Hole in the Middle

by Coco Simon

  “For goodness’ sake!” she yelped. “No more forks! That’s it!”

  Molly froze, a new fork in hand.

  “Molly, honey, you can leave that with me, and when Tristan starts behaving, he can have his fork,” Mrs. Wood said.

  Molly put the fork on the napkin, as Grandpa taught us to do, and skittered away. She shot us a look across the room and rolled her eyes.

  I wasn’t really sure why Molly was a runner and Kelsey and I were “on the counter,” but that’s the way it was set up.

  Maybe because Molly is technically a little older than us, even though we’re all in the same grade at school. Molly was adopted, and right when she came home with Aunt Melissa and Uncle Chris, they found out they were having a baby, and that was Kelsey.

  But even though Molly is ten months older, a fact she likes to point out a lot, Kelsey and Molly are pretty much the same age. Grandpa used to call them the “almost twins” until last year, when Molly threw a fit about it.

  “That one has sass,” Nans said, when Molly exploded at Grandpa.

  “She has spunk, and we love her for it,” said Aunt Melissa. “And she’s right. The girls aren’t twins.”

  Molly’s spunk might be the other reason that she wasn’t working behind a counter. I could totally see her saying to the East twins, “Just pick a donut already!”

  Plus, Molly has a lot of energy, and she doesn’t mind running around.

  Donut Dreams closed at six o’clock every day. Nans said you couldn’t really keep donuts fresh past that point, and not a lot of people eat donuts at night, which is a strange but true fact. It got really, really slow in the afternoon, so I took my break.

  When I came back to the counter, I worried a little bit because in our family we always talk about “business” and whether “business is slow” or “business is good.” Busy was always good, slow was not.

  Jenna dropped off a tray full of food to the Woods’ table, then came over to us.

  “How are you doing, girls?” she asked. “Can you spare a cinnamon donut? I’m starving.”

  Kelsey reached into the case and put a cinnamon donut on a napkin.

  “Oh, that was such hard work,” said Jenna. “You sure you guys can handle this job?”

  “Maybe,” I said.

  Jenna laughed. “You can definitely handle it. My sister Kelsey is not a fan of working.”

  “Well, it’s the end of summer,” Kelsey whined. “Everyone else is at the lake today!”

  “They’ve been at the lake all summer!” said Jenna. “How is today any different?” She had a point.

  “Because it’s like the last stretch of summer that we should hold on to before we go back to school.”

  Jenna gave her a look.

  “Trust me, Kelsey,” she said. “You aren’t missing anything.”

  Jenna and I agreed on life here. Jenna was always bored and always planning.

  “That one’s got her eye on the door,” Nans always said, and Aunt Melissa would sigh.

  “She has big dreams. But she’ll come back,” she would reply. “They always do. Just wait and see.”

  But with Jenna I wasn’t so sure. She was constantly talking about moving to Los Angeles, where the weather was beautiful all year. Jenna studied really hard and was always talking about her grades and whether they were good enough to get into a good college.

  Jenna took the donut into the kitchen to eat. That was another rule here: no eating on the floor.

  I know, it’s crazy, right? I mean, we make and serve food but can’t eat in front of the customers. You’d think they’d want us to advertise that the food is so delicious we eat it ourselves. But on the other hand, I guess it wouldn’t be good for a customer to ask us a question and us to answer with a mouthful of donut.

  “Is Mom taking you home after work?” she asked Kelsey.

  “I think so,” said Kelsey. “But we have to wait for Molly’s shift to end too. That’s another hour.”

  “Well, maybe Uncle Mike can drop you off,” said Jenna. “I think Lily is driving me, or maybe Rich.”

  Lily and Rich were both older, and both of them had their driver’s licenses. Rich was the oldest cousin, and Skylar was the youngest. Nans joked that her two grandsons bookended the girls in between.

  At big family dinners, I always felt a little sorry for Rich because he was definitely outnumbered, but Sky loved him and followed him everywhere.

  Finally it was closing time, which meant we had to clear the shelves, clean the counters, empty the trash, and close out the register. Grandpa didn’t like us to close out until actual closing time, because he said it turned away customers if they thought they needed to rush before you went home.

