Lily was sitting on a stool in the corner, her lip quivering.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

She sighed. “I don’t think I am cut out for waitressing,” she said, shaking her head.

Nans strode back in.

“Lily,” she said, “we’re going to put you up front at the host station today. Do you have your regular clothes instead of your uniform?”

“Well, I have clothes to change into for after work,” said Lily, grabbing a skirt and a top out of her locker and holding them up. She showed us a pretty pink top and a black skirt.

“That’ll do,” said Nans. “Change and then up front you go!”

Lily didn’t need to be asked twice. Rich subbed in as a waiter, and Lily managed the podium up front.

She was really friendly and so chatty that people didn’t even mind waiting for a table during the lunch rush. Plus, she knew exactly where everyone liked to sit. She even helped Mr. and Mrs. Block load their son Preston into his high chair.

“He never goes in without a fight!” Mrs. Block said. “You have the magic touch!”

“There’s a place at the Park for everyone,” said Grandpa, giving Lily a hug on her way back to the podium. “We just needed to find the right one.”

Then he spun around at me and squinted. “Lindsay Cooper, you have powdered sugar on your nose, young lady!”

I looked at Kelsey, and she started laughing. “You got caught, Linds!”

“Eating the profits!” said Grandpa, pretending to yell. He acted as if he was mad at us, but he was just kidding.

Dad dropped me off at Casey’s house after my shift ended. We had a few days left before school started. Casey’s mom was at school, helping to get everything ready.

“She’s in a crazed place,” said Casey. “Back to school is always nuts in my house. Dad is busy too, with everyone’s back-to-school visits.”

Casey’s dad is a doctor, and he takes care of just about everyone in town. My aunt Sabrina is a nurse in his office. She met Casey’s dad when they both worked in the same hospital, and she invited him and his wife to a birthday party she was having for Uncle Charlie. That was how Casey’s parents met.

Aunt Sabrina likes to say, “It’s a good thing they came to my party!”

Casey led me up to her room, which is generally pretty neat, unless you open her closet or look under her bed. I looked around, and either I hadn’t noticed it last week or she just put it up, but there was a picture of a boy on the bulletin board above her desk.

Usually she just had pictures of the two of us goofing around, and there were a couple cute family photos from when she was little.

But the boy photo was a new addition.