Take Charge

by Melody Carlson

  “I know,” said Morgan. “Really, it’s no big deal. Just chill, Carlie.”

  “Okay … ”

  Then Morgan waded out through the breaking waves until it got deep and she started to swim. Carlie followed her lead, watching as the other three girls slowly made their way over to the edge of the water. Soon all five of them were swimming and splashing in the waves, and Carlie told herself that whatever had happened back at Chelsea’s house wasn’t a big deal. Carlie had probably just made too much of it. She should take Morgan’s advice and just chill.

  Two pizzas had already arrived by the time the girls got back. Fortunately, Maria had put them in the oven to stay warm. The girls all jumped into the pool to rinse off the salt water and then sat around the deck munching on pizza and drinking soda. The dip in the ocean seemed to have cooled everyone off. And Carlie decided that her worries about Chelsea were probably silly. Even so, she was relieved when it was 4:30 and time to go home.

  The girls all thanked Chelsea and her mother for everything, and Morgan invited Chelsea to come spend the day with them sometime.

  “You can see our clubhouse and our beach,” she said with a smile.

  “How about tomorrow?” asked Chelsea.

  Morgan looked slightly surprised. “It works for me,” she said, glancing at the others.

  “I’ll be around until three,” said Amy. She frowned. “Then I have to go work at the restaurant. Friday is one of its busy nights.”

  “I’m always around,” said Emily.

  “I’ll be free,” said Carlie. “Unless I have to babysit. But Mom hasn’t mentioned it.”

  “So tomorrow then?” said Chelsea.

  “Come in the morning,” said Amy eagerly. “So I’ll have more time to spend with you before I have to leave.”

  “How about ten-ish?” asked Chelsea.

  “Sounds great,” said Morgan with a bright smile.

  As they rode home, Carlie wondered if Morgan was as happy as she acted about tomorrow’s plans. But Carlie wouldn’t question her. She sensed that she’d already offended Morgan by being too concerned about Chelsea’s behavior today. Besides, Morgan was a strong person. She could speak up if she needed to. Even so, Carlie felt guilty as she went into her house. It seemed that her connection to Chelsea could go either way. Why did it have to get so complicated?

  “Friend trouble?” asked Tia Maria as Carlie walked through the kitchen.

  “What?” asked Mom with a concerned frown.

  “Our Carlie is such a popular girl,” said her aunt with a wink. “I think some of her friends are fighting over her now.”

  “Not really,” said Carlie, wondering where her aunt was getting her information or, rather, misinformation.

  “Just be good to your friends,” said Mom, “and they will be good to you.”

  Carlie nodded, telling herself that her mom didn’t understand either. If only it was that simple. “I’m going to dump my stuff in my room,” she said, eager to escape their weird comments.

  “Rinse the chlorine out of your swimsuit before you hang it to dry,” warned Mom.

  Carlie was barely in her room when she heard the phone ringing.

  “It’s Chelsea Landers,” said Mom, handing her the cordless phone. “Keep it short. Your dad is supposed to call soon.”

  “Hi, Chelsea,” said Carlie without much enthusiasm. “I’m sorry,” began Chelsea. “I made a complete mess of things today, didn’t I?”

  “Oh, I don’t know … ”

  “Yes, you do too know. And I totally did. I stuck my foot in my mouth again. I offended Morgan. And I probably offended you too. I’m such a social freak sometimes.”

  Suddenly Carlie felt sorry for Chelsea. “No, you’re not. It’s just that you don’t know my friends very well … and then you sometimes talk without thinking.”

  “I know. I know. It’s that old no-impulse-control thing. I’m such a loser, Carlie. I’ll probably totally bomb at school. Oh, help me, please. Please!”

  “Look, I’m not supposed to be on the phone too long. My dad’s going to call and —”

  “You don’t have call waiting?”

  “No.” Carlie took in a quick breath. Did Chelsea think everyone was made of money? “But listen, Chelsea, just try to chill, okay? When you come here tomorrow, don’t try so hard with my friends. And don’t turn everything into a stupid fight, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “And just be yourself, Chelsea. I mean, you’re a cool girl and I do like you. But you can come on kinda strong sometimes. Just try to relax and it’ll probably go okay.”

