Mackenzie Blue

by Tina Wells

  8

  Party Time

  Hi, New Diary,

  I know what you’re thinking—that I’ve given up on finding Old Diary. I haven’t. Until I find Old Diary, I need a place to keep everything I write. You’re it. So I decorated a binder with lots of numbers and squiggly symbols and equations. Then I wrote “Math” on it—just in case. (Who would want to snoop in my math binder?)

  It’s been ten days since someone wrote that embarrassing message on Mr. P’s board. (But who’s counting?) No one has brought it up since then, but I can’t help but wonder why. Here’s what I’ve come up with:

  1. Whoever did it didn’t get the reaction they wanted. (That’s what my mom thinks.)

  2. No one took my diary and the note was just a coincidence. (Too much to hope for?)

  3. I have a fairy godmother who cast a spell over Brookdale Academy and made everyone forget everything. (Waaaayyyy too much to hope for.)

  Actually I’ve got more important things to worry about. Like Teen Sing. Mr. P has been helping me with my audition. My song sounds AMAZING! At first, I was playing like I was making a CD—kind of boring. He gave me tips on singing for an audience, which he knows all about since he’s in a band. (Which he still doesn’t know I know.)

  Tonight is Marcus’s party. I know it’s going to be awesome. Because Landon will be there! Do you think he’ll ask me to dance? I know…dream on. Maybe I’ll ask him to dance. Uhhhhh…never mind. (I’m too chicken.)

  Cluck cluck,

  Zee

  Ding-dong.

  “I’ve got it!” Zee yelled, bounding down the stairs to answer her front door. Chloe stood on the other side, wearing a cool red hoodie over a white T-shirt with a pair of gray capri pants. She had a red bandana tied on top of her head. It was the first time that Zee had seen her friend in something besides her school uniform. Chloe’s clothes were plainer than what Zee liked to wear, but Chloe’s sporty style looked great on her. Zee still hadn’t decided what she was going to wear to Marcus’s.

  “Crisis!” Zee said, grabbing Chloe’s arm. She dragged her friend upstairs to her bedroom, where it looked like a dresser had exploded. About ten different outfits lay across the bed, chair, and desk. Zee picked one up. “What do you think?”

  Chloe looked around at the room. Posters of Zee’s favorite band—The Jonas Brothers—covered the peach walls. One of them was actually signed in bold black marker,

  Zee, keep on rockin’!

  Nick.

  Chloe’s jaw dropped. Before she could say anything, Zee said, “You’re right—this outfit is all wrong.” Zee scooped shirts, skirts, pants, leggings, and dresses in her arms and tossed them in a heap on the chair in the corner.

  “The Jonas Brothers is my favorite band, too! I can’t believe—” Chloe started to say, but Zee had already stepped into her closet and started all over again. She had to choose the perfect party outfit. Landon would be there.

  Zee slid hangers across the closet rod, rejecting some clothes—too frilly, too plain, too much—and tossing others into the maybe pile on her bed. “Have you been to the mall yet?” she asked Chloe as she searched.

  “No,” Chloe said. “My mom’s crazy with a big case. As soon as she wins it—which she will since she always does—she’s gonna take me.”

  “You can go with my mom and me if you want. There is the most amazing store there. I practically live in it. I mean…not when it’s closed…and actually I’m here now, so I’m not there all the time, but I really like it.” Zee exited the closet to dig through the top drawer of the dresser and look for her peach tank top. She knew she’d put it in there the day before. “My mom and I always get a Frappuccino before we come home.”

  Chloe licked her lips. “Yum,” she said as Zee triumphantly pulled the shirt out of the drawer.

  “You’re going to love Brookdale,” Zee told her. “I do.” Zee zipped past the stack of clothes on her bed and over to her closet. “Where did I put that dress?” she mumbled, then got down on her hands and knees to search the closet floor. “Am I talking a lot again?”

  “Uh-huh,” Chloe said. “But I don’t have any brothers or sisters, so I don’t mind a teeny bit.”

  Zee slowly got up with the dress she was looking for clutched in her hand. The ball of blue-green-and-purple-striped fabric slowly unrolled. “Awesome!” Chloe’s face lit up as the dress fell to knee length, revealing thin blue straps at the top.

