Just Grace Goes Green

by Charise Mericle Harper

  Instead of saying something like, "Oh, Grace, what a great table," or "What a wonderful and thoughtful display," Mom said, "I can't believe you are selling Wee Tiny Mee Mee! Don't you remember how you used to carry her around with you everywhere you went? We weren't even allowed to leave the house without her. She went everywhere with us.

  "Do you remember that one time you left her at the pumpkin patch? You were so upset, just crying and crying. So we just had to drive all the way back to the pumpkin farm to get her. By the time we got there it was dark, but the farmer was very nice and gave us flashlights so we could look for her. Do you remember how excited you were when Daddy found Wee Tiny Mee Mee sitting up on a little pumpkin? It was a beautiful, warm, starry night. I'll never forget it."

  "Wee Tiny Mee Mee?" said Sammy, and I could tell he was making fun of me. Mom has absolutely no clue how embarrassing she can be. I grabbed Wee Tiny Mee Mee from Mom and shoved her under my table. "Okay, I won't sell her. Happy?" Now I could tell that she knew I was feeling bad because she said, "I'm sorry, honey. Seeing Wee Tiny Mee Mee reminded me of that story. I haven't thought of that night in ages. It reminded me of when you were little. It's a sweet story."

  I had to stop Mom before she 100 percent embarrassed me with gushiness, so I said, "It's okay, Mom. I'll keep Wee Tiny Mee Mee. Can we not talk about it anymore?"

  I was glad when Gwen interrupted us by saying, "Oh my gosh, it's so cute!" And I knew right away, without even looking, that she was pointing at Owly.

  MY BIG PLAN

  Gwen sees Owly.

  Gwen buys Owly.

  Gwen forgets about Willoughby.

  Mimi gets Willoughby back.

  Everybody is happy.

  WHAT HAPPENED TO MY BIG PLAN

  "How come you're selling this?" said Gwen. She was holding Owly, and I could see that Mimi was smiling. I hadn't told Mimi my big plan, but I could tell that she had figured it out and was 100 percent understanding it.

  "I have too many stuffed animals," I said. Owly really wasn't even one of my favorites. I think Dad won him at a carnival or something. He wasn't that special to me, but I didn't say that because I wanted Gwen to think he was super special. "He's only two dollars," I said.

  "I don't have any money," said Gwen. "I left all my money at my real house."

  "Are you sure?" I asked. I couldn't believe my big plan was going to fail all because of two dollars.

  "I'll buy it for you," said Mimi. "You could pay me back when you get home." I could tell she was desperate.

  "No, it's okay," said Gwen. "I'm not really allowed to borrow money." Mimi looked like she was about to cry. It was a good thing that a bunch of strangers were walking up to us, because that made us concentrate on other things, at least for a few minutes.

  WHAT I COULD NOT BELIEVE

  I could not believe that all the new people were looking at Sammy's table, and what was even more surprising was that they were buying his junk. In only a couple of minutes he sold four things, and I didn't even sell one single thing. His junk was selling faster than all of my good stuff. And it was all because of his notes. Everyone loved his notes.

  THE FOUR THINGS SAMMY SOLD

  WHAT HAPPENED NEXT

  "Three dollars and fifty cents!" said Sammy, holding up his money.

  "Well, your stuff is only selling because of your notes," said Mimi.

  "Well, don't get mad at me," said Sammy. "It was Grace's idea. Why don't you just write your own notes?"

  Sammy is not a boy who likes to pick a fight. Sammy is not even a boy who knows if you are trying to pick a fight with him. Sammy is just Sammy. And Sammy's idea was a great one, even if he thought it was mine, which it wasn't.

  EVERYTHING HAS A STORY

  I had to run inside and get some paper so Mimi and I could write notes for our stuff too. We wanted to get finished before more people showed up and spent all their money at Sammy's table. But sometimes, if you really think about something and why you have it, and how you used it in your life, you can change your mind about giving it away.

