Aces Wild (19 page)

“TAKE IT UNDER ADVISEMENT,” suggested Ace, handing the proposal to my mom and giving her a stern judicial look. He was a big fan of taking things under advisement, which was judgespeak for “think about it.”

“This court is adjourned,” said Mom. I didn’t like how that sounded. It reminded me of Shlomo losing his suit. I didn’t want to lose my suit. Or my sleepover.

Which is why I couldn’t have been more surprised when, at the grocery store the next day, my mom put a bag of Hershey’s Kisses in our shopping cart. My eyebrows went up. Sam’s did too.

“Whoa!” said Sam. Without missing a beat, he ran up the aisle, grabbed a box of Froot Loops, and held it up. “Can we get these too?”

“Whoa, yourself!” said my mom, disarming Sam and putting the cereal back on the shelf. “I haven’t completely taken leave of my senses. The candy’s for Zelly’s party.”

“Really?” I said.

My mom nodded. “Your father and I discussed this, and we think Ace has a point. You did do everything you could to get Ace trained. The last little bit, well, hopefully it’ll come in time if you stick with it.”

“I will,” I told her.

“I thought you might. So I took the liberty of signing you up for another session of classes. And you’ll be happy to know that your father’s course finishes next week, so he can take you.”

“Oh,” I said. “Actually, that’s okay. Ace and I sort of have the routine down now.”

“B-but that’s not fair!” said Sam. “Plus chocolate will make Ace die!”

“Sam,” said my mom, “Zelly will make sure to keep the candy where Ace can’t get it. And we’ll put some aside for you, okay?”

“As long as we’re getting candy, can we get some of those sour guys too?” I asked, not wanting to miss the rare time my mom actually bought candy. Halloween didn’t count.

“Suit yourself,” said Mom. “It’s your party.”

And now, a week later, it finally was my party. And for the most part, everything was going exactly as I wanted. Allie, Jenny, Megan, Simone, and the Wilson twins, Tasha and Talia, were going to sleep over. Hailey had a gymnastics meet the next morning, so she couldn’t come, but she wanted to, which was the important thing—and I got to invite Simone because Hailey couldn’t come. Plus we had all the right sleepover stuff, and my brother was going to leave any minute and be elsewhere overnight. Perfect!

Except for one thing: Ace-the-grandpa standing smack in the middle of everything, eating a chicken-juice sandwich, no less. And then, to make matters worse, he went to his room and came back with a silver menorah and a blue box of candles.

“Grandpa, what are you doing?”

“WHAT? IT’S THE FIRST NIGHT OF HANUKKAH.”

“No, it’s not. Hanukkah starts tomorrow, see?” I pointed at the calendar. Ace squinted at it like he had never noticed it before.

“THAT’S A SECULAR CALENDAR,” he informed me. “JEWISH HOLIDAYS START THE NIGHT BEFORE. HANUKKAH STARTS TONIGHT.”

“Grandpa, I think it starts tomorrow night. Plus I’m having a sleepover party tonight. So can you maybe put that stuff away?”

Ding-dong!

I glanced at the clock on the microwave. Six-twenty-seven. Hopefully, it was Paul’s dad coming early to pick Sam up. It was finally time for my party, the one I had worked so hard to earn. I was not about to let anything stand in the way of it being perfect.

“I’ll get it!” I yelled, running to answer the door.

“Heyyyy!” said Allie, grinning. She was holding a tote bag with a pillow sticking out of it, plus a stack of magazines topped with a giant candy cane tied with a ribbon.

“Thanks for coming early,” I told her. Never having done this before, I was grateful for her sleepover expertise.

“No problem,” said Allie. I led her in and showed her the living room, a.k.a. Sleepover Party Central.

“What do you think? I could spread these out, or maybe we should just leave them in a stack?” I potchked with the magazines, trying to figure out the best way to arrange them.

“Zelly, calm down. It looks amazing in here.”

“Really?” I asked, hoping she wasn’t just trying to make me feel good. I had given a lot of thought to making things perfect. There were bowls of chocolate kisses and sour gummies on the mantel, to keep Ace from repeating his Halloween performance. There were extra pillows and blankets piled in a corner, just in case anyone forgot their sleeping bags. And my parents had let me open one Hanukkah present early: a gift card to buy a whole bunch of music to play. Allie helped me pick songs, since she has an older sister to tell her what’s in and what’s out. There was popcorn to pop and a rainbow of nail polish. Allie plopped down her stuff and pulled out a big bag of nail salon supplies, and even I had to admit: it did look pretty perfect.

