One Last Time

by Beth Reekles

  Amanda caught the stricken look on my face, and her own rigid smile faded.

  “I’m really sorry,” I told her, not knowing what else I was supposed to say. “I had no idea.”

  “Noah didn’t mention it?”

  “N-no. Was he supposed to?”

  She considered it. “I mean, I never said it was a secret, but I guess I also didn’t tell him to tell you guys. I just sort of figured he would. That’s why I asked him if I could stay here a couple of days. It’s just exhausting to be around them all the time when they’re like this.”

  I tried to fix the look on my face, not sure she wanted my sympathy or pity or whatever else she’d find there.

  Although, honestly, how she could even sound so peppy about her parents’ looming divorce, I’d never know.

  “Well, hey,” I told her, “you can stay here as long as you want.”

  Amanda squeezed my hand, and I was shocked to see her lips wobbling and her eyes fill with tears. Her voice was thick when she said, “Thanks, Elle. You’re such a good friend.”

  At that moment, the door opened. Amanda sniffed suddenly, blinking and taking a breath to steady herself. A trio of voices chattered, laughing, as people poured in. We both turned to see Lee and Rachel walking into the lounge in fluorescent outfits. Rachel’s hair was teased and back-combed into something huge and springy, and Lee wore a bright pink headband. They were both in leg warmers.

  Ashton was just behind them in his own bizarre and brightly colored eighties getup.

  A creeping feeling of dread crawled up my spine as their laughter dimmed.

  “Where have you guys been?” I asked. “Hey, Ashton. Didn’t expect to see you here.”

  “Well, Shelly,” Lee announced, “after Rachel and I spent the day at the mall doing some college shopping, we went to meet you for bucket-list item number twenty-three, as previously agreed, which, if you remember, we said we’d invite Ashton along after Noah turned down the invite. We waited for you after work like we’d planned, but May said you’d traded your second shift, and your phone went straight to voice mail when we called.”

  Bucket-list item number twenty-three…

  The big hair, the leg warmers, the lurid clothes…

  I gasped, clapping both hands over my face. “Oh my God. Eighties mini-golf night! No!”

  “Yes,” Lee crowed. “And it was spectacular.”

  “It really wasn’t,” Rachel said, ever the mediator, giving me an awkward smile. “You didn’t miss out on much.”

  “You so totally did,” Ashton said, not getting it. He gave Amanda a salute. “Hey there. I’m Ashton.”

  I bit my lip, a lump rising in my throat, interrupting Amanda as she started to say hello back. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry, Lee. I think I was on the phone to Levi when you called. I’m so sorry. Are you mad at me?”

  He shook his head, but I got the feeling I wasn’t totally forgiven. “So long as we’re all set for the water park tomorrow, it’s good.”

  “Yes! Yes, definitely. I’m driving Brad back for camp first thing, and then I’m all yours for the most epic item on the bucket list. I promise.”

  “Awesome.” Lee smiled at me—not quite the smile I was used to, but enough that I knew he wasn’t really mad at me. I made a snap decision to tell him all my complaints about Linda another time—tonight wasn’t the time for it. “And, hey, Ashton’s gonna come along, too. We need someone for car eight, right?”

  Lee clapped Ashton’s shoulder and they shared a laugh—some in-joke I didn’t know.

  And I always knew Lee’s in-jokes.

  “Right. That’s…that’s great! Glad to have you on board, Ashton.”

  The three of them grabbed some drinks and moved outside. Amanda got up, too. “You coming, Elle?”

  I guessed I didn’t have a lot of choice. Not if I didn’t want my little brother and my best friend replacing me completely.

  Chapter Nineteen

  It wasn’t quite a full-fledged Flynn party, but word had definitely gotten out about race day. Jon Fletcher had made it a Facebook event, and now it seemed like the whole school had turned up at the water park. I spotted guys from the football team lounging on the fake beach and cheerleaders grabbing rubber rings and running up a wooden staircase to a waterslide. A few people from the school’s marching band floated down the lazy river. Dixon left the rapids looking half drowned, having lost his sunglasses.

