by Wanda Coven
SHABBY CHIC
Heidi had a hairy problem.
No sooner had she tucked one side of her hair into her swim cap than several strands on the other side fell out. She stuffed them back in. Then a few more strands spilled over her eyes.
“Oh, merg!” she growled, and pushed those stray hairs back in too. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t make her hair stay inside that floppy old cap.
“It’s all stretched out,” Heidi complained.
Mia Marshall, who was in line with Heidi, turned around.
“My cap’s baggy too!” Mia said.
Heidi put her finger inside her cap, pulled, and let go. It didn’t snap back like a new cap. It sagged.
Both girls laughed. Then Mia faced the pool. It was her turn to swim. She pulled on her goggles.
Snap! The strap broke.
“Oh no!” Mia exclaimed. “Now I have to get another pair of goggles!” She ran to the locker room.
Heidi stepped to the edge of the pool and carefully pulled on her own goggles. Then she dove in. Ahhhhhh, she thought as she glided through the water. I love to swim.
After one lap, Heidi’s vision became blurry and her eyes began to sting.
My goggles are leaking! Heidi thought.
She stopped to empty her goggles. Then she strapped them on and went back to swimming.
Glub! Glub! Glub! More water leaked in as her goggles filled up all over again.
Heidi popped to the surface. Coach Poole tossed her a pink foam noodle.
“Use this to finish your lap, Heidi,” Coach instructed.
Heidi leaned on the noodle and began to flutter kick. She moved faster and faster through the water. Just before she reached the wall, the foam noodle cracked in two.
“Not my noodle, too!” called out Heidi. “The only thing I CAN’T break is Mia’s one-lap record!”
Coach Poole shook her head and sighed. “It’s not you, Heidi,” she said. “That’s the second broken noodle today. Our equipment is falling apart!”
The whole team had noticed it. The towels in the locker room had become faded and shabby.
The swim noodles looked like mice had nibbled them. And the kickboards and fins had chips and cracks.
Coach Poole picked up the broken noodle. “Well, run-down equipment can’t stop the Little Mermaids!” she declared. Then she blew her whistle. “Everybody back to work!”
All the girls cheered, except Heidi. Why do we have to have crummy old equipment? she wondered. Maybe there’s something we can do…?
STICKY WICKETS
“Our swim team’s equipment is falling apart,” Heidi told her family at breakfast the next morning.
Henry Heckelbeck, Heidi’s little brother, stopped sticking chocolate chips into each square on his waffle and looked up.
“Maybe your team should grow gills,” he suggested. “Then you would never have to come up for air, AND you’d win every tournament.”
Heidi rolled her eyes. “Well, even if we COULD grow gills, we’d still need goggles and swim caps.”
“Good point,” Henry said as he took a bite of his waffle.
Heidi’s fork clattered onto her plate. She couldn’t believe Henry agreed with her. Henry never agreed with Heidi. She looked at Mom and Dad to see their reaction. Her parents shrugged, and then they all looked at Henry, who was munching his waffle.
“What?” he asked. “Why is everyone looking at me? Do I have chocolate on my face?”
“Oh, never mind,” Heidi said, looking at the clock. “It’s time to go.” She pushed back her chair and grabbed her backpack. “Hurry, or we’ll miss the bus!”
Henry slid off his chair—waffle in hand—and followed his sister out the door. The bus had already arrived. They had to run to catch it. Henry stuffed the waffle into his mouth as he ran. Then he flung the crumbs into the bushes outside.
“Enjoy the free food, birds and squirrels!” he yelled.
As they lined up for the bus, Heidi wiped her brow. “Whew! It sure is hot and muggy today!” she complained to her brother, whose cheeks had turned pink.
Henry nodded. “At least it’ll be cool on the bus,” he said as they clomped up the steps.
Only the bus wasn’t cool at all. It felt hotter inside than outside.
Heidi pushed up her sleeves. “Is the AC broken?”
“Yup,” the bus driver said as she cranked the door shut.
Heidi groaned and sat down next to her friend Bruce Bickerson. His eyeglasses had fogged up from the heat.
“Wow, it’s so sticky and hot out today!” Heidi said. “Sticky wickets!”
Bruce wiped the fog from his glasses with his finger. “Sure wish I had perfected my Chill Choker,” he said.
Heidi fanned herself with a notebook and asked, “What’s a CHILL CHOKER?”
Bruce popped his glasses back on. “It’s a necklace that cools you down when it’s hot,” he said. “But it doesn’t work very well yet. It only makes your neck and ears cold.”
“Cool. Well, let me know when you have a breakthrough,” Heidi said, and she blew a strand of damp hair out of her face.
The bus rumbled down the street, and a welcome breeze blew through the open windows. Everyone sighed.
Heidi’s thoughts drifted back to the Little Mermaids’ equipment problem. She opened her notebook and wrote:
Ideas to Raise Money for New Equipment.
POOF BALL
Lucy Lancaster bounced up and down as she waited for her friends by the bus.
