Claudia's Big Party Read online

  Mal was standing back, staring at Janine and the vase, her face bright red and her eyes shiny with tears. “I’m so sorry,” she said, “I’m so sorry. I’m such a klutz.”

  Why couldn’t it have been anyone other than Mal? I thought.

  Jessi hurried to Mal’s side and put an arm around her. Stacey, Abby, Kristy, and Mary Anne squeezed through the crowd to join her too, reminding her that it was an accident.

  “Maybe you can glue it back together,” Logan suggested.

  “I don’t think so,” Janine said, shaking her head.

  “It’s just a vase,” I said, trying to convince myself as well as everyone else. “Don’t worry about it.” Still, I could barely stand to look at all the tiny pieces scattered over the floor. What would Mom and Dad say?

  “You are absolutely correct, Claudia,” Janine said, standing up. “We’ll clean this up so that no one is injured, and it will be fine.” She smiled weakly.

  “I’ll clean it up,” Mal offered.

  “Let me show you where the broom and dustpan are kept.” Janine led her into the kitchen.

  The doorbell rang. I wondered who hadn’t yet shown up.

  Joanna, Kristy, and Austin were standing at the open front door by the time I reached it, each one holding a pizza box.

  “We need money,” Kristy called to me.

  I wove my way through the crowd again and found the money Janine had set aside for pizza. By the time I’d paid for it, the only thing left was a slice of Canadian bacon and pineapple. I decided to wait for cookies.

  “Here, I saved you a piece.” Josh appeared at my side and handed me a slice of pepperoni. I bit into it and kept walking.

  “Claudia,” he called after me. “Come in here with me for a while.”

  “Can’t,” I said with my mouth full. I kept walking.

  Mal and Jessi were still in the living room, cleaning up the glass. Joanna and Jeannie had taken up a spot on the steps, while Austin, Rick, Pete, and Logan were watching sports news on the TV. What had happened to the teams?

  “Claudia, could you please join me in the kitchen?” Janine yelled through the crowd.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked when I’d fought my way to the door.

  “We have depleted the food supply,” Janine announced.

  “We still have cookies,” I said.

  “But I’ve had several requests for more pizza. If we’d only known exactly how many guests …”

  It was too late to worry about that. I’d thought I knew how many.

  “What do we have on hand? I’ll bet we can find something.” I pulled open the pantry door. There was an unopened jar of hearts of palm, some pineapple, tomato sauce, and a can of beans.

  “There’s frozen pizza dough,” Janine said.

  “Then we’ll make our own pizza.” I pulled the cans out of the pantry and lined them up on the counter. “It takes, what, ten or fifteen minutes to cook?”

  “We haven’t got any mozzarella cheese.” I joined Janine in front of the fridge.

  There were, however, a few slices of American cheese. “We can use this. It’ll be a Kishi special.”

  “I’ll see what I can do.” Janine turned on the oven and took out our pizza pan.

  I found some carrots and a carton of health-dip in the refrigerator. I scraped the health-dip into a bowl and cut up the carrots. There was also cold spaghetti, but I didn’t think that would interest anyone.

  “Maybe the smaller cookies should be dessert rather than a prize,” I said.

  Janine slipped her pizza into the oven. “Announce the cookie-decorating competition now. It’s becoming very noisy in there.”

  I’d been so busy trying to figure out what to feed everyone that I hadn’t noticed the noise. Now, however, I realized the party was much louder than it had been.

  I picked up the three giant cookies and the decorating supplies that Janine had collected and carried them into the dining room. Shira, Stacey, and Rick were walking around balancing pizza boxes on their heads. I checked to make sure there weren’t any breakables around.

  Mal and Jessi were still in the living room. The glass was cleaned up, and they were sitting on the sofa, talking. “We’re going to decorate cookies now. Find your team,” I said. They looked up and nodded but kept talking.

  In the den, another group, led by Shannon, was singing what sounded like camp songs. “Cookie time,” I said, “in the dining room.” The boys in the group immediately jumped up and ran for the door.

  Before I could explain that the cookies were for decorating, Austin had broken one and was handing out the pieces.

