Almost Alice Read online

  Being a good friend isn’t always easy.

  Alice, Pamela, and Elizabeth have been best friends forever, but being a good friend can still be complicated. They know one another so well—shouldn’t they be beyond misunderstandings and hurt feelings?

  And then there’s Patrick, who suddenly reappears in Alice’s life after ending their relationship two years earlier. Not only does he call out of the blue—but he wants to take her to senior prom. What’s that about?

  As Alice tries to juggle her friends, Patrick, and school, the unthinkable happens—and Alice discovers that sometimes friends need you more than they let on.

  SHARE THE UPS AND DOWNS IN THE LIVES OF ALICE McKINLEY AND HER FRIENDS.

  Look inside for a complete list of the Alice books.

  SIMON PULSE

  Simon & Schuster, New York

  Cover photograph copyright © 2008 by Photodisc/Veer

  0609

  Watch videos, get extras, and read exclusives at

  TEEN.SimonandSchuster.com

  Phyllis Reynolds Naylor is the author of more than 135 books for both children and adults, including the Alice series, hailed by Entertainment Weekly as “tender” and “wonderful,” and by Booklist as “a road map for a girl growing up today.” She includes many of her own growing-up experiences in the Alice books. Phyllis lives with her husband, Rex, in Gaithersburg, Maryland. She is the mother of two grown sons and the grandmother of Sophia, Tressa, Garrett, and Beckett.

  Almost Alice

  Books by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

  Shiloh Books

  Shiloh

  Shiloh Season

  Saving Shiloh

  The Alice Books

  Starting with Alice

  Alice in Blunderland

  Lovingly Alice

  The Agony of Alice

  Alice in Rapture, Sort of

  Reluctantly Alice

  All But Alice

  Alice in April

  Alice In-Between

  Alice the Brave

  Alice in Lace

  Outrageously Alice

  Achingly Alice

  Alice on the Outside

  The Grooming of Alice

  Alice Alone

  Simply Alice

  Patiently Alice

  Including Alice

  Alice on Her Way

  Alice in the Know

  Dangerously Alice

  Almost Alice

  Intensely Alice

  The Bernie Magruder Books

  Bernie Magruder and the Case of the Big Stink

  Bernie Magruder and the Disappearing Bodies

  Bernie Magruder and the Haunted Hotel

  Bernie Magruder and the Drive-thru Funeral Parlor

  Bernie Magruder and the Bus Station Blowup

  Bernie Magruder and the Pirate’s Treasure

  Bernie Magruder and the Parachute Peril

  Bernie Magruder and the Bats in the Belfry

  The Cat Pack Books

  The Grand Escape

  The Healing of Texas Jake

  Carlotta’s Kittens

  Polo’s Mother

  The York Trilogy

  Shadows on the Wall

  Faces in the Water

  Footprints at the Window

  The Witch Books

  Witch’s Sister

  Witch Water

  The Witch Herself

  The Witch’s Eye

  Witch Weed

  The Witch Returns

  Picture Books

  King of the Playground

  The Boy with the Helium Head

  Old Sadie and the Christmas Bear

  Keeping a Christmas Secret

  Ducks Disappearing

  I Can’t Take You Anywhere

  Sweet Strawberries

  Please DO Feed the Bears

  Books for Young Readers

  Josie’s Troubles

  How Lazy Can You Get?

  All Because I’m Older

  Maudie in the Middle

  One of the Third-Grade Thonkers

  Roxie and the Hooligans

  Books for Middle Readers

  Walking Through the Dark

  How I Came to Be a Writer

  Eddie, Incorporated

  The Solomon System

  The Keeper

  Beetles, Lightly Toasted

  The Fear Place

  Being Danny’s Dog

  Danny’s Desert Rats

  Walker’s Crossing

  Books for Older Readers

  A String of Chances

  Night Cry

  The Dark of the Tunnel

  The Year of the Gopher

  Send No Blessings

  Ice

  Sang Spell

  Jade Green

  Blizzard’s Wake

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  SIMON PULSE

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

  1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  Copyright © 2008 by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  SIMON PULSE and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  Also available in an Atheneum Books for Young Readers hardcover edition.

  Designed by Ann Zeak

  The text of this book was set in Berkeley Old Style.

  First Simon Pulse paperback edition June 2009

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows: Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds.

  Almost Alice / Phyllis Reynolds Naylor—1st ed.

  p. cm.

  Summary: In the second semester of her junior year of high school, Alice gets back together with her old boyfriend Patrick, gets a promotion on the student newspaper, and remains a reliable, trusted friend.

  ISBN: 978-0689-87096-5 (hc)

  [1. Friendship—Fiction. 2. High schools—Fiction. 3. Schools—Fiction. 4. Identity—Fiction.]

