She’s nodding really fast. “Sure! I’m wearing the pink one, but you can wear the turquoise-striped one.”
“Thank you so much!” I don’t need to worry about flip-flops since they’re the only shoes I wear all summer long, and we can steal towels from the spa supply closet. Mom made a mistake with the ordering and they were final sale, so we have way more than we need anyway.
We walk over to the beach. It’s hot, but there’s a nice breeze and little humidity, so we’re not sweating that much. That’s a good thing. It’s never good to be super sweaty when meeting new people.
On the way over, I tell Bevin that we’ll probably see my friends from school there.
“Sunny?” she asks.
“No, Sunny has plans, but other people,” I tell her. “So just be chatty and friendly. If you see them picking at their nails, or looking off into the distance, it means you’re talking too much.”
“Really?” She seems more fascinated by this than insulted, so that’s a good thing. I don’t want to hurt her feelings, but I do have to be honest. Sometimes she really goes on and on forever.
Just as I suspected, the AGE girls are sitting on one of the benches, drinking sodas, with towels draped over their shoulders.
“Lucy!” Annabelle calls out. I’ve known her since nursery school, but we’ve never really been friends. She’s perfect for Bevin’s training.
“Hi guys, this is my family friend Bevin.” I gently push her toward them, and she waves and says hi. “Her dad is helping with the opening of the spa, so they’re staying in Connecticut for the summer.”
“Oh, cool,” Georgina says. “Where are you from?”
“Manhattan,” Bevin tells them, and then looks at me. I guess she’s worried about talking too much, but she can say more than one word.
“Really?” Eve yelps. She’s the shortest person I know and has a really high-pitched squeaky voice. “That is sooooo cool.”
“Yeah,” Georgina adds. “You, like, live in the best city in the world.”
“I guess.” Bevin laughs. “It’s not like I hang out with celebrities or anything.”
“Not even a Real Housewife?” Annabelle laughs.
“Not really.” Bevin shifts from foot to foot and I try as hard as I can to think of something else to say, a conversation Bevin can participate in, so we’re not just standing here awkwardly.
“I’m gonna go get us a snack,” I tell Bevin. Maybe it’s too soon to leave her on her own with people she doesn’t know, but it might be good for her to jump right in. Besides, I’m a little hungry, and sharing snacks always helps cover awkward silences.
I get an order of onion rings and some cut-up watermelon and figure it should hold us over until lunch.
When I get back, Bevin’s sitting on the bench between Georgina and Annabelle. They don’t even notice me standing there.
“Would you rather eat only lima beans and chocolate for the rest of your life or get to eat whatever you want but no chocolate for the rest of your life?” Annabelle asks.
“That’s kind of a weird one,” Georgina says.
“I’d have to say the second choice,” Bevin adds.
“Can I exchange lima beans for asparagus, because I looooove asparagus?” Eve asks.
“This isn’t even your question,” Annabelle says to her. “And obviously not!”
This goes on and on for about five more minutes, and then they notice me.
“Bevin’s really good at Would you rather,” Annabelle says, grabbing an onion ring from me.
“That’s why I brought her to hang out,” I tell them. “I knew you’d appreciate her skills.”
Bevin smiles and sits up straighter. It’s the happiest I’ve ever seen the girl, and I’ve known her for a while.
We stay at the beach for the rest of the afternoon. AGE embraced Bevin much quicker than I thought they would, so I don’t have much to do. But I can’t complain—that was my goal in the first place.
At five P.M., I get a text from Sunny.
Where r u? stopped by pharmacy. Gma said u were wit bevin?
I decide to ignore it. The whole story’s too long to explain over a text and I really can’t sneak away and call her right now anyway.
“Are you guys staying for the hot-dog-eating contest?” Georgina asks.
“I totally forgot about that!” I yell, and then remember that Sunny and Evan had mentioned something about it earlier. Back when we all hung out.
“Let’s stay,” Bevin says, a whine in her voice like a little kid. “Please, please, please can we stay?”
Uh-oh.
