Unexpected

Unexpected

By Blue Berenguel

I dedicate this book to Dianne Clouet, for helping me get through this challenge, and to Maureen Hart for giving me the title. Thanks.

Maple Leaf Writing Project

Brattleboro VT

2018

Chapter 1

Summer

It started out as a completely normal day. Summer and I woke up at the exact same time. How did I know this? No, I am not a creepy stalker lady. We were having a sleepover at Summer's house.

Wait, wait, wait. Let’s stop right there for a second. I completely forgot to introduce myself! I am Maple Amanda Leafe, and Summer McKenna has been my BFF since we were five. (Actually, she was six. She stayed back in kindergarten.)

Anyway, back to the sleepover. It was the end of the summer before fifth grade, and Summer and I were having our annual week-long sleepover. This year,it was Summer’s turn to host it. Last year, it had been my turn to host it, and I did this whole BFF party thing, and if I do say so myself, it was pretty awesome.

Back to now. It was the last day of our sleepover this year, and we were getting out to go to my house, and spend the rest of the day there. The warm summer slapped our faces. I couldn't believe we only had, wait let me check. 8 days, 9 hours, 41 minutes, and 38 seconds left of summer! What a sad, sad tragedy.

“Arrgg, Maple, are you even listening to me?!” Summer griped. Right then, I realized that Summer had been talking to me the whole walk.

“Eeeerrmm…” I said, trying to think of an excuse. I didn’t want to tell her that I had been thinking about summer ending, because she had recently begun charting things in two columns: Mature, and Immature. Apparently, not looking forward to middle school fell at the top of the immature column. I couldn’t figure out why!

“Aaaahhh, Maple, you still aren’t listening to me!” Summer moaned. Summer was originally from Brattleboro VT, and lived there till she was four. We currently live in Bentonville AR.

“OMG, MAPLE!” Summer shrieked. “I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU!” She was obviously, um, minorly annoyed. Then I realized it was more than that. She started to cry.

“Maple,” she sobbed. “Why won't you listen to me?” “Don’t you...sniff...like me anymore?” Summer was a very sensitive kid. I was prepared for this kind of situation.

“Oh, it’s all okay.” I crooned as Summer buried her damp face in my shoulder. “I’m so sorry.” “Now let’s skedaddle over to my house and try to rustle up some grub.” It was a language we had adopted as seven-year-olds, courtesy of the graphic novel ‘Rapunzel's Revenge’.

“Maaaaplllle,” Summer moaned. “You knooooow that’s on the immature list!” Then she started babbling about how if a cute boy, or a teacher, or a cool kid, or our new friends in school saw us doing that, they would laugh, or think we were swearing and get us sent to the principal’s office, or even worse, get laughed at!

Immature Mature

By Summer .M. McKenna

As you can see, this is Summer’s ‘famous’ list. Do you like it? I, personally do not. If I made a list like that, it would look like this:

Immature Mature

By Maple Leafe

Alright already! Spill the beans! Who do you agree with?!

Maple, or Summer? Me? I thought so. Not that I don’t want Summer to be happy or anything, though! I do, I really do. It’s just, when we were younger, I always took care of her. Not that I really care, but she’s the older one. What I do care about though, is that Summer is acting like a 15-year-old, even though she turned 11 two weeks ago! You know what, I’m gonna finish talking about this later, because right then, we walked into my driveway.

“Maple, is that you?” My Mom (Amanda, Mandi for short.) shouted from the kitchen as Summer and I tiptoed in the door.

“I told you she’d hear us!” I whisper-shouted.

“My mom could hear a fly buzzing from 10 miles away during an elephant stampede!” Okay, maybe I exaggerated just a little.

“Yeah, mom, it’s me! And Summer’s here to!”

“Okay, come to the dining room.” We started walking. Summer flipped back her ponytail. She looked like Jude's old BFF from preschool, Krystie Meyer. Krystie was kinda mean. She- wait, wait, wait. By the way, Jude is my little sister. I thought that might be an important detail. You see, Kristie was one of those little kids that wore teen clothes and was so adorable that she was beautiful. We have a picture hanging over our fireplace of the two girls.

Mom was running around the kitchen like she had three seconds to do everything she needed to do.

“Where’s dad?” I asked, suspicious. Dad always cooked dinner. She replied quickly.

“OhhihoneyImissedyousomuchthisweekandyourfatherisworkingin

Elkenstoday.”

