11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass Page A

swings open, making me jump. She’s still wearing the clothes she wore to school.
    “Where’s your costume?”
    “I’m not wearing one.”
    I knew she’d be mad, but I didn’t expect her not to dress up for my party. “But you looked so great in it.”
    She puts her hands on her hips. “How do you know how I looked in it? Are you spying on me now?”
    I’ve said the wrong thing again. “I mean, I’m SURE you’d look great in it.”
    “Well, I’m not wearing it. Thanks to you, this has been a really awful day.”
    I’m taken aback. “Me? Why?”
    “You know why. All that stuff you said about Dustin liking Alyssa instead of me.”
    “Er, but isn’t that true?”
    She glares and I back up a step. “I’ll never know because I didn’t ask him to the dance and now he’s going with her.”
    “But he was always going with her, right?” Clearly the rules of teenage dating rituals are something I have yet to figure out.
    “And then if that wasn’t enough,” she continues, ignoring my last question, “I forgot my science project and my teacher took off half a grade and Dustin’s really mad at me.”
    “But that wasn’t your fault,” I insist. “Mom took your poster by mistake. Maybe if she calls your teacher and explains —”
    For the first time today, Kylie’s lips curl up into something resembling a smile. It’s the kind of smile you see on the Nature Channel before one seemingly harmless animal devours another. She stomps back into her room and slams the door shut.
    I knock. “Aren’t you coming to my party?”
    No answer. I guess this is how she’s getting back at me for reading her diary.
    Seeing as I know what to expect, I’m not disappointed this time that so many people don’t show up. I try to make the party more fun for the people who did come. We play silly kids’ games like limbo and musical chairs. Dad sneezes into the punch bowl by mistake, and everyone laughs (then Mom takes away the punch bowl). I’m still thinking of Leo’s party, and wondering how it’s going, but this time it’sdifferent. This time I know for sure that he’s thinking of me, too.
    When everyone leaves I don’t wait for Mom’s news. I take the stairs two at a time to get ready for Leo’s visit. I’m so curious to hear what his experiences have been like that I can hardly sit still. My costume rips as I pull it off and at first I feel bad since it’s rented. Then I realize it’ll just fix itself tomorrow! At this point I’d be more surprised if Saturday DOES come than if it doesn’t.
    I wait by the window for Leo, figuring he’ll probably climb up the branch instead of ringing the bell. I’m sure he doesn’t want to deal with anyone in my family answering the door. I wouldn’t blame him. He’s not exactly Mr. Popularity around here.
    My door bangs open and I jump. We have a knocking rule in our house and someone has just broken it. I turn around expecting to see Kylie, but instead it’s Mom, her face red. She’s carrying a poster under her arm. Usually this is when she’d be telling me about losing her job, but tonight she looks angry. Maybe I should have stayed to help clean up. Before I have a chance to apologize, she says in an even tone, “I know this was a hard day for you. For thefirst time in your life you didn’t celebrate your birthday with Leo. You normally make such good choices and have proven you know right from wrong. All that said, I can’t imagine why you wanted to sabotage my job.”
    My eyes widen and I search my brain for what she could possibly be talking about. “Huh? What?”
    She hands me the poster and gestures for me to unroll it. It’s her presentation. “Maybe you’d like to explain to me how this wound up in the outside garbage?”
    “What? Why was it in the garbage?”
    “That’s what I’d like YOU to tell ME.”
    “But how would I know?”
    “Your sister told me you knew I had her poster with me at work. There’s no way you could have known about