t mean the food! Hee hee. The best part? We had FUN. Max and I. Despite all the weird stuff that happened at the restaurant—and plenty of weird stuff happened, believe me—we just … had fun. And laughed. And once? Well … I think his hand touched mine!!!!
Okay, fine. It did. His hand DID touch mine. You forced it out of me!!!! HE HELD MY HAND, YAZ! Under the table! And it wasn’t gross or yucky at all. It was … romantic!
That’s all. I just wanted you to know, because, ya know, you helped me.
Thank you. And I love you.
xxx,
Milla
That is what Katie-Rose wants to know. She surely does, yip yip yip. And “yip” means “yup,” and “yup” means “yep,” just for the record. “Yip” is Katie-Rose’s fun expression for the day. She made it up yesterday on accident, but this morning she invented an exciting variation called yiperee, Bob!, which she plans to use with a certain FFF who has hair the color of sunflower petals and whose name is Camilla.
In Katie-Rose’s mind, the scene will play out like this:
FADE IN:
INTERIOR RIVENDELL ELEMENTARY—HALLWAY OUTSIDE MR. EMERSON’S ROOM—MORNING
KATIE-ROSE
Hey! Milla! Hold up there, ol’ buddy, ol’ pal!
Camilla, an attractive young lady with hair suggestive of sunflower petals (only pulled back in a neat ponytail and not all wild like sunflower petals), turns around. She is humming. She looks surprised at first and then happy to see her friend, who is also an attractive young lady, but with hair the color of a raven’s wings.
She stops humming and beams.
CAMILLA
Hello there, Katie-Rose! You certainly look nice in your jeans and your Paul Frank T-shirt with the monkey on it. And may I say what a pleasure it is to see you on this fine day?
KATIE-ROSE
Yes, yes you may.
CAMILLA
(momentarily confused)
Oh. Well, great. It is a pleasure to see you! And if you want to know what kind of pleasure, I will tell you. A very pleasurable pleasure, that’s what!
Katie-Rose bows.
KATIE-ROSE
Thank you. And likewise.
CAMILLA
And again: nice outfit. I should be more casual, like you. I know I was dressed up last night, when I saw you at that restaurant we both happened to be at—and wasn’t that so random and weird? How we ran into each other at the Olive Garden last night?
Katie-Rose’s eyebrows go up. She looks behind her, to make sure Camilla is talking to her. She looks back at Camilla.
KATIE-ROSE
That was you?
CAMILLA
Yes, you silly! You came up and talked to me. I happened to be eating a breadstick. And I was with Max, who also goes to our school. Now do you remember?
Katie-Rose gazes off into the recesses of her mind.
KATIE-ROSE
Oh! Riiiight. I knew there was something familiar about you!
Camilla shoves Katie-Rose teasingly.
CAMILLA
You knew it was me. Admit it! I’m not mad or anything, Katie-Rose. Ha ha ha. Why would I be mad just because we happened to show up at the same restaurant? Ha ha ha!
Katie-Rose toes the ground with the tip of her sneaker. She’s sheepish in an adorable way.
KATIE-ROSE
Okay, fine, you got me. It was me at the Olive Garden, and I did know it was you. Yiperee, Bob!
CAMILLA
“Yiperee, Bob.” Does that mean “yes”?
KATIE-ROSE
Yip.
Camilla cocks her head.
KATIE-ROSE
By which I mean yes. “Yip” means “yes,” got it?
CAMILLA
Okeydoke.
KATIE-ROSE
And now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I have a question for you, missy.
Katie-Rose produces something from behind her back. It is a hedgehog! A tiny, fits-in-her-palm, stuffed hedgehog! It is extremely cute, and Katie-Rose has already named it and grown to love it, but that is not the problem. The problem is: Where did it come from????
KATIE-ROSE (CONT’D)
Do you see this hedgehog?
Camilla takes a step backward.
CAMILLA
Why, yes. Yes, I do.
KATIE-ROSE
All right, good. Do you know where it came from?!
CAMILLA
Where it came from? Um … its mommy hedgehog’s tummy?
Katie-Rose rolls her eyes.
KATIE-ROSE
That’s not what I mean, and stuffed hedgehogs don’t give birth. Which you know. But did you know that this particular hedgehog of adorableness appeared mysteriously and magically AT MY TABLE LAST NIGHT?!!
Camilla gasps.
Katie-Rose nods.
KATIE-ROSE (CONT’D)
’Tis true! I speaketh not a lie.
Camilla gasps again. Perhaps she is perplexed by Katie-Rose’s sudden switch into Old-Fashioned Language. Katie-Rose herself is confused by her sudden switch into Old-Fashioned Language. But she cannot—nay, will not!—let this stoppeth her! Eth!
KATIE-ROSE (CONT’D)
Verily, and it is so! The waitress came to our table to deliver our food, but spaghetti and meatballs was not the only thing she placed before me.
