“Fight with Kara?” Dad asked.

  I nodded, still crying.

  “Must have been a pretty bad one,” he said. “Do you want to talk about it?”

  I shook my head. “Not right now,” I croaked, my voice hoarse from crying. “Is that okay?”

  “I’m here when you’re ready,” Dad said. “Now let’s get back to the hotel. We’ve got to be up fairly early for our flight tomorrow.”

  I nodded, grateful that Dad hadn’t pushed me to talk and wasn’t pummeling me with questions.

  I was so exhausted that I slept soundly that night. I groaned when the alarm went off at six the next morning, but I quickly got out of bed. Before the day was over, I would be back in California. That made me happy, but I felt sad at the same time. It was awful to be leaving things with Kara like this. It wasn’t how I wanted to say good-bye!

  I showered and packed, and just as we were about to leave, a valet came up to our room with our suitcases!

  My dad simply looked at them and sighed. “Now we can put them right back on the plane.”

  “Maybe I should wear my first dress to the airport, so I can finally get a chance to show it off,” I joked.

  “You can wear whatever you like, but I bet you’ll be more comfortable in sweats and a T-shirt,” Dad said.

  “Good point,” I said, and quickly put on a fresh outfit from my suitcase, just before our ride to the airport came.

  The flight back home was basically the same as the one to Connecticut—long and unexciting. I didn’t sleep on the plane. Dad asked if I wanted to watch a movie with him in the seats, and we ended up watching two long superhero films back-to-back.

  We landed in California at two o’clock, and then it took us two hours to get home from the airport. It was four o’clock when we walked through the front door, but to me it felt like seven o’clock, the time back in Connecticut.

  “I made some chicken and rice,” Mom said after she hugged both me and Dad. “I figured you’d be hungry now, being on East Coast time.”

  “Yes!” I said, and sat down at the table. I inhaled the dinner Mom had made for us, down to the last shred of lettuce in the salad. Mom and Maisie had a lot of questions about the party, and I told them everything (except the part about me and Kara fighting).

  Maisie was being really sweet to me, like she had forgotten all about our fight before I’d left—where she’d said she wouldn’t miss me. I had already forgiven her, because we said stuff like that to each other all the time. I think it was because we were sisters, and we spent so much time together that we got on each other’s nerves. But we really do love each other.

  “How big exactly was that new dinosaur at the museum?” she asked.

  “Soooo big,” I told her. “It had a very, very long neck.”

  “As long as a school bus?” she asked.

  “Longer, I think,” I replied, and her eyes got wide.

  That reminded me of something. I went to my bag and took out the stuffed dinosaur I’d gotten for Maisie and handed it to her.

  “A T. rex!” she cried happily. “My favorite!”

  “I know,” I said. “I must have read you that Timmy the T-Rex book a million times when you were six. Remember?”

  Maisie just beamed at me, and I saw Mom and Dad exchange a look—you know, that look parents give each other when they’re happy with their kids.

  I yawned. “I think I might take a nap,” I said.

  “Do whatever you need to do to be fresh for school tomorrow,” Mom advised.

  I brought my luggage upstairs and stretched out on my bed. It felt so comfy and familiar, not like the hotel bed. I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep with the California sunshine streaming through my window.

  The sound of my phone vibrating startled me out of my nap. Groggy, I picked it up and blinked, staring at a barrage of texts from Jessi. First there were photos of an adorable baby boy with tiny clutched fists and closed eyes, wrapped in a blue blanket. Then there were a bunch of frantic messages.

  Are u back yet?

  Come 2 the hospital!

  Where are u?

  I groaned. I had promised Jessi I would go see her as soon as I got home! But I was so beat—I couldn’t imagine going anywhere.

  Sorry. I am soooooo tired, I typed. See you soon?

  Whatever, Jessi typed back.

  Uh-oh, I thought. Last night I’d gotten a “whatever” from Kara, and now one from Jessi. I couldn’t deal with two best friends being angry with me, so I called Jessi.

  “I’m not supposed to talk on the phone in the hospital,” she said.

