Stay Sweet(14)

They claim an open spot away from the tree line and spread out their towels. Cate’s bikini is dark green with fuchsia trim and the tanner she gets, the better it looks on her. Amelia’s wearing her favorite bikini from last summer—light blue gingham, high-waisted, with a demi-cup top. She feels like a glamorous old-time movie star when she’s wearing it. It’s also great because she doesn’t have to be nearly as dutiful as Cate with her bikini line.

The girls coat their bodies with coconut oil. Amelia puts sunscreen on her face to keep it from freckling and Cate sprays her hair with another bottle that will eventually turn it white blond. Cate stretches out long and lean and lets out a happy sigh.

“How great if we could do this all summer? Just be beach bums until we leave for college.”

Amelia settles in too, tipping her baseball cap so it’s sitting on top of her face. “Maybe if I got a scholarship like you, I could.”

“My scholarship isn’t going to cover everything. College textbooks are hella expensive.”

“We should try job hunting together. Make us a package deal.”

She hears Cate sit up. Cate lifts the cap off Amelia’s face. “Umm. So I have something to tell you. I already got another job.”

Amelia sits up on her knees. “Wait, what? When?”

Guiltily, Cate says, “Yesterday afternoon. While you were sleeping.”

“Why didn’t you tell me last night?” As soon as Amelia says it, she knows. The real impetus for the impromptu trip to the ice cream stand was Cate’s guilt.

“I don’t know. I guess . . . I knew you were already upset about Molly and I didn’t want to make it worse.”

“Where are you working?”

Cate hides behind her hands. “JumpZone.”

JumpZone is a newish business that opened near the Walmart. It’s a place full of huge inflatable bounce houses and slides that people rent out for little-kid birthday parties.

“Are they still hiring?” Amelia asks, desperate.

Cate peeks through her fingers. “I don’t think?” After rubbing her face, she drops her hands and reveals a hangdog pout. “Anyway, you don’t want to work there. It’s going to suck. Super-early mornings, inside, screaming kids.”

Amelia feels like she’s been punched in the gut. She lowers herself back onto her towel.

Cate returns Amelia’s cap and then takes a sip of their shared Coke. “Don’t be mad. You know I hate the thought of us not working together but I need the money.”

“It feels like summer’s already over.”

“We wouldn’t be having this conversation if you’d applied to Truman.”

“Cate, please. I never would have gotten in.” Truman is one of the best universities in the country. It’s incredibly selective. Of course Cate got in. She got in everywhere she applied.

“Come on. You got into Gibbons! And that was your reach! Which you also wouldn’t have applied to if not for me.”

This is true. Amelia was accepted to a few small schools, all close to home. But when Gibbons, a much better school that Cate had basically forced her to apply to, said yes, going seemed like a foregone conclusion. Her parents were thrilled, and so was Cate. Amelia was too, though she still, even now, has a hard time imagining herself living so far from Sand Lake.

Cate turns her head. Amelia sees a pack of gangly young girls, eighth graders, timidly approaching them.

“Can I help you?” Cate asks.

“Are either of you Amelia Van Hagen?”

Cate snickers and returns to her magazine.

“I’m Amelia,” Amelia quickly answers, with a touch of nervous laugher. “Do you girls need something?”

“You’re the Head Girl of Meade Creamery, right?” Amelia nods. “We wanted to know if it was true. If the stand really is closed for the summer.”

Cate flips a page.

“Yes,” Amelia says. “I’m very sorry to say that it is.”

The girls exchange disappointed looks. “Oh, okay. Thanks for letting us know.”

“I’m sure you’ll find other great jobs!” Amelia calls after them. She keeps watching until the girls reach their beach towels. Then, to Cate, she wonders aloud, “Did we ever look that young?”

Cate has her magazine up in front of her face. She’s not even looking when she says, “Nope.”

“Do you think we would have been best friends if we hadn’t worked at the stand together?”

“I don’t like thinking about that.”

“Why not?”

“Because it makes everything feel fragile when it’s actually solid. And anyway, what does it matter? We are best friends, and we always will be.”

Amelia flips over onto her stomach and closes her eyes. Before she got to know Cate, Amelia couldn’t imagine being friends with her. Cate was one of the girls who took a limo to the eighth-grade dinner dance. And now that they are best friends, Amelia can’t imagine life without her. Lots of things change, but thank goodness, that never will.





CHAPTER EIGHT


AMELIA MAKES THE SALAD WHILE her dad tends to the chicken on the backyard grill. She likes making the salad, because he always cuts the onions too thick.

When her dad comes in, Amelia asks him, “Do you think that if Mom had died when you were young, you would have married someone else?”