The Gossip File (12 page)

The first person I see when we get into the hotel manager's office is Carrie. Her usual funny, laid-back persona is gone. Instead, she's nervously chipping away at her sparkly nail polish.

When she sees me, her eyes double in size. “Rachel? What are you doing here? You were supposed to be gone.”

“Come on in,” Mark says. “Shut the door.”

I've never been called to the principal's office, but this must be what it feels like. Times ten.

“Where's Taylor?” I say.

“She had a family emergency,” Mark says. “But I've already spoken with her. Her story matches Carrie's.”

“And what exactly is her story?” Dad says. “Because I can assure you that my daughter would never steal anything.”

“Let's hear what Rachel has to say, all right?” says Mark.

I nod and take a deep breath. Then I explain how it's impossible for me to have stolen anything since I didn't even touch the registers until my third day at work. When Mark asks me who I think might be responsible, I shake my head. Someone must have put Carrie and Taylor up to this, but who? And then I remember Carrie talking about how she doesn't have any money for college, which seems strange considering that she just bought a car.

Wait. Did Carrie take the money and blame me for it?

When I see the fearful look on her face, I realize I'm right. “No way!” I can't help saying.

Mark looks at me in surprise. “What was that?”

“It wasn't me! It was—”

Carrie furiously shakes her head, and I fall silent when I see the pure panic in her eyes.

“Rachel?” Mark says. “Do you know something you're not telling us?”

The pleading look on Carrie's face drills into me. How can she look so apologetic when she just threw me under the bus? I would never do something like that!

Except…maybe I would. After all, I've spent my whole trip lying to the other girls. But when Carrie and Taylor discovered the lies I'd told, they didn't disown me, even though they could have.

If I take the blame, my parents will be heartbroken. But if I turn Carrie in… No, I can't. At least, not until I understand why she did it. She heard me out when I lied to her. I at least owe her that.

“No,” I say through my teeth, shooting Carrie a look. Her shoulders sag in relief. “Only that I had nothing to do with that stolen money. I swear.”

Mark clears his throat. “Well, Rachel, given all of this information, I must admit that your credibility is in jeopardy. Plus, we found this.” He opens his desk drawer and takes out…my decapitated horse necklace?

“What's that?” Dad says.

“It was in the café register,” Mark says. “This is another reason we suspect Rachel is involved with the missing money.”

“You think that necklace is Rachel's?” Dad says. “That's ridiculous! Look at it. My daughter would never wear something so hideous.”

“Actually,” Ellie says softly, “I saw her wearing it the other day.”

Dad looks at me for an explanation. “It was mine,” I say, “but I…lost it a few days ago. I guess that's where it's been all this time.” No doubt Carrie talked Taylor into putting that necklace in the register to frame me.

I glance at Carrie, but she still won't meet my eyes. How can she sit there and listen to all this and say nothing? Did the same thing happen to Melody? Is that why she got fired?

Mark sighs and says he'll be back in touch tomorrow. Then he hands me a paycheck for my week's worth of work at the café. Part of me is tempted to tear it up and throw it away. I had so much fun working there that I would have done it for free. Now I realize that my time there was as fake as my Ava persona.

As we leave Mark's office, Dad keeps his arm around me the whole time like he wants everyone to know that his daughter isn't a thief. Even Ellie gives me a sympathetic hug, which I guess means she believes me now.

“What happens now?” I ask.

Ellie sighs. “If we pay back the money that went missing, I should be able to convince Mark to forget about the whole thing.”

“But that's not fair. I didn't take it!”

“Don't worry,” Dad says, squeezing my shoulder. “We'll figure this out.”

As we start to walk away, I'm surprised to hear Carrie calling my name. When I turn around, she comes up to me with her eyes cast downward. “Rachel, can I talk to you?” she asks, nervously tucking her hair behind her ears.

I shrug. “I guess.” I turn to my dad and tell him I'll be right back and then follow Carrie to a nearby bench.

“I wanted to say thank you,” she says.

“For what?”

“For not saying anything to Mark. I know Taylor's dad would kill her if he found out the truth.”

I stare at her, not understanding. And then it dawns on me. “Wait. Taylor's the one who took the money?”

“Yeah, I thought you knew that, especially after you saw the necklace.”

“But…but why?” The minute I ask the question, I realize how stupid it is. The first day I met Taylor she told me how much she and her dad were struggling. The whole reason she can't take ballet anymore is because she can't afford it.

