Cleo Edison Oliver in Persuasion Power

by Sundee T. Frazier

  Mom took a picture of Cleo kissing the envelope, which Josh and Jay thought was hilarious, and another of the girls dropping it into the mail slot, their fingers crossed. Cleo said a little prayer, and it was done.

  *

  As soon as they hit the playground, it was clear: Lexie Lewis was back. She stood at the center of a crowd of girls, including most of Cleo’s friends. Cleo, with Caylee in tow, strode toward the group, curious to see whether Lexie would be wearing her Passion Clip.

  As they got closer, something glinted in Lexie’s curly hair. The Hollywood star! She had worn it! Of course she would—after a day on the set. This was not anywhere close to how great it would be when Fortune wore her Passion Clips on air, but still, it was good for business.

  “And we had food whenever we wanted it, all day long,” Lexie was saying. “Sushi, designer pizzas …”

  “Designer pizzas?” Mia said.

  “I guess you had a good time doing the commercial,” Cleo interjected.

  “Not good,” Lexie said. “Unbelievable!” She beamed. “It was the most incredible experience of my life!”

  Cleo wanted to be happy for this girl who had had this most incredible experience. She really did. But when she thought about the mean thing Lexie had said, the hurtful words (Why else would your mom give you away?), her jaw still clenched and her chest still burned.

  “Your hair looks great curly,” Steffy gushed. “You should wear it that way all the time.”

  “The director wanted my hair like this for the shoot. She said it was the style that was most ‘appealing.’ ”

  “Your Passion Clip looks great too!” Cleo pointed out. “Yours too, Tessa.” Tessa had worn her Tootsie Rolls.

  “Thanks. Oh, and I have the money!” Tessa said.

  Cleo felt a surge of excitement. “Great. Where is it?”

  Lexie had launched back into her story.

  Tessa whispered, “In my backpack. I’ll get it later. I want to hear about Lexie’s commercial.”

  Cleo looked at Caylee, ready to leave this little Lexie Lovefest, but Caylee was as transfixed as all the others. Even some boys, Micah Mitchell and Max Peacock, who had come to school with his hair dyed blue, had come over to listen.

  “It was soooo tiring—it seemed like we had to do a hundred rehearsals and just as many takes —”

  “So you made a lot of mistakes?” Cleo asked innocently.

  Lexie’s eyes shot poisoned darts. “No. That’s just how the professionals do it.” She turned back to the crowd. “I even had my own director’s chair for the day! And my family is getting free Sunshine Sparkle for the rest of the year!” Cleo noticed she didn’t try to say “fruit-flavored beverage” this time.

  “I wouldn’t drink that stuff if someone paid me to!” The very thought of the nasty gunk made Cleo’s cheeks tense and her lips contort.

  “Well, they paid me to, all right—two thousand dollars!” Lexie looked gleeful.

  Even Cleo had a hard time keeping her eyes from bugging at that figure.

  The group cried in amazement. “What?” “Wow!” “That’s so much!” “I’ve never had that much money!”

  “Can I be in a commercial?” Max asked, running his hand over his shock of blue hair.

  Cleo wanted to ask if anyone else had remembered to bring money for the clips, but Lexie jabbered on—about how she had wowed everyone at the audition, and the cute little boy who played her brother, and how there might be a follow-up commercial if this one did well. Yada yada yada.

  Cleo couldn’t stand it anymore. Lexie wasn’t the only one with exciting news. “I sent a pair of my Passion Clips to Fortune A. Davies! I’m going to get on her show!” Cleo’s whole body tingled.

  Everyone got dead quiet. Taylor and Mia looked at their feet. Were they trying not to laugh?

  Tessa gaped. “That would be so amazing, Cleo!”

  “You’re joking, right?” Lexie sputtered.

  Cleo felt a little sick to her stomach. She rooted herself to the ground even though everything in her wanted to flee from the circle of staring kids. “No, I’m not. It’s possible. She’s had kids on her show. And she’s going to love these one-of-a-kind clips. Caylee did an awesome job.”

  Caylee smiled, then bit her lip and looked away.

  “Let us know how that turns out,” Lexie said, turning toward the building with Taylor and Mia. The whistle had blown. “And I’ll give you your money at lunch—I’ve got plenty!”

