Being a good friend isn’t always easy.
Alice, Pamela, and Elizabeth have been best friends forever, but being a good friend can still be complicated. They know one another so well—shouldn’t they be beyond misunderstandings and hurt feelings?
And then there’s Patrick, who suddenly reappears in Alice’s life after ending their relationship two years earlier. Not only does he call out of the blue—but he wants to take her to senior prom. What’s that about?
As Alice tries to juggle her friends, Patrick, and school, the unthinkable happens—and Alice discovers that sometimes friends need you more than they let on.
SHARE THE UPS AND DOWNS IN THE LIVES OF ALICE McKINLEY AND HER FRIENDS.
Look inside for a complete list of the Alice books.
SIMON PULSE
Simon & Schuster, New York
Cover photograph copyright © 2008 by Photodisc/Veer
0609
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TEEN.SimonandSchuster.com
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor is the author of more than 135 books for both children and adults, including the Alice series, hailed by Entertainment Weekly as “tender” and “wonderful,” and by Booklist as “a road map for a girl growing up today.” She includes many of her own growing-up experiences in the Alice books. Phyllis lives with her husband, Rex, in Gaithersburg, Maryland. She is the mother of two grown sons and the grandmother of Sophia, Tressa, Garrett, and Beckett.
Almost Alice
Books by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Shiloh Books
Shiloh
Shiloh Season
Saving Shiloh
The Alice Books
Starting with Alice
Alice in Blunderland
Lovingly Alice
The Agony of Alice
Alice in Rapture, Sort of
Reluctantly Alice
All But Alice
Alice in April
Alice In-Between
Alice the Brave
Alice in Lace
Outrageously Alice
Achingly Alice
Alice on the Outside
The Grooming of Alice
Alice Alone
Simply Alice
Patiently Alice
Including Alice
Alice on Her Way
Alice in the Know
Dangerously Alice
Almost Alice
Intensely Alice
The Bernie Magruder Books
Bernie Magruder and the Case of the Big Stink
Bernie Magruder and the Disappearing Bodies
Bernie Magruder and the Haunted Hotel
Bernie Magruder and the Drive-thru Funeral Parlor
Bernie Magruder and the Bus Station Blowup
Bernie Magruder and the Pirate’s Treasure
Bernie Magruder and the Parachute Peril
Bernie Magruder and the Bats in the Belfry
The Cat Pack Books
The Grand Escape
The Healing of Texas Jake
Carlotta’s Kittens
Polo’s Mother
The York Trilogy
Shadows on the Wall
Faces in the Water
Footprints at the Window
The Witch Books
Witch’s Sister
Witch Water
The Witch Herself
The Witch’s Eye
Witch Weed
The Witch Returns
Picture Books
King of the Playground
The Boy with the Helium Head
Old Sadie and the Christmas Bear
Keeping a Christmas Secret
Ducks Disappearing
I Can’t Take You Anywhere
Sweet Strawberries
Please DO Feed the Bears
Books for Young Readers
Josie’s Troubles
How Lazy Can You Get?
All Because I’m Older
Maudie in the Middle
One of the Third-Grade Thonkers
Roxie and the Hooligans
Books for Middle Readers
Walking Through the Dark
How I Came to Be a Writer
Eddie, Incorporated
The Solomon System
The Keeper
Beetles, Lightly Toasted
The Fear Place
Being Danny’s Dog
Danny’s Desert Rats
Walker’s Crossing
Books for Older Readers
A String of Chances
Night Cry
The Dark of the Tunnel
The Year of the Gopher
Send No Blessings
Ice
Sang Spell
Jade Green
Blizzard’s Wake
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
SIMON PULSE
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
Copyright © 2008 by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
SIMON PULSE and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Also available in an Atheneum Books for Young Readers hardcover edition.
Designed by Ann Zeak
The text of this book was set in Berkeley Old Style.
First Simon Pulse paperback edition June 2009
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows: Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds.
Almost Alice / Phyllis Reynolds Naylor—1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: In the second semester of her junior year of high school, Alice gets back together with her old boyfriend Patrick, gets a promotion on the student newspaper, and remains a reliable, trusted friend.
ISBN: 978-0689-87096-5 (hc)
[1. Friendship—Fiction. 2. High schools—Fiction. 3. Schools—Fiction. 4. Identity—Fiction.]