  “Okay.”

  “Now I gotta go.”

  “Thanks, Carlie. You’re my best friend.”

  “What about Audrey?”

  “Well, she used to be my best friend. But, as you know, that’s all over with. Now you’re my best friend. Is that okay with you?”

  “Sure,” said Carlie. She wanted to reassure Chelsea that she was her best friend too, but somehow she couldn’t bring herself to say those words just yet. “See ya tomorrow, okay?”

  “Okay. And I promise to behave better.”

  Carlie laughed. “Well, don’t be too good. That’d be boring, not to mention weird.”

  She hung up the phone and went outside to water her garden. It was weird thinking that Chelsea considered her to be her best friend now, especially after they’d known each other only a few days. Still, Carlie had been wanting a best friend for months.

  Carlie had already accepted that Morgan and Emily were best friends. Not that they ever said it. But it seemed like they shared something that Carlie was totally missing. Maybe it was because they were both Christians and went to the same church. And while Carlie considered herself a good Catholic, she still felt maybe she was different than them — like maybe she didn’t really get it.

  She bent down to pull out a few small weeds that had sneaked into her petunias. Maybe that was why she got paired off with Amy most of the time. Because in some ways it seemed like Amy didn’t get it either. And while Amy was nice enough, not to mention super smart, she sometimes got on Carlie’s nerves with all her “Little Miss Perfect” kind of talk. Besides that, Amy just didn’t seem to get Carlie most of the time. Or maybe Carlie just didn’t get Amy.

  Even so, Carlie wasn’t totally convinced that Chelsea would make a better best friend than Amy. In fact, Chelsea kind of scared Carlie sometimes. Still, she told herself, maybe any best friend was better than none. Especially when you were about to start seventh grade in a town where you only knew a few kids anyway. Maybe Carlie couldn’t afford to be too picky when it came to best friends.

  chapter nine

  Carlie tried not to wig out over the idea of Chelsea and her mom coming to the trailer court this morning. She tried not to imagine their shocked faces when they drove up to her house, so totally different from what they were used to. Still it was all she could think about. Okay, don’t blow this all out of proportion, she told herself as she went outside. Just chill.

  She went out to her garden to distract herself by watering her flowers and picking off dried up blooms. Usually her garden cheered her up, but today she could only see it through the Landers’ eyes. It was so small and frumpy compared to their big landscaped yard. And the little fountain she and her dad had worked hard to make suddenly looked so ordinary as she remembered the Landers’ luxurious swimming pool and the massive fountain that flowed into it.

  “Carlotta?” called her mom from the backdoor. “Your friends are here.”

  Carlie turned off the hose and hurried back into the house. It looked so weird to see both Chelsea and Mrs. Landers standing in the center of her living room. Chelsea’s mom looked totally out of place in her sleek white pantsuit, but Carlie’s mom just smiled at her as if all this was perfectly normal. Carlie desperately hoped that Pedro wouldn’t suddenly dash around the corner with jam-smeared hands to wipe on those perfectly white pants.

  “I was just telling your mother a
bout our plans for the trip to Portland,” said Mrs. Landers. She handed Carlie’s mom a piece of notepaper. “Here are the phone numbers and whatnot, in case you should need to reach us.”

  “Thank you,” said Carlie’s mom. “It’s so nice of you to invite Carlotta to go with you this weekend.”

  Mrs. Landers smiled at Carlie. “So your name is really Carlotta?”

  Carlie sighed. “Only Mom calls me that.”

  “But it is your name, mija,” her mother reminded her.

  “Yeah, yeah.” Carlie turned to Chelsea now. “Want to see my garden?”

  “You have a garden?” asked Chelsea.

  Carlie nodded as she tugged Chelsea through the kitchen and toward the backdoor. “Yeah, it’s out here.”

  “Bye, girls,” called Mrs. Landers. “Call me when you want to be picked up, Chelsea.”

  “I will.”

  “Have fun!”

  “This is it,” said Carlie once she and Chelsea were outside. She gave her friend a quick tour, telling her the names of the flowers and showing her the fountain and the planter boxes she’d helped Dad make.

