RSVP #6

by Melissa J Morgan

  And there was Grace behind her!

  “Gracie!” Natalie cried.

  “Lookin’ good, Goode!” Grace yelled, giving her a thumbs-up. She was wearing a pair of jeans, red high tops, and a brown-and-red-leather jacket that said NEW JERSEY DEVILS across the back. Her crazy red curls were held back in place with pink-and-red beaded barrettes.

  The two girls hopped down the rest of the steps, Grace waving her hands like a wacky windmill. Natalie held out her arms for both of them. Alyssa hurried toward her; Grace laughed and jogged around her to get there first.

  “You guys are here!” Natalie cried, as first Grace and then Alyssa hugged her tightly. She hadn’t realized how much she missed them until this moment. Grace, Alyssa, and Natalie, together again at last!

  “We are gonna have a blast!” Natalie told them. “Tonight we’re going to the movies, and we’ll have pizza, and my mom organized our spa day, and—”

  “Whoa, Nat! We just got here!” Grace said, laughing. “We haven’t even gotten our luggage yet.”

  Natalie’s mom stepped forward and said, “It’s nice to meet you both at last. I’ve heard so many wonderful things about you. I’ll let Noah know you’ve arrived. He can help us with your suitcases.”

  “Okay, Mom,” Natalie told her.

  “Thank you,” Alyssa added. She said to Natalie, “Who is Noah?”

  “Our driver,” Natalie explained.

  Grace’s eyes widened. “You have a driver? Like a chauffeur?” Then she shook her head in wonder. “Of course you do. You’re Tad Maxwell’s kid!”

  “Shhh,” Natalie said, putting her finger to her lips. “I’m going incognito. And anyway, it’s only sometimes. We asked Noah to drive us because we figured you’d have a lot of luggage.”

  “Of course we do,” Grace said happily. “Oh, girlfriends, we are going to have so much fun!”

  “You’ve got that right!” Natalie cried.

  She even believed it herself.

  Natalie was sure both Grace and Alyssa had been to the city lots of times, but they ooh’ed and ah’ed at all the bright lights like awestruck first-time tourists as Noah drove the long black town car through Central Park on the way to Natalie’s building. Dark-haired Noah was a film major at NYU, working his way through school by driving for the Goodes.

  Crossing her high tops at the ankles, Grace said, “Do they have the horse carriages in the winter? It would be fun to get all bundled up and go for a trot around in the snow.”

  “Oh, I didn’t think to put that on the list,” Natalie murmured, then smiled as Grace gave her a puzzled look. “I tried to make a list of all the fun things you guys might like to do. Well, a couple of lists, actually. I think they’re out here almost all the time, unless it starts snowing again. It’s supposed to let up from now until next Monday. I can check and—”

  “Chill, Nat!” Grace teased her. “I’m not here to see the city. I’m here to see you and the rest of Bunk 3C.”

  “Same here,” Alyssa added. “You know us Jersey girls. We can always pop down here when we’re in the mood. A new show on Broadway, a sale at Bloomies . . .”

  Grace snapped her fingers. “It’s all good!”

  Natalie laughed. “Alyssa, never in a million years would you shop at Bloomingdale’s. I’ll bet you bought that awesome coat in a vintage clothing store.”

  “I did,” Alyssa told her. Her eyes danced. “Salvation Army.”

  “Get out,” Natalie said, with even greater admiration.

  Seated up front with Noah, Natalie’s mom gave her head a quarter-turn, as if to say, See, Nat? Everything is going to be fine.

  “Hey, do you guys like egg creams?” Natalie asked. “There’s a cool new place that serves them.”

  “Of course! Like Alyssa said, we’re East Coast girls!” Grace declared. “What I really love is cream soda.”

  “Oh, good! We bought tons of it,” Natalie said. “Lots of diet soda, too. To make sure Alex has a selection.”

  Alyssa asked, “When are Alex and Brynn showing up?”

  “We’ll hook up after lunch tomorrow,” Natalie said. “And Jenna’s dad is driving her in.” She reached out and checked Grace’s cute pink watch. She’d worn it at camp last summer. “They’re supposed to meet us at our building in about an hour.”

  “This is going to be so totally awesome!” Grace said happily. “3C, together again.”

