Kate the Great, Except When She's Not

by Suzy Becker

  Mrs. Block and Eliza are having another one of their math moments, so Brooke and I slip into our seats. Mrs. Block doesn’t say anything to either of us until Brooke hands in her morning math. “Feeling better?” Mrs. Block asks. “Sometimes a little walk with a friend is the best medicine.” She winks.

  Instead of recess, I go to Mrs. Petty’s room. “You caught me!” she says, like it was my idea to drop in. She is eating her lunch. “Now”—she wipes her hands on a paper towel and gives me my portrait paper—“I don’t need to keep you all recess, Kate. As soon as you put your nose on there, you may run along.”

  I may run along, but I can’t. Because I may be able to draw a Petty nose in approximately seven seconds, but I can’t. I sit there staring at my portrait for eleven minutes.

  Mrs. Petty walks over and stands behind me. I can see 5B lining up on the playground. I just come out with it. “I can’t put your nose on my portrait.”

  “Kate, art students spend years copying other styles, the Great Masters. That is how you learn.”

  “No offense, but when I make things, I only want to copy what’s inside my head.”

  Mrs. Petty gives up and goes to her desk. She is writing furiously.

  I draw my nose. Then I stand, push in my chair, and leave.

  I pick option two again, although I am afraid to jinx my aunt, so I plan to leave the hospital part out.

  But life does not always go according to plan.

  Nora and I say hi and I sit directly behind her on the bus. I don’t know which is harder, lying or beginning a conversation with Nora.

  “So last night I was talking with my aunt and …,” I begin. “I was wondering if you want to come over.”

  Silence. I am about to repeat the last part when Nora actually turns around and says, “Are you talking to me?”

  I answer yes and she faces forward without saying anything. I am about to ask again, and she says, “I am thinking about it.”

  That’s when Gene looks up in his rearview mirror and says, “Somebody missed her stop.”

  “Well, there’s the answer I was looking for—you can get off at my stop and my dad can take you home.”

  “I have homework,” Nora says, which is the same as saying I have ten fingers. In most cases.

  Gene waits while I run up the driveway. I drag my dad out so he can give Gene the thumbs-up.

  “Nora!” my dad says. He gives her a big one-way hug like he hasn’t seen her in months, a little over-the-top even in the extra-fatherly-love department. “Did I know you two—”

  “Nora missed her stop,” I explain.

  “Ahh.” He hands Nora the phone when we walk in the house. “Tell your mom I have a conference call in a few minutes, but I can run you home in an hour.”

  I clear the table so we can do our homework. “Popcorn, anyone?” my dad asks, holding up our popcorn popper.

  “You still don’t have a microwave?” Nora says.

  “Still living in the Stove Age around here,” my dad says.

  “It tastes better than microwave popcorn,” Nora says after my dad sets down her bowl.

  “The highest compliment.” He bows. “Why don’t you two take your popcorn and your homework up to your room, Kate?”

  “Never mind,” he says, receiving my glare. “Maybe one of these days you’ll get that room cleaned up so—”

  “Your conference call?” I say.

  “Right,” he says, and leaves us to our homework.

  We work in “silence” until I can’t stand it any longer.

  “So when did you start collecting horses?” I ask.

  “Saturday,” Nora says.

  I pause to look down into the horse’s eye. “Brownie is used to having his family and a lot of other horses around. I was thinking, you could board him here—that’s a horse-word for have him live here. He’d still be yours and everything, but—”

  “I think Victory is very happy with me. He thinks Brownie is a baby name and he’s always wanted to be an only horse, which is something you never understood,” Nora says.

  She named it Victory?

  Nora eats another handful of popcorn and adds, “I think you gave me something and now you’re trying to take it back.”

  We do our homework until my dad comes in. “Shall I leave you two for a bit longer?”

  “Well, that was kind of nice,” my dad says on the drive home from Nora’s. “Maybe we can clear that path through the woods again; this could become more of a regular—”

  “This? This was just doing our homework, Dad,” I say.

