3 Willows: The Sisterhood Grows
Bryn and Lila, another bus girl, -who overheard this invitation -with an expression of shock and envy.
    “Sure. Thanks,” Jo said. She went about her -wiping and setting-with a burgeoning sense of rightness. She hadn’t realized that she minded not being asked to join the postshift parties. None of the bus girls were invited. But now that she had been asked, she felt sorry for Bryn and Lila. And she felt backwardly sorry for herself for every night before this one.
    She’d have to call and get permission, but she guessed her mom -would go along -with it. Her mom had always wanted her to be popular as she herself had been. It was also good, because Jo wouldn’t end up kissing Zach between the restaurant and home, as she had done for the last few nights. She’d get a night off and build up her strength to resist the other things he was wanting her to do -with him.
    “Let’s go to the bowling alley. We can dance,” Caroline suggested during the makeup, planning, and gossip session in the bathroom just after the shift ended.
    “There’s a new guy who cards, though,” Sheba said. “Let’s go to the Midnight Room. I think somebody’s playing tonight.”
    “Brent will try to get us to stop at the arcade,” Megan pointed out.
    “And you’re the one who has to say no,” Violet shot back.
    Jo snapped her head back and forth, taking in the different opinions, joyful to be included. She hoped she wouldn’t get laughed at for not having a fake ID.
    Bryn caught her on her -way out of the bathroom. “You’re so lucky! I can’t believe they asked you to go out with them. Seriously. You make me sick.” She said the last thing like it was a compliment.
    “It’s because of Zach,” Lila, the other bus girl, said.
    Bryn nodded.
    Jo went outside to call her mom, and when she turned on her phone, she saw there was a message from an hour and a half or so earlier.
    “Get home in a hurry,” her mom said on the message. “I’ve got a surprise here for you.”
    She called her mother back. “What is it?” she blurted out.
    “It’s not a what. It’s a who.”
    “Is Grandma there?”
    “Noooo …” Her mom -was obviously trying to be mysterious.
    “It’s not Dad, is it?” She knew as she said it that it couldn’t be, because if it was, her mom -would sound guarded and complicated. She wouldn’t present it like this.
    “No.”
    “Then -who is it?”
    “Come home and see.”
    “Just tell me,” Jo whined, feeling deflated. Jo didn’t feel like having to go home and see. She’d rather go out to the bowling alley or the arcade or -whatever. “It’s probably one of your sisters,” she said sullenly, feeling guilty as she did.
    “It’s not. Just come home, -would you?” her mother said. She -was starting to get tired of her own game. Nothing between them stayed fun for long.
    Jo made her excuses to the group of girls spilling out of the bathroom and trudged home on the road instead of along the ocean as she usually did. She wasn’t going out and having fun and she wasn’t even going to get kissed. She found herself -wishing Zach -would pop out from behind a shrub. Where -was he tonight, anyway?
    Her big surprise, as her mother had promised, -was -waiting for her on the front deck -with big dark eyes and an earnest expression.
    “Hi, Polly” Jo said.
    “I hope it’s okay that I came,” Polly said as they sat on facing counters in Jo’s kitchen and Jo ate a bowl of Cheerios.
    Jo nodded, her mouth full, eyes on her spoon. She’d taken out her contacts and put on her glasses, -which -was a relief. She’d been -wearing her contacts for days. Besides her family, Polly and Ama -were the only ones -who knew she -wore glasses.
    “I thought you might need a friend,” Polly said solemnly.
    I have a friend. I have plenty of friends. I even have a boyfriend, Jo -wanted to say. “Why’s that?” she said.
    Polly looked at her strangely. “Because of your parents.”
    Jo looked up. “What do you

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