by Wanda Coven
No way!
No how!
No chance!
I am NOT having my picture taken with my front tooth missing! Heidi thought. And that’s final! Then she did what any witch her age would do. She pulled out her Book of Spells, along with her Witches of Westwick medallion. Then she opened to the Contents page and found a section called Spells for Teeth.
Heidi ran her finger down the chapter headings: Treating Toothaches. How to Straighten Teeth. How to Replace a Missing Tooth. That’s it! Heidi thought. She fluttered the pages to the right chapter. Then she read the spell.
Are you a witch with a missing tooth? Perhaps you think toothless witches belong only in fairy tales. Would you like to look like a more fashionable, up-to-date witch? Then this is the spell for you!
Ingredients:
1 mini marshmallow
1/2 cup of water
1/4 teaspoon of lemon juice
a pinch of brown sugar
Mix the water, juice, and sugar together in a glass. Hold your Witches of Westwick medallion in one hand, and place your other hand over the glass. Chant the following spell:
Drink the mix and eat the marshmallow. In a few moments your tooth will be firmly back in its place.
Heidi took a deep breath and bit her lip. We’d better have mini marshmallows! she thought.
Heidi slipped into her pajamas and cracked open her bedroom door. Henry had already been tucked in, and Mom had gone into her office. Dad was in his lab.
Heidi quietly snuck downstairs to the kitchen. She found regular-size marshmallows in the pantry. Maybe I can snip these into smaller pieces, she thought. She pulled a handful of marshmallows from the bag. Then she quickly measured out the rest of the spell ingredients into a glass.
Heidi was just about to leave the kitchen when she heard the lab door squeak open. It’s DAD! she thought. She dashed past Mom’s office and bolted up the stairs.
Heidi heard Dad’s footsteps on the stairs. She ducked into her room and closed the door. She quickly set the glass and the marshmallows on her desk. Her heart pounded as she waited for her father to pass by her room. But the footsteps stopped at her door! Heidi held her breath. Dad opened the door.
“What’s going on?” he asked as he looked at the marshmallows, the glass, the Book of Spells, and the Witches of Westwick medallion on Heidi’s desk.
Heidi bit her lip. She was SO busted.
“I was going to use a spell to put my tooth back in place,” she mumbled.
Dad shook his head and sighed. “We’ll have none of that,” he said. “Come with me. I want to show you something.”
Heidi slowly got up and followed her dad into her parents’ bedroom.
Dad slid an old photo album down from the top shelf in his closet. He wiped the dust from the cover with the back of his hand.
Then Dad sat down on the bed. Heidi plunked down next to him. Dad opened the album. There were pictures of him as a baby, a toddler, and a little kid.
“And here’s my second-grade picture,” said Dad as he turned the page.
Heidi couldn’t believe it. There was Dad with not one, but two missing front teeth. He had on the biggest smile ever.
“I was all gums,” Dad said proudly.
“Wow,” said Heidi. “You had it BAD.”
“My mom called me Mr. Grin,” said Dad.
Heidi laughed as Dad turned the page.
“Here’s Mr. Grin on his bike, Mr. Grin playing baseball, Mr. Grin up a tree, and Mr. Grin with his best friend,” Dad went on.
“You look like you’re having fun,” Heidi said.
“I was!” said Dad. “And I’m having just as much fun looking back on it.” Then Dad put his arm around Heidi. “And you can have fun with your missing tooth too,” he said. “It happens. Just own it.”
Heidi liked the way her dad looked in the pictures. He was having a lot more fun than she was.
She looked up at her dad and smiled. “Okay,” Heidi said. “I’ll give it a try.”
“Now, that sounds more like my Heidi,” said Dad, giving her a squeeze.
Then he walked her back to her room. Heidi crawled under her covers and put her tooth on her bedside table. Dad kissed her forehead.
“Good night, Little Miss Grin,” he said.
Heidi found a brand-new purple headband under her pillow in the morning from the tooth fairy. It had colorful stars sewn on it—just like the ones on her new skirt. Heidi put on her Picture Day outfit and matching headband. She also slipped on her tooth holder necklace. She smiled at herself in the mirror.
“Just own it!” she said to herself.
Then she hurried downstairs, ate a chocolate chip waffle, and headed for the bus with Henry. Henry had on a new striped polo shirt for Picture Day.
At school Heidi’s class lined up for individual pictures. The children combed their hair and talked in line.
“Should I wear my glasses?” Lucy asked Heidi.
“Definitely,” Heidi replied. “They’re super-stylish and so YOU.”
“Thanks,” said Lucy. “Are you feeling better about your lost tooth?”
“Much better,” Heidi said. “By the way, do I have any waffle in my teeth?”
Lucy inspected Heidi’s teeth. “You’re good,” she said.
Then Heidi checked Lucy’s teeth. “You’re good too,” said Heidi.
Smell-a-nie dashed past with a sparkly compact mirror in one hand and strawberry lip balm in the other.
She looked at Heidi and nodded. “Nice skirt, WEIRDO,” Melanie said as she cut in line next to Stanley.
Heidi looked at Lucy.
“I think that was meant to be a compliment,” whispered Lucy.
“Minus the ‘weirdo’ part,” Heidi whispered back.
The girls giggled and inched ahead in line.
“How are you going to smile?” asked Lucy. “Teeth showing or NOT showing?”
“Teeth showing,” said Heidi. “Definitely!”
“Me too,” Lucy said.
“The only problem is, it’s hard to smile when everyone’s staring at you,” Heidi said.
