Green

by Laura Peyton Roberts

  "Yep. She was a keeper."

  "And of course it had to be a leprechaun," Mom said, rolling her eyes.

  "Um ... huh?" I asked cautiously.

  "I've never told you this before--and I don't mean it as an insult--but your Gigi was a bit barmy when it came to leprechauns. All those clovers she collected? Plus she used to say things sometimes, like, How could we be so sure that leprechauns weren't real? Where did we think all those stories about them came from? One time she actually

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  asked me, 'Maddy, if leprechauns were real, wouldn't they be fun to visit?'"

  I felt a smile creep onto my face. Gigi certainly knew her way around a clover swear.

  "It was all harmless fun, I guess, but I didn't want her filling your head with that nonsense--at least, not until you were old enough to know better. She promised she wouldn't, but I never knew. Your Gigi was a great one for getting her own way."

  Mom shook her head, remembering. "I'll tell you what, though, Lily, I've never seen anything like that woman's luck."

  I could only grin.

  That night, alone in my bedroom, I sat and examined my keeper key. The familiar piece of gold was more precious to me now than ever, but I had found something even better: a way to go on loving Gigi without being sad anymore.

  I would honor her memory by carrying on her secret legacy, and I'd do it with a happy heart, the way Gigi would have wanted.

  "And someday," I whispered to the key, "I'm going to pass you down to a granddaughter of my own!"

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  Epilogue Chapter 1

  Of course my mom made me go to gymnastics the next day, but I barely even minded. I walked into the gym in my green leotard and Horace Green footies ready for just about anything Ainsley Williams's clique could dish out.

  "Lily!" Marti Gregory exclaimed, startled by my pixie into admitting she knew me. "Your hair!"

  "Yeah, I cut it," I said. "It was getting too long."

  "It's cute!"

  I know . Giving her an empty smile, I took my usual place against the wall.

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  Ms. Carlson walked in, clapping. "All right, girls! Let's start stretching."

  Ainsley, Jayce, and their four favorite cling-ons grabbed the mat front and center. All six of them were wearing pink or lavender leotards with matching eye shadow and barrettes. I sat twenty feet away and began stretching my straddle.

  "What's up with the freak?" I heard Jayce ask the others. "She cut her hair or something."

  They all turned to look. Instead of glancing away, like I normally did, I stared back in a make-my-day kind of way. Their voices dropped to whispers.

  "Where was she yesterday?" Ainsley asked.

  "I heard she blew up her front porch, then ran away," Darci James reported. "This guy I know, Byron, saw the whole thing."

  "Freak!" Jayce said again, but her accompanying look of scorn held new caution. I could tell I'd just been elevated from weak and pathetic to unpredictable and possibly dangerous.

  Perfect.

  "We're going to work on roundoffs this morning," Ms. Carlson announced, "but we're going to try them on the beam. Who wants to demonstrate?"

  Every hand in Team Ainsley shot into the air. Marti

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  caught my eye and shuddered, letting me know she'd be sitting this one out with me.

  "All right, then. Ainsley," Ms. Carlson said. "Show us how it's done."

  The whole class walked over to the balance beam. Ainsley hit the beatboard and sprang up onto the four-inch-wide surface, making her mount look easy.

  "Roundoff on beam is just like on floor," Ms. Carlson told us, "except that your feet land toe to heel instead of side by side. Okay, Ainsley. Whenever you're ready ..."

  Ainsley's tight features betrayed her nervousness. She took a couple of steps down the beam, then turned a slow cartwheel, adjusting her hips at the last second to try to convert it into a roundoff. The balls of her feet spun precariously on four inches of wood ... and kept on spinning. Her attempt ended in an ugly full-body wobble and a bailout jump to the mat.

  "Not bad," Ms. Carlson said as Ainsley skulked back to her friends. "Nice first try. Who wants to go--?"

  Jayce's hand hit the air before the question was finished. Being friends in that group didn't mean they didn't live to show each other up--and while Ainsley was the group's queen, Jayce was the better gymnast.

  "Jayce. All right," Ms. Carlson said.

  Jayce did a scissors mount, then stalked down the

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  beam and pirouetted on its end, building up suspense with lots of showy shoulder shrugs and hand gestures. Finally, she got around to the actual roundoff. Her hands hit the beam fine, and so did her left foot, but her right foot missed completely and continued on through space. She didn't even have time for an Ainsley-style wobble before her free leg swung down, around, and back into the air, landing her butt-first in the crash pads beneath the beam.

  "Nice," I said, applauding crisply. A few girls giggled behind their hands, secretly loving it as much as I did.

  Ms. Carlson whipped around, intending to rip into the culprit. But finding out the culprit was me left her too surprised to speak.

  "I suppose you think you could do better?" Jayce challenged angrily, struggling to her feet.

  "I don't think I could do worse ."

  "Let's see you, then." Freak , her lips added tauntingly.

  "Well now ..." Ms. Carlson had finally recovered her voice. "I'm not sure, Lily ... maybe on the practice beam ..."

  But I already had a leg over the high beam. My feet swung onto the wood in front of me, and the next second I was standing up and hardly even shaking--at least, not until I looked down. Suddenly, calling Jayce's bluff didn't seem so smart anymore.

  Maybe I wasn't feeling this lucky.

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  "You don't have to do this, Lily," Ms. Carlson said. "In fact, I think it will be better if you don't."

  Jayce smirked. I stopped looking down.

  "What's the worst thing that can happen?" I asked. "I land on my butt, right? We've already seen that demonstrated, and about as well as it can be done."

  Louder giggles made the rounds. Even Ainsley smiled. Jayce's cheeks turned scarlet.

  "Lily--" Ms. Carlson began.

