by Chloe Taylor
At school the next day, she planned to get a bunch of plastic forks from the cafeteria at lunchtime to use for the club. But then she heard a rumor there would be a pop quiz in social studies, so she ended up studying in the library all through lunch and forgot. So by the time the dismissal bell rang, Zoey still had no forks and found herself running to the cafeteria, asking one of the workers to let her into the back area to take a bunch of forks, and dashing down the hall to get to the club meeting.
She arrived breathless and sweaty, and was chagrined to see Ivy already there, sitting serenely at the large table, her lip gloss recently touched up and her mouth in a sneer.
“Sorry I’m late,” Zoey sputtered. “I forgot the forks.”
Sean shrugged, but everyone was sitting down and waiting on Zoey, who was leading that day’s meeting. Sean had gotten out the boxes of fabric for her, and everyone in the room was eyeing them curiously, especially the flap of neon green poking out the top of one.
“Anyone have dues for me today?” Zoey asked hopefully. Sarah passed up money, and Zoey put it into the envelope. She wished the others had remembered as well so she wouldn’t have to keep asking! “Let’s get started,” Zoey continued. She gestured to the boxes of fabric. “As you can see, thanks to the generosity of A Stitch in Time, we have lots of materials!” She showed the fabrics and notions Jan had sent over to the group. Most were pleased, but Ivy, as Zoey had predicted, was less than impressed.
“You can’t be serious. What are we going to make with that hideous fleece?” Ivy asked.
Zoey and Sean looked at each other. Zoey could feel her resolve to be polite and welcoming to Ivy melting. She forced herself to stay positive.
“We’re going to make two-tone reversible scarves,” Zoey said evenly, “with pompoms. I know this neat way to make them by hand using a fork. I promise, you guys will love it . . . or at least have fun making them.”
Josie smiled, as did Sarah and Emily. Scott, a friend of Sean’s from musical theater club, also looked excited.
“Here, let me show you how it works.” Zoey quickly got busy using the fork and some of the yarn, weaving the yarn around and through the tines to make a perfect pompom. “Isn’t that neat? I think they’ll look great on the scarves.”
Ivy sighed loudly. “The word ‘fashion’ shouldn’t even be in the name of this club. Not with those fabrics. I’m not making, or wearing, anything made of that stuff.”
Zoey gritted her teeth and was relieved when Sean spoke up, keeping his tone light and jokey. “If you’re not into scarves, Ivy, you could try a pillow with pompoms around the edges. It would be really soft in the fleece, and you could stuff it using an old pillow from home.” He handed her a fork and some of the yarn, almost daring her to try making a pompom.
Sean seemed to have the magic touch with Ivy, because she stopped hissing and reluctantly agreed to try it. Her fingers began working with the yarn and fork, and it seemed to calm her down to be busy.
The rest of the club got to work choosing and pinning fabric, and making pompoms. Zoey started having fun when she saw how much the other kids were enjoying the project, and she got up and went over to Sean, who was collecting pins for everyone to use.
“She’s awful, isn’t she?” Zoey whispered. “And she’s been like that forever. She’ll never change.”
Sean half nodded, but then stopped himself. “You know, I think she’s just uptight. She has to say a few mean things when she first arrives, to get comfortable, and then she sort of relaxes and chills out. It’s more like she’s really insecure rather than just evil.”
Zoey wasn’t buying it. “But then why are the mean things always directed at me?”
Sean smiled and patted Zoey on the back. “Because you’re so together, Zoey. And deep down, Ivy knows she’s not. Remember, if she didn’t want to be here, she wouldn’t have come back. And she did actually pay her dues.”
Zoey thought Sean was deluding himself, but she admired how mature he was about a person coming in and being a jerk in their club. He acted like it was no big deal and just stayed pleasant and cheerful, running around the room helping everyone.
Sean Waschikowsi was a good guy.
Many of the club members stayed late that day to finish their scarves. Sean got really into it and ended up taking some contrasting thread and embroidering FFC on the bottom of his scarf. As soon as the rest of the club members saw that, they wanted letters on theirs too. So Sean gave everyone a quick lesson on how to embroider letters in backstitch.
