Lily Out of Bounds Page 4

  “You girls gave it your all out there. I’m very proud of you. You worked hard. Now, hold your heads high and go out and congratulate them on a fine win.”

  Lily trudged out to shake hands with the other team. She raised her eyes only to be faced with the jubilant smiles of the victorious Thunder. Their coaches and parents were beaming with pride from the sidelines, while the Bomber fans clapped with polite disappointment.

  Lily replayed the missed penalty kick. In her mind, images of the kick mixed with images from the previous night. Guilt washed over her. She moved slowly to join her team, her head held low, eyes fixed on the ground.

  Suddenly, she just wanted to go home.

  Chapter 6.

  “Three reds, five blues and one black,” Lily told her mother, holding up a hodgepodge of mismatched soccer socks.

  “All right, so let’s get rid of one blue and one red and the lone black,” Toni James suggested.

  “Get rid of them?” Lily asked, shocked, gathering up all the socks in her arms.

  “If you toss the odd ones, you can make pairs of the others.”

  “But I need all of them.” Lily gave her mother a petulant look.

  Her mother sighed and grimaced at the mess on the floor. “LJ, you’ve got to learn to let go of things. Look at these shorts. They must be five sizes too small! Put them in the donation pile.”

  “But Mom, I scored my first goal in these!”

  “Oh, Lily. If you want my help cleaning your room, you have to give up some of this junk.”

  Lily stared at her mother in shock. Junk? These were her prized possessions.

  “Mom, this isn’t even my room, remember?” As Lily spoke, she saw the look on her mother’s face and instantly regretted her words.

  “How can I forget when you remind me every hour on the hour?” Toni James responded in a sharp tone.

  Lily quieted and went back to sorting socks, reluctantly placing the odd ones in the donation pile. She kept the shorts, though. Why did she have to bring up the room situation? Last fall, she had to move into her brother’s bedroom when their grandfather, Pop Pop, came to live with them. Pop Pop was old and needed a room with a bathroom, so Lily reluctantly gave up hers. At first, she was miserable about the change, but she’d come to enjoy her grandfather. Who knew an 80-something-year-old could love American Idol as much as she did? Even sharing a room with Billy wasn’t as bad as she’d thought it would be. Almost every night they read comic books together and told knock-knock jokes until laughter made their stomachs hurt and their parents started yelling from downstairs.

  Lily watched as her mom pulled another pile of random items out from under the bunk beds. The last few months had added worry lines to Toni James’s pretty face. Recently, Pop Pop had developed a terrible cough that wouldn’t go away. Her parents had had to take him to about a zillion doctors. Mom and dad hadn’t really told Lily or Billy much about what was going on, but they knew it wasn’t great news.

  “What about these?” Toni James held up a pair of princess panties that must have been for a four-year-old. “You win any big tournaments with these on, Cinderella?”

  Lily laughed, grabbed the underwear, and threw them in the garbage pile. “See, I can get rid of things!”

  “Oh, very good,” her mom said. Smiling, she got up from the floor. “Sweetheart, my show starts in an hour. I have to get ready. We’re dissecting a Palos Verdes Blue, which is … “

  “The rarest butterfly in the world,” Lily dutifully replied.

  “Very good. Thought to be extinct for over a decade, you know. That is going to be a big event on Bug TV.”

  Toni James kissed Lily on the top of her head and left the room. Her new web show, Butterfly CSI, was a hit in the bug universe. Toni James was known as Madame Butterfly. At least she was working from home now, Lily thought. It was nice to see her more often.

  “You going to watch?” Toni called back over her shoulder.

  “Yeah, mom,” Lily said. “I’ll watch it on the computer downstairs.”

  Lily went back to the chaos on the floor but quickly lost interest. She looked around for something else to do.

  “I’m so bored,” she muttered. “Bored and lonely. I’m so bored and lonely I have to tell myself I’m bored and lonely.”

  From the first day of school, Lily longed for summer to arrive. Now that it was here, she couldn’t wait for it to be over. Vee was in Texas visiting relatives, and Lily’s other good friend, Tabitha Gordon, was in an all-day ballet camp in New York City. Since the Memorial Day Tournament, soccer was done, and Lily found the days to be hot, empty and endless.

