The final bell rang, and the students at Carver Middle School spilled out of their classrooms onto the sunny lawn. Tennis shoes and flip-flops trampled the grass dotted with dandelions. It was officially summer vacation, and no one had a care in the world as they met up with their friends to board the buses home.
Newly-minted eighth graders Jake Hammond, Avi Wood, Carrie McCallister, and Micah Adams found each other easily in the masses. They told everyone it was because they had a secret radar connection (they had known each other forever, after all), but it was actually just a matter of spotting Avi’s bright red hair. It was easier than looking for her face, because she always had her head down and her nose in a book.
As Avi turned another page, navigating to her bus on autopilot, she sensed a dark-skinned boy fall in step next to her.
“Reading already, Avi?” Jake teased. His glasses flashed in the sun. “You do know we’re on vacation now, right?”
Without looking up, she retorted, “Just because you let your brain rot over break doesn’t mean I have to.”
Jake’s smile widened at her response. He had no intention of letting his brain rot, but compared to Avi, it probably seemed that way. She read more books than anyone he knew. She had just gotten an end-of-the-year award from the school librarian for having the longest checkout list in the whole school — her name was on the announcements and everything. As the captain of the undefeated basketball team, Jake knew how it felt to have his name on the announcements for winning. It was pretty great.
“Avi, is he picking on you?” Carrie asked knowingly, coming up behind them. Her round, cheerful face was already flushed from the heat — it was unusually warm, almost 90 degrees — and strands of her golden-blond hair were sticking to her cheeks, but she didn’t seem bothered. It was very hard to get Carrie in a bad mood, especially when everyone around her was so excited.
“Nothing I can’t handle,” Avi assured her with a smile, her attention still on her book.
“What are you reading this time?” came Micah’s voice as he ran to catch up with them, his mop of shaggy brown curls bouncing. “A History of Light Switches? The Long and Boring Life of Whoever the Twenty-First President Was?”
“Chester A. Arthur,” Avi answered offhandedly. “And no, I’m rereading Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library.”
“Again?” he asked.
She shrugged. “What can I say? I love puzzles.”
That was true. Most of Avi’s favorite books — Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library, The Ring of Rocamadour, and Book Scavenger, to name just a few — featured puzzles and riddles that were right up her alley. Avi wasn’t happy unless she was thinking.
“Isn’t it boring, now that you know how it ends?” Carrie asked.
“But that’s what’s so great about it,” Avi insisted, looking up at last. “I can relive the thrill of solving the clues, go on the adventure again, pick up on details that I might have missed before — ”
“There’s the bus,” Jake interrupted.
They filed onto bus 40, hurrying to find empty seats together. Even though the bus was filling up fast with everyone excited to get home, they were in time to grab the last empty seats across the aisle from each other.
“I can’t wait until tonight,” Carrie said, sliding in next to Micah. The rhinestones on her dress caught the sun and made rainbow sparkles on the seat. “Mom thought of everything — popcorn, s’mores, she’s even getting our favorite pizza.”
“And I got the orange creamsicles for when we watch The Parent Trap,” Jake said. “This sleepover is going to be the best one ever!”
“And then summer vacation can officially begin,” Micah said, sinking back in his seat as the weight of the school year fell away. “Time for sleeping in, no homework, and hanging out at the pool.”
“I love summer,” Carrie sighed.
Avi turned another page as the bus doors closed.
“I spent all last night cleaning out the treehouse,” Carrie continued as the bus crawled out of the parking lot. “I swept out all the leaves and took extra pillows and blankets up. We should be good as long as it doesn’t stay this hot all night.”
“You got snacks?” Micah asked.
“Everything I could sneak out,” she affirmed. “Avi, you’re bringing your world-famous brownies, right?”
“With ice cream?” Micah added.
Her chapter done, Avi closed her book. “Bien sûr! I’m making them as soon as I get home so they’ll be fresh.”
“And so your brother doesn’t eat them all first,” Jake finished.