  Cleo growled.

  “Forget her, Cleo. It doesn’t matter.” Caylee grabbed her hand and pulled her toward their classroom. “Come on.”

  How could Caylee say it didn’t matter? Why should girls like Lexie Lewis get all the attention and the breaks?

  Fortune had to like the Passion Clips. She just had to!

  *

  That afternoon on Fortune, Fortune announced something incredible. As a way to showcase kidpreneurs, she wanted kids everywhere to upload ads for the businesses they owned and operated onto her recently launched video-sharing site, FortuneTube.

  Cleo couldn’t believe it. This was perfect! And it gave Cleo the best idea she’d had in a while. In fact, this was quite possibly her Best. Idea. Ever!!!

  The next morning, she asked Mr. Boring if all the girls could stick around for a minute before going out for recess, and he said sure. When the boys were finally gone, Cleo made her big announcement: “Everyone here is invited to a Passion Clips/Power Makeover/Ad Shoot sleepover party at my house—Friday night!”

  She bounced around to each girl, handing out the invitations she’d made during “lovely language arts” when she was supposed to be working on her poem with all the similes. Mr. B surely would have stopped her had he known what she was doing, but technically she’d been writing, like everyone else. She’d been writing invitations!

  “Ad shoot?” Steffy’s usually flat eyebrows became little hills.

  “Yes! Everyone bring your Passion Clips, or some money to buy one if you can—if you can’t we’ll loan you one—and we’ll shoot an ad for Passion Clips to put on FortuneTube, starring … US!”

  After she explained what FortuneTube was, most everyone seemed excited—especially Tessa, who let out a small squeal and made fast, little claps in front of her chest. Anusha was quiet, as usual. Lily, a largish girl with pale blue eyes and hair so blond it looked almost white, looked a little surprised, but then, she and Cleo had never exchanged more than a quiet hello.

  Jasmine beamed. “Thanks, Cleo! I’ve never been to a sleepover. Unless you count cousins. And I’ve never ever been in a commercial!”

  “I don’t know if my parents will let me,” Amelie said. “They don’t know your parents.”

  “Mine, either,” said Rosa. Her fuzzy, dark brown hair always looked as if it wanted to bust out of its braids.

  “No worries. They can call and ask all the questions they want. We’ll do makeovers and have an ice-cream sundae bar and there’ll be lots of Passion Clips on display to give you ideas for ones you might order for yourself! Right, Caylee?”

  Caylee looked like an armadillo caught in the headlights of an oncoming semitruck. “Uh … sure. I guess.”

  “And then Saturday, we’ll go to Wilson Park and shoot the ad!”

  The girls chattered excitedly as they left the classroom for the playground.

  Outside, Caylee cornered her. “I thought we were going to spend Friday night finishing the orders from your church that we still have to make. Now we’ll have even more!”

  “Exactly, Jelly! More orders means more money, which means the ability to make more of our product! Not to mention more clips on girls’ heads is more free advertising for us. Buzz—remember? Bzzz-bzzz?”

  “Cleo … I’m not sure —”

  “Come on, Cay-Cay! Dream big!” Cleo swept an open hand through the air at eye level. “Imagine: a Passion Clip on every girl’s head at New Heights Elementary.”r />
  Caylee still looked hesitant.

  Cleo grabbed Caylee’s arm. “Without you, Jelly, there’s no Passion Clips!”

  “But I don’t know if I can make them this fast.”

  “You won’t be making them alone. We’re in this together, remember? The thing now is how to get my mom to say yes.”

  Caylee’s eyes bugged. “You haven’t asked your mom?”

  “Not yet. But with my Persuasion Power at work”—she snapped her fingers—“it’ll be a snap.”

  It wasn’t a snap.

  “You invited nine girls to spend the night without asking first?” Hands on hips. Uh-oh. That was Mom Sign Language for “I am thoroughly exasperated with you and most likely will say no even if what you want is totally doable.”

  They were in the kitchen. Cleo dug through the snack cabinet. Why wasn’t there ever anything good?

  “Cleo?”