  It was a scalding-hot day. The sun shone bright and there wasn’t a cloud in the rich blue sky. Perfect weather for a day at the water park.

  Lee and I were meeting up with Jon at one o’clock, near a flip-flop and swimsuit vendor by the biggest waterslide in the park. His older brother was there—a less muscular, shorter, stockier version of Jon. He wore jeans and a white button-down and shook our hands as his little brother introduced us.

  I felt like I should be wearing more than shorts and a bikini top.

  Lee seemed to be thinking the same thing about his swim shorts.

  The only reason we’d managed to pull this off was because we’d sold it as this big PR stunt for charity. Right now I felt like a total fraud. Like I should be wearing…maybe not a business suit, but at least I shouldn’t have my hair in braided pigtails that hung over my shoulders, still dripping wet from the last ride we’d been on.

  “So you two are the masterminds behind this whole thing, huh?” Jon’s brother said.

  “That’s right,” Lee said with a confidence only I knew he was faking. “We’re really grateful for all your help on this, Mr. Fletcher.”

  Both Jon and his brother cracked up.

  “Is this the bit where you say, ‘Oh, please, Mr. Fletcher’s my father’?” I joked.

  “It is. I’m not that old. Will’s fine.”

  “Well, thanks, Will,” Lee corrected himself. “We’re really grateful.”

  “The pleasure’s all ours. We’ve been selling spectator tickets. Raised almost fifteen hundred bucks! You guys should be proud.”

  Lee and I exchanged a look. Fifteen hundred dollars? That was a lot of money raised—especially when we were just doing this for fun. But spectators? I knew some of our friends and people from school would be hanging around, but I didn’t expect, like, an audience.

  I could tell Lee was thinking the same thing, but he took it way better than I did.

  While all I could think about was the thousand and one ways this could blow up in our faces, it only fueled Lee’s excitement.

  Will added hastily, “And you guys all signed those insurance forms, right? Water park’s not liable for any injuries or accidents, blah, blah, blah…”

  We nodded. I said, “I emailed them to you this morning.”

  “Awesome. Well, you guys are all set! Strictly no banana peels, though. Sorry, but we’ve gotta draw the line somewhere. We’ve got some GoPros and video equipment all ready, so see you in an hour?”

  We nodded, saying our goodbyes, Jon lingering.

  “Are you sure you’re related?” Lee asked, squinting after Will.

  “I know.” Jon flexed his arms, making a show of kissing his biceps. “I got all the brains.”

  The three of us laughed.

  “Are you gonna come with us now?” I asked him. “We wanna make sure everything’s set up before we get changed.”

  Jon shook his head. “I’m gonna do one last round on this bad boy”—he jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the monstrous waterslide—“but I’ll be there in time, don’t worry. I wouldn’t miss this for the world!”

  We called goodbye after him and followed the wooden signposts pointing us in the direction of the go-kart track.

  We lingered to watch the karts race past for a couple of minutes. They roared, tearing around the track, some skidding and knocking into the piles of tires lining the perimeter. A si
gn saying must be 14 or older to ride was nailed near the entrance. Bleachers rose up on one side of the track—mostly filled with parents; sour-faced, jealous younger brothers and sisters; and a nervous friend or two.

  A kart careened into the tire wall near us, spinning in a full circle before hurtling back after the others.

  “Whoa,” I breathed.

  “This,” Lee said, “is going to be incredible.”

  It was scary, how easily we’d been able to organize this. What had seemed like the ultimate crazy fantasy as a couple of kids had been organized with a phone call, a couple of emails, an online order from a costume-rental store, and a trip to Target.

