Iris: The American Dream Series Book One

Step Two

Mom came home one night later that week and sighed as she dropped her books and purse on the table. She looked tired.

"Oma hasn't been feeling well lately, and I'm exhausted. Do you girls want to go out tonight?"

"You don't want to cook, Mama?" Esmee asked, shaking her head.

"No, baby, I don't want to." Mom reached down for Esmee and lifted her up, holding her in a tight hug. "Where's Pim?"

"I think he's in his room," I said, lifting my chin toward the ceiling. "As usual."

"Do you think he'd want to get sushi with us?" Mom asked, flipping through the stack of bills in the mail pile.

"Pim!" I screamed. "Want to come to sushi?"

My mom looked at me from under her eyebrows. "I could have done that, you know. Can you please go and ask him?" Romy was dancing around the kitchen, spinning on the tile floor in her socks while she chanted, "Suuuuuuusssshhhhhiiiiiii!" My mom poured a glass of water for Esmee.

"Hey, Pim," I said, knocking on his closed bedroom door. "Mom is taking us to sushi. Come on."

He turned around from his computer desk to face me. "I hate raw fish," he gagged. "And I'm working on Step Two here."

"We can do that later. Come with us—you can eat rice and vegetables," I said, tossing a sweatshirt at him that was hanging on his doorknob. "Let's go."

"I'll eat cereal here. I just want to work on this."

"What are you doing?" I shut the door and moved behind him so I could peer over his shoulder.

"It's a surprise, but I think you're going to like it. It's pretty girly, so I think it's more up your alley than the dating site thing."

"Okay. I'll come see if you're done when we get home. And Oma isn't feeling well, so you might want to check in on her." I pulled his door shut and ran down the stairs. "Pim's not going!" I shouted, grabbing my jacket from the coat closet.

My mom looked up from her phone. "Really? He doesn't even want to come have dinner with us?"

"He wants cereal. And he said he'd check on Oma to make sure she doesn't need anything."

At Oishii Sushi we got a booth next to the sushi bar. The twins bounced around on their knees, holding chopsticks and watching the plates of fish and rice pass by us slowly on the conveyer belt. My mom ordered a hot tea, and the three of us girls got glasses of lemonade. I chose a little plate of spicy tuna as it slid past me on the conveyer belt and reached for the pot of soy sauce.

"Iris!" Abby came through the door with her family, her winter coat flapping behind her.

"Oh, look—it's Abby and her brother," my mom said, smiling up at them as she dipped a small spoon into a dish of wasabi.

"Hi, guys," Abby said. "Um, these are my parents, Michael and Jackie."

"So nice to meet you," Jackie said, leaning in to shake my mom's hand. "And I'm sorry we haven't met you until now, Iris," she patted my shoulder. "I know you've been over after school a few times, but we don't usually get home from work until dinnertime."

Mom shook Abby's dad's hand as well, and Zach smiled at me from behind his sister. "Hey, Iris," he said.

"I heard the girls were joining the dance committee together," Jackie said to my mom. "That should be fun."

"What committee? You didn't tell me about that," my mom said, turning to me.

"I haven't really seen you very much this week, Mom. We just signed up on Monday."

"It's true," my mom said apologetically to Abby and Zach's parents, "I'm a professor at Stanford, and I've just joined the staff. Right now my mother is home with the children more than I am. It's been a big transition for all of us."

"That's what Abby said. She told us you all had just moved here from Holland."

"Yes, we did. But I was raised on the east coast for a good portion of my childhood, so that's made it an easier transition in terms of language and culture—at least for me." Mom moved the bottle of soy sauce out of the way so that Romy wouldn't knock it over with her elbow as she tried to use her chopsticks.

"That would definitely make it easier!" Jackie said with a laugh. "Listen, we'd better grab a booth while we still can. It was lovely to meet you all."

"And you as well," my mom said. "We should get together for coffee sometime."

"Absolutely. And please come over anytime, Iris." Abby's mom said to me.

We waved at them as they found a table. I was still watching them when Zach turned around and caught my eye. I looked away.

After dinner, Mom thought it might be fun to make it a real girls' night by going to the movies, so we chose Big Hero 6 because the twins were with us. We got in line for popcorn and candy. The girls were looking at the treats for sale behind the counter, their little hands leaving marks on the glass.

"What do you want?" Mom asked Romy and Esmee. "You can each choose one thing."

"Peanut butter M&Ms!" they shouted in unison.

"Hey," Esmee said, turning to Romy. "That's MY candy!"

"No, I want that!" Romy said. "You copied ME!"

Without being asked, the girl behind the counter took out two little popcorn boxes and ripped open the bag of M&Ms. She dumped half of the bag into one box and half in the other, handing each of the twins their own little candy container. "I have twin brothers," she explained. "This always works for my mom."

"Thank you!" the twins said happily.

We found our seats for Big Hero 6 and the twins were immediately engrossed in the movie. It only took about five minutes in the dark theater before my mom put her head back on the cushy seat and promptly fell asleep. I spread my own coat over her lap and then put my finger to my lips to warn the twins that they should let her sleep.

* * *

"So I had to borrow Mom's credit card to make this work," Pim said, still sitting in front of his computer. Everyone else in the house was already in bed after dinner and the movie, and I'd checked in on Oma as soon as my coat was off. She was sleeping.

"What?" I shouted. Then, more quietly, "What?"

"I had to, Iris," Pim said, moving his mouse across the computer screen. I was kneeling on the floor next to his desk chair, a single lamp lighting the darkened room. The clock on his windowsill said 10:43. "I'm only fourteen—do you expect me to think up the ideas, carry them out, and pay for them with my own credit cards?"

I let out a deep breath. He was right. Most of the ideas we had were going to cost money, and there was really no other way. "Okay, show me."

He clicked on the browser on his desktop and pulled up a website. "Ah!" I cried in surprise. "Pim—you did this?"

He grinned at me. "You like?"

"I do...but when will it happen?"

"Just give me a couple of days and you'll see. It's going to be brilliant."

My heart raced in my chest like a hamster on a wheel.

"If our plans work out, then before you know it, Dad will be back with us."

I sank from my knees down into a sitting position on Pim's floor and took a few deep breaths. I desperately wanted to believe him.