  TWO THINGS I TOOK OFF MY SALE TABLE

  MIMI'S SALE TABLE

  Writing notes was not a good idea for Mimi, because after writing about her stuff she decided she liked it so much that she couldn't sell any of it. She and Gwen went back to her house to take her stuff inside so it wouldn't get sold by accident.

  While they were gone, I put Owly in a bag under my table. That way no one could buy him. I still wasn't ready to give up on helping Mimi. A good superhero always has more than one plan of action, and I just had to think of another one.

  MAX

  Max finally showed up while Mimi and Gwen were at Mimi's house. I told him he could use Mimi's table to sell his stuff. Max said he didn't have anything to sell because he had sold all his old stuff before he moved next door to Mimi. He said he was there to shop. He spent a lot of time at Sammy's table saying things like "I can't believe you are selling this. This is so awesome! I've got to get this." It was very annoying!

  When he finally got to my table he only had fifty cents left to spend. I let him have a plastic box that was marked for one dollar. Sometimes you have to make deals if you want to make a sale. It was better than nothing.

  I was hoping some girl customers would come by because they were probably not going to be thinking that Sammy's collection was so awesome and amazing. They were going to be looking for girl stuff.

  WHAT WAS A BIT OF A SURPRISE

  Sometimes girls can be really hard shoppers. I thought for sure that the girls who came by would just snap up all my great stuff no problem, but that was not what happened. The girls really liked to bargain. One girl even tried to get me to sell two almost brand-new Barbie dolls for only ten cents each. And it wasn't even like she had only twenty cents. Her purse was full of dollar bills—I saw them. Sometimes you have to be tough or else your entire table of really great stuff will get sold for almost nothing.

  I finally said I would sell the dolls for fifty cents each. The girl seemed really happy because the original price was a dollar each, so she thought she was getting a real bargain. She probably thought she was a super shopper, but I was happy to get rid of them. I don't play with Barbies anymore anyway. the sale

  THE SALE

  I was pretty sure that Gwen noticed that Owly was gone, but she didn't say anything about it and I didn't talk about it either. We decided to end the sale at lunchtime. There is only so much fun you can have standing around in your front yard. Everyone counted up the money and this is how it all ended up.

  MIMI

  No money. No things reused by anyone else.

  SAMMY

  $22.25

  More than twenty things reused by someone else—lots of it to Max.

  ME

  $12.50

  Seventeen things reused by someone else.

  I was a little bit upset that Sammy had made more money than me, but mostly that was because the sale had been my idea in the first place. Sometimes you have to stop yourself from getting angry about something like that, because the best thing is that everyone is happy. Surprisingly even Mimi was happy, and she didn't make even one single penny.

  Mom said we should donate all the rest of the stuff on our tables to charity. She said if we boxed it up in the garage, she'd take it over to the donation box the next time she went out. Sammy said he was just going to take his leftovers home, so Gwen and Mimi helped me pack my stuff up and put it next to the car.

  WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST SURPRISE OF THE DAY

  When Sammy was leaving with his box Gwen went over and asked him if he wanted to come out to dinner with us on her birthday. I couldn't believe it. Sammy looked like he couldn't believe it either, but he smiled. He looked even happier when Gwen said it was the kind of restaurant where the chef does tricks with fire. Sammy is the kind of boy who would be excited about things exploding.

  Gwen invited Max too, but mostly I think that was because he was standing right next to Sammy.
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br />   This was going to be the first time I had ever eaten with Sammy in a restaurant. Once he had pancakes at my house, but that had been a mistake invitation.

  Sammy is the kind of boy who gets food stuck in his teeth and dribbles on his shirt. He was going to be a mess. 1 Especially since this was the kind of restaurant where you use chopsticks instead of a fork. I was definitely not going to sit next to him.

  Gwen seemed happy and kind of excited about her birthday when she got back from talking to Sammy and Max. She was not thinking the same things about Sammy that I was, and that was because she had never sat near Sammy while he was eating. She was going to be in for a surprise too!

  WHAT WAS NOT THE BIGGEST SURPRISE OF THE DAY

  When we went upstairs to Mimi's room Gwen started playing with Willoughby right away. I could tell that Mimi was pretty upset that the Owly plan had not worked out. Poor Mimi. It's not easy to watch someone take over one of your most favorite things in the world. It's even harder not to say anything about it while you're watching it happen. Mimi was being great.