“You’re not kidding,” said Lucy. “Let’s come up with something funny to think about when it’s our turn.”
“Okay,” said Heidi.
The girls looked at each other and tried to think of something funny.
“I know!” said Lucy. “How about that time you did a split in the gym and ripped a huge hole in your pants?”
“That was so NOT funny,” said Heidi. “You could see my flower underwear!”
Lucy laughed. “That was the best part!” she said.
“Very funny,” said Heidi. “How about the time you jumped off the swing and landed in a mud puddle?”
“But that hurt!” Lucy complained. “And I was COVERED in mud!”
“I know. It was hilarious!” said Heidi, cracking up.
Lucy frowned. “Okay, I’ll think of that HUMONGOUS rip in your pants when it’s my turn,” she said. “And you can think of me covered in mud when it’s your turn.”
And when it was time to say “Cheese!” that’s exactly what they did.
Heidi, Lucy, and Henry waved their school picture packets as they charged into the kitchen. It had been a whole month since Picture Day. Heidi’s new front tooth had already started to come in, and she had another loose tooth.
“We’re HOME!” Heidi cried.
“No kidding!” said Mom, getting out of the way.
“The gang’s all here!” said Dad, clapping his hands together.
“We got our pictures back!” Heidi announced as she hung up her jean jacket and backpack.
“So, how did they turn out?” asked Mom.
“Good!” exclaimed the children.
“May we see them?” Dad asked.
“YES!” they exclaimed again.
Everyone sat at the kitchen table. Heidi opened her pictures and laid them out on the table. Mom and Dad looked them over.
“Now THAT’S a
great smile,” said Dad. “You look truly happy.”
“I was!” Heidi said.
Then they looked at Henry’s pictures. His shirt was buttoned all the way to the top, and he had smiled with all his might.
“Oh, my!” Mom said. “You look so grown-up!”
“My shirt is choking me,” said Henry. “But it’s not too bad.”
Lucy laid out her pictures.
“Another winner!” said Dad. “How did you guys do it?”
“Easy,” said Heidi. “Lucy and I just thought of something funny before we had our pictures taken.”
“What about you, Henry?” asked Dad.
“I just thought of Heidi,” he said. “She always makes me crack up.”
“Very funny,” said Heidi.
“I have something for your pictures,” Mom said.
She went to her office and came back with a small brown bag. She pulled out two picture frames. Then she trimmed a picture of Heidi and a picture of Henry and slid them into the frames. Heidi and Lucy exchanged pictures of each other for their bulletin boards.
Then the girls sat down and discussed their class picture.
“Look at Melanie!” Lucy cried. “She made a mad face!”
“She can’t help it!” said Heidi. “She’s a meanie!”
Mom frowned. “That’s not nice,” she said.
The girls squealed with laughter.
“Look at Charlie,” said Lucy. “He’s totally squinting!”
“And Natalie wrinkled her nose!” Heidi said, pointing.
“It looks like she smelled a rotten egg!” said Lucy.
“She probably did!” Heidi agreed.
The girls shrieked with more laughter.
“Why is Bruce wearing his safety goggles?” asked Henry.
“Because he wouldn’t be Bruce without them!” said Heidi.
“He’s going to be a famous scientist one day,” added Lucy.
“Look at Eve,” said Lucy. “She’s missing a tooth, like you!”
Heidi took a closer look. “Oh yeah!” she said. “But it’s a bottom one. It hardly shows.”
Dad looked over the girls’ shoulders. “That’s one good-looking class!” he remarked.
Heidi smiled. “Oh, no we’re not!” she joked. “We’re super-BEASTLY!”
“But in a good way,” said Lucy.
“In the very BEST way,” added Heidi.
Click!
Click!
Click!
Heidi switched on three lights: The bedroom light, the bathroom light, and the hall light. Then she kicked off her slippers and hopped into bed.
“I’m ready!” she called.
She listened to her mother’s footsteps as they came down the hall and into her room.
Her mom sighed.
“It looks like daytime when you go to bed,” her mother said. “Let me turn off one of these lights.”
Heidi shook her head firmly.
She always slept with three lights on. She also had two flashlights stashed in her nightstand—just in case the power went out.
“Nighttime is FRIGHT time!” she declared. Then she hid under the covers.
Her mother frowned and shook her head. “Someday you’ll think being afraid of the dark is silly,” she said.
Heidi pulled the covers back down and put a finger on her lips. “Shhhh!” she shushed. “I don’t want Henry to hear!”
“HEAR WHAT?” shouted Henry from across the hall. “That you’re SCARED of the DARK?”
“AM NOT!” Heidi shouted back. “I just like to sleep with the lights on—that’s all.”
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
LITTLE SIMON
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First Little Simon paperback edition July 2015
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Designed by Ciara Gay
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Coven, Wanda.
Heidi Heckelbeck says “cheese!” / by Wanda Coven ; illustrated by
Priscilla Burris. — First edition.
pages cm
Summary: Distraught when her loose tooth falls out before Student Picture Day, second-grader Heidi Heckelbeck turns to her Book of Spells for a remedy.
ISBN 978-1-4814-2327-4 (pbk : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4814-2328-1 (hc : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4814-2329-8 (eBook) [1. Witches—Fiction. 2. Magic—Fiction. 3. Teeth—Fiction.] I. Burris, Priscilla, illustrator. II. Title.
PZ7.C83393Hm 2015
[Fic]—dc23
2014021870