Kate let out a happy squeal. “I like it already!”
Chelsea realized how much she missed Kate. It was like Kate had become her best friend. “I wish you could come out sooner,” she said.
“Me too. But I have to honor my commitments here.”
“I know.” They talked a bit longer, and Chelsea told Kate they’d send some photos of the house. After she hung up, she went back upstairs to look around. She’d already decided that if they got this house, she’d take the bedroom up here. It had a tiny terrace that overlooked the pool, and the bathroom was just across the hall. Besides, she knew Dad and Kate would want the master suite downstairs anyway. It opened right out to the pool.
By the time they left, Dad was as interested in the house as Chelsea. “I’ll send Kate the website domain. Maria said it’s got some great photos,” he said as he drove them back to the hotel. “And she mentioned there’s someone else interested in the house—”
“Oh no!”
“She also said it’s not too late to make an offer.”
“We have to make an offer,” Chelsea insisted.
By that evening, Kate had seen the website photos and sounded thrilled with the house. The next morning, Dad met with Maria and made an offer. Chelsea hadn’t been much of a praying girl, not since middle school when she used to go regularly to youth group with Virginia and her friends, but she actually shot up a little “please, God” offering and hoped that would be better than just crossing her fingers.
There was some back-and-forth negotiating and adjusting on Dad’s offer for the house, but three days later Maria called and informed Dad that his offer had been accepted. It turned out that because their offer was cash, thanks to the sale of their previous home, the owners were okay with taking less.
Papers were signed, money changed hands, Dad notified the moving company, and one week later they were given possession of the yellow stucco house on Laredo Lane.
Dad grinned as he handed her the key to the front door. “I think I have you to thank for finding this house. Why don’t you do the honors?”
Chelsea unlocked the door and walked inside. Everything still looked as light and bright and pretty as before. She was so happy that she shot up another prayer—a thank-you prayer.
Dad started back to work, and Chelsea took on the task of unpacking crates and boxes and getting things put away. It was hard work, but she was rewarded with breaks by the pool.
“Hello there.”
Chelsea jumped and looked up from where she’d been sunning herself to see a girl peering over the stucco wall on the side of the yard. “Uh, hello.” She sat up, feeling slightly self-conscious since she had on the barely-there bikini, but she had assumed she’d be safe in her own backyard.
“I’m Janelle Parker,” the girl called out. “Sorry to bug you, but I wanted to say hey. I live here, next door.”
“Oh.” Chelsea tipped up her shades for a better look at the girl in the shadows. “I’m Chelsea Martin.”
“So did you guys buy the Ruiz place?”
Chelsea thought for a moment before she remembered the name Ruiz. “Oh, yeah. We did buy it from them. We moved in a few days ago.”
“I must’ve missed that,” Janelle said. “I just got back from a summer camp up in Oregon.”
“Oh.” Chelsea was trying to guess Janelle’s age. She seemed young. Twelve, maybe?
“So are you still in school?” Janelle asked. “Or have you graduated already?”
“I’ll be a junior in high school.”
“Hey, so will I,” Janelle said brightly.
“Really?” Chelsea stood and walked over to get a better look at this outgoing girl. For some reason she’d assumed she was younger.
Janelle nodded. “So will you be going to Kingston High?”
“Yeah. My dad drove me by there a few days ago. It seemed nice. Do you like it?”
“Yeah. It’s okay.”
Chelsea climbed onto a large landscaping rock next to the wall so she could look directly at Janelle. With blue-green eyes, creamy skin, and shiny, shoulder-length brown hair, Janelle was pretty. Not flashy pretty, but pretty in a quieter way. Chelsea glanced past Janelle into her backyard, which was mostly grass. “You guys don’t have a pool too?”
Janelle made a face. “My dad hates pools. He says they’re a hole in the ground you throw money into.”
Chelsea nodded. “My dad wasn’t totally excited about a pool either, but I promised to help with the maintenance. Now I just need to learn how to do that.”
