by Lindsay Eyre
“You don’t want her to kiss you, do you?” Cale said.
“No!” Daniel and I both shouted.
“Then what does she have to do?” Tate said.
“Sit with me at lunch,” Daniel said as if he’d thought about this a lot. “And hang out with me at recess. Stand by me whenever we’re in the same place, and sit by me at assemblies.”
“That’s it?” Tate said. “That’s easy! That’s just like being a friend.”
“Except it’s being a girlfriend!” I said.
“You know Josh is going to lose if you don’t give him the list,” Daniel said.
I gulped, because it was true.
Daniel looked at my brothers. “I’ll make sure they get the rabbit for no extra charge.”
“How long do I have to be your girlfriend?” I whispered, because if he said forever, I would probably die. Right there. On my front lawn.
“For the rest of the year,” Daniel said, which was pretty much forever. He still held the wad of paper out in front of me. “Is it a deal?”
Josh was going to lose the spelling bee, and then we would lose the field. Sixteen people would have nothing to do at recess because they didn’t fit in anywhere else. Those munions would win, and everyone would blame the great spelling bee disaster on me, Sylvie Scruggs. I could fix that. I could fix that right now just by being Daniel Fink’s girlfriend for three months.
Three whole months.
But Josh might win the spelling bee if he got better. There was a small, tiny, tiny chance. And if he didn’t win, it would be okay. A terrible cyclone wouldn’t destroy the earth and toss us into space forever. We could learn how to play soccer and hopscotch and king of the playground mountain. It would be awful and boring and the worst thing ever, but we could do it. And I didn’t want to cheat. I never wanted to cheat.
“No,” I said.
After Daniel left, Cale started crying. “Did you see how sad he looked? He wanted you to marry him!” He threw his arms around me and blew his nose on my shirt.
Tate kicked me in the leg, but not too hard. “You were going to cheat for the spelling bee, and I really wanted a rabbit!” Then he ran inside the house and shut the door.
“I’m sorry Josh is going to lose,” Cale said.
I sighed and nodded. I felt so sad inside, I couldn’t speak. I could think of only one thing we could do. “Josh is very sick,” I told Cale. “He needs to get better so he can spell. Let’s go make him some soup.”
We hurried to the kitchen and opened up three cans of cream of mushroom soup that were very old and dusty on the outside. We poured them into a pot.
“That looks like gray jelly with gray blobs,” Cale said.
I looked at the blobs in the pot. They needed work, but there wasn’t time. “Let’s put them in a Tupperware,” I said. “Then we can put it in the microwave with the lid on it. That way, we won’t know what it looks like when it’s done.”
Cale thought this was a great plan, so we put the lid on the Tupperware, then put it in the microwave for ten minutes. Cale left then because ten minutes is a long time when you’re small, and when the time was up, I took out the Tupperware and wrapped it in a cloth because it was boiling hot. I was heading out the front door when Miranda appeared.
“Hi!” she said.
“Oh, good,” I said. “You’re here. I need to go to Josh’s, and I don’t want to go by myself.”
Miranda let me take her hand and lead her toward the sidewalk. “Why?” she said.
I looked down at my nourishing soup hidden inside the towels. Miranda might not like this idea. She might say that someone with the stomach flu probably shouldn’t eat. “I’ll tell you later,” I said. Then I moved even faster.
When we got to Josh’s front door, Miranda pointed to my Tupperware. “Something’s leaking out the bottom.”
She was right. The Tupperware was dripping gray slime onto the sidewalk. I tossed the whole thing into the bushes by the porch just as the door opened.
It was Josh’s mom. “Girls!” she exclaimed. “So good to see you! Josh isn’t here. He’s running an errand with his older sister, but they should be back soon. Would you like to come in? I have some bear claws left over from a work meeting, and I can pour you a glass of milk.”
Miranda and I looked at each other because we had never eaten bear claws before. They sounded really gross, even if they were cooked in butter, but Miranda was interested, because she is a scientist.
“That would be very nice,” she said superpolitely. “Thank you.”
