Sunny follows me to the back of the store, near the prescription counter. I make sure the vitamins and diet aids are organized in alphabetical order, the way Grandma likes it. Sunny hovers over me, telling me when I’ve made a mistake.
“Can you believe Evan talked to me at Earth Club? He said my idea was awesome.”
“Yes,” I groan. Sunny’s asked me this question a billion times now.
“You can believe it?” she asks again.
“Yes! You’re awesome, Sunny. Hello? I’ve been trying to tell you that.”
She smiles.
After a few seconds of silence, Sunny asks, “This is what you do all day? I mean, it’s fun and all. But all day every day?”
“You know I’m not here every day.” I move a bottle of vitamin B to the right shelf. “But I do other stuff too. The makeup, hair tips, y’know.”
“What on earth are Loozemore gels?” Sunny asks, picking up a bottle.
“These new FDA-approved weight-loss pills, over-the-counter.”
“Do they work?” Sunny asks.
“I doubt it.” I shrug. “I don’t think any of those things work.”
“You’re practically a pharmacist,” Sunny says, laughing. “Where are your mom and grandma right now?”
Good question. I haven’t seen them for a few minutes, and the office door is open, so I know they’re not in there. I look around, and then I see them at the front of the store, talking to two girls. The girls look like they’re in eighth or ninth grade.
“There they are,” I tell Sunny. “C’mon, let’s go see what they’re doing. Stay quiet, and stay down behind the toy aisle.”
Sunny looks confused, but she follows along anyway.
“Do you, like, sell any, um, like, perfume that also works as—” The girl starts laughing so hard she can’t finish her sentence.
“Works as what?” Grandma asks.
“Works as, um, deodorant?”
“She has a nervous laugh,” the other girl says.
Grandma nods. “I have a gift set of soaps and perfumes. It comes with deodorant. Would that help?”
“Yeah, I think so,” the nervous-laugh girl asks, still laughing. She turns to her friend. “We have a friend, and she kinda has BO. And we want to tell her, but we don’t want to make her feel bad.”
Sunny taps me on my thigh. We’re both sitting on our knees on the hard pharmacy floor. “If I ever have BO, please just tell me.”
I smile at her. “Okay.”
Grandma says, “Lovies, you can give this set to her as a gift.”
“This happened to me once, in college,” Mom says. “With a friend of mine, Keith Sanders. I put a bar of Irish Spring on his bed. And don’t worry, we laughed about it after.”
“Okay, cool,” one of the girls says.
“Here, take this too,” Mom says, handing them a bottle of body wash and body lotion in one. “It’s a great product.”
“Jane! Again with the free stuff!” Grandma says, half-serious and half-laughing.
“Thanks so much,” a girl says. “I don’t know what it is, but you guys are so easy to talk to.”
“Come back anytime. Let us know how it goes,” Grandma says.
Finally, my knees can’t take it anymore and I plop down on the pharmacy floor. Sunny and I sit there for a few minutes. We open up a package of Silly Putty and start putting it on each other’s arms.
“Ew, look, it picked up my birthmark!” Sunny screeches.
“Ew. And arm hair,” I say. I’m ready to put it on my knee when I suddenly become aware that someone’s standing over us.
“Lucy?” I hear.
I look at Sunny, and Sunny looks at me. And then we both look up at the shadow above us.
Erica Crane is standing there. She’s been there listening and watching us as we were discussing birthmarks and arm hair and playing with Silly Putty.
Business tip: Remember to appreciate each customer,
even the difficult ones.
we can come back. But shouldn’t you be working or something? Don’t you, like, work here?” Erica asks.
“Yeah, I work here,” I say flatly.
“I was just here with my mom, and my sister told me about how you do makeup and stuff. No offense, but, Lucy, you need to wear makeup. It’s a good thing you do.”
I grit my teeth before I say anything to her. “Do you want a makeover?” I ask, standing up. “Sunny and I were just playing with Silly Putty because we were bored, but I can help you.”
“Yeah, I don’t know how you spend so much time here,” Erica says. “I would be, like, so bored. Anyway, my mom said I could get whatever I want. My dad’s being honored at this big gala at the end of the month. It’s really fancy, so I think I need a little something.”
