Is She for Real? Read online

  Mrs. Warren added, “Luckily, Bethany is very resilient and has been a really good sport about all this.”

  “She seems like a lovely girl,” Mrs. Carlson agreed. “And she’s always welcome here! Would you like a tour of the B and B?”

  “Absolutely,” Mrs. Warren said. They started by the staircase, where Mrs. Carlson pointed out the framed ghost story. Mr. and Mrs. Warren leaned in to read it.

  “Spooky!” Mrs. Warren said with a little shiver. “Was there really a Lady Warwick?”

  “Oh, absolutely,” said Mr. Carlson. “And if you listen closely at night, you might hear her tapping at your windows too, since you’re just on the other side of the cemetery!”

  The adults laughed in appreciation of Mr. Carlson’s joke and then headed upstairs for the rest of the tour.

  While their parents talked inside, Lissa got to the important matter at hand. “We ordered pizza,” she told Bethany.

  “Excellent,” Bethany said. “I love pizza!”

  Just then the pizza arrived. Nate loped down to the kitchen to join them and grabbed a piece of pepperoni, stuffing it into his mouth without even taking a plate. “Where are you rushing off to?” Lissa asked. But Nate didn’t answer.

  The night wore on, and Nate continued to avoid the girls. He didn’t even join them when they made their cookie dough like he usually did. He did, however, come out to eat some of it after Lissa made a point of inviting him to join them.

  Maybe Lily’s right and he does have a crush on Bethany, Lissa thought. It would certainly explain her brother’s strange behavior.

  “You have a little flour on your face,” was the first thing he said to Bethany. Lissa brushed it off for her, and they all laughed.

  When everyone came off their sugar high, the girls settled into Lissa’s room for the night. Nate had wandered off without saying good night. Lissa quickly spread out her sleeping bag and sat cross-legged on the floor as Olivia, Lily, and Bethany unrolled their sleeping bags.

  “Ouch!” Bethany cried suddenly, her hands on her foot. “What was that?”

  Everyone laughed. “Sorry, that’s Howard,” Lissa said.

  “What? Who?” Bethany seemed panicked, and the girls laughed even harder.

  “Howard the cat,” Lissa explained quickly. “He ambushes people’s feet.”

  She reached under the bed and pulled out a long, sleek black cat with pretty yellow eyes. She held him in her arms, her face close to his as she cooed lovingly, “You’re an ambusher, aren’t you, Howard? Can you please not ambush the newcomer? Thanks, I’d appreciate it.” She let him down, and he scurried right back under the bed, ready to ambush again.

  They all got into their sleeping bags and turned out the light. But no one was ready for sleep.

  “Let’s interview Bethany,” Olivia suggested. “Like the interviews we did in history class. Everyone gets to ask her a question.”

  Bethany giggled. “Sure, as long as I can reserve the right not to answer,” she said.

  “We’ll go easy on you,” Lissa assured her. “Okay, I’ll start. Do you like Old Warwick so far?”

  Bethany answered right away. “Sure. It’s really different from New York City, though. It’s much quieter. But I like living at the beach, and school’s okay so far.”

  Now it was Olivia’s turn. “Who’s in your family?” she asked.

  “Well, I’m an only child,” Bethany said. “My parents are working a lot, and my aunt Mimi lives with us. She’s supposed to keep an eye on me when they’re not around, but she’s getting a little forgetful. She’s, like, not even that old yet, but she’s starting to have problems with her memory.”

  “My grandmother had that,” Lissa said, nodding sympathetically.

  Now it was Lily’s turn. “Do you think Nate is cute?” she asked boldly.

  In the dark, no one could see Bethany’s shy smile. “I reserve the right not to answer,” she said slyly.

  “That means you think he is!” Lily crowed.

  “Well, I sort of had a boyfriend in New York, and he was really cute,” Bethany said, trying to change the subject.

  “Really?” Lily asked. “Were you devastated to leave him?”

