What Are You Hiding, Tory? (9781771275347) Page 4

  “You don’t have to come to the party if you don’t want to, Sara!” I said loudly.

  “Yeah.” Zoe backed me up.

  Kelly didn’t say anything.

  The bell rang then, and we went inside.

  * * * *

  Before Miss Denny went to take her break that morning, she told Kelly and me the kids were going to dress up in their costumes at school on Friday before Halloween. She asked us if we would mind helping them change during recess so they would be ready for their class party. All the classes would have Halloween parties that Friday, but the kindergartners were the only ones who had their party in the morning because they went home at noon. The rest of us had to wait until after lunch. I was getting pretty excited about Halloween. It was still almost two weeks away. I couldn’t wait.

  * * * *

  The next evening I was feeling a bit sick again, so after I finished my homework, I went down to the family room to watch TV with my dad and Alec. During a commercial the phone rang. I answered it.

  “Hello?”

  “May I speak with Tory, please?” It was a lady whose voice I didn’t recognize. I grabbed the remote control and turned the volume on the TV way down. Alec gave me an annoyed look. I passed the remote to him, and he put the sound back up, but just a little, so I could still hear on the phone.

  “This is she,” I said.

  “Hello, Tory, this is Nina Frank. I’m Liza’s Mom.”

  “Oh! Hi.”

  “Liza has told me so much about you. She just adores you.”

  “She’s a great little girl,” I said.

  “She asked me if you could babysit. When she came home with your phone number, she begged me to call you that very night. I told her that as soon as her father and I had somewhere to go, we would call you.”

  “And now you have somewhere to go?” I asked.

  “Can you babysit for us Friday night?”

  “I don’t think we have any plans, but let me go ask my mom.” I put the phone down on the sofa, and forgetting that I didn’t feel good, I ran upstairs to my parents’ room. Mom was sitting at her desk working on the computer. My mom has a regular job at an office, but she also writes children’s books. My favorite was one she wrote when I was about four or five years old. It’s called Puddles Likes Puddles, and it’s about my favorite stuffed animal, a light-brown puppy with floppy ears whose name is Puddles. Except in Mom’s story Puddles is a real dog.

  “Mom,” I said.

  Mom looked up from the computer. “Oh! Tory. I didn’t hear you come in.”

  “Mom, remember when I told you about Liza in the kindergarten?” I asked, excitedly.

  Her face was blank, which meant she had no idea what I was talking about. But I kept going. “I told you she asked me if I could babysit?”

  “Oh, yes, of course.” Mom remembered.

  “Well, her mom is on the phone, and she wants to know if I can babysit Friday night.”

  “We don’t have any plans, so it’s okay by me. But you know the rules. They have to bring you home, and you can only stay until midnight.” On weeknights I can only babysit until nine.

  “Okay!” I called. I was already running back downstairs.

  “Mrs. Frank?” I was out of breath when I picked the phone up off the couch. “Sorry to make you wait. My mom said I could babysit.”

  “Wonderful!” Mrs. Frank said, “Liza will be so excited! Mr. Frank will pick you up at six thirty, and you can eat supper with the girls if you’d like.”

  “Sure,” I said. I wondered who the other girl was. Liza had never mentioned having a sister. I wondered if her sister was older or younger than Liza. After I gave Mrs. Frank my address, she said, “Liza would like to talk to you.” She put Liza on the phone.

  “Hi, Tory,” she sounded shy.

  “Hi, Liza. Guess what?”

  “What?”

  “I’m going to come babysit you Friday night.”

  “I know! And you’re going to eat dinner here, too! Do you like pizza?”

  “I love pizza,” I said.

  “Mom,” I heard Liza say, “Tory loves pizza.” Into the phone she said, “Bye, Tory. See you on Friday.”

  “I’ll see you tomorrow at school, remember?”

  “Oh, yeah! Then how many days till Friday?” she asked.

  “Today is Tuesday,” I said, “Can you figure it out?”

  “Wednesday, Thursday, Friday! That’s only three days!”

  “You’re smart!” I said. “See you tomorrow.” I hung up the phone.

  Shoot! I forgot to ask about her sister.

