by Kim Tomsic
Momma, Miss Tammy, Mrs. Petty, Priscilla, Bailee, Justin, and I drip a puddle right in the center of the school lobby. A Mimi Glosser song is playing in the distance. Miss Tammy shivers and struggles to remove her wet coat.
“Let me help you with that,” Mr. Melvin says.
“Thank you,” Miss Tammy says, her eyes bright.
He takes her soaked coat and wraps his dry one around her. “Here you go. I wish I had more coats to share.” He spies Cinnamon in Bailee’s arms. “May I?”
Bailee hands the pup to Mr. Melvin, and he dries Cinnamon with his nice white shirt sleeve.
I shiver.
“Goodness me,” Mrs. Rimmels says, coming around the corner. “There must have been a lightning strike. The power went out for a full minute, but we have the dance under control now.”
I gasp—decked out in cornflower-blue cowboy boots and walking right beside my favorite teacher, is . . .
Minerva!
“This is absotively the best!” Minerva says to me and my friends. “I’m so delighted to see you all here!”
“Blue bunny rabbits!” I screech. “You?”
Mrs. Rimmels and Minerva are both dressed in sweaters decorated in a snowflake pattern, long flowy skirts, and matching boots.
Priscilla and Bailee gawk as hard as I do.
“Oh!” Mrs. Rimmels says. “You’ve met my niece?” She turns to Minerva. “You know my students? What a surprise.”
Mrs. Rimmels could use some acting lessons from Jada.
Momma, Mrs. Petty, and Justin shiver.
“We can’t stand here chatting when you lot are soaked to the skin,” Mrs. Rimmels says. “Follow me. All of you. I’ll let you borrow clothing from the office bin.”
Priscilla, Bailee, and I bust out laughing.
Chapter 40
On the drive to the court building in Denver to hear Daddy’s appeal, I write down the rest of the story:
There were enough outfits in the ugly bin that me, Momma, Miss Tammy, Mrs. Petty, Priscilla, Bailee, and Justin were able to find something dry to wear. We wore the borrowed outfits to the dance, and guess what, no matter how ugly our clothing was, or how much my hair frizzed, we had fun and Justin still looked cute. He’s a really great dancer, too.
Mrs. Rimmels claimed her niece, Minerva, had moved here from Vermont. My lie detector went off, but that’s the story Mrs. Rimmels is giving, and she’s sticking to it.
Mr. Petty’s accountants discovered hackers were siphoning off money and making it look like Mr. Petty was embezzling, so he returned to work at the bank. Mrs. Downy, as anyone could have guessed, won her fifth JOTY plaque. Miss Tammy and Mr. Melvin struck up a romance. I’ll bet that would have happened sooner had he visited Goldview Café for his morning coffee instead of Java Hut. I’m happy to report their romance is still going strong. Momma and Mrs. Petty aren’t perfect. They have their nice days and their bossy-mom days. I think most mothers do. Momma and I talk more. And Momma is doing a better job listening rather than overreacting or pretending things away. I’m doing a better job trusting her.
We’re using the money from Re-Bay to buy a house in our old neighborhood. It’s close to Bailee’s house and close enough for Justin to ride his bike over, too. Priscilla, Jada, Gigi, Bailee, and I all hang out now. It makes me think that maybe the gold of old seasons doesn’t stay, but change can have its bright colors, too.
And Doodle for Noodler—our group project won! Hudson earned the scholarship since he completed the project, and Noodler gave all of us tickets to the Mimi Glosser concert, where they interviewed our group on national television! Hudson talked about the art, Steven gave a Flores Report, and I spoke about Goldview Kindness Day and how we plan to celebrate it every winter solstice. I’m trying to make it a national holiday. I might even write a book about the true story of how it came about. Oh, and by the way, I became a tiny bit famous for about one minute. I’m still a little bit infamous, too, but I’ve given up trying to manage what people think about me.