  “Jessi, I am so happy for your new little brother, and I can’t wait to meet him,” I said quickly. “But I am really tired. I’m still on East Coast time. I’ll see if my mom can bring me tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow we have practice,” Jessi said.

  I frowned. “Okay. Tuesday, then.”

  “Fine,” Jessi said, and hung up on me. I could tell that she was upset.

  I put down the phone. Now Jessi was mad at me too?

  I stretched and climbed out of bed, thinking a cookie would help my mood. Mom and Dad were at the kitchen table, whispering. They stopped abruptly when I walked in.

  “Devin, I thought you were sleeping,” Mom said.

  “Jessi woke me up with a text,” I said, grabbing a box of cookies from the closet. (And by “cookies,” I meant round things made of oats and dried fruit, the kind of thing that passes for a cookie in my Mom’s ultra-healthy kitchen.) “Mom, can we go see Jessi’s new baby brother on Tuesday?”

  “Of course,” Mom replied. “Mrs. Dukes will probably be back from the hospital by then. I’ll make them a quinoa casserole.”

  “That would be nice,” I said, and I took two cookies and headed back upstairs.

  What were Mom and Dad whispering about? I wondered. They were probably talking about moving back to Connecticut for Dad’s job, I guessed.

  I bit into my cookie, examining my feelings about this. I thought I belonged in California now, but did I? I was starting to think I didn’t belong anywhere, and that was a feeling not even a cookie could wash away.

  Chapter Eight

  “Deeeeeeeviiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!”

  Jessi ran up to me the next morning in the school hallway and crushed me in a hug.

  “Whoa!” I said, laughing as her forceful hug pushed us into my locker.

  “I missed you so much!” she cried.

  “I missed you too!” I said. “I’m relieved. I thought you were mad at me.”

  “I was, but my emotions are all over the place,” Jessi said. “It took Mom, like, almost twenty-four hours to have Oliver, and—”

  “His name is Oliver? That’s such a cute name!” I shrieked.

  “He’s the cutest thing ever!” Jessi agreed. “Anyway, I know you were tired yesterday, and that’s cool. I’m exhausted too, and I’m just so excited about this kid. He’s such a little nugget!”

  “He is a little nugget,” I agreed. “Do you have more pictures?”

  “Yes, tons!” She pulled her phone out to show me just as the bell rang. “Darn it! Get ready for the nugget photo spectacular at lunch.”

  “I can’t wait!” I said as I hurried off to class, happy that Jessi wasn’t mad. I was thinking of lunch, being surrounded by my friends, when a pang of worry hit me. What would happen if I moved back to Connecticut? Would I have to eat lunch with Kara and Sienna every day and keep going up and down on that friendship seesaw? Or would I have no friends at all, and have to eat by myself? I shuddered and shook my head.

  The issue was still on my mind at lunch as Jessi, Frida, Emma, Zoe, and I gathered at our usual table in the cafeteria.

  “Devin! You’re back!” Emma squealed, and I got wrapped in another bear hug, which soon became a hug sandwich as Frida, Zoe, and Jessi joined in.

  “Wow. It’s like I’ve been gone for a month!” I joked, feeling a little overwhelmed at all the attention, but also happy. They’d missed me. They’d really missed me!

  “We’re so glad you’re home. We can’t help it!” Emma hugged me tighter.

  “I’ve got the best friends ever,” I said. “I can’t believe that you sent me the most beautiful dress in the world for the party.”

  “We’d never let you down, Devin,” Zoe said solemnly. “Especially when it comes to fashion.”

  Zoe looked as fashionable as always, wearing a supercute black-and-white checkered dress, paired with a denim jacket and high-top sneakers. Her hair was pulled back into a tiny ponytail at the nape of her neck.

  “I’ve only been away a few days, and your hair is long enough for a ponytail already!” I exclaimed. “How did that happen?”

  “It’s growing really fast,” Zoe said.

  “Pretty soon it’ll be down to your ankles,” Emma remarked. She was wearing her usual outfit: a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. This shirt had big, graphic rainbow-colored letters spelling out GOOD VIBES. That was Emma, all right. Sharing positive, good vibes with everyone she met.

