Ice Cream Summer

by Megan Atwood

  It was their thing. The four of them. A symbol of ALL of their friendship. She racked her brains to come up with some solution.

  When she looked up, she saw a slow smile start on Peter’s face. “MOO!” he said.

  Sarah and Lizzie exchanged confused glances. And even Olive joined in, sharing the same confused look with them.

  “MOO!” Peter said again, clapping his hands together triumphantly.

  “Um, we don’t have . . . ,” Lizzie started.

  “Cows,” Olive and Sarah finished. Then they all smiled at each other.

  Peter grinned wider. “No, remember that contest flyer thing? Isn’t there an ice cream contest we can enter? And get the EXACT AMOUNT OF MONEY we need if our sundae wins?”

  Sarah felt her eyes grow wide. He was right. She hadn’t even thought about the flyer since they’d first seen it—they’d been too busy and too sure they would make enough money. But if they could make the best sundae and win the contest . . .

  Lizzie squeaked.

  “Peter, you’re brilliant!” Sarah crowed. “Okay, so when is the contest?”

  “I thought it said at the end of June? So in like a week?” Olive said. Peter and Lizzie nodded.

  “Well, then, this might just work! In the next week, let’s create the best sundae Moo has ever tasted. I think with the four of us, we can figure this out?” Sarah said, determination zinging through her. “Are we all together on this?” she asked.

  She looked at Lizzie, who nodded.

  She looked at Olive, who smiled and said, “Oh, heck yes.”

  And she looked at Peter, who said, “Let’s do this.”

  Sarah smiled. They were going to do this.

  CHAPTER 14

  Red Licorice Bits with Raspberry Vanilla Ice Cream and Other Sweet, Sweet Things That Will Make Everything Better

  Okay, where do we start?” Sarah asked, still smiling. No one said anything. They all just looked at one another.

  “The stand opens in a half hour. Maybe we should think about it and come back tomorrow with ideas?” Olive said, pushing up her glasses.

  Sarah nodded. “Yeah, that might be the best idea. . . .”

  Lizzie shrugged and Peter moved to the stand. They had a shift to do. And a lot of thinking, it turned out.

  They all went to the back of the stand and put on their aprons. Sarah felt a little shy—she’d spent so much time not liking them, she didn’t know how to just be normal. So she started with questions. That was what her mom would say she should do.

  “Peter, you really like math, huh?” she said, taking ice cream out of the freezer.

  He nodded. “Yeah.”

  Sarah said, “Me too! Lizzie doesn’t like it, though.”

  Lizzie shook her head. Olive laughed. “Me neither. I like science the best. And art. Like my dad.”

  Peter got out a few toppings and Lizzie got some out too. Olive grabbed scoops and napkin refills.

  Sarah said, “Did you say you build robots, too?”

  Peter nodded. “Yeah, but Olive helps. She’s good at that, too.”

  “I always wanted a brother or sister,” Sarah said. “Is it cool being twins?”

  Lizzie looked at her funny. “Really? I didn’t know you always wanted a sibling.” Sarah shrugged. Then Lizzie smiled. “You can take mine!” she said, and everybody laughed.

  Peter said, “Being twins is cool. Olive is my best friend. But sometimes it’s hard to go out and make other friends, because you don’t really need them. So . . .” He stopped and smiled big. “This whole new-friend thing is also pretty cool. We have friends in Boston, but everyone is always so busy, to be honest, sometimes it’s hard to even hang out.”

  Sarah smiled at him. “Just wait until we get to figure out the zombie hayride together!”

  Lizzie’s face turned to worry. “We have to win that contest first,” she said.

  Sarah nodded. Before, she’d wanted the hayride to make sure she and Lizzie had something in common. But now she wanted it to give her new friends something fun to do with them, all together.

  The bell chimed outside, meaning their first customer was here. Sarah realized they had all worked together without having to figure out who did what. Like they’d been a group of friends forever. She smiled, thinking about that. It felt pretty good.

  When Sarah got home, she was exhausted. And still at a loss as to how to figure out the best sundae. She knew what SHE liked . . . but did that mean other people would like that too? She doubted it.