Ding-dong!

“I’ll get it,” I yelled again, running for the door. Allie followed me. Hopefully, it was Paul’s dad arriving to pick up Sam. I threw open the front door.

Jeremy stood there, wearing his giant down jacket and a long blue scarf with the Red Sox emblem on it. Snow had just started falling and was clinging to his wavy hair and glasses. He was carrying a shoebox in his mittened hands.

“Happy Hanukkah!” he said.

“Jeremy, what are you doing here?” I said desperately. “Hanukkah starts tomorrow night.”

“No, it doesn’t,” said Jeremy. “Tonight’s the first night. We already lit candles. I got this scarf. Here!” He handed the shoebox to me. “We made sufganiyot,” he explained as I opened it and a delicious smell wafted out. “My mom made way too many, so she said I should bring some over to your family.”

“Soof gani yot?” asked Allie.

“Jelly donuts,” explained Jeremy, rubbing his hands together. “Can I come in? It’s kind of cold out here.”

“Oh!” I said. “Um, sure. For a sec.” As Jeremy followed me and Allie to the kitchen, my mind was reeling. All the girls were going to show up any minute. This wasn’t exactly the sleepover scene I’d planned.

“Jeremy! What a nice surprise.” My mom came in carrying Sam’s
Star Wars
sleeping bag.

“Happy Hanukkah,” said Jeremy. “We had some extra sufganiyot, so I brought them over.”

“How sweet of you,” said my mom. “I feel so silly—we all thought Hanukkah started tomorrow night. But Ace found the menorah and we were just about to light the candles. Can you stay long enough to do the blessings with us?”

“I, uh …” Jeremy looked from me and Allie to my mom and back again. “Sure,” he finally said.

Mom set the menorah on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil. In place already were two candles—a regular one plus one in the shammes position—that Sam had jammed in. The non-shammes one was green, short, and jutting off to the side precariously. The shammes, proud and tall, was blue.

“I get blue!” announced Sam.

“Big surprise,” I said. “We always root for one candle or another to last the longest,” I explained to Allie.

“Seth and I do too,” said Jeremy. “I mean, we used to. Before Seth got all teenage and attitudey.”

Allie giggled appreciatively, because she thought pretty much everything about Jeremy’s older brother was cute. But before anyone else could weigh in on which candle should win—

Ding-dong!

Oh no!
Trying to stay calm, I ran to get the door. “Hi, Zelly dear,” said Mrs. Stanley. She was wearing a big shawl, and there was a light dusting of snow on her shoulders. The snow was coming down even harder than when Jeremy showed up. “Is this a bad time?” she asked.

“I, uh, no,” I lied.

“I just wanted to stop by and tell you how much Bob and I appreciated the ornament you made. It looks just like her! You have to come help us find a place for it on our tree.”

“Oh. Sure. You’re welcome.” For the longest time, Bubbles’ painting kit had sat on my shelf. But after that night at the golf course, I lifted the lid and peeked inside. The smell still gave me a lump in my throat, but each time I opened it, the sadness wore off a little. And when I uncapped some of the tubes of paint, I discovered a shade that was the exact butterscotch color of Bridget’s ears.

Just then, I noticed that Mrs. Stanley was holding something in her arms under her shawl. It was moving a little. Wiggling, in fact.

“I also wanted to introduce you to someone. I know it’s really soon, but, well …”

A little beagley nose poked out. Followed by two tiny, floppy ears and two deep brown eyes.

“Awwwwww,” I said reflexively.

“Maureen,” I heard my mom say behind me. And then, “Oh, did you bring her? Let’s have a look at— Awwwwww!”

“I know, isn’t she darling?” said Mrs. Stanley.

“Come in for a minute, won’t you?” said my mom. “It’s really coming down!”

“Oh, I wouldn’t want to impose,” said Mrs. Stanley. “Plus Bob will worry if I don’t get this little girl back soon.”

“It’s no trouble. We were just about to light Hanukkah candles. You can join us.”

