Crushes, Codas, and Corsages #4 by Michelle Schusterman

Author:Michelle Schusterman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group, USA
Published: 2014-08-26T16:00:00+00:00

The expressions of the workers behind the pizza buffet at Spins were kind of funny. Probably because about forty kids in tuxes and ugly puffy-sleeved dresses just had burst through the doors, yelling and jumping around like we were all on a sugar rush. (Which most of us were, thanks to the massive bag of celebratory M&M’s Gabby had opened on the bus.)

Gabby skipped the pizza and went straight to the cinnamon sticks, piling her plate high before claiming a massive circular booth in the corner. Victoria and Max joined her, along with Trevor and Owen. Julia and Natasha hurried over to sit next to Victoria, so the only spot left for me was on the end next to Owen. Which I was pretty sure had been intentional, judging from their too-innocent looks.

“What’s your deal with dessert, anyway?” Trevor asked Gabby around a mouthful of pizza. “Don’t you ever eat real food?”

With an exaggerated, weary sigh, Gabby leaned back. “Trevor, I’m going to tell you a story,” she announced. “It’s called ‘Death by Tofu-Spinach Scramble.’ Once upon a time, there was a girl whose mother thought sugar was the source of all evil, so she banned it from the kingdom. She—”

“The kingdom?” Victoria interrupted with a grin, while the rest of us snickered.

Gabby nodded solemnly. “Yes, the Kingdom of Flores. A magical place where peanut-butter cups grew on trees and it rained Jolly Ranchers, until the queen was brainwashed by her diet support group and decided everyone in the kingdom should live off lettuce and carrots, like rabbits.”

Brandishing her cinnamon stick like a wand, Gabby explained how the queen had used magic to turn chocolate into tofu and Twizzlers into celery sticks, until Princess Flores, who suffered from severe health-food allergies and needed sugar as an antidote, was forced to become a candy-hunting outlaw. By the time she got to the part where the princess barely survived a quest for life-saving cinnamon sticks after a deadly tofu-spinach breakfast, everyone was laughing almost too much to eat. Even Trevor.

“I definitely need some dessert after that,” Natasha said, still giggling. She slid out of the booth, and Julia followed.

As soon as the others started talking again, Owen turned to me, his eyes bright. “Guess what?” he said, continuing before I could respond. “My parents are sending me to an art camp this summer! It’s not animation, though, mostly drawing and illustrating. But the teacher is a real comic-book artist!”

I couldn’t help but grin, because he looked so excited. “That’s so cool! Where is it?”

“This school near Dallas,” Owen said. “Two whole weeks, too. It’s in July.”

“Wow!” I tried to sound enthusiastic, but it was hard with my brain screaming Hang on—isn’t Ginny from Dallas?

I listened to Owen describe the camp, smiling and nodding and wondering whether or not Ginny the Amazing Artist would be there, too. For two whole weeks. With Owen.

Ugh.

After a few minutes, I got up to refill my drink. No matter how hard I tried not to, I couldn’t help feeling jealous of Ginny.

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