Amber Brown Sees Red (6 page)

Looking up from her attendance book, Mrs. Holt stares at Brandi. “Do you want this information to help him feel welcome or is it for your latest bulletin?”

“Bulletin. Bulletin. Bulletin,” the class says all together.

Brandi smiles. “Both.”

Mrs. Holt smiles too. “OK. His name is Hal Henry ... and I repeat, please help him to feel welcome. I know that you all will.”

Brandi raises her hand. “May I please be Hal’s special guide? I know how hard it is to be the new kid in school.”

“Oooh!!!!!! You’re a girl. You can’t be his guide.” Bobby Clifford crosses his eyes.

“Boys and girls can be friends,” I say, thinking of Justin.

Then I think of Bobby and add, “Well, not always.”

Then I think about Justin and wonder if he had a guide when he went to his new school.

There’s a knock on our classroom door.

It’s the vice principal with the new kid.

We all look at him.

He’s got brown hair, brown eyes.

He looks at all of us.

He’s also got ears that wiggle and eyes that cross.

“Hal,” the vice principal says.

Hal’s ears stop wiggling and his eyes stop crossing.

He’s got a great smile.

“Welcome, Hal.” Mrs. Holt smiles back at him and points to the empty seat.

Hal sits down.

Mrs. Holt says, “Brandi Colwin will be your guide if you have any questions.”

“I’ll be glad to help too,” Bobby yells out. “I can wiggle my ears and cross my eyes too.”

Bobby and Hal cross their eyes and wiggle their ears at each other.

Soon everyone in class is trying it, everyone except for Hannah Burton and the grown-ups.

Hal is definitely going to be an interesting addition to our class.

I bet Brandi is going to have fun being his guide.... She just better not like him more than she likes me.

I wonder if I, Amber Brown, can have a guide to help me through all of the changes in my life.

“These are the best, the best, the very best bowling shirts ever.” I hold one of them up.

My mom and Max look at each other and grin.

They helped the team design them.

We’ve already had one meeting, one practice.

I, Amber Brown, am team captain of “The Pinsters”—the “Head Pin.” Brandi is on my team. So is the new kid, Hal, who says that he can wiggle his ears and cross his eyes while he bowls. The other two on the team are Tiffani Shroeder and Gregory Gifford.

Hannah Burton said that the only reason I’m team captain is because my stepfather is the coach.

I told her that the team voted for ME ..... and Max is not my stepfather, not yet. (Even though I really like Max, I’m not ready for the “step” step yet.)

“The shirts look soooo good.”

They’re white T-shirts, outlined in black so that they look like real bowling shirts, with our names printed over make-believe pockets. The back looks really great with the team name and the picture.

“Try it on,” my mom says.

I go into the downstairs bathroom, take off my other T-shirt, and put the team shirt on.

Looking at myself in the mirror, I check out the front and then the back of the shirt.

It makes me feel like I will bowl even better when I wear it, maybe even break a hundred. (The highest score I’ve ever gotten was ninety-seven and that was with those “cheater” thingies in the gutter, so I couldn’t get a gutter ball.)

I, Amber Brown, want “The Pinsters” to be the best team in the Pee-Wee league.

I, Amber Brown, want to understand why the league is called “Pee-Wee.” Maybe because I’m standing in the bathroom, I think it’s a weird name ... but it does sound like something to do in a bathroom. Maybe the Pee-Wee Championship should be called the Toilet Bowl.

Going back down to the living. room, I model the shirt for Mom and Max.

The phone rings.

My mom rushes to answer it.

She thinks I don’t realize that ever since I got to the phone and talked to my father first, she now tries to answer the phone before me. If it’s my dad, she goes into another room and talks to him and then she lets me talk to him.

She says she does that so that there will be no more misunderstandings.

She takes the portable phone into another room.

Max and I look at each other.

I sit down at the table and put my head on the table.

He pats my head.

It makes me feel a little like a dog, but it also makes me feel good because I know that Max is trying to make me feel better.

My mother walks back into the room and hands me the phone. “It’s your father.”

My father’s first words to me are, “What is SHE saying about me?”

I decide to ignore that question and say, “Hi, Dad. Do you miss me? When are we going to see each other? Do you know yet?”

He smiles.

I can’t see him on the telephone, but I can tell from his voice that he’s smiling. “I’ll be back for a visit next week. While I’m there, I’ll be meeting with my new bosses ... and looking for an apartment. Amber, I want you to go with me when I look at apartments since it’s also going to be your place. Then we’ll go shopping and buy all new furniture for your room.”

I don’t know why I don’t feel more excited, why there is a knot in my stomach. Actually, there’s more than a knot. It’s more like a giant knotted string ball in my stomach.

I, Amber Brown, am always begging to redo my room at home and my mom is always saying that I can’t right now.

Now I have a chance to have a whole brand-new room and I’m feeling weird about it.

My father continues. “We’ll get a television for your room and your own phone line and your own computer.”

I think about how I’m always begging my mom to redo my room and how she’s always saying, “Not now. Money’s tight and we don’t know how much longer we’ll be living in this place, especially after the wedding.”

My father is still talking. “We can get you bunk beds or one of those sneaker beds you’ve always wanted. Am I leaving anything out? Is there anything else that you want?”

I say, “Yes. I want you and Mom to stop fighting with each other.”

I, Amber Brown, have given up wanting them to get back together. I just want the fighting to stop.

There’s silence for a minute, and then my father says, “I can’t wait to see you. When I get back, we’ll go apartment hunting over the weekend.”

“Just so it’s not on Saturday afternoon when the bowling team is competing,” I tell him.

“OK,” he says. “I’ll go to the game to watch my little girl bowl and then we’ll search for an apartment and go shopping.”

He’s going to go to the game, the game that Max will be coaching .... the game that my mother will be cheering at.

My stomach really hurts.

Something tells me that it won’t be just the bowling team that will be competing.

When I get off the phone with my dad, my mom asks, “What did HE say?”

I tell her about the apartment hunting and how I’m going to get a room of my own and all new things.

My mom is quiet for a minute and then she says,“Maybe it’s time to redo your room.”

I, Amber Brown, have been waiting so long for her to say that, but I am beginning to think that it’s not rooms that need to be done or redone.... It’s the way that my parents are acting.

When my parents separated, I thought it couldn’t get worse.

When they got divorced, I thought it couldn’t get worse.

Now I’m getting worried.

I can’t even begin to imagine how much worse it’s going to get.