“Yes. Are you?”
“Yes.”
The first thing Mr. Saffron said to the kids who had gathered for the tryouts was, “Do not be nervous.”
But Terri could not help it.
Mr. Saffron taught the kids a new song that day. It was called “Getting to Know You.” He asked them to sing it as a group. Then he asked each of them to sing the first part of it alone.
Terri’s heart began to pound again. But when Mr. Saffron called on her, she sang nicely and loudly. “Getting to know you, getting to know all about you. Getting to like you, getting to hope you like me.”
“Very nice,” said Mr. Saffron. He smiled.
When Tammy sang, she sang nicely, but not so loudly. Mr. Saffron smiled at her. But Terri noticed he did not say anything.
Eleven kids had shown up for the tryouts. When each of them had had a chance to sing alone, Mr. Saffron studied the notes he had been writing. He spoke to Mrs. Dade. Finally he said, “Okay. This was a tough decision, but I have made my choices. Our soloists will be Max Lieb, Kate Gibbel, and Terri Barkan.”
Terri’s mouth dropped open. She did not know whether to laugh or to cry. She had gotten a solo. But … why hadn’t Tammy gotten one too?
“We are different again,” Terri said to Tammy.
“I know,” replied Tammy, and she frowned at her twin.
Grandma Doris
Grandma Doris arrived at lunchtime on Saturday. She pulled up in front of the twins’ house in a yellow taxi.
“A taxi!” Terri said with a gasp. No one had ever come to their house in a taxi. Terri and Tammy ran across the lawn.
Grandma Doris climbed out of the car. She hugged the twins. Terri noticed that she did not say, “Goodness, you have grown!” Terri was pleased.
The driver opened the trunk. He pulled out four large suitcases.
“Here you go,” said Grandma Doris. She handed him some money.
“Why, thank you!” exclaimed the driver.
“Are those all yours?” Terri pointed to the suitcases. They were lined up on the sidewalk.
“Yes,” replied Grandma Doris. “But they are not all clothes. One of them is full of presents.”
“For us? A whole suitcase full of presents?”
“Well, I have not seen you in three years. Now, come along. Help me get all this stuff inside.”
The taxi drove off. Terri began to drag one of the suitcases across the lawn. Tammy pulled another. Grandma Doris grabbed a third. Luckily, Mr. and Mrs. Barkan came outside then. After a lot of hugging and kissing, the suitcases were finally taken inside.
“Which one do you think is the one full of presents?” Tammy whispered to Terri.
“It is that one,” Grandma Doris replied, pointing. Then she winked at Tammy. “I have the ears of a twenty-year-old,” she said.
Terri blinked. She was not sure what to think of her grandmother.
After lunch that day, Grandma Doris handed out some of her presents. Terri got a sweatshirt from the University of Miami, a set of watercolor paints, a bathing suit, and a stuffed dolphin. Tammy got a bead-stringing kit, three pairs of socks, and two books.
“Why didn’t she give us samesies?” Terri asked Tammy.
Tammy shrugged. She was reading one of her new books.
After dinner that night, Grandma Doris said, “Well, I have one present left for you girls.” She hauled a large book out of the suitcase. Then she sat on the couch with the book on her lap. She patted the space on either side of her. “Come. Sit,” she said. And Terri and Tammy curled up with her.
“These are pictures of me when I was your age,” Grandma Doris said.
Terri peered at the old black-and-white photos. “Which one is you? You look exactly like that other girl.”
“That other girl is your great-aunt Martha.”
Terri vaguely remembered her great-aunt. She had died when Terri was five. “How come you look so much alike?” she asked.
“Because we were twins, of course. Just like you two.”
“You had a twin sister?” exclaimed Tammy.
“But how come you are dressed like that?” asked Terri, looking through the album.
“You mean dressed differently?” said Grandma Doris. “Well, because we were different, of course. Martha was always the shy one, and I was the talker. I was very bold. Martha liked to dress up, and I liked music. You must take after me, by the way,” Grandma Doris said to Terri.
“Well, I — I guess so.” Terri hardly knew what to say. But she found herself grinning. Tammy was grinning, too.
“Tell us more about you and Great-aunt Martha,” said Terri. “Please.”
Prize Day
Grandma Doris told quite a few stories about when she and Great-aunt Martha were little girls.
“Once,” she said, “our auntie Laura had come to take care of us for a week, and we told her I was Martha and Martha was me, and she believed us for two days. I went to Martha’s drawing lesson and Martha went to my piano lesson before anyone found out. It was Martha’s horrible piano playing that gave us away,” added Grandma Doris.
“Did you always do such different things?” Terri asked her. “Like, you taking piano and your sister taking drawing?”
“Oh, yes,” said Grandma Doris. “Otherwise, we would have been bored silly. Things were much more exciting that way. We had different friends, too. Which meant that we had more friends, because I had all of mine, plus all of Martha’s, and vice versa.”
Now that, thought Terri, was very interesting.
“I am doing really well in our readathon at school,” Tammy told Grandma Doris.
“And I am going to sing a solo at our assembly,” said Terri.
“How wonderful,” said Grandma Doris. “I am proud of both of you.”
Nine days later, Grandma Doris went home. Terri had enjoyed her visit very much. She was sorry to see her leave. But she did not feel sorry for long. She did not have time to feel sorry. It was the last week of the readathon. And it was almost time for the assembly — and for Terri’s solo.