  “I love these!” I heard Anna say. She opened a jar of colored sprinkles and poured some into her hand.

  “Let me try some,” said Erica, taking the jar.

  “Icing in a spray can!” Pete squirted some into his mouth.

  “That’s gross,” Kristy said, grabbing it.

  “I didn’t put my mouth on it,” Pete said. “It’s good. Have some.” He reached for the can and pressed the nozzle, causing a line of icing to ooze out onto Kristy’s arm.

  “Yuck!” she said, but she licked it off.

  “The icing tastes good on cookies too,” said Abby. She took the can from Kristy and sprayed some on a piece of cookie, then ate it.

  Emily took one of the icing cans and made a face on a cookie. Abby tried to press red hots into a cookie and it broke, sending pieces shooting across the dining room table.

  “Hockey!” yelled Pete, sliding the biggest piece back. Others joined in, and cookies flew back and forth and onto the floor.

  I looked for Janine, wishing the “official chaperone” would step in and help me get the party back on track.

  “What’s wrong?” Josh was at my elbow.

  “It’s a little crazy in there,” I said, trying not to sound too worried. “Where’s Janine?”

  “I saw her going upstairs with Shira and some other people a few minutes ago,” Josh said. “Want me to go find her?”

  The timer on the oven buzzed. “Would you take the pizza out of the oven?” I asked Josh. “I’ll find Janine.” I ran upstairs.

  Janine was in her bedroom in front of the computer. Shira, Joanna, and Jeannie were leaning close to the screen as Janine showed them something. They were supposed to be mixing with my BSC friends! What were they doing up here?

  “Janine?” I said from the doorway. She looked over her shoulder. “Can you come downstairs?”

  “We’ll be finished here in a minute,” she said. The group broke into laughter as something moved across the screen.

  “But Janine —”

  “Claudia, I said in a minute. Relax and enjoy your guests.”

  Easy for her to say. I hadn’t had a chance to talk to anybody. And I’d totally ignored Josh.

  I heard the sound of a television and realized someone was in my parents’ bedroom. I rushed to the end of the hall. “Hey, guys, you need to go back downstairs,” I said to Rick, Pete, and Erica. “You can watch TV in the den.”

  “But Logan made us turn this off down there, because Mary Anne wanted to watch a movie,” said Rick. “This is the death match of the WWF and I don’t want to miss it.”

  “This bedroom is off-limits,” I said in a firm voice.

  The TV screen went black and the three of them filed out.

  I closed the door to Mom and Dad’s room, then pulled the door to my room shut as I passed by. Downstairs, Shannon and Abby were playing “keep the cookie away from Anna in the hallway,” while the hockey game was still going on in the dining room. I reached up and grabbed the “keep-away cookie” out of the air and ate it.

  “Hey!” said Shannon.

  “There are breakables here.” I pointed at a lamp on the table.

  The hockey game had divided itself into two teams, each with a cheering squad. They’d even moved the chairs out of the way. I slipped through them into the kitchen, thinking that if I brought the pizza out it might distract everyone.
>
  Josh was standing by the counter with a funny look on his face. “What’s the matter?” I asked.

  “The pizza,” he said. “I don’t think the American cheese … um … worked.”

  “Thanks for your help,” I said sarcastically, taking a look at the pizza. He was right — it was a disaster.

  “What’s going on in here?” Joanna appeared at the door to the kitchen. “Josh? What’s wrong?” Jeannie and Shira crowded in beside her.

  “Nothing,” Josh said, turning his back on me and joining them. “Let’s go in the other room.”

  I closed my eyes and counted to ten. I shouldn’t have been so abrupt with Josh. I was starting to think I shouldn’t have had a party.

  At that moment the doorbell rang. Maybe the pizza man had forgotten to leave a large pepperoni. I was sure that would do the trick.

  I passed Janine, who was holding up a cookie and explaining something to Pete Black, on my way to the front door. Pete had a dazed look on his face. I’ll bet he had no idea what Janine was talking about.

  “Claudia, where’s the new Blade record?” Stacey called as I opened the door.

