But sometimes (really not very often at all), when she got very cross, another part of Penelope bubbled to the surface. And when it came to the surface, it could (possibly, sometimes) end up in an outburst. Luckily, even though she hadn’t grown physically, Penelope had (almost definitely) grown out of having outbursts.
Even so, Penelope was quite glad she had a proper reason to leave. She stood up.
‘I actually have a Lucky Jar committee meeting to go to,’ she explained to Tilly and Bob in a patient and even voice.
Penelope thought it was quite special to sit at the table in the staffroom with actual teachers (even if the only two teachers there were right up the other end, reading newspapers). It was one of the perks of helping with charities and fetes. Another perk was nibbling on the three Scotch Finger biscuits that Ms Pike had snuck them before she went back to the classroom.
‘I’d like to make loads of Lucky Jars myself,’ Penelope told Oscar. ‘But I’m very busy.’ Penelope paused and thought about all the things she had to do. There were the Lucky Jars, of course. On top of that, this weekend she had the first-Saturday-of-the-month jewellery stall she always set up in front of her house. If it was a busy day (which happened occasionally) she would have to do loads of work to top up her jewellery collection for the craft stall at the fete.
Truly, if she thought about all the things she had to do, Penelope began to feel quite stressed.
Oscar Finley must have noticed Penelope’s stress. For a boy, he was very good at noticing things.
‘Penny, don’t worry,’ he said. ‘There’s no way we could do it all ourselves. We’ll get the other kids to make some too. We just have to convince them.’
Penelope had a nibble of her biscuit.
‘We could put a notice in the school newsletter,’ she suggested.
‘Good idea, Pen,’ Oscar said. ‘But only parents read the newsletter. We’ve got to do something to get the kids hyped.’
Penelope’s nostrils flared a little. It wasn’t only parents who read the school newsletter. She was (quite) sure she wasn’t the only kid at Chelsea Primary to read it from cover to cover.
Oscar shut his eyes tightly, so he didn’t notice any nostril flaring. He sometimes did that when he was thinking hard. When he opened them, Penelope could tell he had an idea.His eyes looked shiny.
‘How about we do a rap at assembly this afternoon?’ he said. ‘A Lucky Jar rap!’
Penelope shook her head and kept it moving from side to side so Oscar would see he absolutely wasn’t going to convince her.
‘No way,’ she said. ‘That would be Truly Terrible.’
‘Aw, come on Pen,’ Oscar urged. ‘It would be fun. I can do the rap if you don’t want to perform on stage. And you’re awesome at making up stories, so I reckon you’d come up with something great. Let’s just try it, OK?’
Penelope was still shaking her head, but it was getting slower. Oscar was correct about her being good at making up stories.
Oscar breathed deeply and put his hand on his heart (over his school jumper).
‘Think of the school, Pen,’ he said. ‘We could break the Lucky Jar record!’
Suddenly Penelope had a Pleasant Image of being at the fete with her dad while the announcement was made over the loudspeaker. He would be SO PROUD. Penelope and Oscar had broken several records on important charity days. They were absolutely well known for it (well, among the organisers, at least). It would be amazing to break this one, too.
Perhaps she should go with Oscar’s suggestion. Sometimes, sacrifices had to be made.
‘All right Oscar,’ Penelope said (quite graciously, she thought). ‘Go and get a pen and paper.’
At school assembly that afternoon, Penelope and Oscar queued for the microphone. It was quite a long wait. First up was a year-one girl tearfully showing pictures of her lost cat. (Unfortunately the cat she’d drawn looked more like a skunk, so Penelope wasn’t sure the pictures would help.) Then a group of students reported their sporting results for the ENTIRE week.
After that, the award certificates were given out. This week, only two students in Penelope’s year received awards. Unfortunately, Penelope was not one of them. But it was a relief, at least, that Alison Cromwell wasn’t either. Though Penelope was still the biggest award winner of her entire year, Alison Cromwell was sneaking up behind her. At the moment, Penelope was (fairly) happy with the gap between them (Penelope: 46 awards, Alison: 32) but she definitely had to stay on her toes.