  Zee quickly pulled on the tank top and dived into the dress. Her arms grabbed and flailed as the loose material wrapped around her and she searched for the hole to stick her head through.

  “Is that a tattoo?” Chloe asked.

  “What?” Zee asked.

  “By your elbow. It looks like a heart.”

  Zee’s head popped out of the top of the dress. “It’s my birthmark.”

  “You were born with a heart-shaped birthmark? That is so awesome.”

  “Yeah, I’m lucky it looks like a heart instead of a skull and crossbones.”

  Chloe laughed. “Speaking of hearts,” she began slowly, “I think Jasper likes you.”

  Zee tripped on a pair of pants that was lying on the floor, and she nearly fell on her face. “No way,” she protested. “We’re just friends.”

  “Okay. Whatever you say,” Chloe said skeptically and rushed to the sink in the bathroom connected to Zee’s bedroom. Her eyes widened as she looked at the plastic bins lined up on the counter. “Wow! Do your parents buy you all this makeup?” she asked.

  “No, that’s stuff my dad gets for free at his office. He works at Gala.”

  “The magazine?” Chloe asked. Zee nodded. “Do you get to meet lots of celebrities?”

  “Sometimes—like at a movie premiere or something. Mostly I just get free stuff nobody else wants. The makeup’s just for fun anyway. I’m not even allowed to wear it to school.”

  Chloe picked up a tube of lipstick. “Can you wear it tonight?”

  “According to my father, I can as long as I don’t look like a clown,” Zee said.

  “But that’s such an awesome look,” Chloe joked. She popped the lid off the lipstick and twisted it so that the rose sunset tip peeked out. “Pucker up. I promise you won’t look like a clown.”

  Zee stuck out her lips so Chloe could apply the color. Then she studied herself in the mirror. “My mom said she’d do my makeup for the Teen Sing audition.”

  “Your mom must be amazing. I don’t think mine will ever let me wear makeup—except maybe on my wedding day.” Chloe snapped the cap back on the tube. “I’m not sure I really want to wear it anyway. Some companies use animals to test makeup.”

  “But animals don’t wear makeup!” Zee exclaimed. “Except maybe the ones on TV and in movies.”

  Chloe laughed. “You’re so funny, Zee.”

  Zee giggled—even though she hadn’t meant to make a joke. “Why do they test on animals anyway?” she asked.

  “Some companies use animals to make sure their products won’t hurt humans,” Chloe explained. “But other companies get the same information without using animals.”

  “So why would you hurt animals if you don’t have to?” asked Zee.

  “That’s exactly my point!” Chloe said, nodding enthusiastically. “Companies also put animal ingredients in makeup sometimes. Like, I bet this lipstick has cow parts in it.”

  “Yuck!” Zee squealed, wiping her lips with the back of her hand and making a pppppft pppppft sound as she tried to get the lipstick off her lips.

  “I know,” Chloe drawled, then quickly added, “Not all of them do it though.”

  “Next time I go to my dad’s office, I’ll definitely bring you, too, so you can help me pick out the makeup that doesn’t have weird stuff in it.”

  “Wouldn’t it be so cool if we made our own line of animal-friendly cosmetics?” Chloe said, searching through Zee’s basket of eye shadow.

  “Chlo-Zee’s!” Zee suggested.

  “Oh my gosh! That’s so awesome,�
�� Chloe agreed.

  The doorbell rang. “Jasper!” the girls exclaimed and headed toward Zee’s bedroom door. Mr. Carmichael was going to take the three of them over to Marcus’s house.

  “I’ll get it!” Zee shouted down to the first floor.

  “Incoming!” Zee’s father yelled as she practically flew downstairs, with Chloe close behind.

  “Hi, Dad!” Zee said, shooting past her father. “This is Chloe.”

  “Hello, Mr. Carmichael,” Chloe said, stopping in front of him.

  “It’s nice to—” Zee grabbed her friend by the arm and pulled her toward the door. “—errr…was nice to meet you,” Mr. Carmichael said.

  Zee opened the door. Jasper stood there with an eager smile on his face. “I’m ready for my first American party.”

