by Mary Amato
“Where are you going?” Saki called out.
“We have stuff to do,” Scarlett called back.
“What does that even mean?” Phillip called out.
Mara threw us a funny look, and they turned the corner and disappeared.
“Did you see how guilty Mara looked?” Phillip said. “They’re up to something.”
“Spy on them,” Pablo said, and then we all had to go to class.
The morning went fast, and Mrs. Brock kept us busy. The sun broke through the clouds, so we got to go out at recess.
Immediately Scarlett, Victoria, and Mara ran to the bottom of the playground.
Phillip and Resa and I walked down to see what they were doing, and as soon as they saw us they got quiet.
“Hey,” Phillip said.
“Hey,” Scarlett said.
“We were just wondering what you were doing,” I said. “It looks like you’re planning something.”
“It’s private,” Scarlett said.
Mara and Victoria wouldn’t even look at us.
Phillip and Resa and I walked back. “They’re never going to tell us,” Phillip said.
“We have to find out a sneaky way,” Resa said.
“I wish we had a drone with a built-in video camera that could fly over them,” I said.
“I would seriously love a drone,” Phillip said.
Just then Jeremy Bing walked by kicking a ball and an idea popped into my head at the same time.
“Jeremy!” I said.
“Um…what?” He stopped and looked at us.
“Don’t look at us!” I said. “Just pretend like you’re tying your shoe and listen.”
He looked at his shoe-lace, which happened to be untied. “That’s funny,” he said, and bent down to tie it.
“We need a spy guy,” I whispered. “We think Scarlett, Victoria, and Mara are planning something mean. If you kick your ball down there and go get it, you can hear what they’re saying.”
“If I do it what will you give me?” Jeremy asked.
“You got anything?” I asked Phillip and Resa. They shook their heads.
I sighed. “I have potato chips.”
“Deal,” Jeremy said. He stood up and “accidentally” kicked his soccer ball down the hill. We pretended not to notice.
He came back up a few moments later and crouched near us and pretended to tie his other shoe.
“They’re practicing songs about the weather,” he said. “They’re going to sing them on Channel Four next Wednesday. Scarlett said her mom was excited about it. Did you guys know Scarlett’s mom is Janet Tandy? She does the weather for Channel Four.”
“Yes, Jeremy. Everybody knows that,” I said. “I can’t believe this! Scarlett must have told her mom and then she must have said they could sing.”
“On real TV. Without us!” Resa said.
The whistle blew to come in from recess.
“This is big,” I said. “This is way worse than anything I did.”
“What are we going to do?” Resa asked.
“We need time to think,” Phillip said. “For now let’s pretend like we don’t know.”
“Let’s each try and think of a way to get back at them,” I said. “We’ll meet at the fence right before school and decide on the best plan.”
“Um…don’t forget to give me your potato chips,” Jeremy said.
This was not going to be a good day.
Mad and sad often go together. All afternoon I was mad and sad because Scarlett, Victoria, and Mara were stealing our idea and not including us. I know I didn’t include them when Phillip and I first sang on The Morning Mix, but at least I didn’t steal their idea.
After school when I walked in the door, Lily was crying. She looked funny because she was wearing nothing but her underpants and her big yellow rain boots. My dad was washing the dishes.
“Lily is having a crisis,” my dad said. “Leo, too.”
A crisis is when you cry about something that your parents are tired of hearing you cry about.
“What’s Lily’s crisis?”
“She wants to take a bath,” he said. “But she won’t take off her boots. I told her she has to take off her boots when she takes a bath. Now she’s mad at me. I think she’s coming down with a cold. She’s been grumpy all day.”
“Lily,” I said. “The sun came out. You can take your boots off.”
Lily looked at me and cried harder. Also, her nose was pouring.
My dad sighed and got a tissue.
I was afraid he was going to ask me to wipe Lily’s nose. But he said, “Lucy, can you please see if you can help Leo? He’s in the backyard.” He looked out the window above the sink to the yard. “Tell him I’ll come out in a few minutes and we can play soccer.”
I was going to say that I was having a crisis, too, but I thought it might throw my dad over the edge.
I walked out the back door. In the yard, Leo was hunched over like a little old man on the concrete path that goes from the house to our back gate.
“Hi, Leo,” I said. “What’s wrong?”
He looked at me with big sad eyes. “The worms are drying up. See?” He crouched down and pointed.
I walked over. There on the concrete was a dead worm.
“Worms can’t live in the sun,” I said. “Sometimes they die before they can get back to the dirt. It happens.”
“It didn’t die. It’s just dry.” With his chubby little fingers, Leo carefully picked up the worm and took it over to a muddy spot by the flowers. “Dad won’t help me put the worms back, Lucy. He’s so mean.”
“Dad isn’t mean. Sometimes parents get overthrown by us. It’s a thing.” I looked at the little hole full of dead worms. “Putting them in the ground isn’t going to make them come alive, Leo.”
Leo looked at me. “Don’t say that!”
I sat down on the path. “Why don’t we take a break? We could play soccer.”
