Coming Up Roses (10 page)

I glared at her. “Like I really believed you!” I snapped.

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” said Ashley with a smirk. “You seemed pretty convinced!”

I was so flustered I stepped away from her, bumping right into the person ahead of me in line.

“Actually,” said Nicholas, looking from me to Ashley, “I’ve read quite a bit about body language, and I’m about ninety percent sure that Ashley was telling the truth. She really
does
miss your friendship, Del.”

“That is so not true!” Ashley spluttered. “At all!” She stormed off angrily.

I turned to Nicholas. “Really?” I asked him.

Nicholas laughed. “No! I don’t know the slightest thing about body language,” he said. “I just made it up.”

I grinned at him. “Thanks, Nicholas,” I said.

“You’re welcome,” he replied.

I looked at him. “Hey — you want to hang out with me at the game?” I asked. I was seeing him in a different
light. Nicholas was smart. And talented. And, I grudgingly admitted, now that he had grown into his big ears, maybe even a little bit cute. I’d never be interested in him in that way, of course — he was more like a brother. Or a slightly annoying cousin. But I was pretty sure that we could be friends.

Nicholas shook his head. “I’ve kind of got a date for the game,” he said with a grin. “With Sabrina. And then afterward we’re going to head over to the library. Can you believe she’s never seen the original Tupperware exhibit?”

I shook my head. “I can’t,” I said.

“I’m supposed to meet her right here on the quad,” he said. “You want to wait with me?”

“Sure,” I said. I sat down with him on a nearby bench and pulled out my cell phone. I took a deep breath. I was going to text Hamilton.

R U AT HOMECOMING? I typed in. I found his name and pressed
SEND.

A moment later, Nicholas pulled out his phone. He flipped it open, and looked at me like I was crazy.

“What?” I said.

“Of
course,
I’m at Homecoming,” he said. “Are you losing it?”

“Holy crud,” I said. It all made perfect, awful sense. I had mixed up Nicholas’s and Hamilton’s numbers when I was inputting them! Those irritating messages from Nicholas had actually been nice messages from Hamilton. And what had I called him? Oh that’s right.
Einstein!
No wonder he wasn’t talking to me!

“I meant to send it to a guy named Hamilton,” I explained, not sure whether to laugh or cry. “And now he’ll probably never talk to me again.”

And then, as if I had summoned him, there was Hamilton, striding across the quad. My heart skipped a beat.

“That’s him,” I said, pointing.

“What are you waiting for? Go talk to him,” said Nicholas.

I took a deep breath. Nicholas gave me a nudge. I stood up and sprinted after him.

When I caught up with him, I touched his arm. “Hey, Hamilton,” I said.

He turned around. “Don’t you mean Einstein?” he asked. He did not look amused.

“You’re never going to believe why that happened,” I started to say.

“Try me,” said Hamilton.

So, as we stood under a maple tree, red and yellow leaves drifting down around the us, surrounded by people in moose antlers, I told him the whole story. And he burst out laughing.

“I was sort of mad,” he said.

“I can only imagine,” I told him.

“So does that mean you want to go to the game with me?” he asked.

“Definitely,” I said.

The parade was magical. Marching bands, cannons shooting out red-and-yellow confetti, the McIlhenny Moose galloping around, pumping up the crowd. I was pleased to see that lots of people were wearing our corsages. Then what we had all been waiting for: the float with the Homecoming King and Queen and their court.

My heart swelled with pride as I saw Emily, the beautiful Homecoming queen, wearing the amazing dress we had created. People went crazy when they saw it. Someone
stepped on my foot as they jostled to get a picture, but I didn’t mind. “I’ve never seen anything like it!” the woman next to me said in wonder.

“Nice dress,” Hamilton said.

“I like the bouquets,” I said back, even though I thought they were a little boring. And that’s all we said to each other about flowers all day.

