Isabella, Jake, and Ryan waved good-bye to Ashley and Andrew and headed down the street. When they got to Rose’s town house, she was standing at the front door.
“Miriam told me you were on your way,” Rose said. “Did you have fun?”
“Lots,” Isabella replied. “We went on all the rides.”
Rose looked surprised. “But Ryan hates rides! He’s afraid of roller coasters.”
“Grandma!” Ryan sounded mortified. “Maybe when I was a little kid. But not now.”
Isabella remembered how miserable Ryan had looked when he’d heard they were going to Adventure Land, how green he’d looked after he got off the mine carts, and how he kept suggesting they do stuff that didn’t involve rides. It all made sense now.
“Ryan! Why did you go on the rides if you don’t like them?” Isabella asked.
He shrugged. “I just wanted to hang out with you . . . guys,” he replied. Then he gave her a sly smile.
Isabella felt a little flutter of happiness inside her. Did he do that for me? she wondered. It sure seemed that way.
“Well, good night,” she said, and then she and Jake headed back to Grandma’s. When they got there, they found the pink bear sitting comfortably in a chair in her living room.
“You’re going to need another seat on the plane for him,” Grandma joked as they came in.
“Oh my gosh, I didn’t think of that!” Isabella said.
“Don’t worry. You can keep it here and see it when you come back to visit.”
“Thanks,” Isabella said, hugging her.
As she walked up to her room, it hit her. They were flying home on Saturday morning! They had only two more full days of spring break. And when it was over, she would go back to Chicago and Ryan would go back to New York.
Even if the Shelbys hadn’t ruined everything, it wouldn’t matter, she thought with a sigh. What’s the point of having a crush on someone I’ll never see again?
chapter 10
THE NEXT MORNING, ISABELLA AND Jake were sitting at the kitchen table, about to eat breakfast with Grandma, when there was a knock on the door. Jake ran to open it. Isabella craned to see who it was. Could it be Ryan?
“Who wants doughnuts?” Andrew asked, thrusting a white box at Jake.
Ashley slipped past him. “Gran has another headache,” she reported. “She said yesterday was too much for her.”
“Well, it’s very nice of you to bring doughnuts for us,” Grandma Miriam remarked. “Come eat with us. I made enough scrambled eggs for an army.”
Isabella tried not to sigh loudly as Ashley and Andrew sat down. Even though yesterday had been fun, she was feeling pretty tired of the twins. Ashley buying Ryan that snow cone—what was that all about, anyway? And getting that pink teddy bear from Andrew had been so embarrassing!
After they finished eating, Ashley jumped up from the table and grabbed Isabella by the arm. “Come on. I want to see your room,” she said.
Ugh, Isabella thought. How pushy. “I need to help Grandma clear the table,” she said.
“That’s okay, Izzy. I’ve got it. You two have fun,” Grandma Miriam said with a wave of her hand.
Andrew started cracking up. “Izzy? Dizzy Izzy! That is great!”
Isabella turned to Andrew and gave him a look that could have disintegrated him.
“Grandma Miriam is the only one who calls me Izzy. The only one,” she repeated.
Andrew held up both hands. “Whoa, chill out. I got it.”
She stomped up the stairs, followed by Ashley. She pushed open the door to the room and flopped on the bed.
“Wow, this room is nice,” Ashley remarked as she looked around. “Gran sticks Andrew and me in a room the size of a broom closet. She uses the other guest room for all her clothes and stuff.”
“Usually my parents stay in here, and Jake and I have the smaller room too,” Isabella told her. “This is a lot better.”
Ashley started opening the dresser drawers. “This is such a cute shirt!” she cried, holding up the new blue shirt Isabella had bought the other day. “Why haven’t you worn it yet?”
“I thought I’d save it for my last day,” Isabella said, eyeing her. Who just opened drawers that weren’t theirs? This girl had no boundaries. “In case we do something special. We’re leaving the day after tomorrow.”
“Yeah, my mom’s picking us up later today,” Ashley said. “I know you’ll miss us. Especially Andrew.” She wiggled her eyebrows at Isabella.