  So Kelsey and I watched until the clock said six o’clock on the dot, and then we sprang into close-mode. We made a good team and played Rock-Paper-Scissors to see who had trash duty, which was the worst.

  You had to empty the trash, throw the bag into the Dumpster in the back, then lug the trash can into the parking lot and hose it down. Even though there should have been just napkins and cups, there was always something really gross in the trash can. One time I had to scrape out gum, and it was awful.

  “Great job today, girls!” said Dad as we signed out.

  Everyone who worked at the Park recorded when they started working and when they stopped. Aunt Melissa was a stickler for records, and she was always complaining that someone didn’t log out.

  “Ready to do it again tomorrow?” asked Grandpa.

  Kelsey sighed. “Ugh.”

  “Hey, young lady,” said Grandpa. “You should consider yourself lucky to have a job!”

  “Grandpa, I am!” she said, pouting. “But it’s the last few days before school starts!”

  “And then what happens?” Grandpa teased. “The big bad school monster comes out?”

  Kelsey laughed. “Grandpa! We will have homework and we have to sit in school all day and not do fun things like swim in the lake and stay up late!”

  “Oh, my poor, poor granddaughter,” said Grandpa. “Are you allergic to work? Because if you are, we may need to kick you out of the family!”

  “Dad!” said Aunt Melissa. “You can never kick anyone out of this family!”

  “Especially not me!” said Kelsey.

  She was right. Kelsey was always Grandpa’s favorite. It wasn’t like he didn’t love all of us, but there was something about Kelsey that allowed her to act in a way that would have made Grandpa very prickly with the rest of us.

  Nans said that it was because Kelsey was named after Grandpa’s mother Katherine, and that Kelsey was very much like her.

  “I’m taking the girls home,” said Dad. “Melissa is waiting for Molly to finish her shift. I’ll be back soon.”

  Kelsey and I followed him out to the car. We had been inside for most of the day, so the sun felt especially hot and bright. We blinked as we walked.

  “Melissa said I could drop you at the lake if you wanted, Kels,” said Dad.

  “I can’t go like this!” Kelsey said. “I’m in my work clothes.”

  “But it’s just the lake,” Dad said.

  “Uncle Mike, you can’t go to the lake in work clothes,” said Kelsey. “Besides, everyone is probably headed home now anyway.”

  Dad shrugged. Our town isn’t that big, but it’s kind of spread out in parts, so there are a bunch of us who live five minutes away and then there are people like Kelsey, who live on the other side of the lake.

  Some people have boats and just row or drive across the lake instead of taking a car. There have been a lot of stories about kids taking boats out at night, and Dad has already hammered it into our heads that it’s too dangerous to do that.

  At Kelsey’s house, Uncle Chris opened the door when he heard the car pull up and waved to us.

  “See you tomorrow,” I said to Kelsey as she opened the car door, and she sighed.

  It was still pretty sticky and hot. I guess a lot of people were on vac
ation, because the town seemed quiet, which was kind of nice.

  “So how was your first day?” asked Dad as we drove away from Kelsey’s house.

  “Pretty good,” I said. “A little slow.”

  “Yeah,” said Dad. “Time of year. You’ll see, it will speed up. That’s when the days go a lot faster.”

  Dad and I drove in the quiet. It was nice having this time with just him, without Skylar or Nans or Grandpa or a million other family members. I actually didn’t mind the slow pace of the day. I hoped things didn’t speed up too quickly.

  Chapter Three My BFF Is Back!

  I didn’t have to worry about things going quickly, because even though the next day was kind of slow at Donut Dreams, it had a nice rhythm.

  Kelsey and I were pretty good about splitting the “ick” stuff, as we called it, like hosing down the mat behind the counter or making sure the chairs were clean underneath (you wouldn’t believe). I liked chatting with the customers, and I knew almost everyone who came in.

  After a flurry of morning customers, I had a second to sip some water. I was itching to check my phone because I knew my best friend, Casey, was coming home today, and I couldn’t wait to see her.

