Whitney Read online

I peered up at David. Aunt Sophie was standing beside him. They were holding hands. Aunt Sophie looked so happy.

  “I’m sure,” I told David. “I’m not going to do anything but stay here all day.”

  “What about that big party that was being planned for tonight?” Aunt Sophie asked.

  “They can handle it without me.”

  “Are you sure —” David began again.

  “I’m sure.” I waved my hand. “Go to a movie or something.”

  “Okay,” Aunt Sophie said as she leaned down and kissed me on the forehead. “If you’re sure you’ll be all right.”

  “I’m fine.” All I wanted was to be alone.

  As I watched them leave, I thought sadly, At least someone in this family is experiencing romance.

  My little dog, Westie — who happened to be a Westie — came over, put his paws up on the end of the lounge chair, and started licking my bare toes. I should have been happy. I had no responsibility. I didn’t have to deal with moms who thought their kids weren’t getting enough attention. I didn’t have to search for more party favors. I didn’t have to help Jake scoop ice cream when there were so many kids wanting some that he couldn’t keep up. I didn’t have to help dads figure out how their new digital cameras worked.

  It was strange, lying there, realizing all the different things that I took care of. Charlotte always said that our job was to put out fires. Not literally, of course. But whenever a problem arose, we were the ones who were supposed to take care of it. Any way that we could.

  So I’d taken care of little things, put out little fires. But I hadn’t saved any lives, hadn’t done anything worth remembering.

  A few hours later, I heard the sliding glass door that led onto the patio open. Westie went to investigate. I knew it was Dad, and Westie knew Dad was always good for a little petting.

  “You’ve got a phone call,” Dad said, holding the cordless phone out to me.

  I couldn’t imagine who it might be. Anyone who might have called me would have called on my cell phone. Plus, anyone I wanted to talk to was at Paradise Falls, working. Of course, I guessed that Robyn or Caitlin could have been taking a break.

  I took the phone from him, gave him a pointed look, and waited until he walked away. Then I put the phone to my ear. “Hello?”

  “Whitney, it’s Charlotte.”

  The next-to-the-last person I wanted to talk to, Jake having the honor of being the very last person I wanted to talk to.

  It was nearly time for the park to close. Had she just realized that I hadn’t come in? And why would she care? I was working in souvenirs now.

  “First of all,” Charlotte said, “I want to apologize about the whole mix-up that resulted in you being sent to souvenirs.”

  Even though I wasn’t there, they were still trying to make me happy. They were afraid of Dad. “It doesn’t matter, Charlotte.”

  “I don’t think Lisa realized how much you really do. I know I didn’t.”

  I was close to gagging. “Seriously, Charlotte, you don’t have to do this. I’m quitting. I’m not coming back, so none of this matters anymore.”

  “You can’t do that.”

  “Uh, I think I can. I mean, what are you going to do — fire me?”

  Really, what could she do? Her options were pretty limited. Actually, her options were none.

  “No, seriously,” she said, “we need you.”

  “And I need to work on my tan.”

  “Look, Whitney, Lisa had a family emergency. Her grandmother’s in the hospital, so right after the last birthday party today she went to be with her. I’ve got no one in charge of that stupid luau tonight. … I need you to come in.”

  “How much did my dad pay you to do this?”

  “What?”

  “Look, Charlotte, I know the entire summer has been a scam. Everyone’s been watching my back, making sure that I was given tasks I could handle all by my little self, and that someone was always there to make sure I didn’t goof up. So good try. But I know as soon as I get there, Lisa’s emergency will be over. She’ll come back and I’ll get pats on the back for saving the day — when I really didn’t do anything.” I was on a roll, trying to explain what I knew was going on. Dad and I were going to have to have another talk. He couldn’t keep doing this; he couldn’t keep arranging my life!

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Charlotte said.

  “My dad paid you to have an emergency. I’m not buying it. Bye.”

  “What? Wait —”

  Only I didn’t wait. I hung up as though she was an irritating telemarketer.

  And now I was mad at my dad all over again. I got up and walked into the house. I found him in his study, looking over the designs for a new water park. He had three TVs turned on, one to CNN and the other two on baseball games. He looked up when I walked in.

  “Good try, Dad,” I said. “But I’m not falling for it again.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Paying Charlotte and Lisa to have an emergency so I’d feel needed.”

  “Want to explain exactly what you’re talking about?”

  I told him about Charlotte’s call and Lisa’s “emergency.”

  Leaning back, he tapped his Montblanc pen against the edge of his desk. “Whitney, paying Jake to watch over you didn’t disrupt the management of the park. He could do his job while doing what I was paying him to do. Paying someone to create an emergency situation, putting a burden on others so you can feel important? As much as I love you, Princess, and want you to be happy, I’d never do that.”

  As I listened to him, I realized how silly I’d been. Of course he wouldn’t pay someone to have an emergency. He wouldn’t do anything to put Paradise Falls at risk for not living up to its reputation of being the best water park in the area, or in the state. Our park had been featured on documentaries about the top ten best water parks in the world. What was I thinking to walk out, to quit, to leave them shorthanded?