It was too much for Isabella. “Listen, mind your own business, okay?” she said. “I don’t like Andrew at all. Not. One. Bit.”
Ashley didn’t seem fazed by Isabella’s angry tone. “Well, I read your texts. You like somebody. I know.”
“Ryan!” Isabella blurted out, although she had no idea why she was confiding that to Ashley. “I like Ryan, okay?”
Ashley made a face. “You like Ryan? Really?”
Confused, Isabella said, “I thought you liked him too. You bought him a snow cone yesterday.”
“I was just trying to make Jake jealous,” Ashley confessed.
“I thought you liked Jake!” Isabella cried.
Ashley went to the door and closed it. “Um, yeah, but you don’t have to announce it to the world.”
Isabella was so angry. This was the girl who had read her texts and gone through her drawers and she wanted her to be quiet about liking her brother. Then it hit her: She liked her brother.
Isabella tried to process this. It was one thing to guess that Ashley liked Jake, but to hear it from Ashley was kind of weird. It was hard to think about anybody having a crush on her brother. He was just so . . . Jake.
Ashley sat on the bed next to Isabella. “Your brother is so nice. You should know! You’re his twin. Only I wasn’t sure if he liked me back, so I thought maybe if I, like, flirted with Ryan a little, he might get jealous. But he didn’t even seem to notice.”
“Jake’s not like that,” Isabella told her. “He’s pretty chill. But you know, I think maybe he likes you too. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him talk and laugh that much with a girl before.”
“Really?” Ashley’s face brightened. “Cool. Anyway, I guess it’s okay that you like Ryan. Andrew will be crushed, though. He really, really likes you.”
Isabella nodded toward the giant pink bear that Grandma had stashed in the corner of the room. “Yeah, I kind of figured.”
They both laughed, and Isabella didn’t feel so mad at Ashley anymore. She was pretty fun to be around when she wasn’t being annoying. Maybe she just couldn’t help being a little . . . much, as Grandma would say.
Ashley gave a little sigh. “It’s too bad you guys live so far away,” she said, and Isabella was reminded of the fact that she and Ryan lived far away from each other too.
“I know,” Ashley said, jumping up. “We can’t go to the pool until after lunch, right? Then let’s invite Ryan over to play a board game or something. That way we can all hang together.”
“Sounds good!” Isabella agreed, and they went downstairs.
“Grandmawe’regoingtoinviteRyanoverandallplayaboardgameokay?” Isabella said all in one breath.
“That’s a wonderful idea!” Grandma Miriam said. “I’ll see what games I have in the closet.”
Before long, all five of them were around the kitchen table, playing Monopoly and munching on grapes that Grandma had put out for them. Andrew kept buying houses next to houses that Isabella had put on the board.
“Now we’re neighbors,” he said every time he did it, wiggling his eyebrows just like Ashley had up in Isabella’s room.
Must be a twin thing, Isabella thought. And it was kind of cute, but Isabella still cringed every time he did it. She kept looking over at Ryan to see if he noticed, but it didn’t seem to bother him.
Andrew kept it up when they all went to the pool after lunch.
“It’s time for the pool ball grand championships!” Jake announced, holding the beach ball in the air. He cl
imbed out of the pool and got on the diving board, still holding the ball. He took a deep breath—and then walked swiftly down the board, jumping hard. He curled up his arms and legs around the beach ball as he jumped. He crashed into the water, making a huge splash that sent water flying in all directions.
Jake emerged from the water, sputtering. “Beach ball cannonball!” he yelled triumphantly. “One hundred points!”
Instinctively, the rest of the kids looked at Mr. Stern. Miraculously, he was snoring loudly. Jake’s cannonball jump hadn’t woken him.
“And you also get an extra fifty points for not waking Mr. Stern,” Ashley said.
“What? What about me?” Mr. Stern asked, as he jerked awake.
Andrew gave him a big smile and a wave. “Hope you’re having a nice day, Mr. Stern!”
Mr. Stern mumbled something and closed his eyes again.
Then Andrew took the beach ball from Jake. “My turn!” he said. He climbed out of the pool and got on the diving board. As he jumped, he tossed the ball at Isabella and it bounced off her head. “That’s worth a thousand points, because Isabella is priceless!” he said.
