Lucy’s “Perfect” Summer (24 page)

“Mr. Cluck-Face?” he said.

“Yeah.”

“Am I a Cluck-Face?”

“Are you serious?”

He slowly shook his head and leaned it against the fence, eyes closed. Lucy let him be quiet until he said, “Is that true?”

“What?”

“That your dad’ll do anything for you and you’ll do anything for him?”

Lucy started to simply say, “of course,” but the words caught in her throat. That question still had to be answered — by her.

So instead she said, “We have a party to get ready for. Today, at Felix Pasco’s. Hey — ” She poked him in the arm. “I still haven’t heard how everything happened yesterday.”

J.J. just grunted. Yeah. They were getting back to normal.

It was the best party ever. Not just because Felix had grilled cheese
and
tacos
and
a whole bunch of extra pickles —
and
let the team pick any ice cream they wanted from the freezer.

And not just because Felix announced that he wasn’t selling his café to those
banditos
, even though they weren’t the ones who had wrecked the soccer field after the storm
and
that he was going to tell the other shop owners to do the same for these wonderful children
even though
they were a stubborn lot and wouldn’t listen to him yet. The tears were a little embarrassing, but the Rocky Road and Fudge Ripple made up for it.

It wasn’t even the best party just because, once Felix stopped crying over their table, the Dreams finally got to talk about how they brought Rianna Wallace to justice. Everybody talked at once, but Lucy was able to sort it out —

“I didn’t have any problem
getting
that Rianna girl to talk,” J.J. said. “She just wouldn’t shut up.”

“I taped the camera phone to the ball and kicked it — ” Dusty said.

“You kicked it crooked,” Gabe said. “I’m good, though, so I caught it — ”

As the chatter went on, with Veronica smacking Gabe, which meant she liked him again, and Oscar and Emanuel pounding each other, just because they were Oscar and Emanuel, and Carla Rosa saying “guess what” every other minute, Lucy felt like she was getting one long hug — a hug she actually liked. A hug that helped her make a decision.

She clanged her spoon against her soda glass. “I want to make an announcement.”

“Listen up, everybody,” Mr. Auggy said. He was sitting in a chair backward, looking like he was everybody’s dad and proud of it. “What is it, Captain?”

“Hawke said if there was anything that would make up for all the trouble, I should tell him. And I know what it is.” Lucy felt her smile spread so big it almost met in the back of her head. “I’m gonna tell him I want to play with you guys in the play-offs — with my
real
team.”

The cheer that went up was almost as loud as it was when Lucy won the VIP award. Dusty, of course, had to hug her neck. Over Dusty’s shoulder, Lucy saw that Mr. Auggy wasn’t cheering.

“Guess what?” Carla Rosa said when they started to settle. “Mr. Auggy doesn’t like that idea.”

“How do
you
know?” Veronica said.

Dusty started to buzz, but Mr. Auggy put his hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay — I think it’s a very generous idea. That’s just like our captain, right?”

Lucy heard the “but” in his voice.

“But that’s going to leave the Select Team two players short.”

“So you’re telling me not to do it?” Lucy said.

Mr. Auggy shook his head. “I’m just giving you information. Nobody has to tell you what to do.”

Dusty gave a big sigh. “Yeah. It’s like she always knows the right thing.”

Lucy was trying to make a list about that in her Book that night when Dad asked if he could come in. She was glad he was there, because she hadn’t gotten past: “Dear God: I Don’t Know What To Do” in her Book of Lists.

“Are you in a good place?” Dad said.

“Why?” Lucy said.

“Aunt Karen’s back from her vacation. She’s coming here Sunday.”

“Oh,” Lucy said.

Dad’s eyebrows went up. “That’s it? Just ‘oh’?”

“I’ve got a bigger problem than that, Dad,” Lucy said. “And I know you have a really big decision to make yourself, but Mr. Auggy said I should let the grown-ups be the grown-ups and let the kids be the kids. So could I talk to you about it?”

Dad smiled his sunshine smile, for a first time in a very long while. “That Mr. Auggy is a prince. What’s going on?”

Lucy told him about her soccer team dilemma. He nodded and made small sounds, just the way he did when he and Mr. Auggy were talking. If she wasn’t a grown-up, he sure made her feel like one. There was a lot of that going around.

When she was finished, Dad leaned back in the rocker and let there be quiet for a few minutes. When he spoke, his voice was serious and low.

“How did you decide what to do about Rianna?” he said.

“Well, it’s kinda weird,” Lucy said, “but I used a story in the Bible that Inez showed me.”

“That isn’t weird at all.” Dad’s face was mushy. “You are surrounded by adults who love you and teach you the things I miss.”

“You don’t miss anything!” Lucy said. “You’re the best dad in the world!”

“And I have a lot of help. They’ll be here for you if I have to go away.”

Lucy nodded, but she suddenly couldn’t talk.

“I don’t want to move you away from all this,” he said. “I do think there’s one person who would be willing to come and stay with you if I went to school, but — ”

Lucy caught her breath. “You’re talking about Aunt Karen, aren’t you?”

