The Mean Girl Meltdown
Page 7
I looked at the boy standing across from me. He looked mean, like he wanted to drink my blood. I looked at Jamie, who was glancing over her shoulder from her position as center forward. She nodded at me. I gulped, but nodded back. She was going to give me the puck.
The ref blew the whistle — whack! Jamie hit the puck, and — oh my goodness — it came right at me. I wanted to duck, but I made myself look. I forced my eyes open and I hit it — pabam! Jamie grabbed the puck with her stick. She shot off down the ice, Josh beside her. They hit the puck back and forth to each other, moving faster than the other team, but just barely.
“Go, Sylvie!” Miranda called from behind me. She was playing goalie. She’d been doing a great job. “Go help!”
So I did. Like a leopard chasing prey through the jungle, I took off after Josh and Jamie.
“Sylvie!” Josh shouted. He had the puck. He was about to pass it to me.
He was surrounded. Jamie was surrounded. I was open. I shook my head. I couldn’t do it. I could practically feel my eyes shutting. But Josh was already hitting the puck in my direction. There was nothing I could do.
Eyes open! I ordered myself, and even though the puck was coming so fast I could hardly see it, I kept my eyes open, as wide as they could go. I lifted my stick over my shoulder. I swung it forward. Keep them open! I thought.
Whack!
BEEP!
Oh my gosh! I’d scored!
“Time’s up, ladies and gentlemen,” the announcer man announced. “After that last-minute goal, we have a tie, two to two. Congratulations on a great game for both teams, the Tomcats and the — wait a second, is this right?”
There was some muffled whispering.
“Are you sure?” the announcer man said. “All right then. Congratulations also go to the No-Graders! Put your hands together for these two terrific teams.”
Alistair skated up to give me the biggest high five of his life. “Good game,” I told him.
“Nice shot,” he said with his mouth full of his mouthpiece.
“You did it, Sylvie Scruggs!” Max shouted from the bleachers.
I looked up in the stands to find my dad. There he was with my mom and the twins and Ginny. They were all clapping, even Ginny with the help of my mom.
“Good job, sweetie!” my dad shouted. “I knew you could do it!”
Jamie Redmond slapped her glove hard on my back. After I fell over, she reached out to help me up. “Way to keep your eyes open, Sophie,” she told me.
“Thanks,” I said.
Remember that you were once in the grade below you — unless you skipped a grade.
Smile with big teeth at people who are younger than you are. Unless it makes them cry.
If someone seems small, look at them again with a telescope.
Never tell small people that they can’t do something because they’re small. Except for driving.
Say this to anyone younger than you: “I really like younger people. Your bones might be smaller, but they are exactly the same shape!”
If you don’t know how to treat a younger person, just ask yourself how you would have liked an older person to treat you when you were younger. This is a confusing rule, but it’s important.
If someone asks you what grade you’re in, say, “I’m in the grade of life,” then wiggle your eyebrows mysteriously.
When people are rude to you about your grade, sniff and say, “I smell rotten pinecones.” Then walk away while they look for rotten pinecones.
Don’t judge people by their grade level. Or their grades. Or their levels.
Be friends with everyone, because you never know when your twin brothers might start your house on fire and you’ll need a new place to live.
Lindsay Eyre is a mother of five, a graduate of the MFA program in Creative Writing at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, and a fanatical lover of books. She lives in the grand but sweaty city of Cary, North Carolina. Please visit her website at www.lindsayeyre.com and follow her at @LindsayEyre.
Sydney Hanson grew up in Minnesota with numerous pets and brothers. She is the illustrator of D Is for Duck Calls, by Kay Robertson, and now lives in Los Angeles. Please visit her website at sydwiki.tumblr.com.
Text copyright © 2015 by Lindsay Eyre
Illustrations by Sydney Hanson copyright © 2015 by Scholastic Inc.
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Eyre, Lindsay, author.
The mean girl meltdown / Lindsay Eyre ; illustrated by Sydney Hanson. — First edition. pages cm — (Sylvie Scruggs)
Summary: Fourth-grader Sylvie Scruggs is old enough to join her town’s new junior ice-hockey team, and she is a really good skater, even if she does have a tendency to close her eyes when she shoots, but fifth-grader Jamie Redmond does not like younger kids on the team, and when someone starts pulling pranks on Sylvie she is convinced that Jamie is responsible — and she enlists the help of her friends to prove it and get even.
ISBN 978-0-545-62029-1 (reinforced binding : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-545-62030-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Hockey stories. 2. Bullying — Juvenile fiction. 3. Practical jokes — Juvenile fiction. 4. Teamwork (Sports) — Juvenile fiction. 5. Friendship — Juvenile fiction. [1. Hockey — Fiction. 2. Bullying — Fiction. 3. Practical jokes — Fiction. 4. Teamwork (Sports) — Fiction. 5. Friendship — Fiction.] I. Hanson, Sydney, illustrator. II. Title.
PZ7.1.E97Me 2015
813.6—dc23
[Fic]
2015010284
First edition, September 2015
Cover art © 2015 by Charles Santoso
Cover design by Carol Ly
e-ISBN 978-0-545-75380-7
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