  But even though my phone was in my apron pocket, Grandpa had been especially vigilant this morning, and I didn’t want him to catch me using it.

  Grandpa has been telling every customer that he now has six out of seven grandchildren working at the restaurant.

  “One more and it’s a full house!” he’ll say.

  I cannot imagine Sky working… at all. He’d probably complain the entire time and try to eat all the donuts.

  On the one hand, it is nice to work with my family because we help each other out. One day, while here after school, Lily dropped a huge tray she was carrying, and it made such a loud crashing sound that everyone stopped talking and stared at her.

  In a flash Molly, Jenna, and Rich ran over to help her, and they got everything up off the ground in record time.

  Another time crazy Mr. Brown, who is known to have a temper, yelled at Jenna for not toasting his bread well enough, and Grandpa walked over and said, “Hey, Ed, are you yelling at one of my favorite granddaughters over a tuna sandwich?” and calmed him down right away.

  Family always has your back, and while Grandpa can be tough, he is also pretty protective of us.

  I was busy wiping down the counter when I heard someone scream, “I’M BAAAAAACK!” That could only be one person: Casey, my best friend in the entire world! We’ve been friends since we were born, because we were born exactly one day apart and were in the hospital together.

  She has gone to sleepaway camp for the past few summers, which generally makes me miserable because I miss her so much. At her camp you can’t have computers or phones, so she can’t e-mail me, let alone text me, and I hate not being able to talk to her. Casey sometimes sends postcards, but it’s not the same thing.

  I spun around and Casey charged at me, hugging me over the counter.

  “So how much did you miss me?” she asked.

  “A lot!” I said.

  “I need to know everything that I missed this summer!” she said.

  I blinked. “Seriously? You missed nothing, Casey. You know that!”

  “Really?” she asked. “I was hoping something exciting might have happened.”

  “Um… no,” I said.

  “Well, you got a job!” she said, grinning. “Spin around and let me see your uniform.”

  I spun around, pointing to the DREAM TEAM on the back of the shirt.

  “Nice, nice,” she said.

  “Casey!” Kelsey squealed, coming back from the kitchen.

  She was so happy to see Casey, she almost dropped the tray she was carrying.

  “I have returned!” said Casey dramatically.

  “Wow, you look different,” said Kelsey.

  I looked at Casey. She did look different.

  First of all, she was wearing a little makeup, which was surprising because I knew her mom hadn’t let her wear any before the summer. She also seemed to be a few inches taller.

  She was wearing shorts and a T-shirt, but she looked… well, more put together or something, not like she just threw clothes on, which I knew for a fact was what she usually did. And they were usually clothes she had stashed under her bed. She had on a cute pair of sandals, and her toes were painted purple with glitter. Her hair, which was usually in a ponytail, was down and bouncy and curled like she’d just had it styled.

  “Did you just get your hair cut?” I asked.

  “No, but I used a blow-dryer,” she said.

  “You used a blow-dryer in August?” I asked.

  Normally, I only blow-dried my hair when it was freezing cold and Nans was yelling that I couldn’t possibly go outside with wet hair or it would freeze on my head.

  “I have been dying for those sandals!” said Kelsey. “But Mom won’t let me get them. Did your feet grow too or can I borrow them?”

  “Kelsey, are you taking the shoes off poor Casey as soon as she returns to our fine town?” asked Dad, who was grinning.

  He loved Casey and came out from the kitchen to say hello the minute he heard her voice. “Hey, Case. Did you have any big summer adventures?”

  “I did!” said Casey very seriously. “I had some monumental softball games.”

  Then she burst out laughing. “It was great. I had a lot of fun, and it was nice to get away.”

  I’ll bet, I thought.

  I had asked Dad if I could go to summer camp, but he wasn’t too into the idea. I made a note to myself to start bugging him about it early for next summer. Maybe he’d change his mind next year.

  Casey’s phone buzzed, and she looked at it with a giant smile on her face. I had never seen her smile like that before.

  “Who’s bugging you besides me?” I asked.

