Out of Bounds

by Annie Bryant

  “No we’re not!” Anna was appalled.

  “I did the choreography,” Kiki said. “I think I should know where the dancers are supposed to be.”

  “We won’t be anywhere if we walk out,” Anna said.

  “All right, let’s take it down a notch,” Ms. Ciara said. “Everyone take a deep breath…Kiki, as choreographer, and just so there won’t be any further confusion, why don’t you show us where you want the dancers to be.”

  Kiki walked to the very back of stage left and stood in a tiny space.

  “No way.” Anna folded her arms across her chest and stood her ground.

  “We didn’t rehearse it that way,” Joline had to admit.

  Even Isabel, who was always trying to find a peaceful solution, was amazed. “I think we were dancing more toward the middle of the stage before.”

  “Well, obviously you’re traveling across the stage too much. A lot of amateur dancers make that mistake. That’s why you need to start farther back,” Kiki said.

  Isabel was stunned to silence. Kiki had just changed tactics again.

  “As choreographer, I want to make an official change, because some people clearly didn’t understand my instructions.” Kiki glared at Anna as she spoke. “You all need to dance in that space over there. Do you understand?”

  “This is not what we’re supposed to be doing,” Anna whined to Ms. Ciara. “We’ve never done it this way before.”

  “Why don’t you all go sit down?” She pointed them toward the audience. “I’ll talk to you after rehearsal is over.”

  Anna and Kiki went to opposite ends of the row. Joline sat in the middle.

  Maeve moved over a seat and let Isabel sit with them.

  “Do you think you guys are even in the video?” Maeve whispered to Isabel.

  “I think we’re in it somewhere. Her father shot a lot of footage of us,” Isabel said.

  “Let’s hope so,” Maeve said. Much as she enjoyed seeing the mean girls fight, she knew how much Isabel was counting on dancing with the Hoppettes.

  “I was wondering,” Maeve said to Charlotte, Avery, and Katani when Isabel got up to get a drink of water. “How hard would it be to put a dance routine into the magic act?”

  “Do you think they’d let us do it this late?” Charlotte asked.

  “Isabel could do a little dance number with Marty,” Avery said. The girls groaned. Avery had become obsessed.

  “Let’s see how it works out,” Katani said. “Ms. Ciara is getting annoyed at any new changes.”

  While the Hoppettes talked to Ms. Ciara, the BSG waited for Isabel at Montoya’s.

  She looked really tired. There were big black circles under eyes. She looked like she needed a decent night’s sleep…maybe two or three nights’ sleep.

  “How did everything go?” Katani asked. “Did you get it all worked out?”

  “Maybe,” Isabel said. “But Anna and Joline are not happy with each other, and Anna really hates Kiki.”

  “Do you want anything?” Nick came over to the table.

  Isabel looked at everyone’s hot chocolates. Maeve and Katani were sharing a muffin. Isabel would have really liked something, but she had just stopped by for a minute.

  “I can’t stay,” she said. “We’re going to pick up my father at the airport.”

  Isabel realized she had her fingers crossed. She was so used to something happening at the last minute, she didn’t quite believe her good fortune.

  “Isabel,” Maeve said. “We know you want to dance for your father.”

  “That’s right.” Isabel smiled.

  “So, we were thinking maybe we should add some kind of dance routine to our act, I mean if Ms. Ciara would let us.” Maeve suggested.

  Isabel looked at everyone. “You’d do that for me?”

  “Sure,” Katani said. “That way you wouldn’t have to worry about the wicked stepsisters.”

  “Wicked stepsisters? I don’t understand,” Isabel said. “What does that make me, Cinderella?”

  She realized by the looks on their faces that she was right. They likened her to Cinderella—how pathetic.

  Avery looked embarrassed. She was the one who had thought of the comparison. “Not Cinderella…Isabella,” Avery said, as if disclosing the name she’d chosen would make it all right.

  “I didn’t know you thought of me as Cinderella,” Isabel said.

  “We don’t,” Katani said. “Not anymore. Not since you stood up for yourself and refused to make the costumes.”