She grinned. “That too. Ben’s a bottomless pit.”
“Like somebody else we know,” Carrie said, nudging Micah.
Micah wasn’t fazed.
“Hey, encyclopedia-brain,” he said to Avi, “tell them Mr. Pittman’s joke from today!”
Immediately, Jake and Carrie were all ears. Mr. Pittman, their science teacher, was very popular because he was always telling stories and jokes. (He was also super-easy to steer off track during class!) The fun part was, he had different material every period so that no two classes were the same. Micah and Avi had his class together last period, so they usually shared his latest gags with their friends on the ride home.
“What did the cell say when his sister stepped on his toe?” Avi asked.
“I didn’t know cells had sisters,” Jake remarked.
“I guessed ‘ow,’” Micah said.
“I give up,” Carrie decided.
“My-toe-sis!” Avi said, giggling.
Carrie and Jake looked at each other and shrugged.
“You know,” Avi prompted, “mitosis? The process of cell division?”
“Ooohhhh,” they chorused.
“That’s terrible,” Carrie complained.
Micah patted her shoulder. “It’s okay. I don’t remember the big science words either.”
“Luckily, we have Avi for that,” Jake said. “She knows all kinds of weird words.”
“Just from reading,” Avi said modestly. “I wish I could get paid to sit and read all day. I’d be a millionaire — maybe even a billionaire.”
“You would know almost as much as me,” Micah said helpfully.
Jake rolled his eyes. “Didn’t you just say you don’t remember the big science words?”
“Yeah, but they’re not important,” Micah said. “You know what is important? The sleepover’s tonight.”
“The sleepover’s tonight,” Carrie repeated, savoring the words. “We made it through another year.”
“Seventh grade was tough,” Jake reflected, “but I bet it’s got nothing on eighth.”
“Maybe Aubrey can tell us what to expect,” Carrie suggested. She adored her big sister, and she knew that Aubrey would find a way to set everyone’s minds at ease. She was just that kind of person.
“Miles said they don’t cut you any slack,” Micah warned. (As far as he was concerned, the only advantage to having an older brother was that someone else had to test the waters.) “They push you harder and harder to get you ready for high school, and they don’t stop if you fall behind.”
He laid his head back on the seat. “Next year is gonna be so hard.”
“Then there’s only one thing to do,” Jake declared. “We’d better make this sleepover the best one yet… before we all die from eighth grade.”
“Oh, we will,” Carrie said confidently. “But maybe I won’t make the orange Jell-O this time, after what happened last year.”
Jake laughed. “Yeah, faceplanting into a tray of Jell-O is not the most dignified thing I’ve done.”
“I don’t know,” Micah said, his mood quickly returning to normal. “It was better than the time you slipped on chocolate pudding in the cafeteria.”
“A total waste of chocolate pudding,” Avi lamented.
Jake smacked his head on the seat in front of him. “I fell on my butt in front of the jocks’ table.”
“Oh, they know you’re cool,” Carrie assured him. “I mean, you’re a basketball star. I wouldn’t worry about it.”
“You made the yearbook,” Micah said helpfully.
Jake froze. “You’re kidding.”
Micah dug in his backpack for the yearbook he had gotten that morning, flipping to a page with a photo collage. “See?”
“For an athlete, you’re awfully clumsy,” Avi teased.
Jake groaned when he saw himself splattered with pudding for all the world to see. “Remind me to burn my yearbook when I get home.”
“It’s not so bad,” Carrie offered. “Come on, by the start of next year, everyone will have forgotten about it. For now, let’s focus on having the best sleepover ever.”
Micah leaned back so he could catch Jake’s eye behind Carrie’s head. “They’re still totally gonna remember it.”
The bus turned a corner, rumbling down its usual route home past familiar streets and houses. Everyone was chatting animatedly about their vacation plans, but Carrie, Jake, Micah, and Avi were sure that they were going to have the best time. They always did.