On Sat.u.r.day night we started playing Dance Party America as soon as my parents left for their party.
About half an hour later, Uncle Jay came in with a batch of microwave brownie soup and five spoons, saying we should take a break. Microwave brownie soup is one of Uncle Jay"s specialties. It"s pretty much how the name goes a" you make microwave brownies, but you don"t cook them all the way, so they"re like soup.
I was pretty sure they weren"t having microwave brownie soup at Cheyenne"s slumber party.
I was pretty sure they didn"t do what Uncle Jay suggested we do a few minutes later, which was surf down the back staircase on Kevin"s bed mattress.
It was OK though, because he made us go one at a time and wear Mark"s BMX bicycle helmet and my Rollerblade knee, elbow and wrist guards, for safety.
Plus we put the sofa cushions at the bottom of the stairs in case anybody fell off and had a hard landing. And Uncle Jay made everyone sit down on the mattress and hold on to the handles on the sides as he pulled it down the stairs as fast as he could, then jumped out of the way by the landing when it got going good and fast.
Of course with all the screaming (and barking. Marvin got a little overexcited) going on, Mark and Kevin came out of Mom and Dad"s room, where they"d promised to stay and watch DVDs. It"s horrible having younger brothers. I"m the only one of all my friends who is burdened in this way. Everyone else has older siblings who aren"t at all interested in what they"re doing. Older siblings are better than younger ones because they have already been through everything that you are going through, and can Show You the Way (this is a rule).
Erica swears this isn"t true, that older siblings are worse, they try to boss you around, and also, teachers always say, *Harrington? Was your brother/sister John/Missy Harrington?" and then look at you like, Aha, I know what to expect from you, even though you are nothing like your brother or sister.
Plus, as Caroline and Sophie and Rosemary say, with younger siblings, you can boss them around. Which is true . . .
But look at my slumber party! I had told Mark and Kevin not to come out of Mom and Dad"s room, and even put in some nice family-orientated DVDs for them, and next thing I knew, there they were at the top of the stairs, whining about when was it going to be their turn to get pulled down on the mattress by Uncle Jay. Unfair!
But I have to admit in the end it was pretty fun, because Mark got really into staircase surfing and appointed himself safety conductor, checking to make sure everyone"s padding was on good and tight. I mean, really, if it wasn"t for him, Sophie might have broken another toe, or something even worse.
And when we got tired of mattress surfing (because everyone"s stomach hurt from laughing so hard), it was Kevin"s idea to go into Mom"s closet and have a fashion show. We looked fantastic! Rosemary played fashion photographer and took pictures of us with the digital camera on her cellphone.
And Kevin helped us put everything back exactly where it had been so Mom would never know. He"s a surprisingly good folder.
Then Uncle Jay had the best idea of all: strap bicycle lights to baseball hats with electrical tape and then turn off all the lights and try to find each other in the dark.
This was the most awesome game! Especially in a house as huge and old as ours was. We had an excellent time sneaking up on each other and trying to scare one another (this was best accomplished by turning the bicycle lights off). Of course, Sophie was too scared to let go of me, but she was good at staying quiet when I needed her to, and we scared the snot out of Rosemary, who said she nearly wet her pants.
So it was worth it.
Then when Uncle Jay turned the lights back on, Caroline said she was hungry and for more than just brownie soup. That was when Erica found the cake mix in the pantry and suggested we bake a cake, and Uncle Jay said he"d order a pizza from Pizza Express if we"d make dessert.
So we made a chocolate layer cake (with icing from a can we also found in the pantry) that was pretty delicious, even if a lot of the mix did end up on the hood that goes over the stove. Then we decorated it with flower-shaped sprinkles we found in a box my mom had marked Save for Easter (but I was sure she wouldn"t mind us using it, she could always buy more) and some pirate gold that Kevin brought down from his room (I just reminded everyone not to eat it).
It looked so good that instead of eating it right away, we saved it to show Mom and Dad for when they got home from the party (Uncle Jay made us clean up the kitchen first though, because he said it wouldn"t be as good a surprise if we left a huge mess. He didn"t notice the bits on the ceiling, thank goodness).
And Mom and Dad were surprised. It was hard to tell which surprised them more: that we"d made a cake: that we tied towels around our waists and acted like waiters and called them sir and madam and pulled out chairs for them like we worked in a restaurant; that Mark and Kevin were still up, or that Uncle Jay wasn"t lying on the couch for a change.
