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Mom giggles. “Practice. Lots and lots of practice. And water.”
“You’re my favorite mom in the world,” Maya says. “But I don’t like you very much right now.”
Mom smiles. “What if I say I made your favorite hangover meal?”
“Are you telling us the truth?” Chloe asks, and I frown. She has a hard time believing my mom after what her own mother put her through.
“I made my specialty hangover smoothies with coconut water, green tea, bananas, and honey. Plus, I have blueberry pancakes and scrambled eggs.”
“Is there coffee?” I ask because breakfast doesn’t exist without coffee.
“I wouldn’t dare serve breakfast without coffee. You’d sneak out the back door, barefoot and in your nightgown, and beg the neighbor for a cup.”
“One time. One time I asked the neighbor for a cup of coffee,” I mutter. And we live on an island. Barefoot is not a big deal.
“Let’s go, girls.” Mom shoos us up the stairs. “We’ve got a busy day ahead of us.”
“The only thing I plan to do today is search for an apartment.” No way am I continuing to live with Flynn. I’m not into self-harm.
Mom shakes her head. “You can view apartments tomorrow. The Moonshine & Merriment Festival starts today. You don’t want to miss the opening ceremony.”
I plop down on a chair at the kitchen table. “I’m too hungover for merriment today.”
She sets a smoothie down in front of me. “Drink this. You’ll feel better and be ready to enjoy some merriment in no time.”
“I don’t think a smoothie is going to heal my broken heart.”
“You can’t be depressed when drinking Mermaid Moonshine and dancing a pirate’s jig,” Nova claims.
“Challenge accepted.”
Despite my bitching, food does help my hangover and within an hour, I’m feeling better.
“Time to change into your costumes,” Mom declares once we’ve cleaned up after breakfast. She holds up a costume.
Correction. I was feeling better.
“I’ll go to the festival if you insist but I’m not dressing up.”
Mom huffs. “You are dressing up or I’m telling the entire island about how you insisted we call you ‘Veronica’ after Veronica Mars for the entire seventh grade.”
Maya giggles. “I think everyone on the island already knows since she decided she was a real life detective and tried to solve all the mysteries at high school.”
“It wasn’t a mystery how the chemistry lab blew up,” Paisley mutters. “It was an honest mistake.”
Chloe laughs. “What about when she stole all those library books and then pretended it wasn’t her just so she could ‘open a case’?”
“Fine.” I stand and snatch the costume from Mom. “I’ll get changed, but I’m going to be a grumpy pirate all day.”
I stomp toward the door to the basement.
“I took the liberty of picking up all of your costumes this morning. You’ll find them downstairs,” Mom hollers after me.
“Thanks, Lily!” Nova says as she shuts the door behind us.
I dump my costume on the sofa. A blouse, boned corset, skirt, and hat tumble out. I pick up the skirt.
“This will barely cover my ass,” I complain.