Dad’s eyes darted around. “I haven’t asked her, and I won’t if you absolutely say no. I know she’s hard on you.” He ran his hand over his fuzzy summer haircut as if he were waiting for Lucy to explode, or at least try to climb out the window.

But she didn’t. Maybe there were just too many other things to do before she had the energy to say absolutely no. Or maybe . . .

“I’m sorry, champ,” Dad said. “This isn’t helping you with your soccer problem, is it?”

“Not exactly,” Lucy said. “But I think there’s something that might.”

18

“All right, seriously, what’s different about you?”

Aunt Karen shook back her shiny bob of dark hair and looked Lucy over for about the thirteenth time since she’d arrived after church. She brought her iced latte to the kitchen table where Lucy was
trying
to read.

“You had your hair highlighted,” she said. “That’s it.”

“No,” Lucy said.

“It’s blonder.”

“Must be the sun.”

Aunt Karen took a sip from her glass and studied her some more. Lucy went back to the page.

“You’re wearing blush,” Aunt Karen said.

“Uh, no.”

“That must be the sun too then. I bet you’re not using sunscreen.”

“My coach makes me.” Lucy ran her finger down the page and glanced at her watch. Mr. Auggy was going to be there any minute.

“You definitely haven’t improved your wardrobe — although I will say you’re getting a cute figure.”

There was a pause. Lucy looked up to see surprise in Aunt Karen’s long comma eyebrows.

“What? No, ‘Aunt Karen, stop it! I hate that!’?”

“I don’t exactly hate it.” Lucy shrugged. “It’s just the way you are.”

“All right, that’s it. Who are you, and what have you done with my niece?”

“She’s just growing up, Karen,” Dad said from the doorway. “Luce, I heard Mr. Auggy pull up. You ready?”

“Ready for what?” Aunt Karen said.

“I’m taking a reading test,” Lucy said. “You can stay if you want.”

Aunt Karen just stared at her. It was one of the few times Lucy had ever known her to be without any words.

And that was good, because in spite of how brave she was acting, Lucy was nervous. This would be her first time reading out loud to Mr. Auggy. If she couldn’t do it like a seventh grader, maybe it wouldn’t matter what decision she made about which team to play with. That was one thing she was still afraid to ask Dad.

While Aunt Karen made her usual big deal over Mr. Auggy — Veronica would say she was crushing on him — Lucy drank an entire glass of water and still felt dry as the desert itself. When Aunt Karen was finally convinced that Mr. Auggy did
not
want an iced latte, she and Dad sat in chairs away from the table, and Mr. Auggy pulled one up beside Lucy.

“You going to read to me about soccer?” he said.

Lucy shook her head. “I’m going to read from Esther. Is that okay?”

“That is more than okay.” Mr. Auggy sat back in the chair. “Take your time, captain.”

“Oh — one thing.” Lucy pulled Marmalade into her lap. Then she turned to the page.

She read the story of Esther, how the vile Haman thought Mordecai would be put to death so he built gallows for him. How he thought the king was going to honor him, and how the king made Haman give the honor to Mordecai. And how after Esther bravely told the king the terrible things Haman planned for her people, he himself was hanged from the gallows he’d built.

And how Esther didn’t go out and fight beside her people, but asked the king to allow them to fight for themselves.

“ ‘For the Jews,’ ” Lucy read, “ ‘it was a time of happiness and joy, gladness and ho — ’ Oh, the
h
is silent. ‘It was a time of happiness and joy, gladness and honor.’ ” She turned back a few of the delicate pages. “I want to read this one other part because it’s my favorite. Okay — ‘For if you remain silent at this time, relief and de-li-ver-ance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?’ ”

When Lucy stopped, she wondered if everyone in the room had evaporated. There wasn’t a sound. Not even Aunt Karen spoke.

Lucy didn’t look up from the page. “I messed up some words.”

“So do I when I read the Bible. It isn’t the easiest piece of literature there is.” Mr. Auggy scooted his chair in some more and sat on the edge. “That isn’t the point anyway. What I’m looking for is whether you understand what you just read.”

“You want me to explain it?” Lucy said.

Mr. Auggy nodded.

Lucy once again ran her finger down the page, the way Inez did. And folded her hands, like Inez did too. And then she knew something Inez knew — something that she’d been trying to show her all along.

“It means if you’re going to grow up, you have to do things you don’t want to do sometimes because it’s right for other people, and maybe you’re the only one who can do it.”

“Miss Lucy,” Mr. Auggy said in a husky voice, “you are officially a seventh grader.”

Aunt Karen said, “Well, I’m impressed,” and Mr. Auggy smiled his small smile. But Lucy just looked down at the Book of Esther through a blur of tears.

“What’s going on, Luce?” Dad said.

“She’s about to cry,” Aunt Karen said. “Now, how did you know that?”

“Luce?”

“I know what I have to do now,” Lucy said in a thick voice.