Your Life, but Sweeter

by Crystal Velasquez

You look to the left and to the right of you, but you’re the only one wearing a green hat. They mean you!

  “Go for it,” Jessie squeals. “Show ’em how it’s done!”

  You step forward and two of the group members stand on either side of you, running you through a few of their simpler moves. When they think you’ve got it, the front man announces you’re going to take it from the top. He counts off and the whole group of you runs through the routine, and you’re holding your own. As you dance you can see the crowd growing bigger and bigger. You even remember the hand movements and totally land the pose at the end, after which everyone watching starts applauding like crazy, Jessie and Lena loudest of all.

  “If you liked what you just saw,” the front man yells, “feel free to give anything you can so we can keep this going.” The man who was playing the overturned paint bucket turns it right side up and moves through the crowd collecting change and dollar bills. Once the crowd starts to disperse, the front man claps you on the back and says, “Great job! You can get down with us anytime.”

  You smile from ear to ear. “Thanks, that was so cool.”

  “Not as cool as the amount we just collected,” the drummer says behind you. “You really helped us draw a crowd.”

  “As a matter of fact,” the front man says, reaching into the bucket and counting out a number of bills, “this is your share. Thanks for being a good sport.”

  Your eyes bug out of your head. “Really?”

  “Really,” he confirms. “Go out and buy your friends something nice.”

  “That was fabtastic!” Jessie yells as you ride the escalator up to the street level. “We’re walking around with a professional dancer now!”

  “Aw, it was nothing,” you say modestly, unable to stop smiling.

  But one thing that is definitely not nothing is the view awaiting you outside the train station. The bright lights of Broadway is right! Every inch of this place is lit up with neon lights and eight-story billboards for Broadway shows and clothing lines. Vendors are set up all along the sidewalk selling roasted peanuts, pretzels, hot dogs, and glossy black-and-white photos of New York. The streetlamps are all decorated with red and green garlands and the shop windows have decorations in them celebrating all the different holidays.

  You buy your friends warm salty pretzels with your professional dance earnings and saunter down the busy sidewalk feeling amazing. When you come to one of your favorite clothing stores, you wave Jessie and Lena inside and buy three I ♥ NEW YORK T-shirts so you’ll all have a memento of your day in the city. You’re about to leave when the salesperson informs you that everyone who buys something gets to have their picture taken together and have it displayed on a huge screen outside.

  “Just show us where to stand,” Jessie says with a cheesy grin. The three of you do your best Tyra pose as the photographer snaps the picture. They even let you add a line underneath it.

  The three of you leave the store glowing, each with a waxy shopping bag, a half-eaten pretzel, and what Kara DioGuardi would call swag. You’re laughing and joking around as you leave the store, aiming straight for MTV Studios in hopes of seeing a certain Jonas brother, until you bump right into the decidedly not smiling Amanda.

  “Having fun?” she asks sarcastically.

  That’s a trick question. Don’t answer that.

  “Um, yes?” D’oh! What part of “don’t answer that” didn’t you understand?

  “Oh, you are?” Amanda says, planting her hands on her hips. “Because I haven’t been having any fun. I have been pulling my hair out looking for the three of you!”

  “Amanda!” Lena exclaims, belatedly realizing you’ve all been busted. “How did you find us?”

  “It wasn’t easy,” she says. “First I went upstairs to call Lena’s phone, but no one ever answered. So I got back on the train and got off at the next stop, thinking you three might do the same, but you were nowhere to be found. I asked every station agent I saw, but no one remembered seeing you. So finally I got scared enough to call your parents,” Amanda says seriously, looking at you and Jess.

  “You called my mom and dad?” Jessie asks, all the glee that was in her voice earlier entirely gone.

  “Yes. Good thing too. Your mom told me you have a tendency to wander off, which is why she had a GPS chip installed in your phone.”

  The shock on Jessie’s face tells you this is news to her. Jessie pulls out her phone and stares at it as if she has had a secret spy with her all along.

