11 Birthdays Read online

  “Nonsense,” my dad says, swinging my mom around to the dance floor. “This is knee-slappin’ music!” Mom giggles and lets herself be twirled around.

  Leo leans in closer and shouts, “I guess she didn’t get fired yet?”

  I shake my head and shout, “I took her cell phone out of her purse before we came!”

  Leo nods appreciatively. “Nice!”

  “Let’s go inside,” I shout.

  We make our way through the crowd of laughing kids — many holding their hands over their ears — and stumble into the kitchen. Piles of plastic cups line the countertop, along with soda and juices of every kind. Leo pours us each a cup of lemonade and says, “A hundred years ago, our great-great-grandfathers made a toast to their friendship, so I thought we should, too.”

  He raises his cup into the air, but I lower mine. “Are we just doing this because they did it?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Having our party together, and this toast. Are we doing it to break the enchantment, or because we want to?”

  He lowers his own cup. “Well, if all this wasn’t happening to us, wouldn’t you still want to have our parties together?”

  “Yes,” I say without hesitation. “And if I had to be stuck in time with anyone, I’m glad it’s you.”

  “Me too.” He raises his cup again and I tap mine to it. We both drink and then grab our throats. He chokes out the words, “Real lemons, no sugar.”

  Stephanie walks in, arm in arm with Mena. “Hey, Leo!” she says. “Great party! Really bad band!” Mena just looks bored. But that’s how she usually looks.

  “Nice ears,” Leo says, pointing at Stephanie’s elf ears.

  Stephanie unlinks her arm and reaches up. When she feels them, her face reddens and she tugs them off.

  “So, Amanda,” Mena says, digging through a bowl of chips. “You’ll have to work on that back handspring over the summer if you want to be ready to compete.”

  “Compete?” Leo asks, turning to me.

  “Oh, yeah. I made the gymnastics team!” I say with more excitement than I feel. I hadn’t thought at all about the competing part.

  “You did?” Leo couldn’t be more shocked. “Wow, you’ve been busy today.”

  “C’mon, Steph,” Mena says, “let’s go find the bathroom.” They link their arms together again, and Steph waves as Mena pulls her down the hall.

  “I only tried out because I thought it would help Stephanie, you know, to have me with her on the team.”

  “But I thought you didn’t want to do it.”

  “I just want this birthday to end. I wasn’t really thinking about the consequences. It doesn’t really matter. I’m the worst person on the team, I’ll probably never have to compete.”

  Kids are starting to make their way inside, away from the band. Jimmy Dawson calls out, “Hey, Dorothy, how’s Oz these days?” but he says it in a nice way.

  Before we’re completely surrounded, Leo whispers, “If we did everything right today, then you’ll have the whole summer to practice. And if we didn’t, you’ll just have to try out again tomorrow.”

  “We did,” I whisper confidently. “I know we did. What more could we have done?”

  Leo’s mom sticks her head in the room. “Amanda! You’re wanted on the dance floor!”

  I put any doubts out of my mind as I let Mrs. Fitzpatrick drag me onto the dance floor where I finally get to kick off my shoes. The band is playing some kind of jig that’s totally impossible to dance to, but I’m having fun. I finally feel right where I’m supposed to be — celebrating my birthday with Leo and all our friends and families. For a split second I think I catch sight of Angelina by the snow cone machine. Does she know about the break-in? Is she going to tell our parents? But when I look closer, it’s just a crowd of kids jostling to scoop out cups of purple ice. I shake my head to clear it of the image of a waddling duck. After all, Leo put the journal back behind the drawer, and we closed the back window. At least I’m pretty sure we closed the back window.

  If we forgot, we’ll just go tomorrow and apologize. Maybe even volunteer for a couple of hours answering visitors’ questions about Willow Falls’s history. Somehow Angelina is involved in all this. And someday I’d like to know how. But for now it’s enough that it’s over. Tomorrow I’m going to sleep for a long, long time. And then I’m going to open my presents.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Nothing in the whole entire world sounds worse than the beep beep beep of my alarm clock. When I hear it this morning I lie still at first, in utter disbelief. Then I calmly get out of bed, unplug the alarm clock, and throw it out the window with all my might. It tangles in the tree branches then falls with a satisfying crash onto the dirt below. I’m about to kick the SpongeBob balloon, but before my foot strikes his yellow sponge belly, I make myself stop. It’s not his fault he’s still here.

  Like a zombie, I get dressed and scribble the periodic table that I hadn’t made last night because I didn’t think I’d need it. Before Kylie gets back from her run I duck into her room to use the phone she got installed last month for her thirteenth birthday.

  Leo’s dad answers on the first ring. Instead of a simple hello, he says, “Top of the morning to you,” when he picks up.

  “Um, this is Amanda, can I speak to Leo?”

  “Amanda!” he thunders happily. “So wonderful to hear your voice! Happy birthday!”

  “It’s not that happy,” I mutter.

  “Leo’s going to be thrilled to hear from you,” he continues. “He’s been moping around all morning. He feels terrible about what happened last year, you know.”

  “I know.”

  “Let me put him on. I hope we’ll see you tonight?”

  I sigh. “Pretty sure you will.”

  Leo gets on the phone. His dad must still be standing there because Leo says, “Amanda! So great to hear from you. I’m so sorry about our fight. I was a total jerk. Let’s make up. What’s that? You forgive me? You’re the best! I’ll meet you when your bus pulls into school and we’ll talk.”

  When he finally pauses to take a breath, I ask, “Leo, what did we do wrong?”

  “I don’t know,” he replies, “but we’re going to find out.” His voice muffles a bit and I figure he’s got his hand over the mouthpiece. “Keep doing what the journal said. Help whoever you can.”

  “What are you doing?” Kylie demands, walking in on me.

  “Gotta go,” I tell Leo. “See you at the bus stop.”

  “I’m sorry for using your phone,” I tell her, not up for a fight right now. “I needed to call Leo.”

  “Leo?” she asks, clearly caught off guard. “Why? Shouldn’t he be the one to call you after all this time?”

  I want to point out that she’s the one who’s planning on asking a boy out today, but that wouldn’t go over very well. I answer honestly. “This is a really hard day for me. I woke up this morning and really needed to talk to him.”

  Grabbing her clean clothes from her drawers, she says, “Why is this such a hard day for you? It’s only your eleventh birthday. Try turning thirteen, that’s MUCH harder.”

  “That’s just it!” I shout, finally cracking. “It’s NOT only my eleventh birthday. It’s my ELEVENTH eleventh birthday!”

  “Huh?”

  I throw up my hands in despair. “I’m never going to HAVE a thirteenth birthday! I’m never going to have a SATURDAY again!”

  She stares at me, her clothes dangling at her sides. “Uh, maybe you should talk to Mom and Dad about whatever you’re, uh, going through. I need to get in the shower.”

  I grab the pink T-shirt from her hand. “Please, PLEASE, wear something else! I can’t see you in this one more time!”

  She snatches it back from me. “I haven’t worn this shirt for three weeks! Now get out of my room! We have to take the bus today and you’re going to make us miss it!” She points to the door and I storm through it. She goes into the bathroom and slams the door. I’m at