“Okay, come with me.” I roll my eyes as I walk in front of her. I wish I could refuse to help her, but a customer is a customer. Erica follows me to the makeup section and Sunny does too, although Sunny’s still fiddling with the Silly Putty, stretching it out as far as it can go and then mushing it up into a little ball.
Once we’re in the makeup section, I quickly study Erica’s coloring. She’s always been mean to me, so I never really bothered to look at her that closely. She’s tall with brown hair the color of wet dirt. She has tiny eyes, brown too, and chubby cheeks.
“Oh, Sunny, by the way,” Erica says. “Your brother is the cutest kid in school. Marnie and I decided.”
“Ew,” Sunny says.
“Do you think he likes me?” Erica asks. This is the most Erica’s said to Sunny in her entire life.
“No clue.”
“Well, I’m gonna try and get him to ask me to the eighth-grade masquerade,” Erica proclaims. “Just wanted you to know. So, Lucy, show me what you can do.”
Really? Erica Crane is going to get Yamir to ask her to the eighth-grade masquerade? That’s disgusting. Yamir may be annoying, but he deserves someone nicer than Erica Crane.
I just want to get this done as quickly as possible so that Erica will get out of my face. But she’s still a customer. I know there are customers that Grandma doesn’t like, but she still works with them. That’s part of owning your own business, I guess. “I think you should wear really bright lipstick. And what color is the dress that you’re wearing?”
Sunny gives me a look. She knows I never recommend bright lipstick, especially for girls our age. And I know it was sneaky of me to recommend it. But I can’t help it. Erica’s mean. And one night wearing ugly lipstick won’t kill her.
But then Erica starts clapping her hands and twirling her hair. “Oh my God. I love this dress so much. It’s from this fancy store in Manhattan, Bergdorf’s, I think it’s called. It’s red. A real, true red dress. It was really expensive. I don’t think you guys would wear a dress this expensive, but this gala is really important, so I had to get a really, really expensive dress.”
If she says “expensive” one more time, I’m going to scream. “So then you should wear very, very bright red lipstick,” I say as confidently as I can. “You have to. The brightest possible. I have the perfect color.”
“Is red your favorite color or something?” Sunny asks Erica.
“Yeah. Hello. Don’t you remember the dress I wore to fifth-grade graduation?”
Sunny and I nod, even though I don’t remember it whatsoever. “I think you should wear, like, a beige eye shadow. Something subtle. But it’ll also bring out the brown in your eyes.”
“Really?” Erica asks.
I nod. “You have a few different lines of makeup to choose from.” I show Erica all of the different varieties, and soon her mother comes over to tell her they need to go pick her sister up at dance. Erica and her mom both seem happy with the selections, and they head over to Mom and the register to pay for them.
“Lucy, remember what you’ve been asking me for months now?” Sunny asks after Erica leaves.
“Huh?”
“How you’ve been begging to do my makeup.�
� Sunny giggles. “Well, will you do it now?”
“Yes!” I squeal, clapping my hands. “But Sunny, it’s not even makeup. You don’t need makeup, like, every day or anything. Your mom would kill you and kill me if you started wearing makeup. She barely even wears makeup.”
“So why did you want to do a makeover, then?”
“I can give you some skin-care tips, and some ideas for hair products,” I say. “More useful stuff than just makeup. That’s what I’ve been wanting to do all along!”
“Yeah! Tell me everything I need to know.”
“Well, you know how your skin gets really dry in the winter?” I ask.
Sunny nods.
“Here, use this moisturizer. But not just in the winter—all year round.” I hand her a bottle of Silky Pearl moisturizer. Sunny runs over to the front of the store and grabs one of our red shopping baskets.
“And your hair is kind of oily,” I tell her when she gets back with the basket. “You should use this shampoo, and you don’t need a lot of conditioner.”
She nods and puts the shampoo in the basket. She’s looking at me with wide eyes, like she wants me to tell her more.