  THE BOTTLE PROJECT

  While we were in Mimi's room we finished up organizing the bottle project. We told Gwen that we had to come up with examples of how to decorate the bottles—that way even some of the really uncreative people in our class would be able to do it. There are some people who don't have brains full of ideas. You have to help these kinds of people out.

  FOUR BOTTLE-DECORATING IDEAS

  After we finished putting our posters together with the examples of how to decorate the bottles, and all the facts about recycling plastic, it was time for me to go home for dinner. Mom doesn't like it if I eat too many dinners at Mimi's house. She says she doesn't want me to be a burden to Mimi's mom, but I just think it's mostly because she misses me.

  OUR NIGHTTIME

  At dinner Mom apologized for telling the Wee Tiny Mee Mee story in front of my friends. I said, "Wee Tiny Mee Mee's name is almost more embarrassing than the story," and then we all laughed. I was only two years old when I named her Mee Mee. I called her that because I thought she looked like me. Dad added the Wee Tiny part because he thought it was funny. And then the nickname just stuck. It's kind of like me now with my crazy name of Just Grace—only I'm not laughing about that one.

  I DID NOT EVER LOOK LIKE WEE TINY MEE MEE

  ME WHEN I WAS TWO

  WEE TINY MEE MEE

  Mom was happy that I did not sell Wee Tiny Mee Mee. She said she was going to put her in my box in the attic. This is the place where Mom puts all my stuff that she says I'm going to one day want when I get older. I'm not sure she's right about that, but since I don't have to have the box in my room I'm okay with it.

  After dinner I went up to my room to draw a comic card for Gwen. I also wanted to wrap up Owly to give to her on her birthday. If it was a birthday present she couldn't give it back. Plus I could tell that she really liked him. I was hoping she would be liking him enough to give up Willoughby.

  WHAT I DID NOT DO BEFORE BED

  I did not flash my lights to say good night to Gwen and Mimi. I did not want the last thing in my brain to be a picture of Mimi holding Bunny.

  ALL BY MYSELF

  Mimi and Gwen are gone for the whole day. Mimi's mom and dad took them to a big craft show that is two hours away. Gwen was excited about it because Mimi's mom said she was going to let her pick out a birthday present there. Her birthday is only two days away, so I guess she is getting kind of worked up about it.

  Gwen's parents already sent her a present, but she is not allowed to open it until her birthday. It's a real skinny package so it must be jewelry or something. We were all trying to guess what was inside but Gwen made us stop because she didn't want us to guess right and ruin the surprise.

  GWEN'S PRESENT FROM HER PARENTS

  WHAT MAKES A DAY SEEM REALLY LONG

  Spending the whole day with your mom while she does normal mom stuff. Now I could totally see why Gwen wanted to come to school with us.

  The only fun thing we did all day was go to the store to buy Gwen a real birthday present. Mom said Owly didn't count as a 100 percent real present because he was a used item and he didn't cost anything.

  I didn't argue with her even though she was totally wrong, because I could tell she was feeling sorry that I was lonely. A mom in a feeling-sorry mood is the kind of mom that just might buy her daughter a present even if it is not her birthday.

  Usually Mom gets frustrated when we go present shopping. She says I take too long to decide on something. Today I was lucky that she was looking for some special beads to make herself some earrings. That way she wasn't rushing me.

  GWEN'S PRESENT

  Mom said that she liked the present I picked out for Gwen so much that she thought I should have one too.

  MY PRESENT

  Mom said it wasn't fair for both Gwen and me to have one and not give one to Mimi.

  MIMI'S PRESENT

  Then on the way home from the store Mom stopped at a bakery and we bought cupcakes.

  WHO IS THIS MOM?

  It was like a shopping alien had taken over her body or something. Mom was not acting normal at all.

