Emma Moves In

Author Clare Hutton
Illustrator Helen Huang
Originally Published © 2017 American Girl
ISBN 9781338114997
 

Chapter One

While on the plane to visit her cousins, Emma makes a list of all the activities she wants to do over the next week. Number 1: have a cookout, like she did last summer with her mom’s twin sister, Aunt Alison, her husband, Uncle Luis, and their two twin daughters, Zoe and Natalia, and their younger brothers, Tomás and Mateo.

Number 2: swim. The waters of Chesapeake Bay, near Waverly, where she’s flying to, are much warmer than the beaches in Seattle.

Number 3: sparklers, like they did last year, and it was so much fun!

Number 4: bonfire on the beach, where they’d make s’mores.

Number 5: knitting with Grandma Stephenson, like they did last year in Seaview House. Although since then, Grandma Stephenson has moved out of Seaview House, due to a bad fall and a broken hip, which has been in Emma’s family for generations, and moved in with Natalia and Zoe’s family, where their whole family, and Uncle Luis’ mother, Abuelita, lived, too. Although nobody lives at Seaview House anymore, it’s still the family’s—they didn’t sell it… yet. Emma’s whole family, including Mom’s brother, Uncle Dean, and his wife, Aunt Bonnie, live on the East Coast, while she and her mom and dad have traveled around and now live in Seattle. Emma’s mom is an environmental lawyer, and her dad is the head chef at a Seattle restaurant, Harvest Moon, specializing in comfort food.

Number 6: finish the Violet story that she and Natalia started last summer.

Number 7: cousin pact.

Emma doesn’t get a chance to expand notes on that item. But no matter what, she’ll make time for the cousin pact. Emma explains to her parents that she always tries to pack so much into these trips. Her parents remind her the most important thing is to enjoy spending time with her cousins and to just have fun.

By the time they pull up to Zoe and Natalia’s house, Emma is shaking with excitement. Natalia rips open the backseat and pulls Emma into a hug. Quieter Zoe trails behind. Although they’re twins, Natalia dn Zoe are so different; Natalia’s long hair is everywhere all at once, and she’s loud and always laughing or talking. Zoe, on the other hand, is more reserved and quiet, and is always keeping her thoughts to herself—she’s always watching and noticing other people. In many ways, Emma feels like she’s the in-between of the two girls.

They all head into the backyard where the cookout is happening, accompanied by the family dog, Riley. Emma’s aunts and uncles fuss about how much they’ve grown—they’re moving onto sixth grade already! Abuelita talks about how beautiful she is and how she’s grown. Only Grandma Stephenson allows Emma to relax a bit. It makes Emma feel better to know that Grandma Stephenson hasn’t really changed that much.

But when Emma asks Grandma Stephenson if she plans to sell Seaview House, Grandma only responds that not all changes are for the worse… the important thing is that they’re all together as one family.

 

Chapter Two

After everybody is done eating, Natalia drags Emma and Zoe to the beach, with Tomás and Mateo trailing along afterwards. Natalia explains that she invented a new game with water balloons. Everybody would throw water balloons at hoops and try to gain points. On certain throws, if somebody catches the balloon in midair, they can steal the points from another player. Soon, everybody, even the adults are throwing water balloons at each other!

After the game, they all clean up the beach. Then, as they walk back to the house, the three girls do their cousin pact. “Our days together slide like sand through our fingers. The tides go in and the tides go out. Not just cousins and sisters, but best friends. Forever.”

After that, everybody lights their sparklers on the beach. Emma jumps as hers bursts and begins to sparkle. Emma mentions that the stars are so much brighter in Waverly, where her family lives. Zoe mentions she’d love to live in Seattle… in the bustling city. Emma thinks that’s funny; she wishes these moments could last forever.

 

Chapter Three

Without warning, the days continue to pass by, like a ticking time clock. The whole time, Emma feels like she can sense the end of the week looming closer and closer.