When I don’t say anything immediately, she asks, “What do I do when my skin breaks out? I only break out on my chin, but I hate it.”
I look around the shelves for a product that won’t be too harsh for Sunny’s sensitive skin. “Here’s this. It’s a very gentle acne treatment, exfoliant, and concealer all in one.”
“Really?”
“Only use it when you break out, though. You don’t need it when your skin is clear.”
Sunny can’t stop looking at the products, reading over their descriptions, and asking me questions. She’s so excited and reassured, almost like I just gave her a complete and total self-confidence makeover. It’s so much fun to see her like this that I can’t resist giving her one more thing.
“Here, Sunny. Use this lip-gloss. Best Thing Ever,” I tell her.
“Pink Lollipop.” She looks at the tube I just handed her and smiles. “Of course.”
When Mr. Ramal gets to the pharmacy to pick her up, Sunny hands him the basket and then gets down on her knees and begs. “Please, Dad! Please, can I get this stuff? Please! Please! Please!”
“What is this?”
“Oh, it’s just shampoo and skin-care stuff, Mr. Ramal,” I reassure him. “Sunny was running low. I noticed when I slept over last.”
Mr. Ramal smiles at me and then looks at Sunny still on her knees on the floor. “How can I say no? And not support Old Mill Pharmacy?” He looks down at Sunny again. “Sunita, get up. You’ve gone too far now.”
Sunny gets up and brushes herself off. When her dad is paying for all of the products, she stands up on her tiptoes and whispers to me, “I can’t wait to come to school on Monday after I’ve used my new beauty regimen.”
I smile. This is what makeup is all about. It’s really irrelevant if you wear a bright green eye shadow or just a pale pink; it’s the way it makes you feel, the way you carry yourself when your eyelids are that color. It felt good when I helped Kristin and the other girls, but helping Sunny feels amazing.
I’m gonna be just like Laura Mercier one day. I’m gonna start my own makeup and skin-care line. I’ll call it S.C. Skin Care.
Self-confidence Skin Care.
Or maybe even N.G. Skin Care. Nice Girl Skin Care.
That could do wonders for girls like Erica Crane.
Business tip: Always answer your business calls
with a cheerful, enthusiastic voice.
already to make improvements at the store, but I feel like I still need to do more. Claudia and I are working on the finishing touches for the grant, and that’s great and everything. But every time I see Grandma stressed and upset, I want to find a more immediate way to help the pharmacy. The makeup stuff was a good idea, but now it’s almost Christmas break, and people are so busy holiday shopping that they’re not really getting their makeup done.
The only big thing I have coming up is the eighth-grade masquerade. People say they’re gonna come to me for makeup, but who knows if they will. Eighth graders are kind of flaky.
Grandma and Flo are still on the phone all the time about putting the house on the market, and the only reason they haven’t yet is that Flo says holiday time is the worst time to sell a house. Everyone’s busy with shopping and cooking and planning and family togetherness, and no one’s thinking about moving.
I’m happy about that. At least we have a little more time to see if things get better, and I have time to keep trying to improve things.
I’m also happy that it’s almost the holidays and I get a break from school, but I’m disappointed Claudia’s not coming home this year. She’s going to El Salvador with a group from school to rebuild homes. That’s my sister—Miss Do-Gooder. I hate to sound selfish, but I wish she were going to be here with me.
Today’s the last Earth Club meeting before winter break, so I want to get a lot done. We have school next week, but all clubs are canceled so people can study for midterms and the eighth graders can prepare for the masquerade.
“Luce, look, this school has complete solar heating,” Sunny tells me, pointing to the screen. I inch closer so I can read about it.
“Yeah, but that school is in Southern California. I don’t think we can do that here.”
“Oh yeah!” She laughs, and I laugh too, and out of the corner of my eye I see Mrs. Deleccio giving us a look.
As much as I want to get a lot done today, I can’t concentrate. This always happens to me before winter break. It feels like everything’s exciting and happy and bubbly around me, and I can’t help feeling that way too.
“I need a few volunteers to go collect the recycling from the boxes in the classrooms,” Mrs. Deleccio says, and Evan immediately raises his hand.
