Rockin' Road Trip Read online

  Copyright © 2018 Disney Enterprises, Inc.

  All rights reserved. Published by Disney Press, an imprint of Disney Book Group. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. For information address Disney Press, 1200 Grand Central Avenue, Glendale, California 91201.

  ISBN 978-1-368-02585-0

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  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  For my parents, who took me on countless adventures…and for Joel and Jack, who make every day an adventure

  —A.Y.

  Walking home from school with her two best friends at her sides, Andi Mack couldn’t stop smiling. She wasn’t sure why, but she had the overwhelming sense that something incredible was about to happen—something even more incredible than all the things that had already happened.

  “Okay, what is going on with you?” Buffy Driscoll asked, shooting an amused look at Andi, who was practically skipping at that point.

  “Honestly?” Andi flashed an even bigger grin but didn’t want to jinx the looming excitement—whatever it might be. “I have no clue!”

  “Ah.” Cyrus Goodman nodded, channeling the wisdom of his parents and stepparents, all four of whom were psychotherapists. “Forgive my chutzpah, but I believe I know.”

  “You do?” Buffy and Andi said at the same time, hooking their thumbs through the straps on their backpacks and stopping to stare at Cyrus in mock wonder.

  “Also, what is ‘chutzpah’?” Andi added.

  “It’s Yiddish for ‘guts,’ ” Cyrus said.

  “Ew!” Andi cringed.

  “No—not like intestines,” Cyrus explained. “It means boldness, courage, grit.”

  “Yeah!” Buffy tossed her head back and put a hand on her hip. “It’s one of my favorite Yiddish words, obvs.”

  “Speaking of Yiddish,” Andi said, glancing at Cyrus, “I can’t believe your Bar Mitzvah is coming up so soon!”

  “And I still don’t have a thing to wear,” Buffy added.

  “Me neither,” Andi replied, frowning at Buffy. “Should we make a shopping date?”

  Buffy bit her lip. “I’m not sure. I have to check my practice schedule for basketball, ya know?”

  “It’s okay,” Andi said. “We can figure it out later—or maybe I can just get Bowie to go shopping with me. He’s surprisingly good with fashion direction.”

  “You sure?” Buffy scowled.

  “Totally!” Andi insisted, turning to Cyrus and quickly changing the subject, still eager to hear his take on her current mood—which was, admittedly, pretty great. Hence the smiling. “So, what do you think is going on with me?”

  “Well…” Cyrus looked up at the sunny, cloudless sky as a cool breeze rustled through the leaves of the lush green trees. He stretched his arms high and spun around before presenting the big reveal with a thick British accent: “You’re experiencing gratitude, luv—a complete and utter appreciation for, well, let’s see…Good weather! Good health! Good clothes! Good hair—obviously! And most of all…?”

  “Yes?” Andi and Buffy widened their eyes impatiently as they waited for their goofball friend to share his final observation.

  “Goodman,” Cyrus finally said, extending an arm and offering his most smoldering James Bond–style gaze as he shook Andi’s hand and then Buffy’s. “Cyrus Goodman.”

  Buffy rolled her eyes and laughed. “Oh, my good man,” she replied, adopting a British accent of her own. “That must be it!”

  “Definitely!” Andi grinned and waved goodbye to her friends before turning toward the redbrick building with yellow trim and racing up the three concrete steps leading to apartment 108B.

  “Good day!” Andi practically sang after she opened the French doors leading into the living room, where she found Bex sitting on the olive-hued velvet sleeper sofa, reading a magazine.

  “Uh…‘good day’?” Bex looked up from her magazine with a smirk. “Shall I make us some tea and crumpets?”

  Andi giggled. “No. Sorry. Cyrus was just being…Cyrus, and then we all kind of got into it.”

  “Ah,” Bex said with a nod, turning her attention back to the magazine.

