The Kindness Club: Designed by Lucy

by Courtney Sheinmel

  I nodded. I didn’t speak because I had started to cry.

  Dad reached up to wipe a tear away. “And another thing, Lucy,” he said.

  “What?” I whisper-asked.

  “You’re the child of my dreams, too.”

  CHAPTER 26

  My fingers had never been so sore. The tips were red, and there were dots of blood where I’d accidentally stabbed myself with a needle.

  It was Sunday evening. It would still be Serena’s birthday for a few more hours, and the quilt was done.

  It had taken round-the-clock sewing by Chloe, Theo, Mrs. G, and me. Dad and Grandma helped, too, in between shifts at work. So did Chloe’s mom, and Theo’s parents and his sister, and even Vanessa Medina. We called her Saturday afternoon, because we knew we needed more help. Back when we were planning the party, Vanessa had said she wanted to help us out. We took a chance that that was still the case, and she said yes.

  Mrs. G gave her a row to work on. “Wow, I remember this shirt,” Vanessa said, fingering a black-and-white-checked square. “Daphne wore it to our spring dance showcase.”

  “Do you think Serena won’t want the quilt?” I asked. “Like, will it be too hard for her?”

  “Nah,” Vanessa said. “I think she’ll love it more than any other present. All I got her was a geode.”

  “Geodes are cool,” Chloe said.

  “I don’t know what they are,” I admitted.

  “They look like ordinary rocks on the outside,” Theo said. “But break them open and there are crystals that formed from cavities in the rocks millions of years ago.”

  “Serena collects them,” Vanessa said. “I still think the quilt is better.”

  “Well, you’re helping,” I told her. “That means it’s from you, too.”

  For dinner that night, Vanessa’s parents sent over a bunch of foot-long subs for us to share. There were so many people doing so many kindnesses. It was amazing. Sometimes when you’re just going through your life, you don’t notice how much kindness there is. But if you look around, the opportunities for kindness and the people being kind are everywhere.

  Our team kept pinning, and ironing, and sewing, and we got it done. I thought we should let everyone who helped come with us to deliver the quilt, but Mrs. Barnes said she thought that would be too overwhelming. Almost like having a party, which we knew she didn’t want. Instead, she called the Kappases’ house to say happy birthday to Serena, and she told her we had a present for her. “Theo and the girls can drop it off this evening, if that’s all right,” Mrs. Barnes said.

  Serena said a drop-off would be okay, so Mrs. Barnes drove us over. Just the three of us—Theo, Chloe, and me. The last thing we’d done when we’d finished the quilt was sew on a tag. It didn’t say “Designed by Lucy.” It said, “Designed by Your Friends.” Then we folded the quilt and tied it with a big red bow. On the way over to the Kappases’, I held it in a big brown shopping bag on my lap, but when I stepped out of the car onto the driveway, I realized I didn’t want to be the one to hand it to Serena. I was proud of it, and I was excited for Serena to have it, but I wanted someone else to carry it.

  Shy is not something I feel very often. But I felt it right then. “Here,” I said, holding the bag out toward Chloe. “You give it to her.”

  “You don’t want to?”

  I shook my head.

  “I don’t want to, either,” Chloe said. “I’ve never given a present to someone whose mom just died.”

  We looked over at Theo. “Don’t look at me,” he said.

  “Kids,” Mrs. Barnes said. “Serena is exactly the same kid she was last week and last month and last year.”

  “Actually, ninety-eight percent of the atoms in your body are replaced every year,” Theo said. “So she’s not exactly the same.”

  Mrs. Barnes shook her head. “Would you like me to carry it?”

  “Yes, please,” I said.

  But before I handed it over, the front door opened. We hadn’t even had a chance to ring the doorbell, and there Serena was. She was in jeans and a long-sleeved blue top. An ordinary outfit, like it was an ordinary day, not a birthday at all.

  Mrs. Barnes walked up the front steps, without taking the package from me. Not that it mattered, since Serena could see me holding it. I watched Mrs. Barnes hug her hello. Theo and Chloe went up to say hello, so I did, too. We all muttered “happy birthday.” Then we stood awkwardly in the doorway, not knowing what to say, as if we were meeting Serena for the very first time.

  A man walked up behind Serena. I knew it was her dad even before he said, “Hey, there. I’m Alec. Who do we have here?”

  “These are my friends from school,” Serena said. “You know Theo, and this is Lucy, and Chloe.”

  He mussed Theo’s hair, and Chloe and I shook his hand. “Nice handshake,” he told me.

  “Thanks.”

  “Would you all like to come in? Serena’s aunt and brothers are picking up food right now. I can promise you it’ll be more than we can eat ourselves.”

