My Summer of Pink & Green Read online

  is a problem solver. She’s mastered every makeup crisis in town, her best friend has her first boyfriend (thanks to Lucy’s love advice), and best of all, she won a grant that will enable her family to transform their pharmacy into a modern eco-spa. Life couldn’t be better for the budding entrepreneur.

  But things aren’t perfect for long. Lucy’s sister and her best friend would rather hang out with their boyfriends than with Lucy—leaving her with the spa investor’s extremely irritating daughter. Plus there’s a new coordinator in charge of the renovations, who pushes her gently but firmly aside. Even with all the changes the family’s going through, no one seems to want Lucy’s problem-solving expertise.

  What’s a girl to do? It’s time for another Lucy Desberg makeover. But this time, it’s a life makeover.

  PUBLISHER’S NOTE: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for and may be obtained from the Library of Congress.

  ISBN: 978-1-4197-0413-0

  Text copyright © 2013 Lisa Greenwald

  Photography copyright © 2013 Jonathan Beckerman

  Book design by Chad W. Beckerman

  Published in 2013 by Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher. Amulet Books and Amulet Paperbacks are registered trademarks of Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

  Amulet Books are available at special discounts when purchased in quantity for premiums and promotions as well as fundraising or educational use. Special editions can also be created to specification. For details, contact [email protected] or the address below.

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  New York, NY 10011

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  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  but it doesn’t feel like summer yet. It will soon, though. As soon as Claudia drives up and gets out of the car and runs to hug me, then it will feel like summer. The best feeling in the whole, entire world.

  “It’s gonna be a Jetta,” Yamir says. “College kids always drive Jettas.” We’re sitting on my front porch drinking my mom’s famous homemade mint iced tea: me; my best friend, Sunny Ramal; her brother, Yamir; and our friend Evan. He’s pretty much Sunny’s boyfriend, but we’re all friends with him too. The others always turn their noses up at the mint iced tea, but once it’s in the special tall glasses with little pieces of mint floating on the top, they can’t resist. It’s just too refreshing.

  “I don’t think so; Jettas are fancy, aren’t they?” I ask. We’re guessing cars because Claudia’s driving home with a friend from school. If Claudia were flying home from Chicago, we’d pick her up at the airport and I’d even make one of those name signs that professional drivers use. But she got a ride home instead. Mom and Grandma were all worried about the long drive, and they insisted that she stop and stay overnight somewhere. Her friend Lauren is the one driving her; she lives in Fairfield, which is like an hour from here.

  “It’s gonna be some old car,” Sunny says, standing up. She wants to be the first one to see Claudia coming, but I don’t see how that’s going to happen if we don’t even know what car she’s coming in.

  “No way,” I add. “Girls named Lauren don’t have beat-up old cars. Maybe a Honda, but a new one.”

  “Maybe it’s a motorcycle!” Evan shouts. “Wouldn’t that be hilarious?”

  I give him a stare-down. “No, Evan Mass, it would not be hilarious, because my mom and grandma would probably pass out from shock. Then we’d have to take them to the hospital.” I keep up my stare-down. If he’s going to be my best friend’s boyfriend, then he can’t say dumb things like that. “Motorcycles are really dangerous, you know.”

  He cracks up, and Sunny and Yamir do too.

  I don’t see what’s so funny. “They are. I’m serious.”

  Sunny pats my knee. “He was just kidding, Lucy.”

  Thankfully my mom comes out with a tray holding a full pitcher of more mint iced tea and a bowl of strawberries and breaks the tension. “Hungry?” she asks. When none of us answer, she says, “You know, you guys can go swimming. I’m sure Claudia will come on back when she gets here.”

  The pool! OK, I changed my mind. It will really feel like summer when we’re all in the pool. Claudia will probably run inside and throw on her favorite red-and-white gingham bikini and then she’ll race out to join us. We’ll have diving contests and make Sunny be the judge. She always gives me a ten. And we’ll go down the spiral slide a billion times. Sometimes I even sit on Claudia’s lap when we go down the spiral slide. It makes Grandma nervous, but we do it anyway.

  Claudia’s friends will come over and BBQ like crazy—Grandma always lets them use the grill even though she says I’m not old enough. They’ll make hamburgers and hot dogs, and portobello burgers for their vegetarian friends. They’ll hang out for hours, and they’ll let me hang out with them too, some of the time.

  It will feel like summer will last forever, and I’ll keep telling myself that it won’t last forever but that I need to appreciate it and savor every second: every sip of Mom’s iced tea, every trip down the spiral slide, every diving contest.

  “She’s here!” I scream. I know it’s her because the windows are rolled down and her head is out the front passenger side like she’s a golden retriever.

  They pull into the driveway.

  “A Subaru!” Yamir says. “We should have known. College kids always drive Subarus.”

  I don’t even care to discuss with him about how he knows that. I’m too excited to see Claudia, to give her hugs, to talk to her about everything—especially the opening of the spa—that I just don’t have time to deal with Yamir.