  “Well, I’m pretty sure Eleanor Roosevelt is smiling, wherever she is right now.” My dad breaks into song: “Kate sera, sera, whatever will be will be, the future is ours to see.…” Luckily it’s a very short car ride.

  Robin lets me hang out in her room until ten while my parents are at their book club.

  I am trying to organize Notes to Self, but I am finding it hard to concentrate. It’s so obvious the horse is missing.

  I’m sure she’s noticed, but Robin looks like she’s reading A Separate Peace. “What’s it about?” I ask.

  “Are you trying to make conversation, Kate? Because I’m trying to read.”

  “Sorry. Could I ask you one other thing? I won’t interrupt you again.” I don’t wait for an answer. “If someone has something they’re not using, and someone else gives it away to someone who really uses it—would you say that’s more like sharing or stealing?”

  “What are you talking about, Kate?”

  “Taking things people aren’t using and giving them to people—”

  “Taking other people’s things is stealing, Kate,” Robin says. “Oh, look, it’s ten o’clock!” It’s only 9:53. “Bedtime for Kattila!” She hugs me and sends me down the hall.

  On library days, we have exactly twenty minutes to return books and check out new ones, with a grand total of TWO books per person. There are at least fifteen books I would like to take out, so I store them in the biography section. Brooke stores hers by the encyclopedias.

  This cuts way down on our book-finding (and checking-out) time so we have way more reading-in-the-beanbag-chair time.

  I am stashing two new books while Mrs. Sanelli (a.k.a. Smelly) has her back to me in the Book Nook. “Ack, what’s this?”

  Brooke sees the whole thing from where she’s standing and rushes over. “Smelly has your horse! Nora left it on a beanbag chair. Go claim it!”

  “What if Nora comes to look for it?”

  “It won’t be here. She could’ve left it somewhere else, or someone could have taken it.…”

  “Can you, please? Please.”

  The lost-and-found is outside Mrs. Sanelli’s office, behind the checkout desk. Mrs. Sanelli is over by the computers. Brooke cuts to the front of the checkout line. “Excuse me, Mrs. Wright, do you know if anyone’s turned in a horse—small, brown, with white feet?”

  Mrs. Wright hands Brooke the horse and says, “It was right on top, dear.”

  “See, you could have done that!” Brooke says as she hands me the horse.

  We are all working on our colony presentations when we hear knocking (even though the door to 5B is always open). Mrs. Sanelli is standing there like it’s shut, so Mrs. B. has to invite her to come in.

  “Forgive me for interrupting, Mrs. Block, but may I borrow Brooke Johnson?”

  Mrs. Sanelli’s lips are smiling, but the rest of her face isn’t.

  “Brooke?” Everybody watches Brooke cross the room. “You’re due back in two weeks!” Mrs. Block says, and smiles.

  Twenty minutes go by and there is no sign of Brooke. Mrs. Block arranges the papers on Brooke’s desk and says to Colin, “Two weeks—that was supposed to be a library joke.”

  When the five-minute bell rings, Mrs. B. asks Colin to pack up Brooke’s stuff. He has just finished making a neat pile on her desk when Brooke finally walks in.

  After the world’s longest four minutes, school ends. I am walking ba
ckward down the hall, looking into Brooke’s face, saying, “I. Am. So. Sorry.”

  “It’s fine,” she says.

  “Fine? What about Killjoy?”

  “He wasn’t there. The worst part was right in the beginning when Smelly Sanelli asked me, ‘Do you know why I came to get you?’

  “Luckily she said, ‘Do not answer! You, Nora Klein, and I are going to sit down and get to the bottom of this.’ At least I knew it was about the horse.

  “Nora was sitting in Smelly’s office crying. Mrs. Wright is next to her holding a Kleenex box. And I had to wait outside the office forever until Nora decided she was ready for me to come in.