  “I think I should stay where I am,” Isabel decided.

  “But what about the wicked stepsisters?” Maeve asked.

  “They’ll be okay,” Isabel said.

  “They ripped your dress,” Maeve reminded her.

  “It could have been ripped when I bought it,” Isabel said.

  The girls exchanged looks. Not one of them believed that Isabel had bought a ripped dress.

  “Look, thanks for caring,” Isabel said. “But really, I can take care of myself. And the last thing you all need is to add a dance to your act. Ms. Ciara already made you cut one whole trick.”

  They were about to protest, but Isabel was standing. “I’ve got to go meet Aunt Lourdes,” she said.

  “Oh, yeah,” said Avery, suddenly remembering to say it. “Tell Elena Maria thanks for moving the brunch to Saturday morning. I’m really glad that I can still come.”

  “I’ll tell her,” Isabel said.

  She started toward the door. It was an awkward moment.

  “Izzi,” Charlotte said.

  “Yes?” Isabel turned around.

  “We can’t wait to meet your father.”

  Isabel beamed. If there was tension remaining, it was erased by the last remark. “I can’t wait for him to meet all of you.”

  Avery and Charlotte left right after Isabel. They had something they had to do. They had decided to chip in and buy a ticket to the talent show for Miss Pierce. But before they dropped it off, they went to the Tower to compose a special note.

  “What do you mean, if she is able to come?” Avery asked Charlotte. “You know she doesn’t have any other plans.”

  “I don’t want to act as if we know that,” Charlotte said, “because it really isn’t our business.”

  “Okay,” Avery said and signed the letter next to Charlotte.

  Then they slid the letter under Miss Pierce’s door.

  AN IMPORTANT ARRIVAL

  Mr. Martinez was booked on the final Detroit/Boston flight of the day. As the ticket counters closed down, Elena Maria, Isabel, and Aunt Lourdes waited together. The last of the people piled off the plane, greeting loved ones as they made their way through the gate and toward the baggage claim area.

  It seemed that everyone had already gotten off the plane. Even the flight attendants were rolling their luggage cases outside and getting into the city cabs that were lined up at the curb.

  Isabel’s heart sank.

  “When did you last talk to him?” Aunt Lourdes asked.

  “He e-mailed me this morning,” Isabel answered.

  “Did you check your messages before we left for the airport?” Elena Maria wanted to know.

  “There wasn’t any time,” Isabel said, feeling stupid that she’d dragged them all the way down here when there was probably a message waiting for them at home.

  “I can’t believe he didn’t come,” Isabel said. She was fighting tears.

  “Come on,” Aunt Lourdes said as she watched them closing down the gates for the night, “let’s go home.”

  Aunt Lourdes put an arm around Isabel’s shoulder.

  But Isabel turned back. “Wait,” she said. As they turned to go, Isabel had spotted something out of the corner of her eye.

  Aunt Lourdes turned to look. “It looks like a tree,” she said, but the girls were already rushing toward their father, who was struggling to carry the largest papier-mâché tree she’d ever seen. The tree was easily twice as big as he was, and though it was ligh
t, it was incredibly awkward.

  “He brought my tree!” Isabel laughed. “He knew I missed it, and he brought it as carry-on luggage!”

  Aunt Lourdes knew better than to question how Mr. Martinez was able to make that happen. When you were given such a gift, you took it. No questions asked.

  They were talking so much that the cabbie had to ask for the address three times.

  They drove through the tunnel and up into the lights of downtown Boston. The cabbie took the scenic route down Storrow Drive and along the Charles River.

  “What a beautiful city,” Mr. Martinez said to his girls.

  “It really is, Dad.” Isabel sighed. Then she hugged him again and laid her head on his shoulder. She was so happy that he had come, and knowing that he was there, she knew that she didn’t want him to leave…ever.

  Isabel was hoping more than anything that her father would fall in love with Boston. She knew it was impractical with the family accounting business in Michigan, but she wanted him there just that badly. It was her secret wish.

