“C’mon, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon!” I’m holding Isaac by the hand, dragging him out of the school.
“No, no, no, no!” He protests as he pulls against me.
“Pleeeeeease? It won’t be just us! I can make the others come with us!”
“That… would be worse.”
“Oh, c’mon! You don’t even have to go in that far, okay?”
He sighs. “You’re not going to stop bugging me unless I go.”
“Yup.”
He closes his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Fine. But don’t make me go in that far.”
“Yes!” I curl my hand into a fist and pump it towards me. I run back inside the school and burst into the kitchen. “Mildred? Can you drive us to Baker Beach?”
Mildred squints at me. “Who’s ‘us?’ I only see one of you. Maybe my vision’s going… oh no…”
“No! Mildred, Isaac and I! And Tiff and Nora and Tom and Sam and Will and Jill and Judy and Patrick and Alex and even Ivy!”
“Good Lord, Anna, that’s like –” She pauses to count on her fingers. “That’s like twelve people!”
“So? Won’t your van fit us?”
“My van fits…” She counts on her bony fingers again. “Eleven, including me if I drive.”
I weave my fingers together. “Pleeeeeeease?”
“How would you fit the other two, Anna?”
“We can strap Patrick and Ivy to the roof! No one likes them anyways!”
“Oh, don’t be so mean.” Mildred twirls a strand of grey hair from her bob. “I suppose we could squeeze people in and cross our fingers that we’re not pulled over.”
“Yay! Thank you thank you thank you!”
Mildred smiles softly. “Get me when you’re ready.”
Isaac punches me as I come out of the kitchen.
“Ow!” I exclaim. “What was that for?”
“That was for inviting ten other people!” He says angrily.
“Isaac, you don’t get it. When we do something, we do it together. No one left behind. Remember that and you’ll fit in here. Got it?”
He nods curtly.
“Great. You go get the boys, I’ll get all the girls, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Great, thanks!” I hug him quickly and race off. Why did I hug him? I think to myself as I race up the stairs. I pause in front of room 221 to get Nora and Tiff. Why did I hug him? I push the thought aside and open the door.
“I’m watching ‘Titanic’,” Nora says from her laptop as I enter the room. “If you interrupt me, it better be good.”
“Same,” Tiff says from the floor where she’s playing Jenga with herself.
“We’re going to the beach. C’mon.”
Tiffany looks at me like I have three heads. “It’s May,” she says carefully. “It’s gonna be freezing.”
“Who cares?” I ask, meaning for it to be a rhetorical question.
“I do!” Nora complains. “You interrupt my ‘Titanic’ to say we’re going to go to the beach in the freezing water? Which beach?”
“Baker…” I say.
Nor groans. “That doesn’t have a boardwalk! I like Santa Cruz!”
“That’s like an hour away and always crowded with tourists,” sensible Tiffany points out.
Nora hits a button on her laptop to pause her movie. “Why?”
“…Cause I like beaches…” I lie.
Tiff huffs as the Jenga tower collapses. “What’s the real reason?”
“Oh c’mon, you can see the bridge from there!”
Nora and Tiffany exchange a look. “Fine.”
