Amber Brown Sees Red (5 page)

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Authors: Paula Danziger

BOOK: Amber Brown Sees Red
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My mom, Sarah Thompson, has gone totally ballistic.
I, Amber Brown, have never seen her like this.
Clearing the table, she’s slamming dishes around.
The bowl of broccoli falls to the floor.
If I weren’t so upset by the way my mom is acting, I would be celebrating the fact that there will be no broccoli leftovers.
A glass falls, breaks, and spills water all over the tablecloth.
My mom puts down the dishes, sort of crumbles into a chair, and starts to cry.
Max kneels down and puts his arms around her.
Putting her head on his shoulder, she sniffles and tries to stop crying.
I want to be hugging her, but Max is already doing that.
I don’t understand why she’s acting like this.
When my dad moved to Paris, my mom was mad at him. She said that he was running away from responsibility.
I heard that fight.
Dad had come over to the house to tell us that he was being transferred, that it wasn’t his fault ... that he would always support me financially and love me.
They yelled so much, I started to cry.
I start to cry now.
Max stops hugging my mom and comes over and hugs me.
It’s the first time he’s really hugged me like this.
I put my head on his shoulder, sniffle, and cry. My nose drips on his jacket.
My mother comes over and puts her arms around both of us ... a group hug.
I sniffle again.
My mother sniffles again.
Her eye makeup has run all the way down her face.
I sit down.
“Amber,” she says, “I’m sorry. I don’t understand why I’m acting like this.”
Actually, I, Amber Brown, am not sure I want to understand why she’s acting like this ... I just don’t want her to be acting like this. It’s so scary.
She continues sniffling and speaking. “It’s just that everything is going so well. I love you. I love Max.”
I think about how I love her ... but I also love my father.
“I don’t want to see things change, have to deal with HIM at holiday time, have to work out custody arrangements, have HIM back in my life.”
HIM is my father, I think.
I am just so confused. I haven’t spent a lot of time with my dad since he left, and I’m not even sure of how I feel about him. I just hate it that my mom is acting like this.
“I have to go upstairs,” I say.
My mother takes a deep breath. “Honey. I’m sorry. It’ll be OK.”
“I have to go upstairs,” I repeat.
“It’ll be OK,” she repeats.
I go upstairs.
First, I sit on my bed and cry for a few minutes.
Then I take out my “Dad Book,” the scrapbook with pictures of my dad, the one that I talk to when I need to feel close to him.
“This is a mess, a real mess,” I tell him. “Why didn’t you talk to Mom first? Why don’t you two just grow up?”
Skunk Day has turned into one of the longest days of my life.
It started out stinking ... and it’s ended that way.
Chapter Nine
“Bulletin. Bulletin. Bulletin. Bulletin. Bulletin.” Brandi picks up a twig, pretending that it’s a microphone. “Live ........... from the playground .... it’s Brandi Colwin.”
“Five bulletins.” I smack my forehead with my hand. “What a busy news day.”
“This reporter is on the cutting edge of several late-breaking stories,” Brandi tells us. “The first bulletin is about ....... THE NEW STUDENT. He will be arriving in our class, 4-B ... TODAY!”
“Is he cute?” Naomi wants to know.
“Does he know how to bowl?” Vinnie Simmons pretends to throw a ball down an imaginary alley.
“More news about that in the later edition.” Brandi grins. “I’ve just told you all that I know at this time. Now for the second bulletin.
“The skunks were apprehended.” She holds her nose.
Tiffani clutches her heart. “Oh no. Did they hurt them?”
Brandi shakes her head. “No. They caught them in a Havahart trap, one of those that don’t hurt animals. Then they let them loose in a woods, somewhere far away.”
Bobby snorts. “Yeah, right. If you believe that, I’ve got some land on Mars I’d like to sell to you.”
“You are soooooooooo mean,” Tiffani whines.
“Bulletin Number Three.” Brandi holds up three fingers.“The skunks didn’t just wander in. They were put there .... the alleged culprits have been identified.”
“Who are they? How did they find them?” Alicia asks.
“Daniel Delaney.... You know, the one everyone calls Danny de Looney .... and his best friend, Marvin Allen.”
Everyone looks at Fredrich Allen, who is in our class. “I can pick my nose but I didn’t pick my brother.”
“Ewwwwwww.” Hannah Burton makes a face.
For once, I agree with Hannah Burton.
Brandi continues. “The teachers at the high school figured it out by how bad Daniel and Marvin smelled.The principal suspended them. He was going to give them in-school suspension, but they smell so bad, they aren’t allowed back in school for a week.”
“My parents are really angry. Marvin’s grounded. He’s not allowed to go anywhere except school and church. In fact, he has to sleep out in a tent in our backyard until he stops smelling like skunk. The only time he’s allowed in the house is to go to the bathroom and to take tomato-juice baths.”
I giggle. “Why tomato juice?”
“It helps get rid of skunk smell,” Brandi says. “Now for Bulletin Number Four.”
“Wow. It was a big news weekend,” Naomi says.
I think about what a big news weekend it was for me, but I know that Brandi won’t blab all of the stuff I told her when I went over to her house on Sunday.
“Number Four is about Mrs. Owen, the kindergarten teacher. She told my mother that this week she’s going to have a new rule in class. During story hour, when the kids in her class are sitting on the floor listening, they are not allowed to touch her legs and tell her that she needs a shave.”
Everyone laughs.
“I bet Mrs. Holt wouldn’t let us do that either,” Jimmy says.
Tiffani punches him on the arm. “You are sooooooooo gross. Mrs. Owen has the little kids. They do stuff like that.”
Tiffani should know. Her little brother is in that class.
“Most of us are more mature.” She makes a face at Jimmy. “Of course, you just might be the exception.”
I look at some of the kindergarteners, who are going down the slide.
Just last week, I saw Jimmy go down that same slide.
Actually, it was right before I went down that same slide.
“Bulletin Number Five.” Brandi looks at me.
For a minute, I am very nervous. What if Brandi tells everyone about how my dad is going to move back and how much that upset my mom? What if she tells everyone how my mom called my dad up and they talked for a while and then my mom hung up on my dad? And how then my dad called up and when my mom answered, he hung up on her?
I definitely hope that my family is not part of the Brandi Bulletin Show.
“The last bulletin is about the sighting of Mr. Cohen ..... and Ms. Levine on Saturday night at the Multi-Plex, sharing a box of popcorn.”
“OoOoOoOoOoOoOo,” everyone says.
Bobby makes kissing sounds on his hand.
The bell rings.
It’s time for school to begin.
I, Amber Brown, am glad that the weekend is over and, at least at school, it’s back to normal.
I wonder what it’s going to be like when my dad returns.
Chapter Ten
Entering the classroom, I see that there is an extra desk.
I wonder what the new boy is going to be like.
Staring at the empty desk, I feel really weird.
It’s not that I don’t want new people in my class.... It’s just that I don’t want new people in my class RIGHT NOW
“Class,” Mrs. Holt says, “in about ten minutes, your new classmate will arrive. I want you to make him feel welcome.”
Brandi raises her hand. “Mrs. Holt, what can you tell us about our new classmate?”

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