“I can help if you want.”
“I thought you said your dad hated—”
“The house before this one had a pool. He hated it. That’s why we moved.”
“Oh.”
Janelle sighed. “I still miss it. Especially on hot days like today.”
“Do you want to come over?”
Janelle brightened. “Sure. I mean, if you really want me to. I hope I didn’t sound like I was hinting for an invite.”
Chelsea laughed. “No, not at all. The truth is it’s been kind of lonely. It would be nice to get to know someone.”
Janelle looked curiously at Chelsea. “It must’ve been hard for you to leave all your friends behind. Were you really bummed to move?”
“Yeah, it was hard to move. But the truth is I didn’t have that many friends.” As soon as those words were out, Chelsea wished she’d been more cautious.
Janelle looked surprised and even a little dubious. “Really? Why is that?”
“It’s a long story,” Chelsea said.
“Okay then, if you really don’t mind me crashing in on you, I’ll go change into my suit and come over, and maybe you’ll tell me your long story.”
Chelsea nodded and climbed down from the stone, but as Janelle disappeared back behind the wall, Chelsea wondered how much she really wanted to tell this girl. She didn’t even know her. How much could she trust her? Especially since they’d be going to the same school in a few weeks. Chelsea remembered how Virginia and the others had hurt her. Did she want to go through that again?
By the time Janelle rang the doorbell, Chelsea had decided to play it safe. She would be careful with how much information she disclosed, and at the same time she’d try to figure out what kind of a person Janelle really was. She would start by finding out how much she actually knew about pool maintenance.
To Chelsea’s surprise, Janelle not only knew a lot about pools, she was a hard worker and she seemed pretty smart too. And she was funny. By the time they went back into the house to take a break from the sun, Chelsea realized that she actually liked Janelle.
“You still haven’t told me why you didn’t have many friends at your old school,” Janelle said as she peeled newsprint from a glass tumbler and set it on the countertop. She was helping Chelsea to unpack. But because she was short, barely five feet tall, Chelsea was putting things in the upper cabinets.
“I wasn’t sure I really wanted to tell you,” Chelsea said slowly. She set a stack of plates on a high shelf.
“My mom’s always telling me I’m way too nosy.” Janelle smiled apologetically. “I guess I’m just overly curious. Sorry.”
“No, that’s okay.” Chelsea decided to just tell her. Janelle seemed trustworthy. Really, what did Chelsea have to be afraid of? So she spilled the beans, telling how she’d been an ugly duckling wallflower and how her soon-to-be stepmom had made her over.
“That’s hard to believe,” Janelle said finally.
“I know.” Chelsea went over to the wall mirror that she’d hung in the dining area and looked at herself. Her hair was a little stringy from the pool and her face was devoid of makeup, but even so, she still looked much better than before the makeover. “Trust me, it’s hard for me to believe too.”
“So what are your interests?” Janelle asked from where she was opening another box in the kitchen.
Chelsea came back and started removing pots and pans from a crate. “Well, the truth is I’ve alwa
ys been kind of an academic nerd. I think I replaced friends with books, high grades, and an obsession on education.”
“A good education can come in handy.”
“I know. But now I want something more too. I feel like I’ve been socially starved.”
Janelle laughed. “Socially starved?”
“Seriously. I’ve been lonely for years. And since we moved here, I’ve even been missing my dad’s fiancée. How lame is that?”
“Well, Kingston is a big school. You should have your choice of friends.”
Chelsea nodded, but she wondered what that meant. Was Janelle gently hinting that she didn’t have room in her social life for Chelsea, and that she’d have to find her own friends?
“So you must have some other interests,” Janelle persisted. “Beyond academics, I mean.”
“Well, I do have this weird addiction to a couple of reality shows.” Chelsea felt embarrassed. Maybe she was truly hopeless. All those years of retreating and hiding might have permanently damaged her. Maybe she was socially retarded. But she reminded herself of one of Kate’s self-confidence rules. Keep your inner voice upbeat and positive. Don’t listen to the lies.