  “Yeah.” Natalie nodded. “All of us.”

  Grace made a little face. “Even Chelsea.”

  “Now, come on. We promised to be nice,” Alyssa reminded Grace. “She’s going through a lot. We need to make sure she knows she’s part of Bunk 3C through thick and thin.”

  “Oh, she’ll feel the love,” Natalie said confidently. “Maybe once she sees how much trouble we’ve gone to for her, she’ll mellow out and be nice to us in return.”

  “She’ll probably take one look at it and decide there’s something wrong with it,” Grace declared, crossing her arms over her chest.

  “‘It? What are you girls talking about?” Natalie’s mom asked.

  “We have a surprise for Chelsea,” Grace told her. “Didn’t Natalie tell you about it?”

  “It’s a surprise, Mom,” Natalie said. “A very cool surprise. We’ve all worked very hard on it.”

  “Brynn’s bringing it,” Grace told her. “We’re going to give it to her at the all-bunk sleepover. When all of us are there.”

  “It’ll be hard to wait that long,” her mother said.

  “Yeah, for us, too,” Natalie said, and the three girls giggled.

  Secrets were fun!

  “That’s Jenna’s trunk?” Natalie asked Mr. Bartok as she, Alyssa, and Grace trooped into the lobby. Her mother had remained outside to supervise the unpacking of the luggage.

  “Yes, most precious girl,” Mr. Bartok replied, his thick white moustache bobbing up and down on his upper lip like a baited hook. “A trunk.”

  Mr. Bartok was one of their doormen, and had worked in their building since before Natalie was born. He was from Hungary, and he had a very thick Eastern European accent. He usually called Natalie “Natalya” or “most precious girl.”

  He was standing beside an enormous brown leather trunk that was tipped up on one side. It reminded Natalie of the steamer trunks in the museum dedicated to the early immigrants to America, which was located on Ellis Island. People had traveled with such trunks from their homes in the old country, seeking a new life in America. But back then, they contained all their belongings, not the things they needed for a weekend at a friend’s apartment!

  A white card taped to the upper left corner of the trunk read “ Jenna Bloom.” There was a bumper sticker underneath it advertising the Spam Museum in Austin, Minnesota. A tag on the trunk said, “ Jenna Bloom’s Trunk Please Take to Natalie Goode’s Apt.”

  “But who left it here?” Natalie asked.

  “Is note,” Mr. Bartok said, handing a small white envelope to Natalie. Natalie opened it and read aloud just as her mother walked up with the driver, who was pushing a luggage cart with Alyssa and Grace’s two suitcases and two sleeping bags on it. Mr. Bartok took possession of the cart and Noah walked back through the foyer toward the main entrance.

  Hey, Natalie,

  I’m Matt, Jenna’s science nerd brother. My dad and Jenna will be in NYC soon. I drove separately into the city for a physics seminar at NYU and I offered to bring her trunk to the reunion for her because, as you can see, it’s very large. There was no room in my dad’s car to stow it.

  Have a fun weekend! Don’t let Jenzilla take over New York!

  Matt Bloom

  “Jenzilla. He’s the brother who sent her all those wacky bumper stickers,” Alyssa said, reading the note over Natalie’s shoulder. “He has her same goofy sense of humor.”

  “There’s probably something goofy in here,” Natalie guessed. “Like Jenna’s own private collection of bowling balls or something.”

  “Just as long as it�
�s not something dangerous,” her mother said. She tested the locks. “Hmm, I can’t get it open.”

  “You want I should find screwdriver?” Mr. Bartok suggested. “Or locksmith?”

  “We can probably manage,” Natalie’s mother said, examining the trunk. “There are wheels set into the base. We can just roll it into the elevator and take it on into our apartment.”

  “I’m not thinking is good idea,” Mr. Bartok announced.

  “It’ll be all right,” Natalie assured him and her mother. They looked dubious. She was a little dubious, herself. Jenna had pulled some awfully wild pranks in her day.

  “Okay. Then let’s take it on up,” Natalie’s mother decided.

  Mr. Bartok began to push it, gesturing for the others to precede him. “Please to go in, ladies.”

  Natalie, Grace, Alyssa, and Natalie’s mother walked into the elegant mirror elevator. There was plenty of room for the trunk and the luggage cart.