  MY REAL MOM WITH THE ALIEN

  THE ALIEN MOM WITH ME

  WHAT I SAW RIGHT BEFORE BED

  When I flashed my lights and looked out the window I saw Mimi and Gwen both holding Willoughby at the same time. Each of them was holding one of his arms. They were of course really happy, for which I was 100 percent glad, but still I was wondering how it was going to work out in the end. Who was going to let go when it was bedtime?

  WHAT IS SO GREAT ABOUT TODAY FOR GWEN

  Tomorrow is Gwen's birthday. When you know you are having a birthday tomorrow you automatically have a great day today, because you can't help but be filled with excitement, even if your parents are not there.

  WHAT IS SO GREAT ABOUT TODAY FOR MIMI

  Mimi had a great day yesterday and some of that feeling is still left over with her today. She said that last night in the middle of the night when she got up to go to the bathroom, she saw that Willoughby was on the floor beside Gwen's bed. She said that she thought that this was a good sign and that maybe Gwen was getting ready to give him back. When someone is feeling good about something it is not a good idea to say that you think their reasons for being happy are not good ones. That is why I didn't say that maybe Gwen just dropped him by accident.

  WHAT IS SO GREAT ABOUT TODAY FOR ME

  Tomorrow is going to be a great day and I can't help smiling when I think about it. Gwen is going to love Owly and give Willoughby back to Mimi.

  I was feeling so happy that when Miss Lois asked for volunteers to go first to present their conservation projects, I put my hand up. Tomorrow is going to be our day for that.

  WHAT CAN MAKE A DAY SEEM TO LAST FOREVER

  Thinking about tomorrow and still being stuck in today.

  WHAT HAPPENED THAT WAS INTERESTING

  Gwen asked Grace F. if she wanted to come out with us for the birthday dinner. Grace F. was really upset that she couldn't do it. She was already going to have dinner at her aunt's house for her cousin's birthday. She said that flaming volcanoes sounded a lot more exciting and fun than macaroni and cheese, which is what she was going to be eating.

  WHAT ELSE HAPPENED THAT WAS INTERESTING

  Nothing.

  Miss Lois tried to get us all excited about our projects some more, but I was already completely full with excitement about tomorrow, so I stopped listening to her.

  MY DRAWING

  WALKING HOME FROM SCHOOL

  Somehow Mimi and Gwen and I got to walk home all by ourselves. Sammy was not around, for which I was glad. Too much Sammy was not something I was completely used to or happy about. We talked about our recycling project a little bit, but mostly we talked about Gwen's birthday.

  When we got to Mimi's house we all went and looked at the present from Gwen's parents again. Gwen said we could hold it if we promised not to sh
ake it too hard or

  guess out loud at what we thought was inside. She was 100 percent wanting to be surprised and 100 percent not wanting us to ruin it with our guesses.

  DINNER

  I could tell what we were going to have for dinner the minute I walked into the house. Mom has this silly way of asking Dad to order sushi for dinner. He always does the ordering because Mom says he does a better job with saying all the food names in Japanese.

  When Mom wants sushi she plays her special sushi song on the CD player. I don't really know what it's called but the main part of the song says, "I'm turning Japanese oh yes I'm turning Japanese I really think so." It's kind of like their secret code. Mom plays the song, Dad hears it and orders the food, the doorbell rings, and then we eat dinner. I for sure couldn't tell Sammy about it or he would start thinking my parents were spies too!

  WHAT I FORGOT

  After dinner I went to my room, and as soon as I walked in I knew that I had completely forgotten to do my conservation chart yesterday. Now I had to find two things to do, which was going to be impossible because I usually even have trouble with the one thing.

  I went downstairs. I was hoping that Mom and Dad were in the basement so I could turn off the lights in the kitchen and the living room, but they weren't. Dad was reading a paper and Mom was in the kitchen cleaning up the sushi stuff.

  Mom was about to throw away the stuff from dinner, but I stopped her just in time. Sometimes great ideas just happen in a second, without even any warning. That's my favorite kind!

  Saved paper bag from the garbage by using it as wrapping paper. Used plastic decorations from sushi dinner to decorate package. That's two things to make upfor forgetting yesterday.