I stuck by that brat for the rest of the day, despite my strong feelings of resentment toward Juliet. I tried various methods of resistance, but it was hopeless. When someone like Juliet is sharing your room and has access to all your stuff (meaning she could destroy it all in a second), it's using your best judgment to pretty much agree with whatever diabolical scheme they might want to concoct.
So when Juliet wanted to head down to the mall 3 blocks away, I agreed. When she wanted to go see if they had a Raspberry River store (they did), I agreed. When she wanted me to help her find a new outfit, I agreed. ("So you're a nerd, Mick, but your style's okay.") What I wondered was, how much money did the girl have? I mean, she bought 7 pairs of Victoria's Secret pajamas and still had money to spend on new outfits? She had to be loaded!
But when she wanted me to lend her $25 for another outfit she saw at Glitter and Stuff, I drew the line. I didn't trust her that much, though we had made progress, I thought. Juliet looked mad. "Oh, Mick," she whined. "This outfit would look so good on me! Please?!" I shook my head. Nope. Not happening. I was sick of this. So we headed home.
It was dinnertime when we got there. So we sat down and ate a nice, pleasant dinner. Not. With Juliet around, that wasn't even a possibility! We hadn't had a nice dinner since Juliet had come here.
We headed to the living room after dinner for our family time. It was Juliet's turn to pick the game. Great. She'd probably pick something stupid. "Don't you guys have any good games?" she whined, sifting through our games. It seemed like all she every did was whine! "This is what we have," said Mom. "How about Scrabble?" Juliet pouted and shoved the game toward us.
All through the game, Juliet kept spelling out words like stupid, boring, idiot, etc. So I spelled out superficial, referring, of course, to Juliet, and earned 29 points. I won that round.
After that we kids all went downstairs and had a N64 tournament. Clarisa, our video game fiend, won most of the games, but was beaten out by Tara, who went on to win. "Aw, nutmuffins!" yelled Clarisa, making up another of her trademark hilariously cool words. "If only I had used that mega power surge! I could have won!"
Tara smiled. "You would have lost anyway, because of Blueberry Mountain. You do know that shortcut, don't you?" Clarisa was puzzled. "No, I don't," she said. Tara grabbed her controller. "Here, I'll show you," she said. "It's easy, if you just remember to veer off to the right when you get off the staircase." Clarisa was amazed at Tara's video game knowledge, and in heaven to finally meet someone who liked video games as much as her.
"Get this," I whispered to Rachel, as Tara talked Reese through different points of the game. "Juliet is still at it. You'd think she'd know when to stop." I explained what happened during my time with Juliet. "Jeesh," said Rachel. "Some people have no lives."
"So," said Tara, "by taking that one shortcut at Blueberry Mountain, you save yourself from having to go through Pine Point, which always slows everyone down. Plus, it's shorter, so it chops about a minute and a half off your course completion time." "Wow!" said Reese. "That's awesome! Know any more good secrets?" "Like Clarisa and Tara," Rachel said loudly. "What?" they both asking, hearing their names. Rae and I laughed. "Nothing!"
So Reese and Tara spent the rest of the night exchanging secrets for Nintendo. While they were chatting it up, having a blast, Juliet and I were still at each other's throats. When would she realize she'd been such a jerk and give in already?!
On Friday (two days before Juliet left), she dragged me to the mall again. She wanted my opinion on everything! "What do you think of this hat? Totally stupid?" "Would you ever wear this shirt?" "These pants--fashionably ripped or straight from the ghetto?" I wondered why Juliet cared what I thought. I gave her my thoughts.
Then we sat down at the food court. "Oh, shoot, I forgot something," Juliet said. "Be right back." Knowing that she didn't know her way around the mall and could very easily get lost and I'd never see her again, something still compelled me to ask, "Want me to come with?" "No, no," Juliet said. "But could I borrow ten bucks?" I forked over the money. I don't know why.