“But we don’t have to eat the bear claws,” I said as we walked into the kitchen. “Because Josh might want to eat them if he’s feeling better. Is he feeling better?”
“He’s feeling so much better,” Mrs. Stetson said. “And he loves bear claws. That’s why I want you to eat some. If he gets his hands on them after not eating for days, he’ll make himself sick!”
I glanced at Miranda in alarm. She looked worried too. “I’m allergic —” I began, but Mrs. Stetson interrupted me.
“Truthfully, I’m glad you’ve come when Josh is out.” She gestured to some seats at the kitchen table, then walked over to a box on the counter. She began pulling giant pastries from the box and setting them on plates. I searched her kitchen with my eyes for any sign of bear claws, but saw nothing. “I’ve been wanting to thank you for months now,” Mrs. Stetson said.
Miranda took a seat next to me. “Thank us?”
“For befriending Josh this year! You know, he’s always been shy and never had a lot of friends. I’m so grateful that Georgie moved into the neighborhood and you four found each other.” Mrs. Stetson brought us each a pastry and a glass of milk, then took a seat beside me.
Miranda sniffed at her pastry to check for bear claws. “We’re glad we found Josh too.”
Mrs. Stetson beamed. “Josh has gained so much confidence recently. Playing on that hockey team was the first organized sport he’s ever done. Then he became team captain! Now, he’s convinced he’s going to win this spelling bee. It’s all he talked about when he wasn’t throwing up. Spelling bee this, spelling bee that. He’s been studying so hard!”
“Really?” Miranda said. We looked at each other, dread on our faces. Josh couldn’t spell hippopotamus or diagonal or fronds. His studying hadn’t worked!
“We’ve gone over list after list!” Mrs. Stetson had a pastry in her hand as if she was about to eat it, but she suddenly dropped it back onto her plate. “Here, I’ll show you,” she said. She ushered us upstairs to Josh’s bedroom. It was a perfectly clean room with a nicely made bed, an organized desk, and an alphabetized bookshelf. The turtle tank where Josh kept Mr. Crispy, his turtle, sat against the wall. His hockey equipment was neatly arranged on the floor near his chest of drawers.
None of that was a surprise. Josh was the sort of person who would keep everything neat and tidy. What surprised me were the words — lists and lists of them all over the walls, on the back of his door, and on the sides of his furniture. Some of the lists were handwritten, some were typed. All of them had been underlined or highlighted as if he’d studied every single word in this room, which had to be millions of words.
“Oh my goodness!” Miranda cried. “He’s been working so hard!”
Mrs. Stetson nodded proudly. “He told me he’d promised Sylvie that he wasn’t going to give up, so he didn’t! I do hope he wins — I’m afraid he’ll be crushed if he doesn’t. But he’ll have you to support him no matter what, right?”
“Right!” Miranda said.
“Right,” I whispered, because I’d created a spelling monster. Josh had studied so hard, he would nearly die if he lost! This was all my fault. If I hadn’t insisted that he practice, he probably wouldn’t have studied at all!
“He wants to have you over tomorrow afternoon for spelling bee practice. I’m going to make treats. Oh, that’s the garage. He must be home! Quick!” Mrs. Stetson ushered us into the hallway. “He’d be so embarrassed if
he knew I showed you his lists. Let’s keep this a secret, okay?”
A secret. Another secret. “I have to go,” I said, hurrying not to the kitchen, where the pastries and the bear claws and Josh would be waiting, but to the front door. “We need to hurry home, right, Miranda?”
“But your bear claws!” Mrs. Stetson said. “You haven’t finished them.”
“That’s okay, because I’m allergic to dead animal parts,” I said. “But the pastries were delicious. Tell Josh not to worry about the spelling bee because he’s totally going to win. One hundred percent.”
Miranda and I practically ran out the front door.
“Did you see those walls?” Miranda whispered as we fled. “All those words! And he was still having a hard time spelling the other day. What if he loses?”
“He’s not going to lose,” I said.
“He might,” she said. “You don’t know that for sure.”
“Yes, I do know that,” I said as I pictured Daniel Fink kneeling down on one knee. “I really do.”
