I can check off everything on my list but the application. I shout, “Yippee!”
Ugly Brother agrees. He says, “Ruff, ruff.”
Before I even get dressed, I go downstairs to get the phone and call Lilly. At first, I can’t find the phone. After I look all over the den, I find it in the couch cushions. This means T.J. was talking on the phone. He never puts it back on the charger. I dial Lilly’s cell phone.
Lilly answers. “Hey girl, what’s up?” She’s getting ready to go to cheer camp, so I make it quick.
“Lilly, my list is done!” I tell her. “I have everything you told me to get. Do you have my application ready?”
I hear Lilly slamming her car door. She asks, “Do you have a sponsor?”
“Sure do,” I say. “Nanny and Pa.”
Lilly laughs and says, “Good job, little cousin. Are you sure you have everything on the list?”
“Yes!” I tell her.
Lilly tells me that she will come by in the afternoon to pick up all of my papers and send my application. I’m really on my way to being the Blueberry Queen!
After dinner, it’s time to tell Momma my big news. I go to the kitchen. Momma is doing dishes in her apron with the blueberries on it.
“Momma, I have a surprise,” I say. “I’ve been workin’ on something you don’t know about. Nanny, Pa, T.J., Ugly Brother, Lilly, Lucy, Granny, Pappy, and my friends all helped me send in my papers to be the Blueberry Queen.”
Momma’s eyes get big, and she sits down in a chair at the kitchen table. She says, “Well I do declare, Kylie Jean, that is a big surprise!”
I sit beside Momma and tell her all about the pageant. She looks at me and smiles. Then she says, “Honey, you are going to need a dress. We will need your granny to help us pick one out. I better call her and see if she can go with us tomorrow.”
The next day we go to Jefferson to buy my dress at the Elegance Dress Shop. It takes a long time to drive to Jefferson, but I’m gonna need an extra-special elegant dress. On the way, Momma tells Granny all about the tasty blueberry treats she has been making and how she is after another blue ribbon this year.
When we turn onto Old Jacksonville Road, I know we are getting close. Every bit of me is on edge with excitement.
Then Momma says to Granny, “Let’s go to Ms. Pauline’s Tearoom and eat lunch first.”
I can’t believe it! How can they be thinking about eating lunch now? We are almost there.
Momma’s van pulls right into the tearoom parking lot. Ms. Pauline has her tearoom in a big old house. Granny says, “I just love the chicken salad here.” The last thing I can think about is eating. I want to pick out my dress!
We go inside the old house and sit at a table. The waitress comes and takes our order. We all have chicken salad sandwiches with fresh fruit. I have milk, but the grown-ups have sweet tea.
I eat fast, but Momma and Granny take their time. While I wait, I look around and see lots of ladies with big tea hats.
Usually going to Ms. Pauline’s is a special treat, but today I would have rather had a Happy Meal if it meant we’d get my dress right away.
Our next stop is the Elegance Dress Shop. Out front there’s a big fancy sign with letters that have lots of curls on them. The shop sells a lot of fancy dresses for weddings and parties.
We go inside, and I go to the dressing room. It is big, with a red velvety chair in the corner. I stand there in my slip. Beauty queens always wear a slip because it is classy.
Momma and Granny help me try on about one hundred dresses. I feel like a Barbie doll, the way they keep putting new dresses on me. We try white ones with ruffles, yellow ones the color of soft creamy butter, and a blue one with bows.
There is a big mirror with three pieces of glass. When I stand in the middle, I can see all around me. I twirl in the blue dress.
Granny frowns. She says, “I just don’t think we have the right dress yet. You look right pretty, but somehow it just doesn’t seem like a winning dress.”
Momma agrees. “We best take one more look at the rack.”
I keep twirling in front of the mirror.
Finally, Granny brings one more dress for me to try on. It is a light pink color, and it has little white dots all over it. It has white lace, a big white satin bow, and fluffy white net slip to wear under it.
When I come out wearing it, Momma and Granny are speechless because I look so beautiful in my dress.
“I feel like a real true beauty queen wearin’ this dress,” I tell them.
Momma says, “I think we found the one.”
