Blended

Izzy begins to sort through what her mother’s remarriage might mean: whether her name will change and what John Mark’s family will think of her. Her mother is going full tilt with her wedding plans. The ceremony will take place in four months. The two decide to hold the ceremony on Lane 2 at John Mark’s bowling alley; the entire event will be informal and intimate. Izzy is uncertain how to react to the idea of having a stepfather, a white stepfather at that. She studies the black and white keys on her piano. They tell her that notes make melody, that black and white keys cooperate to find harmony, that rich melodies can be in major and minor keys, and that the same black and white keys can play Beethoven and B. B. King. The music, she decides, “is me.”

She is just adjusting to the idea of her mother’s remarriage when, over a swanky dinner with her father, Anastasia, and Darren, her father asks Anastasia to marry him. Izzy is flabbergasted and remains stiff and unsmiling. Anastasia quickly agrees. Now with two weddings being planned, Izzy sees the grown-ups in her family going “berserk with happiness” (205).