  “Can you drive me to work?” I asked.

  Dad grinned. “Which car should we go in?”

  * * *

  When I got to the water park, I went to Charlotte’s office. She was leaning over her desk, studying diagrams and notes. She looked up when I walked in. “Thank goodness. It’s chaos around here. What does this mean?”

  She pointed to a small X in front of Tsunami.

  “That’s where we’re going to put the fire.”

  “Right.” Her brow furrowed. “Where’s the wood coming from?”

  “You don’t have the wood yet?”

  “No. As she was heading out the door, Lisa said something about not having everything ready, but she was so worried about her grandmother that nothing made sense.” She held up her hands. “I know I should have been paying more attention to the plans. I just expected y’all to take care of it. Y’all do the work. I get the glory.”

  I smiled. “You’ll still get the glory.”

  “Right. Have you met the Spencers? They’ve been calling every hour to make sure that everything is good to go — even though I’ve been telling them that we couldn’t start to get things ready until the park closes.”

  The receptionist peered inside the room. “A guy is here. Says he needs to know where to set up the laser light show?”

  I couldn’t stop myself from smiling; even when she told us something, she made it sound like a question, like maybe she wasn’t sure why he was here.

  “Yeah, that’s Michael. The band is going to set up on one side of Tsunami. Are they here yet?”

  “No?”

  I looked at Charlotte. “I’m going to need some people to help me.”

  “Get whoever you need.”

  “Can I have Lisa’s list?”

  “Sure, but I don’t know how you can read it.”

  She handed it to me and I looked at Lisa’s notes. Most of them were abbreviations like what I used when I text-messaged. How old was Charlotte anyway not to be able to figure th
ese abbreviations out? The clambake was a no-go, but I saw notes for a lot of the other things that I’d suggested.

  “Charlotte, do you know where the leis are?” I asked.

  “In the storage room.”

  “Would you be okay taking them to the front gate so we can pass them out to people as they come through?”

  “Good idea. What are you going to do?”

  “Take care of everything else.”

  Then I went to find my very special team.

  I went down the hall to the marketing office and stuck my head in the door. Sean was working at his computer.

  “I need you,” I told him.

  “Looks like you’re here to work.”

  I guessed the fact that I was wearing my Paradise Falls uniform gave it away.

  “Yeah, we’ve got the luau. I need you to find Jake. Since he has a truck, I need you guys to locate some wood that we can use to set up a small bonfire near Tsunami.”

  “I’ll get on it.”

  I was walking back down the hallway when he caught up with me and put his arm around my shoulders.

  “I’m glad you’re here,” he said. “You know how to throw a party.”

  “Just wish I had more time to get this one ready.”

  “Whatever you need, you’ll find people willing to help.”

  “Yeah, right.”

  “Come on, Whitney, your dad’s paying them.”

  I scowled at him.

  He grinned. “It’s called a salary.”

  I pushed him away from me. “Very funny.”

  “Seriously,” he said. “They’ll help because they like you.”

  As we parted when we got outside, I wanted to believe his words, but I remembered some of the looks that I got yesterday — the last day that I’d worked. The truth was out. I guess I was going to find out if it made a difference.

  I ran into Michael as I was heading toward Tsunami.

  “Caitlin said you weren’t working today,” he said.

  “I wasn’t. Now I am.”

  “I’m glad. I liked working with you when we did the light show before.”

  I walked him over to the pool and showed him where we were going to set up the band. Things were going my way because they showed up while I was still talking to Michael. They were a local band, wanting to make it big. I explained where they were to set up. Michael was familiar with the area because he had worked with his dad on the laser light show that we’d had on the Fourth of July, so he took charge of not only the light show but the band setup.

  “Thanks,” I told him.

  “Not a problem.”

  I noticed the lifeguards standing around at the first lifeguard station.

  “Caitlin!”

  She moved away from the crowd. “I knew you couldn’t stay away,” she said. “I should have bet you another pair of shoes.”

  “Like you would have let me pay for them.”

  “You never know. Maybe I would have.”

  I didn’t think so. “I could really use your help here,” I told her.

  “Sure. Just tell me what you need.”

  “We need to move all the lounge chairs and tables back some so we have more room for a beach. And when Sean and Jake get back with the firewood, I need you to help them get it set up in the middle.”

  “Are we going to party afterward?”

  “No, not tonight. But I have an idea brewing.”

  “So spill it.”

  “Later. We gotta get this done.”

  “We’ll take care of it.” She pointed to the group of lifeguards behind her.

  I left them to create the beach atmosphere that we wanted.

  I knew as soon as the park closed that the Kiddie Zone crew would start barricading off their section because it wouldn’t be open to our guests. I headed over to that area of the park. I saw the lifeguards and ride attendants putting up metal barricades. A couple of people would stand guard to make sure no one entered the forbidden area, but the rest of the crew would help us take care of the party guests. I asked a few of them to go to the front gate and help Charlotte. If enough people helped her, maybe she could even get out of lei duty.

  Robyn spotted me about the same time that I spotted her.