Katie-Rose emphasizes her words by thrusting out her hand with her wee and tiny hedgehog on it.
KATIE-ROSE (CONT’D)
She placed yon hedgehog beside my plate. Right beside my water glass.
CAMILLA
(uneasily)
Um, I’m not sure, but I think “yon” means “that thing over there.”
KATIE-ROSE
(whipping her head around)
Over where?
CAMILLA
Over … oh, never mind.
Katie-Rose laughs. Her fingers close over her wee, tiny hedgehog of cuteness, and she thrusts
it into the air.
KATIE-ROSE
I knew it! Is that your confession, then? “Oh, never mind”???
Camilla furrows her brow. She’s wearing a silver headband to add glamour to her ponytail. It sparkles in the light.
Katie-Rose points at Camilla with her hedgehog-holding hand. Her index finger does the pointing, while her remaining fingers take care of the hedgehog holding.
KATIE-ROSE (CONT’D)
(thunderously)
You! You gave me the hedgehog, yes? You gave the hedgehog to the waitress, and you said, “Hey, waitress, please give this hedgehog to yon girl over there!” Am I right, or am I left? Hmmm-mmmm?
In Katie-Rose’s mind, the scene would end there. Or almost. In Katie-Rose’s vision of how things should play out, Camilla would then swoon and say, “You’re right! You’re right! ’Twas I, indeed, who gave you yon hedgehog of adorableness! Yiperee, Bob!”
After that, the scene would fade to black, and … well, who knows what would happen? Life would happen, that’s what. But life would happen in a clearheaded and predictable way, because the mystery of the hedgehog would be solved, yay and verily, yiperee, Bob.
The scene doesn’t play out according to Katie-Rose’s plan, however. When Katie-Rose asks Milla flat-out if Mona Bubbles came from her—because that’s the adorable hedgehog’s name, Mona Bubbles—Milla frowns and says, “No. It’s cute, though.”
“She’s cute,” Katie-Rose says in the hallway by the water fountain. “It’s a she. I mean, she’s a she!”
“Can I hold her?”
“No,” Katie-Rose says, because she loves Mona Bubbles too much to let go of her quite yet. “And you did so give her to me. I know you did. You gave Mona Bubbles to the waitress, and you told the waitress to give her to me. Right?”
Milla gives Katie-Rose a funny look. If Katie-Rose were paying closer attention, she might note the way Milla’s eyes widen and then un-widen, as well as the ohhh, now I get it smile that plays around Milla’s lips.
If Katie-Rose were using her noggin, she’d have other clues to add to the mix, too. Not just from Milla’s expression, but from Wednesday at school, when Katie-Rose used the SIHT fist on Preston, and everyone laughed, and Preston genuinely tried to say he was sorry. Prickly, Preston had called her when she refused to accept his apology.
And finally, if Katie-Rose had had the foresight to bring her beloved Sony Cybershot to the restaurant last night, and if she’d handed it to a super-sneaky invisible person and said, “Here, film everything important that happens over the course of the evening, will you?” then she wouldn’t even need any of those extra clues.
She’d know the basics already, of course. She’d know, for example, that yes, the waitress at the Olive Garden honestly did bring Katie-Rose a small stuffed hedgehog along with her spaghetti. That yes, the hedgehog was—and is—ridiculously cute, and that yes, Katie-Rose loves that little hedgehog to the point of distraction.
But with the help of an invisible assistant and some well-shot video footage, she would also know that it wasn’t Milla who snuck away during dinner to pay a hurried visit to Children’s Toy World, conveniently located two stores down from the Olive Garden. She would know that it wasn’t Milla who purchased a tiny hedgehog, and that it wasn’t Milla who ran back to the Olive Garden, hunted down a bewildered-but-ultimately-agreeable waitress, and convinced said waitress to deliver the stuffed hedgehog to Katie-Rose.
She’d know that the person who wasn’t Milla described Katie-Rose to the waitress like this: “So, um, she’s a girl, and she’s my age, and she’s mainly weird, but kind of nice, only sometimes she gets super prickly, like a hedgehog. Get it? That’s why I’m giving her a hedgehog. Get it? But you can’t say who it’s from! Um … please, that is. And she’s short and skinny, and she’s wearing a Krispy Kreme shirt, and her hair is sticking out from her head in two ponytail things, ’cause that’s how she always wears it, and I think it’s cute.”
She’d know that the person who wasn’t Milla then turned bright red and said, all in a rush, “And she’s sitting right there, and … yeah. Thanks.”
Katie-Rose, if she had access to all of that excellent footage, would turn bright red herself when she viewed it, and she’d turn bright red again remembering it.
But since Katie-Rose knows none of this, she’s left in a state of extreme frustration when Milla shakes her head and says, “Nope. I think Mona Bubbles is very cute, but it wasn’t me who gave her to you.”
“Oh, come on,” Katie-Rose says.
