11 Birthdays (18 page)

“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 a loss for what to do. Might as well still help who I can, like Leo said. I gather the stuff for Dad’s get-well bag, and present it to him in the kitchen. He wishes me the usual happy birthday, and I try to be cheery, but inside I’m screaming. When Mom comes in I make sure she has the correct poster and get the usual hug of gratitude in return. I make sure Kylie has her lunch and her poster, and that we get to the bus on time.

When the doors of the bus open I hurry on before Kylie, refusing to look up at the driver. He’ll just remind me that
the one person we need to find has disappeared. Kylie’s poster bumps me in the back, and I stop walking and turn around. This time I see her expression when her eyes land on Dustin and Alyssa. Her eyes sort of freeze, and then she squeezes past me to join her best friend, Jen. She immediately starts laughing at something Jen says, but this time I can tell the laugh is forced. In her haste she dropped her poster, and I push it into the empty row behind the driver. It’s not until I throw myself into the seat that I look up and see the back of the driver’s head. I’d recognize that white hair anywhere. I run around the seat to face her.

“You!” I yell. A hush falls over the front of the bus. “You have a lot of explaining to do!”

“Please sit while the bus is in motion,” she says sweetly, not even turning to look at me.

“But you … and then … but …” I know I’m not making any sense.

“Please sit while the bus is in motion,” she repeats, firmer this time.

My mouth opens and then shuts again.

“Sit down, Amanda!” Kylie shouts. “You’re going to get hurt!”

With a last glare at Angelina, I turn around and hold on to the back of the seat for balance. I sit down as the bus pulls up to Ruby’s stop. I force myself to ask her if she needs help with her duffel. She declines, as I knew she would. “You’re gonna do great today!” I assure her as she pushes by me. Might as well tell her this now, since there’s no way I’m trying out again. What’s the point?

When Stephanie gets on I move closer to the window and slide down so she doesn’t see me. If she doesn’t see me, I won’t have to explain why I’m not getting off the bus when it arrives at school. I stay low and face the window until the bus empties. Even Kylie walks right by me. When I watch her go down the stairs, I remember I had stashed her poster under the seat. I reach down and grab it. But she’s already gone. Looking around I see the LEGO kid, Jonathan, heading down the aisle. “Here,” I say, thrusting it at him. “It’s my sister, Kylie’s. If you give it to her she’ll be really grateful.”

His surprise turns to understanding. “Thanks!” He hurries out of the bus, the poster clutched tightly in his hand.

When the last person exits, I get up and walk to the top of the stairs. Leo is standing there, looking around for me.
I call out to him, and wave him onto the bus. He hurries up the stairs and trips when he recognizes Angelina. He barely misses hitting his chin on the step. Once he scrambles to his feet, she presses the button to close the door.

“Please sit while the bus is in motion,” she says.

“But you owe us —” Leo begins.

I pull him down into the aisle seat across from me. “Trust me, she won’t talk while she’s driving.”

Angelina parks the bus at the edge of the parking lot and turns off the engine. “Come,” she says, opening the door. “Let’s go for a walk.”

At a loss for words, we obediently follow her to one of the picnic tables where the eighth graders have lunch on nice days.

She sits across from us and folds her hands on the table. She looks thoughtful, but doesn’t speak.

“You owe us an explanation,” Leo says firmly. “You knew a lot more than you told us.”

Calmly she replies, “One might argue that you knew more than I did. After all, you had the benefit of reading Leonard Fitzpatrick’s diary.”

“How did you know that?” Leo sputters.

“For one, you left the back window open —”

“I knew it!” I mutter.

“And then there were the footprints on the couches from your little celebration.”

“Oh, sorry,” Leo says sincerely. “But why didn’t you tell us about the diary before?”

“I was not aware of its existence,” she replies.

“So you haven’t read it?” I ask.

“Oh, no, I have,” she says. “Once I found the loose drawer, I was able to find the diary. I had not known until then how the enchantment played itself out. Alexander Smithy’s journal had proved less than accurate.”

“Yeah, about that,” Leo says, “why did you bother to steal it when you work there? Couldn’t you just have read it, you know, on your lunch break?”

“That would have been difficult,” she says matter-of-factly, “since I don’t actually work there.”

“You
don’t?”
we exclaim together.

“I don’t drive your bus, either,” she admits.

My jaw falls open. “What?”

“We have a lot more important things to worry about,” Angelina insists gently. “Let us get back to the subject at hand.”

With effort, I swallow all my questions and say,
“Okay, so you read Leonard’s diary. Now you know the enchantment was real and you know how our great-great-grandparents broke free of it.”

“Oh, but they did not break free of it,” she says. “And you are living proof of that.”

“But they did,” I argue. “They stopped Harvest Day from repeating.”

She shakes her head. “But that was not the point. When I cast the enchantment, it was to —”

Leo and I jump up from the table so fast we fall backward over the picnic bench and wind up in a heap on the ground. “What?” we yell as we scramble back onto the bench.
“You
cast the enchantment? How is that possible?” Off in the background the bell rings for first period but I barely notice.

She pulls her thin sweater tightly around herself. “My family has a lot of, shall we say,
longevity
in it. We tend to stick around a while.”

“So
you
started all this?” I can’t believe it.

“Hadn’t mentioned that before, eh?”

“Probably slipped your mind with all the other things you left out,” Leo snaps.

“Now, now, young man, there’s no need to get hostile.”

Leo jumps up again. “Hostile?
Hostile?
We’ve been trapped in the same day over and over again, because of YOU, and you don’t expect us to be
hostile?”

I pull Leo back down onto the bench. “Shhh, let her talk.”

Leo crosses his arms, but shuts up.

