Picture Perfect #5 (11 page)

“Fine. But I'm stealthy,” Robert said, heading for the steps. Mari waited until he had disappeared downstairs before she let the blanket fall back down, turning the bed into a tent again.

“Sorry. They're such a pain in the neck,” Mari said.

“Yeah,” Gracie agreed.

“So what's the embarrassing thing?” Mari picked up her pillow and hugged it. “You know you can tell me anything.”

“I know, but . . .” Gracie couldn't help thinking that any one of Mari's brothers might be around, hiding somewhere and listening to her. She really hadn't noticed Robert standing there, and apparently Mari didn't think she had to tell Gracie if somebody was spying. “Maybe I should wait until we're not all in the house.”

“That's not fair. Now I'm dying to know, and you won't tell me,” Mari said.

“I'm already humiliated enough in front of your brothers. If they overheard this, they would never stop making fun of me,” Gracie said. Even worse, what if Robert or Jon decided to tease her about it at school, in front of Alex? A chill ran through her at the thought.

Suddenly the mattress above them dipped way down, making the whole bunk bed creak. Then it went back to normal. Then it came down again.

“Ugh.” Mari rolled her eyes. “Jimmy!”

“What? I'm jumping on your bed,” Jimmy said from the top bunk.

“Yeah, we can see that,” Mari replied.

“You know what? Let's just forget the bunk-bed tent,” Gracie said. It was obvious that she would never get to tell Mari about her crush on Alex. “I'm going to take my notebook downstairs and work on the paper for Mr. Ferrone.”

“But you wanted to have girl time,” Mari protested.

“I know, but so far girl time has involved a lot of boys.”

“Gracie, what's up with you?” Mari asked. “Why are you pouting?”

“I'm not,” Gracie said. She wasn't, was she? She
did
feel a little pouty. But there were too many brothers around! Nobody was going to leave her alone with Mari—they were too bored to do that. Bothering the girls was the only thing Jon, Robert, and Jimmy had to do. Gracie sighed, feeling antsy. How were they supposed to survive an entire day with no TV and no computer? And no rooms of their own? “Look, I'm not
used to being in a small place with this many people. I'm getting a little claustrophobic, that's all.”

“Okay, so I'll help you with the paper,” Mari offered.

“No. No thanks,” Gracie said. She didn't want Mari to see some of the stuff she'd written this weekend. “I can do it by myself.”

Big Differences, continued:

—Only children are used to having time alone, to do what they want and think about stuff without being interrupted every two minutes. Multiple children are used to being surrounded by people all the time, so they don't seem to care about alone time. Maybe they don't even know what it is!

—Resources. Families with only children don't eat through their food as fast. My family goes shopping once a week, but Mari's family can't even make it through a long weekend without running out of food!

—Also, the multiple children eat faster and more. Why are they always stealing food or bragging about how much food they eat or finishing all the food when other people didn't even get any? Do they think they'll starve if they don't eat everything as fast as possible?

Mari paused and glanced around to make sure nobody was looking at her notes. She was still kind of angry about the pancakes this morning, but she didn't want to offend anyone. She didn't have to worry—apparently doing homework was the only thing boring enough to make the boys leave her alone. The other kids were all camped out on the couch and the floor, doing a crossword puzzle in a huge puzzle book while Gracie worked at the kitchen table.

“I'm back from my endless journey,” Mr. O'Hagan announced, flinging the door open. “Two and a half hours of grocery shopping! Which was actually forty-five minutes of shopping, and the rest of the time was trying to drive on steep hills covered with slush. My work is done!”

“That means you kids have to unload the car and put the stuff away,” Ms. O'Hagan said.

Everyone groaned.

“But we're not dressed,” Jon complained. He was still wearing Robert's pajamas.

“That's not my fault,” Mr. O'Hagan said, taking off his wet boots.

Gracie closed her notebook and got into her jacket and boots with the rest of the kids. Between the five of them, it would only take a few minutes to get the
groceries in and put away. She wasn't sure why Mari and her brothers seemed so annoyed by it. Then she stepped outside, and immediately she understood.

It was cold and wet and gross out there. Big, freezing blobs of mush pelted her as she ran to the back of the minivan and grabbed a couple of bags. By the time she got back to the cabin, she was soaked.

“Do we really need this much food for only one more day?” she asked.

“With seven people? We'll go through it all,” Mari's mom said, smiling.

Somehow, seeing how impossible it was to go outside made being in the tiny cabin even more depressing. Once they'd finished stowing all the groceries, Gracie began to feel restless. How could they possibly survive a whole afternoon of this?

