Page 14 of The Do-Over

He raised an eyebrow and pushed the middle button. “I just assumed you’d be all amped for Valentine’s Day, but I see you’re wearing sweats and looking grouchy, so maybe not. Did I miss something?”

What was he even talking about? I had no idea so I just went with—“You know what happens when you assume, right?”

“Yeah, someone’s an ass.”

“Oh, come on, you guys.” Lisa came into the kitchen with Logan on one hip, Joel on the other. “Can we please not swear around the babies?”

Were they kidding me?

“They weren’t in here when he said it, remember?”

“And technically,” my dad said, throwing me a wink exactly the way he’d done the day before, “?‘ass’ isn’t a bad word. It’s a donkey.”

I felt my eyes squinch up as I looked at my dad and then at Lisa. Were they trying to be funny, or something? Yeah, no—she still looked at me as if she wished I would disappear.

I grabbed my backpack and my car keys before remembering the van. “Aw, jeez, I forgot about the wreck. Can either of you give me a ride to school?”

“What wreck?” Lisa set Joel down and shifted Logan to her other hip, looking at my dad. “She wrecked the van?”

Before I could answer, my dad said, “No, she didn’t wreck the van. I just went out and scraped the windows, remember?”

“Well, then, what did she mean about the wreck?” Lisa looked at him, and he looked at me and said, “No idea. What did you mean, Em?”

I looked around him and out the kitchen window. There, in the driveway, was my Astro van with the windows scraped. I pointed. “Where did that come from?”

“What, your car?” My dad looked at me like I was being a goof. He didn’t look—at all—like someone who was pranking me. “I’d say Detroit. You know, because GM…?”

I glanced at Lisa and she tilted her head a little and crinkled her eyebrows. “Em?”

“Um, I, uh, I was just messing.” I tried for a smile and pushed toward the door. “I’ve got to go.”

The sun was bright when I stepped outside and I squinted as I carefully walked in the fresh snow by the front of my car. Not only was it not smashed, but it didn’t even have a single, solitary scratch on it.

How?

I climbed inside and started it up, my mind scrambling to figureout what the deal was. My phone buzzed and I pulled it out of my pocket. Chris and Rox were FaceTiming me.

I pressed the button to answer and there they were, looking exactly as they had the day before, faces squished together in the junior hallway.

“Guess what I just saw?” Chris asked.

“I want to tell,” Rox whined, pushing at him while grinning.

“I can’t talk right now—I’ll call you back.” I disconnected as my mind flipped over like a T-shirt in a dryer. Things were bonkers all of a sudden. I backed out of FaceTime, and my eyes landed on the calendar on my phone.

FEB 14.

My phone said it was “FEB 14.” But… it wasn’t. It was the fifteenth.

Right?

Out loud, I said, “Hey, Siri, what is today’s date?” and her little robotic voice confirmed—it was the fourteenth.

Huh?

I started driving toward school, confused, until it hit me.

Idreamedabout the very terrible Valentine’s Day. Ihadbeen excitedly looking forward to the big day; it made sense I would dream about it, right? It was like when little kids dream about Christmas.

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