At the final goodbye dinner, Emma is grabbing a plate of yummy Maryland crab when her mom and Aunt Alison stand up. They explain that a dream of theirs was always to open a bed-and-breakfast. And now with Grandma Stephenson being unable to take care of the Seaview House on her own, Grandma finally agreed to sell half of the Seaview House to Emma’s family!

They plan to move Emma and Mom into the Seaview House at the end of the summer, with Dad joining when he can find a replacement chef at Harvest Moon. This is Emma’s dream coming true! She’s always wanted to move to Waverly and live closer to her family. This is her opportunity.

By the end of the summer, Emma and her friend Amelia are in Harvest Moon at their goodbye lunch. Amelia reminds Emma that she’s missing out on the sixth grade camping trip they’ve dreamt about for ages. She also will be missing the next season of soccer.

Emma is sad to be leaving those things behind, but she can’t help but remind herself that moving to Waverly is her dream… it’s going to be amazing.

 

Chapter Four

It’s been a week since the official move, and Emma is getting sick of bunking with Natalia and Zoe on an air mattress. Natalia snores, Zoe is irritable in the morning, and Tomás and Mateo’s toys get everywhere, even in the girls’ bedroom. Even Natalia points out that five children in the house is too many… it’s survival of the fittest. Emma isn’t used to that sort of chaos in her quiet household.

At breakfast, she’s beginning to figure out a way to tell Abuelita and Grandma Stephenson about the difficulties in adapting to the new environment when the boys rush in, followed by the other adults. And before she knows it, the moment is gone.

The kids head to the store with Uncle Luis to buy school supplies. Normally, Emma does this with her mom, and they take the whole morning to go through everything. But here in Waverly, everything is different. Uncle Luis has to give Tomás and Mateo his full attention, so the girls are left to pick everything out for themselves.

Afterwards, the girls go for ice cream. Natalia is busying herself trying every single flavor, when two new girls walk in, Bridget and Caitlin. Zoe explains that Natalie is friends with everybody. Furthermore, Zoe and Natalia aren’t always in the same class, so they don’t have the same friends at school. Emma’s nervous—if Zoe and Natalia don’t stick together at school, who is she going to hang out with?

 

Chapter Five

It’s the day before school starts, and Emma is deciding what to wear. She starts brainstorming some ideas when she realizes a lot of her clothes are still in boxes. It’s hard living out of a suitcase—when will Seaview House be ready to move into?

Natalia and Zoe overhear Emma crinkling her paper. Natalia offers Emma to wear something from her chaotic closet. Natalia has nice clothes, but they feel like Natalia, not Emma.

Zoe says she has something. She opens her closet so Emma can see her color-coded closet. She pulls out a blue and white striped dress. Emma takes it gratefully.

Later that day, Mom and Aunt Alison bring the girls by for a tour to see the progress they’ve made. Emma is dismayed to see there’s no furniture, dirt is tracked all through the house, pipes are sticking out of walls, and the whole place is in disarray. It’ll be a while before Seaview House is ready for people to move into.

But they’ve redesigned Grandpa Stephenson’s old office to be a new bedroom for Grandma, complete with furniture. And while the second story is a lot like the main part of the first floor, the women have turned the attic into a small apartment for Emma’s family. There’s a private back staircase that leads to the attic, and there’s a small kitchen, living room, and two bedrooms. Emma’s bedroom has a large window overlooking the garden, and built-in bookshelves on one wall.

Natalia, Zoe, and Emma brainstorm ideas of how they can decorate the new room. Emma notices that Zoe and Natalia almost ignore each other throughout the conversation. Did they always fight and disagree this much?

They are interrupted by Emma’s mom, who has Dad on the phone. He explains that it’s taking them longer than they thought to find a new chef, and he won’t be able to move out next week. But he just knows Emma will have an amazing first day of school. Emma is disappointed, and she clings to the hope that her dad is right.

