“So what does your mom say?” he asks.
“That’s the worst part, Jonah. I think she’s actually considering it.”
“Don’t stress, chica. It’ll be okay.”
“It won’t be okay,” I say. I bite my lip but I know he needs to know the real truth. “We can’t sell the store to Jack Brown. Then he would have won.”
“Won what?” Jonah asks.
As much as I hate this, I want Jonah to know the truth so that there are no secrets between us. I feel like a total idiot, but I go ahead and tell him about Caleb, and how his dad made him talk to me in an effort to get our store. Jonah listens, and I can practically hear the gears in his brain turning as he takes in all of this new information.
“So what’s why we can’t sell to him,” I say, my heart heavy with regret and anger. “If Mom wants to sell to someone else, I could probably be okay with it, but we can’t sell to Jack. He can’t win.”
“No, he can’t,” Jonah says. “That’s why we’re going to save your store. We’re going to make The Magpie so freaking profitable that your mom will never sell it to anyone.”
“How are we going to do that?” I say.
Jonah takes a breath. The phone shuffles, and I hear a page flip over in his notebook. “We’re going to come up with a plan.”
Chapter 25
Jonah and I spent the rest of the night talking on the phone and coming up with ideas to save the store. There’s no magic trick to success ere. Basically, we need to do exactly what I’ve been trying to do all year—earn more money. Get more sales. Find more customers. Spread the word.
I told Jonah there’s just no other option because I’ve tried them all, but he refused to believe that. He’s taken some free business classes at the local community college just for fun over his summer breaks, and he thinks that’ll help him find ways to generate more income. He swears he has new ideas for us to try, but we’ll need a few days for him to figure them out and make an official plan. That’s the difference with Jonah and me. I just go for it, trying out ideas randomly. He makes a plan. He’s probably typing up a spreadsheet before school starts.
When I meet with April the next morning for our walk to school, I don’t even know how to start telling her all the stuff she missed. The talk with Caleb, his obsessive texts, and the explosion with his dad. The offer to buy our business and most of all – the kiss. The glorious kiss I shared with Jonah.
As soon as I see her I smile and want to dive into telling her everything, but then my tongue gets stuck in my mouth. It’s just too much information to process right now.
“How’s your head?” I ask her.
“Finally better.” She makes this exhausted face and presses her palm to her forehead. “The migraines are the worst pain ever, and the drugs they give me for them aren’t much better. It takes away some of the pain, but it makes my body all warm and tingly. Feels like I’m sunburned all over.”
“Well, I’m glad to have you back,” I say as we walk.
“Did you actually go to school yesterday without me or did you ditch?” She eyes me suspiciously, probably trying to figure out if I’m lying or not.
Before I got busted by the AP, anytime April was sick or had a migraine, I didn’t bother going to school either. My reasoning was that it’s boring to walk alone and it’s also horrible to eat lunch in the cafeteria alone. Sure, I have some old friends from my junior year that I could probably sit with, but they’ve all pretty much ditched me since last summer when I dedicated all my time to the store. Plus, skipping school has always meant more time at the store.
I put my hands on my hips. “I’ll have you know, I went to school. And I went to every single class, and I actually did all my work, too.”
“Wow,” she says, her eyes going wide. “I can’t believe you’re taking this all so seriously. I mean, I’m glad you are, but when they set you up with that detention plan I just knew you’d blow it off.”
I shrug. “I really want to graduate. Plus, now I want Jonah’s tutoring to be appreciated.” I toss my hands in the air. “So what can I do? I have to go.”
“You and Jonah,” she says wistfully. “When are you going to finally admit to liking him?”
“Well…” I bite my lip and look over at her. We stop at an intersection. April puts a hand on her hip. “Well what? Don’t tell me you’re still in denial here.”
“I’m about as far from denial as you can get,” I tell her, unable to hide my grin.
“What does that mean?”
“It means we kissed.”
“You WHAT?” April grabs both of my arms and jumps up and down, oblivious to the traffic around us, mostly students who go to our school and can totally see us standing here looking like idiots.
“I need details!” she shrieks in a rare show of crazy emotion.
