by Coco Simon
“Joy,” I said, and I put it in a fresh new box. Alexis wrote STUFFED ANIMALS on it.
Next I picked up a purple octopus with really cool googly eyes. “Mr. Wiggles!” I cried happily. “Joy!”
Next came a white teddy bear with a candy cane–striped scarf. A squirrel holding a nut. A black cat with green eyes.
“Joy! Joy! Joy!” I cheered, and I started throwing stuffed animal after stuffed animal into the box. “This is easy.”
“Slow down, Katie!” Alexis said. “Take a breath. Do you really want to bring all these stuffed animals into your new bedroom?”
I looked at the huge pile of stuffed cuteness on my bed. “Well, I don’t know,” I said. “My new room will be a lot bigger. And these all bring me joy.”
“Maybe they could bring somebody else joy,” Alexis said. “Imagine a little kid getting this sweet stuffed snake as a gift.”
“Not Sammy!” I cried, grabbing it from her, and she narrowed her eyes. I sighed.
“But maybe … this one,” I said, picking up a brown teddy bear that I honestly couldn’t remember where I got it.
“Good start,” Alexis said.
I slowed down and plowed through the pile. That Marie lady was onto something. If I really thought about it, not all my stuffed animals made me feel joy. But most of them did.
Still, I had a nice pile going in the giveaway box when Mom called to say the pizza had arrived. Alexis and I bounded down the stairs.
“Really nice job, Mrs. B,” Alexis said. Mom had managed to sort through all the closet contents, and the floor was clear.
“You’re right, Alexis. It’s not bad if you just take it one step at a time,” Mom said with a smile, and she looked relieved.
We went into the kitchen, where Alexis’s chart waited for us on the table. The big sheet of poster paper was covered in sticky notes. Covered! There must have been a hundred. And they were all different colors.
“I used a different color for each room,” Alexis said. “Katie, your room is pink. Go ahead, you can take off the dresser sticky note.”
I found the note and took it off. It left a square-shaped hole on the board.
“That feels pretty good,” I said.
Mom located the hall closet sticky note, took it off, and crumpled it up. “Done!” she said.
“Two down,” I said. “And seventeen hundred to go.”
Alexis rolled her eyes at me. “Oh, come on! It’s not that many,” Alexis said. “And after pizza, we can finish your closet, now that we can finally see the clothes. I cannot believe how much stuff you had in there.”
“If you don’t mind, Alexis, I need to do something with Katie this afternoon, before it gets too dark,” Mom said. “But I am so grateful for all your help today. Please add the hours to your invoice.”
“Oh, today was on me,” Alexis said. “Packing and organizing is fun! And not as stressful as planning a wedding.”
“If you say so,” Mom said. “Thank you.”
We wolfed down our pizza and cleaned up. Then Mom and I gave Alexis a ride home.
* * *
“So what did you want to do with me?” I asked, after Alexis got out of the car. “Another surprise dance lesson with Donny?”
Mom smiled. “Nope. I wanted to give you a tour of the house. Just you and me.”
“Cool,” I replied, although I wasn’t sure how cool I felt inside. The house had looked great in pictures, but what if it was creepy in person? Or smelled bad? Or was crawling with spiders?
My imagination was going full force as we pulled up to the yellow house on Willow Brook Road. The FOR SALE sign had a big SOLD banner stuck over it.
We walked up the steps and stopped on the porch. I turned around and looked at the park, and now my imagination had me sitting in a rocking chair, sipping lemonade, and watching the trees in the park blowing in the breeze.
“Can we get rocking chairs?” I blurted out.
Mom smiled as she opened the door. “Jeff and I were just talking about that.”
We stepped into a small hallway, which had a big staircase heading upstairs right in front. To the left was a big room that I guessed was the living room, and to the right was a smaller room.
“That’s going to be the dining room,” Mom explained. “We won’t have to eat in the kitchen all the time. So we can cook and leave a mess and then bring everything out onto a nice, empty table.”