  Her mother was in bed when they got home. The new medication made her a little sleepy, and it was after 11 o’clock. They had told her they were going to see a movie, and she had been way too tired to go with them.

  Aunt Lourdes peeked in. Isabel’s mom was sitting up in bed reading. When she saw her husband standing behind her sister and daughters, her smile was worth all their efforts.

  CHAPTER 23

  Musical Brunch

  When Elena Maria had heard about Avery’s game being postponed until Sunday, she’d had no problem moving the brunch to Saturday. “This party is so all the Beacon Street Girls and their families can meet Dad. We can do it for Saturday.”

  Isabel and her aunt had decorated Aunt Lourdes’s apartment like the Mercado in Mexico City. But it was far more fanciful that any real market. There were colorful lanterns, piñatas, and lights everywhere. The papier-mâché tree that Mr. Martinez had carried all the way from Troy, Michigan, stood in the center of the room. Isabel had fastened bright papier-mâché parrots and tiny white lights to its branches, parrots that her grandparents had given her father when he was a boy.

  Mrs. Martinez hugged both her girls and said they had given her the best present she had ever had in her life. And she shook her head in wonderment at how they had kept the secret of their father coming to Boston from her. When both parents saw the party and decorations, they were so overcome that they just kept shaking their heads.

  “Girls, I think maybe we should just open this restaurant for you now,” Mr. Martinez said.

  And when the BSG and their parents exclaimed over the decorations, the Martinez family beamed with pride. Avery’s mom, who had traveled to Mexico with Avery’s dad once, remembered the marketplace and was particularly delighted.

  Elena Maria served Mexican coffee and hot chocolate first. The hot chocolate was a bit different than the kind they loved at Montoya’s, with cinnamon and a hint of some other spice none of the girls could name.

  “I’ve forgotten what it is,” Isabel said when Katani asked her what the spice was. “I know it’s some kind of chili.”

  Katani must have looked surprised because Isabel went on to say, “Just a trace though, my father swears that Elena Maria simply waves the chili over the glass and doesn’t put it in at all.”

  Just then, Isabel’s mother and father came into the room holding hands.

  Maeve thought they were the handsomest couple she had ever seen—just like Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones in Zorro. Both of Maeve’s parents agreed with her when she told them that. It was so good to see them agree on something, anything, that it didn’t matter to Maeve what happened next. The rest of the day could be horrible, the show could bomb, but she would be happy because today she’d had this one moment with her parents. A little seed of hope began to grow in Maeve’s heart.

  Isabel introduced her parents to each person.

  “Ms. Kaplan, Mr. Taylor, I’d like you to meet my parents.”

  They all shook hands in a super friendly way, the way grown-ups always do.

  “Very nice to meet you,” Mr. Martinez said to Mr. Taylor and Ms. Kaplan. “You are the couple who run the theater.”

  “Mr. Taylor runs the Movie House,” Ms. Kaplan said. It seemed awkward to Maeve to hear her mother refer to her dad so formally. But no one else seemed to notice.

  “I’ve heard wonderful things about your theater,” Mr. Martinez said.

  “Speaking of which,” Katani said, overhearing, “I have a very important announcement to make.” Katani’s confidence had soared since she started assisting Ms. Ciara. Secretly, Maeve thought she was getting a little too confident. Like now, right in the middle of the party, she could just interrupt everyone like she was the one in charge. On the other hand, Maeve also had to admit that Katani had done a really good job getting kids to put posters around town.

  Avery started to clink her glass until her mother shot her a look.

  Katani cleared her throat.

  “As of ten o’clock this morning, the tickets to tonight’s seventh-grade talent show were officially sold out.”

  Avery led everyone in a loud, “Woo-hoo!”

  “So we saved the theater? We did it?” Avery asked, unable to quite believe it.

  “Barring any unforeseen circumstances,” Mrs. Fields said. She turned to Mr. Taylor. “I know that this is just the beginning,” Mrs. Fields said, “But it’s a heck of a start.”