I. Title.
PZ7.N24Aln 2008
[Fic]—dc22
2007037457
ISBN: 978-0-689-87097-2 (pbk)
ISBN 13: 978-1-4169-9501-2 (ebook)
To our granddaughter Tressa, with love
Almost Alice
Contents
Chapter One: The Trouble with Sadie
Chapter Two: Making the Call
Chapter Three: Yo Te Quiero
Chapter Four: Suggestions
Chapter Five: Stupefyin’ Jones
Chapter Six: Intimate Conversation
Chapter Seven: Pushing Pamela
Chapter Eight: Murder in the Mansion
Chapter Nine: Moving On
Chapter Ten: Promotion
Chapter Eleven: The Performing Arts
Chapter Twelve: 911
Chapter Thirteen: Out on the Town
Chapter Fourteen: The Diner with David
Chapter Fifteen: Waiting
Chapter Sixteen: Tears
Chapter Seventeen: The Bus to Somewhere
Chapter Eighteen: Finale
1
The Trouble with Sadie
It had to be in person, and they all had to be there.
Gwen was at a meeting over the lunch period, so I couldn’t tell them then. I waited till we went to Starbucks after school before I made the announcement:
“Patrick asked me to the prom.”
Two seconds of silence were fol
lowed by shrieks of disbelief and excitement:
“Five months in advance? Patrick?”
“You’re kidding me!”
“When?”
“Yesterday.” I was grinning uncontrollably and couldn’t help myself. “He called. We talked.”
“He called. You talked. What is this? Shorthand?” Gwen demanded. “Girl, we want details!”
“Wait! Hold it!” said Pamela. She jumped up, went to the counter, and bought a huge cup of whipped cream, then liberally doused each of our lattes to celebrate.
“Now dish!” she said.
“Well, I was just hanging out in my room, getting my stuff ready for school, when I heard the phone ring.”
“He didn’t call you on your cell?”
“I’m not sure he knows the number.”
“I’d think he would have had it programmed in!”
“It’s been two years,” I told them, working hard to defend him. Defend whatever there was between us, though I didn’t know myself.
Liz rested her chin in her hands. When she looks at you through half-closed eyes, you realize just how long and thick her eyelashes are—longer than any girl’s lashes have a right to be. “Oh, Alice, you and Patrick!” She sighed. “I knew you’d get back together. It’s in the stars.”
Gwen, the scientist, rolled her eyes. She was looking especially attractive, her hair in a new style of cornrows that made a geometric pattern on top of her head. The gold rings on one brown finger matched the design of her earrings, and she was definitely the most sophisticated-looking of the four of us. She was also the only one who had visited three colleges so far and who had even picked up scholarship forms. “How long did you guys go together, anyway?” she asked.
“I guess it was about eighth grade that I really started liking him. The summer before eighth through the fall of ninth grade.” I was embarrassed suddenly that I remembered this so precisely, as though it were always there at the front of my consciousness. “We actually met in sixth, but sixth-grade boyfriends aren’t much to brag about.”
“He did have his goofy side,” Pamela agreed. “Remember that hot day at Mark’s pool when you fell asleep on the picnic table? And Patrick placed two lemon halves on your breasts for a minute?”
“What?” Gwen shrieked.
“Yes, and when I woke up, everyone was grinning and no one would tell me what happened. And I couldn’t figure out what those two little wet spots were on the front of my T-shirt. Like I was nursing or something!”
We yelped with laughter.
I continued. “And the year he gave me an heirloom bracelet for my birthday that turned out to be his mom’s, because she didn’t wear it anymore.”
“I never heard that one,” said Liz.
“And Mrs. Long had to call me and ask for it back,” I said. We laughed some more. I wondered if I was being disloyal, telling all this. That was the old Patrick. The kid. That was then, and this was now.
“So what attracted you to him in the first place?” asked Gwen. “Besides the fact that he’s a tall, smart, broad-shouldered redhead? I wasn’t in on that early history.”
“Well, he wasn’t always as tall or broad-shouldered,” I said. “I guess it’s because he’s the most motivated, focused, organized person I ever met. His dad’s a diplomat, and they’ve lived in Japan, Germany, Spain.… In some ways, he’s a man of the world.”
“And then he falls for Penny, the jerk,” said Pamela. “I’m glad that’s over.”
I saw three pair of eyes dart in my direction to see how I was taking that, then look away. Wondering if I’d cry myself sick again if things didn’t work out this time with Patrick. I remembered Elizabeth’s organizing a suicide watch when Patrick and I broke up, so that a friend called every quarter of an hour to see if I was okay. I tried not to smile.
“Well,” I said flippantly, “a lot can happen in the next five months. You know how everything else comes before fun where Patrick is concerned. And I didn’t say we were back together. I just said we were going to the prom.”
“But this is his prom, and then you can invite him back for yours!” said Liz excitedly, since Patrick’s in an accelerated program that gets him through high school in three years.
“Yeah, and with two prom nights to make out, you know what that means,” said Pamela.
“Will you stop?” I said.
To some girls, a prom means you’re a serious couple. To some, it’s the main event of high school. To some, it’s the biggest chance in your life, next to getting married, to show off. And to some girls, it means going all the way.
“Well, I’m glad for you,” said Gwen. “But I hope we don’t have to talk prom for the next five months.”