  “So I walked in, and before Smelly could start with her Grand Inquisition, I said, ’Nora, I think I can tell you something that will make you feel a lot better. I found your horse on the beanbag chair in the Book Nook. I gave it to Kate to give to you on the bus.

  “Mrs. Wright smiled and winked at me. Nora stopped crying. Smelly was suspicious. She started to say I should’ve explained all that earlier, but Mrs. Wright said she was busy checking out books.”

  “Major phew,” I say. We’re standing in the bus circle, and the buses all start up at once.

  “You still have to give the horse back to Nora. Smelly wants a full report from Nora in the morning. Call me!” Brooke says. It takes a few seconds for that to sink in. “You better hurry. Gene is about to shut the doors.”

  “I didn’t say anything.” I am giving Brooke the full phone report. “I just put it on the seat next to her. She took it and put it in her backpack.”

  “Did she say thank you?” Brooke asked.

  I blow air through my lips like a horse. “No, her exact words were ‘Brooke tried to steal my horse. Maybe you should give her one of her own.’ ”

  Robin is standing over me, waiting. “Who are you talking to?”

  “Brooke,” I mouth.

  Robin leaves. Brooke says “Okay” in my phone ear. “She is off the slumber party list. Victory is on!”

  “Not funny,” I say. (Translation: Funny, but discouraging.) The horse project is in a deplorable state. The Nora project is in a state.

  After I hang up with Brooke, I go to Robin’s room. I am so busy wishing I could talk to her about my deploritude, I forget to wonder why she wants to talk to me in the first place. She shuts the door. Neither of us sits down.

  “So, one of my horses is missing.”

  I look up at the shelf, like someone who doesn’t already know.

  “I don’t know exactly how long it’s been gone. I just noticed tonight,” she says. “I want to make sure you know I don’t think you took it, but Mom mentioned you and Brooke slept in my room—”

  “You told Mom?”

  “No, this is between you and me—”

  “And Brooke. Brooke didn’t steal your horse!”

  I start to leave, but Robin has her hand on the door. “I’ve never had to say this to you before. My room is off-limits to you and your friends when I’m not in it.”

  Ow! “Oh. So it’s on-limits now?” I mumble, and then I leave.

  Robin shuts the door hard after me.

  Brooke goes right up to Nora when she gets off the bus. “You have your horse?” she asks.

  Nora turns around so Brooke can see it peeking out of her backpack. Brooke pretends to make a grab for it behind Nora’s back, and I feel like I could smile for the first time in a day. I am dying to tell Brooke that Robin knows, but Nora won’t leave us alone.

  “Don’t you have to give Smelly, I mean Mrs. Sanelli, the full report?” Brooke asks Nora after we pass the stairs to the library. Nora doesn’t say anything; she just turns around. “Wait, I’ll go with you!”

  According to Brooke, the full report is not even worth reporting. Mrs. Sanelli made her promise never to claim things that were not hers from the lost-and-found.

  We’re standing in the foursquare line at recess. “Robin knows the horse is gone.”

  “Does she think you did it?”

  “She thinks you did it.” It’s my turn to play and I lose on purpose. Brooke wins and she ends up staying in for the rest of recess.

  “I wish I did do it,” Brooke says once we’re lined up to go in from recess. “Then I’d just give it back. The whole thing would be over already.” She puts her hand on my shoulder. “You have to tell the truth—”

  “I can’t. Can we please talk about something else instead?”

  “Your slumber party?” Brooke says.

  “Yes, please!”

  “I know, I know—you invite Nora AND Victory. She brings Victory and Robin catches her red-handed and—”

  “That’s not talking about something else! Besides, Nora won’t come.”

  “We still have four weeks. Four weeks to help her change her mind.”

  At band practice, Brooke doesn’t waste any time getting started. “Rests are for resting QUIETLY, flutes,” Mr. Bryant says, holding his finger to his lips. “My section leader, no less!”

  I whip my head up—not guilty!—and I see he’s looking at Nora and Brooke, who may be trying not to laugh but it is not working.