I laugh to break the awkwardness. “Ha. Bevin, your little-kid imitation is really good.” She looks confused for a second and then catches on.
“I’ve been working on it,” she says. And then AGE laugh too, and I feel reassured that my work with Bevin is actually paying off.
I quickly text my mom that we’re going to grab dinner on the boardwalk and that we’ll be back at the pharmacy before closing.
People start coming and lining up outside of Hotdogger & Co. I doubt they’re all participating; I think they just like to watch people stuff their faces.
We have a really good spot toward the front since we’ve basically been here all day.
We’re watching the staff set up the tables and the big bins of hot dogs when I feel a tap on my shoulder.
“Lucy?”
I turn around. My heart is pounding because I obviously know that voice. I’d know it anywhere, even in a loud, screaming concert with a million people.
“Hi, Sun.” I try to act calm even though I’m a total idiot—Sunny told me about this event weeks ago. I completely forgot she was coming, and I never texted her back.
But she’s always busy with Evan. I doubt she even cares that I’m here.
“Who are you here with? I stopped by the pharmacy and then texted, to see if you wanted to come, and I got no response,” she says, sounding befuddled.
“Oh, just Bevin and AGE.” I point at them. They’re watching us talk, and it’s a little freaky.
I’m sure Sunny’s confused since I don’t usually hang out with them, but I can’t explain with them listening in.
“Oh.” She raises her eyebrows and stays silent for a few seconds. “Well, come on, let’s go up front.”
I turn around and look at Bevin and AGE, and then back at Sunny. Now I’m the confused one.
I laugh. “Sun, you’re participating? We were planning on staying here and watching famous hot-dog eaters, like that guy who always does the Coney Island contest.”
Sunny cracks up. “No. You and Yamir are participating! Remember? We signed you guys up at my house that day after the Earth Club Earth Day party.”
I try to think back, but I can barely remember anything from before we got the grant and started the construction, from before Sunny and Evan started going out, and before Claudia came home and Bevin moved to Connecticut. Everything happened so fast that it’s all a blur.
“I think I’m going to beat my record,” Yamir says, seemingly coming out of nowhere. “Last year I had eleven. I can totally do it.”
Is this really happening?
“Last chance to sign up,” a woman yells out to the crowd. “We had a few cancellations, so we have a few more spots!”
“Sunny, you can do it too.” I pat her on the back, trying to inch her forward to sign up.
“Are you kidding?” She looks at me like I just told her to swim across the Atlantic Ocean. “I’m not doing it.”
“You’re not gonna bail, right Luce-Juice?” Yamir grabs my hands, and then raises them in the air like we’re at some kind of political rally or something. “Luce-Juice! Luce-Juice!”
I let go of his hands. “I guess not,” I say quietly.
“You’re in the contest?” Annabelle squeaks. “Is that why you’ve been hanging out here all day?”
“No, I forgot Sunny signed me up.” I laugh, then look over at Bevin. She shouldn’t en
ter this contest. She spits when she eats and gets food all over her face, and a hot-dog-eating contest isn’t a good thing for her personality makeover.
To be honest, I’m a little embarrassed that I’m doing it.
Bevin goes to the bathroom with AGE and I’m left standing by myself for a minute, wondering if entering a hot-dog-eating contest is a huge game changer with Yamir. Maybe, if I do it, he won’t see me in a girly way anymore. I’ll just be some competitor, like one of the guys, and then we’ll never go on a real date.
I tap him on the shoulder. “Yamir, I think I changed my mind. My stomach is kind of weird all of a sudden and—”
“Oh, come on!” he says. “You’ll be great.”
I tell myself that it’s fine, that we’re doing something together, that he wants me to be a part of it. So what that I forgot about it until now? Maybe it’s better that I forgot, that way I wasn’t nervous all day. I guess I was so busy thinking about Bevin that I wasn’t thinking about myself.
The people who work at Hotdogger & Co. seat each of us at a little table with a plate overflowing with hot dogs. It’s a no-buns kind of event and we can have as much water as we want.