  “Hey!” she called out and hurried over. She hugged me. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

  “Why?”

  “Because people have been asking about you. They think it’s cool that your dad owns the park and that you’ve been working with us all summer.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. So are you here to help with the luau?”

  “Pretty much. I need you to do something for me. Come on.”

  We walked over to the main pavilion we used for birthday parties. I took her back to the storage unit where we kept all the little party favors. I opened the door.

  “These are for little kids,” Robyn said. “You’re not thinking of using them for Marci and her group, are you?”

  “No, but I saw something the other day … here it is.” I held up the little treasure chest. It was like the one that I’d seen in the souvenir shop window. Only inside were fake gold coins. “Scatter these around the park. We’ll tell the guests that each one is valued at a dollar. They can trade them in for a souvenir at the Treasure Chest.” I’d gotten the idea from the skee-ball prizes.

  “Ah, sort of a treasure hunt.”

  “Sort of. It’s the best we can do on short notice.”

  If I had come to work today, I probably would have thought of something better. It was really silly for me to have stayed away.

  “I’ll take care of it,” Robyn said.

  “When you’re finished, come to Tsunami. That’s where the action will be.”

  And where Marci would be.

  It was time to face my nemesis.

  When I got back to Tsunami, everything seemed to be ready. A medium-size fire was burning in the sand, near the shoreline. Wood was stacked up on the side, wood we’d use to keep the fire going throughout the party — until it was all gone.

  Jake was standing by the wood. I guessed someone, maybe Sean, had put him in charge of keeping watch over that aspect of the party. It seemed appropriate since he was good at watching things — me, specifically.

  I didn’t know what to say to him, so I just gave him a little wave and went to check on the band. They had everything they needed, so they started warming up.

  It was eight o’clock. When it got dark, in another hour or so, Michael would begin the light show. It was going to be simple, nothing as extravagant as what we’d had for the Fourth of July, but I was pretty sure it would impress Marci. After all, how many people had a laser light show at their birthday party?

  “There you are,” Charlotte said, and came to a stop in front of me. She was breathless. “Thanks for sending people to help with the leis. They have two hundred people coming through the gate.”

  “The leis make it special, like being in Hawaii or something.” I told her about the gold coins. They weren’t real, of course, just fake. “We haven’t told anyone anything yet, so if you don’t want to let them have a value and be traded in for souvenirs, that’s cool. They’ll just be something they find.”

  “No, I like it,” Charlotte said. “I’ll make an announcement once everyone is in here. If you’ll keep an eye on things, I’m going to go collapse for a few minutes. I’ll be glad when this party is over.”

  They had only rented the park for two hours. The party would end at ten. Then we’d have to clean up.

  I watched as people started wandering in. Two hundred people. For the first time, I felt a little sorry for Marci. Did she think all these kids were really her friends?

  “I think it all looks great,” Caitlin said, coming up to stand beside me. “We definitely need another employee party.”

  “Last day the park is open. And it’ll be better than this.”

  “All right! So does that mean you’re back at work?”

  “You
know it.”

  “Good. It just wasn’t the same without you. Now I better get to my lifeguard station.”

  She started to walk away, stopped, and looked back at me. “I Googled you, by the way.”

  “Traitor.”

  “Robyn and I would never do that, you know. Post embarrassing stuff about you on the Internet.”

  I nodded. “Yeah, I know.”

  “Cool.”

  She headed to her lifeguard tower, and I started walking around just to check on things.

  “Whitney St. Clair, is that you?”

  I looked over. It was Mrs. Spencer. She was holding a huge box. “Hello, Mrs. Spencer.”

  “I don’t remember Marci inviting you.”

  Ouch! “She didn’t. I work here.”

  “Oh. Well then, take the cake and put it on a table in that pavilion over there. I need to find some people to help serve it.”

  “I’ll take care of the cake and finding someone to serve.”

  “Oh, great. Marci’s dad is bringing the other cake in. Marci wanted a yellow cake and a chocolate cake. With this many people, I hope it’s enough.”

  “I’m sure it will be. We’ll cut small slices.”

  She was walking away before I finished talking. So typical of Marci’s family. They were all that mattered.

  Very carefully I walked to the pavilion and set the cake on the table. Then I took a deep breath. It didn’t matter how much I had done, if I dropped the cake, everything would have been for nothing.

  “Hey, Whitney,” someone said and I turned to see Suzy, a girl from my school. “Haven’t seen you all summer.”

  “I’ve been busy working here.”

  “Working? That doesn’t sound like much fun!”

  “Actually, it’s been a lot of fun.”

  “Huh.”

  I guess she couldn’t think of anything else to say, because she turned and ran toward Tsunami.

  People were arriving, dropping off their stuff, and heading to the various slides. With so few people here, they’d probably be able to slide down them all before the night was over.

  I was getting ready to check on things when I saw Mr. Spencer. He looked a little lost. Birthday parties probably weren’t his thing. Like my dad, he was a businessman. But tonight he was a dad. And he was carrying another large box with the other cake. I figured he didn’t know where to put it.