  “Hold your horses! Trumpets, you’re running away with it.” Mr. Bryant stops again. I glance over at Brooke. She didn’t even hear the “horses”; she’s busy reading something Nora wrote on her notepad.

  Brooke waits while I put away the music stand. “Seems like you and Nora had a really good time,” I say.

  “Oh yeah, well, compared with yesterday …,” Brooke says. Then she looks at me. “You’re not jealous—!”

  “Jealous of Nora Klein?! Thanks a lot!”

  “Because I was only working on your project.”

  Brooke and I are the first ones at Junior Guides. “Girls, come help me decorate these fruit pizzas!” Mrs. Hallberg says as she sprinkles the grape “olives” on top of the crushed pineapple “cheese.”

  Mrs. Staughton pats my shoulder and says, “You were awfully kind to give Nora that horse. It’s nice to see her with her nose out of a book for once! Not that I have anything against reading, of course.” She disappears into her fanny pack and pulls out a pizza cutter. “Let’s see if we can get twelve slices—nine for you girls, and don’t forget your leaders!”

  Before Mrs. Staughton turns the meeting over to President Heather, she has a “few words” to say about this year’s Fall Fun Day. “I know in the past we’ve hosted this day for the preschoolers, but this year, I have spoken with the nursing home and everybody loves the idea of holding it there.”

  “Mrs. Staughton.” I might have forgotten to raise my hand. “Remember when you said you would need our help to make this the best year possible? I would like to offer my help, which is that we should stick with the old Fall Fun Day. My sister Fern is really looking forward to it.”

  Everyone else with little brothers and sisters agrees.

  Mrs. Hallberg is looking at Mrs. Staughton, who is straightening some paper that doesn’t need straightening. Then Mrs. S. straightens herself up and says, “Thank you, Kate. Course correction, or we’ll stay the course—carry on with the tiny tots. Heather, do you want to take it from here?”

  Heather wants us to pair up with someone new for Fall Fun Day planning. (By that she means different, since everyone except Nora has been a Junior Guide since first grade.) Heather pairs herself up with her best friend, Allie. Eliza takes Nora, so I pair myself up with Brooke.

  We make a list of Fall Fun Day activities.

  “What about something really fun, like a corn maze? Or one of those dunking machines? Or a palm reader. Or I know! I know! A haunted house!!!”

  Heather listens to Nora’s ideas and then writes “costume parade” on the list. Mrs. Hallberg steps in. “All wonderful ideas, Nora. Unfortunately, well … you’ll understand much better after your first one.”

  “My last one,” Nora mutters.

  Heather uncaps the red marker and writes

  Allie, Lily, Elsa, and Faith are clapping. “Co
mmemorate and celebrate!” Mrs. Staughton says, adding her claps.

  Eliza is looking at me. Nora is looking at the table. And Brooke has the death grip on my leg.

  Brooke says, “Invite everybody to your party. You have no choice.”

  “Now?” I gulped. So I say, “My birthday party is the same day, well, same night as Fall Fun Day. It’s a slumber party, and I wasn’t planning to send the invitations out for a couple weeks, but the whole pod is invited.”

  Heather says, “This IS going to be the best Fall Fun Day ever. A Pizza Slumber Party at Kate’s house!”

  “Kate.” Mrs. Staughton is pulling her sweat jacket down over her fanny (not the pack). “Do you want to check with your parents first?”

  “Oh, they already know,” I say, and smile weakly.

  I haven’t checked about the pizza, but I’ve had pizza at every birthday party, except when I turned one.

  The closing circle ends super-fast because Fern runs up and hugs me from behind.

  “Your sister saved Fall Fun Day from going to the nursing home,” Mrs. Hallberg says to Fern so my mom can hear.

  “I invited the whole pod,” I tell my mom as we walk to the car.

  “Does this have something to do with the nursing home?”

  “It has to do with my slumber party. Pod 429 plus Hui Zong. That’s ten.”

  “Are you counting Nora?”