Page 102 of Happiness for Beginners

Martha stepped back to the mic. “The second recipient is—”

Another drum roll.

“Windy Anne Sky!”

I cheered with everybody, but I also thought,Windy Sky? So her sister was Stormy Sky?Oh, California.

Windy loped up to the mic and almost knocked Martha over with her big hug. She got her Certificate and her medal, and then she turned around, hugged Jake, and planted a kiss right on his lips.

I looked away.

“And our third and final recipient,” Martha went on, “and a real crowd favorite—”

Final drum roll.

Windy pointed her guns at me from the stage. “Pew! Pew!”

“Hugh Edmund Davenport!”

The crowd goes wild.

I lifted my eyebrows, contracted my cheeks into a smile, and jumped up and down, shouting “Go, Hugh!” Just like everybody else.

“Now,” Martha said, when the cheering quieted a bit, “for obvious reasons, we’ll have to mail Mr. Davenport’s Certificate to him. Congratulations to everybody. Great job!”

But her voice was muted. The cheering and the jostling and the partying were muted, too. What had just happened? Had they really given it to Hugh? Jake was a shoo-in: no surprise there. And Windy was irresistible. And maybe the cranky, judgmental, stand-offish person I’d been at the start of this thing couldn’t have beaten out Hugh, but that was the old me. The new me had bonded with these kids, hadn’t she? I wasn’t Helen—or even Ellen—anymore. I was Holdup! I had finger guns! I could read maps like a ninja! I had at last won Beckett’s respect and become his hand-picked choice above everybody. Hadn’t I?

But none of that got me up on the stage. I looked around. This is how it was, and there was no changing things: Me down here in the crowd, getting jostled between Vegas and Caveman as they body-slammed each other in celebration. And Jake and Windy—Olympians of beauty and niceness—on the stage with their medals and their Certificates, afloat on adoration.

Windy stared at me from the stage, a little stricken. She lifted her arms in a shrug to me, like,What the hell just happened?

I felt a sting in my chest, but I shrugged back, like,Doesn’t matter! I’m okay!So Hugh had gotten the sympathy vote. He’d certainly been through the ringer. Then I made a shooing motion at her with my hands, like,Go! Be happy.

She shook her head at me, like,I can’t be happy if you got screwed.

So I gave her asuch is lifeshrug and then waved my hand bye-bye, like,I’m outta here. Enjoy your night.

And she waved back, like,I totally get it.

As the big guys started chanting “Speech! Speech! Speech!” I skulked my way back toward the side door to escape unnoticed. Which worked pretty well, except that I paused a second too long next to the Sisters as they ogled Jake and Windy up on the stage.

“Oh my God!” Dosie was saying. “Aren’t they the cutest?”

Uno agreed wholeheartedly. “They’re like the Kennedys of the backpacking world.”

On the heels of that, I literally bumped into Beckett as I stepped away, and turning to apologize, I got this from him: “Should’ve been you, kiddo. You got both my votes—no contest. They only picked Windy ’cause she’s prettier.”

I drew in a deep breath and turned to take one last panorama of this micro-section of my life. Then I called it:Time to go the hell home.

***

I managed to make it through the lobby to the base of the big stairs without getting stopped again, and I thought I was in the clear until I heard Jake’s voice behind me. “Helen! Hold up!”

I took a deep breath, held it, and turned around.

He was jogging toward me with that great form he had, medal bouncing the tiniest bit against his chest.

“Great shirt,” I said.

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