Cheers, Chocolate and Other Disasters Read online

  Cheers, Chocolate, and Other Disasters

  By Mikki Sadil

  Digital ISBNs

  EPUB 9781771453479

  Kindle 9781771456357

  PDF 9781771456364

  Print ISBN 9781771456371

  Copyright 2015 by Mikki Sadil

  Cover Art by Michelle Lee

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored into a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  Dedication

  To my husband, Richard. As always, you are my inspiration.

  Chapter One

  The Tryouts

  The new girl stood in front of me with a look of pure hatred on her face, which had turned as white as an Arctic bunny. I had never seen her before in my life. It was exactly 8.37 a.m. on Monday, September sixth.

  Since my mom says I never tell a story straight through from the beginning, I guess I’d better back up an hour or so.

  The power in our house went off last night, which meant our alarm clocks didn’t ring. When Mom woke us all up by pounding on our doors, it was already after seven a.m. Sheesh, tryouts for our eighth grade cheerleading squad were in fifteen minutes. I leaped out of bed and threw on the first clothes I could find, which happened to be the shorts and T-shirt I’d had on yesterday to muck the stalls. They smelled suspiciously of horse poop. Plus, I realized I had a sore throat and two new zits. Crap, three disasters so far, and I hadn’t even left my bedroom.

  I jumped around on one foot and then the other, trying to get my mud-splattered sneakers tied and finally gave up. I raced down the stairs with laces flying, bounced into the kitchen, and croaked, “Mom, you’ve got to get me to school, right now. You know I have tryouts this morning!”

  “AJ, what’s wrong with your voice? And what have you got on, you smell like a barnyard. I can’t leave now, everyone is late and I still have to make lunches.” She was slapping milk and cereal down on the table for my twin sisters, oblivious to my crisis.

  “Okay, forget it, I’ve gotta go.” I bolted out the kitchen door as Mom yelled, “Tie your shoelaces before you end up in the ER!”

  I ignored the warning and raced down the street, hoping the morning breeze would blow some of the stink away. Halfway to school I realized I’d forgotten my backpack. Things were definitely not looking up.

  The day was already getting hot when I ran onto the football field. The track shimmered in the distance, and the grass had a kind of musty smell to it, instead of its usual freshness. Girls were lined up in front of the coach, who glared at me as I slipped into line. He thought there was no excuse for tardiness, so before he could say anything, I tried some damage control.

  “Sorry, Coach, but we had a terrible family emergency this morning. I came as soon as I could.”

  He frowned. “Miss Devlin, nothing short of death makes tardiness excusable. Did someone in your family die?”

  “Uh, no sir. It wasn’t that kind of emergency.”

  Snickers trickled out behind me.

  He glared at me for a moment before going back to his lecture. The girls on either side of me moved away, and one covered her mouth and nose and gave an elaborate cough. Apparently, the breeze hadn’t worked.

  The coach finished talking and walked down the line of girls eagerly waiting to show him what they could do. He didn’t say much until he got to me.

  “Miss Devlin, you are a disgrace. I trust you will not have another family emergency anytime soon.” He walked away, leaving behind a whiff of shaving lotion that smelled like an old wet dog. At least, I hoped it was shaving lotion.

  Coach was dividing the girls into groups of three, and I was sure I would be with my two best friends, Julie and Jaime. Before I could call to them, Coach came over and grasped my arm with his bony hand.

  “Miss Devlin, you are to team up with Miss Baker and Miss Wilkins. Since you’ve never worked together before, you need to talk about what you’re going to do.”

  “But, Coach, I’ve been practicing with Jaime and Julie. We always…”

  “Miss Devlin, I am perfectly aware of what you ‘always’ do, but this is not one of those times. You will team with Miss Baker and Miss Wilkins. Is that clear?”