 

Chapter Six

The first day of school, Uncle Dean takes the girls to school on his sailboat. And this year would be no different. As Emma tips her head to the sky, she reminds herself this is ten times better than taking the school bus.

When the girls arrive at the school, Natalia is immediately whisked away by her friends… Emma recognizes Caitlin. Zoe is talking to her friends as well. Emma realizes her hair is a mess, and Zoe takes her to the bathroom to fix her hair up. Like everything else, Zoe is great at fixing things.

In class, both Zoe and Natalia offer the seat next to them to Emma. She doesn’t know who to sit with, so she nervously sits with Natalia in the front row. Mr. Thomas, the history and English teacher, asks Emma to introduce herself to the class.

Nervously, Emma stands up and says she’s from Seattle, and then quickly sits back down. Why do teachers always make new kids do that?! And then Mr. Thomas passes out their first book. It happens to be one Emma’s already read, and she relaxes a bit. She assures Natalia it was a funny story, and she learned a lot from it.

At each of the next classes, both Zoe and Natalia also save Emma a seat, and Emma always chooses to sit in front with Natalia. At lunch, both of them offer Emma to sit there. Emma takes a seat next to Natalia, but she’s quickly overwhelmed by so many people talking at the table. Emma gets up and sits next to Zoe. Zoe explains they were about to go to the art room to get away from the noise. Unfortunately, Emma isn’t done eating, and she feels a pang of loneliness as she watches Zoe going away.

Upon returning to Natalia’s table, Emma finds Caitlin has taken over Emma’s seat. Nobody notices she’s standing there, so Emma is forced to grab her lunch and sit farther away. Something about that rubs Emma the wrong way. Even though now Emma is surrounded by family, she doesn’t feel like she belongs any more than she did in Seattle.

 

Chapter Seven

After a week at her new school, Emma is exhausted. It’s hard being a new kid. Even though most of her classmates are friendly, it’s just tiring getting used to everything being so new.

After school, the girls and Tomás come home to their moms cooking breakfast foods in the kitchen. They tell Emma that it’s taking Harvest Moon even longer than anticipated to find a replacement for Dad, so he won’t be able to join them at Seaview House for a while. Emma is disappointed. She was expecting him to come home any day.

When Aunt Alison asks Emma how her first week went, she says that some kids are nice, but some aren’t so nice. Zoe unsubtly says that Emma’s talking about Caitlin. Natalia is surprised; she didn’t see Caitlin do or say anything mean. Natalia offers to talk to Caitlin about it, but that’s the opposite of what Emma wants. That will just draw attention to their issue.

Zoe suggests that Emma can come sit with her and her friends at lunch. Jokingly, Natalia tells Zoe to stop trying to steal Emma. Is Emma the reason Natalia and Zoe have been fighting so much?

 

Chapter Eight

Over the weekend, Emma is taking some time at Seaview House with Mom decorating. They’re working on painting the new tables for the dining room. This will allow each group at the B&B to eat with their own separate group instead of with everybody else. When Mom asks Emma how she’s doing, Emma says that she wishes Natalia and Zoe hung out at school more. She feels so apart from them and has trouble choosing between them. Mom explains that even when you love the other person, sometimes you still need some space.

Emma takes the time to give Amelia a call. Amelia tells her all about their new forward on the soccer team, and that they won their first game. Amelia fills Emma in on school. Emma can’t help but feel like she’s already been replaced.

When Zoe and Natalia come over, they have fun all digging through some of the old items in the attic. Emma finds a sketchbook of drawings and paintings of the bay, the gardens, and sailboats. They also find an old yearbook from when Grandma Stephenson was in school and a box of records. They pull the sketchbook and records into Emma’s new room.

Through the open window, Emma can hear her mom on the phone in the garden. Mom is yelling on the phone to Dad in Seattle. “You keep saying you want to come out here, but I don’t see you doing anything about it. If you want to stay in Seattle, you should say so instead of stringing me and Emma along.” Zoe reassures Emma that they’ll make up, but Emma isn’t sure.