Granny says, “Yes, we surely did!”
I smile and twirl around and around. Momma buys me the dress and some tights with little white dots and gloves with white lace. Now I’m ready for my big day at the pageant!
The next day, I’m helping Momma get ready to take her special blueberry pecan granola pie to the festival. My pageant won’t be until tomorrow. We load up three big baskets with pies. T.J. carries them to the van.
Momma calls, “Y’all, get in the van.”
Ugly Brother has trouble jumping up. He barks and jumps. He gets his front end up, but not his back end. He can’t do it, so he covers his face with his paws. I think he’s embarrassed.
Daddy picks up Ugly Brother and puts him in the back. We drive as close as we can to the town square. Some of the streets downtown are closed. We are still two blocks from the festival. “We’re gonna have to walk,” Daddy says.
We all get out of the van and start to walk. We walk past shops, coffee houses, jewelry stores, and the bank. I’m the only one not carrying a pie basket, but I have Ugly Brother’s leash.
As we get closer T.J. shouts, “The Blueberry Brothers Bluegrass Band sounds awesome! I just love that banjo playing. Hey, could I sell my guitar and get a banjo?”
Momma says, “T.J., you cannot sell Pa’s guitar, but if you have enough saved up then go right on and buy yourself a banjo.”
Momma is walking fast. She’s worried about being late for the bake-off. Daddy is in a hurry too. He wants to head over to the blueberry pancake breakfast.
We turn the corner and see little white tents all over the place. There are tents selling blueberry jellies, jams, and barbecue sauce. There are tents selling blueberries by the bucket and blueberry plants in big pots. There are tents for contests and events, too. I even see a face-painting tent run by the cheerleaders. Lilly is there. She sees me and waves.
Momma points to one tent and says, “There’s the bake-off tent.”
Daddy says, “We can drop off these pies and go eat breakfast.”
T.J. nods. He says, “I’ll eat pancakes right now, but later I’m going to enter the Blue Face Pie-Eating Contest for sure!”
By now, Ugly Brother is pulling me. He is so excited to see all the folks that he keeps trying to run over and say hi to them all. I see Nanny and Pa sitting at a picnic table. They’re with Granny and Pappy. Lucy is with them!
My relatives all wave, and I try to wave back, but I need both my hands on the leash now because Ugly Brother is pulling so hard.
We leave the pies at the bake-off tent and go to get our pancakes.
Then we sit with my grandparents and Lucy and eat. Daddy and T.J. eat three plates of blueberry pancakes each.
Some of the blueberries are small as a dime. Some of the pancakes are big as the plate.
The grown-ups are all talking. I can tell Momma is as nervous as a cat in a pool. Cats don’t like water one little bit. I don’t think I should say how I know.
Lucy asks, “Did you see your pink posters hanging by the courthouse?”
“Yup,” I answer. “They look awesome!” I’m finished with my pancakes. “Momma and Daddy, can Lucy and I go run around and have fun?” I ask.
“All by yourselves?” Momma says. “I don’t know.”
Pa wipes syrup off his face. “I’ll go with ‘em,” he says.
“Yay!” I say. “Let’s go!” I grab one of Pa’s
hands. Lucy grabs the other.
We spend our time visiting all the little tents and getting our faces painted. I get blueberries on my face. Lucy gets them too!
“You girls look right pretty,” the face-painting lady tells us.
“Why thank you!” I say.
I love the Blueberry Festival. It is so much fun! I wish it could happen every day during the summer.
Finally, it’s time to see who the winner of the bake-off is. We go back to the tables.
Daddy is holding Momma’s hand. Momma looks nervous, so I give her a wink. She winks back at me.
Before long, a man in a white suit and cowboy hat steps up to face the crowd. Pa whispers to me, “That man there is the head judge.”
The man shouts, “We have the results! Shelly is the winner for her delicious blueberry pecan granola pie.”
Shelly is my momma’s name! We all cheer and clap for my momma.
Nanny says, “I declare, this is the tenth year in a row you’ve been number one. You are some cook!”
“She sure is,” Daddy says.