“Don’t fill up on water,” Yamir whispers to me. “Just eat. Don’t think.”
The woman wearing a giant hot dog costume reads out the rules. There are fifteen people participating and what seems like a hundred spectators. Of our friends, Yamir and I are the only ones participating. Sunny, Evan, Clint, and Anthony are standing around us cheering, and so are Bevin and AGE.
“Go, Lucy! Go, Yamir! Go, Lucy and Yamir!” They keep saying it over and over again. It’s a nice feeling when someone cheers for you.
The hot dog costume lady blows her whistle, and we all start eating.
It’s weird to shove hot dogs in your mouth while people cheer for you, but then every few seconds, I look over at Yamir sitting next to me and he smiles this crooked smile because his mouth is full of hot dogs and it makes me laugh. And then I just keep eating. And for the first time in a while, I’m not thinking about the spa and Anais and all of that, I’m just thinking about eating hot dogs, and sitting next to Yamir, and Sunny and everyone cheering for us.
So I just keep eating and smiling and then before I know it, the hot dog lady is grabbing my arm and waving it in the air. “We have a wiener!” she yells. “Fifteen hot dogs!”
I can’t believe I ate fifteen hot dogs. For the last few, I was just focusing on my plate and eating and thinking about Yamir and me. If we got married one day, we could tell everyone about this day and all the crazy things we did together.
I look down the row at my competition. It appears they all stopped eating a few seconds ago. I hadn’t even noticed. Even Yamir is just sitting there, holding his stomach.
“What’s your name?” hot dog lady whispers.
“Lucy.” After I say it, my stomach starts to get funny and I wonder if drinking water will make it feel better or worse.
“Lucy here has just won unlimited hot dogs for an entire year!” the hot dog lady yells and hands me a giant check, but it doesn’t really make sense, since there’s no dollar amount on it. It just says UNLIMITED HOT DOGS FOR A YEAR. It doesn’t even say dates or anything, but I guess they know when they’re giving it to me.
“Yay, Lucy!” Sunny yells, and everyone starts cheering and it’s all I can do not to throw up. Sunny squeezes her way to the front of the crowd so she can talk to me without anyone hearing. “When you’ve recovered, we have to talk.”
“About?”
“About why you ditched me for AGE … and Bevin.”
“Sunny, come on,” I start, but then she gets a call from her mom and they need to figure out where they’re meeting her, so she walks away to talk to her.
“You rocked that, Luce-Juice,” Yamir says. “I’d kiss you right now, but we both ate a million hot dogs, so it would be kind of gross.”
At first I don’t process what he just said because I’m so focused on my insane thirst, and the fact that Sunny’s really mad at me, and the fact that I just ate fifteen hot dogs. My mouth is too tired to say anything out loud.
Yamir just said he would kiss me. I wonder if he was serious.
“Lucy!” I hear Bevin yelling from the bench a few feet away from us. “Georgina’s mom can drive us to the pharmacy! She’ll be here in five minutes—come on.”
I yell back OK, and then when I turn to say good-bye to Yamir and find Sunny, I see them already walking away, toward the parking lot.
Bevin arranged a ride home for us, with Georgina Emminson of all people, probably the most popular girl in our grade. Yamir said he’d kiss me, but we’d just eaten a million hot dogs. Sunny thinks I ditched her.
All of these things are bizarre, and I want to figure them out. But I don’t know where to start.
I think about Bevin and I wonder if it’s just all about leaving your comfort zone. I threw her in with strangers and she did fine. But when she hung around me and the spa, she was the most annoying girl in the world. Maybe people just need to shake things up every once in a while.
Maybe that’s what it would be like if Dad came back to Connecticut for real. It would just shake things up. And maybe that would be good. Or maybe it would be bad. It’s hard to say for sure, and in the meantime, it’s a lot to worry about.
for a few days to handle all the filing for the spa inspections and certifications. Mom, Grandma, Anais, and Gary have been working on the paperwork for weeks now, and it always seems like they’re tearing their hair out over it.