“The kitchen!” I cried, and I ran through the dining room into the kitchen. It was bigger than the one we had, and it had an island in it, just like I’d seen in the picture. I started opening up the white cabinets.
“Lots of storage space,” I said. “It’s cute!”
The window over the sink looked out into the backyard, a small, green space with a border of tall pine trees in the back.
“There’s room for a vegetable garden, I think,” Mom said. “Although it might be too shady with the trees.”
By then I was dying to see my room, so I ran up the stairs two at a time. I ran into two rooms before I found the one from the picture.
“This is it, right?” I asked, as Mom caught up to me.
“Yes, this is yours,” Mom said.
I looked around at the wood floor and the white walls. I opened up the closet, which was about the same size as the one I already had. But the room had something I hadn’t noticed in the photo. A weird little nook in one corner, almost like a big closet without a door.
“This is cool,” I said, stepping into it.
“It’s a little bit odd,” Mom admitted. “I think because this room was built around the staircase. I’m glad you don’t mind it.”
“No way!” I said. “It’s like a secret space. Maybe I can make it into a reading corner, with a beanbag chair.”
“I like that idea,” Mom said. “We’d just have to make sure it was well lit.”
I started to feel excited. This house was nice and new to me! Moving in would be like a fresh start. I began to imagine hanging out with my friends in the room and reading in my nook and playing music.
Mom showed me the rest of the rooms, and then we sat down on the steps outside.
“Jeff had an idea, and I think it’s a good one,” she began, and I laughed.
“Oh boy,” I said. “All your ideas lately involve a lot of work.”
“This one does too, but hear me out,” Mom said. “Instead of the four of us moving into the house after the wedding, you and I could move in a couple of weeks before the wedding. I know there have been big changes, and everything has been happening quickly, so it’s up to you. But Jeff said it might be nice for us to ‘make ourselves at home’ first before he and Emily move in. What do you think?”
At first I thought about how much we had left to pack.
“There are so many sticky notes,” I said.
“I know, but I’m thinking we’ll have two more weekends before the moving date,” she replied. “And Mia’s mom and Eddie offered to help.”
“Emma offered to help me paint my new room before we moved in,” I remembered.
“I think that could happen,” Mom said. “And your schoolwork. And planning for the wedding. Oh wow, now that I say it out loud …”
“No, we can do it!” I said. I really liked the idea of moving in early with just her. I imagined cooking breakfast for dinner in our beautiful new kitchen and eating in the dining area. I pictured the two of us sitting in rocking chairs on the porch, sipping lemonade and telling stories and laughing. The more I imagined it the more excited I became. “Let’s try, anyway.”
“Okay,” Mom said, and she hugged me. “Should we go grab dinner at the diner?”
“Let’s just eat leftover pizza,” I said. “I want to rip off at least one more sticky note tonight!”
Mom grinned. “Alexis would be so proud of you right now.”
CHAPTER 9 So Much Joy!
The next two weeks were the busiest weeks of my life. Mom had one rule for me: schoolwork before packing
. Luckily, it was the end of the school year and homework was winding down, so I mostly just had to study for my final tests.
Every day after studying, I packed something. Every morning, Mom left the house with boxes or bags to drop off at the church thrift shop near her work. Then we counted the days till the weekend.
On the last Sunday before moving weekend, Emma and Mia had a surprise for me. Mia’s stepdad, Eddie, drove us all to the new house and announced that we were going to be painting my new room.
“No way!” I cried, jumping out of the car. Eddie opened the trunk and revealed two cans of paint, some tarps, brushes, and bucket. Eddie took painting seriously.
“Yes way,” Eddie said. “I patched up some of the nail holes in the walls last night, so we should be ready to go. We can knock it out this morning.” He held out a can of paint. “Here, carry this,” he said. “But don’t spill it. I hear it’s not easy being green.”
Mia groaned, but Emma and I laughed. Eddie is the king of corny dad jokes. I didn’t mind them, but Emma and I don’t have to hear them all the time like Mia does.
