Beauty tip: Make sure to wash your face every night
before bed, even if it's really late and you don't feel like it.
and then Sunny's chocolate-chip birthday cake, we're all in pajamas in Sunny's upstairs playroom. Sunny's house is three floors, and the bottom one is totally under construction. Sunny's mom has been working on it for months, and I like seeing the progress.
Right now it's being painted. One room is going to have all red walls, and another is going to have pale yellow. And Sunny's mom is getting this really big, comfy couch that will wrap all the way around the red room.
They already have a big-screen TV, but they're getting a flat-screen, one that hangs from the ceiling. And Yamir begged for a karaoke machine, so they're getting that too. Sometimes I'll get little pangs of jealousy when I think about all the stuff Sunny has. But then the feeling kind of fades away because Sunny never brags about it; she doesn't even talk about it that much. Truthfully, I bring it up more than she does.
This is the first time Mallory's been to Sunny's house, so she's looking at everything really closely. She's fascinated with all of the little statues of the Hindu gods and the Indian paintings on the walls, and she keeps commenting on them. I think they're cool, but I've seen them so many times that I don't even notice them anymore.
Sunny hasn't brought up Evan again, but it's probably because her parents have been around the whole time. I'm just waiting for her to mention it again. I know this isn't just a Sunny and Lucy discussion. She wasn't satisfied with our talk before, which is good because I need the other girls to help me pump her up in the confidence department.
We watch the DVD of our fifth-grade play, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, because Sunny loves watching old home movies. She pauses it fifty million times so we can see ourselves close-up. At first she only pauses it when we're on, so we can see ourselves, but then she pauses it on a solo, one of Charlie Brown's solos. I'd completely forgotten, but now I remember.
Evan Mass played Charlie Brown.
"Okay, I have an announcement to make," Sunny says. "I think I'm in love with Charlie Brown."
We all laugh, even me. But I obviously know what's coming.
"The play, or the comic?" Cassandra asks. She's never exactly been the sharpest tool in the shed. I hate to say it, but it's true.
Megan hits her. "Cass, come on." Megan looks over at Sunny and then back at Cassandra.
"Ohhhhh," Cassandra says, dragging out the word for way too long.
"Wait." Mallory looks around at each of us. "Is that Evan Mass?"
"Yup," Megan says. "He's in all the plays, and he always gets the lead. I think he takes voice lessons."
"I had to tell you guys." Sunny's staring at the TV, smiling. She gets up from the couch and moves closer to it. She's making smooching sounds, and then she literally walks up to the TV and kisses it.
Everyone laughs hysterically. No one would have expected that, especially from Sunny.
"Well, you're lucky that we have different people in all of our classes in seventh grade. It was so stupid that sixth graders had, like, almost all the same people in every class," Megan says. "This way you can, like, ask him for help with your homework, or something."
"That is such a good idea!" Sunny finally unpauses the DVD. "Megan, you're a genius."
We start watching the rest of the play, but then Sunny pauses it again, not stopping at anything specific. "Will I be able to do that, though?" Everyone looks a little confused, like they don't know what she's talking about. "Is that, like, a thing girls do? Ask boys for help with homework? Why wouldn't I just ask one of my friends?"
"It's just a way to get you to talk to him," Megan says, sounding like she's a professional love counselor.
Sunny sits up straight, almost like she's posing. "Okay." She takes a deep breath and lets it out. "No, I don't think I can do this, guys. Really."
"Why not?" I blurt out. I hate when Sunny gets like this.
"I don't know. He just won't like me. I know he won't. I couldn't even talk to him at Earth Club. It was like my mouth shut off," Sunny says.
For the rest of the night, we keep trying to convince her that she has a chance with Evan. But we're not having any luck so far.