“I’m into drama,” Janelle told her. “Last year I got to play Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
“I thought Puck was a guy.”
“We made him unisex.” She laughed, waving her hand over her petite form, which was much less curvy than Chelsea’s. “Besides, as you can see, I can still pass for a boy.”
“You know, I’ve been thinking about getting more involved in drama. I was in drama before, but thanks to my social anxieties, I remained way back behind the scenes.”
“With your looks, you could probably get a good part. That is, if you can act.”
“I’d be willing to try.” Chelsea didn’t want to admit that she felt like she was acting most of the time these days anyway. Mostly she hoped her act would feel natural by the time school started. She just needed to get some more practice in the meantime.
Janelle tossed an empty box onto a stack of others. “Hey, we’re almost done in here.”
“Thanks so much for helping.”
Janelle looked at the clock on the stove. “I should probably get going. I have a youth group thing at six.”
“Youth group?”
Janelle shrugged like she was uncomfortable. “You know, for church.”
“Oh.”
“Are you into that sort of thing?” Janelle seemed tentative.
Chelsea shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“I mean, a lot of kids think it’s kinda lame to still be going to youth group in high school.”
“I don’t think it’s lame. What kind of church do you belong to anyway?”
“It’s a nondenominational Christian church. And the youth group is actually pretty cool. Tonight’s a barbecue, and if you want, you’d be more than welcome to come along.”
“Really?”
Janelle seemed surprised. “Absolutely. You really want to?”
Chelsea nodded. “Sure.”
“Cool. We need to be ready to leave by 5:30 since I’m helping to set up the drinks table. Can you be ready by then?”
“No problem. How do we get there?”
“Alice is picking me up. She’s one of the leaders. The barbecue is at a park near the church, and you can dress pretty casual. Just come over to my house when you’re ready. Okay?”
“Sounds good.”
After Janelle left, Chelsea called Dad to let him know she was going out. At first he sounded concerned, but when she assured him that a youth leader was driving and that Janelle lived right next door, he seemed pleased. “That sounds great,” he told her. “In fact, I’ve been thinking it might be good to get involved in a church again. It’s like we sort of lost track of all that when your mom died.”
“I know.” Chelsea felt sad to remember how she’d gotten uncomfortable being around Virginia and the other girls at church and how she’d let that discourage her from attending. “I guess that was my fault.”
“I’m glad to hear you’re doing this, Chels. Have fun!”
“Thanks.” Chelsea hurried to take a shower, blow her hair dry, and do her makeup. Then she went to her new room, where everything was already unpacked and in its place. She opened her new walk-in closet and looked at the wardrobe Kate had helped her to build and wondered what to wear. Janelle had said casual, but Chelsea didn’t want to be too casual. She might be meeting kids she’d go to school with, and she wanted to make a good first impression.
She pulled out several items, holding them up in front of the mirror attached to the back of the closet door. Finally she decided on a white denim skirt. Stitched like jeans, it was kind of like shorts and it showed off her legs. She topped this with a light blue cami top that accentuated her tan as well as her curves. She added sandals and some hoop earrings that Kate said went with everything, then fluffed her hair, retouched her lip gloss, and took one last look in the mirror. She knew she looked hot.
Thinking that this youth group barbecue would be the perfect opportunity to practice her self-confidence tricks, she looped her new canvas Chloe bag over her shoulder and donned her favorite Gucci shades—all purchased at bargain prices. Feeling like a million bucks, she locked the house and headed next door.
“Wow.” Janelle looked surprised when she opened the door. “You clean up nicely.”
Chelsea laughed. “Well, thanks, I guess.”
Janelle introduced Chelsea to her mom as they picked up some grocery bags of drinks. Before they left the kitchen, a dark-haired guy came in, and Janelle introduced him as her older brother Grayson. “He just graduated high school last year.”