  “That’s all right,” Mrs. Barnes said. “We’re not staying long. The kids have something for Serena.”

  I handed the bag over. “This is from all of us.”

  Serena pulled out the quilt and untied the ribbon. “Oh,” she said, her voice sounding almost like an inhale of breath. “It’s my …”

  “That looks like Daphne’s sweater,” Serena’s dad said.

  “It is,” Serena said. She unfolded the quilt right there on the stoop. “And her skirt, and her shawl, and everything else.” She looked back at me. “Where did you get this?”

  “I got the clothes from Second Chance,” I said. “Then we sewed them together.”

  “Lucy did most of it,” Chloe said.

  “No, it was a group effort. Our families helped, and my neighbor, Mrs. G, and even Vanessa. We wanted you to have the best quilt, and we wanted you to have it today.”

  Serena had started to cry a little bit. I hoped I hadn’t made another mistake. I didn’t think so, but I couldn’t be certain. After all, I’d thought a party was a good idea, too.

  “Is it okay that we made it? I don’t want to upset you. Mrs. G said if you’re not ready to have it right now, you could put it in your closet for later. Or I guess if you don’t even want it in your closet, I could put it in mine. I have a really small closet, but there’s room in my brother’s since he’s away at college.”

  Serena shook her head. “It’s okay that you made it. More than okay.”

  “Good, I’m glad.”

  “I remember this jean jacket,” Mrs. Barnes said, fingering a square. “Daphne wore it all the time. I bet she wore it to at least half the lunch dates we ever had.”

  “I could’ve just asked you to help me figure out what clothes were hers in Second Chance,” I said. “We went through every bag—they were in the last bag we looked in. Well, the last two bags”

  “Well, of course they were in the last bags,” Theo said. “Why would you keep looking through bags after you found them?”

  Everyone laughed a little bit, even Serena. “You all went through so much trouble for me,” she said.

  “I think I can speak for the kids when I say it was no trouble at all,” Mrs. Barnes told her. She pulled a tissue out of her purse and handed it over.

  Serena wiped her face. “I still can’t believe you guys did this. Especially after I was rude about not wanting a party. I’m really sorry about that.”

  “The definition of rude is being offensively impolite or ill-mannered,” Theo said. “You weren’t either of those things. You simply informed us of your preference. That’s nothing to be sorry about.”

  “Definitely not,” Chloe agreed.

  “Yeah,” I said. “I’m sorry that we tried to have one when you didn’t want one. We wanted to do something kind for you, and give you a party so you’d have a good memory of today. Sometimes I play memories in my head like they’re movies. I have all these birthday memory movies and my
mom isn’t in them, but I still like thinking about them. Theo says it’s called Kuffino.”

  “Kopfkino,” Theo corrected. “It means head cinema.”

  “Oh, I definitely have a head cinema,” Serena said. “I’ve been thinking about all my other birthdays today.”

  “Maybe one day you’ll think about this one,” Alec Kappas said. “You’ll remember what your friends did for you.”

  “Yeah, I will,” Serena said. “I love this quilt so much. Getting it is exactly the birthday memory I want. I mean, if I can’t have the one I really want.”

  I knew what she meant: she wanted another birthday memory that included her mother really being there.

  “Can I tell you something?” I asked.

  “Yeah, sure.”

  “My dad and I were talking about my mom the other night, and he said that she’s a part of my life, even though she’s not here in person. It’s the same for your mom. I mean, your mom is not a part of my life. But she’s a part of yours.”

  Serena’s eyes were shiny, and she wiped at them again with Mrs. Barnes’s tissue. “Maybe one day you can tell me things about your mom, and I can tell you things about mine,” she said.

  “Yeah, I’d like that,” I said. “I don’t know much, but I’m learning.”

  After that, Odessa and Serena’s brothers came home, and it was time for us to go. We hugged Serena and her dad good-bye, and got back into the car.

  “That was a wonderful thing you kids did,” Mrs. Barnes said. “It was truly kind.”

  “That’s why we named our club the Kindness Club,” Theo said.

  “I hope you three are members forever,” Mrs. Barnes said.

  “Me too,” I said, “But the truth is, you can’t be anything forever. Things always change.”

  “No, they don’t,” Chloe said.

  “Yeah, they do,” Theo said. “Even scientific theories change. That’s why discoveries are best called ‘theories’ and not ‘laws.’ Laws are static, and theories are not.”

  “Well, this won’t change,” Chloe insisted. “We’ll always have each other. Even when we grow up and go away to college and get jobs. We’ll still always be in this club. It’s a lifetime membership and our brand is … c’mon, Lucy. Our brand is—”

  “Kindness,” I supplied.