  Her next soccer event was the upcoming July 4th tournament, but that was still two weeks away. Lily flopped down on Billy’s bottom bunk and gazed up at her favorite poster of the United States Women’s National Soccer Team, plastered above the desk. The USA team was in their white uniforms, arms wrapped around one another, sweaty and happy after another victory.

  Lily looked down on her arm and saw the remnants of her tattoo. Victory. Very funny, she thought. Only a hint of the V and part of the T were left. They looked like two oddly shaped birthmarks. Lily scratched at the V and thought about the tournament again. She hadn’t touched a soccer ball since she’d returned, and she’d never told Vee about her Colby adventures. She tried not to think about the loss or the missed PK, but she stifled a laugh when she remembered the security guards trying to catch Colby in the parking lot. She really is brave, Lily thought. And she was right: We didn’t get caught.

  Just then, Lily heard a ping from under a pile of sweatpants. It was her new Droid cell phone. Even though it was a big expense for her family, her mom and dad had finally gotten her one. They said it was a reward for learning to control her emotions better, on and off the field.

  Ping! Lily rummaged through the pile, knocking over shirts her mother had folded that morning, sending them flying into the air like popcorn. Vee didn’t have a cell phone and Tabitha wasn’t allowed to text during her dance camp. Who could it be?

  When Lily finally found the little black phone, she didn’t recognize the number. The area code was 516.

  Where is that? Lily wondered. But, it didn’t take her long to figure out who the sender was.

  “Been to any good hot tubs lately, girl?”

  It had to be Colby.

  Lily was excited to get a text, but couldn’t imagine how Colby had gotten her number. She asked her.

  “Coach,” was the immediate reply. “Invited me to play 7/4. Psyched.”

  That meant Colby was on the roster for the July 4th tournament in Canada. Well, that’ll take care of my boredom, Lily thought.

  Suddenly, Lily’s phone rang. She nearly dropped it in surprise.

  “Hello,” she answered.

  “It’s me, Colby. How’s it going?”

  “Good,” Lily said. “But, actually, really boring.”

  “Yeah, me too,” Colby said. “Nothing going on here, either.”

  “If you were here, we could go kick around,” Lily said.

  There was a brief pause, and then Colby spoke.

  “Well, I was thinking, maybe I should come to your house for a visit. You live in Brookville, right?”

  “Are you serious?” Lily asked.

  She was. Colby wasn’t doing any camps until later in the summer, so her parents had agreed to drive her into New York City. She could take the bus up to see Lily if Lily’s Mom and Dad said it was okay. Colby had lied and told her parents there was soccer practice for the July 4th tournament.

  “Call you right back.” Lily hung up and ran to find her mother before she started filming.

  “Mom!” she yelled, galloping down the hallway. “Mom!”

  “What! What is it?” Toni James answered, instantly worried. “Why are you yelling? Are you hurt?” Lily’s mom always thought Lily was hurt.

  “No, I’m fine. I need to ask you something.”

  “Not now, I’m about to go on the air.” She was preparing her dissection tools.

  “No, I need to ask you something supremely important.”

  “Later,” her mom answered, turning back to her work.

  “Mom. Pleeeeease. My friend Colby from soccer wants to come and visit for a few days. Can she, Mom? Please, please, please?”

  “LJ, I don’t have time for this right now.”

  “Please just say yes, Mom. She can stay in Billy’s room with me. I’ll donate clothes. Clean the whole house. Everything. Anything. I promise. I’ll be nice to Billy. I’ll let Pop Pop watch his shows. Please, just say yes.”

  Toni James shook her head in resignation.

  “I have a lot of work this week, and your grandfather isn’t feeling very well. I have to take him back to the pulmonologist. I don’t have time to entertain you and your friend. I’m sorry.”

  “We won’t be any trouble, Mom, I promise. Please just say yes.”

  “Okay,” she sighed.

  “Okay? That’s a yes? She can come?”

  “Yes, that’s a yes. She can come. But please understand, there’s a lot going on and I need you girls to entertain yourselves.”

