Amigas and School Scandals

by Diana Rodriguez Wallach

  I nodded. In fact, I knew exactly which families lived in most of them. Many had kids who went to my school.

  “They’re bigger than my grandfather’s hotel!”

  “Well, your uncle’s hotel was kinda small... .”

  “It had a restaurant.”

  “Trust me, your family’s restaurant could probably fit into the pantries of their kitchens.”

  “What, do they have, like, twenty kids?” she mumbled, shaking her head.

  “Actually, I doubt they have more than two. The rest is just ... space.”

  “It’s a little different from Utuado,” my father offered, glancing at her through his rearview mirror.

  “Uh, yeah.”

  “But it’s home,” he added.

  “Your home,” I cheered, grabbing her arm.

  While my welcome to Utuado had been boisterous—featuring a couple dozen distant relatives, a banquet of food, and a makeshift dance floor in the living room—Lilly was only greeted by a giant poodle and a busy maid. (Josephine was frantically completing a last-minute dust of our crisply-clean, lemon-scented home.)

  My mom said she’d order Chinese food, unless Lilly wanted something else; my cousin silently nodded in agreement. I showed her the guest room she’d call home for the foreseeable future and left her alone to adjust. I remembered that all I wanted when I arrived in Puerto Rico was time by myself. So I gave her the luxury that I didn’t receive and hurried into my bedroom. Everything looked different.

  After two months of sharing a cement shoebox with my brother, in side-by-side twin beds, my shabby chic, four-poster pillowtop queen looked like a cloud-covered paradise. Dozens of decorative pillows were perfectly positioned in front of the headrest. Two fresh gardenia candles sat on the bedside table. The sun beamed through the skylight in twinkling streaks.

  I tossed my suitcase on top of my hope chest. My luggage was completely packed with dirty clothes. I should have just deposited it in the laundry room, only I couldn’t wait to be alone in my own space. I hadn’t realized how much I missed the solitude. Back in Puerto Rico, the house was so small and crammed with relatives that it was hard to get the bathroom to myself. Now I had a private marble bath adjacent to my bedroom, and no one to walk in while I showered.

  I could hear Lilly sifting through the drawers in her room next to mine as I slowly plopped onto my bed and sprawled out. I stared at the cordless phone on my nightstand. I knew I should call Emily or Madison, but the thought made my shoulders stiffen. I didn’t want to fight, or even worse pretend that everything was fine when we all knew that it wasn’t. But I knew the more I avoided the phone call, the more my insides would knot, so I picked up the receiver and dialed the memorized digits.

  “Hey Mad. It’s Mariana. I’m home.”

  We sat in my bedroom staring at each other. No one was speaking. I picked at a loose thread in my comforter and tried to act normal (though I had no idea what that looked like anymore). The silence made me nervous—a sensation I tried to hide behind a weak, forced smile. I swallowed a solid lump.

  “Look, I’m sorry I missed your party. It sounds like it was awesome,” I choked softly, my finger still pecking at the thread.

  “It was. I mean, please, Orlando Bloom was there. It doesn’t get any better.” Madison shook her pale blond hair.

  “I know. I can’t believe I missed the party of the year. That totally sucks.”

  “Well, you should have seen Jody Marsh’s Sweet Sixteen. It was so lame. Her DJ actually played the Electric Slide, and she served mini hot dogs. How tacky is that?” Madison scoffed.

  “They’re called ‘pigs in a blanket,’ and they weren’t that bad,” Emily corrected from her seat at my desk.

  “Whatever. They were gross.”

  “Still, I wish I could have gone to yours. I can’t believe I was stuck in Puerto Rico.”

  I had weighed the situation upside down and backwards. I didn’t have many options. Madison and Emily were my best friends. I wasn’t going to lose them over some forced vacation, and I had a hunch that anything positive I said about my trip would only tick them off more. Madison had made that very clear when I had called earlier. She subtly opened our conversation with, “Oh, great. The chica’s back from Puerto Rico. Wait, you still speak English, right?”

