My van broke down halfway between the after-school center and the ice cream shop. I was able to pull it off the road and into a grassy patch before it shut off completely, but beyond that, the situation was utterly hopeless. I knew nothing about cars.

Running my hands through my wind-blown hair, I got out of the van and plopped down in the grass to call my boss and tell her I'd be late. At least she was decent to me; not mean like all the bosses from the horror stories the girls at school had told me. She'd probably understand.

I dialed and held my phone up to my ear as it rang, surveying the open road around me. I was sitting in what wasn't a patch of grass as I had initially thought, but a meadow of dandelions. Looking around guiltily as if someone would catch me commiting some heinous crime, I plucked up one of the weeds and held it close to my face, so that it tickled my nose.

I wish everything will turn out okay.

Just as I was about to blow the seeds of the dandelion away, an unbearable pain crushed my chest. I hurled the flower as far away as I could and sat back on the ground, tears pricking my eyes. I didn't believe in making wishes.

After seconds of sitting and fighting back my tears, I finally got a response on the other end of the line.

"Skyport Creamery, this is Katie speaking."

"Hi, Katie," I said, brushing my eyes with the back of my hand and standing up to head back to my van. "This is Evelyn. My car broke down oon my way over, but I'm going to try and get over there as soon as possible."

There was a silence while Katie took a customer's orders, and then she said, "Poor thing. How about I send someone to pick you up? You can call a tow truck for your car."

I tried not to think of how expensive it would be to fix my van. "That'd be great, thanks."

After I called a tow truck, I leaned against my car and waited, squinting my eyes in the harsh sunlight and waiting. Moments of quiet, where I had nothing to do, made me anxious. I was so busy, with so many responsibilities, I felt like I always had to be running around, crazed, at least doing something. My gaze travelled guiltily to make backpack in the passenger's seat, but I ignored my conscience. I could work on homework when Cameron arrived to tutor me tonight.

Finally, Katie's forest green Jeep pulled up onto the side of the road shortly behind my car, followed by the tow truck. I reached into my car and grabbed my things before watching as my van was hoisted onto the truck. I could practically picture hundreds of dollars going down the drain.

"Come on, then," said Katie, ignoring my gaze. I shook my head to clear my thoughts and climbed into the passenger seat, my fingers nervously fiddling with the zipper of my backpack.

~*~*~

Behind the counter of Skyport Creamery, scooping ice cream for anxious costumers and ringing up orders, it was hard to worry about the trivial things that had haunted me earlier, like dandelion wishes and my homework. I had lapsed into the same easy mindset I always got into when I was busy: work now, fret later.

It was springtime, which meant the busy season was approaching and the shop was getting more crowded after school. I'd worked for Katie for almost a year, and the feel of the ice cream scooper in my hands or the handle to the glass case against my palms was ingrained in my head.

"Want to work at the cash register while I scoop for a little while?" asked Katie, coming up behind me and tucking some of her bob-length brown hair behind her ear. We were the only two working in the shop today, which was exactly how I liked it best. "I know you love collecting tips."

I rolled my eyes, more in acknowledgement of her teasing than anything, and switched tasks. As long as I was earning my paycheck, the job I was doing was irrelevant.

The bell on top of the glass door jingled, and I glanced up to see Cameron walking inside with his soccer posse, his uniform still on. I tucked my hair behind my ear absentmindedly and bent over the cash register.

Cameron's friends got in line, but he went straight up to me and asked, "So this is where you work after school?"

His blue eyes seemed almost too probing. I dropped my gaze and began straightening the money in the cash register. "Soccer practice done already?" I countered.

"It was cancelled; it's storming." I glanced up just long enough to see that Cameron had crossed his arms and was studying me carefully. "That's a nice outfit you've got there," he observed.

I could feel my cheeks heating up as a imagined how I must look in my apron with the animated cow on it that Katie required all of her employees to wear. "Are you going to order?" I asked. "You're holding up the line."

Holding up his hands in an "I'm sorry" gesture, he backed away and rejoined his friends in line, where they immediately resumed the joking and shoving they'd been partaking in when they'd first entered the store.

I took the money the next costumer handed me and pulled out a few coins from the cash register. "Your change is forty-four cents," I said brightly, passing over the money and pasting on a smile. "Thank you!"

The costumer tipped the coins in the tip jar and I smiled I myself, trying to visually estimate how much was in the tip jar. Katie always let me keep whatever change was in there--I told her I was saving up for college.

Since it was getting full and there weren't any costumers immediately requiring my attention, I emptied the few dollars inside into my change purse, trying to count it up as it poured out. I estimated ten or so dollars.

"I didn't know I signed up to tutor a thief."

I whirled around and saw Cameron standing in front of the cash register, holding a dripping cone of chocolate ice cream in one hand and a five-dollar bill in the other. I immediately turned bright pink again.

"I'm not stealing," I stammered, taking the five dollars and counting out his change. "Katie lets me keep the tips, for college."

Cameron took his change and counted it out. "You gave me an extra quarter," he said, passing it back.

I tucked my hair behind my ear again and returned the quarter to the cash register.

