Here Come The Bridesmaids Read Online Free Page B

caroling. We didn't say we would do it!"
    "Tell them that. My brothers have been practicing! They can't wait."
    I fell silent. I could hear Ben breathing like an angry bull. "I ... I don't know what to say," I murmured.
    "So you're going to cancel on us?" Now he was practically shouting.
    "I have to, Ben."
    "Fine. Great. Whatever."
    Click.
    I stared at the receiver, gaping.
    He hung up on me. Just slammed the phone
    down without saying good-bye.
    What a jerk.
    I slammed the phone down, too. Let him take the kids by himself. Let him do whatever he wanted by himself.
    No way was I ever going to talk to him again.
    Chapter 5.
    Suzi.
    You know what Stacey calls me? A little dictator. Because I dictated my entry to her.
    Stacey thinks that is very funny.
    I know how to write. But it takes too long. Anyway, I really like the way Stacey puts hearts on her i' s. So I let her write, when she baby-sat for me.
    I am in my old house. I miss it so much. Even though I still live here. That's because my family will be moving. So we're kind of connected to the new house now.
    I miss my old bed, too. I'm going to sleep on a bunk bed in the new house, with Madeleine, my new sister. She's only four. I'm five and five-twelfths.
    Know what else? Soon I will have two daddies. My new one is named Franklin. Maybe he is related to Benjamin Franklin. I asked him that once, and he just laughed. But he did not say no.
    My old daddy got a divorce. He lives in Milwaukee now. That's far away. Like a million miles, or maybe even a thousand. But not a googolplex. That’s the highest number in the universe. My big brother, Buddy, told me.
    I miss my old daddy even more than my old house and bed.
    The new house is yucky. I do not not NOT want to move there.
    We went there the day before yesterday with my new daddy's kids. Stacey went with us, but she mostly played with Marnie and Ryan. The house smelled like paint. Ick! And the kitchen wallpaper had pictures of broccoli on it. So we have to look at it while we eat. That is so disgusting. One of the bathrooms has a gross hole in the ground instead of a toilet. Franklin said the plumbers were coming to put in a new one.
    The ceilings have holes, too, with wires coming out of them. Buddy said they were alien monster claws, and I got scared. Mommy yelled at him. He's mean to me.
    I thought I heard a rat downstairs, too, but Mommy told me to shush.
    I shushed. I walked through the house. I saw the new carpet in my bedroom. Madeleine turned on the shower by mistake and got wet. Taylor and me slid on the shiny living room floor.
    We bonked against one wall. Then we bonked against the other, and the other, and the wall with windows. And then I noticed THE MOST HORRIBLE THING.
    "Mommy?" I called out. "Mommy!"
    Mommy came walking in. "What?"
    "They covered up the fireplace."
    "What are you talking about?"
    "The workers. They put plaster over the fireplace. Look!" I pointed to the long, blank wall at the end of the room. Where the fireplace is in our old house.
    Mommy sighed. "Suzi, nobody covered anything. This house has no chimney."
    "It doesn't?"
    "Duh," Buddy said. I didn't even see him come into the room.
    "Duh to you!" Taylor yelled back.
    "Buddy," Mommy said warningly, "you leave your sister alo — "
    "But what about Santa?" I asked.
    "What about him?" Mommy asked.
    "Where will he come in?"
    Mommy didn't say anything. She looked at the wall. Then she looked around the living room. "Well . . ."
    Taylor started biting his fingernails.
    "Through the hole in the bathroom floor," Buddy said.
    "Eeeewww!" Lindsey started laughing. She was in the hallway, behind Cruddy Buddy.
    'The window," Mommy said. "We'll leave the window open."
    I looked out the living room window. "You
    mean, the reindeer will land on the lawn?"
    Buddy started laughing really loud.
    "Buddy, will you please go play somewhere else?" Mommy asked.
    My brother doesn't believe in Santa Claus. But Santa still brings him presents. That is so unfair.
    "Hey,