  “In a minute,” I answered, then turned to see who had arrived late, hoping they weren’t expecting food.

  Instead, I found Peaches, Russ, and Lynn.

  “Peaches!” Her name came out as a squeak. Meanwhile, Russ’s and Peaches’s mouths were hanging open, and they kept blinking their eyes as if they thought what they saw might eventually disappear.

  I turned, looking for Janine. She still held the cookie in the air. Then she swallowed, handed the cookie to Pete, and walked toward us. From the corner of my eye, I saw Stacey grab Mary Anne and Kristy. The three of them spread out and walked among the kids, talking in low voices.

  Peaches began to speak, and the room suddenly fell quiet. “Tell me I don’t see what I think I see,” she said.

  I heard rustling behind me, but no one said anything.

  “Peaches, it probably looks worse than it is,” Russ said.

  Lynn grinned and reached out to me.

  “Girls, I’d like an explanation,” Peaches said in a voice that reminded me of Mom.

  “It’s only a few people,” Janine said.

  “Mom and Dad didn’t say we couldn’t have friends over,” I added.

  “This is what you call a special sister activity, Claudia?” Peaches was hurt that we — that I — had lied to her.

  “Maybe we should come inside and discuss this after everyone has gone home,” Russ said in a calm voice.

  “After everyone has gone?” I repeated.

  “I think it’s time for your guests to leave,” said Russ.

  Peaches, clutching Lynn tightly, stalked into the living room.

  “Who needs a ride home?” Russ called into the dining room.

  “I’ll call Charlie,” I heard Kristy say to Abby.

  Pete, Austin, and Rick were already at the door. They lived close, so they’d be picked up soon.

  “Thanks, Claudia,” Pete said, and the other boys echoed what he’d said.

  Joanna, Shira, and Jeannie were next.

  “We’ll see you at school on Monday,” Jeannie said.

  “Thanks for the pizza,” Shira said to Janine.

  “And everything,” Joanna added.

  “Glad you could come,” Janine said vaguely.

  Both of us kept looking at Peaches in the living room. Mal and Jessi were playing with Lynn while Peaches watched, not a trace of a smile on her face.

  Emily and Erica left quietly once Erica’s dad arrived. In fact, everything was too quiet, especially considering how loud it had been before my aunt and uncle showed up.

  “Do you want us to stay and help you clean up?” Stacey asked. Mary Anne and Abby nodded, indicating that they’d stay too.

  The dining room floor was covered with cookie crumbs. Logan joined us in the hallway, crunching with each step. There were paper plates and napkins everywhere. Someone had taken the empty soda cans and built a pyramid on the kitchen counter. Dining room chairs were in the living room, and the ottoman usually in the living room was missing. Even though I knew it would take Janine and me from now until our parents came home to clean up properly — I swallowed hard when I thought about Mom and Dad and what they were going to say — I shook my head.

  A horn honked out front. Charlie had arrived in record time. Kristy, Abby, Anna, Shannon, and Greer ran to the car, quiet until they reached the end of the walk, then talking as soon as the car doors opened.

  “Mary Anne and I can stay to help,” Stacey said again.

  “You kids better go home,” Russ said.

  Josh appeared from the rear of the house, a serious expression on his face. I remembered yelling at him in the kitchen before Peaches arrived. Our eyes met, but I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

  “I’ll stay and help,” Josh offered in a quiet voice.

  “Thanks,” I said. Then I caught Russ’s eye and he shook his head, so I added, “But you’d better go too.”

  “Talk to you tomorrow,” Stacey whispered, giving me a quick hug, then followed Mary Anne, Logan, Mal, and Jessi down the sidewalk. Mrs. Pike would give them a ride home.

  Josh was the last one out the door. He stopped, then turned around and wiggled his fingers at me. I tried to smile.

  Janine was sitting in the living room, across from Peaches and Lynn. Russ sat down beside Peaches. I felt all of them looking at me as I walked into the room and sank to the floor near Janine’s chair.

  “I couldn’t believe my eyes. You two, my nieces, and a houseful of out-of-control kids …” Peaches began.