  “I want you all to know that I have also completed the papers for the Movie House to become a nonprofit,” Mr. Taylor added. “We can take grants and run all kinds of exciting new programs. It might take a while though. You know government regulations.” The adults laughed when he said, “Remember Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” Maeve had to explain to everyone later that this was an old Jimmy Stewart movie where Jimmy takes on the Congress of the United States.

  “I’ve worked with a lot of nonprofit organizations at my law firm,” Katani’s mother said. “I think maybe I can help you fast-track this.”

  Maeve’s mother grabbed her hand and gave it an excited squeeze. Maeve squeezed back and put her arm around Sam’s shoulder. Wow, Maeve thought, I even like Sam today.

  “My mom and dad have been involved with nonprofits too,” Isabel said.

  “Not in Massachusetts,” Mr. Martinez said. “But I’ve worked with several in the Detroit area.”

  “It might be worth looking into,” Mrs. Summers said. “Especially since the kids are proving the educational value of the Movie House. And the community is certainly showing a lot of support.”

  Elena Maria rang a bell to summon them to their tables. The first seats were assigned. But after each course they would switch to a new group of people. That way, Elena reasoned, everyone would have a chance to get to know each other. Everyone oohed and aahed over the way Isabel had set the table to look just like an outdoor café in Mexico City.

  Suddenly, there was a big crack and all the lights went out.

  Kelley shouted, “Ha!”

  For a second, no one else said anything…assuming that the lights would come back on. No such luck.

  Elena Maria started to panic. “My empanadas, they will be ruined.”

  Isabel rolled her eyes. Her sister was beginning to sound like some diva TV chef.

  “Llewelyn, can you help?” Katani’s mother asked her husband, seeing how distressed Elena Maria and Isabel were looking. Then she turned to the group. “My husband’s an electrician,” she explained.

  Llewelyn Summers, a big bear of a man with a can-do attitude, was happy to check things out. He followed Aunt Lourdes and all the girls plus Sam into the kitchen, where he immediately recognized the problem.

  Elena Maria had things plugged in everywhere…coffee pots, electric fry pans, electric mixers.

  “These old apartment houses aren’t always up to code with electrical plans. The circuits are probably overloaded. Unplug everything. I’ll head into the ba
sement and see what’s up,” he said.

  “Will it take long?” a worried Lourdes asked. “This has never happened before.”

  “If it’s a circuit breaker, it won’t be a problem. If it’s a wiring issue…that’s something else. Now,” he said with a big smile, “show me to my kingdom.” When Lourdes looked at him quizzically, with an even bigger grin, he said, “The basement! Katani, why don’t you and your friends come down with me…and we’ll have a lesson about circuit breakers.” He winked at Katani and she smiled knowingly.

  Katani knew what the wink was about. Her father was determined that all his daughters would learn about electricity and plumbing and even a little bit about mechanics. And he never missed an opportunity to teach his girls how things worked.

  The vision of a basement with dusty cobwebs and leaky ooze dripping down on her freshly washed hair did not play well with Maeve. She had on her favorite pink top and black pants, and she was about to say, “Pass.”

  But, as if sensing her discomfort, Isabel’s aunt said to them all, “Don’t worry girls, this basement is quite clean. The landlord keeps a washer and dryer down there for everyone. Let’s go.”

  All the girls and Sam, who to Maeve’s consternation, kept mimicking a spider crawling along her arm, followed Lourdes and Mr. Summers out the door and down along the side of the building. The adults stayed upstairs enjoying coffee and juice and getting to know one another. Mr. Ramsey and Mrs. Madden were deep in conversation about Africa. She had never been and desperately wanted to go on safari there—a dream of hers since she was a little girl.

  In the cellar, Mr. Summers showed the girls where the circuit panel was and pointed out all the switches, which each powered a certain part of the apartment. He showed the girls how all the switches were going in one direction except for three.

  “Girls, we are in luck. This is a simple matter of pushing this switch back to go in the same direction as the others and I think our problem is solved.” He pointed to Isabel and said, “Why don’t you do the honors.”