  Not to mention, I had yet to drop the big bombshell: that I was now living with a distant Puerto Rican cousin who would be attending our school. Oh, wait, I forgot to mention that I wanted her to be our new best friend. I was sure that would go over like candy in kindergarten (yeah, right). Thankfully, when they got here, Lilly was off on the other side of the house getting the “grand tour” by my mother. My friends were still blissfully unaware of her existence.

  I figured that the only way I could prove to Madison and Emily that I hadn’t turned into some body-snatched impersonation of the girl they once knew was to pretend that I hated my trip and that I missed them nonstop. That’s what they expected when they left me at the Philadelphia International Airport and that’s what I was going to give them.

  “Well, aside from Madison’s party, did I miss anything else?” I asked, glancing at Emily.

  She rolled her eyes and ignored my question, flipping the page of the magazine she was scanning—the same one Lilly had read on the plane. I flinched slightly.

  I had expected Madison to be annoyed with me, but I had thought that I could count on Emily to be the rational one. Madison was the drama queen, not Emily. Only now she wasn’t just sporting a new attitude, she was sporting a whole new look. Her dark brown tresses, which used to fall to her waist, were now chopped to her shoulders. It was the shortest I’d seen her hair since grade school, yet she never even mentioned the new do. I had no idea when she cut it, but from the way she casually tugged at her ends, it looked as if she were long used to the style.

  “So, what ever happened with you and Bobby?” I asked, hoping to spin the conversation.

  It was the first real date any of us had ever been on—well, if you didn’t count me and Alex. And since they barely knew he and I had a relationship, he pretty much didn’t count. At least not to them.

  “It was nothing. We went to a movie with a bunch of people. Then, he left for Dublin.”

  “Is he back yet?” I asked.

  “I think so, but it doesn’t matter. I’m not his girlfriend.”

  “Oh, please! He likes you! You know he does. Why would he have asked you out if he didn’t?” Madison’s tan legs spread out before her on the carpet. Her freshly polished, “cherries in snow” toes peeked out of her nude sandals. “Stop being all ‘bah humbug.’”

  Emily shrugged and shook her head.

  “I can talk to him, if you want,” I offered. “We’re locker buddies. I’ll see him almost every day, once school starts.”

  “No, don’t! That would be awful. Just drop it.” Emily’s green eyes stretched wide.

  “Em, if you don’t make a move, then nothing’s gonna happen,” Madison said.

  “Whatever. I’m sure he has plenty of things to think about other than me. Plus, he probably met some hot redhead in Ireland and fell madly in love.”

  “Never underestimate the power of a redhead,” I joked.

  Just then, a crash erupted from the guest room next to us. It sounded like boxes tumbling onto the floor.

  “Ay, mierda!” Lilly shouted as Tootsie barked at the commotion from downstairs.

  “Your maid speaks Spanish? I didn’t know that.” Madison’s blue eyes squinted.

  “Um, no. That wasn’t Josephine,” I stated quickly.

  “Mariana! Will you help me? All this crap just fell out of the closet. It looks like a bunch of old photo albums. I think they’re yours,” Lilly yelled through the walls, her Spanish accent squeaking through.

  “Who the hell is that?” Madison asked.

  “Oh, well, um, I was going to tell you. But I was waiting for the right moment. You see, when I was in Puerto Rico ...”

  Before I cou
ld finish, Lilly popped in the doorway, her auburn hair piled loosely atop her head, her freckled face gleaming with sweat, and her lips curled in a grin almost identical to mine.

  “Whoa,” Madison mumbled.

  Emily dropped her magazine.

  I stood up and rushed toward Lilly, my dark eyes full of warning. The hair from my ponytail was falling into my face, and I realized that we must have looked like carbon copies.

  “I didn’t realize you had company,” she muttered as she yanked at her too-tight tank top. About three inches of cleavage was showing—our one striking difference.

  “Yeah, no biggie,” I said, nodding at her before facing my friends. “Um, guys, this is my cousin, Lilly. Who I told you about, remember? Um, well, she’s going to be staying with us for a while . . . to go to school ... at Spring Mills.”

  Madison and Emily froze, their eyes almost popping from their skulls.

  “What?” Madison screeched.