Morrie had to come in and sign some papers since he’s the accountant and financial adviser. They’ve had to get forms notarized and go back and forth to the bank and city hall three million times.
It all seems really annoying and frustrating. Like if they forget to cross one t, it’ll all fall apart. I hope not, but it seems that way.
So before Anais leaves she wants us all to have a meeting so we can catch each other up on what we’ve been doing. Unfortunately she’s leaving by ten, so our meeting is happening at eight A.M.
We’re all sitting in the Relaxation Room since none of the other meeting areas are big enough to hold all of us. But the Relaxation Room is the most calming, so it’s obviously the best spot for an early-morning meeting.
“This is gonna be fast, right?” Bevin whispers in my ear.
I shrug. I don’t even know why she’s sitting here. She doesn’t have to be. “I don’t know. Why?”
“I told Annabelle we’d meet her at the pool in her neighborhood.” She pauses. “You know where that is, right?”
“You made plans with Annabelle without me?” I ask. I can’t tell if I’m annoyed or hurt or impressed. Hanging out with AGE was just supposed to be practice for Bevin. I don’t really want to make a habit of it. They’re super-popular, and they’re not always the nicest girls.
“Well, I—”
“OK, thanks for meeting me so early,” Anais interrupts. Claudia flicks Bean’s shoulder because he’s falling asleep on the couch with his head back and his mouth wide open. He jerks forward. “I’ll be gone for a few days and I just want to make sure we’re all on the same page.”
Each week that Anais has been here, she’s gotten progressively stricter and more stressed. Maybe it’s harder work than she thought it was going to be, or maybe we’re just hard to work with. Either way, her job is starting to seem like less fun than it was at first.
“Our website and e-mail addresses are all set up.” She looks over at my mom. “Thank you to Jane for finding that wonderful web designer and for working with him on the layout. I’ve worked with him on all the technical stuff, and he’s great.”
“Oh, my pleasure. Seth’s an old friend from college. He does great work. And would you believe his first career was veterinary work. Unbelievable.” Grandma pats her leg and whispers something in her ear and then Mom stops talking.
“So the URL is pinkandgreenspa.com and it will be linked from the Old Mill Pha
rmacy site. I’ve made a few e-mail addresses and there’s room to make more. So far we have [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected]. We need to make sure we’re checking these at least once an hour in the coming weeks, so I’ve made it easy. The password for every e-mail is Desberg384. We can change it later, but that way it’s easy and we know it so we can all check it and make sure everything is covered.”
I’m so glad she just told everyone the password, because if she had done it in private and I was left out, I would have been so upset.
“We’re still waiting on the shipment of brochures, business cards, and other marketing materials.” Anais looks over at me. “Thanks to Lucy’s friends and their family, we’ve secured a great price on printing.”
I smile. It feels good to be thanked, even if it’s just for knowing Sunny and the Ramals.
“We’re still a little short-staffed, but Claudia and Bean will be continuing the interviews and demo procedures this week while I’m away.” She looks down at her notebook. “Jane has to finish the last few supply orders. And then when I’m back, Doris and I need to finalize all the plans for the grand opening, if we want a booth on the street or how we want to approach it.”
“A booth on the street could be great!” I exclaim. “We could have one of those portable massage chairs out there, and give free two-minute massages to bring people in.”
Everyone’s nodding. “That’s an idea,” Mom says.
“We could also sell some skin-care products in the booth,” Claudia adds, “and take appointments.”
Mom’s phone starts ringing and she hops up from the couch. “I gotta take this, guys. It’s Sam calling from London. Be right back.”
Grandma puts her head back and closes her eyes for a second, like she’s about to scream but trying to hold it in. I wonder why. Maybe she’s mad at my dad for something, but I can’t imagine what. She always seemed to like my dad, even now that they never see each other.
Mom closes the pharmacy office door to have the phone conversation with my dad. I would pay a million dollars—if I had a million dollars—to find out what that phone call is all about.
My Summer of Pink & Green Page 10