I finish writing this as Momma parks the car. We walk up the marble courthouse steps, hand in hand. When we step inside the courtroom, I meet Daddy’s eyes and I make sure to smile so he knows I’m working on forgiving him.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to my generous and genius agent, Jennifer Rofé, of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency, and her wonderful assistant, Kayla Cichello, for helping me in so many ways, including brainstorming the magic. To my always-brilliant editor, Maria Barbo, you are a star and a delight to work with. To assistant editor Stephanie Guerdan, thank you for your astute catches and Star Wars expertise. To Anna-Maria Crum and Hilari Bell for much-needed help, encouragement, and early plot planning. Special thanks to Tammy Parsons: you were instrumental in so many ways. Thank you for not only being one of my best friends since middle school, but also for reading several drafts and fielding one hundred texts where I bombarded you with questions about this story, and to Brian Parsons for “Curtis’s” jokes! To Steven Mooser and Lin Oliver for starting the SCBWI. To Jerilyn Patterson, John Christenson, and Penny Berman for dropping everything to provide me with early feedback. Thank you so much to my other critiquing partners, Will Limón, and Elaine Pease: your feedback and smart suggestions were tremendous help! Thank you to my critiquing groups at Big Sur in the Rockies, including my newest critiquing partner, Sylvia Liu! Thank you to Jenny Wixson for your help with Spanish and for guiding me in creating Steven Flores, a third-generation character from Honduras. Thank you to Stephanie Wilburn from Body & Soul Salon & Day Spa for helping me understand my character Jada. To the RMC-SCBWI illustrator community, Kaz Windness, Dow Phumiruk, Julie Rowan-Zoch, and Anna-Maria Crum, for helping me understand art terms. To Kelli Narans for insight on the law, and to readers for stretching their imagination when I took liberties with the law. To Celia Sinoway for lakeside chats, and to Karen Churnside for garden-fresh soup. To Jason Hussong, for fueling me with peanut M&M’s. To the Nagy sisters, and to Sydney Stanton’s book club. To the Berberians, Marlo, Renée, and Paul, for brainstorming “pranks,” and to Sally Spear, Lauren Sabel, Denise Vega, and Brian Papa for listening to me talk through story problems. To Noelle and Cayman, because I love you. And to Steve Tomsic for your support and insightful edits, and for convincing me to swap the mouse for a guinea pig pup.
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About the Author
Courtesy Kim Tomsic
KIM TOMSIC wished for roller skates, a racetrack, and the ability to fly when she was a kid. She got the roller skates, convinced her brother to share his racetrack, and swore that with a good bounce on the trampoline, she could fly. She still loves blowing out birthday candles at her home in Scottsdale, Arizona, which she shares with her husband, two children, and a fluffy white dog.
You can say hello to her on her website, www.kimtomsic.com.
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Books by Kim Tomsic
The 11:11 Wish
Copyright
Katherine Tegen Books is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
THE 12TH CANDLE. Copyright © 2019 by Kim Tomsic. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
Cover art © 2019 by Mary Kate McDevitt
Cover design by Aurora Parlagreco
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Tomsic, Kim, author.
Title: The 12th candle / Kim Tomsic.
Other titles: Twelfth candle<
br />
Description: First edition. | New York, NY : Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2019] | Summary: On her twelfth birthday, Sage wishes on a magical candle for an end to the family curse she believes caused many problems, including sending her father to prison.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019009718 | ISBN 9780062654977 (hardback)
Subjects: | CYAC: Blessing and cursing—Fiction. | Magic—Fiction. | Wishes—Fiction. | Schools—Fiction. | Prisoners’ families—Fiction. | Birthdays—Fiction. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Fantasy & Magic. | JUVENILE FICTION / Social Issues / Friendship. | JUVENILE FICTION / Social Issues / Peer Pressure.
Classification: LCC PZ7.1.T626 Aah 2019 | DDC [Fic]—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019009718
* * *
Digital Edition OCTOBER 2019 ISBN: 978-0-06-265499-1
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-265497-7
1920212223PC/LSCH10987654321
FIRST EDITION
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