Part 13 (2/2)

”I can't quit. I need the money for college,” I say and then stop and swallow, thinking of my mom, the bills coming in. I'd give it

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J a n e t G u r t l e r all to her without too much remorse. Shaking that off, I turn to Adam. ”You can't quit either. It would look bad on your resume for your fancy premed schools. Anyhow, you must need the money too.” I frown, wis.h.i.+ng he'd stop trying to ruin this.

”I do, but don't worry about that.” He grins as if he didn't hear the negativity oozing from my mouth. ”I can get the time off,” he says. ”For all of us.”

”No, you can't,” I tell him.

He frowns at me. ”What are you? Work schedule patrol?” He gestures at the three of us. ”Theresa is my aunt,” Adam says and stands. ”Nepotism is alive and well at Tinkerpark. She'll let us go.

I'm her favorite nephew. Sort of. Anyhow, don't worry. You won't have to quit.” He glances at Amy. ”Unless you want to.”

Amy is doing a little dance on the spot. She has no rhythm at all.

None. But I smile at her, not caring if every one of those yellow or red s.h.i.+rts stares at us and makes fun of us.

”Not really. This is the best summer of my life.” She grins.

”Huh,” is all I can manage. Never saw that one coming.

”So,” Adam says, ”let's head to the office and book ourselves time off.” Adam reaches for my hand to help pull me up, but I ignore him and stand on my own.

Amy stops her dance and pulls her phone out. ”My fingers are sticky,” she says, squis.h.i.+ng up her nose.

”I wonder why,” Adam says.

I glance at the phone she's holding. It's the newest model and is covered by a h.e.l.lo Kitty bedazzled pink phone case. Why did I not notice that before?

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1 6 t h i n g s i t h o u g h t w e r e t r u e ”I'm calling my dad,” she says. ”This is going to be epic.”

”Are you sure your parents will be okay?” I ask as I sling my back- pack on my shoulder.

”My parents will throw a party. Trust me. They're always trying to get rid of me. I think they want to have s.e.x in my bedroom.” She smiles. ”Joke. They want me to have friends.”

Amy walks a few feet ahead of us, covers one ear with her hand, and starts gabbing loudly into her phone. Adam walks slowly beside me. ”So? Road trip ready?”

I take a deep breath. ”I'm kind of freaking out,” I admit.

”It'll be awesome.” He pushes his gla.s.ses up his nose. ”Let's go do this thing,” he says.

When Amy and I leave the office, we both have the next weekend booked off. We head back to our workstations together, and my mind is still reeling. Just like that, I'm going on a road trip. To see Bob White. It's actually going to happen.

”Don't you think it's weird that Adam wants to come along?” I ask her.

”No,” she says. ”The other day when I asked him to go on the rollercoaster with me, he told me his girlfriend lives in Vancouver.

He went on and on about her. Blah blah blah. I'm over my crush on him anyways. He's too intense.”

I try not to laugh. ”He's okay,” I say, thinking of how much he helped out with my mom.

”He'll probably meet his girlfriend somewhere. I'm sure that's why he wants to come,” Amy says.

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J a n e t G u r t l e r I ignore a twinge of something like jealousy in my middle parts.

It doesn't matter. He's my boss. Maybe my friend. Not someone to get jealous over.

”You reach five thousand followers yet?” Amy asks as we walk through crowds of families.

I have this superst.i.tion. If I can reach five thousand followers this summer, things will turn around for me in my senior year. I know it. #superst.i.tiousmuch I stop in my tracks and stare at her. ”How do you know about that?”

”Um. Twitter. h.e.l.lo?” she says and keeps walking.

”You're on Twitter?” I ask and duck around a little boy running away from his mom. I smile at him and pull my phone out of my backpack.

”Um. Yeah. @5alive. I've been following you for weeks. You haven't followed me back.”

”I have almost five thousand followers, Amy,” I remind her, hold- ing my phone up in the air and hurrying to keep up with her. She walks fast for someone with such little legs.

”Well, la dee da,” she says. ”The people online, they don't really know you, you know.”

I start walking fast to get ahead of her. I am fricking popular on Twitter. I rock on Twitter. ”For your information, I'm going to meet some of my Twitter friends at a tweetup in Seattle.”

”Yeah? When?”

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