  Aaghh! I couldn’t believe my bad luck. Amberley Baker was a total klutz, always stumbling and dropping her books and papers all over the place. Lisa Wilkins was tall, thin as a popsicle stick, and had eyes the color of a glacier. Amberley’s clumsiness and Lisa’s forever talking about her European experience of living in Italy for a couple of years made them two of the most unpopular girls on campus. Now I was stuck with them. But you really don’t even know them, said that little voice I try to ignore.

  “Miss Devlin, I am waiting.” Coach’s voice had gotten quiet, which was always a bad sign.

  I shrugged. “Sorry, Coach. Yes, it’s clear. I’m to partner with Amberley and Lisa.”

  Apparently, that satisfied him. He walked over to the J’s, my term for Julie and Jaime, just as Amberley and Lisa walked up.

  Without even saying ‘hi’, Lisa took charge. “We are going to do some jumps and a pyramid. Coach said for the tryouts we could only do basic tumbling. Can you do that?” She loomed over me by several inches. I usually had to look up at people, but this was ridiculous.

  “Of course I can,” I replied, drawing myself up to my full five feet. “I’ve been a gymnast for years. I can do anything you want.”

  She looked at me and frowned. “You do not generally smell like this, do you? It is disgusting. And your voice sounds like a wounded buffalo.”

  Amberley gave me an embarrassed smile. “Lisa! That isn’t very nice. Maybe AJ fell down this morning, or something.”

  Aaagh! Now this klutz is trying to make excuses for me. “No, I didn’t fall down. I was late and just threw on some clothes that I had cleaned stalls in. I’m sorry I don’t smell like perfume.”

  She blushed, and I got a funny feeling in my stomach. It isn’t her fault you were late, said that little voice.

  Coach yelled for everyone to be quiet and listen for their turn. In a few minutes, he pointed to the three of us.

  We started out with tumbling, and I was surprised to see that both Amberley and Lisa were very good. At first, that is. It all fell apart when we did the basic jump, which was the spread eagle, and then the toe touch. They couldn’t land properly or even get their legs up at the proper angle.

  It was awful. My face turned hot and I had to grit my teeth to keep from yelling at them. Coach walked over to us before we could begin the pyramid.

  He looked disgusted. “Do you ladies even understand what ‘tryout’ means? You’ve obviously not learned the most basic of jumps. Why are you here?”

  They both blushed, and Lisa started to speak up, but I glared at her, so she didn’t. Coach said, “Miss Devlin, you managed to be technically correct, but you have no grace about you at all. The three of you have many hours of work ahead if you expect to make the senior squad.”

  He was still frowning when he addressed the class. “I expected better from this group, but obviously, you all have a lot of practicing to do. The next tryout session will be one week from today. I had better see improvement. If there is none, there will be no cheerleading squad. No questions, no comments. You are dismissed.” He left the field without another word.

  Some of the girls were looking at Amberley and Lisa and whispering. Lisa stuck her nose in the air and walked away without speaking to either of us. That was okay
by me, because I had nothing to say to either of them.

  Amberley gave me what I thought was a sad look, but it could have been just those awful glasses she wore. She stumbled over her backpack, pushed back her glasses, and shuffled off.

  The other girls snickered,, and I knew they were making fun of her. I rolled my eyes and turned up my hands to indicate that I felt the same way.

  I heard a familiar laugh and turned to see the J’s talking to a girl I hadn’t noticed before. She looked over at me with the darkest blue eyes I’d ever seen and one small dimple at the corner of her mouth. I wondered how anyone our age could be that perfect.

  Jaime and Julie came over to introduce her. “Hey, AJ, this is Celine Carroll. She just moved here from New York. She was senior captain of her cheerleading team back there, and she’s going to partner with us. Celine, this is AJ Devlin.”

  It was at that moment my world began to change. Her dark blue eyes seemed to turn black, and the dimple disappeared so fast I thought I had imagined it. The curve of her lips became a tight straight line, and she suddenly reminded me of that Greek goddess who could look at someone and turn them to stone. I hadn’t turned to stone yet, but this girl was so scary it took all my courage to keep from taking a step back. My heart thumped and my stomach jumped.