“Don’t you think I feel bad about what’s happening to you? I do, truly. That’s why I’m here today. I thought by now the enchantment would have ended and I would not have to get involved. It is never a good idea for the enchanter to entangle herself in her enchantment. Very messy.” She gives a big sigh. “I best start at the beginning. The enchantment was for Rex and Leonard to end their feud and to become friends. I gave them a period of one year — no more — and when they couldn’t solve their differences during that time, well, time simply halted until they could figure out a way to be friends.”

“Which they did,” Leo points out, “by being good neighbors and helping the town.”

“Yes and no,” Angelina says. “All they needed to do was to become friends. The fact that they helped others in the
process, well, that was its own reward. All they needed to do was end their day with a toast to their friendship. That’s what worked.”

“I offered to carry Ruby’s duffel for no reason?” I blurt out.

“Nothing nice you ever do for anyone is for no reason. Didn’t helping the others feel good?”

I watch the duck wiggle on Angelina’s cheek as I consider her question. It
did
feel good to help my family and Bee Boy. I open my mouth to speak, but she holds up a finger and says, “Let me finish. Your great-great-grandfathers’ lives returned to normal, but the enchantment still lay upon them. If ever they fought for a year’s time again, they’d wind up in the same position, as would any of their descendants still living in Willow Falls. Amanda, when your family moved back here for your birth, the enchantment started all over again.”

“Okay,” I jump in, “as crazy as all that sounds, I think I understand. But Leo and I made up days ago, and last night we toasted our friendship just like you said.”

“Yeah,” agrees Leo. “So why is it still our birthday?”

Angelina shifts a bit in her seat. “Well, I’m not sure, to be honest with you. I thought having your party together
last night would have done it. I was so certain. I tried to protect you years ago so this wouldn’t happen.”

Leo frowns. “How did you try to protect us?”

She looks from one of us to the other, then asks, “Do you recall a time before your fifth birthday, you two stopped talking for a few weeks?”

We both shake our heads.

“No? Well, there was some hopscotch incident on the playground, and you didn’t speak after that.”

“I don’t play hopscotch,” Leo is quick to assure us.

“Anyway,” Angelina continues, “I realized back then that if you actually stayed mad at each other for a year, you would have found yourselves in this situation before you were six years old! Imagine going through this at that age.”

I shiver involuntarily at that thought.

“After a few weeks, you made up, but it was a close call. So I got to work on a plan that I thought would keep the enchantment at bay, at least until you were out of high school.” She sighs again and shakes her head sadly. “But I obviously failed, because here you are.”

“I don’t understand,” I tell her. “What was your plan?”

“It was those little plants you made at the pottery store for your fifth birthday.”

My heart skips a beat.

Angelina continues. “I gave Amanda an apple seed from Leo’s great-great-grandfather’s tree, and Leo one from Amanda’s great-great-grandfather’s tree. As long as you kept them close, they should have protected you.”

“But my plant is still growing fine,” Leo says. “They’re about a foot tall, right, Amanda?”

I don’t answer.

Leo waves his hand in front of my face. “Amanda? Tell her how good those plants are. Maybe all we need to do is water them or something and we can end this.”

I want to climb under the table and hide. “Um, well, mine isn’t doing so good right now.”

“What do you mean?” he asks.

“Um, I sort of threw it out the window last year after our fight and it broke.”

Leo gapes at me. Angelina exhales loudly. “Interesting,” she says, tilting her head. “Very interesting. I should have considered that prospect.”

Leo groans and rests his head in his hands.

“I’m afraid now that adding the apple seed enchantment might have made things worse,” Angelina says. “Everything
might hinge on that, and now, well, it seems we’re in a bit of a pickle.”

The three of us sit there like that for a while. Leo with his head in his hands, Angelina looking sad and regretful, and me picking at a piece of loose brown paint on the picnic table. I break the silence. “If it matters, the flowerpot could still be down there. No one ever goes into those bushes.”

Leo pops his head up and looks at Angelina hopefully. She shrugs. “It’s worth a try.” She stands up and heads back to the bus. We hurry after her. “Take your things,” she says, pointing to our backpacks. “We’ll meet again at five p.m., outside Amanda’s window.”

“What do we do until then?” Leo asks, slinging his backpack over his shoulder.

“Do what comes naturally,” she says, then starts the bus and pulls away.

I face Leo. “What does that mean?”

He shakes his head. “Maybe it means we shouldn’t worry about the enchantment, and just do what we’d normally do.”

“I don’t know what that is anymore.”

“Me neither,” he says as we run up the front steps. “And I’m not looking forward to walking into first period a half an hour late.”

But when we turn the doorknob to our history class, Ms. Gottlieb is still writing on the board. We’ve only missed a minute of class. With a confused glance at each other, we hurry to our seats just as she turns around. The class groans when they read the words,
POP QUIZ.

Maybe Angelina isn’t so bad after all. That woman has some skills.

For the rest of the morning I think about her suggestion to do what comes naturally, and about how this whole experience has changed me. On my first eleventh birthday I still felt bad for the crying Bee Boy, but would I have gone so far as to draw up a periodic table for him? I doubt it. Even though I know now that it’s not going to help me break the enchantment, I get my hall pass at lunch and present him with his science project. This one wasn’t one of my better efforts since I only had a few minutes to do it, but he takes it anyway. After school I pass Leo coming out of the guidance office. But this time that kid Vinnie is with him, and they’re laughing! Whatever he did this time must have worked.

At the end of the hall I stop. In one direction is the gymnastics tryouts. In the other is the marching band auditions. I tell myself,
Do what comes naturally.
What would I have done if all this hadn’t happened? I make my choice.

As I push open the door to the auditorium, the swell
of music fills my ears. I smile. If all of this hadn’t happened, I would be trying out for the gymnastics team right now. But it did happen. And that’s why I’m here.