  “They weren’t out of control,” Janine said, but a piercing glare from Peaches shut her up.

  Lynn held her arms out to me and I scooted forward to take her, but Peaches pulled her back.

  “Your parents may not have said that you couldn’t invite friends over while they were gone,” Peaches said, turning to me, “but I’m sure they never dreamed, Claudia, that you’d invite over the entire student body of Stoneybrook Middle School.”

  “It was just the kids in the BSC, some of my seventh-grade friends, and …” I began to say, but one look from Peaches shut me right up. This was a side of my aunt I’d never seen.

  “What was Mallory saying about a broken vase?” Peaches asked.

  “She knocked a vase from a table,” Janine said.

  “It’s a new vase. I’ll buy Mom a replacement,” I added.

  “It’s the only thing that was permanently damaged,” Janine added.

  Looking around, it was hard to believe that.

  “And Janine — allowing Claudia to have a party when your parents are out of town, taking part in the activities, even. I cannot believe you acted in such an irresponsible manner.” Peaches shook her head and pulled Lynn closer.

  “Are you going to tell Mom and Dad?” Janine asked without looking up.

  Peaches sighed loudly. “I wish I didn’t have to.”

  “But you are?” I asked.

  “We are.” Peaches looked at Russ and they nodded.

  I swallowed hard. Mom and Dad were going to be more disappointed than Peaches and Russ, if that were possible.

  “We didn’t expect to be here longer than a minute. I wanted to see what a special sister evening consisted of. Little did I know,” Peaches said, rising. “My advice to you girls is to clean up the house, spotlessly, and hope that your parents take your efforts into consideration when they’re deciding how to handle things.”

  “Okay,” Janine said softly.

  “You’re both to stay right here until your mother and father come home tomorrow,” Peaches went on.

  “Are we grounded?” I asked.

  Peaches hesitated. “Yes.”

  “We have to get Lynn to bed,” Russ said.

  “Could I give her a kiss good-bye?” I asked.

  Peaches nodded.

  “I’m very sorry,” I heard Janine say to our aunt and uncl
e as I cuddled Lynn for a few moments.

  “We’ll talk to you tomorrow,” Russ said as they pulled the front door closed.

  Janine and I sat in total silence for a few moments.

  “I’ll start cleaning in the living room,” I said as soon as I heard the car pull away.

  “Fine,” Janine said, her voice as cold as Peaches’s had been. “I’ll be in the kitchen. The first order of business is to rid the premises of that disgusting pizza.”

  I walked around, looking for pieces of furniture that belonged in the living room. I was pushing the ottoman in from the den when Janine called to me.

  “Where is the pizza?”

  “The last thing I heard, Josh had tried it. He looked as if he might throw up,” I said.

  “Surely those children didn’t eat it all!” The clatter of pots and pans drowned out anything else Janine might have said.

  Children? We weren’t children. We were teenagers, not that much younger than Janine.

  Janine was up to her elbows in dishwater when I marched into the kitchen. “We aren’t children, you know,” I began.

  “You aren’t? That’s what you acted like here tonight — immature children. I should have known that I couldn’t trust a group of children to behave. Your friends have no sense of D-E-C-O-R-U-M.”

  “Don’t spell at me! Does your sense of decorum include trying so hard to make my friends like you that you can’t act like the ‘official chaperone’ you said you were going to be?”

  “Not one guest showed an ounce of responsibility. Would they act the way they acted here in their own homes?” Janine demanded.

  “You did. Were you responsible? Peaches doesn’t think so,” I said hotly.

  “And I guess you were!” Janine pulled the plug in the sink and there was a huge sucking noise as the dishwater flowed into the drain.

  I turned and left the kitchen, crunching my way through the dining room.

  “What are you going to tell Mom and Dad about the vase?” Janine was right behind me.

  “That it’s broken,” I said, tired of arguing with her.

  “Broken because you invited so many of your friends.”

  “You only wish you had friends to invite to a party,” I said.

  Janine’s mouth snapped shut and she backed away from me, then turned and stalked out of the room.