Penelope was quite sure that she should have more than 46 awards. Just this week, she had picked up papers in the courtyard without even being asked. The yard-duty teacher had seen her doing it, but he obviously hadn’t reported it to the principal. Penelope had gone to Ms Bourke’s office to let her know what she’d done, and though the principal had thanked her, she seemed to have forgotten to suggest Penelope for an award.
The final award, for a senior solo dance performance, went to the most popular girl in the school, Ellen Semorac. Her acceptance speech was drowned out by cheers and applause and she had to start over. Even though Penelope supposed that in some ways it might be a nice feeling to have your voice drowned out by cheers and applause, it still seemed a bit rude.
By the time it was Oscar and Penelope’s turn, the crowd was getting Friday-afternoon fidgety. It wasn’t the ideal time to do their presentation, but Penelope had promised Oscar that they would go up on stage together. If Penelope had been by herself in front of the whole assembly, she would have felt very anxious. But having Oscar right beside her (and knowing he was happy to do most of it) made her feel better. Her heartbeat was only slightly quicker than normal and her palms were only slightly sweatier. She leaned into the microphone.
‘Introducing Oscar Finley with The Lucky Jar Rap,’ she said, and her voice was only a little bit wobbly. She moved away, and Oscar began immediately.
Hey there homies, Chelsea Primary will go far
If we all remember our Luck-y Jars
Start with an empty and fill it to the top
Bring it to the fete so the crowd can shop, shop, SHOP.
Unfortunately, his moonwalk wasn’t much better than his basketball. His shoes scraped and squeaked against the cement. But the girls in the senior class did not seem to care one bit. In fact, they started to clap. Their clapping accompanied the next verse. It was very encouraging. So encouraging that Penelope decided (as a sacrifice for the good of the school) to join in the last verse. It was very encouraging. So encouraging that Penelope decided (as a sacrifice for the good of the school) to join in the last verse.
We have a record to beat and this year’s gonna rock
Stuff your jars with lollies, hey stuff ’em with socks
Use your imagination, yeah, make ’em sublime
The main thing is to MAKE ’EM and get ’em here
ON TIME.
The cheers and applause were almost as loud as the cheers and applause that had drowned out Ellen Semorac’s acceptance speech.
‘That was a Very Good Idea, Oscar,’ Penelope whispered while everyone was still cheering.
‘Well, you made a very good idea into a very good rap, Penny,’ he said.
Penelope glowed. She and Oscar were definitely a great team. She was also very happy with the second-last line. Sublime was an excellent word, and it had been entirely her idea.
The sock idea was Oscar’s. Penelope wasn’t quite as sure about that one.
Penelope really wanted to mention, while she still had the microphone, that the sock bit was definitely a joke and that no-one should actually do it. But everyone was wandering off in a very Friday-afternoon manner, so she decided (after a while) to let that idea go.
‘Have you ever, that you know about, had someone crushing on you?’ Bob asked. The question was for everyone. Since camp, Rita and Tilly had started walking home with Penelope and Bob. Even though they only walked with her and Bob for (about) three-hundred-and-twenty metres before they turned down a differen
t street, sometimes Penelope wasn’t so sure she liked this development.
Penelope had two main reasons for this. The first was that she loved spending time alone with Bob. Having a very best friend after not having a very best friend for a long time (well, forever) meant that Penelope wanted to take good care of their friendship.
The second reason was Rita Azul. Although sometimes Rita could be OK, most of the time she was mean. Penelope was not quite sure whether Rita was actually trying to be the meanest girl in the world or if it just came naturally, but either way, she was VERY good at it. In fact, every time Rita spoke, Penelope got a prickly sort of feeling. Like right now.
‘Well, obviously Penelope hasn’t had anyone crushing on her,’ Rita said with a flip of her hand. ‘Like, as if.’
Penelope felt a surge of anger, like the surge that used to come before an outburst. But since she had (almost definitely) grown out of her outbursts, Penelope did not react. Now, when anyone (which usually meant Rita Azul) made a terribly rude comment, Penelope counted to three before she decided whether she was going to respond. This time, she decided not to. Responding to Rita sometimes made her even meaner.