  “What? We’ve got a whole two days to prepare.” She shoved her hand into a box of crackers and started to chow down. “And it’s not just a sleepover. It’s a Passion Clips/Power Makeover/Ad Shoot party.”

  Mom huffed. “Party. Sleepover. It doesn’t matter. And it’s not about being prepared. You need to get our permission before you make plans! Did you wash your hands?”

  Cleo slumped but she put the box down. She went to the sink and washed.

  “How many times do we have to go over this? Remember, the whole ‘board of directors’ thing? You’re supposed to come to us first with all your great ideas.”

  “That was for all my great business ideas.”

  “Yes … but we’re your parents. You run ideas and plans—of any kind—by us first! And, anyway, you said it yourself—this party is for your business.”

  “True. I am hoping to sell some clips, and we are going to make a video for Fortune’s website. But, Mom, you don’t have to worry. I’ve got it all worked out.” She snatched up the box and resumed snacking. “We’ll sleep on the floor in the family room. There’s space. We can order pizza, and we’re going to do power makeovers like on Fortune —”

  “Ordering pizza is expensive, Cleo.” Mom’s lips were tensed. The lines between her eyebrows were deep.

  “I invited Mia.” She’d decided to include Mia, even though she wasn’t in her class this year. Caylee, Tessa, Steffy, Cleo, and Mia had all been in Ms. Nuesmeyer’s for fourth grade. “You’re always asking if I want to get together with Mia.” Mia was the other African-American girl in her circle of school friends. “Well, here’s a great chance!”

  Mom’s jaw softened. She closed her eyes, took a breath. Opened her eyes again. “Okay.”

  Cleo jumped. “Thanks, Mom!”

  “Not ‘okay’ we’ll do it. ‘Okay,’ we’ll talk about it later, after your dad gets home. Right now, you need to do your homework.”

  Cleo started to groan, but Mom gave her a look. “You don’t have any room to complain, missy. You’ve just asked for something big. It would be in your best interest to cooperate.”

  “But I need to go to Caylee’s house so we can make more clips!”

  “Finish your homework, and you can.”

  Mom had made her conditions clear. Time to let it go … for now.

  In her room, she measured each of her corporate executive mealworms—super challenging on account of how much they wriggled. She had to hold them flat, hoping she wasn’t squishing them. Next, she raced them in heats of two to see who was fastest (one of her questions) and recorded the results in her notebook.

  She sat at her desk, daydreaming about the sleepover. What would it be like to have nine girls at her house? She’d have to make sure her brothers were on their best behavior. She’d bribe them—a DinoFormer for each of them if they stayed out of the way all night.

  Mom called at her door. “How’s it going, Cleo?”

  “Fine!” she called back. She opened her backpack and got out the book she’d checked out for her first book report. Ms. Tomasello, the librarian, had recommended the novel: The Great Gilly Hopkins. Cleo got settled on her bed and opened to where she’d left off. Gilly was explaining her name. Her mother (who had left and didn’t seem to be coming back) had named her after a powerful queen named Galadriel.

  Cleo’s heart got pricked reading that. Her mother had named her after a powerful queen. Her mother had left, and didn’t seem to be coming back. Maybe she wouldn’t do her report on Gilly Hopkins. The girl may have been great, but Cleo wasn’t convinced reading about her would be.

  She glanced at the closet, where she kept the flat gift box that held the only things she had from her birth mom, other than Beary, her stuffed purple bear. A heart necklace, small heart earrings, a baby outfit covered with orange butterflies, and the photo of Cleo as a brand-new baby in her birth mom’s brown arms. Beary was in the picture too—stuffed between the hospital bed railing and her birth mom’s hip.

  Cleo dropped the book on the bed and picked up Beary. She pressed her cheek against the top of the bear’s well-worn head. When she was younger—five or six, like Josh—she would lie in bed and rub Beary like a genie’s lamp, wishing over and over that her birth mom might suddenly reappear and be there again as she was in that photograph, her arms around Cleo.

  She hugged Beary harder. She was ten. Old enough to know better. Her birth mom wasn’t coming back. Her fingers circle-stroked the soft purple fur, in spite of what she told herself.

  Please come back. I love my mom, but I need you too.