* * *
When I got home, I pulled out Daniel Fink’s letter. I dialed his phone number.
Daniel answered. “Hello,” he said.
“This is Sylvie,” I said.
“I know,” Daniel said. “Do you want the list?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Are you there?” Daniel said, because I hadn’t actually said the word out loud.
“Yes,” I said out loud.
“And you’ll be my girlfriend?”
“Yes,” I said, all the way out loud so he wouldn’t ask it again.
“You will?” Daniel said. “Oh boy, that’s great. That’s really great. Thanks, Sylvie! You’ll sit by me at the spelling bee, right?”
Relief poured over me like a gigantic waterfall. At least I didn’t have to do that. “We have to sit with our classes at assemblies,” I reminded him.
“Oh yeah,” Daniel said. “But you’ll stand by me at recess?”
“Yes,” I whispered.
“And you’ll sit by me at lunch?”
“Yes,” I whispered again.
“Great!” he shouted. “I can’t wait. I thought you
might change your mind, so I left the list in your mailbox under a rock. And I’ll make sure your brothers win the rabbit vote too. See you Monday!”
I hung up the phone. I forced myself out of my room, down the hall, out of my house, and to the mailbox. There it was. Under a rock. The wad of paper. The list.
One minute later, I knocked on Miranda’s door.
“Hi!” she said. “Oh my gosh, what’s the matter?”
I handed her the paper, which I hadn’t even opened. “Will you give this list to Josh for me tomorrow? It’s a really important list of spelling words. Good ones. He should memorize them.”
“Aren’t you coming to the pretend spelling bee tomorrow?” Miranda said. “Why do you look so sad? Have you been crying?”
“I have an allergy to bear claws,” I explained, rubbing my eyes. “So I’m going to stay home. Just give Josh the list, okay?”
Miranda nodded. “Okay. But where did you get it?”
“Bye,” I said, as if I had somewhere important to go, which I did. I needed to go into my room and climb into my bed and pretend like I hadn’t just promised to be Daniel Fink’s girlfriend and made Josh a cheater. Except that’s exactly what I’d done.
I stayed home on Saturday and organized our basement all by myself, because there might be spiders in the basement and you can’t think about cheating or boyfriends when you’re worried about spiders. On Sunday, I went to church, then came home and tried to teach Ginny how to crawl, because it takes a lot of focus to teach a baby how to crawl. Then I went to bed early and imagined that Monday would never come. Maybe when I woke up, magically, amazingly, it would be Sunday again.
But Monday came anyway, even though I kept my eyes shut as long as possible when my alarm went off.
“Good morning, Sylvie!” my dad said as he pranced around my room, putting laundry away.
I groaned and put a pillow on top of one ear so I wouldn’t hear him. Daniel had probably already made me a necklace that said Daniel Fink’s Girlfriend. I groaned again and pressed the pillow down on my face.
“Having a hard time waking up?” my dad said.
I sat up to frown at him. “Why would a person have a robot leg?”
My dad stopped prancing. “Do you mean Daniel Fink?”
My mouth fell open, because, somehow, my dad had become a genius. “How did you know?” I said.
“I ran into his mother at Cherry Hill last week, and she told me about Daniel,” he explained. “A little over a year ago, he got bone cancer.” He bent over to put my shirts in the shirt drawer. “The cancer became so advanced, they had to amputate one of his legs below the knee.”
“Amputate!” I said. “Like cut off?”
Dad shut my shirt drawer. “That’s what amputate means. He limps because he has a prosthetic leg. He used to be a champion baseball player too, poor kid. I’m glad you’re becoming friends with him. The fifth graders at your school haven’t been too kind, according to his mother. Hey, isn’t the big spelling bee today?”
I nodded, or at least I think I nodded. I was still thinking about Daniel’s leg being cut off. I couldn’t even imagine how much that would hurt!
“I think your mom is going to come watch if Ginny cooperates. She’d like to support Josh. Sylvie?” My dad paused to squint his eyes at me. “Your eyes are red — are you all right?”