  Andi wrinkled her nose, sensing a weird energy. It was like the moment she had walked in, her mysteriously good mood got swept away and locked outside.

  Maybe it’s a blood sugar thing, Andi thought. She headed for the kitchen and grabbed a box of animal crackers from the shelf next to the pale yellow retro stove, then returned to the living room and flopped down on the chair by the sofa.

  “Hungry?” Andi asked, holding out the box for Bex.

  Bex shook her head without even looking up from her magazine.

  “Gee…that must be a really fascinating article,” Andi said with a shrug, slightly irritated. She popped a few cookies into her mouth and focused on savoring every crumb, determined to maintain the attitude of gratitude Cyrus had observed. But it was no use; she couldn’t recapture the adrenaline that had been pumping through her veins mere moments before.

  “So, what do you want to do this weekend?” Andi finally asked. Maybe Bex had something fabulous planned and Andi’s subconscious had been sensing it earlier.

  “A whole lot of nothing!” Bex replied with a huge smile.

  “Really?” Andi puffed out her lower lip and crossed her arms. “But it’s Friday! You don’t want to get out of here? Do something fun?”

  “Maybe.” Bex tilted her head, considering Andi’s words, and then added, “But staying home doing nothing can be fun!”

  “Seriously?” Andi exhaled loudly. “Won’t you be bored?”

  “Nah. It’s been a busy week. Time for some R and R!” Bex stretched out on the couch and draped the open magazine over her eyes like a sleep mask.

  Andi scowled. “Aren’t you already bored?”

  The room was silent for what felt like hours, and Andi wondered if Bex really had fallen asleep—but then Bex jumped to her feet, letting the magazine fall to the hardwood floor. “Wait…” Bex said, visibly unsettled. “Are you bored?”

  Andi scrunched up her face and thought about how strange it would be to admit such a thing. The fact was life had been anything but boring in the months since Bex had returned to Shadyside, rolling up in front of the Mack house on her motorcycle and announcing that she would be staying. She had arrived the day before Andi’s thirteenth birthday, and Andi could not have been more thrilled about the news.

  After all, it was Bex: the person Andi had always known as her ultracool older sister, who had left home to go on all sorts of crazy adventures when Andi was a baby—and Andi had already decided that when she turned thirteen, she was going to take a page out of the same thrill-seeking book. She h
ad even saved up her cat-sitting money and bought an electric scooter without asking permission—and then, poof! Her big sister cruised up like some sort of black-leather-clad fairy godmother, just in time to help make Andi’s rebel-with-a-cause dreams come true!

  Then, the next night, on Andi’s thirteenth birthday, Bex revealed something seriously crazy: she told Andi that she wasn’t her sister at all—she was her mother. Andi was stunned, to say the least. That meant Celia “CeCe” Mack, the woman Andi had thought was her mother, was really her grandmother…and Henry “Ham” Mack, the man she had thought was her father, was actually her grandfather.

  Things got even crazier from there. Andi met and started spending time with her real father, Bowie Quinn, a free-spirited musician who was clearly Bex’s soul mate, even though Bex turned him down when he asked her to marry him. Andi also got her first real boyfriend: Jonah Beck—as in the Jonah Beck, who was basically the cutest, most charming, most popular eighth grader at Jefferson Middle School. Even though Jonah and Andi were only friends these days, that might never have happened if Bex hadn’t arranged a Frisbee lesson with Jonah for Andi’s birthday present. (Jonah was the founder and captain of the Space Otters, the school’s Ultimate Frisbee team, which Andi even joined for a short time.) The craziest part of all? Bex got a job and her own apartment, and Andi moved out of the only home she’d ever known, away from the only parents she’d ever known, and in with Bex—who Andi eventually began calling Mom. Mom!

  Yet after all the ups, downs, twists, and turns Andi’s life had taken with Bex, at that moment in time, with the dust a bit more settled, it all seemed to be screeching to a serious—and, yeah, possibly snooze-worthy—stop.