  “One more time—louder for the folks in the back.” I smiled, because of course we were the folks in the back. “Our brand is—”

  “Kindness!” Theo and I shouted.

  “I like it,” Mrs. Barnes said.

  “Hey, you know what I was thinking?” Chloe said, her voice softened from cheer mode. “I’d like to hear stories about your mom, too.”

  “So would I,” Theo said. “I wish I’d met her. But hearing about her would be the next best thing. If you don’t mind.”

  I didn’t mind. I told them.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Thank you to the extraordinary members of my very own kindness club—

  To Laura Dail, who is an incredible agent and an even better friend; and to her colleagues at the Laura Dail Literary Agency, Inc., especially Tamar Rydzinski—thank you for always going to bat for all the things I write.

  To my editor, Mary Kate Castellani, for her humor, her warmth, and her excellent editorial notes; and to the team at Bloomsbury: Diane Aronson, Erica Barmash, Sean Curran, Beth Eller, Courtney Griffin, Melissa Kavonic, Cindy Loh, Donna Mark, Lizzy Mason, Brittany Mitchell, Catherine Onder, Emily Ritter, and Claire Stetzer; to Patricia McHugh, for her careful read of the manuscript; and to Kim Smith, for yet another adorable cover that perfectly captures the members of TKC.

  To Amy Bressler, Jennifer Daly, Regan Hofmann, Arielle Warshall Katz, Laura Liss, Geralyn Lucas, Sarah Mlynowski, Bianca Turetsky, and Meg Wolitzer, who answer the phone all hours of the day, whenever I need them.

  To Sue Lawshe, for letting me pick her brain on all things quilting (anything that sounds like something a quilter would know is thanks to Sue; any mistakes are my own); and to Adele Griffin, Katie Hartman, and Kai Williams, my trusted readers (and re-readers), for their kind—and honest—notes.

  To my entire crew of kind and generous friends: Lindsay Aaronson, Andrew Baum, Libba Bray, Michael Buckley, Jen Calonita, Erin Cummings, Gitty Daneshvari, Tommy DeGrezia, Julia DeVillers, Melissa Brown Eisenberg, Rachel Feld, the Fleischman/Tofsky family, Gayle Forman, Jackie Friedland, Jake Glaser, Peter Glassman, Mary Gordon, Corey Ann Haydu, Emily Heddleson, Lexa Hillyer, the Leib family (hi, Lily!), Logan Levkoff, Melissa Losquadro, Wendy Mass, Samantha Moss, Stacia Robitaille, Jennie Rosenberg, Jess Rothenberg, Leila Sales, Jill Santopolo, Laura Schechter, Yael Schick, Rebecca Serle, Danielle Sheeler, Jennifer E. Smith, Katie Stein, J. Courtney Sullivan, Rebecca and Jeremy Wallace-Segall, Robin Wasserman, and Christine Whelan.

  To my father, Joel Sheinmel; to my mother, Elaine Sheinmel, and my stepdad, Phil Getter; to my sister, Alyssa Sheinmel, and my brother-in-law, JP Gravitt; and to my stepsiblings, their spouses, and most especially the five best nieces and nephews in the world: Nicki, Andrew, and Zach Liss, and Sara and Tesa Getter. I love you guys so much you can’t even measure it.

  Finally, I want to acknowledge Elizabeth Glaser, whom I miss, and her Pediatric AIDS Foundation cofounders, Susan DeLaurentis and Susie Zeegen, who are my role models for what it means to be a devoted friend.

  My heart is full of love and gratitude.

  XOXOXO,

  Courtney

  Copyright © 2017 by Courtney Sheinmel

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  First published in the United States of America in November 2017

  by Bloomsbury Children’s Books

  www.bloomsbury.com

  Bloomsbury is a registered trademark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

  For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 1385 Broadway, New York, New York 10018

  Bloomsbury books may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at specialmarkets@macmillan.com

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Sheinmel, Courtney, author.

  Title: Designed by Lucy / by Courtney Sheinmel.

  Description: New York : Bloomsbury, 2017. | Series: The Kindness Club ; [2]

  Summary: The Kindness Club takes on two new tasks, one, to do a project with children at the Community House, and two, to plan a surprise birthday party at Tanaka Lanes.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2017009977

  ISBN 978-1-68119-117-1 (hardcover) • ISBN 978-1-68119-118-8 (e-book)

  Subjects: | CYAC: Clubs—Fiction. | Friendship—Fiction. | Kindness—Fiction. | Schools—Fiction. | Family life—Fiction.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.S54124 Des 2017 | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017009977