I’m barely paying attention, still reading up on the solar-heated school, when I hear Sunny say, “I’ll go too.” My head jerks up, and I smile at her. She shrugs and whispers to me, “I can’t pass up this opportunity. Look how good my hair looks from that shampoo you gave me.”
I smile. “I know! Have fun!”
Sunny and Evan don’t end up going alone, though, because of course Brent needs to go with Evan. I swear they’re attached at the hip. But I’m not one to talk. Look at Sunny and me!
I spend the rest of the time researching eco-friendly cafeteria stuff and looking up all the different kinds of businesses that have gone green. So far, I haven’t found one green pharmacy anywhere, and I haven’t found any green spas in Connecticut.
“Yami,” I hear Erica whisper. She’s sitting next to Yamir; her chair is as close to his as possible. That girl is a little bug that seems to come out of nowhere and then won’t stop crawling all over you and biting you.
“Yeah?” Yamir replies. He’s typing up his description sheet for the global-warming earth model he made a few months ago. He’s convinced he’s getting into the semifinals for the county science fair, and he’s probably right. He made it past the first round already.
“Do you and Clint wanna go to the movies with Marnie and me this weekend?”
“Only if we can go to the Ocean Street Theater,” he says, not turning to look at Erica, still staring at the screen.
“Why? They only have three screens,” she complains. And when she catches me looking at her, she makes a gross face.
“It’s the only theater I support. Plus, we can buy snacks at Old Mill Pharmacy before.” Yamir looks up from the screen and smiles at me. But I pretend not to notice.
“Whatever,” Erica says. “You’re a little bizarre. But I like you anyway.”
I’m the last one to leave Earth Club; Mom’s picking Sunny and me up, and I know she’ll be late. Plus, the more I read about all of these little things that are saving the earth, the more obsessed I get.
Take bottled water. It’s so ridiculous. Some people bring a bottle of water to school every single day and then just throw
the bottle out when the water’s gone. That’s such a huge waste. All of those bottles are sitting in some landfill somewhere.
We all feel like we’re just one person, so what does it matter if we accidentally litter? Or if we throw away a glass tomato-sauce jar instead of recycling it? But it does matter. Every little bit helps, like Grandma always says.
And it’s the same with the store. Every customer helps. Every little improvement helps. I feel like Earth Club has helped me realize that I can make a difference. In the world, but also in the pharmacy.
“How was recycling with Evan?” I ask Sunny in a singsong voice on the way to the parking lot.
“Well, great, except someone recycled a bottle of orange soda, and it wasn’t empty, and now I have sticky old soda dripping all the way down my arm.” She holds her arm out to show me.
“Ew. Gross. But how was Evan?”
She smiles. “Cute. Really cute.”
Seems to me she’ll be able to handle a little orange soda on her arm.
Later that night Claudia texts me: Need to help me with a paragraph on the grant app. Almost done. Check ur email.
I run upstairs to check my e-mail.
She needs my help on the paragraph about the strengths of the business. It says to be specific, talk about aspects that make your business unique. “You’re there so much more than I am now, so you should fill this out. Don’t worry, I’ll proofread it after,” she writes.
I have to say that it feels pretty awesome that Claudia wants me to write this section. It’s true that I am at the store more than she is these days, but she could certainly write it too.
It takes me a few minutes to collect my thoughts, but once I start writing, the words flow really easily.
Old Mill Pharmacy is really more than just a pharmacy. It’s a place where people come to buy candy before the movies. Where kids come to ask my grandma for advice. And just this year, it became a place where girls come for makeup tips and to get their makeup done before a special event. And it’s also a place where people come to relax. We have a Relaxation Room just for that purpose. We can do more to be green, but in all of these little ways, Old Mill Pharmacy is already partly green. We have special makeup that’s not tested on animals, and the Relaxation Room only uses natural light and special energy-saving lightbulbs. And people are happy when they come to Old Mill Pharmacy. Being happy is definitely an important part of going green. Because when people are happy they want to do more to help the earth. Happy people = green earth, I think.
PG01. My Life in Pink & Green Page 11
