Hailey Twitch Is Not a Snitch

by Lauren Barnholdt

  “Shhh!” Maybelle says. She reaches over and tries to clap her hand over my mouth. But it is too small and only covers a tiny part of my lip. “You cannot tell Kaitlyn about me.”

  “Why not?” I ask, pushing her hand away.

  “Because no one else can see me. Only the person who freed me can, and that’s you.” She looks at me with a very serious look in her big blue eyes. “And if you tell on me, I will have to go away. I will have to go back to living in that magic castle all the time.”

  “Okay,” I say slowly. “Of course.” It is not as fun to have a friend who no one else can see, but it is still fun, fun, fun! And I am going to teach her how to have even more fun, fun, fun. And we will not be rule mongers like Addie Jokobeck, and maybe I will teach Maybelle to dig a hole all the way to Antarctica just like I was going to teach Antonio!

  “Now, Maybelle,” I say. “I want you to tell me all about how you were mean to those princesses in the castle and made them do all the chores and would not use your magic and had to get a big punishment for it.”

  But when I turn back around, Maybelle is gone.

  Chapter Three

  Maybelle Goes to School

  Maybelle is still gone when I go downstairs to have a spaghetti dinner. She is still gone when I leave part of a meatball out on my bedroom floor to see if she is hungry (she’s not). She is still gone when my mom comes in to read me a story, and she is still gone when I wake up in the morning.

  “Now, Hailey,” my mom says at breakfast. “After school today, you will be going to Addie’s house to work on your project.” And then she rushes out of the kitchen before I can even think about having a big tantrum!

  “Ugh,” I tell my dad. “I really do not like Addie Jokobeck.” My dad is sitting at the table with me, eating oatmeal. “And that is because I do not think she is very good for fun adventures.”

  “I’m sure it will be fine, Hailey-bug.” My dad takes a big slurp of his oatmeal, which cheers me up right away and makes me laugh, laugh, laugh.

  And then Maybelle flies right into the kitchen!

  “Good morning, sleepyhead,” she sings.

  “Where have you been?” I ask. “I have been trying to find you all morning and night!”

  “Where has who been?” my dad asks.

  “No one,” I say as Maybelle swoops all around the kitchen. I cannot talk to Maybelle when my dad is right here. He will think I am craze, craze, crazy.

  “Is there a draft in here?” my dad asks, frowning. His newspaper is open on the table, and the pages are blowing around a little bit.

  “I don’t think so,” I say. I hop off my chair and take my cereal bowl over to the sink like I am supposed to. Then I grab my purple backpack off the hook near the door. “Well, see you later!” I say. “Off to the bus stop!”

  When I get to school, Addie Jokobeck is sitting in her seat already. Addie Jokobeck likes to be sitting in her seat before school starts, even though we are allowed to walk around the classroom if we want. That is taking being good a little too far.

  “Now, where is this Antonio?” Maybelle asks. But I cannot answer her because there are kids around. So I wander up around Miss Stephanie’s desk to get some privacy and that is when I see it. The list of all the partners! There is my name, Hailey Twitch. Right. Next. To. Addie. Jokobeck.

  “There’s the list,” I whisper to Maybelle. “Of all the partners.” And then Maybelle does something very, very bad. She reaches out, grabs that list, and then smushes it up into a little ball. Before anyone notices, she pushes it down, down, down into the trash can.

  “Maybelle Sinclair!” I say, shaking my finger at her just like my dad when he catches me doing something bad. “Why would you do that?”

  “Because I am trying to be fun, of course,” she says. And then she flies away and disappears before I can stop her.

  When it is time for school to start, I sit down next to Addie. Addie’s long brown hair is smooth, smooth, smooth. I reach up and try to pat down my blond hair. I forgot to brush it this morning. But it does not matter that my hair is a little messy, because I am wearing pink, sparkly butterfly hair clips that Kaitlyn left in the bathroom. Sparkly clips are better than smooth hair, thank you very much.

  “Hi, Hailey,” Addie says. She gives me a big smile. “I lost another tooth.” Now one tooth on the top and one tooth on the bottom are missing.

