Zoe handed Josh a torn piece of construction paper with crayon scribbles in different colors. “Here’s the menu.”
Josh pretended to study it. “I’ll have a hamburger and fries.”
“Can’t you read? We have spaghetti and carrot cake and cheddar bunnies,” she read, following a scribble with her finger. “Where do you see hamburger and fries?”
“Sorry. I’ll have the spaghetti then.”
“Aw, too bad,” she said as she flipped an ice cube into the air with a spatula. “We’re all out.”
This is where I’d have told Zoe I was finding another place to eat, but Josh just laughed and kept playing along.
After an hour and a half, Mom came back, and Josh and I finally headed up to my room to start figuring out the script for our supplier calls.
“I’m so sorry,” I said as we climbed the stairs. “My friend Charlie never wanted to come over because we always ended up having to watch Zoe.”
“Does he have any younger brothers or sisters?”
“A younger brother.”
“So he probably does enough babysitting. It’s just me at home, so I don’t mind. Plus, Zoe makes me laugh. Are all little kids that funny?”
“You mean completely wacko?”
“I guess.”
“I don’t know, but I don’t think so.”
As I held the ladder still for Josh to climb up, I thought about why I hadn’t told him that actually Charlie never does babysit for Justin. His parents used to ask him to, but he always said no, and they never made him. It felt bad, letting Josh believe something I knew wasn’t true. I guess I just didn’t want him thinking that Charlie was the kind of kid who wouldn’t take care of his younger brother, even though he was.
• • •
Since it’s hard to concentrate when your teeth are chattering, Josh and I worked in jackets, hats, and gloves. Judging from the ice crystals I found every morning in the glass of water I keep next to my bed, the Purple Demon had been keeping the attic at a toasty thirty degrees.
Though warmer, working in the living room was not an option. Now that the family computer was set up in there, Jeanine was permanently camped out on the couch Skyping with Kevin Metz. She’d convinced him to email her photos of all the G&T assignments, and they reviewed the answers together on Skype. When they ran out of schoolwork, they’d play chess, study for the Solve-a-Thon, and giggle, at least Jeanine would. Kevin didn’t say much except, “Nice move, Jeanine,” or, “Sorry, Jeanine,” every now and then. They’d even had a Skype sleepover.
It was a round-the-clock Skype-a-Thon, and I couldn’t take it. Not because I felt stupid hearing them talk all that math, which was so beyond what I’d probably ever be able to do, it sounded like a different language. I hated that, but I was used to it. That wasn’t the reason I walked around the house with earphones on. That was because Jeanine and Kevin were still JeanineandKevin.
I hadn’t spoken to Charlie since he’d called about Thanksgiving, and I’d never emailed him back after he’d told me he’d made the basketball team. I tried to blame whatever was going on with us on my moving to Petersville, but every time I did, JeanineandKevin went off like an alarm. If they were still JeanineandKevin, why weren’t we still TrisandCharlie?
By lunch, Josh and I were ready to make the calls. We downed grilled cheese sandwiches and then shut ourselves up in my parents’ office.
I was so nervous dialing the first number, I could feel my heart beating in my fingertips.
“Lucky’s Food Corp. May I help you?” said the lady who answered.
“Uh…” My mind had gone blank.
Josh held up our script.
“Excuse me?” the woman said.
I took a deep breath. “My name is Tris Levin, and I want to know how much it would cost to order some ingredients to make doughnuts.”
“Uh-huh. And where is it you’re calling from?” Something, gum probably, snapped painfully in my ear.
“Petersville.”
“No, I meant, what company?” she said in a tone that made clear she thought I should have known what she’d meant.
“Oh, I’m not calling from a company. I’m calling from a stand, or it’s not a stand yet, but it will be.” This wasn’t going at all how we’d planned. “I can’t do this,” I whispered and shoved the phone at Josh.
“No.” He pushed the phone back at me. “Keep going.”
“A stand?” the woman repeated. Another pop.
“Yeah, you know, like a lemonade stand? A hot dog stand? This is a going to be a doughnut stand, a chocolate cream doughnut stand.” Now that I was saying the words out loud to someone other than Josh, I couldn’t believe how stupid they sounded: I’m going to open a chocolate cream doughnut stand?
“I see, a chocolate cream doughnut stand. Really?” the woman said. She obviously couldn’t believe how stupid the whole thing sounded either. I couldn’t tell for sure, but I think maybe she was laughing a little too. “Then you need to speak to Sal. Hold on a sec. I’ll connect you.”
“Great, thanks,” I said, but she was already gone. Maybe I was wrong, and she hadn’t been laughing at me.
“What’s happening?” Josh whispered.
“She’s going to get Sal.”
“Who’s Sal?”
I shrugged. “The guy who deals with stands?”
Josh gave me a thumbs-up.
I don’t know what this lady told Sal, but a minute later, a man had picked up and he was yelling, “Who is this?”
“Um, it’s…this is—”
“Anton?”
“Who? No.”
“How many times have we talked about this?”
“But this is—”
“You just keep quiet before you dig yourself in even deeper.”
I must have looked like I felt because Josh whispered, “What’s wrong? What’s he saying?”
I shook my head and tried to get a word in with Sal.
“Enough!” Sal yelled so loudly that I almost dropped the phone. “You’re gonna hang up this phone and go tell your mother you’ve been pranking again, and I mean now. Got it?”
“Got it,” I said.
“What was that?” Sal said.
“Got it, sir,” I said louder. Sal seemed like a sir kind of guy.
“All right
