Will the Real Raisin Rodriguez Please Stand Up? by Judy Goldschmidt

asked.
    â€œWell, they’re friends with my daughter,” Danny said. “I think you might have met her. Her name is Vivvy?”
    I almost fell overboard. My dad’s new friend Danny was Vivvy’s mother? What did this mean? What did she know about my time with Vivvy? What did my dad know? Was this an ambush? Was I in trouble? Where they going to make me walk the plank?
    â€œOh,” was all I could think to say. Until I added, “She’s very nice,” because it seemed like the right thing.
    I wondered why Vivvy hadn’t said anything. Or Pia and Claudia.
    â€œIt’s kind of a funny situation, isn’t it, Raise?” my dad said.
    â€œYeah, you could say that,” I said, mumbling into my vegetarian chili. “Does Vivvy know?”
    â€œYes, but I asked her not to tell you,” Danny said.
    â€œWe thought it’d be better to tell you tonight rather than bombard you with all these new developments right away,” my dad said. Which I thought was sort of sweet. “You ready for some Christmas carols?” he asked, quickly changing the subject.
    I said yes, but all I wanted to do was jump off the boat, row back to shore on the dinghy, take a cab home, and call Vivvy so I could apologize to her before she said anything to her mom and her mom said anything to my dad.
    While my dad and I sang, Danny started to clean up. I felt bad for her, so I got up to help her. It only seemed fair.
    â€œOh, that’s okay, Raisin,” Danny said, patting my head. “You just sing. Don’t worry about me. I’m Jewish anyway, so I’m going to sit these songs out.”
    Then I really felt bad for her. “So no Christmas and no Christmas presents?” I said.
    â€œWell, we have Hanukkah, which starts the day after tomorrow and lasts for eight days.”
    So Vivvy gets to celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah, that lucky duck! Nine days’ worth of presents and the poor girl still feels the need to steal.
    After the carols, we went back down to the galley to make s’mores with Danny’s s’mores maker and her special kosher marshmallows, which were just as delicious as regular marshmallows.
    Aside from the horrible news about Danny and Vivvy, I had a really nice time tonight. I like Danny.
    Now I have to write Vivvy and apologize to her before she has a chance to tell Danny about the fight. It’s a shame it’s so late. Otherwise I’d call.
    Â 
11:40 PM, PST
    Here’s what I wrote:
    Â 
Dear Vivvy,
    I’m sorry I yelled at you about the dress. I totally overreacted.
    Please forgive me. I want to be your friend.
    XO,
    Raisin
    Â 
PS—I’m also sorry I yelled at you about the pie. If it makes you feel any better, I’m completely ashamed about it. I think I sounded like a total pig.
    That should do the trick, right? I take full responsibility for my actions and I’m a hundred percent apologetic. I hope she checks her e-mail tonight. I’ll be relieved when she writes back. At least then even if she tells Danny about the fight, she’ll say I already apologized and then I’m less of the bad guy.
    Â 
12:41 AM, PST
    I couldn’t sleep, so I created this handy little chart as a visual aide. I think, Fippy, you’ll find that it supports my findings on the subject of Danny and whether or not she’s my dad’s new girlfriend.

Saturday, December 25
    12:33 AM, PST
    Merry Christmas Kitties,
    Vivvy hasn’t gotten back to me yet. Maybe she’s still sleeping. I’m going to call CJ. That’ll kill some time, and maybe by the time we’re done, talking I’ll have an e-mail waiting from CJ.
    Â 
12:34 AM, PST
    One minute. That’s a four-second improvement on our last conversation. I could have killed the same amount of time by looking away from my computer screen and then looking back.
    But at least I finally have a decent explanation as to why CJ doesn’t talk much. At least