But they took big bites of the cake slices we offered them and said they were delicious. Except we forgot to tell them not to eat the bits of pirate gold. They found out soon enough though!
They were right, the cake really was delicious. We each had huge slices after my parents were done with theirs, and then Caroline finished up what was left (because she can"t resist anything sweet, to the point that sometimes she eats way too much of it and has to call her dad and go home to take antacid. But fortunately that didn"t happen this time, because my brothers were there, and they ate so much there wasn"t much left for the rest of us).
Then we laid around in my room with the lights off, trying to get Mewsie to go in his pink canopy cat bed, and I told ghost stories about the disembodied zombie hand until everyone fell asleep.
It was basically the best slumber party ever.
I really couldn"t imagine that Cheyenne"s could have gone any better. I mean, yeah, maybe everybody got to go home with their own homemade bath bomb.
But everyone got to go home from mine with their memories of microwave brownie soup, staircase surfing, a fashion shoot, bicycle-light hide-and-seek and cake on the ceiling.
I really don"t think homemade bath bombs could stand up to that.
And I was right. When we got to the playground on Monday morning, we saw all the girls who"d been to Cheyenne"s house on Sat.u.r.day standing around in tight little cl.u.s.ters, gossiping about something.
*They"re probably talking about what a terrible time they had," Erica said as we walked past one of the groups of fourth-grade girls.
*Right," Caroline said. *They didn"t have that incredible cake we had at Allie"s."
This made me feel quite proud.
*You guys helped with the cake," I told them modestly. Because this part was true.
*They"re probably talking about the flesh-eating virus they all contracted at the manicure-pedicure place," Sophie said. *Gross!"
It was gross! At least until Rosemary ran past us chasing after her ball and gasped, *You guys, guess what?"
*What?" I asked.
Rosemary picked up the ball and hurried over, panting a little.
*Good guess," she said. *I heard at Cheyenne"s slumber party they did prank calls. Guess who they called?"
We all looked at each other.
*Mrs Hunter?" I guessed. That"s who I was hoping, anyway. Also that Cheyenne got caught, and Mrs Hunter called the police, and the police came and arrested Cheyenne and she was forced to go back to Canada with her family, and she would never, ever come back to Pine Heights Elementary School again.
*No," Rosemary said. *Patrick Day. And Cheyenne asked him if he would go with her, and he said yes. And now they"re going together. For real."
We all looked at each other again. Then Erica asked, *What does going together mean?"
*I don"t know," Rosemary said with a shrug. *I just thought I should tell you. I have to get back to the game. Bye."
She ran back to the baseball diamond.
Caroline, Sophie, Erica and I stared at each other some more. Then we looked around the playground for Cheyenne. We saw her standing over by the swings with Dominique and Marianne and a few other girls. Cheyenne was talking in an animated way to them. She didn"t seem any different though, now that she was going with a boy.
Next, we glanced around for Patrick. He was playing kickball with Rosemary and Prince Peter and the other boys, including my brother Mark.
Patrick didn"t appear any different than he had on Friday, before he"d started *going with" Cheyenne.
*This is weird," Caroline said at last.
*What does it mean?" Sophie wondered.
*I don"t think I"ve ever even heard of any fourth-graders who were going together," Erica said. *My brother is in the eighth grade, and he isn"t even going with anyone."
*Neither is my Uncle Jay," I pointed out. *And he"s in college. But," I added, *he just broke up with someone."
*That can"t be the same thing," Caroline said. *I mean, your Uncle Jay and Harmony are grown-ups and kiss for real."
*Why would Cheyenne even want to kiss Patrick?" I wondered aloud. *Considering he picks his nose and eats it."
All three of the other girls made noises like they were going to throw up, and Sophie said, *Thanks, Allie! I had eggs for breakfast!"
*Well," I said in my own defence, *I sit in the same row as he does. Do you think I don"t observe these things?"
*Maybe if you told Cheyenne," Caroline suggested.
*No," Erica cried, *you can"t! I"m sure he doesn"t mean to!"
*How can you pick your own nose and eat it by accident?" Sophie wanted to know.
*Come on," Erica said. *He"s not that bad."
*Erica," Caroline said, *remember in second grade when hea""
*h.e.l.lo, girls."
We all stopped talking as we realized Cheyenne had strolled up behind us, Dominique and Marianne, her human shadows, on either side of her. She stood with her arms folded across her chest, staring at us, a little smile on her lips.
*So I hear you had a little sleepover of your own on Sat.u.r.day night," she said.