  I. Title.

  PZ7.N24Aln 2008

  [Fic]—dc22

  2007037457

  ISBN: 978-0-689-87097-2 (pbk)

  ISBN 13: 978-1-4169-9501-2 (ebook)

  To our granddaughter Tressa, with love

  Almost Alice

  Contents

  Chapter One: The Trouble with Sadie

  Chapter Two: Making the Call

  Chapter Three: Yo Te Quiero

  Chapter Four: Suggestions

  Chapter Five: Stupefyin’ Jones

  Chapter Six: Intimate Conversation

  Chapter Seven: Pushing Pamela

  Chapter Eight: Murder in the Mansion

  Chapter Nine: Moving On

  Chapter Ten: Promotion

  Chapter Eleven: The Performing Arts

  Chapter Twelve: 911

  Chapter Thirteen: Out on the Town

  Chapter Fourteen: The Diner with David

  Chapter Fifteen: Waiting

  Chapter Sixteen: Tears

  Chapter Seventeen: The Bus to Somewhere

  Chapter Eighteen: Finale

  1

  The Trouble with Sadie

  It had to be in person, and they all had to be there.

  Gwen was at a meeting over the lunch period, so I couldn’t tell them then. I waited till we went to Starbucks after school before I made the announcement:

  “Patrick asked me to the prom.”

  Two seconds of silence were fol
lowed by shrieks of disbelief and excitement:

  “Five months in advance? Patrick?”

  “You’re kidding me!”

  “When?”

  “Yesterday.” I was grinning uncontrollably and couldn’t help myself. “He called. We talked.”

  “He called. You talked. What is this? Shorthand?” Gwen demanded. “Girl, we want details!”

  “Wait! Hold it!” said Pamela. She jumped up, went to the counter, and bought a huge cup of whipped cream, then liberally doused each of our lattes to celebrate.

  “Now dish!” she said.

  “Well, I was just hanging out in my room, getting my stuff ready for school, when I heard the phone ring.”

  “He didn’t call you on your cell?”

  “I’m not sure he knows the number.”

  “I’d think he would have had it programmed in!”

  “It’s been two years,” I told them, working hard to defend him. Defend whatever there was between us, though I didn’t know myself.

  Liz rested her chin in her hands. When she looks at you through half-closed eyes, you realize just how long and thick her eyelashes are—longer than any girl’s lashes have a right to be. “Oh, Alice, you and Patrick!” She sighed. “I knew you’d get back together. It’s in the stars.”

  Gwen, the scientist, rolled her eyes. She was looking especially attractive, her hair in a new style of cornrows that made a geometric pattern on top of her head. The gold rings on one brown finger matched the design of her earrings, and she was definitely the most sophisticated-looking of the four of us. She was also the only one who had visited three colleges so far and who had even picked up scholarship forms. “How long did you guys go together, anyway?” she asked.

  “I guess it was about eighth grade that I really started liking him. The summer before eighth through the fall of ninth grade.” I was embarrassed suddenly that I remembered this so precisely, as though it were always there at the front of my consciousness. “We actually met in sixth, but sixth-grade boyfriends aren’t much to brag about.”

  “He did have his goofy side,” Pamela agreed. “Remember that hot day at Mark’s pool when you fell asleep on the picnic table? And Patrick placed two lemon halves on your breasts for a minute?”

  “What?” Gwen shrieked.

  “Yes, and when I woke up, everyone was grinning and no one would tell me what happened. And I couldn’t figure out what those two little wet spots were on the front of my T-shirt. Like I was nursing or something!”

  We yelped with laughter.

  I continued. “And the year he gave me an heirloom bracelet for my birthday that turned out to be his mom’s, because she didn’t wear it anymore.”

  “I never heard that one,” said Liz.

  “And Mrs. Long had to call me and ask for it back,” I said. We laughed some more. I wondered if I was being disloyal, telling all this. That was the old Patrick. The kid. That was then, and this was now.

  “So what attracted you to him in the first place?” asked Gwen. “Besides the fact that he’s a tall, smart, broad-shouldered redhead? I wasn’t in on that early history.”

  “Well, he wasn’t always as tall or broad-shouldered,” I said. “I guess it’s because he’s the most motivated, focused, organized person I ever met. His dad’s a diplomat, and they’ve lived in Japan, Germany, Spain.… In some ways, he’s a man of the world.”

  “And then he falls for Penny, the jerk,” said Pamela. “I’m glad that’s over.”

  I saw three pair of eyes dart in my direction to see how I was taking that, then look away. Wondering if I’d cry myself sick again if things didn’t work out this time with Patrick. I remembered Elizabeth’s organizing a suicide watch when Patrick and I broke up, so that a friend called every quarter of an hour to see if I was okay. I tried not to smile.

  “Well,” I said flippantly, “a lot can happen in the next five months. You know how everything else comes before fun where Patrick is concerned. And I didn’t say we were back together. I just said we were going to the prom.”

  “But this is his prom, and then you can invite him back for yours!” said Liz excitedly, since Patrick’s in an accelerated program that gets him through high school in three years.

  “Yeah, and with two prom nights to make out, you know what that means,” said Pamela.

  “Will you stop?” I said.

  To some girls, a prom means you’re a serious couple. To some, it’s the main event of high school. To some, it’s the biggest chance in your life, next to getting married, to show off. And to some girls, it means going all the way.

