Cover

CHAPTER ONE THE LAST SPRINKLE SUNDAY BEFORE TOKYO!

“Okay, Sprinkle Sundays sisters, are you ready?”

My besties, Tamiko and Sierra, each gave a thumbs-up from behind the counter. I switched the sign on the front door from CLOSED to OPEN. “Ta-da! Molly’s is open for another beautiful summer day!”

It was a Sunday afternoon, and Tamiko, Sierra, and I were working our usual shift at my mom’s ice cream parlor, Molly’s. The bell on the door jingled as our first customers of the day entered the store.

“Let the post-day-camp games begin!” joked Tamiko, while Sierra greeted a mom and two sweaty and tired-looking little boys wearing camp T-shirts.

“Hey, I went to Whalers Camp when I was your age!” said Sierra to the boys, and suddenly they weren’t tired at all but were chatting enthusiastically to Sierra about Spikeball tournaments and swim races and skippers-versus-captains team competitions.

Tamiko laughed and shook her head. “I don’t know how she does it!”

“What?” I asked, though I was pretty sure I knew what she meant.

“Sierra charms everyone! That girl can’t go five minutes without making a new friend!”

I watched as Sierra gave the boys their ice creams and then showed off a complicated Whalers Camp high-five handshake that left them all laughing. “Yeah,” I said. “She’s living proof of that saying ‘A stranger is just a friend you haven’t met yet.’ I can’t relate! I’d pretty much always rather be reading a book instead.”

“I agree. Who wants to waste energy on people you don’t even know, who might be annoying anyway?”

“Tamiko!” I had to smile because she was so outrageous sometimes. “That’s not nice!”

Tamiko shrugged. “I just can’t pretend to be interested. Anyway, I already have enough friends.”

“But, Tamiko, how can you talk about not needing new friends? You’ve made all those new friends at the Y!”

With school out for the past month, each of us had done different things. I had gone back up to my old camp, Holly Oaks in New Hampshire, for three awesome weeks of cool weather, arts and crafts, and swimming in the crystal clear lake. I had a bunch of old friends there from when I was little, and I just relaxed and didn’t have to worry about my social life. Unlike here at home, where I’d had to move and leave my besties, Tamiko and Sierra, at my old school without me (and I’d had to try to make friends at my new school)… all because of my parents’ divorce.