*Yeah," I said, *we did. And we had a really fun time. We did Dance Party America and staircase surfing, and made microwave brownie soup and a cake, and played bicycle-light hide-and-seek, and told ghost stories anda""
Cheyenne started laughing. Really. She threw back her bunny-ear-m.u.f.fed head and laughed.
*You guys are such big babies!" she cried. *That"s the kind of stuff we did at sleepovers back in Grade Three. Right, M and D?"
M and D a" which I guess were Marianne"s and Dominique"s new nicknames a" both nodded and laughed. I didn"t actually know them in the third grade a" what people from Canada called Grade Three a" but I was pretty sure they"d never had microwave brownie soup before. That"s an invention only my Uncle Jay had come up with. So M and D were pretty much liars as far as I was concerned. As was Cheyenne.
*But anyway," she said before I could accuse her of being what she was. A big liar. *That"s not what I came over to talk to you guys about. I came over to see if you"d heard the news."
*If you mean the news about you and Patrick Day," Caroline said, *we"ve heard. And you have our condolences."
Even though she claims to be so mature and all, I don"t know if Cheyenne knew what condolences meant. She wasn"t the second runner-up district spelling champ, like Caroline was.
*Thanks," Cheyenne said. She obviously didn"t know what condolences meant. *He really likes me. It was just a matter of time before we started going together."
*But that"s what I don"t understand," Erica said. *Where are you going?"
Cheyenne looked at Erica in a surprised sort of way. Then she started laughing. Behind her, Marianne and Dominique started laughing too.
*Oh, E," Cheyenne said. *You"re so cute! You don"t go anywhere when you"re going with a boy. You"re just going together. It"s a figure of speech."
*It is?" Erica threw the rest of us a puzzled look. I don"t know about Sophie or Caroline, but I didn"t understand it any better than Erica.
*Yes," Cheyenne said. *All it means is that Patrick and I are an exclusive couple, and he can"t go with anyone else while he"s with me."
Erica threw us another look, which very clearly stated, Who else would Patrick go with?
But again, none of us had an answer.
*That"s what I wanted to talk to you all about," Cheyenne said conversationally. *Sophie, I know for a fact that you like Peter Jacobs. He really is cute. The truth of the matter is, if you don"t s.n.a.t.c.h him up, some other girl is going to. So you better ask him to go with you soon, or you"ll lose him."
I whipped my head around to stare at Sophie. I was just in time to see all the blood drain from her face. It was pretty cold out, so seeing her go from having such rosy cheeks to suddenly being white as paper was really quite dramatic.
*But," Sophie said, her voice sounding faint, *I don"t want to go with Peter."
*Don"t be ridiculous," Cheyenne said. *Of course you do. Just go up to him and ask him. That"s what I did with Patrick. Well, I did it over the phone. But it"s the same thing, really."
*I . . . I . . ." Sophie looked as if someone had just told her she"d contracted a flesh-eating virus. *I don"t want to."
*That doesn"t matter," Cheyenne said. *You have to."
*She doesn"t have to do anything," Caroline said, taking a step forward. *You can"t tell her what to do."
*Uh," Cheyenne said, flicking a bored glance over at Caroline, *yes, I can, actually. Because if she doesn"t ask Peter to go with her, I"ll tell him that Sophie likes him."
Sophie gasped.
It was the gasp of a girl who had just found out there were even worse things than flesh-eating viruses.
Even Caroline looked confused.
*I don"t understand," she said. *So what if Cheyenne tells him you like him? If you ask him to go with you, he"ll know you like hima""
*No, he won"t," Cheyenne said, looking scornful. *He"ll just know you want to go with him. But if you don"t ask him and I tell him you like him, then he"ll know for sure."
This was so confusing, it was giving me a little bit of a headache, like when I ate ice cream down at the Dairy Queen too fast.
*Why would you do that?" Caroline demanded. *Why would you do something so mean?"
Cheyenne looked genuinely puzzled.
*Because I"m trying to help. Help you guys not be so immature." To Sophie she said, *You have until morning recess to decide what you want to do. Come, M and D."
Then she and her posse took off, Cheyenne"s high-heeled boots crunching in the snow.
*Well, I don"t care what she says," Caroline said when they were gone. *You"re not going to do it, are you, Sophie?"
But when we looked at Sophie, we all knew.
She was going to do it.
*Of course I am," she said miserably. *I have to. Because the worst thing that can happen is for your secret crush to know your secret, and for it not to be a secret any more."