  “Come on in,” Zee told Jasper. As usual, he was wearing a collared short-sleeve button-down shirt neatly tucked into his belted tan chino pants. “I’ll give you ten dollars if you pull out the tail of your shirt.”

  “No, thank you,” Jasper replied casually. “I like it this way. It’s how I always dress for parties.”

  “Yes, but when in Rome…,” Zee said.

  “We’re not in Rome,” Jasper pointed out. “We’re in Brookdale.”

  “Are you guys ready to go?” Mr. Carmichael asked.

  Zee looked at him as though he had just grown a horn right in the middle of his forehead. “It’s way too early.”

  “But it’s five o’clock. The party’s starting now.”

  “Right. We don’t want to be the first ones. We can go in thirty minutes,” Zee told him.

  “Okay, but I need to take you then. Believe it or not, I have my own life to live and I’d like to get on with it sometime tonight.”

  Chloe giggled as Mr. Carmichael left the room. “Your dad is funny.”

  Zee gave Chloe a sideways look. “Please don’t ever tell him that. It’ll only make him harder to live with.”

  “I heard that!” Zee’s dad called from the other room. “And thanks, Chloe.”

  “My pleasure, Mr. Carmichael.”

  “Let’s go to the TV room,” Zee said, “before Chloe gets dragged farther over to the dark side.”

  Chloe followed, walking stiffly with her arms out straight. “Errrrg. Arrrr.” She sounded like a zombie with a Southern accent.

  “So have you guys decided what you’re going to do for your science project?” Zee asked.

  Chloe looked at Jasper. Jasper looked at Chloe. Neither one looked at Zee. Finally Chloe said, “We’ve decided not to tell anyone.”

  “Oh,” Zee said, completely surprised. Her new friends had a secret—and they didn’t want to tell her.

  “It’s just that we’re still working on it and might change our minds,” Jasper explained. He nervously picked up the remote control and pointed it at the television. “I need to check the football—uh…soccer—score,” he said, pushing buttons.

  “Do you play?” Chloe asked.

  “No, but I’m a huge fan of Manchester United.”

  “Did you ever see David Beckham when he played for them?” Zee asked Jasper. The only thing she knew about soccer was that David Beckham was the cutest player. Ever. In the history of the sport. But Zee was feeling left out. So maybe talking about sports would help her fit in.

  “No, but I can’t wait to go to a Galaxy game and watch him,” Jasper said.

  “Me, too!” Chloe jumped in. “That’s the most awesome part of living near Los Angeles.”

  Zee could think of ten (maybe one hundred) other things that were more awesome about living near LA—like Beverly Hills boutiques, the downtown shopping district’s sample sales, celebrity sightings, the rides on Santa Monica Pier, the beach, and constant sunshine. But she didn’t want to highlight the fact that she had no interest in Chloe’s and Jasper’s favorite sport.

  Mrs. Carmichael entered the room with a big tray of snacks. “Don’t mind me,” she told them. “I just didn’t want you to get hungry before the party.”

  “Thank you, Mrs. Carmichael!” Jasper said.

  “Oh, you’re welcome, Jasper,” Zee’s mom gushed, setting the tray on the table before she left the room.

  “So spill. What’s the scoop on the seventh-grade boys?” Chloe asked, plopping herself down on the couch so hard she bounced up and down. “Who’s hot and who’s not?”

  “Definitely time for me to watch the telly,” Jasper said.

  “Yeah, we’ve already got you figured out,” Chloe told him.

  “Undoubtedly,” Jasper said, turning to face the TV.

  “Is that how everyone talks in England?” Chloe asked. Zee sometimes wondered about that, too. With his books and clothes, Jasper wasn’t like the other seventh-grade boys. And she had never had a friend who was so different from her. He was quiet, and she was talkative. He spoke like a professor, and she sounded like a student. He dressed to hide in a crowd. She stood out. But they were great friends.

  “So how about the guys?” Chloe coaxed.

  “They’re okay,” Zee said, trying to sound casual. “Marcus is really cool.”

  “What about his best friend, Landon?” Chloe asked. “He’s cute.”

  Zee’s water shot out of her mouth like a Super Soaker.

  “Nice!” Jasper said sarcastically, sounding just like a seventh grader.

  “What was that about?” Chloe asked.

