Mina had forgotten that Nan hated caramel almost as much as Charlie hated cottage cheese. “So you thought you would cover the taste of caramel with something else you liked?”
Nan bobbed her head. “Yeah, I actually love cottage cheese and thought it would surely make your brother freak out so I would win. The only problem was that when I added the cheese to the cereal and put it in my mouth, it took every ounce of strength not to immediately eject it out. My mind thought the milk had gone bad. But I did it—I won.” Nan began a victory dance around the kitchen.
Sara walked in and looked at the bowl in front of Nan, turning her nose up. “Okay, Charlie has taken it too far, he’s wasting cereal. I paid good money for those boxes.”
Nan looked sheepish and grabbed the bowl away from Sara. “No, Mrs. Grime, that’s actually my cereal. I’m having breakfast with Charlie.”
Sara raised one eyebrow at Nan.
Feeling pressured to prove her point, Nan took the spoon and shoveled another gross spoonful into her mouth, screwing her face into a big fake grin.
Satisfied, Sara busied herself in the kitchen while the girls hid their laughter. “Where is Charlie, anyway?”
“Bathroom,” Mina answered quickly. When Sara went back to her bedroom to grab her keys and wallet, Nan spat the cereal out into the garbage and began the sink and orange juice routine all over again.
Mina took the bowl of cereal away and dumped it down the garbage disposal, removing any hint of Nan’s stupidity. “So now that you’ve won, what are you going to make Charlie watch?”
“I don’t know, I was thinking of something really horrible like the whole first season of Power Puff Girls, something completely girly and embarrassing.” Nan’s face lit up with the prospect of torturing Charlie. “Or maybe I could find a documentary on the making of cottage cheese.”
“You do realize that you would have to sit through it as well.”
“Hmmm, then that won’t do. What do you suggest?”
“Why don’t you pick something you’ll both like?”
“What?” she squealed. “That takes away the whole fun of the competition! No! He must suffer.” Nan pointed her finger in the air dramatically.
Mina thought Nan would have made a great sibling if her parents hadn’t divorced when she was young. Neither one remarried, making Nan the quintessential only child: loved, spoiled, and a little lonely, which was why she enjoyed hanging out with Charlie. Nan always said if she had a younger sibling she would want a brother, because then she wouldn’t have to share her clothes.
“Don’t you mean you must suffer?” Mina conjectured.
“Meh, whatever.” After Nan had finished with her tirade, she directed her radar Mina’s way. “So dish.”
“About what?” Mina asked casually.
“About what? I can’t believe you. I didn’t drive all this way for nothing on a Saturday morning. I have cartoons to watch. Dish about what happened two days ago that made you miss school and send Brody into a coma.”
“He’s in a coma?” Mina panicked.
“No, not literally. Yeesh. He’s been walking around the school like some sort of zombie, not talking, just completely withdrawn. Something happen between you two?”
“You promise it’s not going to show up on any web page, interview, tweet, or text?” Mina knew when dishing important info to Nan that she had to cover all her bases.
Nan rolled her eyes and held up two fingers. “Boy Scouts’ honor.”
“You’re a girl.”
“Fine then, Girl Scouts’ honor.” Nan held up three fingers.
“Don’t think it counts if you’ve never actually been a Girl Scout,” Mina countered, making sure there were no loopholes in her friend’s credibility.
Mina looked over Nan’s shoulder toward her brother and mother’s room and decided that they needed to find a more private spot. Tapping Nan’s shoulder, she motioned down the hall and into her room. When the door was securely shut, Nan jumped across Mina’s hastily made bed. Mina perched on the end more daintily.
“Nan, I’m cursed.”
“Yeah, I know. We all are.” Nan kicked her legs back and forth and grabbed a magazine from Mina’s nightstand. “It’s called being a teenager. You, more so, because you live in the Stone Age.”
“No, my last name isn’t even Grime. It’s Grimm. What I am telling you is, I am personally cursed, or fated, to follow the same path as the Grimms before me.” Mina already felt better now that she’d gotten it in the open. She had been thinking for the last few days on how to break the news to her best friend.
Nan just stared at Mina, blinking her eyes in thought. “Yeah, right. I’m supposed to go to Yale and become a lawyer like my father and his father before him, but do you see me treading down that path? No way, Jose. I’m hitchhiking to Julliard instead.” Nan flipped a couple more pages and then oohed over a cute skirt.
Mina snatched the magazine from Nan and sat on it so her friend couldn’t grab it back. “I’m serious, Nan. I’m in over my head, and I need your help.”