CHAPTER 7

When Life Hands You a Lemon, Say, Oh, Yeah. I Like Lemons. What Else Ya Got? --Henry Rollins

Summary

Lena sat down with her grandfather the next morning for breakfast, but because she spoke little Greek and he spoke no English, they sat only in companionable silence. However, she noticed that she had Bapi's nose. She ate and then told him she was going to paint Ammoudi. She was just going out the door, wearing the pants, of course, when Kostos arrived with a plate of freshly baked pastries from his grandmother. She refused to sit down with him for a pastry, claiming she needed to catch the light, so he followed her out the door. He tried to show her his interest in her art, but she politely rebuffed him and then tricked him into telling her which way he would be walking. Then, she decided to go the other way even though she had awakened with a real lust to paint the boathouse in his direction.

Tibby received a letter from Bee exclaiming about how the soccer camp is full of sports clichés and that she loved it. She admitted, however, that she wouldn't want it all the time, because then she wouldn't have Tibby in her life. She also exclaimed that she was in love and that he was 100% off limits. She admitted, though, that wouldn't stop her.

After Tibby returned to work from the hospital, she found out she was in trouble, because she had skipped out on her shift. They gave her one more chance, but she had to give up the pay she had earned for the time she did work that day. Then, she discovered that the girl's wallet was still in the plastic bag with her own personal items, so she got on her bike and rode to the home of the girl on the library card: Bailey Graffman. Bailey's mother sent Tibby upstairs where Bailey was resting. Bailey turned out to be obnoxious, accusing Tibby of stealing her wallet and then taking money from it. She even made vicious comments about Tibby being a Wallman's employee. However, Tibby, wondering what she was doing there, went downstairs to get Bailey's medicine as a favor to the girl and her mother. She told Bailey's mother that her daughter liked to test people (something Tibby's own mother had said about her many times), and Mrs. Graffman explained that it was probably because Bailey had leukemia.

Upstairs again, Tibby tried to be nice even when Bailey continued her meanness, but Bailey saw through it and began to cry, because her mother had told Tibby the truth. Tibby felt the need to just leave and went out the door, with Bailey spitting out the comment, Nice smock!

Lena wrote Carmen a long letter describing the village and how she wanted all four of them to go there someday together. She mentioned how her grandfather had silently approved her painting. She and Effie had gone on mopeds to the biggest village on the island and Lena told Carmen how the coffee was so strong there that she was strung out on caffeine all day. She also mentioned how Kostos walked by her grandparents' house at least six times a day, but she wouldn't react to his desire to start a conversation. She ended her letter with a comment that she was still waiting to have something happen that would be big enough for the Pants. She wished Carmen a great time with her dad.

Carmen found herself alone with Krista, Paul and their friends while her dad and Lydia had gone to a chamber-orchestra concert. She had spent the last four days pouting in her room and they had thought she would be unable to resist a teen party. One boy tried to talk to her, but seemed only interested in her breasts before he walked away. Paul introduced her to his girlfriend and Carmen meanly pretended to be a girl he might be interested in. She felt good that it would take him a year's worth of explanation to make it right with his girlfriend again.

Notes

This chapter is all about being mean. However, the meanness is actually the result of people putting up walls to prevent being hurt again. Lena rejects Kostos over and over, because she thinks he's just like all the other boys she knows. Bailey is mean to Tibby, because she doesn't want to be pitied about her illness. And Carmen pouts in her room and gets Paul in trouble with his girlfriend just because she's angry at her dad. Only Bridget seems happy, but ironically, her happiness is leading into trouble.