“I thought you’d NEVER get here!” she cried.
“Why? What’s going on?” asked Heidi. “And how come you look like you’ve seen a GHOST?”
Lucy burst into laughter. “Well, only if you mean a really FUNNY ghost!”
Heidi and Bruce looked at each other and shrugged.
“Seriously, what’s up?” Heidi asked.
Lucy quickly pointed across the playground. “See for yourself!” she said in between giggles.
Heidi and Bruce looked across the playground. A bunch of students were staring and pointing at a kid hiding behind a black umbrella. Stanley Stonewrecker was standing beside the mystery person.
Heidi had no idea who it was, but she just had to find out. She waved to Stanley, and Stanley waved back, so Heidi jogged over.
“What’s going on?” she asked him, trying to peek around the black umbrella. “Are you hosting a new student?”
Stanley’s mouth opened, but the person holding the umbrella spoke for him.
“NO, Stanley is NOT hosting a new student—AS IF!” the voice said angrily.
Heidi stepped back. “I know that voice. Is that Melanie?”
The feet under the black umbrella began to shift.
“Did you come over here to laugh at me too?” the voice asked.
“No,” Heidi replied quickly. “I came to see what was going on.”
Then the black umbrella slowly turned to reveal Melanie Maplethorpe. Only Melanie didn’t look like her normally perfect self. Her pretty blond hair had turned into a giant poof ball!
Heidi gasped. “What happened to your HAIR?”
As soon as Heidi asked the question, the playground became weirdly silent. Everybody watched Melanie to see what she would do.
Would she scream or shout? Would she float away with her umbrella?
But Melanie didn’t do any of those things. She simply told the truth.
“It’s this weather,” she explained. “My hair gets frizzed out and HUGE when it’s hot and humid.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Heidi said.
Melanie shrugged. “Well, at least I only have bad hair days when it’s hot outside… unlike some people, HEIDI HECKELBECK.”
Heidi’s jaw dropped. She hadn’t expected to be insulted, but Melanie had delivered a direct hit.
With a small huff, Melanie stuck her nose in the air and stalked off as the untamed fluff ball on her head bounced.
“Oh my gosh, Heidi. I am SO sorry,” Stanley apologized. “Melanie is having a really BAD hair day.”
Heidi frowned. “No kidding! Her hair looks like a giant bird’s nest.”
No sooner had those words fallen from Heidi’s mouth than a bird swooped into Melanie’s hair. Melanie screamed, threw away her umbrella, and ran inside.
The crowd laughed.
Even Stanley chuckled, but then he stopped. “I’d better go help Melanie. She can’t see well with all that frizz. Talk to you later.”
As Stanley ran off, Lucy and Bruce joined Heidi.
Bruce wiped his brow with the back of his hand. “Let’s go inside before anything else weird happens, like our shoes melting into goo.”
The three friends giggled, then escaped into the cool, air-conditioned school.
HOT IDEAS
In math Heidi’s class worked on dollars-and-cents worksheets. Heidi loved to count money, especially if it was hers. Every week she counted what she saved from doing chores. Then, once she reached twenty dollars, she put the money in the bank.
Heidi finished her worksheet before the rest of the class, so she pulled out her notebook. The assignment had given her ideas for how to raise money for her swim team. She jotted them down:
Perform a swim ballet
Belly flop contest
Lemonade stand
Walk neighbors’ dogs
Shovel snow
Create a
swimming-pool-finder app
Garage sale
Car wash
Then Mrs. Welli told the students that time was up.
Heidi tore her list out of the notebook. Then she folded it and slipped it into her pocket to share with Mia, her Little Mermaids teammate.
Mia also went to Brewster Elementary. She was in the grade above Heidi, but they had recess at the same time. Heidi would talk to her about it then.
As everyone turned in their work, Mrs. Welli clapped her hands.
“Students, we have a change of plans today,” she announced. “Recess will be in the classroom. It’s too hot to go outside.”
Heidi snapped her fingers. Merg! I guess I’ll have to find Mia AFTER school, she thought.
At the end of the day, Heidi hurried to the playground, hoping to find Mia. Soon Heidi spied her teammate and waved.
“Hey, Mia!” Heidi shouted. “Over HERE!”
Mia nodded and jogged toward Heidi.
“Oh hey, what’s up?” Mia asked.
Heidi pulled out her list and unfolded it.
“I started a list,” she explained. “It’s a list of ideas on how to raise money for new swim team equipment.”
“Cool!” Mia cheered. “Can I see?”
Heidi handed her the list, and Mia read it over.
“Hmm, snow shoveling? It might be hard to do that in THIS weather,” Mia said.
The girls giggled.
“I guess I wrote down whatever popped into my head,” Heidi said nervously.
“Well, it’s an awesome list,” Mia said. “I love the idea for an app to find swimming pools. But building an app would be really hard. I don’t know how to do it. Do you?”
Heidi frowned and shook her head. Maybe her ideas were not so great. “I just thought people might want to cool off in this heat wave.”