  At dinner, her mom kept talking about a new book that had come in and the way she’d get to expand the children’s section. Sarah thought that was all well and good, but she was practically an adult so it didn’t really affect her. She stared off into space and barely touched her tacos.

  “Okay, kitten pie, is everything okay? Didn’t you and Lizzie have a good time last night? It seemed like things were good.”

  Sarah snapped back to the present. “Oh, they are! Things are way better.” She recapped for her mom all the things that had happened that day—the movie clips, the making up, the news about the stand, and the contest.

  Her mom beamed with delight. “I need to tell Colin that his advice worked! And I’m so proud of you, honey. That was really mature of you. I just wish the hayride had worked out.”

  Sarah bristled. “It still might! We just have to come up with the best sundae ever. . . .” Saying it out loud made her immediately cranky.

  Her mom noticed. “You know, sometimes the best thing to do to solve a problem is to forget it for a while.” Sarah huffed. She highly doubted that. But her mom went on, “I’m serious. I know what I'm talking about. So, how about this, peanut butter nutter? Let’s finish dinner and go watch some mindless TV. I think I saw that X-Men was on. What do you think?”

  Sarah couldn’t pass that up. She nodded and took a bite of her taco. Her mom hardly ever let her watch TV. In their house, it was always about reading. Plus, X-Men was Sarah’s FAVORITE. She always wondered what her mutant power would be.

  She finished her tacos fast, her mom laughing at her as she chomped through the hard shell and made everything fall out. Sarah giggled too, but the giggling did not stop her taco annihilation. She and her mom did the dishes, and then Sarah practically ran out and slid onto the couch, grabbing the remote along the way and flipping to the guide.

  Her mom ambled in while Sarah tried to find the channel X-Men would be on. “Oh, it’s channel forty-five. And we have perfect timing. It starts in about five minutes.” Sarah turned to the right channel and then snuggled into the couch. Her mom set a drink down and settled into the couch too. She squeezed Sarah’s foot. “A perfect night!”

  About twenty commercials came on and Sarah bounced her legs. Why did everything take so long? But her mom said, “Ooh, I love this commercial,” when the screen changed to a stylish scene with perfect-looking people.

  The commercial was about a family coming together to eat dinner, parents, grandparents, a bunch of kids, and a cute dog. They’d been fighting, and everyone had had a bad day, but sitting at the table, they listened to each other. At the end of the commercial, a voice said, “Box and Bundle. We bring family together.”

  Sarah looked at her mom. Tears were streaming down her face and she hiccupped. She saw Sarah looking at her and she laughed a little. “I know it’s silly, but they were fighting and then they were getting along and they remembered they loved each other as a family! This commercial always makes me cry.” Sarah’s mom grabbed a tissue and blew her nose loudly, and Sarah scrunched her face up.

  “Mom, it’s a commercial for a place we never even go to.”

  Her mom wiped her nose and then dried her eyes. “Oh, I know, honey. But you can bet the next time we go into the city, we’ll go there. The story they tell is what reels customers in.” She winked at Sarah and then said, “Is it too soon to have popcorn?” She got up before Sarah could answer, muttering, “Families . . . coming together . . .”

  S
lowly, something dawned on Sarah. A grin lit up her face. When her mom came back in, she looked at Sarah suspiciously.

  “Did you just put a whoopee cushion down or something? Why are you smiling so big?”

  Sarah laughed. “Oh, nothing. I think you just solved my problem, that’s all.”

  Her mom shrugged. “Well. I think we figured out my mutant power.” She tweaked Sarah’s nose and sat down. “See? I told you that you just needed to put it aside!”

  Sarah totally agreed.

  The next day, Sarah asked everyone to meet her at the ice cream stand early, before their shift. They gathered around the freezers and all looked at her expectantly.

  “Right. So. I have an idea. Last night my mom cried at a commercial,” she said.

  Olive nodded. “My dad cries at commercials all the time.”

  Peter grinned. “Yeah, especially that one . . . What is that one, Olive?”

  Olive said, “It’s a new one about that place that sells plates. . . .”