Emma and I had picked out the paint colors over lunch during the week. At first I wanted to paint each wall a different color, but Emma had suggested that I just paint the little nook a separate color, and I liked that idea. I picked a sky blue for the walls to remind me of being outside, and a peaceful green for the nook.
Once we got to the room, we spread out the tarps to protect the floor, and Eddie poured the paint into trays. He dipped the roller into the tray and showed us how to apply the paint first in a W on the wall, and then fill in the W with paint. I thought it was strange at first, but then he showed me some videos on the Internet. Apparently a lot of people paint this way. It prevents drips or something like that.
Emma, Mia, and I each took a wall, and Eddie took the nook because he said it was tricky. I was amazed how quickly the room transformed from a nice, but kind of cold, white space into something really beautiful.
“So are you ready for the move?” Eddie asked from inside the nook.
“I don’t know,” I said. “We still have nine sticky notes left.”
“That doesn’t sound like a lot to pack,” Eddie said.
“She’s talking about the sticky notes that Alexis made for them,” Mia joined in. “Each one is a different place they need to pack.”
“Right,” I said. “And the last nine are hard. One of them is the attic, which we haven’t even touched yet! I don’t know how we’re going to get everything done by Saturday, when the movers come. But Mom’s taking off from work starting tomorrow, so that should help.”
“We’ll be there Saturday to do whatever you need,” Mia said.
“Are you sure?” I asked. “Doesn’t Cupcake Club have an order that day?”
“Just two dozen cupcakes, and we can do that Friday night without you, Katie,” Emma said, and she stopped me with her hand before I could protest. “This is a special time. We got this. You’ve always pitched in when I’ve been modeling.”
“And when I’m at my dad’s,” Mia added.
I took a deep breath. “I guess you’re right,” I said. “Thanks.”
We finished quickly, and I felt really happy. My new room was ready to move into!
Now I just had to finish packing. …
* * *
“Who wants Chinese food?”
Jeff came into the house without knocking, holding two paper take-out bags.
“Hey, sweetie,” Mom said, and she kissed him. “This is great. Did you get utensils? Because the kitchen is all packed up.”
“Paper plates, napkins, forks, and chopsticks,” Jeff reported, and he set it all out on the kitchen table.
I glanced at the clock. It was eight thirty, and Mom and I had been trying to finish packing before the move in the morning. We’d totally forgotten about dinner!
“I am so glad this isn’t pizza,” I said. “And I can’t believe I’m saying that. Thanks so much, Jeff!”
Mom and I were so hungry that we didn’t say a word as we scarfed down our lo mein and egg rolls.
“I’ll stay and help you pack,” Jeff offered.
“We’re almost done, and I think I’ll drop if I pack another box,” Mom said. “But thanks. Besides, you’re coming here bright and early, aren’t you?”
Jeff nodded. “I’ll be here before the furniture truck gets here at seven thirty.”
“Seven thirty?” I groaned. “Why so early? I’m going to need some coffee.”
“I was planning to bring some for all of us,” Jeff said.
“Mostly milk in Katie’s coffee, please,” Mom said. “But a little caffeine won’t hurt any of us tomorrow, I’m guessing.”
Mom’s phone rang. “It’s the caterer,” she said. “Just give me a minute.”
Mom walked into the dining room, and Jeff and I began to clean up. Jeff looked at me and suddenly broke out in a huge grin.
“You know, Katie, I just want you to know how happy I will be to be your stepdad,” he said. “I’m excited that we’re going to get to spend more time together, as a family, and I know Emily is thrilled to have a big sister.”
I blushed. I think I was more nervous than excited, but Jeff was being so sweet. “Thanks,” I said. “That’s really nice.”
Mom walked over to us and put the phone down. “Remind me again why we’re moving and planning a wedding at the same time?”
Jeff got up and kissed her. “Because it’s worth it,” he said, and she looked into his eyes and smiled. He turned to me. “Bye, Katie.” Then he left the house, humming.