“You can believe me or not,” Milla says. “But I swear to God that I had nothing to do with it, and you know I wouldn’t bring God into it if I didn’t mean it.”
“Well, was it Max?” Katie-Rose demands.
“Nope,” Milla says.
“Was it your mom? Was it Max’s mom?”
“Nope, nope.”
“Are you sure it wasn’t you?”
“Yep.”
“Yes, it was you, or yes, it wasn’t?”
“Yes, I’m sure that it wasn’t me. Sheesh Louise! And it’s time for me to go to class, so if you’ll excuse me …”
“But … but … wait!” Katie-Rose cries.
Milla turns around. Her lips twitch, and at last Katie-Rose is hit with a flash of understanding. Maybe Milla didn’t have anything to do with last night’s hedgehog delivery, but she sure knows something.
Now that she’s really looking, Katie-Rose sees more in Milla’s expression than that. She realizes that whatever Milla knows, she isn’t planning on sharing with Katie-Rose, no matter how hard Katie-Rose begs. She realizes that Milla is quite pleased with herself about this, and she realizes that maybe—just maybe—she shouldn’t have crashed Milla’s date by “randomly” showing up at the Olive Garden after all.
“Yes, Katie-Rose?” Milla says. “Are you going to say something or not?”
“Um … not,” Katie-Rose says.
Milla shakes her head and walks away.
Katie-Rose opens her palm and lifts Mona Bubbles up so that they’re eye to eye. “You know who gave you to me, don’t you?” she says.
Mona Bubbles is a cutie, but she’s not much one for talking. She keeps her tiny mouth closed.
deliveries of adorable little hedgehogs (stuffed, not real), and not knowing who’s giving them to her is driving Katie-Rose crazy.
“Truly and literally crazy!” Katie-Rose says to Yaz after the second hedgehog appears on her desk. And then, after a third one materializes by the leg of her chair: “I am going insane! Omigosh, I’m going to end up in an insane asylum, and what if I’m only allowed to eat pudding? What if I’m only allowed to eat vanilla pudding, or, worse, butterscotch?!” She pulls at her hair dramatically. “Aaaaaah!”
Yaz pats Katie-Rose’s back and tells her that of course she’ll help her figure out who the culprit is. Only guess what? During art class, Katie-Rose knocks over a metal can full of colored pencils—that’s how flustered she is—and while she’s busy picking them up, Yasaman sees Preston sneak over and place a fourth little hedgehog on Katie-Rose’s drawing pad.
He winks at Yaz and holds his finger to his lips, and so Yaz keeps her mouth shut when Katie-Rose straightens up, spots the hedgehog, and screams. After all, the tiny hedgehogs are precious, and it’s obvious that Katie-Rose loves getting them, despite her claims of impending insanity. After she screams, she clamps her hand over her mouth with one hand while sliding the hedgehog into her lap with the other. Their art teacher isn’t in the room—she hardly ever is—and no one but Yaz saw what Preston did.
“Sorry, just a stabbing pain in my left shinbone,” Katie-Rose tells the class. Several kids gaze at Katie-Rose, who flutters her fingers. “Carry on. Nothing here to see. Just … go about your business, people.”
The hedgehog secret is a fun secret, though. The love note secret was basically fun, too, especially once Yaz shared the details with Violet so that she no longer bore the burden of it by herself.
; But a secret that isn’t fun—a secret that makes Yaz wish she was all done with secrets—is how bad Violet made Yaz feel yesterday, when she ran off to save Hayley instead of staying with Yaz.
Yaz should have talked things out with Violet before her hurt feelings had a chance to grow inside her. But she didn’t, and now those hurt feelings have gotten mixed up with the whole issue of Hayley—which isn’t fair. Yasaman knows that. And yet now Yasaman doesn’t know if she even likes Hayley anymore, and that particular thought is so heavy that Yaz feels helpless under its weight.
If there’s one thing Yasaman has learned about herself over the past few months, however, it’s that she is NOT helpless.
She can choose to be, or she can choose not to be, and while watching Katie-Rose stroke her bitsy hedgehogs, she resolves not to be. She wants to squeal and giggle and enjoy the day, too, without feeling weighed down by yuckiness.
When art ends, Yaz goes back to Ms. Perez’s room, and soon she gets her chance to take action. It happens when Ms. Perez calls Yaz to her desk and says, “Yaz, sweetie, would you take this note to Mr. Emerson for me?”
Yaz says sure, even though Violet told her to say no from now on. Going to Mr. Emerson’s room will give her an opportunity to have a whisper-chat with Violet, as long as she’s not obvious about it.
“Here,” she says to Mr. Emerson when she reaches his desk. “Um, for you.”
Mr. Emerson’s face lights up. “Ah, thank you, Yasa—”
“You’re welcome,” Yasaman says. She turns on her heel and marches to Violet’s desk. Milla glances up as she passes. Yaz gives her a quick wave but stays focused on the task at hand.