“Oh, well, just for a minute,” said Mrs. Stanley.

“What’s her name?” I asked.

“We’re still trying to figure that out,” said Mrs. Stanley. “Suggestions welcome!”

“Okay, where was I?” said my mom. “Right, matches.”

Ding-dong!

WOOF!
went Ace.
Yeep!
went the puppy, right on cue.

“WHAT IS THIS? GRAND CENTRAL STATION?” said Ace.

“I got it,” I yelled again, running for the door.

Mrs. Wright stood on the front steps, Rosie in her arms.

“Hi, Zelly dear,” she said.

“Zelly?” My mom came up behind me. “Can I help you?” she said to Mrs. Wright.

“I’m Delores Wright, Ace and Zelly’s dog obedience teacher,” said Mrs. Wright. “But I really came to see Ace. The person, not the dog,” she added.

“Oh!” said Mom. “Won’t you come in?”

“Thank you,” said Mrs. Wright, following my mom into the kitchen.

“DELORES?” said Ace, wiping his hands on his pants.

“Hello, Ace,” said Mrs. Wright.

Ruff!
went Ace.
Yeep!
echoed the puppy.

Yap! Yap!
went Rosie, staring at the puppy. She had something that seemed like envy on her furry little face.

“Allie!” I stage-whispered, pulling her into the living room. “What am I going to do? This is a disaster!”

“What is?”

“Everything is! All I wanted was a plain old regular sleepover party. Instead, I’ve got Grand Central Station!”

“Zelly, it’ll be fine. You’ll see.”

I gave Allie a look. How could she not see what was going on? “Allie, be honest,” I said. “Don’t just try to make everything okay. Like with Hailey. I know about that.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Allie.

“I know you got her to invite me to her sleepover because you feel sorry for me.”

“That’s not true.”

“Oh yeah? Then why did you tell her all that stuff about my grandpa almost dying?”

“To get her to invite you, Zelly. Duh! But that’s not why! I wanted you to come because her party would’ve been more fun with you there!”

“Fun, like funny, ha-ha?” I said suspiciously.

“Zelly! Fun like
fun
. What is
with
you tonight? Why are you being so weird?”

“I guess it runs in my family.”

“Yeah? Well, I
like
your family,” said Allie. “I’d trade in a heartbeat.”

“Pfft,”
I said, rolling my eyes. “Your family is perfect. Your life is perfect.”

Allie
pfft
ed me back. “
Perfect
? Please! Julia acts like I’m two and bosses me around, telling me what to do and not do, wear and not wear, like and not like. And my whole life is hand-me-downs. No one ever buys me anything new, not even a stupid magazine.”

“That’s not true. What about your new sweater with the pom-poms? Or that hoodie with the fleece lining?”

“Julia’s and Julia’s.”

“Okay, fine. Your shoes stink too,” I admitted.

“What?!” Allie looked down at her feet, alarmed.

I couldn’t help smiling. “Not like that. It’s just something Ace says.”

Ding-dong!

“Great, who’s next?” I said. “Nicky Benoit?”

“Oh, didn’t I tell you I invited Naked-Mole-Rat Nicky?” joked Allie, giving me her best naked-mole-rat smile.

“Okay, you’re right,” I admitted. “That would be a whole lot worse. But, still, you’ve got to help me!”

“Help you what?” said Allie.

“Zelly!” called my mom. “Your friends are here.”

Allie and I ran to the door, Ace at our heels. Jenny, Megan, and Simone stood on the front stoop, giggling in the falling snow. Across the street were the Wilson twins, hopping out of their dad’s Subaru. The snowplow rumbled past them, filling our driveway with snow.

Jenny, Simone, Megan, Tasha, and Talia clomped into the kitchen, talking and laughing. They stopped and went silent when they saw the crowd gathered. But then Jenny spotted the puppy. “Awwwww, look!” she said, and there was a collective chorus of
awwwwwww
s. All the girls dove under the table to admire the baby beagle. Rosie danced in circles, trying to steal a little attention, but it was no use. The puppy had her beat.

“Give her some room, okay?” I said. “Hey, why don’t we go into the living room!” I grabbed Jenny’s overnight bag from her and dragged all of the girls out of the kitchen. “Sour Patch, guys?” I offered, moving the bowls of treats to the coffee table to distract my guests.