Mackenzie Blue (13 page)

B
y the time Zee had walked into her house that afternoon, she was greeted by a miracle—and her mother.

“Hi, honey,” Mrs. Carmichael said. “I thought you were staying after school to work on your
Teen Sing
song.”

Zee opened the snack cabinet and peered inside for the perfect I-had-a-bad-day treat. “Uhhh, change of plans. I'm taking the day off.”

“Well, I'm going over to help Jasper's mother. She's starting her party-planning business, and I promised to give her the lowdown on Brookdale since she doesn't know the area very well yet. You know, the best caterers, halls, and florists. Want to come?”

Does a dog bark?

Zee had watched and studied Jasper until the end of study hall. After what had happened with Chloe, she knew she had to be careful about investigating him. She overheard the two of them talking about putting the final touches on their science project model—at Chloe's house.

Zee's mother had no idea Jasper wouldn't be home. It was the perfect opportunity.

“Sure,” Zee told her mother, grabbing a bag of cheddar cheese popcorn from the shelf.

 

“I'm sorry, Mackenzie,” Mrs. Chapman said in a British accent. She was a tall woman who always wore her long brown hair twisted up on the back of her head. She was really nice, but she always seemed a little nervous. “Jasper's not here.”

Zee made her most convincing disappointed face. “Darn!” she said. “Jasper borrowed a book from me a few weeks ago. Do you think it would be okay if I look for it?”

“Why don't you ring him up and see if he knows where it is?” Jasper's mom said.

“No!” Zee practically shouted. Mrs. Chapman flinched at the outburst. “I mean, I wouldn't want to bother him.”

Luckily that was all Jasper's mother had to hear. She nodded and said, “It's likely on his bookcase or right on top of his desk anyway.” She turned to Mrs. Carmichael and
laughed. “He's more organized than I am.”

Taking the steps two at a time, Zee hurried into Jasper's bedroom.
Everything
was in place. It was immaculate! She checked the most obvious places—the bookcase, the desk, the nightstand. But she knew Jasper was way too smart to leave her diary out in the open.

Zee sat in Jasper's desk chair and pulled open the center drawer. Wow! Pencils were neatly lined up in a long plastic box. Pens were in another. Other little boxes held paper clips, erasers, and thumbtacks. Zee's desk drawer was reserved for
all the stuff she could never throw out but would never—ever—use again. When she needed a pencil, she just yelled, “Mom, where's a pencil?”

At least Jasper's system made it easy to see that there was no diary. Zee bent over and pulled open the other drawers. File folders with labels
TESTS, EXTRA PAPER
, and
REPORT CARDS
hung side by side. Zee placed her hand near the back of the drawer, looking for a tab that said,
ZEE'S DIARY
. But there was no folder with that label and no diary in the others.

Zee looked around the room.
The closet!
She opened the doors and looked inside. She knew she had to work quickly and put the neatly stacked containers back
exactly
the way she'd found them. She'd clean up the mess she made on the desk afterward. On her hands and knees, she removed the lid to a photo box. Mostly there were baby photos of Jasper. Playing in the sand. Smearing spaghetti in his hair. Riding his tricycle. She pulled the stack out to get to the bottom. That's when she saw it—a picture of Jasper and her at the pool. Posed with their arms around each other, they were licking mint chocolate chip ice cream, their favorite flavor. She and Jasper may have been different in a lot of ways, but they had the most important thing in common—they were great friends. Zee's suspicions melted
away like those ice cream cones had on that hot day. A familiar, unpleasant feeling—guilt—replaced them.

Before Zee could put the lid on the box and shut the closet door, she heard a sound in the hall. When she turned around, the two mothers were staring at her—Mrs. Chapman looked confused and Mrs. Carmichael looked angry. They had caught Zee red-handed!

 

The keys clattered as Mrs. Carmichael tossed them on the black granite kitchen counter. But the noise couldn't cover her words. “What were you
thinking
? Thanks to the fact that you were rummaging through Jasper's room, I didn't even get to help Lucy with her business.”

Mrs. Carmichael hardly ever got this upset, and Zee knew what she had done was wrong. Really wrong. But she
had to admit that her mother's lecture was a hundred times better than Mrs. Chapman's hurt silence.

Zee thought—and silently pleaded—that her mother might stop when Adam arrived after tennis practice. No such luck.

Adam pulled up a chair as if he were watching his favorite TV show. “I wonder how you would feel if Jasper went through your most personal belongings,” Mrs. Carmichael continued.

“But I thought he had
read
my most personal thoughts,” Zee defended herself. “I thought he took my diary.”

“Did he?”

“Well…no.”

Mrs. Carmichael planted her hand on her hip, waiting for Zee to say more.

“May I go to my room?” Zee asked.

“I think that's a good idea,” her mother told her. When Zee got upstairs, she threw herself facedown on her bed and buried her head in a pillow. She knew Jasper would be upset when Mrs. Chapman told him what she had done.

Knock. Knock
. “Can I come in?” Adam had followed her upstairs.

“Yes.” At least someone still wanted to talk to her.

“Hi,” Adam said, trying to be both serious and cheerful. “I heard about what was on the music room board today.” He sat on the edge of the bed next to her.

“Excellent,” Zee sighed. “Now the whole school knows what I wrote in my diary.”

“Did you really think Jasper could do that to you?”

Zee hung her head. “I guess not,” she said quietly. “But I need to stop whoever took my diary.”

“Maybe you need to get a grip.”

Oh, great,
Zee thought.
Now my brother gets to lecture me.

“I've never read your diary,” Adam continued, “but I know you have a crush on Landon.”

“You do?”

“You go all mushy and googly eyed every time someone mentions his name.”

“But those were the
exact
words in my diary. My most private thoughts.” The sick feeling returned to Zee's stomach.

Adam shook his head. “You're not getting it. The point isn't that someone took your diary or that you have a crush on Landon. From what I hear, so do half of the seventh-grade girls.”

Zee sat up. “So what
is
the point?” She definitely wasn't getting it.

“You don't have as many secrets as you think. Nobody does. We're all open books in a lot of ways.”

“Really?”

“Sure. You can tell a lot about people just by looking at them. Like the way we know when Dad has landed an exclusive celebrity interview that he can't talk about.”

“He whistles.”

“Exactly!” Adam said.

“And the way girls make Jasper so nervous.” Zee laughed. “It's written all over his face.”

Adam stood up and looked at Zee. “Someone is being mean, but you don't have to let them get to you.”

“I don't know…” Zee said, still unsure.

“Just have confidence and don't apologize for who you are. Because you may not be perfect, but you are a pretty awesome sister.”

“You think so?”

Adam nodded and turned to go. “But don't spread that around.”

“Your secret's safe with me!” Zee called as he walked out.

Adam had definitely made Zee feel better, but—unless you counted Kathi and Jen—she still didn't have any friends. Except Ally.

Zee filled her best friend in on everything that had happened that day.