 

Chapter Nine

On the car ride home, Mom acts like everything is totally normal. When Emma asks her if she talked to Dad, she casually mentions that they did talk, and still there’s no update on the new chef for Harvest Moon.

The girls drag the box of records and the sketchbook into Zoe and Natalia’s house. They show it to Grandma Stephenson, who confirms that the sketches are from her Cousin Carolyn, who lives in Colorado. She also has Natalia grab an old record player and set up a record called “Mashed Potato Time” into the player.

Together, the girls and Grandma all dance the old fashioned Mashed Potato dance. Soon, Emma’s mom, Aunt Alison, and the boys come into the room and join in. But when Abuelita sees Grandma Stephenson dancing, she exclaims that Grandma is too fragile to be dancing; she doesn’t want to have another fall. Regrettably, Grandma sits down with a huff.

Later, Natalia complains that she wishes everybody didn’t treat Grandma like a baby so much—she’s a grown adult and can make her own decisions. Zoe replies that she thinks it’s important for Grandma to be careful. Emma can see from both perspectives. She wishes that everybody in her life would stop arguing.

 

Chapter Ten

At school on Monday, Emma couldn’t stop thinking about her issues with Caitlin. She is sure that there’s something nice about her, but Emma hasn’t seen it yet.

In gym class, Emma gets the chance to think less and just be present. She chases after the soccer ball and scores a goal. Natalia congratulates her. But after everybody else left the field, Caitlin comes up to her and sneers “Show off.” Emma knows that telling Natalia what Caitlin said will make her feel forced to choose between the two of them. So she has to try another approach to solve the problem.

In class, Mr. Thomas says they’re splitting up into groups of four to work on a class project. Emma is given the chance to choose her partners. Against all odds, she chooses Natalia, Zoe, and Caitlin to all work together.

When they get to the library, Emma asks Caitlin if she has a problem with Emma. Caitlin responds that Emma’s a show off about the books in English, and in gym class. Natalia and Zoe jump to defend Emma; being good at sports is just what Emma does, and she can’t help it if she’s already read the books before. Caitlin makes a sour face and when the bell rings, walks away without a word.

 

Chapter Eleven

As they walk home from the bus stop, Zoe and Emma talk about how Caitlin is jealous of having to share Natalia’s time. They’re both hopeful they’ll be able to find a way to make Caitlin less jealous.

When they get home, their moms take them, Tomás and Mateo, and Abuelita and Grandma Stephenson to Seaview House to see the progress. When they get there, Grandma is amazed by the freshly painted porch, shiny buffed floors, and the tiny dining room tables. They’re able to see out the windows all the way to the bay.

Grandma slowly makes her way upstairs to see where Emma and her family will be living. She admires the resourcefulness of turning the empty attic into a small apartment.

As they all head downstairs to taste some hors d’oeuvres, Emma’s mom explains that until Dad can join them, they need to try out new recipes to use. Still, Aunt Alison is adamant that Dad will join them to be the chef soon.

As Abuelita leaves to try to find a fork for Grandma to use, Emma muses that maybe one reason Abuelita babies Grandma so much is because since Grandma moved in, Abuelita has been trying to find her place in the new changed household. She’s managed to find a niche in taking care of Grandma, even if Grandma doesn’t really need so much care. Grandma Stephenson ponders on this theory, and decides it’s worth a shot.

 

Chapter Twelve

At school, Emma casually mentions acting out a scene from the book for their class project. Caitlin doesn’t glare at Emma, and she seems slightly more interested than what she verbally responds. She suggests they could splice a few scenes together, and Emma could play all the nasty old men while Caitlin plays the heroine. Emma notices this, but she thinks it’d be funny… and if this is what Caitlin needs to accept Emma, then so be it.

Zoe suggests making a backdrop, and they think about doing small costume pieces like hats and beards and fabric to show that Emma is playing different characters. It seems like Emma may be able to convince Caitlin to be nice after all!

