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“Yeah, I thought it would be a good fit.”

“How about you, Isobel?”

“My mom and I always dress up as zombie waitresses. She’s bringing our costumes.” A month ago, I might have been embarrassed to admit I was dressing up as a waitress because my mom and I always did it while working at her café. Especially after Veronica had shared pictures of me in my café uniform around school. I was surprised to find it didn’t bother me at all, and not one part of me was ashamed of my background. I might not have grown up in a wealthy home like everyone else at school, but I’d had the best mom in the world, and that was worth more than money ever would be.

“Aw, how fun,” Cress replied. “I’m so excited to meet her.”

“Yeah, she can’t wait to meet everyone too,” I said. “I wish she could stay longer than one night, but she said she’s going to try and get here more often.”

“We’re just going to have to make it the best day in Weybridge ever,” Cress said.

“Definitely,” I agreed.

The rest of the school day was pretty much a write-off. No one was concentrating in class, and the teachers weren’t all that focused on schoolwork either.

* * *

Before I knew it,it was Saturday. Mom wasn’t arriving in town until lunch and Halloween Fest didn’t start until the evening, which meant I had no good reason for avoid my driving lesson that morning. I tried to convince Cress I was too sick to go, but she wasn’t at all fooled by my pathetic attempts to avoid driving and happily shoved me out the door for my lesson.

I hoped I’d do slightly better this time around, but my lesson was just as pathetic as the last one, if not a little bit worse. The instructor had finally convinced me to pull out of the parking lot onto the open road, but I froze as soon as there were other cars near me. He took over and did most of the driving from then on.

My head was lowered as I returned to my dorm room. It was hard not to feel defeated when most people made driving look so easy. Even my instructor seemed surprised by how slow my progress was. I had a feeling I was the worst student he’d ever had.

I pushed open the door to my dorm room and gasped as my mom jumped out at me.

“Surprise!” she squealed.

All my gloomy driving thoughts completely disappeared as I dashed across the small gap between us and wrapped my arms around her.

“You’re here!” I gasped. “I thought you weren’t getting in for a couple more hours.”

“I made better time than I expected and wanted to surprise you,” she said.

“Well, you certainly did that. My heart is beating from my throat.” I laughed before pulling out of the hug to look at her. Although she was beaming at me and her face was bright, there were bags under her eyes and she looked tired from her journey. She was wearing her usual long cardigan and fitted jeans, but they hung a little loose on her like she’d lost a bit of weight. I hoped it wasn’t anything to do with how hard she was working at the café or how stressed out she was.

Over her shoulder, I could see Cress lingering in the background, a huge smile on her face.

“I see you’ve met Cress,” I said.

Mom grinned as she glanced at my roommate. “Yes, she’s been telling me all about her kiss or scare booth,” she said. “It sounds like it will be hilarious.”

The idea had developed quite a lot since we came up with it. Now, anyone who bought a ticket for the booth would be blindfolded, and they’d either be kissed by whoever was manning the booth or have something strange pressed up against their lips to scare them. The girls had found all kinds of funny things for people to kiss. There was candy floss, cupcakes and other strange feeling foods, but then someone had also managed to commandeer a bunny, some mice, and a pet iguana.

“I hope so,” Cress said. “And your mom said she would have been totally keen to volunteer for the booth. Didn’t you, Ms. Grace?”

“Mom,” I groaned, giving her a slight shove.

“What?” she asked. “I like kissing as much as anyone.”

“Would you like me to die of embarrassment?”

“I can think of worse ways to go” She shrugged.

I felt like Norma had been a bad influence on my mom while I’d been gone.

“How was your driving lesson?” Cress asked.

“Terrible. I’m this close to quitting.” I held up my hand and showed her about a centimeter gap between my fingers.