Leo just joined a team for little kids, and he had a game coming up. I thought he would be excited to practice with me. But he marched over and put his hands on my cheeks and looked at me. He does that when he wants to say something serious, and it is super cute. “Lucy!” he said. “We need to put the worms back. They want to all be together.”
I got infected with Leo’s kindness. “Sure, Leo.” I started walking around, looking for dead worms to rescue. “When you grow up, you’ll probably invent tiny helicopter drones to fly around and save worms from drying out,” I said. “You’re a very nice kid.”
“Worms are very nice, too,” Leo said.
“I wasn’t nice to Scarlett, and now she’s being mean to me,” I said. “If I’m mean back to her, then she’ll just be even meaner back to me. It will be an infection of meanness.”
“Be nice to her and maybe she’ll be nice to you,” Leo said. “Make a playdate with her. I like playdates.”
An idea popped into my head. I stopped. “A party. Everybody loves parties. I could have a songwriting party on Saturday and invite the whole Songwriting Club. I’ll make invitations and put lots of glitter on them. Scarlett loves glitter.”
“Lucy!” Leo called out. “Look!”
In his hand, one little brown worm was wriggling.
“You’re saving that worm’s life, Leo!”
“It’s Chumpy,” he said as he dropped the worm into the mud.
I felt a song coming on.
Chumpy was so grumpy ’cause he dried out in the sun.
But Leo picked him up and put him in the mud.
Now Chumpy isn’t grumpy anymore.
Leo grinned.
Everybody loves a good rhyme.
After saving the lives of worms with Leo, I wanted to plan my party and make my glittery invitations. But things got in the way.
1. Homework.
2. Chores.
&n
bsp; 3. Dessert.
Homework and chores were bad problems.
Dessert was a good problem.
My mom wanted to cheer my dad up for having a hard day, so we made brownies and that made us all so happy we played card games the rest of the night.
The next morning when I woke up, I wanted to get dressed and eat fast so I could make my invitations before school. But Lily was in a grumpy mood because she did get a cold, and she spilled milk everywhere and I had to spend time changing my clothes. I packed supplies and hurried to school.
Phillip and Resa were waiting for me by the fence.
“I have a good idea!” I said.
“We’ve got ideas, too,” Phillip said. “Tell her yours, Resa.”
Resa jumped right in. “My idea is to give Scarlett’s mom’s car flat tires on the day they’re supposed to go. But I think that’s actually illegal. And they could probably just take a bus. Tell her yours, Phillip.” She nudged Phillip.
“I’ve got a great one!” Phillip said. “I think we should all say ‘figgy pudding’ every time Scarlett says anything to us.”
I laughed. “Why?”
“Because it will be annoying to her, and it will make us laugh,” he said. “Figgy pudding is just funny.”
“What does that have to do with the TV show?” I asked.
“Nothing. What’s your idea, Lucy?” Phillip asked. “And most importantly, does it involve a drone?”
“My idea is to have a songwriting party tomorrow,” I said. “Everybody in the Songwriting Club is invited!”
“I don’t get it,” Phillip said. “I thought you wanted to get back at Scarlett.”
“I do! My plan is to infect her with niceness,” I said. “Remember how much everybody loved the last party I had?”
“That was fun,” Resa said.
“In the middle of this party, I’ll suggest we all write a new weather song and we can make sure to say nice things about how Scarlett is singing. And then I’ll say, ‘It would be so cool if we could all sing our weather songs on real TV!’ And you guys can say, ‘Yeah, that would be so great.’ Because we’re being so nice, Scarlett and Victoria and Mara will want to be nice, too. They’ll invite us to sing on Channel Four.”
“It just might work,” Resa said.
“I still like my idea,” Phillip said. “Figgy pudding is funny.”
“If my idea doesn’t work, we can try yours, Phillip,” I said.
“Party time!” Resa said.
“I’m going to make invitations with glitter before we have to go in. Want to help?”
“Glitter is brilliant, actually,” Phillip said. “Scarlett is crazy about that stuff.”
“Maybe we should pretend we don’t know about the party,” Resa said. “That way Scarlett won’t think it’s a big plan.”
Resa had a point.
The grass was still damp, so I sat on the bench by the school doors and pulled out all my supplies. Scarlett’s invitation first. I folded a piece of paper. Maybe a big glittery star on the front? I could write: Be a Star at My Party. She was going to love it.
I took out the bottle of glue and tried to draw the star in glue. But the glue was stuck in the cap. That always happens. Just as I was taking the cap off the glue bottle, the whistle blew to go in. All of a sudden students were rushing by me.
I noticed that Scarlett and Victoria were coming. Uh-oh! I didn’t want them to see the invitation before I was finished. I stood up to put away my stuff, but Jeremy Bing raced by at the same time, and we crashed.
The glue bottle went flying out of my hand. Whoosh!
It landed on Scarlett’s head. Thump!
The glue poured into her hair. Splursh!
The bottle dropped to the ground. Thud!
Scarlett screamed. “Lucy! You did that on purpose!”
