Adopted

Chapter 89

"What is it?" Mom asked, looking at my face. 

"Who's it from?" Dad asked. 

"Jess, are you okay?" Granny asked as tears started falling out of my eyes. 

I nodded. 

"I-I'm fine," I smiled, and handed the card to Mom.

"You are cordially invited to attend a private cooking class with Gordon Ramsay, at his home in Los Angeles, California," Mom read out. "Jess! This is amazing! How did you get this? Who got this?" 

"I don't know!" I said. "But it's the coolest thing I've ever seen!" 

Dad took the note from Mom and inspected the envelope and the back of the card. 

"It's from Make-A-Wish. I didn't know you'd written to Make-A-Wish," he said. 

"I didn't," I said. "I never even thought about it."

"I did," a voice said, coming into the house. "Merry Christmas, Uries!"

Zack and Kala walked into the living room with armfuls of gifts.

"Zack? You set this up?"

"No, Make-A-Wish set it up. I just contacted them and told them that he was your favorite celebrity chef, and your story, and that it would be cool if you could meet him. Why? What did they say?"

I jumped up and literally jumped into Zack's arms. 

"Thank you! But how did you know?" 

"Kid, I spent two summers ago on tour with you, and last summer.  And anytime I'm here, if you're not watching some movie, you're watching Gordon Ramsay shows. I pay attention," he said, looking at Dad. 

"Hey! I do too! I just didn't know if she'd want a Make-A-Wish or if she'd already had one."

"No, I haven't. I don't think the orphanage thought of it."

"Zack, this is absolutely amazing.  Thanks for getting it set up," Mom said. 

"So, what did they say?"

"I'm getting a cooking lesson with him," I said. 

"Hey, that's cool!" Zack said. 

"At his house!" I continued. 

"What!? That's incredible!"

I looked at the note again and again.  This was amazing. I didn't make a huge deal about being a really big Gordon Ramsay fan, but not only had Zack paid attention to it, he'd made it so I could not only meet him, but that I would get to learn to cook with him, too! At his house!

"Your parents will have to make the arrangements - everything should be there in the envelope for that, but yeah..." Zack said. 

"I can't believe you did this! Thanks!!"

"It was that or have you meet someone from the Dodgers. I thought cooking was a better life skill," he smiled. 

Kala was just standing back and smiling and watching. 

"Did you know?" Mom asked Kala. 

"I sort of knew what he was up to," she admitted. 

They came in properly and said hello to everyone and joined us for opening gifts. We had lunch together, and I managed some soup that Mom had made while the rest of them had turkey and stuff. 

I tried a little stuffing and turkey, but wound up running upstairs to throw up. I was lying on my bed crying, because I hate that I'm still throwing up when I eat, when PopPop came in.