“Taylor's desperate,” says Carrie. “That's why I agreed to help cover for her.”

“By blaming me?”

“You were supposed to be gone! When she admitted to me what she did, it was right after we found out you were leaving. I thought it would be perfect since we'd never see you again.”

“Perfect? I might get arrested!”

Carrie laughs. “They won't do that. You're a kid.”

“Is this what happened with Melody? Did Taylor take money that time too?”

She nods. “Taylor swore she wouldn't do it again after Melody got blamed. But right after you came, she found out that she and her dad were going to get kicked out of their apartment. She had no choice!”

“What about my dad? He works here. What do you think they'll do to him if they think his daughter is a thief?”

Carrie shakes her head. “It wasn't the best plan. I know that, okay? But Taylor was frantic. I had to help her. You're not going to turn her in, are you?”

I have no idea what I'm going to do. This whole day feels like a nightmare. I get to my feet and stumble out from under the shade of the tree.

“Rachel? Please, don't say anything. Taylor's your friend too, isn't she?”

“I don't know,” I say, walking away.

After my talk with Carrie, I wander around the resort for a long time. Everywhere I look, I see people laughing and enjoying themselves. Perfect families on perfect vacations. The sight makes me want to scream with jealousy.

But then I remember what Ellie said about starting the Gossip File because she was feeling exactly the same way I am. She wanted a reminder that the perfection around her was fake. And she's right. That adorable family by the pool looks like it's on the verge of a huge fight, and the laughing kids with their mom suddenly won't stop crying. What they have isn't perfect. It's just life.

I should have known that having Carrie and Taylor forgive me so easily for lying to them was too good to be true, but I wanted to believe it. I wanted to think that they were as amazing as I'd made them out to be. Maybe I should have known better, just like I should have known better than to think my vacation with my dad could be the perfect trip I'd imagined when I was six.

Mom said that when she went on a trip when she was my age, she found out who she was. Have I found out what kind of person I am? I don't know. But I guess when it comes down to it, I don't want to be the person who lies about who she is and writes down other people's secrets. I want to be the kind of person who gives her friends a second chance, even if they might not deserve it, and who works to make things better with the people she cares about, even if it's hard.

When I finally get back to Ellie's place, I expect to find her and my dad still furious about everything that happened. Instead, they're both sitting at the kitchen table looking like they've been crying. Caleb, on the other hand, seems downright cheerful as he taps away on his iPad. Maybe Disney rubbed off on him.

“Is everything okay?” I ask. It's a dumb question considering the day we've had.

“Sit down,” Dad says.

Suddenly I'm even more nervous. Are they going to announce that they're sending me home after all? Honestly, at this point it might be a relief to leave this whole joke of a vacation behind.

“We have something to tell you,” says Ellie.

My stomach clenches. Oh no. If they say they're getting married, I'm going to dart out of Ellie's place and run all the way back to Massachusetts!

“Ellie and I have decided to…part ways,” my dad says.

I stare at him. “Part ways?” I say, not understanding.

“They're breaking up!” Caleb says, sounding giddy. “And my mom's sending me to stay with my dad in Arizona! He said it was okay!” No wonder he looks so happy.

But I still can't believe it. Is my dad serious? He and Ellie are really over?

“What…what happened?” I ask.

They look at each other and then Dad says, “After we left Mark's office, Ellie and I had a long talk about some of the…points you brought up earlier, Rachel.”

“Me?” I try to remember what I said. I accused Ellie of controlling everything, and I screamed at my dad that he didn't care about me. How did any of that make them decide to break up?

“I realized,” Ellie says, “that I'm not ready to be in a relationship yet. I have some things I need to work on first.”

“And so do I,” Dad says. “I think for now we're going to be friends.”

Caleb grins triumphantly at me. I should be happy too, but I'm not. Dad looks so miserable and so does Ellie. I guess she really does care about him.

“What happens now?” I ask.

My dad sighs. “We were thinking Ellie and Caleb might take a few days to head out to Arizona.”

“Wait,” says Caleb, suddenly panicked. “Mom, you're coming with me?”

Ellie looks a little pained, but she nods. “I think the three of us have some things to work out too. And after that, who knows? I don't know if the resort is the right place for me anymore. Maybe I'll go back to nursing.” She turns to Caleb and tries to brush his hair out of his eyes. “Honey, why do you always have to hide your face? You're becoming such a handsome young man. I want to see it!”