  “Whatever … we just went to the movies a few times. It’s not like I was going to marry him. I spent most of my free time with my friends. I had three best friends, and we’ve been friends since preschool,” Bethany said. “I miss them more than him,” she added, a note of sadness in her voice.

  “I bet,” Lily said. “I can’t imagine having to move away from Olivia and Lissa. Okay, well, here’s another question. It’s different from the last one. Do you think Nate is hot?”

  “You’re unbelievable!” Bethany laughed. “Okay, fine. He’s really cute. But this is a girls’ night, right? We don’t need to talk about boys. Hey, how about I interview you guys?”

  But suddenly they were all startled by a loud scratching at the window. It sounded like branches tapping and rubbing against the window—but there were no trees outside Lissa’s room.

  “Lady Warwick!” Lily screamed, and the three other girls immediately started shrieking along with her.

  The next morning Lissa, Olivia, and Bethany were embarrassed over their outburst. But Lily remained spooked. “It was Lady Warwick!” she insisted. But after saying it a few times in the bright daylight of the kitchen as they munched on waffles, even Lily had to admit that maybe they had overreacted.

  Then Nate wandered in and asked them what all the screaming the night before was about.

  “We heard scratching at the windows!” Lissa and Olivia said at the same time, and then they all cracked up.

  “Maybe it was Lady You-Know-Who trying to get in,” Nate said, casually drizzling honey on his waffle. Lissa noticed he seemed to keep one eye on Bethany to see if she was frightened or not.

  Bethany saw him looking at her and smiled shyly.

  “I’m off to the beach. Bye, screamers,” Nate said to the girls. He proudly held up his metal detector and waved it like a sword.

  “Off to hunt for buried treasure?” Lissa asked sarcastically.

  Nate was cute and popular, but Lissa felt he definitely had a weird side. He loved to go to tag sales with their mother, which Lissa thought was about the lamest thing imaginable. But Nate secretly felt that going tagging was the most fun you could have. Each tag sale was like its own little treasure hunt, and everything was so inexpensive. Sure, there was a lot of junk, too, but as his grandmother used to say, “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.”

  Like, for instance, the metal detector that he had bought at a tag sale last summer. It was quite old, probably from the 1980s, and his mother had explained that you used it to hunt for buried treasure on the beach. It looked like a cane with sort of a Frisbee at the end of it. You held the Frisbee part to the ground, and the machine beeped when it detected metal. The metal could be a piece of foil, a coin, or a piece of jewelry. Who knew when you’d come upon a real find?

  Nate had been taking his metal detector to the beach regularly, stopping only in the dead of winter when there was too much snow on the ground. So far he had found a bunch of coins, an earring, and a watch. And lots of bottle caps and tin cans. And, of course, that one piece of buried treasure, the ruby ring.

  That night Bethany wrote in her journal.

  It was a fun sleepover at Lissa’s. I’m lucky to have made friends so fast. I make friends pretty easily, but still. The setup is good, with my place and Lissa’s being practically next door to each other. Except that old town graveyard in between, of course! It doesn’t spook me like people might think. I’m just not that easy to spook. Anyway … we had pizza, and Nate didn’t talk to me that much, but I think he likes me. Lily thinks so too. She asked me if I thought he was cute.

  Then there was this crazy tapping at the window that scared everyone. Lily was the most scared. Some town ghost story or something that everyone’s obsessed with, though they claim not to be! We’re even studying it
in history class.

  Well, I do think he is cute. That’s my answer. I kind of hope he does like me.

  Anyway, we made cookie dough, which I had never eaten raw before, but it was totally delicious, and they interviewed me, which was kind of fun, and I got ambushed by Howard the cat. All in all, an excellent sleepover.

  Oh. I forgot to write anything about school, ha-ha! It’s fine. Nate and I are in history and math together. In history I heard that the graveyard between my place and the Carlsons’ place is haunted. But I don’t believe it!

  The week in school went quickly. Bethany seemed to sail through her classes. When the girls asked her about it, she modestly explained that she had covered a lot of the material already at her old school.

