Storms 01 - Family Storms

and egg omelet?” She grimaced and shook her head. “Or what I have?”
    “I’ll have what you have,” I said. I knew that on Sundays, she had a cup of fruit sorbet with a dab of whipped cream,coffee, and glazed doughnuts. Mrs. March always complained about the way Kiera ate.
    “She’ll have exactly the same as me, Mrs. Duval. Thank you very much.” After she hung up the phone, she laughed. “She didn’t sound pleased, but they’re here to please us, and not vice versa. I’m going to go take a quick shower. Oh,” she added at the door, “I sorta agreed we’d go to Disneyland today. Ricky’s getting his father’s SUV. It will hold us all. They’ll be here in about an hour.”
    “Disneyland?”
    “Yes. Have you ever been there?”
    “No, but … When will we return?”
    “I don’t know. What’s the difference?”
    “Homework left to do,” I said.
    “We’ll get to it when we can. If we can,” she added with a smile. She paused and tilted her head a little as she looked at me. “What are you wearing? I think Alena wore that to someone’s baptism. Don’t worry. When you come into my suite, I’ll have something better for you.”
    “Okay,” I said, and she left.
    I looked at the clothes I had put on. Mrs. March sort of suggested things for me to wear by organizing the front of the walk-in closet so I could go from outfit to outfit. I hadn’t thought much of it, but I certainly didn’t want to go to Disneyland dressed the way I would dress if I were going to a baptism.
    I had always wanted to go to Disneyland, but for Mama and me, it was too expensive after Daddy deserted us, and when he was still there, he never wanted to take me or spend the money. I imagined it would be more fungoing with Kiera and her friends, anyway. I knew it was at least an hour away. It would certainly take up the whole day.
    I gazed at the clarinet. Besides the homework I still had, I was also supposed to spend a good hour on the new music Mr. Denacio had given me to practice on the weekend. He was so good at detecting when you didn’t practice. Somehow, I thought, I’d get it all done.
    Before I went to Kiera’s suite to have breakfast, my phone rang. It was Mrs. March, and from the tone of her voice, I suspected that Mrs. Duval had called her as soon as she had hung up from Kiera’s call.
    “How are you this morning?” she asked.
    “I’m fine, Mrs. March.”
    “Where did she take you last night?”
    I told her about the restaurant and the movie and added that we had come right home after the movie. I also said that Kiera had driven carefully. Mrs. March was quiet a moment and then asked if any of Kiera’s friends had tried to get me to smoke something or take something.
    “No,” I said. “Nothing like that happened. They were all very nice.”
    “Nice?” she said, as if I had said something good about Nazis. “Just be very, very careful with them and with Kiera,” she reiterated. “Okay, we’ll be flying into L.A. about five. I look forward to seeing you at dinner and hearing more about your day and night.”
    It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her we were going to Disneyland, but I hesitated, and she said good-bye.
Oh, well,
I thought. Surely Kiera knew we had to be backby dinner. She knew when her parents were returning. It would be all right.
    She was still in her robe but drying her hair when I entered her suite.
    “Ricky called,” she said after she turned off the hair dryer. “He wanted to be sure you were coming along.”
    “Really?”
    “He says there’s something fresh about you.”
    “Fresh?”
    “I explained that you were a virgin,” she said, making it sound as if I had come from another country, maybe another planet.
    “Oh. What did he say?”
    “What do you think?” she asked. I waited. “He said too bad.”
    She laughed hard just as Mrs. Duval brought in our breakfast.
    “Perfect. Thank you, Mrs. Duval,” Kiera sang.
    Mrs. Duval looked at me as she put the tray on the table. “Be sure to take your vitamin,” she said. “Mrs. March was concerned.”
    “Oh, brother,” Kiera muttered loudly. “You’ve already told my mother what we’re eating for breakfast?”
    Mrs. Duval turned to her. “You should be taking your vitamins, too, Kiera, especially the way you eat.”
    “I don’t think I look so bad for it, Mrs. Duval.”
    “I’m not talking about the outside of you,” she replied.
    Kiera groaned.
    Mrs. Duval shook her head, looked at me with a