  Mr. Bartok hesitated, then carefully guided the trunk over threshold. The large piece of luggage rattled as it rolled over the narrow gap in the floor.

  “I will come with you,” he said.

  “We can handle it, Mr. Bartok,” Natalie’s mother assured him.

  He hesitated, grunted, and stepped reluctantly back out of the elevator. He anxiously pulled on his moustache as the door closed. Then Natalie’s mom keyed in the code to their restricted floor, and the elevator whooshed upward.

  “Jenna’s up to something,” Grace whispered to Natalie. “There’s probably a bunch of live animals in this thing. And when you open it, they’re going to go crazy all over your apartment.”

  Natalie’s mom looked worried and said, “Nat, do you think that’s true?” Grace jerked and made a little uh-oh face, and Natalie guessed that Grace had thought her mom couldn’t hear her.

  “No way. Jenna learned her lesson at the social.” She blanched, realizing she had never told her mother that story. “It’ll be okay,” she quickly added.

  The elevator stopped at the penthouse level and the doors opened. Natalie and her mother wheeled the trunk toward Natalie’s front door while Alyssa and Grace pushed the luggage cart.

  Just then, Mrs. Goldberg, who lived across the hall, opened her own front door and peered out. She wore a lot of makeup and her white hair was gelled into spikes that stuck straight up.

  “Oh, it’s you,” she said pleasantly. “Hello, girls.”

  “Hi, Mrs. Goldberg. These are my friends,” Natalie said. “The ones who are spending the weekend. Well, the first batch, anyway.”

  “Hey, we are not cookies,” Grace intoned, and the others grinned.

  Mrs. Goldberg studied the trunk and the luggage cart. “That’s a lot of clothes for a weekend. They must be fashion models.”

  Grace and Alyssa hid their giggles.

  Natalie’s mother said, “Mrs. Goldberg is the neighbor who’ll be available in case you have an emergency.” Natalie’s mother was going out later. She and Natalie had permission from the other girls’ parents for them to stay in the apartment while she was gone, as long as they promised to check in with Mrs. Goldberg if there were any problems.

  “It’s nice to meet you,” Alyssa said.

  Natalie’s mom unlocked their front door and pushed it open. Then she pulled on the trunk as Natalie pushed on the other side.

  What on earth is Jenna up to? Natalie wondered.

  Once the door was shut behind the group, she had her answer. Something began to scratch around inside the trunk. Alyssa covered her mouth and took a step back. Natalie joined her, while Grace rapped on the side of the trunk.

  “What’s in here?” she demanded. “Hello?”

  “I think you girls better stand back while I call 911,” Natalie’s mother said, turned to go to the phone in the kitchen.

  “Mom, no!” Natalie cried anxiously.

  “It might be a crazed lunatic from an insane asylum,” her mother said, wringing her hands. “We can’t be sure.”

  “No way,” Natalie said. Then, “You think?”

  But before Natalie’s mother could reply, the trunk popped open!

  chapter FOUR

  Jenna herself jumped out!

  Her trademark blue Bloom eyes danced as she cried, “Surprise!”

  “Jenna Bloom! You maniac!” Natalie shrieked as she threw her arms around her nutty friend. The others hugged her too, laughing at her amazing prank.

  Then Jenna turned to Natalie’s mother and high-fived her!

  “Good job, Ms. Goode!” she said.

  “Thanks.” Natalie’s mom grinned at the three astonished girls.

  “You were in on this?” Natalie asked, amazed.

  “Natalie, do you really think I would bring a strange, person-sized trunk into our house unless I was reasonably sure what was inside it?” her mother asked, giving her one of those mom-looks.

  “I guess not,” Natalie said; then as her mother raised her brows, she added, “I mean, no way! No way would you do that! And me, neither.” She thought a minute. “Did Mr. Bartok know, too?”

  “Of course. I called him from the car. It was our prearranged signal.”

  “Mr. Bartok watched for you. And then I climbed into the trunk right before you guys drove up,” Jenna explained.

  “You are evil,” Natalie teased her mom. Wow, her mom was so cool!

  “I knew it was Jenna,” Grace announced. “I was just playing along.”

  “Oh, right.” Alyssa elbowed her in the side. “You were freaking out!”