  Sarah pointed excitedly. “Yes! That’s the same one my mom cries at! Last night we were going to watch X-Men and then this commercial came on and she started crying because the story was so moving. It makes her cry every time, she said. And she also said she would definitely go to the plate place now.”

  Lizzie said, “Yeah . . . ?” Sarah knew that meant “What’s your point?” So she got to it quickly.

  “My mom said the story sells the product,” she said. “And we have a good story.”

  Lizzie, Olive, and Peter all looked at each other, then at Sarah. Olive asked, “What story?”

  Sarah beamed. “We have the story of us! We’re like the X-Men! Each of us brings something good to our group, and when we combine all our ingredients together, we get the best mix of things ever!”

  A slow smile spread over Lizzie’s face. Olive and Peter started smiling too.

  “So let’s spend today thinking of our favorite things, and then after our shift, we can put them together. I’m going to guess it will make the best sundae ever. Then, when we take it to MOO, we tell them all about our story. And what makes our group of friends special! What do you think?”

  Lizzie nodded big. Peter and Olive smiled and nodded too. Sarah couldn’t WAIT until the end of the day.

  CHAPTER 15

  Four Different Flavors Plus Lots of Toppings Equals a WINNING Combination

  Olive looked down her nose at Sarah while pushing her glasses up. Sarah was beginning to think of it as Olive’s signature move. Two weeks ago it would have driven her crazy; now it made her smile.

  Olive pointed to Sarah’s bouncing knee. “You’re going to bounce your leg off, you’re doing it so hard.”

  Sarah swallowed and tried to stop bouncing. She had a bad habit of fidgeting and moving when she was nervous—and she hadn’t been this nervous in a long, long time. She was pretty sure she’d go through the roof soon if they weren’t called in.

  The four of them sat outside the room where the judges were. They’d been waiting for more than two hours. Peter had stood up to investigate MOO posters around the room, staring at each of them as if they had an interesting code to break. Lizzie was playing with the ends of her hair, twisting strands and then watching them bounce back up when she let go. Olive kept taking deep breaths and then sighing. Sarah wished her mom could have come. But she was at the library, getting interviewed about her program with kids for the summer. Sarah couldn’t be too mad at her. She was excited about it, so Sarah had to support her. If there was one thing she’d learned this summer, it was that supporting the people she cared about was important.

  Mr. G was the one who had taken them all to Boston to show their creation. They’d driven up that morning, put their masterpiece in the large freezer that held everyone else’s, too, and come to the waiting room.

  Where Sarah was pretty much bouncing off the ceiling.

  “Uh, the Apple Orchard Crew?” a voice said. Sarah looked up. Someone with a clipboard and a walkie-talkie stood by the door to the room with the judges. Sarah swallowed and looked at Lizzie. Lizzie’s eyes were huge and she made a gurgling sound. Sarah felt the same way. If she said that out loud, it would sound like “Holy schmolies it’s now or never oh my gosh it’s our turn to go what if I don’t say things right and we lose everything because of me?” Or something like that. Sarah was having a hard time translating, since she could barely translate her own thoughts.

  “Go get ’em, guys!” Mr. G said. “I’ll be in the back watching, okay?” Sarah nodded numbly, and then all four of them got up. The walk to the place in front of the judges was the longest walk Sarah had ever taken.

  Finally, Sarah, Olive, Peter, and Lizzie stood in front of the three judges. Their creation sat in front of them, big and beautiful. Sarah could feel herself start to relax. They’d made a really cool sundae. Now they just needed to explain why.

  “Hello, contestants,” said one of the judges, a dark-haired woman with kind eyes. “I do think you are the youngest contestants we have!” She smiled at each one of them.

  The woman in the middle, who seemed very business-y, said, “Yes, you are the youngest. What do you have for us today?” The other judge, a man who looked a lot like Mr. Garrison, stayed silent.

  Sarah cleared her throat. It was now or never. If they could just convince the judges that they deserved to win. They’d worked hard and worked together. The way friends did.

  She began. “Um, hi. So, we want to introduce ourselves and tell you about us. Because we think we made something special here, because each of us is special.”