  It wasn’t exactly the warmest welcome.

  “I’ve moved in,” Lilly cheered. “I’m gonna see if I can follow in Mr. Ruíz’s footsteps.”

  Madison blinked at her as if she were a ghostly vision that would eventually go away. When that didn’t happen, she slowly grabbed the car keys from her purse. (Her parents bought her an Audi for her sixteenth birthday.)

  “Ya know, I gotta get going,” she said softly. “Em, you coming?”

  She looked at her friend, who was already standing, shoving her feet back into her sandals. They peeled out within seconds, not uttering another word to Lilly. They barely said goodbye to me.

  There wasn’t much I could defend about their behavior.

  “So, your friends totally hate me,” Lilly said as we trudged towards Vince’s room, still reeling in their wake.

  I had offered to help him pack for Cornell, and I figured he’d be much friendlier company at the moment. He was obligated by blood to be nice to us.

  “That’s not true,” I lied as I stuck my head into Vince’s room.

  His stereo was blaring an indecipherable screaming rock band as he taped a cardboard box closed. He was leaving in less than a week, and he had to find time to shove the entire contents of his room into boxes while still having a “raging send-off” with his high school buds. It didn’t help that my mom had inconveniently planned a family barbeque in a few days to welcome Lilly into our home and to wish Vince luck in college. He hadn’t stopped complaining about the impending get-together since we had landed.

  “Thank God!” he cried when he saw us. “Can you label these boxes?”

  “What’s in them?” I asked as I sifted through a collection of soap, underwear, CDs, and bedsheets all lumped together in a carton.

  “Everything,” he grumbled. “Just label.”

  He tossed me a marker. Lilly collapsed onto his bed amidst a heaping pile of towels and sweaters.

  “Vince, Mariana’s friends hate me,” she whined.

  “Don’t take it personally,” he grunted, not looking up from his T-shirt-packed suitcase. “They hate everyone but themselves. I’ve never seen three people so obsessed with each other.”

  “Shut up, Vince!” I yelped, chucking a balled sock at him. “We’re friends. Maybe some day you’ll know what that’s like.”

  “I have friends. Lots of them. More than two.” He sat on the suitcase and tried to yank the zipper closed. There was about six inches between the seams.

  I scrunched my nose at him, then peered at Lilly. “If I like you, they’ll like you. Trust me. It’ll work out.”

  Of course I really wasn’t so sure. Madison and Emily had gawked at Lilly as if she were a three-headed elephant. They didn’t even give me a chance to explain what she was doing here, and how my father had invited her, and how she’d get a better education in Spring Mills. They just bolted out, and at this point, I didn’t know if they’d ever warm up to me again, let alone my newly imported cousin.

  “Can you believe Mom’s hosting a stupid barbeque?” Vince choked as he tossed a couple of T-shirts out of the suitcase and tried to force the zipper closed once more.

  “Oh, give her a break. She’s trying to be nice,” I stated as I continued scribing an itemized list of contents on the outside of a box.

  “Nice to who? She’s totally ruining my last week here!”

  “By throwing you a party? Gee, how selfish of her,” I moaned.

  “Ya wanna wish me well? Send me a card ... with some money in it,” he joked.

  “Well, I wanna meet your family,” Lilly stately plainly.

  “See, Vince? It’s not all about you,” I noted. “Plus, Mom loves stuff like this... .”

  Our mother was our very own Martha Stewart, only she didn’t do any of the work herself. She delegated her “party ideas” to a staff of experienced helpers. This “End of Summer BBQ” had been arranged while we were still in Puerto Rico. My mom had been planning it for weeks, only it was originally intended simply to welcome me back from vacation and to wish Vince luck at Cornell. Now she had Lilly to add to the festivities, and I figured she might as well throw in the fourth cause for celebration: the new addition to our family. After all, my uncles still didn’t know about our run-in with Teresa, and I was sure they would be thrilled to find out we had all bonded with their illegitimate half sister—the one who had caused the whole family to flee Puerto Rico when they were teenagers and never look back. I was sure they were just dying to relive those memories.

  “Hey, you think Dad’s gonna tell Uncle Roberto and Uncle Diego about Teresa?” I asked.