Besides, although Penelope did not like or agree with Rita’s terribly rude comment, she certainly, definitely didn’t want anyone crushing on her. It looked exhausting to be crushed on, and possibly even a little bit dangerous.
Anyway (though Penelope suspected that Bob was itching to defend her), Rita didn’t give anyone time to respond.
‘I’ve got at least five boys crushing on me,’ she said in a high-pitched and showing-off way.
‘Who would that be, Rita?’ Tilly interjected. ‘I don’t know anyone who has a crush on you.’ Since camp, Tilly was interjecting Rita more and more. Rita put her hands on her hips.
‘No-one any of you would know,’ she said. ‘They’re all older boys from other schools.’
‘Like how old? And what other schools?’ Bob asked. Rita’s face flushed, then she looked down at the ground.
‘I don’t tell that kind of stuff,’ she said. ‘Telling is for babies.’
Rita was always going on about how things were for babies. It was (one of) her not-very-nice qualities. Penelope had a strong suspicion that Rita wasn’t telling the absolute truth about five older boys having a crush on her.
But really, she just wished everyone would stop talking about all that stuff. It was very distracting. Penelope was just glad that nobody had a crush on Bob – or on her!
‘I’d like to sock that Rita Azul right on the nose,’ Bob said as soon as they were alone. For a moment, Penelope was worried that Bob’s demonstration of socking Rita on the nose (using Penelope as a stand-in for Rita) might hurt. But Bob pulled her fist away from Penelope’s nose (just) before it connected.
‘Don’t you even worry about her, Pen,’ Bob continued, barely taking a breath. ‘She is such a liar liar, pants on fire. I’ll bet there’s no-one crushing on her at all. And it was so mean to say no-one could possibly have a crush on you! Probably any boy in the whole wide world would like you.’
Penelope felt her heart fill up. Bob was the best, best friend ever. As long as Penelope had Bob by her side, she could cope with any mean thing Rita said.
‘Thanks, Bob,’ Penelope replied. ‘But seriously, who would even want anyone to have a crush on them? Look at Alex and Joanna. He gets her in headlocks. I definitely would not like that one bit. I think crushes are silly.’
The two of them walked along the footpath. Bob kicked a stone. It wasn’t unusual for Bob to kick a stone, but it was unusual for her to be quiet. Penelope counted how many steps Bob was quiet for. Eight.
‘Bob?’ Penelope said finally. ‘Are you OK?’
Bob stopped walking. She sighed loudly. Then she sat on someone’s low brick fence.
‘Can I tell you something?’ Bob asked. ‘Something you can’t tell anybody, ever?’
It was entirely possible that sitting on a stranger’s low brick fence was trespassing, but Penelope took some deep breaths and tried to push that thought out of her mind so she could concentrate on what Bob wanted to tell her. This was just one of the things Penelope was willing to do as a very best friend. Though Bob wasn’t a new very best friend any more, Penelope still appreciated having someone to share special thoughts and secrets with. She would absolutely die before she betrayed Bob’s trust. If that was absolutely necessary. Which it most probably wouldn’t be.
‘I pinkie promise,’ she said.
‘Sometimes,’ Bob said, ‘I’m just thinking about totally normal stuff, and Tommy Stratton randomly pops into my head.’
Penelope did not know what to say about that. She was used to things (like Pleasant Images) popping into her head randomly, but not thoughts about a boy.
‘And this morning, I got a funny feeling here,’ Bob continued, putting her hand on her heart, ‘when I talked to him.’
Penelope frowned. ‘What kind of a funny feeling?’ she asked. As she asked, Penelope had a funny feeling of her own. It was a not-good funny feeling.
‘Like I’d swallowed a bug and it was spinning around inside me. Then I went all red in the face and after that I forgot where I was in my sentence and got tongue-tied and felt all shy.’
‘Oh,’ Penelope said, ‘that sounds awful.’ One of Bob’s best talents was that she was not the tiniest bit shy.
‘Well, that’s the weirdest thing,’ Bob said. ‘It wasn’t actually that bad at all.’