“Oh. Okay! Well, Mom, Me and Summer are headed to my room.” I liked to call it ‘my room’ even though I shared it with Jude, who was was seven by then, and Kayleigh, my other little sister who was two.

“Wait, you two.” Mom said. “I have something that I want to talk to the whole family about. Your dad already knows, and it’s absolutely fine if Summer sits in. Would you girls go get your sisters? They’re in the backyard playing with the bubble machine that Kayleigh got for her birthday.”

“Yeah, Mandi, we can.” Summer replied for me. We walked out to the back porch. I have a huge backyard. After the porch, there’s a big hill, with a trampoline at the bottom.Kayleigh and Jude were right on the porch.

“Come in. Mom wants an FSD.” FSDs are family sit-downs. Jude quickly replied,

“Why? Dad’s not home yet.”

“Just come on.” I said. Summer, Jude, Kayliegh and I all sat down on the rice cushions, with Mom staring at us intensely from the love seat. We couldn’t help it. Jude and I burst out laughing.

“Guys, this is serious,” said Mom, Summer nodding at her side. We kept laughing.

“HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!”

“Your Dad and I have been talking this over for a very long time,” she continued, ignoring us. “And we finally decided we were ready. We-” She hesitated. “We are moving. To Maine.

Little Diamond Island.” My eyes widened. In my brain, I was screaming and running around. In real life, I calmly walked out of the room, without a word.

My wet face slammed on to my pillow before I knew what I was doing. Then I realized what the cause of this was.

“Knock knock,” I heard Summer’s voice say outside my door.

“Come in,” I moaned miserably in response. She barged in, sounding much less peaceful than before.

“WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!!,” she screeched. “YOU MADE ME LOOK BAD AS YOUR FRIEND, AND YOU WERE RUDE TO YOUR MOM!!!”

“I have to go to the bathroom,” I murmured.

I actually didn’t go to the bathroom. While Summer waited (impatiently) in my room, I tiptoed down the hallway. I hadn't lingered around to see how my sisters had reacted to the big news, and I was curious. The sight that I saw blew my mind. Miraculously, they had merely said “Okay!” and went back to their business of blowing bubbles. I stomped the rest of the way down the hallway, when I arrived, I was greeted by my mother, standing in front of me, ready with all the words that she thought she needed to say.

“Honey, I knew you would react this way, but it’s really going overboard, because, really, there’s no going back now. We’ve-” she hesitated. “We’ve already bought the house.”

“That’s-” I said. “That’s great, Mom. I’m glad you’re finally getting to follow your dream.”

She swallowed. My whole body was shaking as I went back to my room. Then I remembered that Jude and Kayleigh were playing in there and turned around, just to bump into my dad.

“I’m truly sorry about all of this, syrup.” that’s his funny name for me, because everybody in our family likes maple syrup, and my name is Maple.

The next week was terribly.... Normal. Every day was the same routine. Summer stayed home. I stayed in my room and finished four chapter books.

I also packed. Alot. I packed everything I owned in boxes, bags, and suitcases. I guessed mom was packing too. I only saw her at dinner. We didn’t talk.

Before I knew it, I was slinking down the hallway.

Mom was sitting on the couch, face in her hands.

“Hi,” I mumbled. She looked up and groaned, then repeated her recent actions. I groaned back and the said,

“Mom, I wanna make up and so please make me a sandwich?” She perked up at the sound of me talking to her.

“Yeah, I’ll make you a sandwich. Do you want to go say bye to Summer tomorrow?”

I thought about when I wanted to do it. Summer had been my best friend for a really long time, but she had recently begun acting mean and annoying. I finally replied to Mom, “Yeah, I’ll go see her tomorrow. What time?”

“How about 12:30?”

“That’s good.”

Chapter 4

Goodbye, Summer

I walked slowly up to Summer’s front door the next day at 12:30. I had been thinking about this moment all last night while I stared up at the glow in the dark stars that had been on my ceiling for as long as I could remember. It had taken me hours to fall asleep. when I finally did fall asleep it was probably somewhere around 12:30. When I woke up at 9 a.m. , I was really tired. I walked around the house and aimlessly and read books and ate food for the hours in between 9:15 a.m. and 12:30 a.m. When it was finally 12:30 I walked as slowly as I could to Summer's house. I know that sounds weird, because I had been waiting for this moment all day.

Ding dong! I heard the doorbell ring after I had pressed the button. I heard voices yelling inside the house and finally Summer’s voice saying “I'll get it!” Suddenly the front door burst open and I jumped backwards nearly falling off of the front porch. Well, what Summer’s family calls a front porch. Summer’s head popped out of the front door.

