Trouble Magnet (13 page)

Our stuff was now in the second drawer.

I grabbed the gnarled, uncapped tube of toothpaste and scraped the
dried gunk away from the opening with my thumbnail.

“I don't think Stella likes you,” Darci said.

I squeezed toothpaste onto my toothbrush, then Darci's. “She likes me.”

“It doesn't seem like she does.”

“Who doesn't like Calvin Coconut?”

Darci stopped brushing and garbled, “Thah boy who waff fighting wiff you?”

“We weren't fighting.”

Darci turned on the water and spat. “He pushed you.”

“Yeah … but we're friends now.”

I waited for Darci to finish with the sink. Stella's stuff was all over the place—bottles, tubes, rubber bands, lotions, brushes, hair dryer. She sure had a lot of junk.

“Darci?”

“Huh.”

“Thanks for not telling Mom I messed up on Friday … you know, by forgetting to walk you home and all.”

“That's okay.”

“Do you feel bad about lying to her?”

“I didn't lie.”

I thought back, trying to remember. Maybe she hadn't. Maybe she'd just changed the subject. I pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of my pocket. “Here, you want this?”

Darci took the paper and flattened it out.

I tapped it with my finger. “You can get a free shave ice at Uncle Scoop's Lucky Lunch with that.”

“Really?”

“See it says
complimentary?
That means free. This paper is like money. You can have it.”

“Thanks!” Darci said. She folded the coupon neatly and headed down the hall to her bedroom. She stopped and turned back. “Calvin?”

“Yeah.”

“You can forget me again tomorrow … if you want to.”

I smiled. “Nope. I'll be there. I'm pretty sure I don't need any more trouble. But thanks.”

“Sure.”

“Hey,” I said, holding out the bag of dried shrimp. “Want some dead bugs to go with your cereal?”

Darci cracked up.

“Hey!” Stella called from the living room. “You want that Texas nice right now?”

Darci and I slapped our hands over our mouths, our eyes tearing with muffled laughter.

A
s I headed out to the garage, another idea came to me. “I need a screwdriver,” I said to myself. I found one and went back into the house.

“I thought you were going to bed,” Mom said.

“Got to do something first.”

I went down the hall to Stella's bedroom door and unscrewed the plate around the doorknob. Next I worked the entire lockset off the door. It left a round hole you could look through into Stella's room. Boy, I hope Led-ward knows something about locks, because I sure don't.

Stella looked up when I walked back out into the living room.

“You won't have a doorknob for a while. But I'm going to fix it for you.”

Back in my room on my bunk, I turned off the light and settled onto my stomach. I tucked my pillow under my chin and looked out the window. I could see yellowy pieces of moon jiggling on the slow-moving river. The quirky cricking of toads in the swamp grass drifted through the screen.

Someone knocked on my door.

I popped up. “Yeah?”

“Can I come in?”

Stella.

“Uh … yeah.”

She opened the door. “Can I turn the light on?”

“Okay.”

Stella flipped the switch. “Your mom said this used to be a storage room.”

“It was full of bugs and spiderwebs.”

Stella leaned in but didn't actually enter. “Well … I just wanted to say thank you for letting me have your room.”

“Uh … sure.”

“But listen, you have to get that kid off my back. I don't want little tough guys bringing me any more bags of dried-up bugs, you understand?”

“Uh …”

“Good night.”

Stella turned off the light and closed the door. I could hear her stumbling through the cluttered garage to the kitchen door.

I went back to looking out the window. How was I going to tell Tito that his Stella
dream wasn't going to happen? I cringed. But I'd come up with something. I'd done it once; I could do it again. Right?

Someone knocked again.

The door opened, but the light stayed off. “Calvin? Still awake?”

“Yeah, Mom.”

“I love you … lots. Good night.”

Somewhere a dog barked.

I fell asleep quickly.

Sometimes when you water your yard with a hose, centipedes come out of cracks in the earth and crawl up your pants.

After cleaning your ears, be sure creatures such as mice, lizards, roaches, and ants don't eat your earwax. That would make you deaf.