Caleb flinches away, but I can tell he likes being called a “young man.” I have a feeling it's going to take him a while to believe that Ellie really does care about him, but if they keep actually talking to each other like this, maybe they'll finally be able to work things out.

“Dad, Ellie, I'm sorry,” I say. “For everything. I was only trying to…” I laugh. “I guess I was trying to make everything perfect…and I just made everything worse.”

Ellie gives me a sad smile. I guess she can relate.

Dad sighs. “I spoke to your mother earlier, and she and I agreed that because of some of your poor decisions during this trip, you'll be grounded when you get home. But for now, let's try to put all this behind us and spend some real time together, okay?”

I nod, wiping my eyes. “We used to do everything together, we used to be…”

“I know, Roo,” he says, covering my hand with his. “We will be again. I promise.”

And even though so many of my dad's promises have felt hollow recently, this time I believe him.

The next morning, as I head off to check out the first day of the Renaissance festival, I find Taylor sitting outside Ellie's apartment. It looks like she's been slumped against the same tree for hours.

“Taylor?” I say.

She scrambles to her feet, her hair wild like she hasn't looked in a mirror in days. “Rachel,” she says. “Um, can I talk to you?”

“What do you want?” I've decided not to turn Taylor in, but that doesn't mean I'm not still mad at her for letting everyone think I'm a thief.

“I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry, and I wanted to thank you. I know you could have turned me in yesterday and…well, I guess you still might have done it today, but it doesn't matter anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“I turned myself in,” she says. “I told them the truth about Melody, and they said they'll give her the job back if she wants it. And I returned the money.”

“What? But I thought you needed that money or you and your dad would get kicked out of your apartment.”

She wipes her eyes with her perfectly tanned fingers. “I told my dad the truth, and he said we'd figure something else out. If we have to, we'll move back to Miami and live with my aunt. I'll miss Carrie and Kai, but if I get another job there, I might actually be able to take ballet again.” She lets out a long sigh. “Hopefully my dad will start speaking to me again soon. He kind of hates my guts right now.”

“Why did you confess?” I ask. “I wasn't going to say anything. You could have pinned it on me and been done with it.”

“Because I realized how horrible I'd been! You would have never done anything like that to me.”

“I lied to you,” I point out. “I pretended to be a totally different person.”

“Yeah, but you came clean about it. I realized I had to do the same thing, or I could never live with myself. The Melody thing was already killing me, and I didn't even like her all that much!”

“I know what you mean,” I say. “Every time you guys called me ‘Ava,' I felt like a total jerk.”

“Can you imagine feeling that way for the rest of your life?” she says, shaking her head. “I told myself I was helping my dad, but really I was doing it so I could take ballet again. I thought if we didn't have to worry about paying rent, maybe there'd be something left over. It was stupid.”

“If someone told me I could never bake again, I'd probably do some dumb things too.”

Taylor brushes her hair out of her face. “That's another reason I couldn't let you take the blame for me, not after everything you did for the café.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You haven't heard? Ellie insisted that Mark let the café make pastries from scratch.”

“What? When?” I can't believe Ellie would do that, not when she worships Mark.

“Yesterday. I guess customers have been asking about your pastries for the past couple of days. One woman even told Ellie that the only reason she would ever consider going back there was because of them, since the rest of the food is horrible.”

“Chocolate croissants shouldn't taste like garlic!” I cry.

Taylor lets out a dry, tired-sounding laugh. “I know. Heck, we all know. But I guess we needed you to show us how much better things could be. They're going to hire someone who can actually bake. Business has already picked up a lot since you've been here. I bet it'll be booming from now on.”

“Wow.” That's all I can really say. “Wow.”

“Anyway, I'm sorry,” she says. “I don't blame you if you never want to talk to me again, but I wanted to tell you that before I left.”

“Thanks.”

“You're thanking me? Why?”

I laugh. “I don't know.” But I guess in some way I do. Because I may have been wrong about Ellie and Taylor and so many other things, but it's good to know there was some stuff I was right about too.

“Here,” she says, digging around in her pocket. And, sure enough, she takes out the horse necklace. “I wanted you to have this back. Maybe it can be a good thing you remember about me instead of all the bad stuff.”