After school, Emma’s mom surprises her by picking her up and taking her for hot chocolate. Emma orders a couple macarons to go with her hot chocolate. They talk about what Emma’s experience is living with other kids, and Emma assures her mom that although she loves her cousins, it’ll be nice to be an only child again.

They suggest having Emma try out for the soccer team and trying to find a new swim team, too, that way Emma will make more friends of her own. And then the topic turns around for Emma’s dad. It’s been weeks since he was supposed to come out to join them, and Emma hasn’t heard any update.

Mom tells Emma to not worry, and that they’re working on it. But Emma’s still curious. When Mom gets up to use the restroom, Emma picks up Mom’s phone, and opens her text messages. And there’s one from her father: “What do you expect me to do, then?” And a response: “I just realized you’re NEVER coming out, are you?”

 

Chapter Thirteen

At Natalia and Zoe’s home, Emma lays on her air mattress while the twins comfort her. Emma’s been sobbing, and she doesn’t know what to do. Natalia thinks maybe Emma misunderstood the text messages, but Emma responds they were pretty clear.

Zoe forces Emma to wipe off her tears, and suggests going down to the beach to do some drawing. Emma’s not an artist like Zoe, but she consents.

When they get down to the beach, they plop down on the sand and begin drawing a seashell. Natalia takes Riley, and they walk along the beach looking for other cool objects to draw.

When the shadows get longer, Natalia gets their attention by making a gull screech, and Emma and Zoe chuckle. Emma felt like she’d never laugh again, and now she realizes how much better she feels.

Emma knows what she has to do: she has to call her dad and figure out what’s really happening.

 

Chapter Fourteen

When they get back to the house, all three girls sneak upstairs to call Emma’s dad. He picks up the phone in the restaurant. At first, he sounds casual and lighthearted. When Emma asks him if they can talk seriously, he steps into another quieter room.

Emma blurts out that she read on Mom’s phone that he’s not coming. Dad reassures Emma that’s not true, and those words were said out of frustration. Harvest Moon hired a new temp chef, and then after that, Dad is leaving, no matter what. In fact, Dad already booked his plane ticket. Dad will be there by Seaview House’s grand opening!

 

Chapter Fifteen

The next week, Caitlin, Emma, Natalia, and Zoe have their presentation in English class. Emma hasn’t been nervous at all… until this very moment when they’re supposed to go “onstage.” Emma takes deep breaths, and Zoe reminds her that everything is going to be okay.

Besides the butterflies in her stomach, the whole presentation goes splendidly. Emma remembers her lines, her costume changes work perfectly, and Natalia and Caitlin are funny. Mr. Thomas congratulates them, and the rest of the day, their classmates stop by to say how great it was.

After school, the girls rush over to Seaview House to get ready for the grand opening. Dad is finally there, and he’s busy in the kitchen prepping the appetizers for serving. The girls grab aprons, forks, and trays of food.

Mom and Aunt Alison have old friends there, Abuelita and Grandma Stephenson have friends, and little kids are running around with Mateo and Tomás. Emma spots many of her own classmates, too. The whole event is a success.

Part way through the party, Natalia, who abandoned her food tray long ago, comes down to grab Zoe and Emma and pull them upstairs. In the attic, Emma and her family have finally moved into Seaview House. The bed has fresh sheets and covers, and their closets are full.

The twins exclaim that although it was fun spending so much time with Emma, they’re glad Emma can finally be with her family again. Emma agrees. Natalia suggests they do a new cousin pact.

Together, they do: “Our days together slide like sand through our fingers. The tides go in and the tides go out. Not just cousins and sisters, but best friends. Forever.”

And then Zoe asks Emma whether she’s happy they moved to Waverly or not. Natalia responds “Of course she is” without a second of hesitation. Emma chuckles, and affirms that “Yes, of course” she’s happy she moved.

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