On the low brick fence (where they were almost definitely trespassing) Penelope thought hard about what Bob was telling her. But thinking hard was not particularly helpful. It actually led to more questions.
Penelope cleared her throat. There was a question she had to ask. But she very much hoped the answer was ‘no’.
‘Bob, do you think you have a crush on Tommy Stratton?’ Penelope asked. She tried to keep her voice normal when she mentioned his name. If Bob had a crush on him, it was possible she would start going very strange and getting into headlocks and things. It might even mean that Penelope and Bob would spend less time together. Penelope did not like that idea at all.
Tommy Stratton was quite a nice boy, but possibly the worst singer Penelope had ever heard. Unfortunately, Tommy didn’t know that singing was not his talent.
He would be a very strange choice of person for Bob to get a crush on. Penelope crossed her fingers while she waited for the answer.
‘I don’t know, really,’ Bob giggled. ‘But wouldn’t that be crazy? I mean, Tommy Stratton! I’ll have to talk to him and see if it happens again.’
Penelope frowned. She leaned into her very best friend.
‘You’ve heard Tommy Stratton sing, right?’ she asked.
‘Yes,’ Bob squealed. ‘He’s absolutely rotten!’
‘Phew,’ Penelope said. ‘Because I heard love can make you blind. I was worried that it might have made you deaf.’
Even though she hadn’t actually said it to be funny (and she very much hoped Bob did not have a crush on Tommy Stratton and wouldn’t start getting weird and headlocky) it was nice to make her very best friend crack up with laughter.
Penelope struggled to set up her first-Saturday-of-the-month jewellery stall in front of her house. It was quite an effort, since it was freezing and very windy, plus she had a lot on her mind. Now that she’d had time to think about it, Penelope was pretty sure that if Bob did have a crush on Tommy Stratton, it would be Truly Terrible for their friendship.
She was also worried about whether she and Oscar would be able to break the Lucky Jar record and make Penelope’s dad extremely proud. But she was staying positive.
Unfortunately (most likely because it was freezing!) the street was quiet. The Coxley twins, Sam and Gus, were playing cricket in the middle of the road, but it was unlikely they would buy any of Penelope’s jewellery.
In the distance, Penelope could see Doris from the Aged Care Centre down the road, with her walking frame. Once a month, Penelope’s class
visited the Centre to help entertain the elderly folk, so Penelope knew Doris quite well. In fact, Doris was probably her favourite elderly person (apart from Grandpa George and his friend, Fred). As she came closer, Penelope could see that Doris had had a visit from the hairdresser. Her hair was a very interesting shade of purple, and curled very tight.
Penelope stood up as Doris arrived at the stall.
‘Oh my,’ Doris said as she looked at Penelope’s jewellery. ‘What lovely pieces. Did you make them all yourself, dear?’
Penelope smiled and nodded while Doris picked out the leather cord necklace with the ladybird pendant she’d made out of modelling clay.
‘You are so clever, young lady. I will cherish this,’ Doris said.
Her purse was hanging off the walking frame. Penelope helped her open it. Doris handed her a fifty-dollar bill. ‘Keep the change, dear,’ she said as she started back the way she had come.
It was an extremely generous gesture. Unfortunately, the fifty-dollar bill was Monopoly money. Penelope didn’t say anything about that though.
‘Thanks, Doris,’ Penelope called out after her.
She took a deep breath. It was quite tough to part with her (second) favourite piece of jewellery. Monopoly money wasn’t very useful in real life. On the positive side, though, Penelope was glad the ladybird had gone to someone who would cherish it. Just like she knew her dad would cherish the bow tie when she gave it to him (absolutely for free) next weekend.
But she decided to finish up the stall a bit earlier than usual.
As she came in the back door Penelope heard her mum talking on the phone in the kitchen. Penelope instantly knew who she was talking to. Her mum’s voice changed tone when she spoke to Penelope’s father. If tones had a shape, this one would be pointy. Penelope stayed in the hallway. She knew it wasn’t nice to snoop, but somehow she couldn’t help listening in.
Lucky Jars and Broken Promises Page 2