“I think it's time for some board games,” Ms. O'Hagan announced. “The boredom in here has reached epic levels.” She pulled out a big plastic bin filled with old, fading cardboard boxes. “I've got Monopoly, Clue, and Twister. Oh, and Uno.”

“Monopoly!” everyone said at the same time.

“I'm the shoe,” Mari put in quickly.

“I'm the dog,” Robert called.

“I'm the cat,” Gracie said.

“This version is too old for that, there's no cat,” Mari told her. “You can be the shoe if you want.”

“No, she can't, you called it,” Jon said.

“That means I can give it away.”

“Nope, if you don't want it, I get it, because I'm calling it second!”

“That's not how it works.”

“Says who?”

“Says me.”

Gracie looked at Mr. and Ms. O'Hagan to see if they were going to stop the argument. Both of them were calmly sitting at the table, reading the newspaper. She felt a wave of annoyance, and she wanted to yell at Mari and Jon to stop arguing over something so dumb. The O'Hagan kids argued over everything! Instead she took a deep breath and said, “That's okay, Mar, you be the shoe. I don't care which one I am.”

“I'm not entirely sure we have all the money,” Robert said, counting out the stacks of fake cash. “This Monopoly game has been here since the olden days. I think money got lost.”

“Why do you get to be the banker?” Mari asked.

“Because I got to the money first,” Robert replied.

“I should be the banker,” Jon put in.

“You wish,” Mari said.

“Let me be the banker, and then you can all stop fighting,” Gracie suggested.

All three of them looked at her like she was crazy. “We're not fighting,” Mari said.

“But I'm still the banker,” Robert added.

“We're supposed to take turns. Kat was the banker last time we played—” Mari began.

“That was a year ago!” Jon protested.

“—so we start again from the youngest,” Mari continued as if she hadn't heard him. “That means Jimmy is the banker.”

“He doesn't even know how to subtract yet,” Robert said.

“Where is Jimmy?” Gracie asked, glancing around.

“I don't know,” Ms. O'Hagan said, looking up for the first time. “He was here a minute ago.”

“Here I am!” Jimmy called from the stairs. He struck a pose on the bottom step, showing off his outfit.

Gracie's socks on his hands.

Gracie's pajama top as his jacket.

Gracie's long johns as his pants.

Gracie's underwear—once again—as his hat.

Mari immediately grabbed Gracie's arm, as if she knew that Gracie was about to explode. “Jimmy—”

“You went into my stuff again!” Gracie yelled. She
jumped up from the table and ran over to him. “Take it off.” She snatched the underwear off his head, and one sock off his hand.

“Gracie, take it easy,” Mari said.

“Jimmy, give Gracie her clothes back and then you will come here and sit in time-out for ten minutes,” Ms. O'Hagan said sternly. “We told you not to touch her stuff again.”

Jimmy sat down and pulled off the long johns, then wriggled out of the pajama top. He handed her all her clothes without looking at her, but Gracie could see that his eyes were filled with tears.

Well, so what?
she thought.
I feel like crying too.

The second she had her things, she brushed past Jimmy and went upstairs to put them away. Mari followed her.

“Gracie, he's only six. He just wanted attention,” she said.

“He already got in trouble for doing the same thing!” Gracie pointed out. “But he still did it again.”

“Well, my mom told you to put your suitcase away, but you left it out again this morning,” Mari said.

“Yeah, well, in a normal hotel he wouldn't be able to get anywhere near my suitcase to begin with,” Gracie muttered.

“What's that supposed to mean?” Mari demanded.

“It means that this ski trip is no fun!” Gracie exploded, finally saying what she'd been feeling for half the weekend. “None of this annoying stuff would be happening if your brothers would just leave me alone!”

“Excuse me?” Mari yelled, her green eyes flashing.

“You heard me!” Gracie snapped.

“I can't believe you said that,” Mari cried. “You are the rudest person I've ever met!”

“
Me
rude?” Gracie gasped. “I'm not the rude one, you are! You've been ignoring me all weekend.”

“I have not.”

“Then why were you outside building a snowman while I was inside yesterday?”

Mari rolled her eyes. “Why were you sulking inside instead of doing something fun like building a snowman?”

“I wasn't sulking,” Gracie protested.

“Yes, you were,” Mari shot back. “You've been sulking all weekend.”

“It's true, you have,” Robert said from the top of the stairs. Gracie spun to face him, outraged to see that Jon
was right next to him. How dare they come up here to listen to a private conversation?

“You get upset every time you lose,” Jon agreed.

Gracie's face turned hot. “I don't care about losing! I just don't want to be competing all the time to begin with! You guys make every single thing into some big contest.”

“So you figure you should spend all your time sulking about it just because you don't like it?” Mari asked.