  Though Lissa didn’t have history class with Nate and Bethany, they had the same unit in local history and the same homework. They were each supposed to choose an aspect of colonial life in Old Warwick that they wanted to explore for the rest of the semester. Lissa chose food, her favorite topic. Nate chose town government, Bethany chose the role of women in colonial life, Olivia chose religion, and Lily chose professions. When they were finished with their research, they would each give a presentation to the class.

  All week, Lissa researched colonial food. She had to admit a lot of it didn’t seem too appetizing. Salt pork! She was glad she’d been born when she was. The major similarity she found between now and then was that people would fish for food. Nate would have been right at home back then, Lissa thought. He totally thinks he’s a real fisherman when he’s on the pier, even though he never catches anything!

  Another Friday night, another sleepover, Lissa thought happily as she helped her mom make spaghetti sauce. The two chopped onions and talked.

  “You’ll love this, Mom,” Lissa said, wiping the tears from her eyes. The onions were making them water like crazy. “We started the unit on local history in class.”

  “Finally!” said her mom, smiling widely. “I bet you’ll love it too. It includes a field trip to the graveyard at the end of the year, right?”

  “Yup,” Lissa said. “And the historical society museum.”

  Her mom could barely contain her pleasure. “Do they need chaperones?”

  “You wish.” Lissa grinned. “Bethany’s researching the role of women in colonial Old Warwick,” she went on as she finished the onions and moved on to the zucchini.

  “Oh, that sounds so interesting,” her mom said as she sautéed the onions. “I’ll have to ask her about that. And how about you, miss?”

  “Food, of course!” Lissa said.

  “Really?” her mom asked. “That’s neat. What about your brother?”

  “Government, of course!”

  “Of course.” Mrs. Carlson smiled. “Nate’s getting more and more interested in politics, isn’t he? You know, we have some old Yankee cookbooks in the B and B library if you’d like to use them in your research. Hey, I have a great idea. If you give me a list of things that the early settlers made, based on your finished research, we’ll make a special menu of them for the guests.”

  Lissa rolled her eyes. “I’m doing research online. Anyway, I don’t think many of the guests would like salt pork!” She laughed. “But maybe a fish dinner would work. Speaking of dinner, Bethany, Lily, and Olivia are coming at seven, so they’ll be eating with us, okay?”

  “Sure,” her mom said. “So what’s Bethany like?”

  “She’s great,” Lissa said. “She’s kind of a city kid, but she’s not snobby about it. She has cool clothes and seems to know everything we’re learning in school because she already learned most of it at her old school. But she’s really nice. Lily and Olivia think so too. Oh, and it’s her birthday on Sunday.”

  “Are you going to make her a cookie dough cake?” her mom joked.

  “Actually, yes,” Lissa said. “And we got her red lip gloss because she likes to wear lip gloss. She usually wears pink, but we found this cool red color that’s supposed to taste like strawberries, and I happen to know she loves strawberries.”

  “That’s sweet,” her mom said, adding a large can of chopped tomatoes and some big pinches of Italian seasoning to the sauce. “I’m sure she’ll like that.”

  Everyone lined up in the kitchen to help themselves to the big bowl of pasta and the giant steaming pot of sauce on the stove.

  “Everyone must love this sauce,” announced Lissa. “Because I made it.”

  “You and Mom made it,” Nate corrected her.

  “True,” Lissa said. “But notice how beautifully the vegetables are chopped. That’s my handiwork right there.”

  “They are quite beautiful,” said Bethany.

  They took their plates to the table. Once everyone had their big piles of spaghetti in front of them, they all dug in.

  “Olivia and Lily, you know about our Friday night tradition whenever we sit down together, right?” Mr. Carlson asked.

  “Where everyone says a good thing about this past week?” Olivia asked, impaling a large chunk of zucchini on her fork.

  “Right. We go around the table,” Mr. Carlson said. “I’ll start. The highlight of my week was driving up to Hartford for an antique show and finding the perfect small table for one of the guest rooms.”

  Mrs. Carlson smiled. “You really love those antique shows, don’t you, Ed? Okay, mine was picking all the basil I’ve been growing in the garden and using it in this sauce, which I must admit came out really well.” Everyone nodded in agreement.

