Fortunes Of Indigo Skye
Book By: Deb Caletti
Paper By: McKenzie Johnston
Indigo Skye has what some people might call the perfect life. She has a great family who loves and supports her in whatever she does. She also has a job as a waitress at a local diner called Carreras. To top it all off, she has Trevor as her boyfriend who is there for her no matter what. All of this happiness is about to get better or so she thinks. One day at work a mysterious guy gave her a tip like no other. The tip was worth 2.5 million dollars for nothing other than some good advice about his financial life that he asked her for. The tip came as a shock and she wanted to return it immediately. Her family, friends and boyfriend did not like this idea and wanted to put it to good use. Conflict arises within Indigo’s life as she tries to return the money, try to decide whether to stay with her family or run away with a friend and deal with her family wanting her to keep the money.
Upon receiving the yellow envelope that held the money, she would not open it. She had heard too many stories about bombs and diseases being transported through manila envelopes to open it immediately. Once she opened the envelope what it was contained came as a surprise to her. It was not a bomb or a disease but 2.5 million dollars. Tons of ideas came to her family’s mind for spending the money but only one idea came to Indigo’s mind, and this was to return it to its rightful owner. Her family was not happy about her wanting to return the money; they felt that since it was a gift she should use it on herself and them. She was staying with her plan of taking it back but it took her a couple of weeks to get on the plane. It took her so long for her to get on the plane because her family were trying to persuade her to stay. She got in to her first fight with her boyfriend and caused great disappointment to her sister and brother by leaving town and going to Hawaii to return the money. Her mother was completely supportive of her returning the money. Eventually she got on the plane to Hawaii since that is where she told this mysterious guy to go. Conveniently, her father lived there with his new wife so she could stay with them. Indigo had not seen her father in years and was wary of having to stay with him. She thought that they might not have anything to talk about and the whole visit would become awkward. She thought wrong because upon arriving, everything just fell into place with her father. Spending time with her father helped keep her mind off of nobody really being happy with her at the moment and set her eyes on the goal of returning the money.
Returning the money did not go as planned. Once she tracked down this mysterious man, Richard Howards, she offered the money back but he refused. He thought that it was in his best interest that she keep the money and that she could put it to better use than he ever could. She argued with Richard for awhile but it she still ended up getting back in the car to go back to her father’s house. She spent more time with her father to make sure the proper goodbyes were said and she was back on a plane. She arrived home with the money and her whole family was there to rekindle their relationship with her. It was not long after getting home that everyone had ideas for the money. Trevor wanted to fix his car, Severin, her twin brother wanted to take a trip to the mall and Bex wanted to give the money to needy children. Indigo gave in and took Trevor with her to the mall. They bought anything that they could. Her family tried to decide what to put the money towards for a couple of weeks before Indigo wished she had never seen the money. Trevor, her boyfriend was getting to the point that he would only call to tell her something new that she could spend the money on. Her little sister, Bex, was no longer the free spirited child that she once was. She went from spending her Saturdays selling bad lemonade to raise money for Tsunami victims to being glued to a very costly flat screen. The changes that were happening to her close friends and family were causing Indigo great anger and sadness. She just wanted things to be normal again. Normal being, no fighting, no worries and no money, just happiness.
Indigo finally got tired of hearing how everyone wanted to spend her money instead of spending time with her, so she left. She packed up her bags and left and she told no one. She was invited to join her very wealthy friend Melanie, on a trip to her dad’s beach house in Malibu so she accepted the request. At the beginning of the trip she was enjoying every minute of it. No one wanted anything more from her than a conversation. The enjoyment soon ended when she found herself surrounded by some of the people that she had always wanted to hang around, the rich and the famous. But these people were not as great as she thought. She comes to realize that they are humans that act like jerks and are portrayed to be great on TV. Another thing that didn’t help was the daily phone calls from home with her mother and boyfriend on the other end wondering if she was oaky and where she was. These calls got fewer and fewer and the voicemails became angrier and angrier. Her conscience was getting to her because she had never experienced such anger from Trevor and her mother. All of this guilt really got to her and made her realize that no matter what they are her family. So…she packed her bags and went home to her mother, Bex, Severin and Trevor. They worked out the money issues by letting Indigo do whatever she chose with the money.
Money can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how people take it. The money was Indigo’s but her family did not get that. They wanted to use it for themselves and it caused them to lose sight of Indigo herself as a person. She just became a bank. This caused much conflict within the family than they ever imagined. She had her first fight with her boyfriend, became frustrated with her mom and helped turn her sister into a couch potato. But all of the problems just made them stronger and brought them closer together as a family.
