Chapter Sixteen

 I didn’t go back to school that day, but when I got back the next day no one commented on it.  No one said, “Hey, that’s the girl that freaked out about her big secret.”  If anything, they were nicer than before.  I still hated it.

        “Oh, give it a rest.  You at least have people to hang out with after school, right?” Kayla commented.  It was true.  Hannah, a girl who was an alto in the choir, had started to bring me into her group more.  Some where altos and basses, some where sopranos and tenors.  Some played the piano and some played the clarinet.  All in all, though, it was a group dedicated to music.  So I fit right in.

        Surprisingly, so did Kayla.

        “I can’t believe what Jake said about drums.  I never knew they were so hard!  I mean, I’ve heard some complicated beats, but I always figured that there was some trick to make it look harder than it actually was,” Kayla babbled after school one day.  What surprised me the most was that now that she knew about my parents, we had gotten even closer.  Like my secret had been keeping up apart.

        “Oh, so now going into seventh position is the easiest thing in the world?” I laughed.

        “That’s different.  That’s the violin.  This is the drums,” she replied.  I laughed at her again as I slammed my locker shut so I could head home.

        “Well, now that first semester is over, what are you going to do?  Your mom has been in the hospital for a really long time,” Kayla said.

        “I’ll probably just keep doing what I’ve been doing and hope she gets out soon.  That’s all I really can do, right?  You know, besides visit her all the time and play violin for her.  I’ve become sort of famous at the hospital,” I told her.

        “Can I come sometime?  I’ve never actually met your mom, and she should be stable on her meds, right?”

        I shrugged.  “Sure.  But actually, I almost don’t know her anymore.  It’s so strange because she’s not anything like she used to be.”

        “Isn’t that a good thing?”

        “I guess. . . .  But I loved my mom the way she was.  It’s my dad I don’t want anyone to meet.”

        “Well, then, I guess we just won’t meet him.  Will we Mike?”  I turned around quickly to see him trying to sneak up on me.

        “Kayla!  I wanted to try to scare her!”

        “It’s not Halloween!  It’s the middle of January, so no sneaking up on people.  Understand?” Kayla asked.  Mike rolled his eyes, and I just laughed at them both.  They had gotten pretty close since my secret had come out just a few weeks beforehand.

        “Well, I thought that since it was Katie’s birthday last week and that she got a B for a final grade in Math, we should all go out and celebrate.

        Kayla hit me on the arm.  “Katie!  It was your sweet sixteen last week and I didn’t even know it?”

        “I wanted to keep it a secret.  I don’t like big parties,” I whined.

        Kayla rolled her eyes.  “All I ask is to have you and Mike and a couple other people over for dinner at my house.”

        “I don’t want your parents to throw a birthday party for me!”
        “Oh, darling, you know they love you.  It wouldn’t be a problem at all.”

        I rolled my eyes.  “Whatever.  I still don’t like it.”

        “Whoever said you had to?”

 

So, a week later I was sitting on Kayla’s couch, glaring at her and her parents.  Taylor had made BBQ chicken and George had bought a huge chocolate cake.  They had also each boughten me a very large present.

        “Oh, don’t be such a sour puss and help me blow up balloons,” Kayla said as she tossed me a handful.  I blew them up, tied them, and taped them up against the wall like she had asked, but I did not stop frowning.

        “What would Mike say if he were here?”

        “How am I supposed to know?  I can’t read minds.”

        Mike opened the door and said, “I think I would say she needs to turn that frown upside down, and if she can’t do it by herself I’ll make her.”

        I glared at him.  “You wouldn’t dare.”

        “Katie, I know all your tickle spots and I’m not afraid to use them.”

        “Mike?  Can you move that couch please?  I want to put a table behind the couch to put the presents on,” Taylor called from the kitchen.

        Mike did, and called back, “Is this good?”

        Taylor walked in.  “Marvelous.  Thank you.  You dearies can just relax until the party starts, but no eating the chicken until you finish your chocolates.”  We all smiled.  Everything was so backwards when she was throwing a party.

        When people started to arrive, I started having a blast.  We played Apples to Apples, a game that never gets old.  After about half an hour we started digging into the food and watching horror flicks.  Gothika is my favorite, even though it isn’t all that scary.  Still, it was fun to watch all the people who actually were afraid of ghosts scream.

        After that we had dinner, even though some of the people no longer had an appetite, as was Mike’s evil plan.  More food for us, he said.  But the food was good and after that came the cake, which was even better.

        Then we got to open presents.  As we sat down, Kayla said, “If you don’t love every single thing I will personally kill you myself.”

        Laughing, I started with her present.  It was a charm bracelet.  “Aw!  Shut up!  What does it have on it?”

        “A violin, an eighth note, a mathematical pie.”  Everyone laughed.  I put it on and said, “Thank you.  I love it.”

        “So I don’t have to kill you.  Yet.”

        Next was her parents’.  I got The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, The Color of Water by James McBride, and Persuasion by Jane Austen.  Also, I got some trail mix and a couple CDs that I had been wanting for forever.  I nearly screeched, “Oh my gosh!  How did you know that I liked Indochine?

        “We have an inside source,” George laughed, glancing at Kayla, who shrugged.

        Next was Hannah’s.  She got me a whole bunch of sheet music.  “It took forever, but I think I finally found something that was hard enough for you.”  It was a nice thought, so I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I could already play it just from looking at it.  Oh well.  It would be pretty.

        Jake was next.  He had gotten me a snow globe from when he had visited his brother in the Cities.  It had a music note in it.  “It was only five bucks, but my brother stole the rest of it,” he replied.

        I hugged him.  “I love it either way.”

        A few more people had gotten me music-related presents, and by then there weren’t any more.  What I hated was that Mike had been stupid and forgotten his at home.  I had been really looking forward to seeing what he had gotten me.  Oh well.

        “Hey, great party.  You should throw another one sometime soon,” Jake said.  Everyone nodded in agreement.

        “I’ll throw an end of school year party here if Taylor will let me,” I said hopefully.

        “Darling don’t be silly.”  My heart sunk.  “You can throw one here next weekend if you want to.”  Everyone cheered and laughed, giving each other high fives.  I sighed and rolled my eyes at Mike, who just shrugged but was smiling along with everyone else.

        After everyone left, it was only six.  Taylor and George and Kayla still had to clean up, but I didn’t have to stay so I went with Mike back to his house.  He was silent on the way back, which was really weird for him.

        It was made clear to me when we got home.  He had forgotten his present at home on purpose.  He took me up to his room silently and made me sit on his bed while I waited for him to retrieve it from some other room.  Don’t know why he didn’t just leave it in his room.  Not like I was there on a regular basis anyway.

        When he came back he just set a box in front of me.  I looked at it and then opened it.  It was a scrapbook.

        Looking through the pictures, I saw me and Brad and Mike and a whole bunch of other kids whose names I didn’t even remember until I saw there faces.  Some were in the summer running under the sprinkler, others were at birthdays.  There were even a few of Mom before she got too bad.

        Seeing all these memories on paper, I started to cry.  So many things had changed since these pictures were taken.  Too many things.  But it was nice to see them, anyway.

        “Hang on, there’s one more.”  He took out a smaller box, and I ripped the paper off.  It was a locket, one of me and him from a couple months ago.  We were both smiling widely, holding back laughter at Kayla’s seventeenth birthday party.

        I hugged him.  “Thank you.  Your presents are amazing.”

        He laughed.  “I know.”