  I try not to care, but I do. “Did you get any money from the tooth fairy?” I ask her.

  “No,” she says. “I am going to keep all my teeth forever.” And then she pulls out a little cup and shows me the tooth! Addie Jokobeck does not even want the tooth fairy to come! She wants to keep all her teeth forever instead of getting two dollars to spend on candy or glitter pencils or play makeup.

  “My mom called your mom this morning,” Addie Jokobeck says. She puts her cup of teeth into her desk. “And you are coming over today so that we can figure out what to do about our project.”

  I am about to tell Addie Jokobeck that I am very busy lately, so she shouldn’t get too excited. But before I can, Miss Stephanie says, “Good morning, class! Before we start the day, I’d like to remind everyone of the country they’ve been assigned for our special project.” Today Miss Stephanie is wearing dress-up pants with little stripes on them.

  “That’s strange,” Miss Stephanie says. “I can’t find the list.” She looks all over her desk. She even looks under her tissue box. But it is not there.

  “Miss Stephanie,” I say. My hand is shoot, shoot, shooting into the air. “Time to have new partners! I will be partners with Antonio, and you can write it down on a new list! Mexico, please, for Hailey Twitch and Antonio Fuerte!”

  “But you and me are partners, Hailey,” Addie Jokobeck says. “And we are making French fries.”

  “You will keep your same partners,” Miss Stephanie says. “And I will make a new list.” She looks very confused.

  Addie Jokobeck grins at me and I can see where her two teeth are missing. I try to smile back, but my lips do not move.

  At lunchtime, I sit in my lunchroom seat right across from Russ. And then Addie Jokobeck sits down next to me, even though she was not invited to sit in that seat! Addie is eating a sandwich that has cucumbers on it. Cucumbers do not go on bread. And they are not what you eat for your school lunch.

  There is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in my lunch box. It has grape jelly, which I do not really like. “Antonio!” I yell down to the other end of the lunch table. “What kind of sandwich do you have down there?”

  He opens his lunch box to check. “Tuna fish,” he says.

  “Does it have celery in it?” I yell. I do not like celery with my tuna because it makes everything all crunch, crunch, crunchy.

  He lifts up the bread and looks at his tuna. “Yes,” he says.

  “Rats,” I say. Usually when I trade lunches with Antonio, he will come and sit by me. And then he will teach me Spanish words, like perro means dog, and loco means crazy.

  “You should not trade sandwiches, anyway,” Addie Jokobeck says. “Trading food is not allowed in the lunchroom of Smith Road Elementary.”

  “Bologna and cheese is the best sandwich to have,” Natalie Brice says. She is sitting right next to Antonio with a dumb bologna and cheese sandwich in her dumb purple lunch bag. She pulls off the bread. Natalie Brice has a smiley face made of mustard on her sandwich. “And,” she says, “the other best thing to have is money for an ice cream from the lunch line.”

  Natalie Brice knows that I never, ever am allowed to get ice cream from the lunch line! My mom says it is a waste of money to buy that ice cream. And then Natalie Brice says, “I love, love, love tuna with celery in it. Antonio, let’s switch our sandwiches.”

  “Sandwich switching is not allowed in the lunchroom of Smith Road Elementary!” I yell. Then I give Addie Jokobeck an elbow in the
side. “Is it, Addie?” But Addie is too busy talking to Megan Miller, who is sitting next to her on the other side. Just when I need her to be a rule monger, she doesn’t come through.

  So Antonio and Natalie ignore me and switch those sandwiches right away!

  “Thank you, Antonio.” Natalie takes a big crunchy bite of her new sandwich. “Maybe you can come over tomorrow. And we can talk about our project and maybe help my dad work on the new tree house he is building me.”

  “Eww,” I say, wrinkling up my nose. “That tuna sandwich kind of smells.”

  “You have a tree house?” Russ asks. He sounds very happy and excited. Also his hair is sticking up, up, up a little bit in the back all over his head. But I do not tell him this, because that is not good manners.