Everyone except Ivy, who was the only one working on a pillow, thanked Sean for the lesson and quickly got to work embroidering their own letters.
“Thank you for showing us that!” Josie said to Sean. “I’ve always wanted to make handkerchiefs and embroider my initials on them. I can’t wait to try it now!”
Sean waved his hand, like it was no big deal. But Zoey could tell how impressed the club was with his skills.
After another fifteen minutes or so, the group began to clean up and put away their materials so they could head outside to catch the late bus home. As they were leaving, Gabe asked everyone if they could huddle together for a minute in their scarves, so he could take a group picture.
“It’d be great for the school paper,” Gabe explained. “Or the yearbook.”
Everyone wrapped their new scarves, some with half-finished letters on them, around their necks and struck a pose. Ivy stood off to the side, holding her pillow in front of her like a shield.
“Squeeze in, Ivy, I can only see your shoulder,” Gabe directed.
Ivy did as she was told, although Zoey thought the expression on Ivy’s face made it look like it was the last place Ivy wanted to be. Gabe took a few shots and promised to e-mail the best one to the group.
“Thank you, Gabe,” Mrs. Holmes said as the rest of the group began to depart to get in line for the late bus. “Please send me a copy as well. I have a feeling this is going to be a very special group.”
She winked at Zoey and Sean, then locked the classroom door behind her and left for the faculty parking lot.
Gabe waved good-bye as well. “I’ve got to get something from my locker real quick. See you guys in the bus line!”
Zoey and Sean headed down the empty hall together, recapping their meeting.
Sean said, “You know, I bet Ivy wants a scarf now, since everyone else has one. She looked sort of odd standing there with her pillow in the picture. But I bet she’d be too embarrassed to say so since she was so negative about the scarves earlier.”
Zoey couldn’t help replying, “Good, I hope she feels left out again when we’re all wearing our scarves tomorrow.”
“Zoey.”
“I know that was awful. I’m sorry, but she brings it out in me.” Zoey felt guilty immediately and then reminded herself for what felt like the hundredth time that she had promised to be welcoming to Ivy. It was just so hard to forget all the mean things Ivy had done to her in the past. “I’ll try to be better—I promise.”
Sean waited a beat, then said, “Aw, don’t beat yourself up too much, Zoey. That girl can be a real jerk sometimes.”
Zoey laughed and threw her arms around Sean. “Thank you for saying that, Sean. If even you—patient, perfect you—think that, then maybe I’m not such a terrible person after all.”
“You’re sew not terrible.” He grinned. “I’ve just been teased so much about my sewing and interest in fashion that I’ve decided to always be extra careful about the way I treat people. Being nice isn’t that hard, you know.”
“You’re right,” Zoey agreed. “And it’s especially easy to be nice to you.”
“Why, thank you, Madame Vice President. Now, we’d better hurry, or we’re going to miss the bus!”
CHAPTER 8
Pompom-Mania!
If you haven’t made a pompom with yarn and a fork, try it. It’s addictive! You can find a how-to video online, and in five minutes, you’ll be making so many pompoms you won’t know what to do with
them all. Hence (don’t you love that word?), this darling pompom dress in a cozy flannel, inspired by the flannel remnants that were donated to the Fashion Fun Club. It would be great with tights and boots on cold days!
The Fashion Fun Club displayed some awesome club spirit today by wearing the new neon scarves (avec pompoms!) that we made yesterday. Sean taught us how to embroider them with the letters FFC and you should have seen how proud everyone was of our new club!
In other news, I sent off the final, final design sketch to Sonya Turley’s costumer, and I expect to get a photo of the actual, completed outfit in just a few days! I can’t believe how fast a professional costumer works. But I guess she has to, since Sonya will be competing at nationals in just two weeks, and the outfit must be ready. Come to think of it, my new flannel pompom dress would be the perfect warm and cozy thing to wear while watching ice-skating live at a rink! For this competition, though, I’ll be watching from the comfort of my own living room. Maybe next time!