  A cacophony of voices, squeals, and barking brought her back to reality. Dad was home. She propped Beary against her pillow, giving the stuffed animal one last, lingering look.

  “Mail call!” Dad shouted from the living room.

  Cleo took the stairs two at a time. There could be a letter from Fortune!

  “Anything for me?” Josh said over and over.

  “Meeeee!!!” JayJay screeched.

  “As a matter of fact, there is.” He pulled a padded envelope from the stack. “Something from your first mom.”

  Melanie, the boys’ birth mom, mostly lived in central California. She had some kind of imbalance in her brain (although Cleo thought she seemed friendly enough), which is why Josh and Jay had ended up in foster care, and then, eventually, getting adopted by Cleo and her parents.

  Josh grabbed the envelope and tore into it hungrily.

  “Mine too!” JayJay cried, tugging on the package.

  The envelope went flying. Cleo spied Melanie’s slanted, loopy cursive. Josh started to whale on JayJay.

  “Whoa. Whoa!” Dad got a hand on each of them and pulled them apart. Mom grabbed JayJay. Dad held Josh. “Boys, that’s not how we treat each other. Time to cool off.” He directed them to opposite corners of the room.

  Cleo picked up the package.

  “That’s mine! She can’t open it!” Josh yelled.

  “Sometimes she sends me things too,” Cleo said innocently.

  “Cleo,” Mom said firmly. “Is your name on the en-velope?”

  Cleo looked, then shook her head. “Is there any mail for me?” A slightly hurt tone tinged her voice.

  Dad looked through the rest of the pile. “Sorry, Sunshine. Not today.”

  Mom held her hand toward Cleo. “Bring it to me, please.”

  Cleo gripped the package. She had the urge to run upstairs and hide it from all of them. Why did her brothers have to get a present from their birth mom on that particular afternoon? It felt especially unfair.

  She handed over the package, then plopped in a chair at the dining table. She started to bring up the sleepover, but Mom shook her head, her finger pressed against her mouth. “Not a good time, Cleo.”

  When the boys were calm again, Mom brought JayJay to her lap. She patted the couch next to her. “Come on over, Josh.” Cleo plopped her chin onto her hand. They were all in the same room, but she felt far away, as if she were watching her family on television or from outer space.

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nbsp; “You each get to take a turn. Pull one thing out at a time,” Mom directed. “Jay first.”

  Josh started to protest, but Mom cut him off. “You’ll each get the same number of turns.”

  Jay reached in and pulled out a Hot Wheels. “Yay!” he shouted.

  Josh pulled out a yo-yo and wrinkled his nose.

  “What?” Dad said. “Yo-yos are totally cool! You can do tricks, like ‘walk the dog’ …”

  Barkley barked and then whined, looking at his leash hanging by the door. That got everyone to smile, even Cleo. “In a little while, buddy,” Dad said, laughing.

  The boys each pulled out bouncy rubber balls and slingshots (which Mom wasn’t too pleased about), another Hot Wheels for Josh and a yo-yo for Jay.

  Josh turned the envelope upside down. A card fluttered out. Mom picked it up, while Josh got down on the floor and sent his Hot Wheels car careening across the floorboards.

  Mom read the note from Melanie. “For my boys … to celebrate a new school year.”

  Cleo crossed her arms. “How is that a special occasion?” she scoffed. “Jay doesn’t even go to real school.”

  “Yes, I do!” Jay protested. “I go to school two days a week.”

  “Cleo …” Mom warned.

  “Whatever,” Cleo mumbled. “She’s not my mom, anyway. She’s theirs.” As soon as it was out of her mouth, Cleo regretted it, because she said it out of her hurt and because it wasn’t the whole truth. Mom was the boys’ mom now, because of the adoption. But they had another mom too, just as Cleo did. She just didn’t know where hers was.

  “Hey, guys,” Dad broke the silence. “Why don’t you take your new toys outside, and I’ll come teach you some cool yo-yo tricks in a bit.”

  “Okay!” They scooped up their spoils and headed for the back door. Barkley trotted after them.

  “Stay inside the fence,” Mom reminded them. Julian, in particular, had been known to venture out. Pedro and Fred down the street had returned him safely more than once.