  He’s been so weird lately. He doesn’t get why it’s such a big deal that Claudia’s coming home. He takes it for granted that his sister is home all the time, but I haven’t seen Claudia since September, since she didn’t come home for Thanksgiving. Then she was in El Salvador over winter break, and she went to Ghana for spring break. For an eighteen-year-old, she travels a lot.

  I run over to the car and Claudia hops out and we hug for a million years like I thought we would. “I missed you so much,” I whisper in her ear.

  “I missed you too, Luce!”

  Her friend Lauren starts unloading the trunk and I’m thankful that Yamir goes over to help. He can be a gentleman sometimes, but then other times he can act like a complete doofus. Grandma says that’s just how boys his age act. But I don’t really believe her—can’t he just act nicer? For me?

  “These are yours, right, Claud?” Lauren asks her, ho
lding up a duffel. Claudia looks over, and that’s when I notice that there’s another person here. A tall, skinny guy, standing right near the car talking to Evan about the Subaru’s muffler or something.

  “Yeah, those are mine. Bean’s are the ones in the backseat.”

  “Bean is here?” I ask without thinking.

  Claudia does a head-jerk motion in his direction, trying to get his attention, and he comes over to where we’re standing. I look around for Mom and Grandma. The moment we’ve all been waiting for—Claudia coming home—is finally here!

  “You must be Lucy,” this Bean guy says, with a hand up to high-five me.

  “I am.” I smile and high-five him back. “And you must be Bean? Well, duh, I mean I know you’re Bean, Claudia just said that. But I remember your name. Claudia said you helped look over the grant application a few months ago.”

  “I did. I did.” He nods like he’s so proud of himself. “I’m pre-law.”

  “Huh?”

  “It means he’s going to be a lawyer, Lucy,” Claudia explains.

  I feel stupid. I could have figured that out.

  “But it’s a dual major with the business school,” Bean adds.

  I nod. Bean sounds like he’s on a job interview. I’m not really concerned with his major right now. It’s summer! He shouldn’t be thinking about school anyway.

  “Welcome home!” Mom yells, running outside, a dish towel over her right shoulder. “Ma, Claudia’s home!” she yells back into the house.

  A few seconds later, Grandma comes out, and then we’re all together. I don’t even realize that Sunny, Yamir, and Evan went back onto the porch until I hear the click of Yamir’s iPhone camera taking a picture of all of us standing around in the driveway.

  “Such a photo op,” he says with a grin. “Right, Luce-Juice? You’re all about the photo ops, especially one like this.”

  Sometimes I feel like Yamir knows the right thing to do and he does it, but then he says something obnoxious while doing it, and that takes all the goodness out of it.

  “Thanks.” I put my hand on my hip and go into a model pose and he snaps another shot.

  “So, Mom, Grandma,” Claudia starts. “This is my friend Lauren, and this is Bean.”

  I wonder why Claudia doesn’t refer to Bean as her friend.

  “Lovely to meet you, thank you for driving her home, Lauren,” Grandma says. “You probably want to get going. I bet your parents are worried sick about you doing so much driving and all the crazies on the road.”

  “Grams, it’s OK.” Claudia pats her shoulder. “She’s meeting them nearby, and then they’re going to their beach house in Newport for the summer.”

  “That’s lovely,” Mom says. Everything’s lovely, apparently.

  I’m still standing there, wondering if it’s too soon to go change into bathing suits and jump in the pool. I wish Lauren and Bean would just leave already so I could have Claudia to myself.

  “What a lovely tote,” Mom says about this long bag that Lauren has over her shoulder. It’s just a canvas tote with the word Tranquility embroidered in pink letters. It’s nothing that special, really.

  “Thanks. It’s from Etsy.” Lauren smiles. “It’s basically the only place I shop these days.”

  “Oh, I know,” Mom says. “It’s just so fabulous that artists can sell directly to—”

  “So, Mom, Grandma, Lucy,” Claudia interrupts, thankfully, because this conversation about Lauren’s tote bag was getting really boring for everyone except Lauren and Mom. “I know this may come as a shock to you, but it was a really last-minute decision.”

  I look at Claudia and then at Bean and I start to get a bad feeling.

  Did they elope?

  “I invited Bean to come stay with us for the summer.”

  I gasp. I feel like someone sucked all the water out of our perfect pool with a straw and there will never be water in it again. Everything I had been looking forward to just evaporated.

  “What?” I ask.

  Claudia ignores me and looks at Mom and Grandma, who haven’t said anything. After a second she continues. “Bean has a great mind for business and he’s going to be a huge help with the opening of the spa. His parents travel a lot for work, so there was really no point in him going back to Pittsburgh.”

  Grandma seems skeptical, but Mom nods like it’s a totally genius idea.

  “And we’re in love,” Claudia says, grabbing Bean’s hand. “We’re really in love.”

