Page 69 of The Surprise

“Wait, how are you even here?” I ask.

Whitney turns bright pink.

“Yeah, how are you here?” Izzy asks. “Is this why you asked what time our lunch is?”

Whitney stands up again. “I better go.”

“You’re just going to run across the street?” Izzy asks. “That doesn’t sound very safe. Do you want me to walk you?”

Whitney shakes her head. “I just said I had to go to the bathroom.” She shrugs. “What are they going to do? It’s not like I’m skipping school. I’m stillatschool.”

“Dude, if you get caught you aresobusted,” Maren says.

“Getting caught is literally the definition of the word busted,” Izzy says. “But my mom will kill her, if that’s what you mean.”

“Have you ever thought about being Candace fromPhineas and Ferbfor Halloween?” Whitney asks Maren. “I doubt you’d even need a costume.” She sticks her tongue out, flounces around on one heel, and ducks out of the cafeteria.

That kid may get a lot of heat from her siblings, but she has some real moxie.

“Open it,” Maren says.

“Wait,” Izzy says. “First I need to explain the apple.”

“I really don’t think you do,” Maren says. “We all know what apples are.”

“There’s going to be a cake at home,” Izzy says. “So I didn’t want to give you a cupcake or it would be overkill, and your real present was too big to bring to school.”

Maren scowls. “Liar. You just didn’t get her anything.”

Izzy folds her arms. “I guess we’ll see.”

“Whatever.” Maren pulls out her phone. It’s her go to when she’s upset. I doubt she even knows why she’s scrolling social.

I open her present anyway. “Oh, I love these.” And that’s true. She may be a little snotty, but Maren has an eye for fashion, and she has connections. The clips and barrettes in the cute pink package are both classy and cute. All I have at home is a pile of scrunchies and some huge, overblown bows my mom made when I was seven years old. “Thank you so much.”

“Do you really like them?” Maren actually looks up from her phone, and the expression on her face looks genuine.

“I really do. Thanks.”

I float my way through the rest of the day, and then I give all the Brooks kids a ride home. It’s the first time I’ve ever had six kids in my car, and I’m lucky that Izzy’s willing to sit on the hump between the driver and passenger seats. “Are you sure it’s okay that Gabe doesn’t have a booster seat?”

Maren rolls her eyes. “Please. Like those do anything anyway.”

He’s sitting on a geometry and an algebra book stacked on top of one another, so the seat belt hits him at the right place, at least. I hope his mom doesn’t see and freak out. But it felt wrong to drive to their house while they all rode the bus, and after I asked Izzy about it. . .they all kind of just followed me over.

Big families are awesome.

And sometimes hard to navigate.

I have basically no experience, so that’s not helping me.

When I reach the house, everyone pours out of my car, and I’m reminded of the cartoons I saw as a kid where three dozen people would exit a clown car. I wonder if that’s how Abigail feelsall the time. I would like it, I think, having so many children around. I’m sure it’s exhausting too, but in my book, exhausting sounds better than lonely. As I exit the car, I notice that Abigail’s SUV isn’t parked in the drive. I wonder whether she had some kind of meeting.

“The birthday girl brought you guys home?” Ethan’s standing in the doorway, talking to his siblings.

But he’s looking at me. Smiling.

I have to remind myself every single time I see him that we’re not dating anymore. He’s just a friend.

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