Be nice, I told myself.
“I didn’t mean it, Scarlett,” I said. “I’m so sorry. I was actually making—”
“Look at what you did!” She started to come after me with her hands full of drippy glue.
“Stop that right now!” Mrs. Brock heard us and marched over. “Scarlett and Lucy, you two have been fighting like cats and dogs. Not another word from either of you until recess, and I mean it. Lucy, put away all that stuff. It’s time to go in.”
“But I was being ni—”
“I don’t want to hear it, Lucy,” Mrs. Brock said. “Scarlett, stop touching your hair.”
“I’ll help you wash it out, Scarlett,” Victoria said.
I stuffed everything in my backpack and followed Mrs. Brock in.
Phillip and Resa came along behind me.
“It could have been worse,” Phillip whispered. “Scarlett could have gotten slimed with figgy pudding.”
Phillip, Resa, and I started laughing.
“It’s not funny!” Scarlett screamed from ahead.
But good old Phillip was right. Figgy pudding is just funny.
All morning, Mrs. Brock piled on the work. The only way I could prove to Scarlett that I had been trying to do something nice was to give her an invitation. But I didn’t even have time to make one.
Finally it was recess. We have a school rule: no backpacks at recess, which meant I couldn’t make an invitation out there. I would have to just say the invitation out loud.
As I was walking out, I had a great idea. I could sing an invitation!
“Everybody in the Songwriting Club meet me outside,” I said loudly. “I have an important surprise.”
“What are you going to do, throw glue at all of us?” Scarlett asked.
Just be nice, I said to myself. I tried to think up some good rhymes while I was walking out.
When everybody was gathered, I took a breath. And then I sang:
I’m having a party, ’cause parties are nice.
We’ll sing and write songs and eat lots of rice.
I just sang that part about rice ’cause it rhymes.
We’ll really eat chips and popcorn and limes.
Not whole limes! Just slices mixed into a drink.
It will be a fun party. That’s what I think.
“Is it your birthday or something?” Victoria asked.
“No. I just thought it would be fun for all of us.”
“It’s a really nice idea, Lucy,” Resa said.
“You had me at chips,” Phillip said. “When should we come?”
“Tomorrow at two o’clock. I’m having it in the afternoon because you’ll be done with your gymnastics by then, Scarlett,” I said.
“You want me to come?” Scarlett asked.
I nodded. “I want everybody to come.”
“What exactly are we going to do?” Victoria asked.
“Hang out and sing the songs we know and maybe write some new ones together.”
“Are the fifth graders invited?” Mara asked.
“Yep, everybody in the Songwriting Club.”
“I wouldn’t miss it,” Resa said.
“Parties are fun.” Scarlett shrugged. “I guess maybe I could come.”
“Me too,” Victoria said.
“Me too,” Mara said.
So far so good!
When school was dismissed for the day and I walked outside, it was like walking into another world. Dark clouds had moved in and a strong wind was whipping through the trees.
It was very dramatic, like something was about to happen. I couldn’t wait to get home and get ready for tomorrow’s party.
And then I remembered something.
I never got permission from my parents to have the party! I had meant to ask last night but everything was crazy.
Hopefully my dad would be in a good mood when I got home. I’d ask right away. What could possibly go wrong?
Leo and Lily were in the living room pretending to kick a pretend soccer ball around. My dad wa
s in the kitchen, making veggie burgers.
“Lucy! Look at me!” Leo said. “I got shin guys on!”
Leo was wearing his soccer uniform and my old soccer shin guards.
“Me too,” Lily said, and patted her knee socks.
My dad whispered, “Don’t tell her they’re just socks.”
I laughed.
Everybody was in a good mood. Lily had a runny nose and a cough, but she was happy. A perfect time to explain the party!
“Hey, Dad, I—”
Leo ran over to me. “Lucy, tomorrow I get to wear my cleats for the game. I want to wear them now, but it’s too windy to play outside and Dad said I can’t wear them inside.”
“Me too!” Lily said.
“No, Lily,” Leo said. “You’re too little to play in the game. It’s just me.”
Lily turned and looked at my dad and me like she was going to cry.
“Lily, don’t worry. You get to come with us,” my dad said, and scooped her up. “We’re all going to cheer Leo on. It will be fun, right, Lucy?”
I started to have a bad feeling in my stomach. I remembered my dad saying that we’d all go to Leo’s first game, but I didn’t remember the game was tomorrow.
“Um…what time is Leo’s game?” I asked.
“Two o’clock.”
I looked out the window. That was when the party was supposed to be!
“Tomorrow! Tomorrow!” Leo danced around the room.
“Remember, Leo, if it rains, the game will get canceled,” my dad warned.
Canceled? That would be great, I thought. If it rains, I can do nice things for my mom and dad all morning and then when they’re in a really good mood, I’ll explain about the party.
“Is it supposed to rain?” I asked.
“Fifty-fifty chance.”
“Lucy, tell the clouds to go away!” Leo said.
“Make up a song for us,” my dad said. “Tell the clouds who’s boss.”