Then Mia’s face lit up. “Wait, that’s it! What if we threw a pool party for everyone instead of having Little Mermaids practice on Saturday?”
Heidi’s eyes grew wide. “I LOVE that idea! We could charge a fee to get in and for snacks and stuff.”
Mia nodded and said, “Okay, I’ll have my mom talk to Coach Poole and the community center. Hopefully, they will say YES. Oh, this is so exciting!”
The girls high-fived and parted ways to catch their rides home.
As Heidi walked to her bus, everyone around her looked hot and droopy from the heat.
A pool party is exactly what Brewster needs.
HO-HUM
The next day Heidi’s class had recess outside. It was still hot, but the clouds made it feel a tiny bit cooler. Heidi was waiting to play foursquare when she felt a tap on her shoulder.
“Heidi!” said Mia. “Sorry I missed you this morning. My bus was late.”
“Did you talk to Coach Poole last night?” Heidi asked.
Mia clasped her hands together. “I did! She LOVES the pool party idea! I already made a sign-up sheet for everything we’ll need—snacks like cookies and chips, sandwiches, and more. Just look!”
Mia handed the sign-up sheet to Heidi.
Most of the blanks had already been filled in. Mia had signed up for pasta salad. Tiffany Taffy was baking chocolate chip cookies with sea salt. The list went on and on: cupcakes, doughnuts, pinwheel sandwiches, hot dogs, potato salad, fruit kabobs, chips, brownies, and lemonade.
“How can I help?” Heidi asked.
“Hmm. You could bring cups and plates,” Mia suggested.
“I guess so,” Heidi mumbled—not knowing quite what to say. She thought cups and plates were ho-hum.
Mia squealed as if Heidi had just said yes. “Thanks, Heidi! That’s perfect! This pool party is going to be a blast!”
Then Mia turned and ran back to her classmates.
Heidi grumbled to herself. Oh, merg-a-doodle-doo! Who cares about cups and plates? It’s the stuff ON the plates and IN the cups that people remember!
She had to think of something else to bring—something really fun. Heidi tried and tried, but she couldn’t come up with anything that Mia didn’t already have on the list.
Maybe I can find something in my Book of Spells, she thought. There must be a special spell for the perfect pool party treat!
Heidi couldn’t wait to get started.
THE BIG SECRET
When Heidi got home from school, she went straight to her room and pulled her Book of Spells out from under the bed. She thumbed through the pages and found a spell for the one thing every major pool party needed.
Magical Ride-Along Pool Party Float
Have you ever been to a pool party? Perhaps you had to sign up for something to bring, like treats or snacks? Or maybe you had to sign up for something boring, like cups and plates? Well, if you’d like to be the life of the party, then this is the spell for you!
Ingredients:
1 blow-up pool toy
1 sprinkle of glitter
1 splash of water
2 deep breaths out
Sprinkle glitter on top of the pool toy, followed by the splash of water. Then blow two deep breaths out. Hold your Witches of Westwick medallion over your heart and place one hand on the pool toy. Chant the following spell:
Cha-boom! Boom! Boom!
Cha-boom! Boom! Boom!
Make this pool toy
Sha-zoom! Zoom! Zoom!
Heidi copied the spell onto a piece of paper for later. Then she rummaged through her desk drawer and pulled out a tube of pink glitter.
Now all I need is a ride-on pool toy, she thought. And I know JUST the one!
Heidi ran down to the garage and unhooked her oversize unicorn float from the wall. It had a golden horn with a rainbow mane, tail, and wings! It even had handles to hold.
She gave the unicorn a big hug and said, “You are going to make a HUGE splash at the pool party! Just you wait!”
* * *
By the time Heidi got to school the next day, everybody knew about the pool party.
“What are you bringing to the party, Heidi?” Lucy asked. “Your famous Heckelbeck Chocolate Chunk cookies? Or those double chocolate cupcakes with rainbow frosting?”
Heidi shook her head. “Neither,” she said. “I’m bringing cups and plates.”
Heidi was about to tell her friends about her unicorn surprise, bu
t then Melanie and her giant hair barged into the conversation.
“You’re bringing DISHWARE?” Melanie said in her snooty voice. “Well, at least you’re not bringing those disgusting cookies you made for the cookie contest. They smelled like old gym socks.” Melanie pinched her nose.
Heidi took a deep breath and said, “Well, for your information, I happen to be bringing something MAJORLY MAGICAL to the party.”
Melanie rolled her eyes. “Like WHAT?”
Heidi almost told Melanie about the float, but then she realized that’s exactly what Melanie wanted her to do.
“Sorry,” Heidi said. “It’s a secret.”
Melanie glared at Heidi. “REALLY?” she said in disbelief. “I’ll bet it’s only a secret because you don’t HAVE anything planned for the party.”
Heidi stuck out her chin. “Do too!”
“Then why don’t you tell us?” Melanie demanded.
Heidi put her hands on her hips. “I’ll only tell you if you promise to go away. And you can’t blab my secret all over school, either.”
