Just Grace and the Super Sleepover

by Charise Mericle Harper

  WHAT IS NOT EASY

  It’s not easy to be walking around with a lie hanging over your head. Lies make everything harder. As soon as we got to school, I tried to get away from Mimi so I could work on the card in secret, but that was impossible. Mimi and I went everywhere together, so when I said I needed to go to the library, of course she came with me. “Are you looking for a book?” she asked. I didn’t want to lie again, but I had to, at least a little bit—I nodded. Mimi pulled a book off the return cart and looked at it. “What kind of book are you getting?” she asked. I didn’t know what to say. I picked some flyers off the library desk and pretended to be reading them. What should I do next? This was a hundred times harder than I thought it was going to be. I shoved the flyers in my backpack and walked toward the door.

  “Let’s go,” I said. Mimi put her book down and followed me. Suddenly Sammy and Max were standing in front of us. “What are you guys doing here?” asked Max. Mimi pointed to me and said, “Grace was looking for a book.” I shook my head and mumbled something about changing my mind. Did a lie count less if it was mumbled?

  I pushed by Sammy and Max and walked out into the hall. “Hey, you dropped something,” said Sammy. I looked down to where he was pointing. It was the flyers from the library—they’d fallen out of my backpack and I didn’t need them anymore, so I picked them up and dropped them into the recycling container just outside the library door, and then Mimi and I raced down the hall. The bell was going to ring any second.

  THE GOOD THING ABOUT PLANS

  If they are not working, you can change them. Now that we were sitting in class I had a new plan: make the card at my desk while Miss Lois was busy talking abut the earth. Drawing a card was going to be a lot easier than trying to figure out if I was hanging upside down.

  HOW MISS LOIS RUINED MY PLAN

  Instead of teaching us regular stuff like math and spelling like she was supposed to, Miss Lois decided to start the morning with us getting together with our partners. Normally I’d have been super happy about that, but today I wasn’t. There was no way to draw a birthday card for Grace F. with Mimi sitting right next to me.

  When everyone was in their groups, Miss Lois went to the board and told us what we needed to do for our assignment.

  CONTINENT AND OCEAN ASSIGNMENT

  Find out three facts about your continent or sea.

  Use at least three sentences to explain each fact.

  Add a picture or item to go with your fact.

  A lot of people were confused by the word item, so Miss Lois had to explain that part some more.

  Sometimes when you want things to go super fast, they instead go super slow. This is what was happening today, and it was super annoying. If we didn’t finish talking about the earth and get back to our regular work, there’d be no time for me to make a card, not even a bad one. After the second time of explaining everything again, Miss Lois put the names of all the continents and oceans into a plastic bucket. I thought she’d be the chooser, but she said we could do it ourselves. Mimi said I could be the one to pick for our team, probably because I was moving around a lot in my seat. It’s hard to be patient and still when you’re worried that something bad is about to happen.

  I went to the front of the room and stood in line. When it was my turn, I reached into the hat and pulled out South America. I didn’t know anything about South America. I waved the slip of paper at Mimi and walked back to my desk. Halfway there, I suddenly stopped. I was wrong: I did know something about South America. South America had rainforests, and the rainforests were filled with giant bugs! This was not a fun fact to remember.

  WHAT YOU WILL DO IF YOU REALLY NEED TO MAKE A CARD

  I put my hand up and asked to go to the bathroom. It was the only way I could think of to get away from Mimi. I brought a pen with me, and as soon as I got to the bathroom, I looked around for a piece of paper. Of course that was crazy—there’s no real paper in the bathroom. Sometimes even if something is a bad idea, you will still try to make yourself believe it can work out. When something like that happens to you, it’s called being desperate.

  WHAT FINALLY HAPPENED

  I walked back to the class with nothing.

  WHAT FEELS TERRIBLE

  As soon as the bell rang for lunch, Mimi went back to her own desk to put her stuff away and get the card she’d made for Grace F. I couldn’t move. All I could do was sit there and hope to turn invisible. Of course that kind of thing can’t happen, so Mimi came over to see why I wasn’t getting up. I took a deep breath, ready to tell her everything, but then instead of the truth, out came another lie. “I can’t find my card,” I said. “It’s gone.” Mimi looked surprised. She shook her head. “It can’t be gone,” she said. “We haven’t been anywhere—we’ve been here all morning. Did you look in your backpack?” I got up and she followed me to my locker. Of course I knew it wasn’t going to be there, but I pretended to look for it anyway.

  As we headed toward the lunchroom, Mimi suddenly grabbed my arm. “I know where it is,” she said. She pulled me down the hallway. I had no idea what she was talking about or where we were going, but I followed her until we were standing outside the library in front of the recycling bin. She pointed to it. “Don’t you remember? This morning, you threw away some papers. I bet the card was in with those papers.” I nodded like I agreed with her, but it was another lie. I did not want to look through the recycling bin to find a card that was not going to be there. It was only paper garbage, but it was still garbage. Mimi looked at her watch and shook her head. I knew what she was thinking. She didn’t want to be late for lunch, and because of that I suddenly had an idea.