  “Nothing,” Zee said quickly. “It just went down the wrong way.”

  “Looks like it didn’t go down at all,” Jasper said. “I’m glad I got out of the line of fire—mostly.” He wiped water droplets off his clothes.

  “Landon’s nice.” Zee tried to sound cool. Chloe was getting to be a good friend, but Zee wasn’t ready to tell her about her crush on Landon. She hadn’t even told Jasper yet.

  Zee’s brother looked in the room. “Adam!” she shouted enthusiastically, hoping to change the subject. She waved her hand in the air. “Come on in!”

  With a suspicious look on his face, Adam took a step forward. “Looks like you’ve survived the first couple of weeks of seventh grade,” he said to the threesome. “I guess the eighth graders decided to go easy on you.”

  “Ohmylanta!” Zee groaned. “Yes, your predictions that we’d get flushed down a toilet haven’t come true.”

  “Give it time,” he warned them. “The worst is probably still coming.”

  “What do you mean?” Chloe asked.

  “When I was an eighth grader, we took the seventh graders’ clothes out of their gym lockers and put them in the courtyard.”

  “Do Mom and Dad know?” Zee asked.

  “No—just like they don’t know you’re the one who tried to play a piece of cheese in the DVD player.”

  “Good point,” Zee said. “But I think that if the eighth graders had something planned, they would have done it by now.”

  Adam pulled his car keys out of his pocket and headed out of the room. “Fine—don’t believe me,” he called behind him. “But don’t come crying to me when you need help. I’m outta here.” His voice trailed off as he disappeared from sight.

  Chloe turned to Zee with wide eyes. “That’s it!”

  “What’s it?” Zee asked.

  “You kinda were tortured—by the note on the music room board,”

  Chloe pointed out. “Maybe an eighth grader did it.”

  “Maybe an eighth grader took your diary,” Jasper added.

  Were Adam’s stories about eighth-grade torture real? Zee had figured her brother was just messing with her. But Chloe and Jasper made a lot of sense.

  Chloe sprang out of her seat. “I have to go to the bathroom,” she explained as she headed toward the stairs.

  “You can use the one down here,” Zee told her.

  Chloe kept moving in the same direction. “I already know where yours is,” she said. “I’ll be right back.”

  While Chloe was gone, Mr. Carmichael came into the room and announced that it was time to go. “Any
one who’s not ready will have to stay here and cook me dinner.”

  “I’ll let Chloe know!” Zee volunteered. As she climbed the steps to the second floor hallway, she heard a door shut. She figured Chloe was on her way downstairs. But when Zee turned the corner into her room, Chloe was standing in the middle of it, looking confused and flustered, and the bathroom door wasn’t shut. That’s weird, Zee thought. “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “Oh…just getting my stuff. Woo-hoo! Let’s party!” Chloe said. The girls grabbed their swim bags—complete with suits and towels—ready to have fun.

  9

  Text Trouble

  “Cannonball!” A blur raced down the diving board and bounced off the end. Boing! Splash! Zee was standing too close to the pool and now her bathing suit, a periwinkle-colored bikini with white embroidered flowers, was wet.

  Jasper popped out from behind Zee, where he had ducked for cover. “My hero,” Zee said sarcastically.

  “I’m not wearing a swimming costume,” Jasper said defensively.

  “What’s a swimming costume?” Chloe asked. She was wearing shorts over a one-piece with a bold red-and-blue tie-dye sunburst.

  “It’s a bathing suit,” Zee said.

  Jasper smiled sheepishly. “I didn’t expect to have to learn a new language when I moved here.”

  The party was even better than Zee had imagined. Kids were swarming everywhere, eating burgers, playing video games on the biggest TV Zee had ever seen, and even shooting hoops on the Montgomerys’ indoor basketball court.

  Chloe grabbed Jasper’s arm and pulled him away from the side of the pool. “Come on!” she said, wiggling her hips. “Loosen up.”

  Zee, Chloe, and Jasper had been hanging out on the patio, listening to the band. Chloe hadn’t stopped dancing since they’d gotten there.

  Jasper moved his head up and down like a bobblehead doll. “I am quite loose.”

  Zee tilted her head sideways to study him. “This is pretty loose for him,” she told Chloe.