The Unofficial Lola Bay Fan Club by C. M. Surrisi

Author:C. M. Surrisi [Surrisi, C. M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2023-04-18T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Uggghhh! I just wanted a friend who was like me. I wanted a friend who liked what I liked. I wanted a friend who didn’t give up on Lola Bay to play volleyball or hate her mother or sneak into websites. I just wanted a normal fan club. And the Unofficial Lola Bay Fan Club was far from normal.

Downstairs, Mom was banging around in the kitchen starting dinner. I decided to go down and do something boringly normal and help her.

“Oh, Iris, would you set the table?” she asked when I walked in.

“Sure.” Ian and Echo were already in their chairs with forks and spoons to occupy them. “Hey, guys, want to set the table with me?”

“I can set the table,” said Echo.

“Here, you fold the napkin for Dad.”

“I fold the napkins,” Ian said.

“You fold the napkin for Mom,” I told him.

Somehow, without anyone busting out crying, we got the table set.

“How was your day?” Mom asked me as she stood over the sink peeling carrots.

How was my day? That was hard to answer. So much had just happened in the last hour. I whispered without conviction, “It was okay.”

Mom looked over her shoulder at me with her eyebrows raised. “Oh yeah? Anything happen?”

“No.”

She went from peeling to chopping. The twins were now wearing the napkins on their heads.

“Mom. Did you ever donate anything?”

“Sure. Like to the Family Shelter Program? We’ve donated old clothes, and I just dropped off a box of baby clothes. Why? Do have something you want to donate?”

“Do you think it’s stealing if you take something that’s been . . . donated?”

She went still and answered in her teacher voice. “Like what? What kind of something?”

“Oh, like, say you were walking by the Family Shelter Program donations trailer and there was a bike left there. Do you think it would be stealing to take it before the Family Shelter people took it inside?”

She laid her knife down and looked at me. “That’s an interesting question, Iris. What do you think?”

“MOM. I’m asking you what you think.”

“Did you take something that was sitting by the Family Shelter Program trailer?”

“NO. It’s just a question. Can’t you just answer the question?”

“I’ll answer it this way: Was the bike left there for you?”

I hated when she did this. It was another choices talk. But I knew the perfectly technical answer to this. “No, it was left for someone who didn’t have a bike. But if I was someone who didn’t have a bike, then it could be for someone like me. Oh, never mind.”

“Iris? Did you take something?”

“No.”

I ran upstairs, but I heard her call out, “Iris? Is there something you need to tell me?”

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

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