“No way,” Jake protested. “That was a lame trick. Twenty points.”
“Yeah, twenty points,” Isabella said. “Okay, my turn.”
They goofed around for a while, playing pool ball, and then everyone got out to dry off and reapply their sunscreen. Andrew approached Isabella, holding his phone.
“Can I talk to you?” he asked.
“Um, sure,” Isabella said, a little nervously.
Andrew started to walk away from the others, and Isabella followed him.
“So, I was wondering if I could take a picture of you,” he said. “Then maybe I could show it to people and tell them you’re my girlfriend. You could be my girlfriend whenever you come to Florida, if you want.”
Isabella didn’t know what to say at first. This is really hard, she thought. I don’t want to hurt his feelings. Imagine if I asked Ryan to be my boyfriend and he said no. I’d be crushed.
“Wow, that’s really nice of you to ask,” she said. “It’s just . . . I’m not allowed to be anybody’s girlfriend until I’m older. It’s my parents’ rule. And anyway, I kind of like someone else.”
Why did I say that last part? she wondered. It was like there was something in the Florida sunshine that made her want to tell everyone her deepest secrets! But mostly it was because she just didn’t know what to say.
Andrew looked sad; Isabella realized she had never seen him do anything but smile. “That’s okay. I understand. I hope whoever he is, he deserves you.”
Isabella was touched. What a sweet thing to say. “Well, we can still hang out whenever we come down, right?”
Andrew grinned. “Right. Yeah.”
Relieved to see Andrew smiling again, Isabella turned back to join the others. She noticed that Ryan was looking at her. When he saw her watching, he quickly looked away.
Did he hear everything? she wondered nervously.
They went back in the pool and swam for a while, until they heard Lorraine’s voice call to them from outside the pool fence.
“Andrew! Ashley! Your mom will be here soon. I need you to come out,” she said.
“Sure thing, Gran,” Ashley said.
She gave Isabella a hug. “Have a safe trip home.”
“Give Jake a hug too,” she whispered to Ashley. So Ashley gave Jake a hug, and he looked really happy. Then Ashley gave Ryan a quick hug too.
“Bye, Isabella,” Andrew said wistfully, giving her a wave. “Bye, Jake. Bye, Ryan. See you guys around.” Isabella was glad he didn’t try to hug her.
She had mixed feelings as she watched them join their grandmother. On the one hand, it was a relief to see them go. But on the other hand, the Shelby twins had definitely made things interesting!
chapter 11
“THROW ON SOME CLOTHES, IZZY!” Grandma yelled up the stairs. “Rose is having us over for her famous spaghetti.”
“Okay, Grandma!” Isabella yelled back down. She had just showered after their afternoon at the pool. She slipped on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt and brushed out her hair. The sandy brown strands now had golden streaks in them from the sun.
Isabella leaned in to the mirror for a closer look. It feels like summer, she thought. The smell of the pool’s chlorine still lingered in her nose, and her clothes all smelled like sunshine. She picked up her phone and tapped the screen to get to her weather app. It was thirty-five degrees in Chicago, with an 80 percent chance of sleet. Isabella thought of going back there in two days and shivered.
She came downstairs and found Jake, already dressed, waiting in the living room with their grandmother.
“Finally!” Jake cried. “I’m so hungry!”
“You ate, like, six bananas and a bag of chips at the pool,” Isabella accused.
“It’s the Florida sunshine,” Jake protested. “It makes me hungry.”
“So does the Chicago snow,” Isabella teased him.
Jake shrugged. “I’m growing.”
“Yeah, maybe you’ll catch up to me soon,” Isabella teased.
Jake lunged for her, and Isabella darted away. “You are only half an inch taller! And I still say it’s because you got measured in your boots last time.”
“Did not!” Isabella protested, shrieking.
Grandma Miriam shook her head, smiling. “All right, calm down,” she said. “Although I’m glad to see that you two are still young enough to fool around like that. It does my heart good.”
Isabella stopped next to Grandma, panting. “Truce,” she said, holding out her hand to stop Jake.