“Stop saying that!” Gracie cried. “I'm not sulking. I don't sulk. Just because somebody isn't having fun doesn't mean they're sulking.”

“You could've just said you were out of the competition,” Jon told her.

“I did! I keep saying that, and you guys think it's weird every single time,” she said.

“That's not true,” Jon replied.

“No, she might be right about that,” Robert told him.

“Stop! I can't believe this. You two aren't even a part of this conversation,” Gracie burst out. “I'm talking to Mari.”

“You mean you're yelling at me,” Mari muttered.

“Yelling is so rude,” Robert said.

“Aarrrggh!” Gracie threw up her hands in exasperation. “You're interrupting a private conversation.
You're the rude one. All of you could use some lessons in politeness.”

“Not from you. You're not even polite enough to be nice to your hosts,” Mari said.

“Your parents?” Gracie asked, confused. “I'm totally polite to them.”

“No, us. The rest of us,” Jon said. “We're all your hosts.”

“So my hosts like to go through my things and humiliate me and laugh at me, but I'm the one not being polite?” Gracie said.

“No, Jimmy doesn't count, he's too young to be a host,” Robert said. He turned to Jon. “Don't you think?”

“Yeah, Jimmy doesn't count,” Jon confirmed.

“But you laughed at me. You
all
laughed at me,” Gracie said. “You ate all the pancakes—”

“Because you slept late!” Mari interrupted.

“And you all went out of your way to pull a twin switch so I'd feel stupid,” Gracie went on. “Is that any way to treat a guest?”

Robert opened his mouth to answer, but his mother called from downstairs. “Boys, come down and let the girls have a talk.”

“See? It's a private conversation,” Gracie said. She watched the twins tromp back down the steps, and
then she turned to look at Mari.

Her best friend's eyes were narrowed, her face was bright red, and her arms were crossed angrily over her chest. Gracie had never seen Mari look that mad before. For a moment she felt almost scared. She and Mari didn't fight. She couldn't remember ever once arguing about anything more serious than which of their favorite horse books was more realistic. What had she done to make Mari so furious at her?

“Are you going to apologize?” Mari demanded.

“Apologize? Me?” Gracie choked out, suddenly just as angry as Mari. “You should apologize! You called me rude.”

“You yelled at my little brother,” Mari said. “And my older brothers. And me. How is that not being rude?”

“Well, what about you?” Gracie asked. “You asked me to come with you on this trip, and then you seemed to forget I was even here. Why did you even invite me if you were just going to spend the whole time hanging out with your brothers instead of me?”

Mari's mouth fell open. “It's a
family
trip. I'm supposed to hang out with my family. That's the way it works. You knew my brothers would all be here.”

“Yeah, but I didn't think we'd have to spend every single second with them,” Gracie replied.

Mari stared at her for a few seconds, her eyebrows drawn together in confusion. “Why not?” she asked finally.

“I thought we'd have our own room, and they'd have their own room,” Gracie said. “You never told me they would be around
all
the time.”

“I never told you they wouldn't, either,” Mari retorted. “But that's obviously what you expected. I can't believe I never realized before how stuck-up you are.”

“I am not!” Gracie cried.

“Yes, you are. You think everything should be perfect, which means it should be the way you want it. And when it's not, you get mad,” Mari said.

“You're wrong. I'm fine being with your family most of the time. I just don't want to have to deal with so many other people in my space
all
the time,” Gracie said.

“Fine. You know what? I'll leave you alone if that's what you want. I don't want to be
in your space
.” Mari turned away.

“Where are you going to go?” Gracie asked. “That's the whole problem! There's no place to go to have alone time. You can't even leave the house because of the rain.”

“I don't know! Maybe I'll go downstairs and hang out with my family, because that's what I came here for!” Mari yelled.

She spun around and started toward the stairs, but Gracie's open suitcase was in the way. Mari didn't notice it in time, so she stepped on the cover, which gave under her weight and made her stumble. That flipped the rest of the suitcase on its side, spilling Gracie's clothes and toiletries everywhere.

“Whoa!” Mari tried to get her balance without stepping on any of Gracie's things. It didn't work. She fell forward, landing on her knees in a pile of Gracie's stuff. The bottom part of the suitcase swung up even farther, hitting her in the head.

Gracie gasped.

“See? Your suitcase is
still
open,” Mari cried. “You're so self-centered, Gracie. All you care about is what you want, and if you're happy. You don't even think about any of the rest of us!”

That's not true,
Gracie thought.
Is it?

She stared at her best friend, lying in
her
suitcase . . . that everyone had been telling her to put away all weekend. Mari's face was still red, and her eyes were brimming with tears as she struggled to get up. Gracie knew they were tears of anger—Mari was still furious at her.

And Gracie deserved it.