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Not the Best Sleepover Ever
I was the first to arrive at Daleni’s house, but I didn’t work up the nerve to talk to her about Mrs. Hallovich’s invitation before the M&Ms arrived.
Daleni’s parents have cooked up a load of tapas, (tapas are Spanish appetizers) and they’ve set up their back patio with tiki torches and strings of lights. For a while the four of us just talk about how wonderful the food is. Then we move on to how nice it will be not to have to deal with Mrs. Haines for English next year, and how we all can’t wait to have Mr. Armstrong for science.
Everything’s great until Daleni says, out of nowhere, “Ella, why don’t you tell Mandy and Melanie about the invitations.”
Talk about throwing a friend under the bus! I glare at her but she’s looking back at me with total support. Like she’s just trying to help me get it over with.
“What invitations?” Mandy asks.
I guess there’s no time like the present. I go to my overnight bag, just inside the patio door, and pull out three cream colored, end-of-life-as-I-know-it, envelopes. I return to the table and pass them out.
“Mrs. Hallovich is inviting us all to a tea party a week from tomorrow.”
Melanie shoots me a look that could slice through metal. They all open their invitations.
“Is this a joke?” she asks. Daleni asked the same question last night, but she sounded nicer about it.
“No.” I shake my head and prepare to make a quick explanation, but Melanie is faster.
“You want us to go to a party at a haunted house? A tea party thrown by a witch?!”
Ouch! That pushed a couple of my buttons.
“Mrs. Hallovich is not a witch!” I shout. “She just happens to live in a haunted house.”
Daleni’s eyes are popping out a little.
“But you still want us to go to a party at a haunted house?” Mandy is asking in a way that sounds like she’s trying to be nice. I get it. I would be freaking out too if one of them had given me the same invitation a week ago.
I calm myself down a little. “The tea party is going to be outside,” (I hope). “You guys won’t even have to go inside the house. The backyard is really pretty and there’s a greenhouse that you won’t believe!” I’m about to go on about all the plants, and Hubert, when I remember the giant fish that looked a lot like a girl from a haunted boat. I decide to shut up about the greenhouse.
“We can play croquet too! Mrs. H. taught me how on Wednesday.”
“Mrs. H. is it?” This from Melanie.
I nod my head and start to relax.
“She taught you a game for 80-year-old grandmas, and you want us to play?”
So much for relaxing. I turn to Mandy. “It was a lot of fun,” I tell her.
Daleni is looking at me like she wants to help but doesn’t know how. Of course she doesn’t know how. That’s my fault. I should have been sharing more with her.
Daleni’s dad steps out of the patio door. “Who’s ready for la música?” he calls out, clapping his hands together. I wonder how much he heard and if he’s helping his daughter avoid a party meltdown.
“We’re ready!” Daleni shouts back to him. “Ella, help me move the chairs out of the way!”
We all clear a dance floor and crank up some Spanish music. Daleni’s parents get things going by showing off their mad, dance skills. After a minute they pull us girls onto the floor and help us get our hips moving and our feet salsa-ing. I know things aren’t over with the tea party drama, but I’m determined to enjoy the moment. And I do. Until I see Melanie dancing. She has loose hips. Of course she does.
A few hours, and a lot of food and exercise later, Mandy and I sit in Daleni’s room, while she and Melanie are downstairs picking out a board game. Mandy and I are looking everywhere except at each other, until she finally breaks the silence.
“So, your week at Witch House turned out okay?”
“Willow House,” I jump to correct her.
“Sorry. Willow House.”
She really is trying to be nice.
“Yes. The week was a lot of fun. I don’t know everything Daleni told you. There was some weird stuff but . . . Mrs. Hallovich is great! And she would never let anything bad happen to us.” I know with my whole heart I’m speaking the truth. “She wouldn’t invite us if she was afraid something bad would happen.”
“I’ll think about the tea party, Ella. I’m not promising. But, I do promise to think about it.”
“Thanks, Mandy.” I feel tears creeping up behind my eyes so I turn and pretend I’m interested in the stuffed animals on Daleni’s bed.
Melanie and Daleni come back with Monopoly. I have to pass Melanie the dice, and we have to pay each other rent from time to time, but we manage not to make eye contact until 3:00 in the morning. By now, both Mandy and Daleni are snoozing away. They lost all their money over an hour ago. Mandy turns in her sleep and because we’ve set the game up a little too close to the sleeping bags, it gets knocked over. Houses and hotels fly everywhere.
“Let’s call it a tie,” Melanie says.
I have just managed to buy hotels for Boardwalk and Park Place, so of course she wants to call it a tie. I’m too tired to argue. I’m asleep before I feel my face hit the pillow.
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