  The contents of said trip to Target were now being unloaded from my backpack in a set of changing rooms near the track: we filled up the blue and red water balloons; a couple of the black ones we filled with whipped cream—although, honestly, I was sure more ended up on the floor (and in Lee’s mouth) than in the balloons; three cans of silly string. Plus, Will had left us three giant red foam cubes from the children’s soft-play area.

  Lee and I stepped back to survey our arsenal.

  A buzzer went off on the track, and we scooped up our stuff and headed out to set up the karts before everyone else arrived, stashing random combinations of weapons into each one.

  And then we headed back to get ready.

  There were eight of us: Rachel and Amanda joined me in the women’s changing area; Levi, Ashton, Jon, and Warren were back with Lee.

  Amanda buckled her helmet and wrestled her costume over the top of it. She planted her hands on her hips, twisting and turning to pose for us.

  “How do I look?”

  Rachel and I cracked up as Amanda pouted, full-on voguing.

  Only she could pull off a gorilla costume, I thought, trying not to roll my eyes.

  Meanwhile, Rachel and I applied our fake mustaches carefully in the mirror.

  “You a-ready?”

  “I’m a-ready,” I confirmed. We met the boys out near the main entrance to the changing rooms, and it was impossible to keep a straight face. But this was why we’d decided to meet up now: get the giggles out of the way before we went out there.

  My stomach flip-flopped and my heart was racing. I felt kind of sick.

  I wouldn’t trade this moment for the world.

  Lee stopped joking around with Ashton to curtsy to us in his cheap, crinkly pink dress, blond wig spilling out from under his yellow helmet with a crown sticker slapped on the front. “You guys ready?”

  “As I’ll ever be!” Rachel exclaimed.

  He looked at me.

  I launched myself at him, throwing my arms around his shoulders and hugging him tight. Our helmets knocked together and he cried, “Hey, hey, watch the dress!”

  “Best summer ever,” I whispered to him, and drew away.

  Lee turned to the group, clapping his hands. “All right, folks, listen up. We’ve got one shot at this, and only one. I want to see foul play. I want to see underhanded, dirty tactics. I want to see you trying to run each other off the track and…”

  I’d ended up standing next to Levi, who was wearing a yellow shirt and purple dungarees. A squiggly mustache was stuck badly above his top lip. He hooked his thumbs through the straps of his dungarees and grinned.

  He leaned toward me, not daring to look away from Lee’s serious pep talk, to whisper, “I can’t believe you guys pulled this off.”

  “Don’t jinx it,” I whispered back. “We haven’t raced yet.”

  Lee glanced our way with a reprimanding scowl, not faltering in his speech. Levi bumped my arm with his in lieu of a reply.

  “Three laps, just like in the game. Winner takes all.”

  “I have a question,” Amanda piped up, raising her hand as best she could in her costume. “What does that mean?”

  “It means you win the fifth-grade state-spelling-bee trophy Elle has so kindly donated for the cause.”

  “I NEED that trophy,” Jon Fletcher announced, bending forward and rubbing his hands like he was gearing up for a football game.

  Lee wrapped up the speech with a shout of “Let’s go kill this!”

  We all cheered, and the door behind Lee opened.

  Noah slipped in, saying, “Sorry, I just— Oh my God.” He snorted, shaking his head. “I was expecting this, but…I still wasn’t expecting this. You guys look sick.”

  “But me especially, right?” Amanda said, jumping forward. She crouched, hooking her arms inward and growling, stomping one foot, then the other, making Noah laugh.

  “Good luck out there, Evans,” Levi told me.

  “Please,” I scoffed. “I don’t need luck.”

  “As if.” Levi put his hands on his hips, head wobbling as he gave a dramatic, movie-villain-esque chuckle. “You’re going down. I’ll destroy you out there.”

  “Looking like that, you won’t.” Taking pity on him, I reached up to fix his fake mustache, pressing it into place properly.

  He blushed. “Thanks.”

  A throat cleared behind me and I turned to see Noah looming behind us. I grinned up at him and gave a twirl. “Cute, huh?”