  “Seriously, Andi—are you bored?” Bex asked again. She’d never thought she’d be the kind of mom who would have a bored kid.

  “Um.” Andi fidgeted with a thread on her yellow headband. “Maybe we’re just in a bit of a rut?”

  “No.” Bex began pacing around the room and shook her head as she continued to mutter, “No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You can’t be bored! We are fun!”

  Then Bex quickly went into full-on fix-it mode, her eyes lighting up each time she tossed out an idea. “We could have a John Hughes movie marathon, with giant buckets of popcorn and all the animal crackers you can eat!”

  “Again?” Andi frowned.

  “Okay,” Bex said, undeterred, “how about if we go to the movies and then out for pizza—or to the Spoon if that sounds better?”

  Andi’s mouth stretched open into a big, long yawn. She tried to cover it up with her hands, but it was too late.

  “No!” Bex shrieked, grabbing Andi’s shoulders and shaking her. “This isn’t happening! You will not be bored on my watch!”

  But with each activity Bex proposed—playing dice games or card games, going shopping or to the new museum exhibit, flying kites at the park or even doing a mother-daughter at-home spa day—Andi sunk deeper into the chair cushions. It was too weird! It was like Bex was turning into one of those generic moms. Where was the real Bex—the one who constantly encouraged Andi to step outside her comfort zone: to throw a house party while Ham and CeCe went out of town, to protest the school dress code by wearing a prison uniform? Where had adventurous, full-of-surprises, rebellious Bex gone?

  “I know!” Andi suddenly blurted out. “What would you be doing right now if I weren’t here—like if you were off on one of your adventures, without me in the picture?”

  Bex stuffed her hands into the pockets of her army jacket and scowled. “I don’t ever want to think about a life without you in the picture…that would be boring. And awful. And sad.”

  “But if you could,” Andi said, pressing her. “Come on! Just for fun…pretend I’m not here and you have no responsibilities! Where would you go, what would you do?”

  But Bex planted her black motorcycle boots firmly on the floor, her hands on the hips of her distressed jeans, and shook her head. “That’s not an option—and it will never be an option again.”

  Clearly the topic wasn’t open for discussion—and Andi had to admit she wasn’t entirely bummed about that. She didn’t want to think about her life without Bex around, either. Even a not-so-wild-and-crazy Bex was better than no Bex at all.

  “Fine,” Andi said, pasting on her most convincing smile and grabbing her phone to look up showtimes. “Let’s go to the movies.”

  “See? Wasn’t that fun?” Bex asked as she and Andi exited the movie theater later that night.

  Andi stifled yet another yawn—not because the movie had been boring, but probably because it was almost eleven o’clock.

  “Okay, that’s it—I’m taking you to the Spoon,” Bex said. “You’re clearly in need of more sugar.”

  “Seriously?” Andi asked, pulling on her soft pale blue cardigan. “But it’s so late, and I already had a ton of candy!”

  “Now who’s being boring?” Bex taunted her.

  “Not me!” Andi laughed. “I just meant I thought it was past your bedtime. Remember? You were the one who wanted to do a whole lot of nothing, who said it was time for some R and R.”

  “Huh? Who said that?” Bex deadpanned, and then skipped ahead. “I’m wide awake and ready for a shake! Makin’ rhymes and feeling fine!”

  “Ugh.” Andi rolled her eyes, smiling as she caught up to Bex.

  But as soon as they arrived at the diner, Andi noticed a poster in the window and stopped short, her heart beginning to race.

  “Oh my gosh!” Andi grabbed Bex by the arm and pointed at the poster. “The Mountain Jam Music and Arts Festival is next weekend—and the Renaissance Boys are headlining! Did you know about this?”

  “Nope, first I’m hearing of it.” Bex took a step toward the purple poster and narrowed her eyes as she scanned the long list of band names. There had to be at least thirty acts playing each day, and the Renaissance Boys were listed at the very top in huge swirly silver letters.