  “What?” I ask again. She cannot be serious. She’s in love with Bean? First of all, what kind of a name is Bean? He’s probably called that because he looks like a string bean. A long, skinny, dried-out string bean.

  “Oh, that is wonderful, Claudia,” Mom says. “I remember when your father and I felt like that. Like we could conquer the world together.”

  When Mom brings up Dad in this fairy-tale, romantic comedy kind of way, I wonder why their relationship isn’t like that now. I get all these hopeful thoughts and start to think that maybe it will be like that again someday. But I hate to think like that, because it means I’ll just get my hopes up and then be disappointed again. Dad lives in England and has this big, important professor job there. I don’t know if he’ll ever be able to come back permanently, or even if he’d really want to.

  Grandma shoots Mom a look and shakes her head. I can almost read her thoughts. They’re saying: And I remember when you had no money and lived here and had your head in the clouds.

  “Jane, may I have a word with you, please?” Grandma asks, and takes Mom’s hand and leads her to the side of the house. I need to walk away too, so I go and join Sunny, Evan, and Yamir on the porch.

  “What’s going on?” Sunny asks. “And can we go swim? It’s really hot out here.”

  I plop down on the porch, not even caring if I get any splinters in my legs. “Bean is staying with us for the summer. They’re in love. Can you believe it?”

  “Really?” Sunny asks.

  Evan and Yamir don’t have anything to say. Clearly they don’t understand why this is a big deal.

  “Yup. Unless my mom and grandma say no or something. But I doubt they’ll do that.”

  “Maybe he’ll be cool to have around,” Sunny says. “Maybe he can be your chauffeur. You can even make him wear a hat and open doors for you.”

  I roll my eyes at her. “We don’t have an extra car, but good thought.”

  No one else says anything. We’re just sitting here staring at Claudia, Lauren, and Bean in the driveway. Bean looks nervous.

  “Bye, Lucy,” Lauren yells. “Nice to meet you!”

  I wave good-bye and Lauren gets back in the car and drives away. Bean’s and Claudia’s bags are just sitting in the driveway now. If Grandma and Mom do say no to Bean staying, I have no idea how he’ll get home. Lauren’s off to her fabulous beach house and we’re stuck with Bean.

  We have so much work to do. The ground-breaking ceremony for the spa is tomorrow, and we waited until Claudia got home before having it. It’s two weeks later than it should have been because she claimed she was busy setting up this summer camp for poor kids in Chicago. She was probably just busy spending more alone time with Bean.

  “Eww,” Sunny says, and we all look over to the driveway again. Claudia’s giving Bean a massage, and it’s grossing all of us out. “We’re going to swim, OK, Lucy?”

  “Fine,” I groan.

  “Do you want me to stay with you?” Yamir asks, and he has his nervous face on, the one that makes the left side of his mouth twitch a little.

  I smile. I’m so proud of him for saying the right thing that it doesn’t really matter if he stays or not. “No, it’s OK. You can go swim.”

  “Is the code for the gate still 1818?” Sunny asks. My grandma is so paranoid about people drowning that we still have a gate for the pool, and she really doesn’t like people to be back there without an adult.

  “Yeah,” I say. “Be really careful.”

  Mom and Grandma
come back around and walk over to the driveway to talk to Claudia and Bean. Thankfully, Claudia has stopped the massage. It’s too hot out for massages anyway. I don’t know why you would want someone’s sweaty hands on you.

  I wonder if I should go over and join them. But I’m so annoyed that I’d rather stay here, in the shade of the porch, on one of the wicker rocking chairs. I can hear everything they’re saying anyway.

  “We really wish you had told us in advance,” Grandma says. “There’s so much going on with the spa opening that it’s going to be hectic having someone else around the house. I wish I’d had time to prepare.”

  “I know, Grams,” Claudia says. “But Bean won’t be a hassle. He’s a good cook too!”

  “Oh, I’ll be a huge help, Mrs. Desberg,” Bean says. “I can cook, do laundry, go grocery shopping, drive people around, you name it.”

  “You’re hired!” Mom says, and laughs, even though no one else does.

  Grandma shakes her head at Mom and looks back at Claudia. “You have to know there are some ground rules,” Grandma says. “Separate rooms. Bean can sleep in the attic guest room. I’ll turn on the air-conditioning up there and take my winter clothes out of the closet.”

  “The attic? He can just sleep in the guest room on the second floor,” Claudia says.

  “No. I said the attic,” Grandma says.

  Grandma’s a smart lady. The stairs up to the attic creak so loud, the whole neighborhood can hear them. She’ll know if Bean’s not where he’s supposed to be.

  Grandma continues, “And we need Bean pitching in.”

  “He said he would,” Claudia says, looking at him.

  Grandma leans in to whisper something in Claudia’s ear. And then they walk off to the side a little bit. I bet it’s about me. I bet she’s telling her that they have to include me, and spend time with me, like I’m some kind of charity case.