"For college, huh?" he asked as he licked the tip of his ice cream, surveying the now-empty tip jar carefully.

I nodded a little too vigorously.

With a shrug, Cameron dropped a twenty-dollar bill into the jar, then turned and strode out of the shop, lifting his hand in a wave. My eyes were wide as the door jangled, shutting behind him.

"Can I pay or what?"

I shook my head and glanced up to see one of Cameron's friends standing in front of me, his eyebrows wrinkled. "I'm happy to get free ice cream, but I figured I'd ask," he said.

Rolling my eyes, I took his money (which was exact change, luckily), and said dryly, "Have a nice day."

The guy nodded in my direction and took off the way Cameron had gone. "I'll be sure to," he said.

Biting my lip, I quickly collected money as the rest of the soccer posse paid and left with their ice cream, their jeers and shouts audible even through the thick glass door leading out onto the street.

~*~*~

By the time my shift had ended, Cameron's tip had helped contribute to thirty-four dollars and seventy-six cents of hard-earned money for "college". I wondered how long it would take to save for me to fix my car.

"How much have you saved up?" asked Katie as I tipped the remainder of the money into my coin purse and began untying my apron.

I had to do some quick thinking, since I hadn't really been saving it--I'd been spending it on necessities like Clare's schoolbooks and a backpack for Maddie. "I'm not sure," I said finally, hiding my face from view as I hung my apron on the hook to one side of the counter. "I haven't counted it in a while."

Katie straightened my apron, which I had hung lopsided. "Do you need a ride home?" she asked.

I hadn't considered this. I'd have to pick up Maddie and Clare from after-school care, and how was I expected to do that without my car? "I have to pick my sisters up from daycare," I said, twirling my hair around my index finger. "I don't want to be too much of a pain."

"Not at all!" beamed Katie. She jangled the keys to the store and said, "Chris should be here any minute, so I'll leave the place in his hands while I play chauffeur."

It was only a few minutes before Katie's husband arrived and we were able to head back out to Katie's Jeep. I climbed into the passenger's seat, setting my backpack at my feet, and said, "Thanks so much for the ride."

Katie adjusted the radio to a country station and turned up the volume. "Not a problem."

While she drove happily along the directions I gave her to Clare and Maddie's after-school care, I tried to figure out how I could get by without a car. My sisters and I could take the school bus tomorrow, but I didn't know how I'd get them to their daycare after or how I'd get to the ice cream shop for work after. Nervously, I twirled my hair around my finger, trying not to concentrate on the problems that were stacking up as high as a brick wall.

Why could I have an easy life, like Cameron or Ashley from bio? Their biggest worries were if it rained on soccer practice or what dress they'd wear to the school dance.

The minutes ticked by slowly as my gloom increased, but it still wasn't long before Katie pulled up to the after-school center. I had to get out of the car and go into the daycare to pick up Maddie and Clare, since the staff wasn't familiar with the green Jeep, and in only a few minutes I was helping them into the backseat.

"Is someone still coming over after dinner?" asked Clare as she helped me fasten Maddie into her seat and then buckled her own seatbelt.

I shut the back door and hopped into the passenger seat, turning down the radio which Katie now had turned to a pop rock station. "Yes," I said. "And he's going to help me with my homework, so you both have to be very quiet."

Even though Katie was facing the road, I could see her perfectly groomed eyebrow pluck upwards like a spider leg. "He?" she asked. "Is he from school?"

"Yeah." Heaving an unplanned sigh, I added, "His name's Cameron Maddox," as if Katie would know exactly who that was.

But my boss surprised me. "Cam?" she asked, her features lighting up. "I've known him since he was a little kid. Used to come to the ice cream shop all the time. Goodness knows all the trouble he got into--still does."

I rolled my eyes lightly and focused on the wind in my face as we drove back to our house.

When we pulled up to the old brick house I'd lived in all my life, I realized just how late we were running. I only had an hour to feed my sisters, get them situated, and be ready for Cameron.

"Thanks for the ride," I said as I climbed out onto my driveway and then went around to help Maddie and Clare out. Clare hopped out willingly, but Maddie had fallen fast asleep and I had to hoist her onto my shoulder before carrying her inside.

Our house was small, but it was functional, and I'd been lucky to be able to keep it after Dad had left with all his money. My parents had been saving up a college fund for me from the day I was born, and I was able to use a lot of that as well as my paychecks to keep up in our house. I didn't want Maddie or Clare to feel the burden of not having parents any more than they had to, even though I knew they both cried themselves to sleep at night.

Once inside, I set Maddie on the couch and took Clare's hand, leading her in the kitchen and telling her she could help me start dinner. I knew better than to ask her what she wanted--she always begged for macaroni and cheese.

But today, she didn't go straight into the pantry to take out the pasta. Instead, she went over to the windowsill that overlooked our ungroomed backyard and picked up a framed photo.

"I don't really remember what Mommy looked like," she said softly, squinting her eyes as she gazed into the blurry faces.

I froze from gathering food for dinner, my eyes beginning to water. Then I walked over and enveloped her into a hug, turning her face away from the picture so that she was facing me. "I'm sorry," I said, stroking her hair. "I really am."