  “Well, I’m glad for you,” said Gwen. “But I hope we don’t have to talk prom for the next five months.”

  “Promise,” I said.

  “Some couples were just meant to be,” Pamela said. “Jill and Justin, for example. They’ve been going out forever.”

  “What about you and Tim?” I asked. Tim had taken her to the Snow Ball last fall. A really nice guy.

  “Could be!” said Pamela.

  “So are you going to ask him to the Sadie Hawkins Day dance?” asked Gwen.

  “I already have,” Pamela told us, and grinned. Then she turned serious again. “Patrick better come through this time, Alice. He owes you big time.”

  If my friends didn’t quite know what to make of Patrick, neither did I. I’d always thought of him as special somehow, but … My first boyfriend? More than that. Patrick was someone with a future, and I didn’t know if I was part of that or not. Or wanted to be.

  But you can analyze a good thing to death, so I decided to take it at face value: He really, really liked me and couldn’t think of anyone he’d rather take to the prom. Now enjoy it, I told myself.

  Our house was a mess. Dad and Sylvia were having the place remodeled, with a new addition on the back. Their bedroom, the kitchen, and the dining room were sealed off with heavy vinyl sheets so that dust and cold wouldn’t get through. Their bed had been taken apart and stood against one wall in the upstairs hallway. The rest of their furniture was pushed into Lester’s old bedroom, where they were sleeping, and their clothes were piled all over the place in my room. Downstairs, the dining-room furniture had been moved into the living room along with the refrigerator and microwave, and the construction crew had fashioned a sink with hot and cold running water next to the fridge. We ate our meals on paper plates, sitting in the only available chairs, knees touching.

  “Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to stay in the house during remodeling,” Dad said that weekend when we didn’t think we could swallow one more bite of Healthy Choice or Lean Cuisine.

  “But think of all the money we’re saving by not living in a hotel!” said Sylvia. “The foreman said that if we can put up with painters and carpenters doing the finishing touches, we might be able to move into the new addition by the middle of March.”

  Fortunately for us, the construction company had another contract for an expensive project starting April 1, and had doubled the workforce at our place to finish by then.

  Dad was at the Melody Inn seven days a week, Sylvia was teaching, and I was at school, so we didn’t have to listen to all the pounding.

  Lester came over one night and took us out to dinner.

  “Hey,” I said over my crab cake, “why don’t we move in with Lester for the duration?”

  He gave me a look. “Don’t even think it,” he said. “I’m surviving on five hours of sleep a night while I finish my thesis.”

  “Oh, Les!” Sylvia said sympathetically.

  “You need to get some exercise,” Dad told him.

  “I run to Starbucks and back,” Les said.

  “But … you’re not seeing anyone at all?” I asked.

  “Not much,” said Les.

  It was hard to imagine, but somehow I believed him. Les had made up his mind to graduate, and he was hitting the books.

  “What about that girl you were going out with at Christmas?” I asked him.

  “It’
s over,” said Les.

  “Already?” exclaimed Dad.

  “Too high maintenance,” Les told us. “All she wanted to do was party, and I can’t afford the time. So I’ve sworn off women till after I graduate.”

  That was even more difficult to imagine, but I felt real sympathy for my twenty-four-year-old brother right then. I decided that somehow, sometime around Valentine’s Day, I … or Liz and I … or Liz and Pamela and I … or Liz and Pam and Gwen and I were going to plan a surprise for Lester. I just didn’t know what.

  Patrick has called me twice since New Year’s Day, when he invited me to the prom. He didn’t call to chat, exactly. He either had something to tell me or a question to ask. You could say he’s all business, but that wouldn’t be true, because he has a good sense of humor and there’s a gentleness that I like too. I just wish he were more accessible. He runs his life like a railroad—always busy, always going somewhere, getting somewhere.

  But there was a lot more to think about during the second semester of my junior year. The SATs, for one. I decided that January would probably be my least hectic month, so I’d take the test on January 26, then take it again later if I bombed the first time. Getting my braces off was item number two. I also wanted to spend more time with our friend Molly Brennan, who’s getting treated for leukemia, and to persuade Pamela, if possible, to audition for the spring musical, Guys and Dolls. I’d signed up for stage crew once again.

  Tim Moss was doing a lot for Pamela’s self-confidence. Pamela’s pretty, she’s got a good voice, and has a great body. But ever since her mom deserted the family a few years ago and ran off with a boyfriend, Pamela’s self-esteem has been down in her socks. Lately, though, now that her mom’s back and living in an apartment alone, Pamela’s seemed a little more like her old self, and once she started going out with Tim, she really perked up.

  Sylvia, my stepmom, said that one way to tell if a guy is right for you is if he wants what’s best for you, encourages your talents, and—at the same time—has a good sense of self and where his life is going. She was speaking about my dad and her decision to marry him when she said that, but I think Tim Moss would just about get an A on all three.

  “Go for it,” Tim told Pamela when we were talking about the musical the other night.