  After Mimi left, I tried to decide what to do. Three minutes wasn’t enough time to make a card. There was only one way out—

  I’d have to tell the truth. I tried to make myself feel brave. Brave feelings are not easy to find, especially if after being brave you are going to feel embarrassed. Being brave and saying you have been lying is not the same as being brave and climbing a mountain.

  Thinking about it made my stomach feel sick. I looked down the hallway to see if I could see Mimi, but I couldn’t—she was gone. When I looked back the other way, Mr. Harris, the school principal, was walking toward me. I was hoping he wouldn’t notice me, but he stopped right in front of me. Even though Mr. Harris is nice, talking to a principal is still a little bit scary. Principals pretty much notice everything. Mr. Harris looked at me and crinkled up his eyebrows. “Do you feel okay?” he asked. “You look pale—like you’ve seen a ghost.” I knew it was a joke, so I smiled and mumbled that I was okay. He was easy to fool—he didn’t know that I was using my pretend smile. He smiled back, nodded, and walked away.

  I took a deep breath and looked toward the lunchroom. Everyone was there, and they were waiting for me. If I didn’t show up, Mimi would be worried and come looking for me. My feet didn’t want to, but I made them move forward. And then suddenly I knew what to say. I had a plan to save myself.

  THE GHOST

  WHO DID NOT 100 PERCENT BELIEVE ME

  Mimi—she was confused. It was easy to tell, because she was looking at me in the exact same way that Mr. Scruffers does when she’s confused.

  I wanted Mimi to believe me. It was wrong, but I couldn’t help it.

  WHAT IS HARD

  To sit still and pretend to act normal when nothing about what you are doing is normal. It took a while, but finally Mimi said, “Okay.” I thought that would be it, but a second later she added another part to her sentence. “After lunch, I want to go and see the ghost.” This wasn’t good news, but it was better than her not believing me. Plus when we got there, maybe I could just say I’d made a mistake.

  WHAT IS VERY HARD TO DO

  Keeping lies organized.

  While I was worrying about my lies, Grace F. opened all her cards. I said I’d make her a new one, which was 100 percent not a lie. For her party I was going to make the best card I’d ever made. Could an amazing car
d cancel out a big lie? I hoped so. Watching Grace F. open and read all her cards was not easy. It made the uncomfortable sick feeling that was in my stomach come all the way up into my throat. It was a good thing that no one could tell that my insides were not matching up with my outsides.

  After lunch we all walked over to the library to look at the recycling bin. It was the exact thing I did not want to do. I stood behind everyone else and stayed quiet. I didn’t want anyone looking at me—sometimes people can tell you are lying just by looking at your face, and I 100 percent did not want that to happen.

  “Should I say something?” asked Grace L. I looked at her and shrugged. “Like what?” I asked. Grace L. thought for a minute and then she said, “Well, we could ask it if it’s a good ghost or a bad ghost.” Grace F. shook her head. “I don’t think we should talk to it. It scared Grace so it’s probably a bad ghost.” Everyone nodded. Now I was feeling guilty in a whole new way.

  Mimi crumpled a piece of paper up into a ball and threw it into the recycling bin. I was the only one who wasn’t surprised that nothing happened. There was no moaning, no groaning, no anything at all. I tried to explain that maybe I’d made a mistake, but it was too late. No one wanted to believe me—they wanted to believe in the ghost. I didn’t know that something like that could happen.

  WHAT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO KEEP AS A SECRET

  A haunted recycling bin. By the end of the day, everyone knew about it. Now my lie was big and getting bigger by the second. The only way to destroy it was with the truth, and I wasn’t brave enough to do that.

  WALKING HOME FROM SCHOOL

  Mimi and I walked home with Max and Sammy. The only thing Max and Mimi wanted to talk about was the haunted recycling bin. It seemed like the kind of thing Sammy would like, but he was quiet and didn’t say anything. Maybe he was scared of ghosts. Maybe ghosts were like cats—things he didn’t even want to think about. I made a picture in my head of Sammy battling the recycling bin. It was the first thing all day that made me smile.

  I thought people would be scared of the recycling bin, but they weren’t—instead they were excited about it and couldn’t stop talking about it. Max’s big idea was to take a photo of the ghost. He stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and put his hands up. “If we had a picture of the ghost, our school would be famous.” I nodded like I thought his idea was the best thing I’d ever heard, but it was another lie. Now I didn’t even have to think about the lies—they just happened all on their own. That did not make me feel better.

  When we finally got to my house, Mimi went home and I went to get Mr. Scruffers to play in the backyard. After we’d been playing ball for about ten minutes, Augustine Dupre came outside to see us. Her apartment is in our basement so she can see me really easily if I am in the backyard. Most basements aren’t very exciting, but ours is different. Our basement has a great apartment in it. I used to go down to the basement all the time, but now that Augustine Dupre is married to Luke, Mom won’t let me do that anymore. I’m not allowed to go down there without an invitation. Mom and I have different feelings about it. I call it visiting and Mom calls it bugging, but she is wrong, because when I go downstairs Augustine Dupre is always 100 percent happy to see me.