  “We will, I promise.”

  Chapter 7.

  Lily James had to cut quite a deal with her nine-year-old brother Billy to convince him to sleep on the couch. She had to clear his dishes for a week, help him finish his endless Lego Death Star, and catch twenty-five fireflies. Plus, she had her usual chores: She had to vacuum the living room, organize her books, pull weeds, and wash windows at Katerina’s, her father’s restaurant downtown. She was going to be busy, but she knew it was totally worth it to have Colby come and visit.

  Lily laughed when her Dad, Liam, saw Colby’s hair for the first time and did a doozey of a double take. The red stripe was now bright green and the tips of the short, cropped part were neon yellow. But Colby won him over quickly by being a great eater and complimenting his cooking. Food was the fastest way to Liam James’s heart.

  Colby even played a few heated games of backgammon with Pop Pop, who was surprisingly crafty. Things did get a little testy when Colby and Pop Pop didn’t agree on who should get sent home on Idol, but it had been a good visit so far. Lily was relieved Colby didn’t want to sneak out of the house or anything. Still, after a few days of hanging around and talking soccer, the girls were restless.

  “Mom, can we go to town today?” Lily asked at breakfast.

  “That’s a great idea,” her mom answered. “I have to take Pop Pop to the doctor, anyway.”

  “Can I come?” Billy asked Lily and Colby. “I want to get the new Asterix comic from Longo’s Store. It’s the Fall of Rome.”

  Lily was about to answer yes when Colby came out with a whopper.

  “Oh, Billy, we’d love for you to come, but I think some of the Bombers are meeting up in town to work on our community service projects. It’ll be so boring for you.”

  Lily’s eyes went wide. There was no meeting and no community service planning that she knew about. But she went along with the story.

  “We’ll read tonight, Bill, after Colby leaves,” Lily said. Her brother’s long face was hidden by a shock of ginger hair. “Seriously. Maybe I’ll even pick it up for you?”

  Billy shrugged.

  “Yeah, Billy, let them have some girl time. Girls, I love the idea of community service projects. Was that yours, Colby?” Lily’s mom asked.

  “Well, not entirely. The whole team wants to give back,” Colby lied.

  “How wonderful,” Toni James said. “So, Lily please keep your snazzy new little phone close and check in with your father when you’re in town. We’ll be back this afternoon.”

  “Okay, Mom,” Lily answered.

  The walk to Brookville was just a few blocks. Lily was excited to show Colby around. Lily thought Brookville was a beautiful little town, full of cute shops and caf�s. It had an old-fashioned main street with a park, a soda fountain, Longo’s comic store, and, of course, her dad’s restaurant, Katerina’s. Lily was saving that for lunchtime, when they could have anything off the menu for free!

  As they waited to cross the street, a commuter bus barreled past. It pulled over and idled at the bus stop a few feet away.

  “I have a great idea,” Colby said. Grabbing Lily by the arm, she dragged her to the open bus door.

  “This the bus to New York City?” Colby asked the driver. It was a lady. She raised a tired finger to the electronic sign above her head, which read: MANHATTAN EXPRESS/MIDTOWN.

  “Perfect,” Colby said, fishing in her pocket. She pulled out a yellow MetroCard. “I’ll pay for both of us.”

  “Colby, what are you doing?” Lily asked in alarm as her friend pulled her onto the bus.

  “Oh, my dad got me the card. It’s cool.”

  “No, I mean, where are we going? I thought we were just walking to town?”

  “We said we were going to town; we didn’t say which town. Come on, it’ll be fun,” Colby answered, bolting to the back of the bus and finding the entire row empty. The doors shut behind Lily while she was still in the stairwell.

  Lily followed Colby and said in a low voice, “Colby, my mom doesn’t let me go to New York City, not by myself. She’s going to freak.”

  “She’s not even going to know,” Colby said, stretching out on the seats. “This is the bus I took to get here. I know where it stops. There’s a super cool arcade right there. We’ll go, check it out, come back in a few hours, and no one will even know.”