  Chapter Eleven

  The doorbell rang at six twenty-five on Friday night. My father answered the door and introduced himself to Mr. Frank. He was the tallest man I had ever seen! And his hair was the exact same shade of red as Liza’s. He was kind of cute, for a dad, but not as cute as Jake McMahon or Potter Murphy. Mr. Frank and my father shook hands, and then I stepped into the doorway. “Hi. I’m Tory.” He held out his hand to shake mine.

  I was kind of surprised when I saw which direction we were headed. I had no idea Liza lived right across the street from our school.

  “Recognize this place?” Mr. Frank asked me as he drove up in front of Keller Elementary School.

  “Sure,” I said.

  He parked the car in their garage, and I followed him into the house. Liza was waiting for me in the kitchen, and she almost knocked me over when she threw herself at me for a hug.

  “Toreeeee!”

  “Hi, Liza. How’s it going?”

  “Great!”

  A woman walked into the kitchen then. I knew she had to be Liza’s mom because she had the same face as Liza’s, only grown up and without freckles. Mrs. Frank was carrying a little girl who looked a lot like Liza, too; only her hair was a regular shade of red. She was about two years old.

  “Hello, Tory. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Mrs. Frank said. She was very polite, and she reached out and shook my hand.

  “It’s nice to meet you, too, Mrs. Frank.”

  “Liza, would you like to introduce Tory to your sister?” Mrs. Frank prompted.

  Liza grabbed my hand and pulled me over to where her mother was standing. “Liza, this is my little sister, Cara Lynn. She’s two-and-a-half, and she wears diapers at night when she sleeps but in the day she wears big girl panties like me.”

  I smiled at all the information. Mrs. Frank was smiling, too. “Hi, Cara Lynn,” I said, and since they seemed to be a big hand-shaking family I reached for her little hand. But she pulled away and hid her face in Mrs. Frank’s shoulder. The buzzer on the stove went off then, and Mr. Frank carefully pulled a small pizza from the oven. I could not remember the last time I had eaten frozen pizza.

  He sliced through the steaming cheese and crunchy crust with one of those rolling cutters. “Dinner’s ready.”

  * * * *

  Mrs. Frank showed me where she kept the names and numbers of their pediatrician, their closest neighbors, and the kids’ grandparents, in case of an emergency. She also wrote down her cell phone number. “Here’s Mr. Frank’s cell phone number, too.” She showed me where it was on the paper. There was another list on the refrigerator. That one told what time Liza and Cara Lynn went to sleep and a few other things about their routine.

  “Liza knows where everything is—food, toys, whatever you need.” I already liked the Franks. The way they treated Liza and Cara Lynn like they were intelligent people, not just stupid kids to boss around, sort of reminded me of my parents. When the Franks said, “Goodbye, girls, have fun,” Cara Lynn started to cry.

  “She’ll be fine in a few minutes,” Mrs. Frank assured me. I hoped she was right.

  After the Franks left I sat down at the kitchen table with Liza. She was busy picking pieces of sausage off her pizza. Cara Lynn sat on the floor by the door and cried. I decided to give her a few minutes before I talked to her. She didn’t know me, and I didn’t want to upset her even more.

 
; “Don’t you like sausage, Liza?”

  “I like it. I just like to eat it later, after I eat the rest of the pizza.” On her plate next to the pile of sausage was a similar pile of green pepper.

  “We can have ice cream bars for dessert. Mommy and I bought them today, special,” Liza said, inspecting a piece of pizza crust before she popped it into her mouth. “Do you like ice cream, Tory?”

  “I sure do,” I told her. I had an idea then. “Do you like ice cream, Cara Lynn?”

  Cara Lynn had stopped crying when Liza first mentioned the ice cream bars. She was still sitting on the floor by the door, but she was watching us now, with her thumb in her mouth.

  “Yeth,” said Cara Lynn, around her thumb.

  “Why don’t you come over here and have some pizza with Liza, and then we can all have ice cream bars.”

  “’Kay,” she answered, and got up from her spot on the floor, walked over and stood by the table. I picked her up and put her on the chair with a booster seat on it. I brought over a slice of pizza for her and another for me. I was starving and at the rate Liza was going through the pizza I wondered if there would be enough food for all of us. I was about to bite into my piece of pizza when I remembered my enzymes. “Shoot!”