  “It’s pretty small back here,” said Chelsea.

  Carlie nodded. “Yeah, I guess so.”

  “But it’s pretty,” said Chelsea.

  “Really?” Carlie felt hopeful. “You really think so?”

  “Yeah. I’m impressed you know how to do this. We have landscapers that come and take care of all this stuff for us.”

  “I know …” Carlie held her chin up now. “I want to be a landscape designer some day. I’ll have my own business.”

  Chelsea looked surprised. “You’d want to go and work in people’s yards when you’re a grown-up?”

  “I’d have people working for me,” she said quickly. “Not that I wouldn’t do the dirty work too. I don’t mind getting my hands dirty.”

  Chelsea laughed. “You’re a funny girl, Carlie.”

  “Yeah, whatever … ”

  “Hey, where’s this cool clubhouse you and your friends keep talking about? Do I get to see it or not?”

  “Of course,” said Carlie as she opened the little gate from her garden. “It’s down this way and —”

  “Hey,” called Amy, waving from across the street. “I thought that must’ve been Chelsea’s car leaving just now. You guys heading over to the Rainbow Bus?”

  “Rainbow Bus?” echoed Chelsea. “That sounds like a kiddies show on public TV. Is Barney there? Or maybe the Teletubbies?”

  Amy laughed. “No, we’re a little more sophisticated than that.”

  Carlie didn’t say anything as they walked down the path toward the beach. Mostly she wished that they’d never invited Chelsea to come here. She saw Morgan and Emily up ahead, waiting for them where the trail forked off to the bus.

  “Hey, you guys,” said Morgan as they joined them. “Before we take Chelsea to the clubhouse, we need to make sure she understands some things. Okay?”

  “Like what?” asked Chelsea with a suspicious look.

  “Well, we need to know we can trust you,” said Morgan.

  “Why?”

  “Because we don’t want everyone finding out about our clubhouse, particularly where it’s located. It’s kind of a secret.”

  “And we had a little trouble with some boys earlier this summer,” said Emily. “We wouldn’t want any of them to know about this place.”

  “Well, Derrick Smith is in juvenile detention anyway,” said Amy. “I don’t think we need to worry about —”

  “I don’t even know anyone in town besides you guys,” Chelsea pointed out. “Who am I going to tell?”

  “That’s right,” said Amy quickly. “Lighten up, Morgan.”

  “We just need to be careful,” said Morgan.

  “That’s right,” agreed Emily.

  “And we need to know we can trust Chelsea.”

  “So what do you want me to do?” asked Chelsea. “You want me to sign my name in blood? Or swear on a Bible? Or what?”

  Morgan laughed. “We just want your word. Just promise that you’ll respect our secret and you can see the clubhouse.”

  Chelsea held up her hand like she was taking an oath. “I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

  “Good.” Morgan nodded. “That works.”

  “Right this way,” said Emily. The five girls all turned onto the path that led to the bus.

  “Whoa,” said Chelsea when she saw the bus. “It does sort of look like a rainbow.”

  “Yep,” said Morgan as she unlocked the door. “It’s our own little rainbow.”

  “Wait until you see the inside,” said Emily, stepping aside so that Chelsea could go in behind Morgan.

  “Morgan’s our designer,” said Carlie as she followed Chelsea in. She hoped that Chelsea wouldn’t say anything mean. You could never tell with this girl.

  “This is pretty cool,” said Chelsea as she looked around the bus. “Kind of retro, huh?”

  “Yeah,” said Morgan. “It went with the whole style of the bus.”

  Chelsea sat down on the plush-covered couch. “I like it.”

  Carlie let out a small sigh of relief as she sat down beside her. Then Morgan turned on the old record player and put an old Beatles album on. Amy plugged in the string of fruit lights to give the place a festive feel. And Emily opened the little fridge. “We have juice or soda,” she said. “Want anything, Chelsea?”

  “And lunch will be catered today,” said Morgan.

  “Really?” Carlie looked curiously at Morgan. She hadn’t heard anything about this.

  Morgan grinned. “Grandma offered.”