  Olive jumped in as they’d practiced. “And when you put us all together, you get something extraordinary.”

  Peter said, “It might seem like these things don’t go together.”

  And Lizzie finished the introduction: “But we found out that the best sundae of all is one that includes flavors and toppings that bring out the best in the rest of the sundae.”

  Sarah took over. She pointed to Lizzie. “This is Lizzie. Her family has owned an apple orchard for at least two hundred years. And Lizzie and I have been friends since we were babies. See, the orchard has always been a home to me, and Lizzie has always been my best friend. And this year, we got to be in charge of the ice cream stand, but only because Lizzie’s sister and her best friend had a falling-out. And then we got some good news: if we made enough money, then we could make a zombie hayride for the fall. I couldn’t wait! Because I was afraid that Lizzie and I would have a falling-out like her sister and her best friend. And zombies were something we loved together.” She looked at Peter and Olive and smiled at them. “But then Olive and Peter came, and at the beginning, I thought they’d ruined everything.”

  Lizzie picked up the story. “Sarah has always been really kind to others and has always made sure people are nice to each other. She’s beaten people up because of it!” Sarah saw one of the judges smile and look down. “But all of a sudden, she started acting funny. I couldn’t understand why she was acting like that and it hurt me to see her hurt. And to see her be different than how I know she is. Especially because Peter and Olive are so great! I didn’t know she was worried about our friendship. She let that take over everything and she was missing out on making two new friends. And being mean to them in the process.”

  Olive continued: “Peter and I are here because our dad is on a sabbatical and doing a study of the orchard and our other dad is going to work on sculptures. We were SO NERVOUS to leave everything here in Boston and go to such a small town. We knew we wouldn’t know anyone. We’d miss our friends and all the stuff we like to do in Boston. We would have to go to a new school in the fall. So when our dads came in and said they’d met the orchard people and that there were kids for us to meet and hang out with all summer, we were really excited. But then we met Sarah and Lizzie, and it seemed like they didn’t want us there. Or like Sarah didn’t, anyway.”

  Peter went on, “I don’t talk a lot. And with Sarah I didn’t talk at al
l.”

  Sarah jumped in. “But then my mom talked to me about being good to people who are new, because it’s hard. My mom’s parents were new to America, and they met not-nice people and nice people. So then I realized I was being a not-nice person. That I was letting my fears take over, like my mom would have said. And most of all that I wasn’t losing Lizzie—I was gaining two awesome new friends.” She looked at them and smiled, a real, big, goofy smile. “Together we make a really good team. We may be different, or not like the same things, but when you put everything all together . . .”

  Lizzie, Olive, Peter, and Sarah said at the same time, as they’d practiced over and over: “YOU GET SOMETHING AWESOME.”

  The judges all smiled, and Sarah thought she heard Mr. G sniff in the back. She had to admit, even she felt a little emotional, and it was her own story!

  Lizzie said, “So, in this sundae, you have one tower of real vanilla ice cream topped with cookie crumbles.”

  Olive said, “And one tower of Neapolitan ice cream with candied almonds on top.”

  Peter said, “And one tower of eight different ice creams topped with Swedish Fish.”

  Sarah said, “And one tower of bubble gum ice cream with gummy worms and Skittles.”

  “All covered in whipped cream,” Olive said, smiling big.

  “Yep!” said Lizzie. “We all agreed on the whipped cream.”

  “And the cherry on top,” Peter said.

  “But wait! There’s more!” Sarah went up to the creation and turned the plate toward her. There the button that Peter and Olive had planted showed. Sarah pushed it and waited.

  For a second, nothing happened. Then chocolate syrup started coming up through the middle of all the towers and flowing over.

  Peter beamed. “We made a volcano mechanism for this. So this is molten fudge!”

  The judges all laughed. Sarah turned off the button so the fudge wouldn’t drip over the plate.

  “And what do you call this creation?” the judge with the kind eyes asked.

  Sarah looked at Olive and nodded. Olive said, “We call it ‘Ice Cream Summers Make the Best Friends.’ ”