  She didn’t speak and with the knot in my throat, I couldn’t. For some reason I couldn’t explain, I looked down at my watch. It was eight-thirty-seven.

  We stood silently, sizing each other up. She was dressed way too buff for our school, where dusty jeans and T-shirts were practically a uniform. She had on a blue button-down shirt and pressed white jeans tucked into polished black ankle boots. White jeans? If I wore white anything, it would end up brown with dirt, green with grass stains, and purple or red, depending on what I drank for lunch.

  With no words spoken, it was unanimous — we were not going to be friends.

  “How come you guys are going to partner with her?” Considering the look on her face, I should have kept my mouth shut, but I was still mad about Lisa and Amberley.

  Jaime shrugged. “Don’t blame us, AJ. Coach told us Celine would be our partner right after he put you with the two weenies.”

  Celine smiled. “Oh, do I hear a note of unhappiness here? Oh my, AJ, I’m so sorry if I came between you and your friends.” Her sarcastic tone dripped icicles, and her expression said she was anything but sorry. What was up with this chick? She was talking to me like she’d been around forever. And hated me forever.

  I turned away, wanting nothing more than to get away from her and that hateful look. I saw Jaime and Julie look uneasily at each other.

  Julie said, “Mrs. Gorman told us to show Celine around after the tryouts. Want to come with us?”

  “Aren’t you going to class? We’re already late.”

  “Oh, well, Mrs. Gorman said it would be okay to be late,” Jaime said with a grin.

  Mrs. Gorman was our homeroom teacher, and in her opinion, Julie and Jaime couldn’t do anything wrong. She had probably already told our history teacher the J’s would be showing the new girl around. I doubted that she had included me, so I knew I would be in trouble walking in to history ten minutes after class had started. Ms. Spellman was almost as bad as Coach about tardiness.

  I looked at Celine again. I got that funny feeling in my stomach when I know something is wrong but I’m not sure what. I shook my head. “No, I’m going to class. See you later.”

  As I expected, Ms. Spellman was upset with me. “Welcome to class, AJ. Did you get lost this morning?”

  “Uh, no ma’am, I had cheerleading tryouts.” Someone laughed, and I could feel my face getting red again.

  “I see.” She looked at my clothes with raised eyebrows. “Somehow, I don’t think being late is your only problem today. Perhaps you’d better sit by an open window. Since you’re here, you may open your book and turn to page one-forty-five. I have just asked question number five, so you may answer that one, please.”

  Aaghh! Can she read my mind or something? It was like she already knew I didn’t have my books.

  “Ah, Ms. Spellman, I, uh, don’t have my book. I forgot my backpack this morning.”

  “I see. Well, class, will one of you please loan our forgetful friend a history book? And AJ, I suggest you do not forget your book tomorrow, and please be on time, also, or we’ll have a discussion after class..”

  I rolled my eyes. Ms. Spellman looked at me, but she didn’t say anything. When Julie and Jaime came in a few minutes later, she smiled and let them take their seats without a word about being late. At least Celine wasn’t with them.

  * * * *

  After the last bell rang, I was waiting outside my English class for the J’s when the school principal, Mr. Fox, popped up out of nowhere and grabbed my arm. “AJ, what happened here? Have you been dressed like this all day? And what is that smell?”

  I started to give him a line, but stopped in time and told him exactly what happened. Mr. Fox was not somebody to mess with. Besides, he was a friend of my parents, so giving him a story would probably get back to them, and I’d be grounded forever.

  “I suggest you get a battery alarm clock so this doesn’t happen again.” He sniffed the air. “Oh, and AJ, please try to refrain from wearing such aromatic clothes to school.” He strolled off down the hall.

  When the J’s finally came by, they were with Celine. She must be in their science class. I wondered where she lived, but Jaime cleared that up in a hurry without me even asking.

  “Guess what, AJ?” Jaime was practically dancing on tippy toes. “Celine has moved into the big new house at the end of our street. Isn’t that terrific? Now we can all walk to school together!”