The caterpillar was now four hundred sections long. Terri was amazed. It took up almost two entire hallways.
“By the end of the week,” Tammy said to Terri one morning, “three of those caterpillar parts will be mine.”
“Three?” replied Terri. “How many pages is that?”
“Seven hundred and fifty.” Tammy was grinning.
“That is great,” said Terri. And she meant it. “I only read two hundred and thirteen pages. But Grandma Doris said it was okay to be different.”
“She said it was good to be different.”
“Yup.”
That was why Terri was wearing jeans that day and Tammy was wearing a jumper. They had not dressed alike in days.
On Thursday afternoon the next week, Terri went to the music room. She met Max Lieb and Kate Gibbel there. Mr. Saffron had called a special rehearsal for the kids with solo parts. The readathon was over, and the assembly was going to be held the next day.
“You sound wonderful,” Mr. Saffron told the kids when the rehearsal was over. “All of you do. You will be just fine tomorrow. Remember, if you start to feel nervous, look at me, not at the audience.”
I am not going to feel nervous, Terri thought.
But she was wrong.
When it was time for the program to begin the next morning, Terri felt butterflies in her stomach. She was standing on risers with Tammy and the rest of the choir. They were backstage in the auditorium at Stoneybrook Academy, and the curtain was pulled closed in front of them. Terri knew what was on the other side of that curtain. The audience. All of the students and teachers, plus her parents and a lot of other parents.
Terri gulped. She clutched Tammy’s hand.
The Long, Long Caterpillar
The program was going to open with a song by the choir. That was the very first thing the audience would hear. Thirty voices singing a song Terri liked very much, called “Where Have
All the Flowers Gone?”
Mr. Saffron stepped in front of the choir. Behind him was the curtain. And on the other side of the curtain was the audience.
Mr. Saffron put his finger to his lips. “Shh,” he said softly. “Okay, girls and boys. The curtain is about to rise. As soon as it has risen all the way, we will begin our song.”
“I am nervous, Tammy,” Terri whispered. Her mouth felt dry. “What if we forget the words? What if I forget the words to my solo?”
“We will not forget,” said Tammy as the curtain rose slowly.
“Quiet now,” whispered Mr. Saffron. He raised his hands in the air. Then he brought them together. And the choir began its song.
Terri peeped over Mr. Saffron’s shoulder at the audience. The audience seemed to stretch forever. A sea of faces. Terri looked for her parents. She could not see them in the crowd, but she knew they were there.
Terri began to relax. The choir finished “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” with Max’s solo. Then they sang another song, the one with Kate’s solo. When they finished, Mr. Saffron grinned at them. Then he turned around. Mrs. Titus, the principal, was walking across the stage. She stopped in the middle and faced the audience.
“Good morning,” she said. “Welcome, parents, teachers, and students. And welcome to our special guests from Burger Town. As you know, our students have been very busy with their readathon.”
Mrs. Titus explained how the readathon had worked. Finally she said, “And now I have wonderful news. At the end of the last day of the readathon, our caterpillar was four hundred and forty-eight links long. That means that our students read one hundred and twelve thousand pages.”
Terri heard some of the people in the audience gasp.
Mrs. Titus smiled. “Very impressive,” she said. “And a hundred and twelve thousand pages earned eleven thousand two hundred dollars for our library.”
The audience clapped.
A man stepped onto the stage. He walked to Mrs. Titus.
“Meet Henry Coles,” said Mrs. Titus. “He is from Burger Town. Mr. Coles, thank you so much for coming. And thank you for giving our school the chance to hold the readathon.”
“My pleasure,” said Mr. Coles. He gave a short speech. And then he handed Mrs. Titus a check.
After that, Mrs. Titus announced the winners of the prizes. Mrs. King’s fourth-graders won the prize for the class that read the most pages. They were given a set of books called The Chronicles of Narnia. Then one student in each class won a prize too.
Terri listened to hear Mrs. Titus say, “And in Ms. Colman’s class … ” When she did, Terri squeezed her eyes shut.
“And in Ms. Colman’s class, the winner is Tammy Barkan.”
“Yea!” cried Terri.
Mrs. Titus handed the prize to Tammy. It was gift-wrapped. Tammy would have to open it later.
A few minutes later Terri heard Mrs. Titus say, “Thank you again, Mr. Coles. From all of us. Now our choir will sing one last song. Mr. Saffron?”
Mr. Saffron raised his hands. Terri and her friends began to sing “Tomorrow” from the show Annie.
Terri sang the second verse by herself. She heard her voice ring out loudly. She was proud of herself for singing the solo, proud of Tammy for winning the prize, and proud of herself and Tammy for having the courage to be different.
About the Author
ANN M. MARTIN is the acclaimed and bestselling author of a number of novels and series, including Belle Teal, A Corner of the Universe (a Newbery Honor book), A Dog’s Life, Here Today, P.S. Longer Letter Later (written with Paula Danziger), the Family Tree series, the Doll People series (written with Laura Godwin), the Main Street series, and the generation-defining series The Baby-sitters Club. She lives in New York.
Copyright © 1997 by Ann M. Martin
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
First edition, 1997
e-ISBN 978-1-338-09259-2
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