Page 102 of My Life with the Walter Boys
“Congratulations, Danny,” I said, waiting for my turn to hug him. “This is so exciting!”
“Thanks, Jackie. I really owe you,” he said, pulling away from his mom to face me. “If you hadn’t spent all that time reading lines with me, I don’t know if I would have gotten the part.”
“That’s not true,” I told him. “But I’ll accept your gratitude anyway.”
“So when does this training camp begin?” Katherine asked.
Danny hesitated. “That’s the thing. I’d have to leave for New York as soon as summer starts.” When he saw the frown on his mother’s face, he added. “I am, after all, an adult and the company will provide lodging until I find a place to live.”
“Okay, dear,” Katherine said. “Why don’t we discuss this later?”
“All right,” said Danny. It wasn’t the answer he wanted to hear, but there was still a huge, excited smile on his face.
“Mom! Mom!” Zack and Benny shouted as they crashed into their mother’s legs. “We’re hungry.”
“Come on, Walter clan,” she said, raising her voice so we all could hear her. “Head out to the cars. We have a celebratory dinner to prepare.”
Chapter 17
During the last week of school, I stayed locked in my room so I could focus on studying. When it was finally time for exams, they passed in a blur of Scantron sheets, true-false questions, and written essays. Afterward, the Walters spent the first week of our newfound freedom vegging out, their thoughts of school long gone, but all I could think about was getting my results back. I knew I’d aced all my classes because every final had been a breeze, but I needed visual confirmation before I could relax.
“Hey, guys, come here,” Nathan said.
I glanced up from my anatomy notebook. For the past hour, I had been sprawled out on Alex’s bed, double-checking all my notes to make sure I hadn’t missed a question on the exam. Alex was wrapped up in a quest onGoGand Nathan had been teaching himself a new song, but now his guitar was gone and he was hunched over his laptop.
“What’s up?” Alex called, hardly looking away from his own computer screen.
“Grades are in,” Nathan replied.
“Oh!” I scrambled off the bed and over to Nathan’s desk. He slid the computer to me, and I quickly logged in to my school account. “Come on,” I muttered as it took forever to load. Finally a new screen popped up.
“A, A, A, A, A, A,” Nathan said, reading off my results.
“No shocker there,” Alex said.
“You never know,” I told him. “Freshman year I got an A- in my history class because my teacher said my final paper was too long. That was horrible.”
Alex rolled his eyes. “Heaven forbid,” he said, but it didn’t bother me.
Finallyit was summer. That meant I could relax and maybe even take a trip to New York. The knots in my neck and back loosened at the thought. But before I could go home, there was Will and Haley’s wedding, and tonight was the night before the big day.
Katherine had spent the entire morning making cupcakes, which Haley had requested over the traditional wedding cake. The two hundred or so personal chocolate cakes were left to cool on the dining-room table, and the room was strictly off limits to prevent any of the boys from eating them. The rest of the day was dedicated to scrubbing down the kitchen while Katherine kept an eye on the dining-room entrance to make sure no one snuck in.
At one point, I heard her shout at Jack and Jordan. Two seconds later, there was the telltale sign of retreat—the pounding of their feet on the stairs. Now that the kitchen was clean and all her cooking done, the space was off limits. The rehearsal dinner was taking place at a fancy Italian restaurant in town.
“You want to check your results?” I asked Alex, moving away from the computer so he could get a turn.
He grimaced and shook his head. “I’d rather not ruin this weekend’s fun. I’ll check on Monday morning.”
“Kids,” I heard George shout from the bottom on the staircase. “Everyone needs to start getting ready. We’re leaving in an hour.”
It was time for the celebrations to begin.
***
I didn’t know which was more alarming: the fact that Parker was sitting on my bed with a sleeping bag at her feet, or that she had a bouquet of flowers in her hands. After the lengthy rehearsal dinner, during which Zack stabbed Benny with a fork and Jack and Jordan almost set the tablecloth on fire, we headed back to the Walters’ house to get a good night’s sleep.
“Um, hi?” I said, not sure what she was doing in my room.
