I had to explain to Tristan what she means when she says “put out a fire.” She doesn’t mean the hotel is on fire. It means somebody needs her for something. Tristan had looked at me and said, “Sometimes I wish we were the fire.”

“Okay, Mom,” I say. “Talk to you soon.” Her face disappears from the screen. I guess I won’t find out anything today.

Friday can’t get here soon enough.

CHAPTER 21 Mattie

Before I know it, it’s Friday—way too soon. I pull the blinds open in my room. No fog today, just a slow California sunrise. I stare at the clothes in my closet. I know they aren’t quite right. What do you wear to go meet your father? I pull on my comfy jeans and my new T-shirt. It says Santa Cruz and has a picture of a skateboard. Even though it’s new, I can tell it’s not quite what other kids at Poppy View Middle School wear. But I still haven’t figured out exactly what that is. Maybe I need to paint my fingernails? Sometimes the smallest details can make the biggest difference.

Then I take everything out of my backpack. Time to double-check Operation D.A.D. I load my backpack with all my supplies—well, not the change of clothes or the rain jacket. It doesn’t look like rain and it’s not like we’re staying overnight.

Without those things, my backpack still seems very empty for such a momentous day. What else do I need? What do you take with you when you’re going to meet your father for the first time? I look around my room. What would show him who I am, what I’m like? If we only have a few minutes with him before we sneak back to the bus, it’ll have to be just the right thing.

My self-portrait from last year’s art class is on my bulletin board above my desk. I’m really proud of the eyes. Then I study it closer and realize the eyes look more like Mercedes’s than mine. I unpin the portrait and stuff it in a desk drawer. I have another drawing of our old house in Minnesota. Should I bring that? Then I realize that he knows that house; that’s the house they lived in when they were married. I shove that in the desk drawer, too, and then look around my room again.