“Wait, wait, wait,” Priti exclaimed. “A boy what?”
“Shh!” Kate immediately turned bright red and waved her hands frantically at Priti to quiet her. Zoey and her friends were sitting at their usual table in the lunchroom, and there was very little privacy with a hundred or so other middle schoolers jammed in around them.
“Okay, I’ll whisper, but you need to tell us every detail from the beginning,” Priti urged. The girls hunched over their lunches, so their faces were closer together.
“We look like we’re plotting,” Libby joked.
“Maybe we are,” Priti replied.
Kate sighed, and began her story again. “So, there’s this boy Tyler who volunteers at the food pantry with me, and he’s fourteen, and a freshman in high school. And he’s very nice, and we’ve been talking a lot while we’re there. And yesterday he asked me to go out on a date.”
Zoey shook her head. She couldn’t believe it. Shy Kate, who barely noticed boys and usually only thought of them as potential athletic opponents, had been asked out by a high school boy!
“What did you say?” asked Zoey. “Did you turn as red as you are right now?”
“Ha-ha, Zoey,” said Kate. “And yes, I probably did. I said, ‘Um, I don’t know,’ because I don’t know! Help, you guys, I need advice!”
“Advice? Just go, and have fun!” Priti shook her head, as if Kate was delusional.
Kate bit her lip. “I’m kind of weirded out by the whole idea of a real date. I mean, Tyler’s in high school. I’ve never even thought about going on a date. What would we do?”
“Don’t worry about that part yet,” Libby advised. “Do you like him? That’s the most important thing.”
“I think he’s nice,” said Kate. “I don’t know him very well.”
“What would you wear?” Zoey mused. “Hmm, you looked really cute last weekend in that T-shirt dress and tights. You could wear that!”
Kate laughed. “I don’t need to worry about my outfit yet, Zoey. I don’t even know if I’m actually going to go!”
Zoey smiled. Then she asked, somewhat hesitantly, “What about Lorenzo?”
Lorenzo Romy was a boy who had liked Kate a while back, and even though Zoey had kind of liked him herself once, she’d realized he was only interested in Kate. So Zoey had told Kate to go for it, but Kate never had.
“We’re just friends,” Kate replied. “Anyway, I heard he’s seeing this girl Mira from the soccer team.”
“Hmm,” said Priti, finally opening her lunch and biting into her sandwich. “I think it’d be silly to say no when you could go out and have a really good time. And if you don’t have a good time, you can always say no the next time.”
“Let’s change the subject,” Kate said. “I’ve been worrying about it all morning! Somebody talk about something else, please.”
Libby, always the most sensitive to other’s feelings, quickly jumped in. “What do you guys think those bright neon scarves are for? Have you seen them?” The girls turned their heads, and it was easy to pick out the scarves in the cafeteria. They practically glowed under the fluorescent lights.
Zoey laughed. “You haven’t been reading my blog, Libby!” she said, pretending to scold her friend. “We made them in the Fashion Fun Club this week.”
“I love them,” Priti said. “I want one! But where is yours, Zoey?”
Embarrassed, Zoey shrugged. She’d forgotten hers at home that morning. “It didn’t go with my outfit today. That, and I forgot to bring it!”
As if on cue, Ivy strolled by Zoey’s table and said, “Not wearing your scarf, Zoey? It’s because you know that neon is hideous. And now everyone else is stuck wearing them! Good one.” She shook her head and then headed to her table by the front to join her friends Shannon Chang and Bree Sharpe.
Zoey rolled her eyes as her friends looked at her sympathetically.
“She’s really improved,” Priti said sarcastically.
“Is she making the fashion club awful?” asked Libby.
“Yeeeees,” moaned Zoey. “At least for me. I mean, it’s fun, and I like talking about fashion stuff with everyone, but it’s a lot more work than I thought it would be. I have to come up with activities, collect dues, deal with Ivy, and teach people how to do stuff.”
“It’ll get easier,” said Kate. “Every season, when soccer or swimming starts, and I begin the workouts after having a break, I think that I won’t make the team, that I’m not as strong as I need to be, you know. But then I get used to it and get better and start having fun again! You just have to stick with it through the hard, beginning part.”