“Nice to meet you.” Grayson’s eyes lit up as he shook her hand.
“Chelsea’s the same age as me,” Janelle told him. “She and her dad just moved into the Ruiz house.”
He made a disappointed face. “Too bad you didn’t move here last year.”
“Why?” Chelsea asked.
He smiled. “Then we would’ve been in school together.”
Janelle gave him a sisterly punch in the arm. “Grayson’s getting ready to go to school back east. He leaves next week.”
“I think your ride’s here,” her mom called from another room.
“A real pleasure to meet you, Chelsea,” Grayson said.
“You know, you could always come to youth group tonight if you want to,” Janelle called after him.
Grayson looked at Chelsea again. “That’s tempting.” He shook his head. “Except that’s for high school kids.”
“Yes, and you’re so beyond that now.” Janelle laughed as they went out the front door to where a small car was waiting in the driveway. “Brothers!”
They put the bags in the trunk, and as they got into the backseat, Janelle introduced Chelsea to Alice, one of the youth leaders, and a girl named Bretta, who was sitting on the passenger side. Janelle quickly filled Bretta and Alice in on Chelsea. “Bretta’s a senior at Kingston,” she added.
The three girls made small talk as Alice drove. Chelsea tried to insert a comment here and there, but as she looked around the car, she realized that she was actually overdressed. Everyone else had on shorts and T-shirts. Still, Chelsea decided, she would not let this get to her. In some ways, it was no different than being in a bikini. She just needed to remember Kate’s rules for confidence. It would be good practice. And judging by the butterflies in her stomach just now, she still needed the practice.
At the park, Chelsea helped Janelle set up the drinks table by opening cases of soda and bags of ice and arranging them in a cooler. It didn’t take long, and then a game of volleyball was organized.
“Want to play?” Janelle asked.
Chelsea considered her white skirt and cami top and how they might fare on a volleyball court, then shook her head. “I’m not really that good at volleyball,” she admitted, which was true. “Maybe I’ll just cheer from the sidelines.”
“Okay.” Janelle nodded, then ran over to the sandy area where the nets were set up.
Chelsea found a nearby bench, and feeling slightly out of place but determined not to show it, she sat down. She crossed one leg over the other and pretended to be comfortable, watching the volleyball players jumping and leaping and yelling as the game heated up. They seemed to be having fun, and part of her was frustrated at not being able to participate, but another part was relieved. Pacing is everything, she thought. Give yourself time.
“Are you part of this group?”
Chelsea looked up to see a lanky blond guy looking down at her with a semi-serious expression. He had on khaki shorts, a sports T-shirt, and a ball cap. “What do you mean?” she asked.
He sat down next to her. “The youth group. I mean, I haven’t seen you around before, have I?”
“Oh, well, no.” She explained about being new in town and her recent connection to Janelle.
“That’s cool.” He smiled. “Very cool. I’m Chase Lassiter. My dad’s actually one of the pastors at church, so I guess I can officially welcome you to our youth group.”
“So when your dad’s a pastor, does that mean you’re forced to participate in youth group?”
He laughed. “Not exactly, but that’s not far from the truth either.”
“I wasn’t suggesting that it’s not cool or anything.” She adjusted her shades. “I mean, this is my first visit. It looks like people are having a good time.”
He tipped his head toward the volleyball area. “So you’re not the athletic type then?”
She shrugged. “Not so much today.”
“In that case, I’m not either.” He began questioning her about where she was from and what grade she was in and all the usual stuff. She could tell that he was more than a little interested in her.
Another guy came over to them. Like Chase, he was tall, but his hair was dark and wavy. In Chelsea’s opinion, he was better looking. “Hey, Lassiter, what are you doing over here warming the bench instead of playing?”
“This is Nicholas Prague,” Chase told her. “He can be a real pest, but we put up with him.” He introduced Chelsea, explaining that she was new in town.
Jerk Magnet, The (Life at Kingston High Book #1) Page 7