  “Oh, just someone I met at camp,” she said. “His name is Matt.”

  Matt?

  “You have a boyfriend?” Kelsey yelped.

  “He’s not really my… ,” said Casey. “Well, he’s kind of… I don’t know. Summer’s over, and he lives far away, so…”

  My head was spinning a little. We barely spoke to boys. I mean, we spoke to them, but we had never looked at our boy friends as potential boyfriend material.

  “You came home from camp with a boyfriend?” Dad asked. “Well, that’s it. Lindsay is never, ever going to camp now!” He laughed.

  “Daaaad,” I said, crossing my arms.

  “Who has a boyfriend?” asked Lily, whizzing by. “Oh, Casey!”

  She gave Casey a squeeze and winked. “Well, I’d say that sounds like you had a good summer!”

  “I did!” said Casey, and then her mom came in.

  “Hey, I said you could run in, honey,” Mrs. Peters said, exasperated.

  Then she saw me. “Oh, Linds, I’ve missed you!”

  “You missed Lindsay more than you missed me!” said Casey, all huffy.

  “Well, she doesn’t give me as hard a time as you do,” said Mrs. Peters, embracing me in a big hug.

  Mrs. Peters takes Casey to camp and then goes to visit her mother, Casey’s grandma, for the summer. Casey’s grandma moved to Arizona so she could be warm all year, which drives Mrs. Peters crazy because they don’t get to see her a lot.

  “How is Granny?” I asked.

  “Good, good,” said Mrs. Peters. “She sends her love and said we should all come see her when it snows, because she’ll be at the pool!”

  “Ooh, that could be fun,” Casey said, her mind already whirling.

  “Casey, the dog is going nuts in the car,” said Mrs. Peters. “We were on our way back home, but you know we had to stop and see Lindsay first!”

  “Well, I am the main attraction of the town,” I said, grinning.

  “Of course you are,” Casey said. “Okay, I’ll come over later.”

  “Casey, you just got home, and Dad and I would like to have dinner together a
s a family!” said Mrs. Peters.

  “Okay,” said Casey. “After dinner, then!”

  “Can I have you for twenty-four hours?” asked Mrs. Peters. “Seriously, Casey. You and Lindsay have plenty of time to catch up.”

  “Fine!” said Casey. “At least I can text now. I’ll TTYL, Linds!”

  I gave her another quick hug, and she was halfway out the door before she whipped back around.

  “Oh my gosh, I missed the donuts almost as much as you! We need four, please!”

  I smiled, because I knew that she liked cinnamon, Gabby liked old-fashioned, and Mr. and Mrs. Peters liked powdered jelly. I carefully put them in the bag.

  “Those are on the house!” Dad called. “Welcome back, Casey. We missed you!”

  “Thank you,” said Casey. “I promise I’ll eat them all, even the ones for my parents!”

  Dad laughed, and Casey and her mom rushed out.

  I was so glad to have my BFF home. I missed having Casey as my go-to, because she just always knew what I was thinking or how I felt about things, and I didn’t need to explain everything to her. She just got me.

  On the other hand, Casey seemed different. I mean, a boyfriend was a big deal. Who was this guy Matt?

  Maybe Jenna was right. Maybe middle school was going to be different.

  Chapter Four Early Dismissal

  At eleven o’clock the next Monday morning, Dad sauntered up to the counter and asked if I wanted the rest of the day off.

  “Really?” I asked, surprised.

  “Yep,” said Dad. “We leave at noon.”

  “Wait,” I said. “Leave for where? To do what?”

  “Special surprise!” Dad called over his shoulder.

  “No fair!” said Kelsey. “I get stuck here and you get a day off?”

  I didn’t know what to say, because it actually didn’t sound very fair.

  “You can leave too,” said Rich, who was walking over wearing a Dream Team tee. “I’m covering the counter from noon to six.”

  “Yes!” Kelsey yelled, and pumped her fist. “Lake bound!”

  The next hour actually sped up because we were crowded, and I felt bad about turning over the counter to Rich. I guess more people were coming back from vacation because the Park, Donut Dreams, and even the town itself was busier.