by Chloe Taylor
The reporter interviewed Libby, asking her why she’d chosen the food pantry as her mitzvah project and how she’d raised the money to buy the fridge.
“We held a bake sale, and I used some of the money I got as Bat Mitzvah gifts, and finally I auctioned off the dress that my friend Zoey designed and made for me,” Libby explained. “She writes the blog Sew Zoey.”
“Oh, so you’re Zoey Webber!” exclaimed the reporter, turning to Zoey.
Zoey pointed to the Zoey name tag on her dress. “That’s me!”
“I’ve been wanting to approach you about doing a human interest piece about our local design star,” the reporter said.
“Um . . . sure,” Zoey said. “That would be cool.”
Mrs. Reed came over and asked if they were almost done with the interview. “I’d like to make a short speech, and then we can do the formal presentation of the check,” she said.
“That works for me,” the reporter said. He signaled to the photographer, who arranged everyone where he wanted them to stand so the lighting was optimal.
“I’d like to thank you all for coming today,” Mrs. Reed started off. “We’ve had big donations before, but this is the first time one has come from a middle school student, which makes it all the more special.”
As she went on about how grateful the food pantry was, Zoey looked around the room at town residents picking up their boxes of food. Then she caught a glimpse of a shocked, pale, familiar face, and gasped under her breath. Is that . . . Ivy? Zoey wondered, then saw that it was.
Ivy turned her head away quickly, as if she didn’t want Zoey to see her. What was she doing here? Zoey was pretty sure she wasn’t a volunteer, since Ivy volunteered at the retirement home.
Zoey couldn’t investigate because it was time for photographs, and when she looked that way again, Ivy had disappeared.
As soon as the photographer finished, Zoey said, “I’ll be back in a minute” to Libby, and went to search for Ivy. She finally found her in the parking lot, waiting for her mother.
“Hey, Ivy,” Zoey said. “I was surprised to see you here.”
“I’ll bet,” Ivy said. “You’re probably going to tell everyone now.”
“Tell everyone what?”
Ivy stared down at the ground and kicked a pebble with her shoe. “That I was here with Mom getting food.”
“That’s why you were here?” Zoey asked. “But . . . why?”
“My dad lost his job a few months ago,” Ivy said. “Mom works, but . . . well, what she earns isn’t enough to support the whole family, so . . . we have to come here to get help to make ends meet. I usually wait in the car.”
“I’m so sorry,” Zoey said. “That must be really hard for all of you.”
“It is,” Ivy admitted. “Really hard. It stinks. But listen, Zoey, please—”
“What?”
“You can’t tell Emily. Please, promise me whatever you do, you won’t tell anyone, but especially not Emily.”
Ivy’s eyes pleaded with Zoey to make the promise.
Zoey thought about how, not so long ago, Ivy demanded that her friends buy designer bags and shoes in order to fit in, and Zoey realized it must be such a turnaround for her to be the one who couldn’t afford to buy things. She wondered if Ivy’s sudden change in fortune had anything to do with her becoming nicer recently. Maybe struggling to make ends meet had made her less superficial, or at least made her understand other people better.
“It’s okay, Ivy. Your secret is safe with me,” she said. “I don’t think Libby and Kate saw you.”
Ivy breathed a visible sigh of relief.
“Thanks, Zoey. I’m really . . . ”
Zoey didn’t find out what she was, because just then Ivy’s mom came out of the building with a box of groceries. Ivy said a quick, “Um . . . bye,” and walked away.
The next day in industrial arts, Ivy showed no sign of having seen Zoey at the food pantry the day before. She walked in with Emily, as usual, and didn’t even acknowledge Zoey or Priti, who were sitting at the workbench opposite her.
“Oh! Did you see my latest addition?” Emily said, extending her wrist to show off yet another woven bracelet. “I think this one is my absolute favorite. Although there’s another one at the store I liked too. I might have to go back and get it.”