  Lily looked out the grimy bus window. The scenery was changing quickly as they traveled south from Westchester County. Apartment buildings and industrial shops replaced leafy trees. It was too late for her to get off now. Anyway, she had no idea how to get home. She did know that Manhattan was about half an hour away. If they didn’t stay very long and got right back on the bus, they could be home in a few hours, long before Lily’s mom returned.

  The arcade was right where Colby said it would be. Lily started to relax a little. Using the ten dollar bill she’d brought, she bought eight dollars’ worth of tokens and played Space Duel, Dragon’s Lair, Moon Patrol, and a long battle of air hockey with Colby. The girls used the last two dollars for an ice cream sandwich and headed back to the bus stop.

  Lily’s phone began to vibrate in her pocket. She looked at the screen.

  MOM CELL.

  A taxi blared its horn at a passing fire truck. Lily had to cover her ears to block the siren. She went to answer the call.

  “No! Don’t.” Colby said, and hit the ignore button on the phone. “She’ll hear all the sirens and horns and know where we are. Nowhere sounds like this but New York City. Text her.”

  “My mom is better at bugs than technology. She doesn’t text.”

  “Well, whatever you do, don’t answer now.”

  Lily knew Colby was right, but felt terrible not picking up her mother’s call. The phone vibrated again.

  “Leave it,” Colby warned. “Wait until we get back to Brookville. Even the bus will be too obvious.”

  The bus to Brookville pulled up as if on cue. Lily sighed and looked at her phone’s clock. It was 2 PM. With any luck, they’d be home by three. The phone buzzed again, and Lily could feel her mother’s worry vibrating through the little machine. Colby reached over and turned it off.

  “We’ll be back soon; no one’s going to know. We’re not going to get caught, Lily.”

  The ride to Manhattan had taken about 25 minutes, but the journey home was more like two hours. The bus crawled along, stuck in rush hour traffic and slowed down by an accident on the highway. Colby said she would handle everything with Lily’s parents, but all Lily cared about was getting home and making sure her mother wasn’t a total mess.

  They leapt off the bus at close to four and sprinted the distance to the James home. Billy was outside on his skateboard. He gave Lily a puzzled look as she and Colby ran down the street.

  “She’s home,” Lily heard her brother yell. Seconds later, Lily’s parents burst through the front door.

  “LJ!” Her mother ran down the steps. “Where have you been? I’ve been calling you for hours. Your father said you didn’t come to Katerina’s for lunch. I’ve been worried out of my mind!”

  Her mother grabbed Lily into a tight hug. When she pulled back, Lily saw tears in her eyes.

  “Mom, we’re fine. Really,” Lily said weakly.

  Colby kicked right into gear. “Oh, Mrs. James, this is all my fault. We went to town, but then we were horsing around behind the school, where we maybe shouldn’t have been, and by mistake, I knocked Lily’s phone out of her hand and down a gutter. Luckily it didn’t fall into any water, but we couldn’t reach it. We could hear it ringing too, and Lily was dying to answer it, but it took so long for us to get it out. It’s all my fault. I should have been more careful.”

  “So you guys were at the school this entire time?”

  “Yeah, we tried everything to get the phone out. Lily told me how important it was to her. We didn’t want to come home without it,” Colby lied.

  “Why didn’t you just use her phone?” Billy asked, pointing at Colby.

  “Oh, I forgot to charge it last night. Battery’s dead,” Colby answered without missing a beat.

  Toni James looked at Colby for a long minute, and then turned to Lily. “This true?” she asked her daughter.

  Lily hated lying to her mother, but she didn’t know where the truth was hiding anymore. She nodded and picked at her cuticle, unable to meet her mother’s gaze.

  “Did you get my comic book at least?” Billy asked, a telling look on his face.

  “Oh. No,” Lily said, finally happy to tell the truth. “I totally forgot.”

  Chapter 8.

  “Mom, Billy’s not helping,” Lily complained, carrying another pile of clothes down the stairs.

  “Oh, he’s too involved with that comic book you got him last night. That was nice of you,” Toni James said. Lily glanced at her brother, who was curled up on the living room couch. Lily had gone with her father to get the Asterix comic book for Billy after dropping Colby off at the bus stop, and Billy hadn’t put it down since.