Momma jumps up to get her picture taken with the blue ribbon. Today it will sit by her pie so everybody can see it.
I tell Lucy, “Tomorrow, Momma will put her ribbon on the pantry door. You know what else will happen tomorrow?”
Lucy shakes her head. “What?” she asks.
I raise my head proudly and tell her, “Tomorrow, I will be the new Blueberry Queen.”
The day of the pageant is finally here. At five o’clock in the morning, I wake up because I can’t sleep any more. Then I’m so excited that I can’t eat my breakfast.
My stomach feels like T.J.’s pet hamster is running around in it.
When I go downstairs, Momma says, “Kylie Jean, sugar, eat some toast. You don’t want to feel sick at the pageant.”
“Too late, Momma!” I say. “I already feel sick!”
Momma laughs. She says, “Eat your toast. Just remember, soon-to-be beauty queens do not get nervous.”
After I eat my toast, I take a long bubble bath and scrub under my nails and behind my ears. Then I get dressed. First I put on my white tights, then my fluffy white slip, and finally my pretty new pink dress.
Granny and Nanny have come to help me. Nanny buckles my little shiny pink shoes with the tiny heels. Granny pulls my hair back in a princess style.
I look in my mirror and see a soon-to-be Blueberry Queen.
Downstairs, everyone is waiting to see me. When I walk in the kitchen, Daddy, Pappy, Pa, T.J., and Ugly Brother all gather around me. I twirl around so they can see my beautiful dress.
Ugly Brother says, “Ruff, ruff.”
Daddy says, “Well, sweetheart, don’t you look all grown up!”
“She sure does,” Pappy says. He looks at the kitchen clock and adds, “We better hit the road or our little miss will be late.”
My family gets in the van. The grandparents all ride in Pappy’s old car. I feel dizzy the whole way downtown to the Hotel Magnolia.
When we pull in the parking lot, there are about a million cars parked all around the hotel. Daddy helps me get out of the van, and Momma holds my hand.
Normally I would skip all the way inside, but not today. I’m trying to act like a true queen, so I stand straight and tall.
Pa holds the door open and we go inside. The ballroom is right next to us. You should see all the people in there! It is packed full.
Momma takes me to wait in the room next to the ballroom with all the other girls who want to be the Blueberry Queen.
Then I notice something. Everyone else waiting is a grown-up girl! I can’t believe it! They are all so fancy.
Maggie Lou Butler is standing right beside me. Her blond hair is fixed up on top of her head. She looks just like a movie star. All these older girls look like movie stars.
I start to get the hiccups. I always get them when I’m scared.
“You just wait a minute, Kylie Jean, you’ll be fine,” Momma says. “Take a big breath. Remember, this is your dream come true.”
Momma is right. In a minute they will call our names, and we will go out and introduce ourselves.
Momma smiles and whispers to me, “Smile, talk slow, and be clear, so they can understand you.”
Then I hear a voice. “Kylie Jean Carter.” That’s me!
I walk into the ballroom and up on the stage. But the microphone is as tall as my momma, and I can’t reach.
Everyone laughs. I don’t know what to do. I could yell, but that’s not how beauty queens act. It wouldn’t be right. Luckily, a man runs out and fixes the microphone so I can talk.
“Hello, y’all,” I begin. “My name is Kylie Jean Carter, and my sponsor is Lickskillet Farm. Ever since I was a bitty baby, I’ve been wantin’ to be a queen. Please vote for me for your next Blueberry Queen.”
Then I wave nice and slow, side to side, the beauty queen wave. I smile real big, too.
Everybody laughs again. Not like they’re making fun of me, but like I make them happy.
Then I go and stand in the back of the stage next to Momma. About ten grown-up girls walk out and tell their names. Then we all have to wait to see who the new queen is going to be.
I just know it is going to be me!
Pretty soon, a man comes out on the stage. “Who’s that?” I ask Momma.
“That’s the head judge,” Momma whispers back. “He’s going to tell us who the winner is!”
I hold my breath as the man says, “I have the results. It was a very close contest this year.”
I feel sorry for those grown-up girls. They’re going to be awful sad when I win.