  “But you’ve been to Mountain Jam before—you sent me a scarf from there a few years ago, right?”

  “Totally,” Bex murmured, getting a dreamy, faraway look in her dark eyes. “I’ve been lots of times.”

  “We should go!” Andi started bouncing up and down in her white sneakers. “I mean, we have to go—right? I have next Monday off school, so it would be a perfect way to spend the three-day weekend!”

  Bex’s expression quickly changed from blissful to wistful. “I don’t know, Andi….”

  “Huh?” Andi studied Bex’s face. “How can you not be completely psyched about this? It could be the mother-daughter adventure of a lifetime!”

  Bex crinkled her nose. “It could. But it’s a pretty long drive on steep, winding mountain roads….”

  “Cool!” Andi couldn’t think of anything better than taking a road trip with Bex on her motorcycle.

  “And we would have to spend the whole weekend outside, except when we’re asleep…in a tent.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Andi insisted. She wasn’t exactly the outdoorsy type, but going to Mountain Jam could be the perfect way to change that.

  “But it can get pretty hot…and crowded…and dirty…and sweaty…and smelly,” Bex continued.

  Andi smiled with gritted teeth; she could handle a little heat and dirt.

  “Plus, we would need to get a camping spot and tickets, and it’s probably already sold out—”

  “Um, hello?” Andi cut Bex off. “The Renaissance Boys are headlining! Bowie can get us in!”

  Had Bex seriously forgotten? Right around the time Bowie had found out he was Andi’s father, he was a touring guitarist with the Renaissance Boys. Of course, even though it had been his dream gig, he eventually decided to leave life on the road—mostly so he would be able to spend more time with Andi…and Bex. And although he’d opted to stick around Shadyside and get a job working at the local nursery, Andi figured he must still have some pull with the band.

  “Maybe,” Bex said with a reluctant sigh. “But I’m worried this m
ight be more of an adventure than you’re ready for.”

  “But, Mo-om,” Andi whined, instantly making Bex flash back to all those times when she had been a teenager desperate to experience life, and her mom had kept trying to hold her back, telling her to slow down, to be more careful, to all but run away from anything even containing the letters f, u, and n.

  Oh, no! NO! Bex’s thoughts exploded in a silent terrified scream. Have I turned into the fun police, just like CeCe? Is this what happens when you work too hard at becoming a responsible parent? Do you suddenly have to hand in your cool card, without even realizing it’s happening? Is that what happened when CeCe had me? Is that what’s happening now that I have Andi?

  “Okay, we’ll ask him!” Bex swiftly changed her tune. She would not turn into her mother. The mere thought of it made her stomach turn. But then, before she could stop the words from escaping, she added a cautionary and extremely maternal “Just don’t get your hopes up.”

  “Too late!” Andi told her. Andi shivered with anticipation as she pulled Bex into the Spoon; she couldn’t wait to grab a table and start planning their trip.

  “Oh, hey, look who it is!” Bex glanced toward the counter as she and Andi sat opposite each other in one of the turquoise-and-orange booths.

  When Andi spun around to see, her heart skipped a beat. It was Jonah Beck. As if he sensed her presence, he turned and waved the moment Andi looked his way. Andi felt her stomach do a little somersault at the sight of his sparkling green eyes and his adorable dimples. She couldn’t help it. No matter how much they’d been through, first as friends, then as an item—or at least, in Andi’s limited experience, what she thought had been an item—he still had a strange power over her.

  “I’m gonna go over real quick,” Andi told Bex, sliding out of the booth. “Can you order me a chocolate shake and some baby taters?”

  “Sure—take your time!” Bex replied.

  Andi went to sit down on the stool next to Jonah’s. “Hey,” she said.

  “Hey!” Jonah smiled and nodded, causing his thick brown hair to flop down into his eyes.

  “Are you here by yourself?” Andi asked.