When Juliet came back, she had 5 more bags! So she really hadn't needed my ten dollars! "What'd you forget?" I asked. "Stuff," said Juliet. "Like...?" I prompted. "Things." "It's my money. I deserve to know what you bought!" "No!" That was it. I grabbed her bags and dumped the contents onto the table. I was shocked.
Everything I'd commented that I'd liked, Juliet had bought! She'd remember it all! "It's--it's for you," she said. "I want to apologize. Is it totally hopeless?" I shook my head. Juliet sat down on a chair. "I was a huge jerk. I don't even know why! All my life I've been spoiled rotten. I expected that here. But it took until now to realize that I shouldn't expect special treatment just for being alive. You guys can't have everything you always wanted, and you seem happy. So I shouldn't be spoiled. Anyway, I know this isn't much, but it's everything you wanted. At least, all that I know about." She handed me the bags.
"I hope it makes up for the brat I've been. Also, your birthday was last month. So I'm saying happy birthday to my favorite cousin." I was her favorite?!
"Listen, don't get me wrong, I know I'm responsible for 98.76529841% of the goings-on--" I giggled. "--And I don't mean to blame you, but after I was a brat to you, you weren't exactly nice to me. I can understand. I was terrible...." I nodded. I knew what she meant. About me, I mean. So I jumped in. "I'm sorry too," I said. "Even if you weren't friendly to me right off the bat, I should have kept trying. I'm sorry I was rude to you." I gave her a hug. She and Tara were my favorite cousins too. So what if they were some of the only cousins I'd ever met?! I still liked them best!
"So now that we're friends, what do you say we shop like it?" Juliet asked. "Definitely!" I said, and we headed toward Train Wreck, my fave store. Who cared if Rachel was the family shopping addict? I wasn't doing this for the clothes. I was doing it to be with Juliet. I wondered what Mom and Dad would say. Who cared?! Juliet and I were friends!
When we got home Juliet let me have my bed back. She stopped with the perfume. She let us have our lives back. Too bad she was only like this for 2 days!
When we went to the airport on Sunday, I was disappointed. I followed Juliet into the boarding hallway. "I talked to Sam again before I left," Juliet said. "Juliet!" I yelled. She grinned. "I think you'll find it wasn't all bad." She turned and walked toward the plane. "Hey!" I said, and she turned around. "I'll write." Juliet grinned again. "Bye...Mick!" I just laughed and headed back to my family.
When I got home, Sam was waiting on my step. When everyone was gone, he led me to his backyard. Then he kissed me! "Your cousin's great," he said. "But I like you." I couldn't have asked for a better two weeks.
The following Tuesday I was really missing Juliet and Tara. And that's when it came! A letter! There was a note inside that read, I hope Sam gave you your "present". Turns out he liked you. And has for a year! Anyway, here's your ten bucks. And here's what I had to borrow it for. Enjoy this, your clothes, and *ahem ahem* Sam. Love always, your cousin, Juliet Willoughby. I looked inside the envelope. There was a gold locket! Inside was a picture of Juliet on one side and me on the other. Engraved inside was, Best Friends Forever. It was exactly right. The locket, the whole week, and especially the engraving. Aleesa and Ally were good friends, yes, but Juliet always would be my best, best friend. I turned the envelope around. On the front it read, Mikayla Clorenson. I smiled. Then I called Juliet. "Hey," I said. "Got your letter. What happened to Mick?"
When I got off the phone (2 hours later!) Dad came into my room. "Kayla," he said. "I'm glad you and Juliet worked things out. Because, um... my brother's coming to visit and he has a daughter your age...."
Three days later we were at the airport again. "Hi!" said the girl. "I'm Zoe." Was I up for this again? Ha! I had just spent 2 weeks with Juliet Willoughby. I could survive Zoe Clorenson. I was up for anything. "Hi, Zoe," I said. "I'm Mikayla. Do you like shopping?"