  “What?” Liza asked.

  “Oh, I just remembered I forgot something. I’ll be right back.” In the front hall I rummaged through my backpack. I keep a small bottle in the bottom under all my other junk, just in case I eat when I’m not at home. I found the bottle, took out five capsules, and went back to the kitchen. I put them on the table beside my plate and went to the refrigerator to refill my glass of milk.

  “What’s those pills for? Are you sick?” Liza looked worried. I was about to say they were vitamins, like I usually do if someone happens to see them, but then I decided not to. “They’re called enzymes. I have to take them when I eat so I don’t get a bellyache.”

  “Oh,” Liza said, “I’m done with my pizza. Can I have an ice cream bar now?”

  That was easy, I thought with relief. “Sure. Can you reach the box?”

  After I ate my ice cream bar I was totally stuffed. Turns out there was enough food for everyone after all. Liza took me down to their basement. She and Cara Lynn have a huge playroom. Liza put on her roller blades and showed me some tricks. She was really good. “I take ice skating lessons,” she told me. “Even Cara Lynn takes ice skating lessons.” After the little skating show, we all played in the basement until it was time for the kids to get ready for bed. Liza showed me her room and Cara Lynn’s. She helped me get Cara Lynn into her pajamas and diaper. I read two stories to Cara Lynn while Liza put on her pajamas. I was surprised and excited when I found Mom’s book Puddles Likes Puddles on Cara Lynn’s bookshelf. Liza was pretty excited about it too, when I told her my mother had written the book. “That book was mine before I gave it to Cara Lynn.”

  When Cara Lynn was asleep, Liza asked me if she could stay up until nine. “Please!” she said, with her hands clasped in front of her, as if she were praying for me to agree. Her parents were not coming back until eleven, so I decided it would be okay. We went back downstairs to the family room. Liza turned on the TV.

  “Do you want to watch a movie? I have Cinderella,” she asked.

  “I love that movie! But you only have half an hour,” I pointed out.

  “Oh, yeah,” she said. “Then can we watch it next time you babysit?”

  “Sure, if there’s time.”

  We watched a half-hour sitcom and then I took Liza up to bed. “Will you babysit me again?” she asked when I tucked her in.

  “Definitely. We have to watch Cinderella together, remember?”

  “I remember.”

  I told her, “Go to sleep now.”

  “See you on Monday, Tory.”

  “See you Monday. Good night.”

  Chapter Twelve

  The week of Halloween all the lower-grade classes at Keller Elementary decorated the walls of the first floor with pumpkins and ghosts. Our school had a pumpkin carving contest and one kid from each grade won a prize for the best design. In our class, the winner was Ryan Polonsky. You could tell he had spent a lot of time on his. Not only was it carved, but he had painted it, too. In the kindergarten class the prize went to Gia Giorgopoulos. I couldn’t exactly tell what her pumpkin was supposed to look like, though. The biggest surprise was that my brother won for the eighth grade. I hadn’t even seen the pumpkin he carved because, as usual, he left the project for the last minute, and I was already asleep by the time he started.

  Kelly and I helped the kindergartners get into their costumes during recess on Friday. What a mess! There were costume parts everywhere! I didn’t know which way to turn. Every time I tried to help one child put on a costume another child was pulling on my sleeve to get my attention.

  “Tie this.”

  “Zip me up.”

  “Put my tail on.”

  “Where’s my hat?”

  “Help me with my tights.”

  “Which foot does this go on?”

  No wonder Miss Denny asked us to help the kids. She didn’t want to do this herself! By the time the bell rang and Miss Denny returned all the kids were dressed and ready for their party. Kelly and I just sat on the floor looking at them. There were six witches, four ghosts, three clowns, four bunnies, and a bunch of super heroes and princesses. The kids were checking each other out to see who had the best costume. I like the little kids. Sometimes I think I would like to be a teacher when I grow up. I don’t like to think about that much, though. There is no cure for cystic fibrosis yet.

