“Oh, no,” Camilla said softly. “I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah.” Olivia shrugged. “Me, too.”
“You sound like you could use some cheering up,” Camilla noted. “Why don’t we go bowling? I have a coupon for two free games. Ivy and Brendan can come, too.”
Olivia put her finger over the phone’s mouthpiece. “Camilla wants us all to go bowling,” she told them.
“I don’t feel like having fun,” Ivy said.
“Me, neither,” Olivia agreed.
“Will you twins come on?” Brendan protested. “Are you going to spend what might be your last few days together in Franklin Grove sulking and sighing? Or are you going to make the most of them?”
“I’m a professional sulker,” Ivy replied, smiling weakly.
“And I have a very dramatic sigh,” Olivia said, and sighed dramatically.
But Brendan wouldn’t take no for an answer. “You love bowling, Ivy. It’s the only sport with an all-black ball. And you dig the shoes.” His dark eyes shone as he looked at Ivy entreatingly.
“Okay,” Ivy conceded begrudgingly.
Why not? Olivia thought. She lifted the phone back to her ear. “Camilla? Prepare the gutters for our arrival.”
Brendan opened the door to the bowling alley, and the sounds of rolling balls and crashing pins poured out. Ivy’s eyes adjusted to the indoor light, and across the alley she spotted Sophia standing beside Camilla, grinning hopefully and clutching her camera. In fact, the two of them were surrounded by people from school.
“SURPRISE!” the crowd cried, and a banner unfurled from the ceiling: WE’LL MISS YOU, IVY! The hairs on Ivy’s neck stood on end. “You didn’t!” she cried across the bowling alley. Sophia’s camera flash fired and the whole crowd broke out laughing and clapping.
“And to think we didn’t even want to come!” Olivia whispered in awe beside her.
Sophia and Camilla ran up. “Sophia told me how much you love bowling,” Camilla explained as she gave Ivy a hug, “and my uncle owns the alley.”
“Camilla was like the funeral director of this whole thing,” Sophia admitted.
“I can’t believe you two didn’t tell me about this,” Olivia said, hugging Camilla. “I could have helped!”
“We wanted to plan it all on our own,” Camilla answered proudly. “Besides, you and Ivy have had other stuff going on, like Plans A through C.”
Camilla and Sophia led Ivy, Olivia, and Brendan to the far side of the bowling alley, which Ivy could now see was cordoned off with a black velvet rope. Everyone was there: Toby Decker and the rest of the staff of the Franklin Grove Scribe, her math study group, and the members of the planning committee for the All Hallows’ Ball.
Miss Everling from the library came up and squeezed Ivy’s shoulder. “So ‘your friend’ is moving, huh?” she said. “Well, there’s no reason she can’t come back to visit.” She stuck a gray pin on Ivy’s long-sleeved black shirt. It read Parlez-vous Anglais?
A few minutes later, Ivy was chatting with Melissa, who’d been head of the All Hallows’ Ball planning committee, when two loud cracks pierced the air. She turned to see Camilla standing in the middle of a bowling lane, holding a bowling pin in each hand. Sophia was beside her, holding something behind her back. Camilla cracked the pins together a third time, and the crowd quieted.
“Will our guest of honor please join us in lane nine,” Sophia called.
Ivy pressed through all her friends. Brendan squeezed her hand briefly as she passed. She was about to cross the line into lane nine when Sophia shook her head. “No, no, no,” she said playfully.
“No improper footwear in the lanes, please,” Camilla added.
Rolling her eyes, Ivy bent down, unlaced her boots, and shuffled onto the lane in her black socks.
“Anyone who knows Ivy,” Camilla said, raising her voice, “knows about her distinctive sense of style. What would look ridiculous on the rest of us looks cool on her.”
“And there is one accessory,” continued Sophia, “that she has always wanted.”
Camilla and Sophia both eyed Ivy’s feet meaningfully. “Bowling shoes!” they declared as one. Sophia produced a box from behind her back.
Ivy grabbed the box and tore off the lid. Inside was a pair of black-and-white bowling shoes with smooth rust-colored bottoms. These are killer! Ivy thought, immediately dropping them to the lane and slipping them on her feet. They were a perfect fit.
“Everyone chipped in,” Sophia told her.
Ivy looked out at the crowd of people smiling at her. “Thank you all so—” But she couldn’t continue. Tears began flowing down her cheeks.
Ivy looked up and glimpsed Garrick Stephens and the Beasts making their way through the crowd, but Garrick froze when he saw her bawling.
“We just wanted to say good-bye!” he protested. “If we’d known it would make you feel so grim, we never would have crashed the party.”
Everybody laughed, including Ivy. I bet there’s no one like Garrick Stephens in Europe, she thought.
“I’m even going to miss you Beasts,” Ivy said, smiling through her tears. Olivia crept onto the lane and handed her a tissue. Ivy wiped her eyes, and the tissue came away black with eye makeup.
“I’m so lucky,” Ivy said as loudly as she could, “to have friends like all of you. I really, really don’t want to move. But at least I’ll be able to go, knowing that there are people here who love me.”
Sophia gave her a huge hug, and Camilla, Brendan, and Olivia piled on.
“You’ll always have friends in Franklin Grove,” Sophia said in her ear.
“You mean you guys aren’t going to chain yourselves to my dad’s car?” Ivy teased.
“We might.” Sophia smiled tearily.
Finally the five of them separated and faced the crowd, their arms around one another.
“I’ll never forget any of you,” Ivy promised. She wiped her eyes one more time and raised her arms in the air. “Now, let’s bowl!”
Chapter 9
Olivia and Ivy sat together on a bench as the last guests milled around.
Toby Decker came up to say good-bye. “Interested in writing a regular guest column for the Scribe about what it’s like to be a Franklin Grover in Europe?” Toby asked with a grin.