  Amanda purses her lips, clearly trying to hold in her anger. “So I had them track you and they told me you were in Times Square. And then I got a phone call from someone who found Lena’s purse on the train.”

  Lena’s mouth drops open. “Someone found my purse?”

  “Yes, and lucky for you, it was found by someone who was willing to return it. I told the woman I’d come get you first and then we’d go by her office and pick up the purse. But did you not even notice it was missing? Or didn’t you care?”

  “I can explain,” Lena says miserably. “I mean, it wasn’t like we just came here to have a great time or anything.”

  “Oh, really?” Amanda says, nodding. “Because I wasn’t sure exactly where you were in Times Square until I saw that.”

  She points above your heads, so you all turn around and see a giant snapshot of you, Jessie, and Lena with the words “Having a great time in Times Square!” underneath it. Oh wow … you guys managed to bust yourselves!

  “I’m so sorry,” Jessie is the first to say. “It was all my idea. Lena didn’t even want to come.”

  “Yes, well, Lena should have known better than to follow along. I mean, I love New York, but any major city can be dangerous. And all of your parents trusted me to keep you safe!”

  By now, all three of you are having trouble making eye contact with Amanda. It’s been a long time since you felt like you were in this much hot water. But you feel even worse that you dragged Lena into it.

  “Just tell me this,” Amanda continues, finally seeming to lose some of the edge in her voice. “What were you thinking?”

  You shrug. “I don’t know. I guess we just wanted to have fun and feel glamorous and maybe see a star or two. That’s what New York is all about, right?”

  Even to your own ears, that sounds a little shallow. By the way Amanda is shaking her head, she thinks so too. Then she nods slowly, as if she has made some kind of decision. “You know what? You three are going to be in plenty of trouble when you get home, so I won’t make you feel any worse. But I do think I need to show you what’s really important. First we’ll go pick up Lena’s purse. Let’s go.”

  Amanda must not want to risk losing you on the train again, because she sticks out her arm to hail a yellow cab. You all climb in, prepared to take any punishment she has in mind. You’re pretty sure you deserve it.

  It seems like every turn you made today was the wrong one. You decided to leave the school trip and go see the sights with your friends. But instead you ended up getting pushed onto a speeding train and getting lost in the subway system. Instead of asking for help, you freaked out, ultimately leading to Lena losing her purse on the train. You could have salvaged the day right then and there by calling Lena’s parents right away so they could call Amanda, but instead you chose to have a grand old time in Times Square on your own. That part was pretty fun, but was it worth all the trouble you’re now in with your parents and with Amanda? Probably not. Let’s just hope Amanda isn’t planning something for you that would make spending the day with Mona Winston feel like a picnic.

  QUIZ TIME!

  No getting out of this one. Just go straight to this page and prepare for a lesson in humility.

  You’re a problem solver. When things go wrong, you don’t panic, you don’t sit around and whine, and you definitely don’t run away. Instead you try to come up with a way to fix them. You live by the motto “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.” As long as you’re aware
that there will be some things even you can’t fix, it’s never a bad idea to at least try.

  What just happened? All you wanted to do was help. So how did you end up humiliating Mona instead? It’s been a few minutes and the other kids are still gathered around the broadcast studio monitors laughing at Mona’s hideously warped face, made all the worse by her furious blushing. This was not what you intended at all. Time to do some quick thinking.

  In your experience (mostly from embarrassing things that have happened in the school cafeteria), the easiest way to get kids to stop laughing at someone is to get them to laugh at something—or someone—else. In this case, the someone else will have to be you. Without hesitating, you come out from behind the malfunctioning camera and step right in front of its lens. Suddenly Mona’s fun-house face is replaced with your own—and yours looks even worse since you’re so close to the camera. “Hey, everybody,” you call, “Mona’s idea for an all-alien newscast is awesome. Look, I’m an alien too. Take me to your leader!” You pull the sides of your mouth open with your index fingers and stick your tongue out like a lizard. The effect on the monitor is both horrifying and hilarious. From this angle, your forehead is the size of a watermelon, your eyes look like golf balls, and your lizard tongue looks like a tiny finger is poking out of your nose.

