“Hello, Raths,” said Mrs. Kaplan. She was wearing her little Kaplan Kone apron and looked as cute as a button in a drive-in diner kind of way. Behind her, teenagers in Kone t-shirts bounced back and forth creating ice cream perfection. “What do you want?”
“Medium marshmallow shake,” I said.
“There’s a shocker,” she said. “Did you hear about the new bike trail? Good for roller skating.”
“It’s not the kind with that gravel stuff?”
“Honest to goodness concrete overlaid with smooth wood.”
That was good news. Skating under the sun by the surf made me want my summer break more. I left Dad and Marty to collect the ice cream. I wanted to talk to Vince before he subjected Marty to unnecessary heartbreak. I pulled up one of the delicate chairs to Coral and Vince’s table, making sure it screeched. Sitting down, I made my best angry scowl. Vince had messed up our annual thing. No room for anyone else here. I respected tradition. Vince should respect tradition. Now he’d ruined our tradition streak.
“Hello, Vince,” I said, sitting down. “Hello, Coral.”
Vince was grinning like a world class idiot. I don’t think he even saw me. “Guys,” I said loudly, “if you would come up for air, I’d appreciate it.”
Vince stared at Coral like a goon.
Coral looked at me. “Hey, Abby.”
“Because Marty is here,” I said. I said every word with a bullet point. “And she likes you. Remember?”
The effect was instantaneous…on Coral. “Oh,” she said. “Vince, sit back.” She took the second straw out of the soda and pushed it toward Vince.
Two points to Coral. Maybe she wasn’t so bad. “Where’s old Disco Ball this morning?” I asked.
“What?” Coral said.
“William. Because he sparkles like Austin Von Trapp.”
To Coral’s credit, she snorted. “Mom had some things she wanted him to do. He said to apologize to you.”
“Parents,” said Vince.
Coral and I both nodded. The common ground unifying all of us had been commented upon: the irrational behavior of parents. We held a moment of silence.
“That’s too bad,” I said. It was too bad. I noted that Vince was so smitten with Coral, he didn’t get a jab in against William. No love lost there since the mall.
Dad and Marty joined us. Dad handed me winter in a cup. Yum-my. I sucked on my straw. Marty’s ears turned pink. “Hi Vince. Hi Coral.”
Dad pulled over a couple of chairs, and Coral and I moved so we could scootch a couple of tables together. The dining room roared with the talk of ice cream lovers. The second table was a little sticky. Today, no time to clean the tables.
“Hi, Marty,” Coral smiled.
I licked my cold lips and said, “This is my dad, Reginald Rath.”
Coral shook his hand. “I think my brother owns all your films.”
Dad chuckled in that affected way he sometimes does when he meets a fan, or even the sister of a fan. “Oh, well.”
“He’ll be so jealous when he hears I met you.”
“I heard about the mall,” Marty said to Vince. “I hope you’re okay.”
Honestly, Vince’s smile was beginning to remind me of the Joker or something. “Yeah, I’m okay.”
“Oh!” Coral rummaged around in a beach bag. She pulled out two invitations, handing one to me and one to Marty. “Here you go. Will you come?”
“What is this?” Marty asked.
“I thought a good way to get to know everyone would be a slumber party,” said Coral. “I’m inviting all the girls in our homeroom.”
Marty was shellshocked. She was never invited to anything. That made me like Coral a little better again.
“I’ll have to check with my parents first.”
“Of course. Abby, you can check with yours right now.”
Dad glanced the invitation over. “We’ll check with your mom.”
I read the invitation. Two weeks from today. Too soon for the parents to let me go?
“Are you sure you want to go?” I said to Marty. “It’ll be girly stuff. Who wants to sit around all night and braid each other’s hair and giggle?”
“Me,” said Marty.
Which was probably true.
Marty spooned her hot fudge. Coral spent a lot of time talking to her, and Vince didn’t spend time talking to anyone. I bristled. He could be angry with me if he wanted, but that gave him no right to take it out on Marty. Some best friend. I would never forgive him. Never, never. First, he violated our sacred ritual. Just take a pretty face and have it stare at you dreamily over ice cream, and bam! It’s like your best friend never existed in the first place. At least Marty hadn’t noticed his absent behavior. Coral was being nice to Marty, which counted for something.
“Hey, Dad,” I said. “I’d like to check out the new jogging path on the beach.” What I really wanted to do was get away from Vince’s disgusting mooning at Coral. I pushed my chair back.
Dad shoved the last of the ice cream cone into his mouth, muffled crunching coming from his vicinity. Marty started, but I shook my head. “Stay right there,” I said. “Finish your sundae. We’ll be back in a second.”
I grabbed my shake, and Dad and I went out the exit. The line through the in door was still formidable.
Outside, the beach was putting on quite a show for us. Clouds were crossing the sun and making stripes on the sand. People often don’t think of how windy California can be. It wasn’t one of those nice calm days. It was one that made my hair fly in New Year’s streamers. I jammed my hands into my