“ Hi. Why are you here?” she said.

“Because I am leaving for Maine tomorrow morning. So I came to say goodbye. She looked surprised, as if she weren't there for the entire conversation just a few days ago. She, surprisingly hugged me. Then it all changed. She said “Well, bye,” and then slammed the door in my face. To me, at the time, that was the last time I would ever see Summer in my life.

Chapter 5

Time to go

“Maple, are you all packed?” my mom's shouted up the stairs to me. I told her yes and went on with packing. Then, suddenly it was time to go. It was horrible. The rush of having to pack up everything we owned and put it in the back of our car was horrible. And not just because I sat in the back seat and it would be piled on top of me pretty much.

Soon enough,We were driving farther and farther away from what had been my home for the past 10 years.

Chapter 6

I was really bored. Ya know why? I had been sitting hunched over in the back seat for over 24 hours. We slept in the car last night.

“Mom, how long until we get to the hotel in Portland?” I asked.

“Huh?” she said. “ Oh, honey we decided not to go to the hotel, since it's so close to the island.” I was so surprised. We had been driving for so long and I didn't want to keep driving until we got to the ferry terminal. So I protested.

“Mom, why we have to drive all the way there?”

“Sweetpea, it's only 10 more minutes. Bear with me.”

“Wait. Only 10 more minutes? I thought it was so much longer than that!”

“I know, it's a really short time, right? We’re almost there!”

Chapter 7

Portland is the most beautiful city I've ever seen. That is, I've only ever been in one city. There are lots of big buildings, but not too many. There are also lots of shops. My favorite was Mexicali Blues, with all its beads and pretty clothes and jewelry. I saw the most beautiful dress... But that's not important. What was important, was that we were about to get on the ferry boat. Right then, my cell phone chirped. My parents had gotten me a cell phone just last week for my birthday. I only had 3 people in my contact list so far. Summer, mom, and dad. This was obviously, not Mom or Dad, since they were standing right next to me. It was, of course, Summer.

Summer: war hav u bin?

Maple: M.E.

Summer: sinc win?

Maple: um, yesterday! U wer thar win she told us!

Summer: she hoo?

Maple: mom.

Summer: ooooh rit.

Maple: ttyl. Giting on the ferry.

I turned off my phone. we weren't actually getting on the ferry until 1:15. It was 12:45. We were having the best pizza I had ever tasted at flatbread. Actually, I don't like pizza ever, so that is really a statement.

Soon enough, it was time to get on the ferry.

There were so many people boarding,I thought we were at a Taylor Swift concert for a moment. Soon, we were on the boat, starting off to Little Diamond Island.

Chapter 8

It turns out, it was tourist season. I guess that's when a bunch of people get on the ferry to go look at the island. It sounded kind of boring to me.It also turns out my first ferry ride was absolutely terrifying. I stayed in the car huddled in a ball in my seat for the entire 20 minutes, while my dad and sisters went up to the very top!I could only see the water a little from the car, but I could tell it was pretty.

Beep! It was Summer again. couldn't she take a hint? Ttyl means talk to you later! It had hardly been an hour!

Summer: how cum u left?

Maple: beliv me, wasnt mi idea. Also i sed ttyl.

Summer: its bin lik a hole our!

Maple: im bisy. Bi.

“Aaaaaaaaahh!” my sisters shrieked, pulling on my blue and green plaid skirt. “We’re theeeeeeeeerrrre!!!!”

Chapter 9

The first thing I see is ice cream. Literally, there was this little pink building with a sign for ice cream that took up the entire wall.

Then I saw people. Not just the tourists from the boat, but lots of other people, too. Somehow I could tell the islanders apart from the tourists. There seemed to be a lot more tourists. I wondered if it was like this in the winter, too.

That got me started me on a whole new train of thought. What was winter like all the way up h-

“Eeeeeee!” that, unfortunately, was my mother. “We’re there!! This is it!!!!!” Ohmigosh. It is it. I jumped out of the car. The house was huge, and obviously had two stories. I squealed. It was all I ever wanted. Well, it didn’t have a hot tub. But who cares.

Then I turned to see what was next to the house, and I saw her. She was blonde, not like Summer’s redhead. She was wearing a baseball cap, something Summer (or I) would never do. She was wearing baggy shorts which are not proper wardrobe according to Summer. And she was staring at me with her mouth open, which Summer says is not proper edi- edu- eda- I don’t know. Anyway, I could tell she was going to be my best friend.

The End