  Frida’s reddish-brown hair was pulled into a braid down the left side of her head, not a look I’d ever seen her try before.

  “Your hair is different too!” I exclaimed. “You’re all making me feel like I actually have been away for a month.”

  “Maybe we did it on purpose,” Frida teased. “So you’ll think twice about going away and leaving us again.”

  My stomach did a little drop as I thought about just that: leaving the Kicks for good and moving back to Connecticut. I knew for sure now that I didn’t want to go. I wanted to stay in California with my friends. I thought back to my first few days at Kentville Middle School. If someone had told me I could move back home, I would’ve jumped at the chance. But so much had changed. This was my home now, and I loved all of my new friends.

  “Anyway,” Frida continued. “We want to hear all about your trip!”

  “Definitely,” I said. “But first—”

  I took out the beaded bracelets I’d gotten for everybody.

  “Supercute!” Zoe said, slipping hers on, and then the rest of us put ours on, because I’d gotten one for myself, too.

  “We match! They’re kind of like friendship bracelets,” Emma remarked.

  “I hadn’t thought of that,” I said. “But yeah, you’re right.”

  Then we started to eat. Emma’s bento box was filled with yummy Korean food her mom had made. Jessi had bought her lunch from the cafeteria; no wonder, with the new baby at home keeping everyone busy. Frida and Zoe had brown bagged it, and so had I. My mom had made me my favorite turkey wrap, with avocado and tomatoes.

  “How was the trip?” Frida asked. “We need deets.”

  “It was, well …” I tried to find the right word. “Weird. It was weird between me and Kara.” And then the entire story came spilling out. About Kara and the Ruesters. How Sienna had not been very nice to me. How the whole trip was not what I had been expecting.

  “Who exactly is this Sienna?” Frida asked.

  “I didn’t know her. She came from a different elementary school,” I explained. “She and Kara met in middle school. And now, from the sound of it, they’re inseparable. Sleepover parties, working out together, going out with all my old friends from elementary school. I felt like an outsider.”

  “Hmmmmmm …” Frida frowned. “The bottom line is, you don’t know much about her, right?”

  “Yes, that’s true,” I admitted. “Except for the fact that for some reason she doesn’t like me very much.”

  “Maybe she’s jealous,” Emma suggested. “Or feels threatened by you because you and Kara are such good friends.”

  I almost said, What does she have to be jealous about? I live all the way across the country! but then stopped myself. That might not be true for long. And I couldn’t bring myself to tell my friends there was a possibility I might move. So I changed the subject.

  “Where is the nugget photo spectacular I’ve been promised?” I asked, which prompted Jessi to grab her phone and start scrolling through what seemed like a million pics of her adorable baby brother.

  “And there he is with the teddy bear I got him,” she said, pointing at one photo of Oliver in the hospital bassinet, lying next to a soft and cuddly brown toy bear.

  “That bear is bigger than he is!” Zoe said.

  Jessi laughed. “He’ll grow into it. At least that’s what my mom said.”

  As we chatted and looked at pics of Oliver, I couldn’t help but wonder if I’d be around to see him get bigger and grow up. I silently sighed to myself. This was torture!

  * * *

  On the soccer field at practice that afternoon, I was ready to relieve some stress and get ready for our first playoff game.

  “Welcome back, Devin!” Coach Flores called out to me as the team was doing warm-up laps around the field. “I see you brought some speed back with you!”

  With that, I turned and noticed that I was half a lap ahead of the rest of the team.

  “Devin, wait up!” Jessi called.

  “Where’s the fire?” Grace asked me.

  I jogged in place, waiting for Jessi to catch up.

  “Maybe you should try out for the track team,” Jessi suggested when she caught up to me, panting slightly. “You seem ready to do the forty-yard dash.”

  “It just feels good to run,” I told her. “Especially after being stuck on an airplane for hours.”

  Jessi nodded. “I know what you mean. Nobody tells you that waiting for someone to have a baby is really boring. You just sit around a dumb hospital waiting room, and wait, wait, and oh yeah, then you get to wait some more. And after the baby is born, more waiting. Mostly for him to wake up and do something interesting.”