We met up with Becky, Amy, Heather, and Jessica in the stands. I gave an excited squeal when I saw they were each wearing a corsage. They looked awfully surprised when I showed up with Hamilton. But no one said anything, thank goodness. Becky squeezed my hand and I squeezed back. “I’ll explain later,” I whispered to her.

We had a great time at the game, doing the wave, chatting away, munching on hot dogs and popcorn as we cheered for the beleaguered Moose. They were massacred as usual. But no one seemed to mind.

In all the fun, I almost forgot that tomorrow was D-Day.
D
as in the biggest decision my family was ever going to make.

Nicholas shook my hand solemnly. “Thanks for a great time, Del,” he said. “I can’t believe all the amazing shots I got at the game, and best of all — of the Tupperware.”

I giggled. “Well, thank you, Nicholas, for all your help. The corsage idea was brilliant.” I was willing to give credit where credit was due.

“Actually, I think that figuring out why the van was missing was even better,” he said, opening the car door and sliding into the passenger seat. “I mean, that’s how you got the rose dress back in time for the parade, you know. That would have been a disaster.”

I leaned in the window. “That was pretty good, too,” I told him with a grin.

“Hey, can you tell your friend Sabrina I’ll be IMing her as soon as I get home?” he asked me.

“Actually,” I said, “why don’t you just surprise her?” I didn’t have the heart to tell him she was no friend of mine.

“Even better,” he said. “Maybe we’ll be back for Homecoming next year!”

“That would be great,” I said. And surprisingly enough, I meant it.

We all waved as Debbie backed out of the driveway and they took off down the street. Mom dabbed her eyes with an orange bandanna with one hand and waved wildly with the other.

After they were gone, we headed inside in silence. The butterflies in my stomach were out of control. It was time for our family meeting.

The plan was to hear all the evidence and then everyone would vote on what they thought we should do. I knew that Dad and Great-aunt Lily had found an acceptable new location in a strip mall, with plenty of parking. And that when Dad had mentioned the amount that Boston Beans had offered us, the realtor told him we’d be insane not to jump at the offer. It was tradition versus cold, hard reality. I wasn’t feeling very positive about how things were going to turn out.

We all filed inside and sat stiffly in the living room as we waited for Aunt Lily to arrive. Mom grabbed my hand and squeezed it. The room felt heavy with tension. “Put that away,” Mom barked at Dad as he took out his phone. “Please,” she added, putting her hand gently on his arm.

“Why is everyone so cranky?” Poppy wanted to know.

“We’re trying to make a big decision,” Rose told her.

Poppy shrugged. “Oh. That’s a little too boring for me,” she said.

Finally, the doorbell rang. Dad got up and ushered Aunt Lily inside. She was dressed even more formally than usual, wearing a black wool coat with a mink collar.

“Hello, everyone,” she said stiffly.

“Hello, Aunt Lily,” we chorused halfheartedly.

Dad helped Aunt Lily remove her coat. She nodded to us all briskly. With a sigh, Mom stood and we all trudged into Dad’s office to place our call to Gran and Gramps.

Dad dialed them up and before we knew it, their faces filled the screen. I was happy to see them, but I missed them so much it hurt. Mom filled Gran and Gramps in on how well Homecoming had gone.

“We may have lost the traditional Homecoming
business this year, but we more than made up for it with new business,” she explained. “We ended up making an amazing dress entirely out of roses.”

“What?” said Gran. “Entirely out of roses? It must have been spectacular! You made it, Daisy?”

“She did!” I said proudly. “I sent you some pictures. Check your e-mail!”

“I can’t wait to see it!” said Gramps. “Now that’s thinking!”

“That’s not all,” Dad said. “We also single-handedly started a Homecoming corsage craze. We made hundreds and we sold every one.”

“Sounds like you guys were handed lemons and you made yourselves some lemonade!” said Gramps.

“And some lemon meringue pie, too!” Gran exclaimed.

“Well, there was one disappointing thing,” I told them. “The McIlhenny Moose got clobbered as usual.”