  I launched into my roundoff before she could say another word. Both my hands hit the beam square. Just like a line on the mat , I told myself as my hips twisted over my head. My feet came down together, one behind the other. My footies stuck to the wood. The next thing I knew, I was standing again, totally balanced and facing the opposite direction.

  "Lily!" Marti squealed. "You did it!"

  I stood motionless another few seconds, long enough for the entire class to be sure I had nailed it. Then I jumped down to the mat, landing right in front of Team Ainsley.

  "My name is Lily," I said. "Start using it."

  "Lily! Lily!" Kendall's voice carried across the parking lot, stopping me outside the shopping center on my way home from gymnastics. Her sandals slapped the asphalt as she ran up to meet me, a pink paper bag swinging from one arm. I had been dying to see her but hadn't dared call; I

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  was still trying to think of a clover-swear-proof apology that would make Kendall sure to forgive me.

  "Lily! What happened?" she demanded. "My mom said you were playing with fireworks, and your mom said you took off, and I was really worried about you!"

  "Sorry," I mumbled, embarrassed. "And sorry about the other night too--standing you up and missing the movie and all. I didn't actually plan for any of that to happen."

  "That's okay. I mean, yeah , but ..." Kendall shook her head. "Are you all right?"

  "I'm fine. It was just one of those stupid things that will never happen again." At least, not so far as anyone human will know , I added to myself.

  We stood there, nodding awkwardly, not sure what to say. "What did you get?" I finally asked, pointing to Kendall's pink bag.


  "This? No, I wasn't shopping. I brought this from home."

  "Oh." We started walking together, moving through the parking lot in the general direction of Baskin-Robbins. "Are you getting ice cream?" I asked.

  "Aren't you?"

  "Not today. My mom said to go straight home and text her the second I get there."

  Kendall grimaced sympathetically. "Is she pretty mad?"

  "Not as mad as I thought she'd be. Still, I'd rather not be late."

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  "I didn't come for ice cream anyway. I was actually looking for you."

  "Really?" I asked, amazed.

  "Maybe we can hang out at your house today. If you want to," she added with an odd sideways glance of her blue eyes.

  "Okay."

  We crossed at the corner light and headed down the sidewalk toward our neighborhood. I still wasn't sure what was going on; I was just really glad that Kendall wasn't mad at me.

  "Did you go see Samurai Princess with Lola?" I asked.

  "Of course not. Listen, I was going to tell you this when we went out for your birthday, but--" Cutting herself off abruptly, Kendall dragged me under a shady tree and pulled a present out of her bag. "Here, this is for you. Happy birthday!"

  "Kendall!" I exclaimed. "You didn't have to get me anything."

  "I wanted to."

  I hesitated two full seconds to admire the gift wrap. Then I started ripping. Underneath were a disposable camera and a photo album with pink fabric covers.

  "I made that myself," she said, poking the album proudly. "Look. It's padded." Grabbing the camera, Kendall held it at arm's length and aimed for our heads. "Smile!"

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  A flash went off, leaving me blinking.

  "There. That'll be your first picture. We can take more too. If you want." She had that weird look on her face again.

  "Wait. Did you and Lola have a fight or something?"

  "No, but that's what I wanted to tell you the other night. Me and Lola ... She's a good friend and I'll still see her. But we aren't that alike anymore. I like hanging out with you now, Lily. I thought maybe we could hang out more."

  "Really?" And then the best part hit me. "And you wanted to tell me this on my birthday?" That was before I'd come home with a new haircut, magic shoes, and a boatload of leprechaun luck. On my birthday, I'd been plain old Lily.

  Kendall nodded. "So, do you want to? Be better friends, I mean."

  I smiled as if I'd just been named keeper all over again. "Totally."

  On the corner of our block, right as we made the turn, Kendall squealed and pointed. Byron Berry was coasting past my house, standing on his bike pedals to see in our front windows.

  "Ooh, Lily!" Kendall teased. "I think someone likes you!"

  I rolled my eyes as if she were crazy, but I walked a little taller. Who knew? Byron had never cruised my house before .

  And then I noticed the rainbow. The arcing-out-of-a-clear-blue-sky-right-down-to-my-bedroom-roof

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  rainbow. "Uh-oh. That doesn't happen in the Meadows."

  "What?" Kendall said.

  "Huh? Oh, just ... mumbling."

  I obviously needed to hide my gold better--and fast. Underground , I thought, instinctively guessing the solution. That's where the leprechauns keep theirs .

  I needed to tell my mom about it too. And I would. Eventually. Definitely before college. Just as soon as I came up with a good story.

  It will all work out , I thought with a secret smile. I was thirteen now and much better at dealing with things.

  Besides, I was feeling lucky.

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  Laura Peyton Roberts is the author of many books for young readers, including the novels Ghost of a Chance, The Queen of Second Place , and Queen B . She lives with her husband in San Diego. Visit her at www.laurapeytonroberts.com .

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2010 by Laura Peyton Roberts

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children's Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

  Delacorte Press is a registered trademark and the colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

  Visit us on the Web! www.randomhouse.com/kids

  Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at www.randomhouse.com/teachers

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Roberts, Laura Peyton.

  Green / Laura Peyton Roberts.--1st ed.

  p. cm.

  Summary: Abducted by leprechauns on her thirteenth birthday, Lilybet

  Green learns that there is more to her family tree--and to her bond

  with her late grandmother--than she ever imagined.

  eISBN: 978-0-375-89545-6

  [1. Leprechauns--Fiction. 2. Grandmothers--Fiction.] I. Title.

  PZ7.R5433Gr 2010

  [Fic]--dc22

  2008054241

  Random House Children's Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

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