  “Not yet,” Natalie says. “But I’m getting one.” Then she takes her ice cream money out of her pocket and jangle, jangle, jangles it around in her hand. Natalie Brice is very good at being show-offy.

  So then I say, “Well, I might be getting braces on my teeth! And you are, too, right, Russ?” Russ and I have a secret plan to put tracks on our teeth. Tracks on your teeth are called braces, and they are very shiny and beautiful. Kaitlyn has them because she is fourteen. My mom says tracks are very expensive. But not if you make them yourself!

  But no one is listening. They are all listening to Natalie talk about her tree house.

  “Tomorrow I will be working on it with my dad,” she says. “It is going to be pink. And have two doors. And a ladder that goes up, and a little window so you can look up at the sky.” I chew my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I try not to think about how if I had a tree house, I would want it to be pink with two doors and a little window so you can look up at the sky.

  “So you can come over tomorrow if you want, Antonio. You too, Russ.” But before they can answer, Janie, the cafeteria lady, turns the lights on and off. And we all have to be quiet.

  Chapter Four

  Tracks on the Teeth

  I ride Addie Jokobeck’s bus over to her house. I get to have a bus pass and everything! Having a bus pass makes you very important. It means that the bus driver cannot be the boss of you. He cannot tell you that you cannot get on a bus that is not your own, because your pass says you can.

  Addie Jokobeck has a very fun bus. All the kids are very loud.

  When we get to Addie’s house, her mom, Mrs. Jokobeck, sets us up in the kitchen and gives us some big books on France to look through. Then she goes in the other room to take care of Addie’s little sisters, Delia and Mariah.

  “Oooh, look, Hailey!” Addie says. “Here is a recipe for the best French fries ever!” She shows me the book.

  “Let me see that,” I demand. I look real close at the picture. “Those do not look like the best French fries ever. Those look like plain old dumb French fries that everyone eats.” I push the book away. “This whole project is a disaster!”

  I start to feel very cranky, like maybe I might have a big fit in Addie Jokobeck’s kitchen. And then something catches my eye. Something spark, spark, sparkly. Something over in the corner, near Addie’s mom’s computer. And that is a big, big, big jar of paper clips.

  “I think,” I say slowly, “that we might need to use those paper clips over there.”

  Maybelle has been sitting quietly on the chair next to me. She popped right back up when I got to Addie Jokobeck’s house. I am still very upset with her for crushing up that list of partners and throwing it away. She keeps saying, “Sorry, Hailey,” and, “Please don’t be mad at me, Hailey,” and, “I was just trying to be fun for Mr. Tuttle, Hailey, so he will give me back my magic.” But she did not even get me to be partners with Antonio! That is not fair. And so I am very mad at her.

  But when I ask about those paper clips, Maybelle looks nervous.

  “What do you need those paper clips for?” Maybelle asks.

  I just ignore her.

  “These?” Addie picks up the jar and brings it over.

  “Hey, Addie,” I say, looking at those pink and blue and green and purple and silvery sparkly paper clips. “Did you ever hear of tracks on your teeth?”

  Addie Jokobeck is full of surprise and shock. Because she rushes right out to her garage, and when she comes back, she has a big wrench from her dad’s toolbox! We can use that wrench to put the tracks on our teeth. Addie also comes up with the great idea of superglue. She might be a little bit good at having fun adventures after all.

  Then we go into Addie’s downstairs bathroom.

  “Now, Addie,” I tell her, “you lay out all our supplies on the counter.” Addie puts down all the supplies: paper clips, superglue, and the wrench. “Now we have to wash the wrench,” I say. “To make it clean. We can’t put dirty things in our mouth.”

  We run the wrench under water from the faucet in the tub. Addie grabs a bar of yellow soap. “I will scrub up this wrench,” she says.

  “Good,” I say. “I’ll start cutting the tracks.”

  But when I try to open the paper clip jar, it won’t open! I try and try, until finally, the jar opens and paper clips go flying all over the bathroom.

  I giggle. Maybelle picks one of the paper clips out of her hair. She is sitting on the back of the toilet being quiet as a mouse.