Then the judge announces, “Maggie Lou Butler from Prickly Pear Creek is our new Blueberry Queen!”
Maggie Lou goes to the stage. Everyone is clapping. Momma pats my back.
I think I might cry.
Then the clapping stops. The judge man has something else to say. He looks over at me and says, “For the very first time ever, we have a Little Miss Blueberry Queen. Kylie Jean Carter, come on up here!”
Everyone goes wild! They’re all cheering and calling my name. Momma starts crying, so I pat her back. Then I skip all the way to the microphone. The man puts a diamond tiara on my head.
I wave to everyone again. Nice and slow, side to side. For the first time, I’m not just pretending I’m a real, true queen.
I am one.
The day after the pageant, I’m going to be in a parade. I eat a huge breakfast with my family.
Momma says, “Kylie Jean, finish your eggs so you can get dressed.”
After T.J. finishes his breakfast, he goes to help Pappy shine up the fancy old car.
Daddy winks at me. “I have a special job to do today,” he says.
I look at Momma, but she just shrugs. Daddy is up to something. I just know it.
Momma smiles and says, “When you wear that tiara, you will feel real special.”
I get dressed in my special pink dress again. Momma fixes my hair back and puts my tiara on. Then I’m ready to go for a ride in the parade.
Daddy is waiting downstairs. He hands me a big box with a giant bow on the top.
“What is it, Daddy?” I ask.
“Open it and see,” he tells me with a wink.
I open up the box. Inside, I find a big ole bunch of pink roses.
Daddy smiles and says, “A queen needs roses, Kylie Jean.”
“Oh, Daddy!” I say. “I’m gonna smile and wave and make y’all proud of me.”
“We couldn’t be any prouder of you than we already are, Kylie Jean,” Momma tells me.
I hold the flowers in front of me and wave. Then I ask Ugly Brother, “Do I look like a queen?”
He says, “Ruff, ruff.” That means yes!
Out front, Pappy honks the horn of his fancy old car. We all go outside. Pa puts a white fake fur blanket on the back of Pappy’s car and lifts me up to sit on it.
I fluff out my skirt and fix my roses. Pa says, “Y
ou sure are somethin’, Kylie Jean.”
I tell him, “I’m not somethin’, I’m a Little Miss Blueberry Queen.”
Pa smiles. He leans over and taps me on the nose. Then he asks, “Ready, sugar pie?”
“Yes, sir, I surely am,” I answer. “Ever since I was a bitty baby.”
Pa, Pappy, Daddy, and T.J. get in the car. Pappy drives down our street and turns onto Main Street. I see Miss Clarabelle waving her fan at me. All of my friends are calling my name. Nanny, Granny, and Momma are all blowing kisses to me as I pass by. Ugly Brother is sitting by Momma with his new blue collar, saying, “Ruff, ruff!” to me.
I think I may need a fan club after today.
Being the Little Miss Blueberry Queen made me happier and prouder than anything. Someday I’m going to be a real true beauty queen. I have big plans!
Marci Bales Peschke was born in Indiana, grew up in Florida, and now lives in Texas with her husband, two children, and a feisty black-and-white cat named Phoebe. She loves reading and watching movies.
When Tuesday Mourning was a little girl, she knew she wanted to be an artist when she grew up. Now, she is an illustrator who lives in South Pasadena, CA. She especially loves illustrating books for kids and teenagers. When she isn’t illustrating, Tuesday loves spending time with her husband, who is an actor, and their two sons.
application (ap-luh-KAY-shuhn)—a formal request for something
elegant (EL-uh-guhnt)—graceful and stylish
essay (ESS-ay)—a piece of writing about a particular subject
goal (GOHL)—something that you aim for; a dream
magnificent (mag-NIF-i-sent)—very impressive or beautiful
pageant (PAJ-uhnt)—a contest and performance
project (PROJ-ekt)—something worked on over a period of time
recommendation (rek-uh-mend-AY-shuhn)—a letter written in support of someone else
sponsor (SPON-sur)—someone who gives money and support to another person
transportation (transs-pur-TAY-shuhn)—a way to get from place to place
Kylie Jean Blueberry Queen Page 3
