Chapter 2

My dad was lying on the grass motionless with my dog, Minnie, running circles around him. I bent down to see if he was still breathing. Thankfully, I could feel the rise and fall of his chest. What is going on here? First mom, and now this.

"Dad. Dad!" I yelled at him. I guess that woke him, because I saw his shoulder flinch.

"Dad!" I repeated.

I heard a faint, "Yes?" from him. Minnie had stopped circling by now and just sat there staring with her chocolate eyes. Gosh, I love my dog.

Ok, Troy. This is not the time to be thinking about the dog.

"Dad, are you all right?" I asked gently. My dad slowly rolled to face me.

"Yeah, Troy. I'm fine. I just got a little dizzy, and I guess I passed out." He used my shoulder as a crutch to rise to his feet.

"Should I get mom?" I asked.

"No!" he said sternly. "I'm perfectly fine, Troy. Don't worry about me. I didn't eat breakfast or lunch today, because I had to do some planning during my lunch hour. I just have low blood-sugar now."

"OK, Dad." I told him. "I guess it's no big deal."

"Well, I'm gonna go inside and cook us some grub for dinner." Dad said. He started toward the door.

"Dad, wait!" I called.

"What is it, Troy?" He asked with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Why did you change your mind on the whole Chad, Aruba, family thing?"

"Oh, well, I thought it would be nice if you had a friend along to hang out with." I could tell my dad was lying to me. I'm so confused. Why would he lie about that?

I went inside to call Gabi.

"Gabi– " I said, but the hello I got wasn't Gabi's. "Oh, hey Ms. Montez. May I speak to Gabriella?"

"Sure Troy. Hold on, lemme get her." Ms. Montez replied. There as a silence between them until Gabi's cheerful voice reached Troy.

"Hi, Troy!"

"Hey, Gabi," was my reply.

"So, what's up? I hear you thought I was my mom. Do I sound like her?"

"No, I just thought that you would be answering your cell phone, and not your mom." I blushed.

"Oh, sorry. I had left my phone downstairs so my mom picked it up before I could get down." Gabi said sounding so innocent.

"No problem, babe." I joked. "Anyway, do you want to hang out tonight?"

"Oh come on Troy!" Gabi said, "You know tomorrow's Friday, and we have school."

"Oh yeah." I said, obviously defeated. "Can we go out tomorrow night, then?" I pleaded.

"All right, Troy. We can do something."

"What do you want to do?" I asked, "We can see a movie."

"No, that's to generic. How 'bout something fun? My mom and I were supposed to go to see the Phoenixes play the Chicago Cubs, but she had to go visit my grandma in California. We can see that." Gabi suggested. I know the Chicago Cubs are her favorite team, and we both love baseball, so why not? It would be fun.

"Sounds like a date!" I said.

"Cool–" There was a pause. "Troy, my mom says I have to go unless I want to be paying my cell phone bill. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"All right," I chuckled. "See you tomorrow."

"Bye!"