  Addie grabs a towel off the rack and starts to dry the wrench. “All clean,” she says. Then she looks at that wrench very close. “Hmmm,” she says. “There are some stains on this wrench that won’t come off.”

  “Let me examine it,” I say. The wrench has black grease on it. Some of it is coming off onto the towel Addie is using, but some of it is not. “Just wipe it off real good.” Addie wipes it off real good. She gets some black grease on her white lacy shirt.

  “Now,” I say, “come here, I need to measure your mouth.”

  “Me?” Addie looks nervous. “Why do I have to go first?”

  “Because I know how to put the braces on,” I say. “So you will watch me first, and then you will do it to me.” Also, she is going first because I am the boss of her. But I keep my mouth shut about that.

  I bend a blue paper clip into half of a circle and slide it into Addie’s mouth around the top of her teeth. It fits perfect. “Oh, good!” I say, clapping. “Now that we’ve done the fitting, we will glue it to your teeth, and then tighten it with the wrench.” Addie takes the track out of her mouth so that I can put glue on it.

  “Uh-oh,” Addie says. She is sounding out words on the package of superglue. “It says ‘DO NOT USE ON SKIN.’”

  “Teeth are not skin,” I tell her. I am hoping that Addie will forget about the rules of superglue for just one minute.

  “Maybe you could use this!” Maybelle says from her seat on the back of the toilet. She points to a small pink and white tube on the sink. It says: “DENTURE CREAM.” “That would probably work.” Dentures are fake teeth. I know all about them because my Aunt Harriet has fake teeth. Sometimes when we visit her on Sundays, they are sitting in a cup of water on her sink.

  “Yes, that would probably work,” I say. Addie does not notice. She is looking a little bit green. “But I do not feel like helping you to be fun right now, so no thank you.” I am trying to give Maybelle a punishment. But I am distracted by that denture cream.

  “But,” Maybelle says, “this is glue. GLUE. FOR. TEETH.” I cannot control myself any longer. I need to use that cream!

  “What about this?” I ask Addie. I pick up the beautiful pink and white tube.

  “That’s for when my Grandma Jokobeck comes to visit,” Addie says. She shakes her head no, no, no. “I am not allowed to use it. It is for her fake teeth.”

  “But it’s okay,” I say. “Because we are making fake teeth. Sort of. We need mouth glue and this is it!” I wave the tube around to get her all excited.

  “I don’t know,” Addie says. She does not sound so sure. Probably because
she still looks a little green. And also probably because she still loves rules. But I think she just needs to be convinced.

  So I open up that tube and smear a big batch of that gooey, gooey cream onto a paper clip. A little bit gets on the sink. And on my hands. And on the towels. And on the floor. Then we put that paper clip right in Addie’s mouth. I hold my breath, and hope, hope, hope that it works. Addie looks in the mirror and smiles big and she has nice, gorgeous, shiny blue tracks on her teeth!

  “Do me, do me!” I say, waving the tube of glue in her face. So Addie does me all up with red tracks! And we are smiling and laughing and we have braces on our teeth and it is very fun. Maybelle is so excited by all the fun that she is flying all around.

  But then the bathroom door opens, and it is Addie’s mom. “Oh, my goodness!” she shrieks. “What have you done to my Laura Ashley towels?!” I don’t know who Laura Ashley is, because Addie’s little sisters are named Delia and Mariah. But I can tell Addie’s mom is mad about the dirty towels.

  Then she spots the pink and white tube. And the paper clips. And the wrench. And all of the other gooey mess.

  “What is going on in here?” she asks, putting her hands on her hips. Me and Addie don’t say anything. We look down at the floor. “One of you better answer me.”

  Addie’s mom is definitely the boss of her.

  “Maybe,” I say, “it might be time to get back to working on our project.”

  Mrs. Jokobeck screams, “WHAT IS THAT ON YOUR TEETH?”

  And then she pushes us right out the bathroom door, Maybelle flying behind us.

  Chapter Five

  The Pink Shiny Raincoat