  I threw the ball for Mr. Scruffers, and while she ran off to get it Augustine Dupre walked over to me. “What’s new?” she asked. I shrugged my shoulders like there was nothing, but it wasn’t true, because the card lie was there hanging over my head, and it was new and very big. For a second I was worried that Augustine Dupre might have superpowers and be able to see it, but after a few seconds I could tell that she didn’t. It was invisible.

  WHAT I COULD HAVE SAID TO AUGUSTINE DUPRE IF I WERE BRAVE AND NOT SCARED

  But I didn’t say that—instead I told Augustine Dupre all about the sleepover camping party, and how Dad and I were going to practice in the tent on Friday. Augustine Dupre smiled and said, “Practice makes perfect.” I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was, and instantly I was thinking about my lie again. I looked down at the ground. I didn’t want Augustine Dupre to see my face. Guilt is not always invisible. Augustine Dupre waited for me to say something, but when I didn’t, she smiled and asked if I wanted her and Luke to sneak up on our tent and make spooky noises while we were sleeping. Of course I said no—even Dad would be scared of that.

  WHAT DAD BROUGHT HOME FROM WORK

  After dinner Dad and I went outside to the car to get the tent. There were two different things in the trunk: a big green bag and a bunch of metal sticks. It wasn’t very impressive, but Dad said when we put everything together it would make a fantastic tent. I helped him carry it all out to the backyard. It was hard to imagine how it was going to work. “Don’t worry,” said Dad, “it’ll be easy. If a Boy Scout can do it, so can I.” I wanted to put the tent up right away, but Dad said we had to wait until tomorrow, because it was getting dark and I had homework to do. It was disappointing, but I probably deserved it.

  WHAT IS HARD TO DO

  Fall asleep when you know you’ve done something wrong. Bad thoughts like to come out at night.

  WHAT WAS A SURPRISE

  I woke up feeling brave. Today was the day. Today I would tell Mimi the truth. Today I would destroy the lie.

  When I got downstairs I asked Mom to make me French toast. French toast is my favorite breakfast to have when I need extra energy. She didn’t answer, but I took it as a good sign when she took the frying pan out of the cupboard.

  While I was waiting for my French toast, I started thinking about the recycling bin again. Did people really believe that it was haunted? I shook my head. I had a good feeling about today. Probably everyone had forgotten about the recycling can anyway.

  WHAT TASTES EXTRA GOOD AFTER YOU HAVE DECIDED THAT EVERYTHING IS GOING TO TURN OUT EXACTLY LIKE YOU WANT IT TO

  French toast.

  LIE NUMBER ONE

  On the way to school I told Mimi how I was really feeling about the sleepover. She was quiet for a minute, and then she pointed at me. “I knew there was something you weren’t telling me. I could feel it.” I nodded, but didn’t say what I was thinking. Mimi did have powers—she’d felt my lies. I knew what was next. Now was the exact right time to tell her everything. I took a deep breath and opened my mouth, but the wrong words came out. Instead of telling her about the card and the recycling bin, I told her about the tent and how Dad was going to help me practice for the party.

  WHAT I REALLY WANTED TO ASK MIMI BUT WASN’T BRAVE ENOUGH TO SAY

  THE BIG BAD SURPRISE THAT I FOUND OUT ABOUT AS SOON AS A STEPPED ONTO THE PLAYGROUND

  Everyone was talking about the haunted recycling bin. And worse than that, other people were even saying that they’d heard strange sounds too. What was happening?

  WHAT HAD GOTTEN HUGE

  My lie, and now I wasn’t the only one feeding it—everyone was. It made me feel dizzy and sick just thinking about it. Mimi grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the school. “Let’s go see it. Maybe it looks different.” Most of me wanted to turn right around and run home and hide, but a little part of me was curious, so I followed Mimi to the library. When we got there, a few kids were pushing each other toward the recycling bin, but mostly everyone was just standing back looking at it. “What’s it want?” asked a girl. I didn’t know her name. “I don’t know,” answered a boy, and he shrugged. “Well, we should give it whatever it wants to make it go away, because having it there makes me scared to go to the library,” said the girl.

  Suddenly I was feeling super guilty—my lie was hurting other people. I hadn’t thought about that before.

  I had to use my empathy super power. It was the exact extra push I needed to feel brave.

  I walked over to the recycling bin and put my hand on it. “See, it’s okay, the ghost is gone.” Suddenly everyone in the hall was quiet. It was more attention than I wanted. The girl shook her head and said, “Well, maybe it’s gone now, but it’ll come back.” I looked around and everyone was nodding. My bei
ng brave had changed nothing.

  WHAT WAS ANOTHER SURPRISE

  That every kid in the whole school was talking about the haunted recycling bin and the teachers didn’t even know it existed. The more I thought about it, the more confused I got. What about the people who were saying they’d heard things—were they making it up? Why would they do that?

  I was glad that Miss Lois was keeping us busy. I didn’t want to think about it anymore. We spent the morning learning about land formations. There were a lot of them I didn’t know. Miss Lois had us each pick out five and write about them in our earth books. A lot of the boys picked butte—it wasn’t funny and had nothing to do with what they were thinking, but boys are weird that way.