  “It’s really good, Mrs. Carlson,” Bethany said with a smile.

  It was Nate’s turn. He and Lissa both thought the go-around-the-table thing was kind of corny, but they’d been doing it since they were little, and they secretly kind of liked it. “Mine was deciding I’m going to run for class president,” he said casually.

  His parents put their forks down. “Wow!” they said in unison. “That’s wonderful, Nate!”

  This was news to Lissa and her friends, but it made sense. Nate was a natural leader, and all different groups of kids in school liked him. He also said he wanted to major in political science when he went to college. His parents always reminded him he didn’t have to choose so soon, but he’d been insisting for a few years now.

  “We can help you make signs,” Bethany said.

  “Really? Thanks,” Nate said, smiling and suddenly looking very closely at his spaghetti.

  “Okay, me!” Lissa said. “The spring dance was announced this week.” She added to the girls, “I can’t wait till we all get our dresses together.”

  “That was my favorite thing this week too,” Olivia said.

  “Me too,” added Lily. “What about you, Bethany?”

  “Um, that too, but also, it’s my birthday week, so my parents give me one little present every day leading up to Sunday, and I got some cool stuff,” she said. “Also, well, I was really happy to be invited for another sleepover.” Her smile was, uncharacteristically, slightly shy.

  After dinner, it was time for making cookie dough. On tonight’s menu was peanut butter cookie dough. When they’d finished mixing it up, Lissa, Olivia, and Lily rolled a big gob of it into a perfect ball, put it on a plate, pressed a fork into it twice to make a crisscross pattern in the center, and presented it to Bethany with one lit candle stuck in. As they sang “Happy Birthday,” Bethany sang along happily, substituting “Happy birthday, dear me” for “Happy birthday, dear Bethany.”

  “And that’s not all,” Lissa told her. “Here. From the three of us.” She handed Bethany a little gift bag.

  “Oh, you didn’t have to get me a present!” Bethany cried. But they could all tell how happy she was about it.

  “Oh, I love this color!” she said as she examined the tube of red lip gloss. She put some on right away and smiled widely, then blew each of her new friends a kiss. It made her lips bright, shiny red.

  “I think I’ve found my new signature color!” she said, looking in the mirror. “I actually love this red so much mor
e than pink. Thanks, you guys!”

  In Lissa’s room, as the girls were getting ready for bed, Bethany pulled her pajamas out of her backpack and saw something shiny come flying out. “Wait, what was that?” she said. She felt around on the rug.

  “It’s a ring!” she exclaimed, pulling it out from where it had landed under the bed. “But it’s not mine.” She sounded puzzled.

  “It was definitely in your bag,” Lily said.

  “I know, but it’s not mine,” Bethany repeated.

  Lily was grinning. “I bet Nate hid it in your bag.”

  Olivia, Lily, and Lissa all exchanged looks.

  “Oh yeah,” Lissa said, nodding. “It was definitely Nate. He loves hiding presents. He does it all the time for our birthdays!”

  “Did you see him put it there?” Bethany asked her. She put the ring on her finger and stared at it, moving her hand very close to her eyes, then farther away.

  “No, but trust me,” Lissa said, laughing. “It’s totally from him. He knew it was your birthday!”

  “You really think it came from him?” Bethany asked the girls, who were all giggling. Bethany really wanted the ring to be from Nate, but she needed to be sure.

  “Duh, we thought you were pretty smart,” Olivia said. “Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed the way he stares at you. Or tries not to stare at you, to be more precise.”

  Bethany couldn’t help but blush. “I guess I have,” she admitted. “But where did he get it? It looks expensive and old.”

  “Probably at one of his tag sales,” Lissa said. “He loves going to those with my mom.”

  Bethany wiggled her finger and continued to admire the ring. She thought it looked perfect on her hand, like it belonged there. I’ve never even owned a ring before, she thought happily, almost transfixed by how pretty and sparkly the little ruby was.

  It was, by far, the best present she’d ever been given.