“Promise,” I said.
“Some couples were just meant to be,” Pamela said. “Jill and Justin, for example. They’ve been going out forever.”
“What about you and Tim?” I asked. Tim had taken her to the Snow Ball last fall. A really nice guy.
“Could be!” said Pamela.
“So are you going to ask him to the Sadie Hawkins Day dance?” asked Gwen.
“I already have,” Pamela told us, and grinned. Then she turned serious again. “Patrick better come through this time, Alice. He owes you big time.”
If my friends didn’t quite know what to make of Patrick, neither did I. I’d always thought of him as special somehow, but … My first boyfriend? More than that. Patrick was someone with a future, and I didn’t know if I was part of that or not. Or wanted to be.
But you can analyze a good thing to death, so I decided to take it at face value: He really, really liked me and couldn’t think of anyone he’d rather take to the prom. Now enjoy it, I told myself.
Our house was a mess. Dad and Sylvia were having the place remodeled, with a new addition on the back. Their bedroom, the kitchen, and the dining room were sealed off with heavy vinyl sheets so that dust and cold wouldn’t get through. Their bed had been taken apart and stood against one wall in the upstairs hallway. The rest of their furniture was pushed into Lester’s old bedroom, where they were sleeping, and their clothes were piled all over the place in my room. Downstairs, the dining-room furniture had been moved into the living room along with the refrigerator and microwave, and the construction crew had fashioned a sink with hot and cold running water next to the fridge. We ate our meals on paper plates, sitting in the only available chairs, knees touching.
“Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to stay in the house during remodeling,” Dad said that weekend when we didn’t think we could swallow one more bite of Healthy Choice or Lean Cuisine.
“But think of all the money we’re saving by not living in a hotel!” said Sylvia. “The foreman said that if we can put up with painters and carpenters doing the finishing touches, we might be able to move into the new addition by the middle of March.”
Fortunately for us, the construction company had another contract for an expensive project starting April 1, and had doubled the workforce at our place to finish by then.
Dad was at the Melody Inn seven days a week, Sylvia was teaching, and I was at school, so we didn’t have to listen to all the pounding.
Lester came over one night and took us out to dinner.
“Hey,” I said over my crab cake, “why don’t we move in with Lester for the duration?”
He gave me a look. “Don’t even think it,” he said. “I’m surviving on five hours of sleep a night while I finish my thesis.”
“Oh, Les!” Sylvia said sympathetically.
“You need to get some exercise,” Dad told him.
“I run to Starbucks and back,” Les said.
“But … you’re not seeing anyone at all?” I asked.
“Not much,” said Les.
It was hard to imagine, but somehow I believed him. Les had made up his mind to graduate, and he was hitting the books.
“What about that girl you were going out with at Christmas?” I asked him.
“It’
s over,” said Les.
“Already?” exclaimed Dad.
“Too high maintenance,” Les told us. “All she wanted to do was party, and I can’t afford the time. So I’ve sworn off women till after I graduate.”
That was even more difficult to imagine, but I felt real sympathy for my twenty-four-year-old brother right then. I decided that somehow, sometime around Valentine’s Day, I … or Liz and I … or Liz and Pamela and I … or Liz and Pam and Gwen and I were going to plan a surprise for Lester. I just didn’t know what.
Patrick has called me twice since New Year’s Day, when he invited me to the prom. He didn’t call to chat, exactly. He either had something to tell me or a question to ask. You could say he’s all business, but that wouldn’t be true, because he has a good sense of humor and there’s a gentleness that I like too. I just wish he were more accessible. He runs his life like a railroad—always busy, always going somewhere, getting somewhere.
But there was a lot more to think about during the second semester of my junior year. The SATs, for one. I decided that January would probably be my least hectic month, so I’d take the test on January 26, then take it again later if I bombed the first time. Getting my braces off was item number two. I also wanted to spend more time with our friend Molly Brennan, who’s getting treated for leukemia, and to persuade Pamela, if possible, to audition for the spring musical, Guys and Dolls. I’d signed up for stage crew once again.
Tim Moss was doing a lot for Pamela’s self-confidence. Pamela’s pretty, she’s got a good voice, and has a great body. But ever since her mom deserted the family a few years ago and ran off with a boyfriend, Pamela’s self-esteem has been down in her socks. Lately, though, now that her mom’s back and living in an apartment alone, Pamela’s seemed a little more like her old self, and once she started going out with Tim, she really perked up.
Sylvia, my stepmom, said that one way to tell if a guy is right for you is if he wants what’s best for you, encourages your talents, and—at the same time—has a good sense of self and where his life is going. She was speaking about my dad and her decision to marry him when she said that, but I think Tim Moss would just about get an A on all three.
“Go for it,” Tim told Pamela when we were talking about the musical the other night.
Almost Alice Page 1