“How are we doing with sticky notes?” I asked Mom.
She moved aside some boxes to find the chart. “One left!” she said. “There’s still some stuff in the attic. But we can finish that in the morning. It doesn’t need to be sorted. We can just throw it in boxes.”
I nodded. “Sounds good to me,” I said, yawning. “I’m going to crash.”
“Before you do … ,” Mom said, and she walked over to her bag. She took out two envelopes and handed them to me.
“Two envelopes? What are these? Cold hard cash?” I joked.
“These are for you to read on the wedding day, Katie,” Mom told me.
“More surprises?” I asked.
“Not surprises,” Mom promised.
I wasn’t sure if I believed her, but I packed the envelopes in my backpack and then headed upstairs to spend the last night in my bedroom. Every last sock, stuffed animal, and book was packed. Mom had set out a pillow and sleeping bag on my bed for me to sleep in because my sheets and blankets were packed.
After I got into pj’s, I turned out the light and snuggled into my sleeping bag. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I gazed up at the patterns on the ceiling and the peeling wallpaper. I would always love this room and this house, but slowly and surely, the idea of leaving it was starting to hurt less and less. I was ready for a new home and a new adventure.
“Thanks for being a good bedroom,” I said out loud. “You brought me joy.”
Then I thought of the new sky-blue walls waiting for me, and I smiled. I felt better knowing those walls would bring me joy too.
* * *
I woke up at seven and quickly got dressed and rolled up my sleeping bag. Then I ran downstairs to find Jeff in the kitchen.
“Good morning, Katie,” Jeff said. He handed me a paper cup with a lid on it. “Mocha for you, mostly milk.”
“Yes!” I said, and I took the cup from him. Then I noticed the pink box on the kitchen table. “Are those doughnuts?”
“Breakfast of champions,” Jeff joked, and I grabbed a chocolate-glazed one to go with my mocha. Then Mom came into the kitchen and kissed Jeff.
“Okay, we are almost ready,” she said. “When are the movers getting here?”
Before Jeff could answer, we heard the groan of the loud truck outside.
“I think they’re here,” he said.
“They can’t be!” Mom s
aid. “I don’t have all the boxes ready yet.”
“André, Bill, and I are getting the boxes this afternoon,” Jeff reminded her. “These guys are just getting the big furniture.”
“Of course!” Mom said. “I have never been this scatterbrained in my whole life.”
“You have never had this much going on at once in your whole life,” Jeff said kindly.
“Deep breaths, Mom,” I said, with a mouthful of doughnut.
“Katie, can you finish the attic on your own?” Mom asked.
“Got it,” I said, and then three really big guys in blue coveralls walked into the house, so I grabbed some boxes and slipped away upstairs. Everything was going according to plan.
Most of the stuff in the attic was already in cardboard boxes, so I started carrying those downstairs. On my third trip down, Alexis and Emma walked in the front door.
“We’re here to help!” Emma said.
“And we brought cupcakes!” Alexis thrust out a cupcake carrier. I took it from her and peeked under the lid. The cupcakes had blue icing, like my room, with a little fondant house on top of each one.
“So cute!” I said. “I’ll put these in the kitchen, next to the doughnuts. I bet the movers will like them, too.”
Then Alexis and Emma followed me upstairs.
“You know Mia’s with her dad, or she would be here,” Emma said. “Plus, she says she’s working all weekend to finish your dress.”
“I totally forgot about that,” I admitted. “Alexis, how is everything coming along for the wedding, anyway?”
“Jeff got the park permit, the catering menu has been set, and I just got the song requests to the deejay,” she reported. “The flowers have been ordered, and I got your mom to hire Adele’s Chocolates to do the favors. There’s not much left to do. Those e-mail invitations saved us a lot of time.”
“Great,” I said. “Now I just need to get some help moving these boxes, if you guys don’t mind doing this with me.”
“No problem,” Alexis said. “What are these? Photo albums?”
She picked one up and began to leaf through it.