  Uh oh, that’s not what I expected. ‘The big new house’ looked like it had come out of that old movie, Gone With the Wind. It hadn’t sold because it was expensive and looked out of place with all the ranch-style houses in our neighborhood. Her family must have lots and lots of money.

  “Aaghh!” Oops, I didn’t mean to do that, because now all three of them were looking at me strangely.

  “AJ, you’ve been sucky all day. Are you coming with us or not?” Julie asked, frowning.

  I shrugged. “Sure, let’s go.”

  When we started walking home, Celine pushed in between Julie and me. The next thing I knew, I was walking in the dirt road. Beside them, but not with them. I stopped abruptly and waited. The J’s and Celine walked on for a bit, until Julie noticed I wasn’t with them.

  “AJ, what’s wrong? What did you stop for?”

  “Well, it would be nice if I could walk with you, instead of out in the street.” I knew I was being snarky, but I really didn’t care.

  Celine turned around. “Oh, gee, AJ, have I usurped your place? I’m so sorry!”

  “Usurped?” Nobody I knew used words like that. Besides, I wasn’t even sure I knew what it meant. I glared at her, but she just smiled. Funny, that smile only made her face look even more like an ice carving.

  Julie, the peacemaker of us three, intervened. “Oh, don’t worry, Celine. The sidewalk is pretty narrow. Come on, AJ, I’ll walk with you and Jaime can walk with Celine.”

  Right then, I felt really small. I was acting like a spoiled brat, and what’s worse, I knew it. I didn’t say anything, I just stepped back up on the sidewalk and began walking with Julie. After a few minutes, Celine looked over her shoulder at me, grinned, and winked. Her look was malevolent. My stomach twisted, and I felt a cold wave sweep over me. Somehow, I knew at that moment the fourth disaster of the day had just entered my life.

  Chapter Two

  Celine

  When we stopped outside Jaime’s house, Celine said, “Hey, let’s go to my house and have some chips and sodas.”

  “Cool! Let’s go.” Jaime was really jazzed.

  That was definitely not what I had in mind for the afternoon. The J’s and I had a history project to work on, I had barn chores to do, and I had already had enough of Celine fo
r one day.

  “Well, AJ, are you coming or not?” Celine stood with her hands on her hips.

  “Yeah, sure, for a little while, anyway,” I said.

  We walked up a long curved drive that was concrete instead of the dirt ones the rest of us had. It led to front doors with oval stained glass windows. They looked like they came from a church. I wondered if her house had pews.

  Celine glanced at my shoes. “AJ, please take your shoes off. They’re muddy, and our housekeeper will have a fit if we get mud on the white carpets.”

  OMG! She had a housekeeper and white carpets in a horse town. I couldn’t believe it. The mud on my shoes was dry, so I didn’t know why she was making such a big deal out of it. I sighed loudly, just to let her know this was so dumb, and took off my sneakers.

  The minute she opened the door, I knew why. My stocking feet sank into the soft white pile of the carpet. Even my mom would have had a fit if I’d walked on a carpet like that with dirty shoes. We looked around and our mouths dropped open. The house was huge, with crystal chandeliers hanging everywhere, a curving staircase in front of us, and off to the left, a room with two grand pianos. It even smelled like the roses my mom had in our front yard. The J’s and I looked at each other. Celine Carroll’s parents must be loaded.

  Celine led us into the open kitchen/family room. A large gold-framed painting of Celine sitting astride a Thoroughbred and holding a silver trophy hung over the fireplace. Other framed paintings of horses, some with Celine, hung all over the walls. Most of them had blue ribbons next to them. I looked over at Julie, and she mouthed silently, “Wow!”

  None of my friends’ family rooms looked like this. Ours always looked lived in, with dust on the coffee table, a few books lying around, and one of the twins’ games left forgotten on the floor. We had pictures of the twins and Andrew on their horses, and several of Sunni and me, but none of them were in gold frames. Ours was a real family room, not an art gallery like this. And it sure didn’t smell like fresh roses, either; more like…well, horses and whatever we had for dinner the night before.