  “I just wanted to come by and say good luck out there. There’s a hell of a crowd.”

  “Didn’t you know?” Levi joked, grabbing my shoulders to shake me gently. “Elle doesn’t need luck.”

  I didn’t miss the look Noah shot Levi, or the way a muscle jumped in his jaw.

  Oh God, I so didn’t want to deal with this right now.

  I blew Noah a kiss, knowing I couldn’t give him a proper kiss with this helmet on. “See you in the stands!”

  I made my way back to the doors as everyone started to get in line to head outside. I took the first spot, just ahead of Rachel and Lee.

  “All right, gang,” I shouted over my shoulder. “Let’s go!”

  I wanted to push open the doors in one grand gesture, so they swept forward as they opened on either side of me. It wasn’t as smooth as that, though. The doors were heavy, so I fumbled, Lee laughing behind me, and just held open the one door instead.

  The whole thing was far from graceful. Amanda’s and Jon’s costumes both got stuck in the doorway and Jon’s giant spiky turtle shell got caught on the door handle. It took three of us to free him.

  But then we were back on track, walking out under the bleachers to a roar of cheering, with the music from the video game playing over the speakers.

  The sound was deafening. I drowned in it, exhilarated, having to work hard to keep a serious face. Walking up to my go-kart, I stole a glance at the big screen, where our little slow-motion parade was being shown in HD.

  It was surreal.

  Right there on the screen, there I was, dressed up to look exactly like Mario, a white sticker with a red M stuck to my red helmet. Rachel was just behind me, wearing green where I wore red, the perfect Luigi. Lee gave a skip and a twirl as Princess Peach, and Ashton jumped into the air, pounding it with a fist to yell “Woohoo!” in a scarily accurate imitation of Yoshi.

  Amanda came next, beating her big gorilla chest as Donkey Kong. Levi strode after her, a leaner, less squat version of Wario, Jon ambling behind him as Bowser.

  I did a double take as I got to my kart.

  Where the hell was Warren?

  I looked back at our group and the empty kart, and by the time I was turning back to the screen I saw for myself: Toad was running out of the bleachers, giant head wobbling. But it wasn’t Warren in the costume.

  Noah?

  I glanced back at Lee, who looked just as confused as I felt. He shrugged.

  Maybe he’d had a change of heart after all and realized just what he was missing out on. I hoped Warren wouldn’t be too mad about missing out.

  (And I hoped Noah wouldn’t flip over in his kart and break
something. He hadn’t signed a form, and the last thing I needed was the water park suing us.)

  “Racers!” Tyrone, our old school council president and commentator for the day, yelled over a microphone. “Take your marks!”

  We all got into our karts, some with a little more difficulty than others. There was a crackle in my ear as the microphones and earpieces in our helmets came online.

  Lee’s voice crackled through, drowning out the cheering crowd. “Princess to Plunger One, Princess to Plunger One, chhh, we are a go for race day. I repeat, we are a go for race day!”

  “This is Donkey Kong to Princess, DK to PP, you don’t need to make the chhh noise.”

  “Plunger Two to Donkey Kong, let it be noted that my boyfriend will make the chhh noise if he wants to.”

  Rachel’s comment was met with a series of chhhs from the rest of us, mimicking radio static and dissolving into giggles. I collected myself, flexing my fingers around my steering wheel.

  A buzz sounded across the track. A red light lit up, hanging over us.

  “Plunger One to Toad, what’s with the change of heart?”

  “What, I can’t support my girlfriend?”

  “This is Bowser. Plunger One, Toad, take your relationship drama off the track. This is a race, not Pride and Prejudice.”

  Before either I or Noah could bite back, or anybody else could make a jibe over the radio, the buzzer sounded again, and an amber light showed up. I caught my breath, inhaling sharply, suddenly hyper-focused.

  Lee and Elle’s Epic Summer Bucket List

  19. Do a real-life Mario Kart race

  Tick, complete.