  “Ugh, gross!” Mark grimaces. “Do me next!”

  “My pleasure.” You get back behind the camera and point it at Mark, who is instantly transformed into a creature that is a cross between a zombie and duck-billed platypus.

  “Cool!” Mark says, really hamming it up. But he doesn’t get even fifteen seconds of fame since everyone starts clamoring to be next in the freak show, including Paul and Jimmy. Before long everyone has taken a turn and is laughing about how sick you all looked, even Mona.

  “But did you see the size of my ears?” Shawna asks.

  “Yeah. Dumbo would have been jealous!” Dionne answers.

  “Hey, you guys don’t see an eyeball on my neck, do you?” a redhead wearing a pair of thick glasses asks them, stretching her neck.

  Dionne makes a show of really searching for the eyeball. “Nah, your neck is eyeball free.” And they all burst into laughter.

  Hearing the uproar, a technician finally shows up and “fixes” the camera, and all the kids move on to other exhibits. Only when no one is looking do you approach Mona and say, very softly, “Sorry, that was an accident.”

  “I know,” she says simply.

  “Hey, Mona,” Paul calls from across the room. “The IT guy said he might have all our faces on tape. Let’s go watch it again. That was too funny!”

  “Be right there!” Mona calls back. And without looking you in the eye, she mutters, “Thanks,” and trots over to Paul.

  Nice work! Your plan to help Mona get Paul’s attention didn’t work out too well, but thanks to your creative problem-solving skills, you came up with something even better! Not only did you get the whole class cracking up, you got Paul to see Mona as someone with a wicked sense of humor. Whether that’s actually true or not, he’ll find out in time. But at least Mona saw firsthand that if she lightens up a little, people might actually enjoy her company. And would being friends with you somewhere down the road be completely out of the question? Well, don’t push it. But hey, if there are aliens in New York City, anything is possible. Until then, you’ve got one more stop on the itinerary before you have to call it a day. Hope it’s a good one!

  QUIZ TIME!

  Sorry, but it’s almost time to head back home, so there’s only one choice from here. Go to this page and see what Ms. Darbeau has planned for your big finale.

  When problems come knocking, your first response is to lock them out and barricade the door. The flaw in that plan is that you have to come out eventually, and when you do, the problems will still be there waiting for you. If you practice coping with your problems instead of avoiding them, you’ll find that you get better and better at it over time. Roadblocks that used to seem like big mountains will start to look more like puny anthills.

  If you had been trying to play a cruel joke on Mona, you would not have come up with anything this effective. All the kids—from your school and the New York school—are literally pointing and laughing at her, to her obvious horror. It’s like a scene out of a Lifetime movie about bullies or something. Even Paul is joining in, which is not at all what you were hoping for. You wanted him to pay Mona some attention, but not like this.

  You wish you could take it back, but you’re too stunned to even say anything, and from the shell-shocked look on Mona’s face, you doubt she’d be open to an apology from you anyway. The best you can do is go get the Sony technician and have him fix the camera, which he does. But the damage is done. Before the technician came, Amy Choi, always one to capitalize on moments like this, took a picture of Mona’s mangled face with her new smartphone and posted it on her Facebook page. The awful pic is making the rounds like lightning and it’s all your fault.

  But the icing on the cake is that Jimmy can barely stand to look at you. You would hope that he knows you well enough by now to know that you would never do something so mean, not even to Mona, who—let’s face it—sometimes asks for it. But just when you approach Jimmy to try to explain what happened, Jasmine Viera comes up and claps you on the back. “Oh my gosh, that was genius!” Jasmine trills. Then she leans in and stage-whispers, “Don’t tell Mona I said this, but she really had that coming. Good job!”