Her brother skidded to a halt. “Fine. But when we get back to Chicago, I’m measuring myself again.”
Grandma looked at her watch. “It’s four thirty-one. Rose is probably getting anxious. We’d better go.”
The big orange sun hung low in the sky as they walked to Rose’s condo. Ryan greeted them at the door.
“Grandma’s got the table all set,” he said, rolling his eyes at Isabella and Jake so that Grandma Miriam couldn’t see. “She’s dying to eat.”
“That’s good, because I’m starving!” Jake said, and he jogged into the kitchen, where Rose was sitting at the table.
“Finally!” she said. “Come, eat before it gets cold.”
As soon as they sat down, she passed around a big bowl of spaghetti.
“So do you guys play lacrosse?” Ryan asked, as they started to dig into their food. “I just got an e-mail about tryouts for the summer league. I can’t wait. I only started playing a year ago, but I think it’s even more fun than baseball.”
“I played when I was in elementary school,” Isabella said. “It was fun, but I like soccer better. Jake plays, though.”
“Yeah, I played in the summer league last year,” Jake said, his mouth full of spaghetti.
“It’s a traveling league,” Ryan went on. “I really hope I make the team. There’s a big national meet every year that’s really cool.”
Jake nodded excitedly. “Our team went to the national meet last year. This year it’s outside of Chicago. You should totally come stay with us.”
At this, Isabella’s ears perked up. Game changer, she thought. Here she had been thinking that she might never see Ryan again unless they both happened to be visiting their grandmas at the same time.
“That would be great,” Ryan said, looking at Jake. “That would be cool if our teams got to play against each other.”
Grandma Miriam looked at Jake and Isabella. “I can’t believe tomorrow is your last day here before you fly out. I’m going to miss you two. I kind of got used to having you here.”
“I feel the same way about Ryan,” Rose said sadly. “It gets so lonely here sometimes.”
“That’s why we all need to go out for a fancy dinner tomorrow night!” Grandma Miriam said. “We’ll make it a day to remember. So I was thinking maybe we could do the beach tomorrow too.”
“Really?” Isabella had been having so much fun at the pool that she had forgotten all about the beach.
Grandma Miriam nodded. “Only if we leave early. And we’ll rent one of those big umbrellas at the beach. And wear lots of sunscreen.”
“Yes, yes, and yes!” Isabella and Jake said together, and Ryan laughed.
“Twins,” he said, shaking his head.
“Ryan, would you like to come too?” Grandma asked.
Ryan looked at his grandmother. “Can I?”
Rose sighed. “Of course. I’ll miss you, though.”
“We won’t be all day,” Grandma Miriam promised. “And then we’ll all go out to eat. You’ll get plenty of Ryan time. I promise.”
Plenty of Ryan time. That sounded good to Isabella too.
After dinner, they all watched TV for a little while, and then Jake and Isabella headed home with Grandma Miriam.
“Big day tomorrow,” she said, telling them to get ready for bed, and Isabella hadn’t objected. As much fun as it had been to hang out with Ryan, she was tired after another long day.
The phone rang, and Jake ran and grabbed it.
“Hey, Mom,” he said.
Restless as always, Jake roamed the first floor as he talked to their mom. Isabella waited patiently for her turn to talk. Finally he handed her the phone.
“So Jake was telling me about your new friend Ryan,” Mom said. “He asked me if Ryan could stay with us during the lacrosse meet. What’s he like?”
“Oh!” Isabella replied. “He’s so cute and really nice, and he is smart, and . . .”
She realized she was babbling and was relieved when her mom interrupted her, laughing. “He sounds great. I’m glad you’ll get to see him again.”
Mom had a lot to say about what to do at the airport Saturday before she ended the call. Isabella hung up the phone, thinking.
Ryan had said he was excited to come to Chicago and maybe play against Jake’s team. He hadn’t really said anything about seeing Isabella. It wasn’t like he needed to say anything, she thought, but what if he just wants to see Jake? I thought he liked me back, but maybe I’ve been wrong this whole time.
Isabella's Spring Break Crush Page 7