“Nothing like consistency,” said Gramps. His face grew serious. “And now for the hard part. How are you doing with the decision to sell?”

We all looked at each other uneasily. Dad spoke up first. “We found a location that could really do the
trick,” he said. “It’s big, brand-new, has plenty of parking, and is next door to the most popular pharmacy in town. We could buy it with the money that Boston Beans is offering and still have enough money to do a complete remodel on the shop, including a state-of-the-art flower cooler. We could even hire another designer. Even with all that …”

“Enough!” said Aunt Lily. We all turned to look at her, our mouths open. She sounded mad. I braced myself for what she was about to say.

“I … I … I … can’t do this,” she finally said. “I know we could use the money, and Ben, you’ve put so much work into this, but it just isn’t right. Petal Pushers belongs on Fairfield Street.”

There was a moment of dead silence.

I stood up, unable to contain myself. “Yay!” I shouted, jumping up and down.

Rose and Aster high-fived each other. It was obvious that Poppy was not exactly sure about what had transpired, but she started jumping up and down, too. Mom wiped her eyes with her bandanna. I stole a glance at my great-aunt, who was rooting around in her pocketbook.
Was mean old Aunt Lily crying, too? I handed her a tissue from the box on the desk.

“Thank you, Delphinium,” she said, not making eye contact with me.

“Well, that’s a relief,” said Gramps.

“Thank you, Lily,” Gran said softly.

“I just couldn’t let us sell it,” Aunt Lily said, staring down at the floor. “Too many memories. Remember the fun we would have playing on the floor at Mom and Dad’s feet, making bouquets out of the discarded flowers while they worked?”

Gran laughed. “The parties we used to throw for our dolls! Weddings, birthdays, tea parties …”

“I’ll never forget the funeral we had for that dead praying mantis we found,” Aunt Lily reminded her.

“You made the most beautiful casket spray,” Gran reminisced. “Dad was so impressed!”

Aunt Lily laughed. “He was, wasn’t he?”

Gran was nodding and dabbing tears from her eyes at the same time. “Lily, did you know that if you look closely at the doorway to the office, you can see the pencil marks from when Mom would measure us?”

“Really?” said Aunt Lily. “I’ll have to look next time I’m in the store.”

“‘All’s well that ends well; still the fine’s the crown; What’er the course, the end is the renown,’” said Dad. “That’s …”

“Shakespeare,” we all finished for him. “That’s right!” he said. “You guys have been paying attention!”

Aunt Lily cleared her throat. “There’s just one thing,” she said.

We all looked at her warily. What could it be? “I’d like to be a little more involved in the store,” she told us. “I used to be quite the flower arranger back in the day!”

I stole a glance at Mom. She put on a big (and I’m certain, quite fake) smile. “Of course, Aunt Lily,” she said. “That would be lovely.”

“Ben, will you do the honors?” Gramps asked. Dad looked confused.

“Telling Boston Beans to buzz off, of course!” Gramps said.

“With pleasure!” Dad cried.

Gran and Gramps signed off, promising they would be here for Thanksgiving. Then Mom ran into the kitchen and came back with a tray holding a bottle of sparkling cider and some champagne flutes. She popped it open and we had a toast.

“To Petal Pushers!” she said.

“To Petal Pushers!” we echoed. We all clinked glasses.

Then we all hugged and kissed. (Great-aunt Lily looked shocked to get caught up in one of Dad’s bear hugs.) When I had drained my glass, I yawned and stretched. It had been an exciting, action-packed weekend. I was really glad things were back to normal….

“Oh no!” Dad yelled in horror. “What have I done?”

I spun around. What was wrong now?

My father was staring at his phone. “My garbanzo beans withered,” he said. “Now I’m never going to have enough snozzleberries to buy that tractor!”

Okay, so not
entirely
back to normal. But I grinned anyway. Things not being entirely normal
was
normal for my wacky family.

And I was glad for that.

Read all the Petal Pushers books!

Too Many Blooms
Flower Feud
Best Buds
Coming Up Roses