  I used to know a girl named Angela Henry. I would see her at the CF clinic at the hospital sometimes. She was in college studying to be an accountant. She was very smart, and she was always extra nice to me. When I was little she read me storybooks while we sat in the waiting room. The last time I went to the clinic, in July, she wasn’t there. I asked Dr. Mallers how Angela was doing. She had been pretty sick the last time I had seen her, though she had still told me some pretty good jokes and made me laugh. Dr. Mallers told me that Angie had died in June. She was only twenty then. Twenty seems pretty old, especially compared to eleven, but I know it’s not. It’s only a few years older than my sister, and she’s not all that much older than me. When I think about it, it makes me sad. I want to live longer than nine more years! I hope someone finds a cure soon.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Everything was set for Kelly’s Halloween sleepover party Saturday night. I woke up extra early Saturday morning. I was already excited about the party. After my therapy I called Kelly to see if she wanted to go scootering.

  “Isn’t it too cold out?” Kelly said in a sleepy voice. Unlike me, she likes to sleep late, especially on the weekends.

  “No! It’s nice out. That's why I want to go. This is probably the last really nice day we’ll have before winter.” Usually on Halloween it’s either cold out or it rains. I could not remember any other year when it was warm out for trick-or-treating.

  “Okay. I’ll be at your house in twenty minutes.” I heard Kelly yawn.

  While I was waiting, I started packing for the sleepover. I loaded up my backpack with my toothbrush, pajamas, and clean clothes to wear home on Sunday. In another bag I packed my nebulizer machine and the medicines that go in it, and I added enough pills for dinner, snacks, and breakfast. By the time I had everything packed, Kelly was standing in the doorway of my room. She was wearing a pair of old, grey sweatpants and a big, baggy, navy blue sweatshirt over a turtleneck. Her curly brown hair was a mass of tangles and frizz, which meant she had rolled out of bed and come right over. Kelly’s hair is just below her chin, and it’s so curly that if she doesn’t wash it and comb it through every morning it looks like she stuck her finger in an electric socket. Kelly also had on a pair of bright purple socks, and red gym shoes.

  “Ready?” she asked. Her cheeks were red from being outside.

  “Ready!” We took off down the st
airs and out the front door. Kelly’s scooter was lying right where she had left it on my front porch.

  We scootered around the neighborhood. It was a pretty day. A lot of leaves had already fallen. The sky was bright blue, and it was sunny. Perfect. Even though it was still too early in the day, we saw three kids trick-or-treating.

  “I’m so excited about the party tonight!” I said.

  “Me too! Is your costume all ready?”

  “Uh huh. My mom finished it last night.”

  “Great!” Kelly said. “Go home and get your stuff. We can get ready at my house.”

  Kelly and I spent the rest of the day decorating the Conrads’ basement for the party. We hung orange and black streamers everywhere and taped cut-out pumpkins, witches, and ghosts to the walls. Kelly’s mom bought a can of this weird stuff that you spray, and it comes out like cobwebs. We sprayed a lot of that in the corners of the basement. There was a big folding table in the middle of the room, which we covered with an orange paper tablecloth. Kelly’s mom also bought a whole set of Halloween plates, cups, and napkins. But the coolest part was the way we decorated the chairs, which was my idea. Over the back of each chair we put a brown paper bag, like the kind you get from the grocery store. On each bag we had drawn a tombstone. We wrote things on them like “R.I.P.” and “Here Lies the Body of John Doe,” and then we glued on twigs and leaves we collected from outside. They were super creepy!

  By the middle of the afternoon, Kelly and I just couldn’t stand it anymore. We ran upstairs to her room and got into our costumes.

  The doorbell rang at four on the dot. Zoe, Shayna, Nicolle, and Lily stood on Kelly’s doorstep. “Trick-or-treat!” they all yelled, laughing. Zoe was dressed as a scarecrow. She had on a flannel shirt and jeans with straw sticking out at her wrists and ankles. Someone had painted a red triangle on her nose, and she wore an old, ratty straw hat. Zoe looked so funny in such baggy clothes because she’s tiny, even smaller than I am. Shayna had on a neat dress that looked like it was from Africa or Egypt or somewhere exotic like that. “I’m an Israeli princess,” Shayna told us. Of course.