* * *
“Sylvie?” Miranda said an hour later as we walked into our cafetorium. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” I said, which was the biggest lie of my life. “Quick, let’s sit down!” I wanted to find a spot before Daniel entered the room and waved his arms at me and cried, “Hi, girlfriend!”
We sat down as fast as we could, Georgie on my right, Miranda on my left, but it didn’t help. Daniel’s class filed in right behind us. “Sylvie!” he said as he sat down in the row behind me. “We’re almost sitting together, right?”
“Wait, do you know each other?” munion number one said. She was three people to the left of Daniel. She looked at his beaming face. She looked at my red one. Then she whispered something to Jamie Redmond and three other girls near her, who exploded with laughter. Jamie just tilted her head and looked at me funny.
Luckily, everyone began clapping then, because Josh and munion number two and the other class champions had just entered the cafetorium, heading for the stage. A little girl who looked exactly like Daniel was one of the champions. That must be Mary Fink! I thought. Maybe Daniel had given her the words too!
Josh had to be at Cherry Hill a little early to meet with the principal, so Miranda and Georgie and I hadn’t seen him yet. He looked extra-thin and extra-pale, but at least he wasn’t green. He scanned the room until he found us. Then his whole face lit up as if we were electricity and he was a lightbulb.
Miranda waved at him with great cheerfulness. “That was a great list you gave me for Josh,” she whispered. “The words were really interesting. He memorized them so quickly!”
“He memorized all of them?” I said. “Every single one?” But Miranda didn’t answer, because Josh was waving at someone and she turned around to see who. It was his mother, Mrs. Stetson. She sat in the front row of the grown-ups, who were behind all the kids. My mom sat beside her with Ginny in her lap. Next to my mom was a real live policewoman.
I turned around as fast as I could. I took a deep breath. It’s okay, I told myself. It’s just a police officer, not a monster. She’s probably here to watch for cheating, but since Josh didn’t cheat, she won’t catch him.
“Want to sit by your boyfriend, Scruggs?” munion number one whispered.
“Some of the words you gave us were so weird,” Miranda was saying. “Extraterritorial, for example. I had to look it up in the dictionary, but you were right! It was a word!”
&
nbsp; “Shhh!” I said to Miranda, because if she kept saying the words out loud, someone would hear her, and they’d know she’d seen the words beforehand.
Oh my gosh! I thought as a blanket of dread whacked me in the face. Miranda would recognize the words in the bee. She’d know we cheated, and she’d be furious!
“Maybe we should go to the bathroom,” I whispered.
“No, silly!” she said. “The bee’s about to start. Cross your fingers for Josh!”
“Cross your fingers for the baseball field,” Georgie said.
“Is that all you can think about at a time like this?” I demanded.
“Students of Cherry Hill Elementary, BE QUIET!” Principal Stoddard shouted into the microphone. Screechy sounds bounced around the cafetorium. Everyone put their hands over their ears except for me. I was too busy thinking of a way to get Miranda and Josh out of the room so they wouldn’t hear the spelling words. Except Josh would have to hear the spelling words, because he would have to spell them.
“Scruggs and Robot Leg,” munion number one whispered. “So happy together!”
“Don’t call him Robot Leg!” I whispered. Okay, not exactly whispered. I glanced at the police officer, then glanced away. I couldn’t let her get a good look at me.
A tiny boy walked to the podium. He grabbed the microphone with both hands. Then he fell over, taking the microphone down with him. His arms and legs got tangled up in the cords. Principal Stoddard got the boy standing up again and helped him adjust the microphone. The boy looked at the policewoman and fell over again.
“Josh is trying to smile at you,” Miranda said. “Look at him, Sylvie!”
But I couldn’t, so I squeezed Miranda’s knee so she would be quiet and maybe have to go to the bathroom.
When the boy was finally upright, one of the judges said the word drummer, and the first round began. It was full of easy words like sandwich, forget, turnip, and whaling. Every time a judge said a word, I glanced at Miranda to see if she recognized it, but her face stayed the same. Alert, like a giraffe. Josh got the word patient, which, thank goodness, he would have spelled correctly anyway. Maybe all of Josh’s words would be easy words he’d known before I gave him the list. Then he wouldn’t be cheating!