  “I was not!” Grace insisted.

  “Girls, girls,” Natalie’s mother said. As they quieted, she looked at Natalie. “Why don’t you show the girls around? I’m going to check my messages and then we’ll get everyone settled.”

  “This way, please,” Natalie said with a sweep of her arm. “The grand tour will begin!”

  Grace, Alyssa, and Jenna followed her into the large living room, which was filled with graceful wood antiques and vases filled with flowers. The drapes were open, revealing the dazzling brilliance of New York City at night.

  Hundreds—thousands—of lights twinkled in thousands of windows. Some of the skyscrapers were decorated with elaborate bands of neon, or banks of colored floodlights.

  “Oh my gosh,” Grace murmured. “Natalie, it looks like a fairyland.”

  “Very magical,” Alyssa agreed. “I want to paint this. I’ll use silver paint and lots of jewel tones.”

  “Come and see the rest,” Natalie urged them.

  She took them past the guest bathroom and padded down the hall. The walls were papered in a delicate red overlaid with splashes of gold, very elegant and dramatic.

  The first door on the right was her room. Taking a deep breath, she opened it and escorted them in. What would they think?

  “Natalie, wow,” Grace said breathlessly.

  Natalie’s lacy canopy bed stood against the far wall. Her white antique dresser and desk formed a U, and her computer and printer took up most of the surface of the desk. A bulletin board crisscrossed with dark blue ribbons held tons of photographs, including at least a dozen from camp. There were shots of her bunkmates, and one of her and Simon.

  “Hey, I took most of these,” Jenna said, gazing at them.

  “They’re really good,” Alyssa told her, peering at them. “Nice composition.”

  Jenna blushed. “Thank you.”

  “Wow, here’s your dad,” Grace said, pointing at a row of publicity stills, and then more natural poses of her dad, Natalie, Josie, and a lot of megafamous celebrities. There were movie stars and singers, fashion models and film producers.

  “Natalie,” Alyssa said slowly, “that’s Johnny Depp!”

  “Yes.” Natalie grinned at her friend. “And he’s totally hotter in real life than on the screen.”

  “Oh my God, you’ve met him?” Jenna stared at Natalie as if she had announced that she was from another planet.

  Natalie licked her lips. “Yes, I have.”r />
  “Tell us all!” Grace ordered her.

  “He’s . . . he’s really a nice person,” she said. Oh, how lame.

  All eyes remained fixed on her. The butterflies in her stomach began to seriously flutter. Her thoughts jumped to her lists. Now, more than ever, her friends would expect a girl in her position—with serious money and celebrity connections—to pull off an amazing night for them.

  I’m still just me, she wanted to tell them. Her throat grew tight and she tried to swallow. But she couldn’t. She actually felt a little dizzy.

  Just then her mom swept in with a portable phone in her hand. “Shall I go ahead and order the pizzas?” she asked. “You girls must be really hungry.”

  “Starving,” Grace informed her.

  Alyssa said, “I hope you don’t mind, Ms. Goode, but I’m a vegetarian.”

  “Already taken into account,” Natalie warmly informed her. “Does anyone here like anchovies?”

  “Oh, I love them!” Jenna cried. “No one—and I mean absolutely no one—in my family will touch them. Having anchovies on my pizza is a dream come true.”

  “Good thing you thought to ask, Nat,” Natalie’s mother said.

  Natalie beamed. She said, “We thought we’d get three extra large. One all veggie, of course.” She smiled at Alyssa. “And what else shall we get?”

  “Anchovies and black olives, definitely,” Jenna said.

  “Canadian bacon and ham?” Grace asked, checking with the others.

  “Works for me,” Jenna told her.

  “That sounds like three winning combinations,” Natalie said. “We’ll have lots of leftovers.”

  “I like cold pizza for breakfast,” Alyssa said.

  “Me, too,” Grace said eagerly. “There’s really nothing like it.”

  “We bought some fresh bagels and croissants,” Natalie told them.

  “Okay, there is something like it,” Grace amended, and everyone laughed.

  They ordered the pizzas and lounged in the living room by the fireplace while they waited for them, discussing what movie to see. Grace was really excited about Aces and Kings, and it was opening night. So the others agreed that they’d go to that.