Giving Up the Ghost by Phoebe Rivers

garage,” I said.
    He shrugged. “The garage can wait. It’s a beautiful day. What say we drive to the aquarium? It’s only a couple of towns over, and it might be fun to drive there in the Boat.”
    â€œI’ve been wanting to go there since I heard about it, so that sounds great!” I said, nodding my head.
    He swallowed. “I haven’t been back since, since—well, it’s been a long time. The last time your mother and I went there, she was pregnant with you. It was one of your mother’s favorite places to go. I was trying to come up with something special for us to do today, and I thought of that.” His eyes grew a little shiny.
    I squeezed his hand. “That would be the perfect thing to do today, Daddy.”
    We spent the day at the aquarium. It was a huge place, with penguins, belugas, and an enormous fish tank that rose three stories high. You could walk around and around it on an inclined ramp that went all the way up. We watched a diver dive into the big tank to feed the fish, including several large sharks. I guess the sharks were so well fed, they weren’t interested in eating the diver, but I was nervous for him just the same. Then we went to a petting area where you could pet tiny sharks and flat fish called rays that swam around in a shallow, open petting tank. Finally we walked outside and visited the bottlenose dolphins.
    We got home late in the afternoon. I’d forgotten to bring along my phone, and I found a bunch of texts from Marlee, Miranda, Avery, Tamara—all wishing me a happy birthday. And three were from Lily. She’d sent the last one just half an hour before, telling me to come to her house early so she could give me my birthday present before Jayden’s party.
    Since it was my birthday, I put slightly more thought than usual into my outfit, choosing a silky pink top to wear with my jeans instead of my usual T-shirt and wearing my hair down, all loose and wavy, instead of in its usual sloppy ponytail. I looked around my room, wishing I had some sort of great accessory to add to my outfit to jazz it up, but all I had was my necklace with the crystals, and that was mostly hidden under my shirt. Oh well.
    An hour later I was on Lily’s kitchen doorstep, carrying Jayden’s wrapped picture. My mind was swirling with conflicting emotions: happiness that it was my birthday, jealousy that Miranda seemed to be Lily’s new best friend, sadness that Jayden was leaving. The drama of middle school didn’t suddenly change when one had a birthday, I discovered.
    â€œSaraaaaaaaa!” yelled Lily, opening the door and throwing her arms around me. “Happy birthday!”
    She pulled me into the kitchen, which smelled of delicious things cooking. I was immediately engulfed in Randazzo warmth and chaos. Mrs. Randazzo also gave me a huge hug as Lily’s brothers and little sister swirled around the place, yelling, talking, eating, singing, laughing.
    â€œWe’re baking ten zillion cupcakes for Jayden’s party,” said Lily with a grin. “It was Mom’s brilliant idea to have cupcakes, so we don’t have to bother with forks and plates. Come. Help me frost this batch.”
    For the next hour, Lily and I frosted cupcakes, lugged bags of stuff to the car, and chatted and laughed. All my jealousy and hurt feelings evaporated. Maybe Lily made everyone feel like they were her best friend, but I was content to feel that I held that status at the moment, anyway.
    â€œWhat about the decorating?” I asked as we carried the last two trays to Mrs. Randazzo’s car.
    â€œMiranda, Avery, and Marlee are handling that as we speak,” said Lily. “But let’s walk over to Scoops now to help them. There’s no room for us in Mom’s car, anyway.”
    â€œI’ll text you when I’m on my way,” said Mrs. Randazzo.
    â€œWait!” yelled Lily. “Almost forgot your birthday