I don't need an ugly necklace for that, but I take it anyway. “Thanks.” I may never wear it again, but I'll always smile when I look at it. Besides, it doesn't seem quite as hideous now as it did last time I saw it. Maybe that means I'm becoming a horse person, after all.

•••

After I hug Taylor good-bye and wish her luck, I head over to the resort to check out the start of the festival. As I walk through the tents filled with uncoordinated dancers and out-of-tune minstrels, I can't help smiling. Ellie might have had no idea what she was doing when she put this festival together, but everyone is having fun. Even if there is just one sad, lonely jouster riding around on what looks like a large dog.

I make my way to the catapult competition, and a huge smile spreads across my face as I see Caleb standing there proudly holding his trebuchet. He's surrounded by five other kids who are about half his age, all clinging to blobs made out of Popsicle sticks and pipe cleaners.

“Rachel!” he calls when he sees me. “I won! My trebuchet won!”

I laugh and give him a thumbs-up. He doesn't seem to care that the other kids who entered the competition are so young that they can barely spell their own names. And he shouldn't. His trebuchet looks perfect, exactly the way it did in the model.

“Your dad would be proud,” I tell him.

“I can't wait to show this to him when I see him,” he says. “I think he'll actually approve for once.”

As I wander the rest of the festival, dodging out of the way of a group of clanging and creaking knights in rusty armor, I catch sight of Ellie standing in the middle of the festivities, looking horrified.

“This is a disaster,” she says when she sees me. “It's awful! Look!” She points to a man walking by in a Chewbacca costume and a group of people dressed as Star Trek aliens. I guess no one told them this was a Renaissance festival and not a costume party.

“It's not so bad,” I tell Ellie, but I can tell she doesn't believe me.

And then she does something I would have never imagined. She throws her arms around me and bursts into tears.

“I don't know what I did wrong,” she sobs into my hair. “After all the work I put in, after how much I tried to make everything perfect…it just…it's all falling apart.”

I stand there totally frozen. I feel an “at least it wasn't a shark attack” remark on the tip of my tongue, like the one that popped out when my mom was crying at the airport, but I bite it down.

What would Ava do? I ask myself. But then I realize that's wrong. No, forget Ava. She's not even a real person. What would Rachel do?

“It's okay,” I tell her. “People are having a great time. See?” I point to a couple of giggling girls who just got their faces painted like purple cats and to a man proudly walking around with a sword he made out of a couple of sticks. “It's not perfect, but it's totally right.”

“Oh, Rachel,” she says, pulling away. “I wish you and I could start over. I think we're a lot more alike than we'd like to admit.”

At first, that thought is horrifying. I'm nothing like Ellie! I mean, look at the way she tried to control my dad and make him do whatever she wanted. But then I realize…that's exactly what I've been trying to do for the past week. I guess I can't blame Ellie for wanting to make everything perfect when that's what I've wanted too.

Suddenly, a deafening siren starts blaring around us. The fire alarm. People stand in surprised silence for a second. Then they start to panic.

“What's happening?” Ellie cries.

“A sinkhole!” a woman yells nearby. “They say there's one near the building.”

Oh holy artichoke hearts! My worst nightmares are coming true! Around us, kids run by screaming for their parents, stilt walkers topple over, and a couple of flamingos—where did those come from?—start jabbing at people as they pass.

I look around for Ellie, but she's disappeared, probably trying to manage the crowd.

Then one of the tents falls down and the whole scene turns into total mayhem. As I run blindly through the crowd, searching for Ellie and Caleb, I expect the ground to start shaking under my feet like in a disaster flick, but nothing happens.

Instead, a minute later I hear someone shriek, “My tree!”

I recognize the voice. When I push past a cluster of people, I see Ellie staring in horror at a hole in the ground where her dead orange tree used to be.

“My tree,” she says in an odd, faraway voice when I go stand beside her. “I planted it my first day here…and now it's gone.”

“It'll be okay. You'll plant another one,” I tell her.

“No way,” she says. “I hated that tree!”

“What?”

She laughs. “It started dying practically the minute I planted it. I've done everything I could to keep it alive, but it mocked me. It was a reminder of everything I was doing wrong.” She wipes her eyes and glances at the hole. A work crew has already put orange cones around it. “Maybe now that it's gone, I can start to feel like myself again.”

“Maybe we all can,” I tell her.