“Wow. That’s really pretty,” Ivy said. “I love the purple and pink together, and the little hearts.”
“Where’s yours?” Emily demanded. “I thought you said you were going to get one.”
“Oh . . . I . . .”
Zoey watched Ivy’s neck and face flush as she tried to come up with another excuse for why she hadn’t bought one of the woven bracelets. Now Zoey knew that Ivy really had a good excuse for not getting one, even though she shouldn’t have had to explain at all. She wished Ivy could just tell Emily that bracelets weren’t high on her priority list because of what was going on with her family. But as she’d learned from trying to help her former best friend, Shannon, who’d been hard-pressed to keep up with Ivy’s fashion demands, it just wasn’t going to happen.
“My mom has had to work late a lot recently, so she hasn’t been able to take me to the store to get them,” Ivy said. “But . . . I’m planning to get one as soon as she can take me.”
“Your mom should buy you two for making you wait so long to get one,” Emily said.
Ivy gave a fake laugh that almost sounded to Zoey liked a choked sob.
“Totally,” she agreed.
She sounded like she was barely holding it together. How come Emily couldn’t see that? Maybe people just see what they want to see, Zoey thought. Or they’re blind.
How long would Ivy be able to keep up appearances, pretending that nothing had changed?
CHAPTER 11
Lifting the Veil
It’s funny how you think you know everything about a person, but then you learn something that makes you realize that maybe all you’ve been seeing is the veil they’ve been wearing to cover up their true feelings. Suddenly, you think: Wow, maybe I didn’t know that person so well at all. It makes you realize that people have all kinds of reasons for acting the way they do, and maybe we shouldn’t always be so quick to judge.
I’d love to have a chance to wear a hat like one of these somewhere—maybe I should move to England. Mrs. Holbrooke had a whole bunch of fancy hats we borrowed for Hat Day during Spirit Week a while back, because apparently they wear hats a lot more over there. It’s a shame, because they’re so much fun to design—and to wear. A great hat really “tops off” an outfit, don’t you think? Here are some I came up with, just for fun!
Zoey couldn’t stop thinking about Ivy’s dilemma. She knew Emily would keep asking about the bracelets, and Ivy would have to keep thinking of excuses why she didn’t have one yet. Even though Ivy had made her life miserable for a long time, she’d been nicer to Zoey recently, and Zoey didn’t like to see anyone going through a hard time. It must be really difficult to have to worry about having enough to eat. She was glad that Dad had a job and that there was always food in the fridge. Okay, so maybe sometimes they ran out of something, but then they put it on the shopping list for Dad to pick up the next time he went to the supermarket, and then it appeared again. What would it be like if Dad lost his job? She didn’t even want to think about it.
She had to help Ivy somehow. But how?
She decided to check her blog for comments. Her Sew Zoey community always made her feel better—and they often inspired her with good ideas too.
There was a comment on her “Sweets to the Sweet” post from FashionsistaNYC, a.k.a. her mentor, Daphne Shaw.
I was more than happy to give Libby’s auction a shout-out on my blog, and I’m thrilled that in doing so, she was able to raise enough money for the food pantry’s refrigerator. I’ve been fortunate to have been helped by so many people in my life that I’m a big believer in “paying it forward.” Well done!
Paying it forward . . . , Zoey repeated
to herself. Suddenly, she had an idea of how she could pay it forward—for Ivy! She did some research online, then went down the hallway to her brother’s room.
“Marcus? Can you drive me to A Stitch in Time? Like, now?”
“Sure,” Marcus said. “What’s the rush?”
“I want to make something, and I need to get some materials.”
“Thanks for being so specific,” Marcus said. “But since I’m a good brother, I’ll just go grab the car keys.”
In the car, Marcus turned up the radio and started singing. Zoey realized it was the most cheerful she’d seen him since Allie had broken up with him.
“How are you doing?” she asked. “Are you feeling better about . . . you know, stuff?”
Marcus laughed.
