“It was Ally’s idea,” Lee told Hector.
“What was Ally’s idea?” Hector asked Lee.
“It was not Ally’s idea!” I cried.
“It wasn’t!” super-power-eared Ally yelled from the open back window of Lee’s Explorer. “It was Sadie’s idea. I just was offering moral support.”
“Shut up, Ally!” Indy shouted out the open passenger side window.
“I will not shut up! I’m not taking the fall for this one!” Ally shouted back.
I turned to the car, dislodging Lee’s arm and lifted both my hands and pressed down. “No one’s going to take a fall. Everyone calm down. It’s all okay. It’s rock ‘n’ roll!” I screamed.
“Righteous!” Ally screamed back.
“Rock on, sister!” Indy screamed too.
“It’s rock ‘n’ roll?” Lee asked, sounding as amused as he looked.
“You all wanna quit screamin’ at three o’clock in the mornin’ in my f**kin’ neighborhood?” Hector suggested.
Mm, well maybe we were being an eensy bit loud.
“Time for beddie by,” I announced (sounding like Ralphie), got up on tiptoe, kissed Lee’s cheek (like Ralphie and Buddy would do to me), turned and gave Indy and Ally a double devil’s horns (like Ava taught me) and shouted, “Rock on!”
They shouted back in unison, “Rock on!”
“Christ,” Hector muttered but I ignored him, walked into the house and headed toward the stairs.
I was in his bedroom, I’d turned on the light by the bed and was sitting on its side when he arrived.
“What did Lee try to stop?” Hector asked when he hit the room.
I leaned over and yanked off a boot then held it up to him.
“Look at this boot!” I cried, “Isn’t it aces? Daisy and the gang bought it for me. They bought me my whole outfit!” Then I threw the boot at him, thinking it was so cool, he might want to get a closer look.
He caught it, stared at it for less than a second then tossed it toward the pile that had somehow sprung up in the short time since Blanca’s tidying effort.
“Hey!” I snapped. “Don’t throw my new boot. It’ll get scuffed.”
Hector advanced, saying, “It’s a motorcycle boot. It’s supposed to be scuffed.”
Oh.
I didn’t know that.
Boy, I had a lot to learn about being a Rock Chick.
I was going to have to start taking notes!
I leaned over and pulled off the other one while he stopped in front of me. Then I hesitated.
Oh, what the heck.
I threw it in the pile and took off my socks.
“Can I ask you to do somethin’ for me?” Hector said.