  Carlie realized that her three friends had all gone out of their way to make this visit with Chelsea special. And it made her feel warm inside.

  They talked and played music and before long it was noon. Morgan and Emily ran back to Morgan’s house to get their “catered” lunch.

  “This is really a cool place to hang with your friends,” said Chelsea as she checked things out more closely.

  “We like it,” said Amy as she began to set plates and napkins on the small table, getting it ready for lunch.

  “You could have good parties here,” said Chelsea.

  “Parties?” asked Carlie.

  “You know, boy-girl parties.”

  Amy giggled. “Well, we haven’t made an official rule about it yet, but I have a strong suspicion there will be no boys allowed.”

  “No boys?” Chelsea looked surprised. “Not ever?”

  “It’s a girls-only club,” said Carlie. “We like it like that.”

  Chelsea laughed. “Well, you might not always think that way.”

  “Here’s lunch,” said Morgan as she and Emily came back in with a bag and cardboard box. Soon it was neatly arranged on the table, and after Morgan said a blessing, they began to eat.

  “So is this a Christian club?” asked Chelsea as she reached for a handful of potato chips.

  Carlie glanced at Morgan, wondering how she would answer this.

  “Some of us are Christians,” said Morgan. “But it’s not a requirement.”

  “Are you a Christian, Amy?” asked Chelsea. “I mean, I thought oriental people were Buddhists or something like that.”

  “My parents used to practice Buddhism,” said Amy in a slightly defensive tone. “But I think they gave it up when they moved to America. My sister An is a Christian though.”

  “She is?” said Morgan with interest.

  Amy nodded. “Yes. My parents aren’t too happy about it.”

  “Oh.”

  “How about you, Carlie?” asked Chelsea. “Are you a Christian?”

  Carlie considered this. “Well, I … yeah … I guess.”

  “But like I said,” Morgan jumped in. “You don’t have to be a Christian to belong in this club. But you do have to agree to certain things.” Then she held up her rainbow bracelet. “Rainbows rule.”

  The other girls held up theirs too, echoing her.

  �
�So what’s the deal with those bracelets?” asked Chelsea. “What do the letters mean?”

  “Carlie didn’t tell you?” asked Amy.

  “No way,” said Carlie. “Morgan said it was a secret, remember?”

  “I don’t remember her saying that,” said Amy.

  “Well, she did,” said Emily. “I suppose you’ve told someone by now.”

  “No, I haven’t,” said Amy.

  “It’s kind of our code,” said Morgan. “If you become a member, we’ll tell you what it means.”

  “Meaning I could become a member?” asked Chelsea.

  “Sure,” said Amy. “We’ve already been discussing it.”

  Chelsea frowned now. “But I might not want to … ”

  “No one’s going to force you,” said Carlie. Feeling irritated, she got up and went over to the record player, carefully flipping the record over and placing the needle on the edge. Then she sat down in the driver’s seat and just looked out the window, out toward where the ocean was, although it was hidden by the tall beach grass that grew in the dunes. She listened as the girls continued talking. And it seemed that Chelsea was trying to be a little nicer. Maybe she realized that Carlie was getting fed up with her little jabs and barbs.

  “So what are we going to do now?” asked Chelsea after they cleaned up the lunch things.

  “We could go to the beach,” suggested Morgan. “That morning fog has finally burned off.”

  “Yeah, we could catch some sun,” said Emily. “My tan’s starting to fade.”

  Chelsea laughed. “And in this club, a girl needs a good tan to fit in.”

  “That’s not true,” snapped Carlie, instantly sorry that she did.

  “Don’t be so touchy,” said Chelsea. “I’m just kidding.”

  “Let’s get our suits,” suggested Morgan as she headed for the door. “We might want to take a swim.”

  “I didn’t bring mine,” said Chelsea.

  “I have an extra one,” said Carlie reluctantly.

  “I’ll bet it’s not a bikini,” teased Chelsea.

  “That’s right,” said Carlie. “My mom would kill me if I wore a bikini.”

  “I could loan you a bathing suit,” offered Amy.

  Chelsea laughed. “Yeah, but it would be a teeny-weeny bikini, and I’m not sure that I’m ready to show that much skin.”