“Stuff? You mean like Allie?” he asked.
“Yeah, like Allie,” Zoey said.
“I’m still upset about the breakup,” Marcus confessed. “But now that I’ve had more time to think about it, I realized that . . . we’d kind of been on different pages lately, if you know what I mean. We’re both busy with different things—me with my band and her with her accessories line and her blog—so we weren’t spending as much time together, and then when we did, it seemed like we argued a lot.”
“But you still seemed happy together, I thought.”
“I still like Allie . . . a lot,” Marcus said. “But I also realized that she gets really freaked out about stuff that doesn’t seem like such a big deal to me.”
“Like what?” Zoey asked.
“Remember the time at the pet shelter when the dog jumped in a puddle and got mud on her new blouse?” Marcus asked.
“Yeah!” Zoey said. “How could I forget?”
“So I guess maybe I’m just too laid back to go out with someone like Allie, who can be a bit dramatic. Maybe I need to date someone who’s a little more . . . I don’t know . . . low key.”
“Or maybe Libby was right,” Zoey said. “Maybe dog people should just date dog people, and cat people should just date cat people.”
Marcus laughed. “I’ll make sure to give any future girlfriend candidates a pet survey before going out with them.”
Zoey was glad to hear that Marcus seemed to be moving on, especially since Allie already seemed to be pretty involved with her new boyfriend, Oliver. At least Zoey wouldn’t feel like she was betraying Marcus if she still remained friends with Allie, which she still wanted to do, or at least work toward—after all, they’d started out as friends, and Allie was the only one who understood what it was like to be a young fashion designer.
Walking into A Stitch in Time was like entering a second home—especially when Zoey was greeted by the owner, Jan.
“Zoey! What an unexpected pleasure!” Jan said, coming out from behind the counter to give Zoey a hug. “How can I help you today? What exciting project are you working on now?”
“It’s a paying-it-forward project, ” Zoey said.
She showed Jan the pictures she’d printed from the Internet, then explained what she wanted to do.
“Which kind of thread do you think will be the best to use?” she asked. “And I’ll need some kind of clasp as well. One that looks as close to the one in the picture as possible.”
“No problem, my dear,” Jan said. “I’ve got everything you need.”
When they’d gathered all the materials, Jan gave Zoey an even bigger discount than she usually did.
“Consider it my way of being part of the paying-it-forward project,” she said.
“Thanks, Jan!” Zoey said. “I’ll let you know how it goes!”
Zoey spent that evening working on her project, trying to make it as close to the picture as she possibly could, and she was really pleased with the finished product. The next day, she made sure she got to industrial arts class early, before anyone else arrived, and she put a little box on Ivy’s stool. Then she got busy working on her latest shop project—a wooden football sculpture for her dad.
“Hi, Zoey,” Priti said when she got to class. “The football is starting to take shape. It doesn’t look like a watermelon anymore!”
Zoey laughed. “Mr. Weldon showed me how to plane down the ends to make them more pointy and football-like.”
When Ivy arrived, she found the box on her stool and looked around, curious. Zoey pretended to mind her own business, intent on her project. But from the corner of her eye she watched Ivy open the box and read the note, which said “I hope you like this! From, a friend,” and then saw Ivy pull out the woven bracelet that Zoey had made for her and gasp in surprised delight. It looked just like the kind Emily had been bragging about for weeks.
Ivy put it on her wrist immediately, holding it out and admiring it.
“That’s really cute,” Priti said.
“Thanks,” Ivy said. “I think it’s a surprise gift from Emily. She loves these bracelets.”
Just then Emily walked in, and Ivy’s attention turned to her immediately.
“Look,” she said, showing off her bracelet to Emily. “It’s perfect!”
“Nice,” Emily said. “I didn’t see that one at the store. It’s about time you finally got one.”
Ivy looked confused. Emily’s comment made it clear she hadn’t given her the bracelet. Ivy glanced around the room as if she was trying to figure out who did. When Ivy spotted Zoey, she gave her a questioning look, as if to ask, Was it you?