  “Well, he has to. Doesn’t he?” Lilly asked as she watched us pack.

  “You clearly don’t know our family,” Vince said, still aggressively pushing the suitcase closed. “Here in the Ruíz household, we don’t talk about uncomfortable family dramas. In fact, we pretend they don’t exist.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Vince peered at Lilly.

  “Well, for instance, I got arrested a couple of years ago for underage drinking. It was no big deal, but my dad totally blew it out of proportion. He freaked out and grounded me for, like, eternity. But every time my neighbors or my uncles asked why I wasn’t out on a Saturday night, my dad would say ‘Oh, he’s just studying. Gotta keep those grades up for the Ivy Leagues.’ ” Vince rolled his eyes as he finally wrenched the suitcase zipper closed.

  He pumped his fist triumphantly. I chuckled, then turned toward Lilly.

  “And before our grandfather died, our parents totally downplayed his illness,” I said. “They acted like he was going to get better any day. So when he didn’t, it was a complete shock.”

  “Why would they do that?” Lilly’s forehead crumpled.

  “We have no idea; that’s the point. Our family’s weird. And our uncles are the same way. They would have never told us about their bastard sister... .”

  “Vince!” I interrupted. “Don’t call her that.”

  He shrugged.

  “Well, it’s not like you guys can act like nothing happened this summer,” Lilly said. “I mean, just because your parents act that way doesn’t mean you have to.”

  Vince and I exchanged a look. We didn’t say anything. It was as if the thought had never occurred to us.

  Chapter 3

  After two days of nonstop planning, the day of the big cookout had finally arrived. Our house was packed with catering staff clad in black pants and white aprons serving hors d’oeuvres table-to-table. Grill stations were being lit throughout the backyard preparing to serve everything from chicken to burgers to veggie kabobs. The sun shined in the pure blue sky as the scent of charcoal wafted in waves. It would have been the perfect end to summer, if only my guests had been able to tolerate one another.

  I had spent the past forty-eight hours trying to reassure Madison and Emily that Lilly was a completely normal person worthy of their friendship, while simultaneously trying to convince Lilly that she would love my friends once she got to know them. But I could tell th
at no one was really buying it. We now sat on my patio—surrounded by extended family and packs of Vince’s friends—listening to an endless loop of stories from Madison’s “super cool Sweet Sixteen.” Even my eyes were glazing over.

  “So, you should have seen the dress that Tracy Beckett wore to my party. First off, it was lime green. I mean, the girl has bright red hair. Uh, ‘HELL-O!’ Clash much? And secondly, it was barely long enough to cover her butt, and you know how big that butt is,” Madison said as she plopped her two-pound Chihuahua on the ground and filled a tiny bowl of water.

  “I heard it was really expensive,” Emily mumbled.

  “The dress? God, I hope not. But I guess money can’t buy taste.” Madison glanced at me. “Where’s Tootsie?”

  “Oh, the poodle’s inside. My mom’s worried about people’s allergies.”

  “Ah, Tweetie doesn’t cause allergies. Do you Tweetie?” she cooed at the tiny pooch.

  Lilly shot me a look, then turned her focus toward my brother who was setting up a serve. He had put up a volleyball net that afternoon. He figured that if he had to invite his friends to a family party, with no alcohol, he’d have to provide some means of entertainment or none of his boys would stay for longer than five minutes. So, for the past hour, they’d been killing each other with serves and spikes that looked more like assaults than friendly competition.

  “And did I tell you that Luke hooked up with Mandy on the dance floor? You should have seen Carly’s face. I thought her head was gonna spin in circles. You know she’s still obsessed with him,” Madison continued.

  “So do you have boyfriend?” Lilly asked, her head cocked.

  “Um, no. Why?” Madison said, slightly deflated. She grabbed her dog off the grass and placed him protectively in her lap.

  “Oh, I don’t know. I’m just surprised. You seem to be so popular.” Lilly’s lips curled in a grin.

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “Really? I guess it’s just the way you’ve been talking. It sounds like everyone must love you. You did hang out with Orlando Bloom.”