  “We’ll just have to bring all that excess energy we have stored up onto the soccer field,” I said, and we got our chance as we broke into two teams for a scrimmage.

  It was clear that both Jessi and I were high energy, but also clear that neither of us was very focused.

  Grace sent a pass to me on my left, and I went right. I went offsides twice in the scrimmage.

  Jessi intercepted a pass from one of her own team members and fumbled another pass.

  “Jessi! Devin!” Grace yelled. “Where are your heads?”

  Jessi shrugged sheepishly. “In baby mode. Sorry, Grace.”

  My mode was “worried about having to move back to Connecticut,” but I couldn’t say that.

  “I’ll get it together,” I said instead.

  “You’d better!” Grace said firmly. “Our first playoff game is Saturday, and we have never beaten the Eagles in the regular season. If you play like that, we won’t stand a chance.”

  I gulped. Grace was right. Being the best at soccer meant everything to me. I couldn’t let Sienna, or the thought of moving, put me off my game. I had to be ready to win this Saturday!

  Chapter Nine

  “Here he is, our Oliver.” Mrs. Dukes beamed as she placed the baby into my arms. He had a slight covering of brown fuzz on top of his head, and he was sound asleep. His eyes were shut tight, and his tiny little upturned nose was a teeny bit wrinkled.

  “He’s adorable,” I said admiringly as I sat on the couch in Jessi’s living room, looking down at the baby. I’d had to wash my hands thoroughly and then put on some hand sanitizer before I could hold him.

  “He’s little and we don’t want him catching a cold,” Jessi had explained to me firmly. I had gone to her house after school on Tuesday, since we didn’t have soccer practice. It was funny to see Jessi, usually the first to crack a joke, be so serious about her little brother.

  As I held him, I noticed the writing on his little green onesie: DADDY AND MOMMY’S MIRACLE.

  “His onesie is so sweet,” I said to Mrs. Dukes.

  She smiled. “It’s true. After we had Jessi, I was told I wouldn’t be able to have any more children. And then suddenly, out of the blue, came Oliver! He is a true miracle.”

  “You probably needed twelve years to rest after giving birth to me,” Jessi told her mom. “After all, making this kind of perfection”—she gestured at herself—“can take a lot out of a person.”

  Mrs. Dukes and I laughed. Then Jessi’s mom stopped suddenly.

  “Oh dear,” she said. “If Oliver is anything like Jessi, I’m in trouble. She was early to walk and talk.”

  “I’ll have him speaking in no time.” Jessi leaned over me and tickled Oliver’s tummy with one finger. “His first word will be ‘Jessi.’ Just wait and see.”

  Oliver, reacting to Jessi’s touch, moved his head from side to side in my arms. Then his tiny little rosebud lips opened and he gave a sweet baby sigh.

  “Oh, that face!” I exclaimed. “I don’t remember Maisie being this cute.”

  “Well, you were much younger when Maisie was born,” Mrs. Dukes said.

  “I guess,” I said. “But I know that she cried all the time, and it totally annoyed me. Actually, not much has changed!”

  “Oh, come on. Maisie isn’t that bad,” Jessi replied.

  I gave her a look as I raised an eyebrow. “Would you trade Oliver for her?”

  “No way!” Jessi exclaimed. “Okay, point taken.”

  We laughed, but then I remembered Maisie’s reaction to the stuffed T. rex. And reading to her at bedtime when she was little. And doing soccer drills in the backyard together.

  “Actually, I wouldn’t trade Maisie for Oliver,” I said. “No offense. I mean, he’s adorable. But you’re right … she’s not that bad.”

  Oliver began to stir again, this time opening his mouth and giving a slight, mewling cry, kind of like a cat.

  “I’ll take him,” Mrs. Dukes said as she scooped him up out of my arms. “It’s time for him to eat. You girls go ahead and help yourselves to a snack in the kitchen.”

  Jessi pulled out some cheese, wheat crackers, and grapes, and we munched on them together.

  “Ugh. We really blew it at soccer practice yesterday, didn’t we?” Jessi said.

  I sighed. “Yep. My head was off in the clouds.”