Zoey had wanted to give Ivy the bracelet anonymously, so people wouldn’t ask questions that might expose Ivy’s situation. But Ivy seemed to want to know, so Zoey gave the slightest nod, small enough that Priti didn’t notice it.
Ivy’s eyes widened.
“So, which colors are you getting next?” Emily pushed. “You should have bought more. You really need a few to get the look.”
“Um, I don’t know,” Ivy told Emily.
Later, as they worked on their projects, Zoey glanced up to see Ivy staring at her, with a strange expression on her face.
Zoey smiled. To her surprise, Ivy smiled back.
Zoey knew that it wouldn’t be long before Emily found something else that Ivy just had to buy. But at least she’d helped Ivy out for now.
“I’m starving,” Marcus said. “I hope Aunt Lulu made pancakes.”
“Uncle John likes to cook,” Dad said as he rang the doorbell. “I’m sure you won’t leave hungry.”
Buttons greeted them with licks and a furiously wagging tail as soon as the door opened.
“Come on in,” Uncle John said. “Lulu’s in the kitchen. Your Sunday brunch awaits.”
“I can’t wait,” Zoey said, picking up Buttons and cuddling her. “Aunt Lulu makes really good brunch.”
“She has something special planned for dessert,” Uncle John said. “But don’t tell her I told you, or I’m a dead man!”
All through brunch, Zoey wondered about the special dessert—after all, she did have kind of a sweet tooth, and it was getting sweeter after all the treats at Libby’s Bat Mitzvah.
“Okay, everyone ready for dessert?” Aunt Lulu asked.
“Yes!” Zoey exclaimed. “I’m always ready for dessert.”
“That’s my girl,” Dad said.
“Just like your mom too,” Aunt Lulu said, smiling. She went to the dining room and came back with a covered tray. “So, John and I invited you over for brunch today because we wanted to see you, but also because we have some exciting news. . . .”
She took the cover off the tray to reveal mini cupcakes with yellow icing and baby motifs.
“Wait . . . does this mean . . . you’re having a BABY?” Marcus said.
Uncle John put his arm around Aunt Lulu. “We are! You’re going to have a new cousin.”
Marcus, Zoey, and their dad jumped up from their seats, talking and hugging and yippeeing with joy. Buttons started barking, confused by all the hubbub, and Uncle John patted her head to let her know everything was okay. Everything was better than okay—it was great! Finally, eager to get more info
rmation, they all sat back down.
“Wow! That’s so exciting!” Zoey said. “Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl?”
“Not yet,” Aunt Lulu said. “We’ll be happy with a healthy baby.”
“It’ll be fun to welcome a new member of the family, won’t it, kids?” Dad said.
“Yes—and just think of all the great baby clothes I can design!” Zoey exclaimed.
As they all enjoyed the cupcakes, Zoey thought about how much fun it would be to have a baby cousin. She wondered if her little cousin would like sewing. It would be so much fun to teach him or her how to make clothes.
Her aunt and uncle’s news meant exciting changes for the family, and also for Sew Zoey. With all the bibs, onesies, and bonnets Zoey planned to make, her future cousin would be the best-dressed baby in town!
CHLOE TAYLOR learned to sew when she was a little girl. She loved watching her grandmother Louise turn a scrap of blue fabric into a simple-but-fabulous dress, nightgown, or even a bathing suit in an instant. It was magical! Now that she’s grown up, she still loves fashion: it’s like art that you can wear. This is her first middle grade series. She lives, writes, and window-shops in New York City.
NANCY ZHANG is an illustrator and an art and fashion lover with a passion for all beautiful things. She has published her work in the art books L’Oiseau Rouge and Street Impressions and in various fashion magazines and on websites. Visit her at her blog: www.xiaoxizhang.com. She currently lives in Berlin, Germany.
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Zoey is getting gifty!
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