Zoey mulled that over. Maybe the club would get easier once it wasn’t so new. She vowed to give it her best effort and hope that Kate was right.
“Not that I don’t love talking about Ivy,” said Priti, “but can we talk about this Tyler a little more? What’s he like, Kate?”
Kate and Zoey looked at each other and smiled. Despite having had a hard few months at home after her parents split up, and totally changing her wardrobe to mostly black or dark-colored clothing, Priti was the same old Priti. Enthusiastic and just a little bit boy-crazy.
“Well, I have a picture,” Kate admitted reluctantly. She pulled her cell phone from her pocket and held it up to show a photo of Tyler with some of the other volunteers from the food pantry.
“Oooh, he is cute!” Libby said. “Say yes, Kate. C’mon!”
Kate put away her phone and sighed. “He is, but I don’t think we have very much in common. He doesn’t play any sports, and that’s, you know, a big deal to me. What would we talk about on a date?”
Libby grinned. “The four of us hardly ever talk about sports, and you still like all of us!”
Kate laughed, and so did the rest of the group.
“Boys will do a lot for love,” Priti said knowingly. “Maybe he’ll turn out to be an athlete just to prove his feelings for you!”
Libby shook her head. “Even if he doesn’t, my mom says opposites attract for a reason. It would be boring for Kate to date someone exactly like her!”
Instead of getting the joke, Kate’s face immediately fell.
Libby instantly understood her statement had been misinterpreted, and she grabbed Kate’s arm. “No! Kate, I didn’t mean that you are boring. Just that it’s more interesting to hang out with people who are different from us!”
“I get it,” Kate said. “I see what you mean.”
“Listen, Kate,” said Priti. “I know I’m being sort of a hypocrite, because I don’t go out with every boy who asks me out, but I really think you should give this guy a shot. He sounds sweet, and he’s a little older, so he’s probably more mature than the guys in our grade. What do you have to lose?”
“Nothing, I guess,” Kate admitted. “But I’m still not ready to decide.”
“Take your time,” Zoey advised. “You won’t see him for another few days, right? So you can think about it. And then say yes.”
“Maybe,” agreed Kate.
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“Yes,” said Priti.
“Maybe,” Kate repeated with a smile.
CHAPTER 9
Not in My Nature!
Oh readers! Why is life sew complicated?
I was chatting with some friends about whether or not one friend should say yes to an invitation. And she was very hesitant about it and didn’t know what to do. And I think it was partly because she had already made up her mind that the she didn’t have much in common with the person who issued the invitation (can you tell how hard I’m trying to protect this friend’s privacy? Cryptic, right?). Anyway, it made me think about how important it is to stay open-minded and try new things!
Like me and the pet shelter. One of my friends thought for sure I’d end up volunteering at the thrift store because it’s a great place to scout vintage clothes. But playing with animals at the shelter is so much more fun to me! I went again today and had a blast. My brother’s girlfriend was lucky enough to adopt two cats, so she can play with them anytime, and I’m so jealous! But at least I have my volunteer hours at the shelter, and with the way things are going, I’ll end up with way more than the twenty-hour minimum I need.
And speaking of being open-minded, check out my sketch! I love the mix of patterned pants with a shirt screenprinted with a nature pic. Maybe it’s not in everyone’s nature to mix prints and graphics, but it’s worth a try. It’s unexpected and fun!
Zoey looked forward to her family’s Sunday breakfast every week, and since Aunt Lulu had married John, they’d been coming by as well to join the fun. Lulu always referred to it as “brunch,” which Zoey liked, and this week, Zoey and Marcus had decided to fully initiate their new uncle John into the family by allowing him to make the secret-ingredient pancakes.
Normally, the family hung out together at the kitchen table while the pancakes were made, and they simply turned their heads while the designated chef added the secret ingredient(s). But Uncle John was taking his job very seriously.
“Everyone into the living room, please,” he said as he tied on an apron he’d brought from home. “I need quiet to make my magic.”