  Groan. So not what you wanted Jimmy to hear. And it’s not even true. But Jimmy turns away, shaking his head. Except for Lizette and Charlie, no one believes it was an accident. When you finally catch a glimpse of Mona scampering away to the ladies’ room, there are tears in her eyes.

  “Any chance you think she’ll just forgive and forget?” you ask Lizette and Charlie.

  “Well, I could get out my calculator and quantify the exact probability of that happening for you,” Charlie offers, “but if I had to ballpark it? I’d say slim to none.”

  Fantastic. Thanks to your own handiwork, the rest of your big exciting day in New York City is going to achieve a whole new level of lame. And just when you thought you couldn’t feel any worse, your cell phone vibrates in your pocket, letting you know you just got a text message. It’s from Jessie. You open the message to see a picture of her, Lena, and Amanda standing in the middle of Toys ’R’ Us. There’s an enormous Ferris wheel behind them and they’re each holding up a rainbow-colored swirling lollipop. The message reads: Wish u were here!

  Yeah, you wish you were there too.

  You hoped that by the time the class reached the next stop on Ms. Darbeau’s itinerary, the incident at Sony Wonder Technology Lab would be nothing but a distant memory and you’d be feeling way better. But so far, no such luck.

  If anything, you’ve just turned into a big ball of paranoia. Mona is kind of the “don’t get mad, get even” type, so you’ve been waiting for her to get back at you ever since. When you boarded the bus, you double- and triple-checked your seat for gum—Mona’s favorite weapon of choice. When you got off the bus in front of the Rockefeller Center ice-skating rink, you kept watching your back to see if any stray snowballs were flying toward your head. And now that you’re here, looking onto the ice, which is full of happy-looking kids and couples, all you can picture is Mona tripping you up so that you fall flat on your face. Maybe you are overreacting, but like the T-shirts say, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.

  Rather than take the chance, you refuse to go out there, leaving Mona to own the rink. Even the obviously popular crew from the New York school—a group of brunette girls rocking matching black puffy coats and slicked-back ponytails—clears the way for Mona every time she glides by. Between the Lab and here, she has managed to pull herself together and insist that the incident at the broadcasting booth was her idea. Some kids believe her and some don’t, but the few that do allow her to show her face in public. Still, you’re pretty sur
e you catch a hint of sadness in her eye whenever she glances at Paul, who has gone back to ignoring her, more or less. It’s clear to everyone that what she said about Paul worshiping her just isn’t the truth.

  You could say the same for Jimmy re: you. Since you and Jimmy started becoming friends, you’ve felt so in sync with him. You’ve never had a fight and you were sure you’d always be on the same page. But now look at him. All the way over on the other side of the rink, talking to everyone but you. For archenemies, you and Mona sure have a lot in common.

  You’re sitting there thinking about the irony of that situation when Paul comes skating over to the bench where you’re hiding out. “Hey, Picasso girl. You ever planning on putting on your skates? This is an ice-skating rink, you know.” He smiles at you and rubs his two gloved hands together.

  “Nah, I don’t think so,” you reply, trying to keep the whine out of your voice. “I’m not sure I’d be too welcome out there.” You steal a glance at Mona, who’s making her way around the rink with an ease that says she’s taken lessons before.

  Paul notices your glance. “What, you mean Mona? I wouldn’t worry about her. You seem pretty nice, so if you pulled a joke like that on her, she probably had it coming. Even the kids in my class think so, and most of them don’t even know her.”

  “What? No! The whole thing was an accident. I would never do something like that to anyone, not even someone who hates me. And anyway, aren’t you a friend of hers?”

  Paul shrugs. “Well, even though she was always kind of a spoiled brat, we were friends when we lived next door to each other. But she’s been so weird around me all day.”

  “Do you really not know why?” you press. Are boys really that dense?

  Paul just tilts his head in confusion.

  “Maybe I shouldn’t be the one to tell you this, but … Well, Mona doesn’t like many people, but I think she likes you. She told everyone in our class about you and seemed psyched to see you again—”