Coming Up Roses Read Online Free PDF Page A

see what it’s capable of.” He thought for a minute. “Hey, I know it’s almost dinnertime, but you want to split a soft pretzel?”
    “Of course!” I said. You didn’t need to ask me twice if I wanted my favorite mall snack of all time. We headed toward the food court, which was pretty empty. Dad sat at a table and pulled out his phone and the manual. I knew he would read it cover to cover. The man lovesreading so much he would read anything he could get his hands on.
    I got in line behind a tall, blonde woman at the pretzel stand, who was talking on her cell phone. Her voice sounded familiar. I was reaching into my pocket for my money when I overheard something that gave me pause.
    “That’s right,” the woman said. “I need five hundred sixteen-inch red rose stems and two hundred yellow ranunculus. They need to be here by next Friday, the latest.”
    Tall. Blonde hair. Ordering flowers. Was I standing right behind Hamilton’s mom? As she paid for her pretzel and coffee, I stole a quick look at her profile. Yup. I’d recognize her anywhere.
    Luckily, she didn’t notice me. When I got back to the table with the warm, buttery pretzel, Dad was fully fixated on his new phone.
    “I just downloaded this game,” he told me excitedly. “And it’s free! It’s called Gnomeland! Look at all those cute little guys! They all have different-colored hats, and they each have a different power. This guy in the purple hatis the musical gnome. He plays his glockenspiel and it helps the beans grow. And I get points when I harvest the beans so I can buy things!”
    I gave him a look. Was he for real? “Gnome things?” I said.
    Dad nodded excitedly. “Yes! Like hoes and shovels and tractors and stuff like that!”
    “Sounds fascinating, Dad,” I said sarcastically.
    But apparently it was. He was so preoccupied with the game that I got to eat the whole pretzel myself. No complaints there. And then he stayed in the car and played when I went into the Munchbox (owned by my classmate Eleni Nikolopoulos’s family) for fried chicken and all the trimmings. Eleni was there doing homework in a booth, so we hung out for a bit while I waited for my order.
    “Tell me more about Trollville,” I said to Dad when I got back into the car with the food.
    “Gnomeland, silly,” he corrected me. I settled back into the passenger seat as he told me about all of the different types of beans you could plant and harvest. It sounded crazy lame to me. But Dad was enthralled.
    MENU. SELECT. ADDRESS BOOK. SELECT. ADD NEW CONTACT. ENTER FIRST NAME. ENTER LAST NAME. ENTER NUMBER.
    Over and over and over. I was sitting at the kitchen table after dinner inputting all my friends’ numbers from my binder. I accidentally put in Jessica’s number incorrectly and had to start over. This was so boring. But now my phone had a ringtone that sounded like a frog croaking, which made me very happy.
    Mom pushed open the kitchen door, a scrap of paper in her hand. She had a big smile on her face. “I was just IMing with Debbie,” she said excitedly. “She gave me Nicholas’s number to give to you. He’s totally excited about spending time with you on the trip and he has a couple of questions. Maybe you could give him a call.”
    I squinted up at her. “Mom, are you kidding? Questions about
what
?”
    She handed me the scrap of paper with Nicholas’s number on it. “Oh, who knows. Maybe he wants to know if he should bring his Atari,” she said cluelessly.
    “Fine, Mom,” I said. “I’ll call him.” I put in his number, Amy’s, and a couple of other kids from school as Mom hovered next to me. I blushed like mad as I input Hamilton’s number. Luckily, Mom didn’t notice.
    She smiled. “It means so much to Debbie and me that you and Nicholas are going to spend some more time together,” she said.
    “How much time?” I asked warily.
    “Well, they’ll be here for almost a week,” Mom explained. “I think you guys will strike up a nice