She was quiet for a couple of minutes and I thought maybe she would leave. But then she said, “I know you’re in there. I can see your shoes.”
I should have folded my legs up right when the door opened. Then she wouldn’t be able to see them.
“Are you sick?” she continued. “Maybe you should see the nurse. I can go get her.”
If the nurse came, she’d probably call one of my parents to pick me up. That seemed like a pretty good idea.
“Thanks,” I said, finally answering her. “But you don’t have to get her. I can walk.”
I opened the door. Arielle was standing in front of the sink, and she moved over to give me room. I washed my hands, even though I hadn’t really gone to the bathroom, because Arielle probably thought I really did and I didn’t want to seem gross. Then we walked out into the hall. If you go right, you’ll head back toward our classroom. You have to go left to get to the nurse’s office.
”I can go with you, if you want,” Arielle said.
I shook my head. “No, I’m okay.”
The nurse’s name is Mrs. Tucker. When I got to her office, I told her I had a stomachache. “Do you think you have to throw up?” she asked.
My stomach felt jumpy, like Pop Rocks were exploding inside of me, but I didn’t think I had to throw up until she said it. “Maybe a little bit,” I said.
Mrs. Tucker told me to lie down and rest while she called someone to pick me up.
I rolled over and wrapped my arms around my stomach.
A little while later, I felt someone’s cool hand on my forehead, and then I heard Mom’s voice saying, “You’re not feeling well, baby?”
I shook my head under her hand. “I thought Dad would come to get me. You’re not supposed to drive.”
“Dad’s in a meeting,” she said. “But don’t worry. I can drive if one of my girls needs me. Come on, let’s go home.”
I followed her out to the car. Mom squeezed into the front seat. The steering wheel pressed against her stomach. What if the baby could feel it? What if it was hurting the baby? I felt so awful about everything and I started to cry a little bit.
“Oh, Stel, we’ll be home soon,” Mom said. She thought I was sad about being sick and that made my stomach hurt for real.
CHAPTER 7
Coming Clean
There’s a blanket Penny and I like to use whenever we’re sick. It looks just like an ordinary blanket, but we call it Magic Blankey. Before I write any more there are two things I want to say about that:
I know that’s a really babyish name, but that’s what we’ve always called it, starting when I was very little.
Obviously it’s not really magic. But sometimes it’s nice to pretend, when you’re sick.
Whenever Penny or I get sick, Mom takes Magic Blankey out of the hall closet. She spreads it out on the couch in the den, so it’s kind of like a bed, and we’re allowed to watch whatever we want on TV. The funny thing is, we NEVER use Magic Blankey when we’re healthy.
There was a Superstar Sam marathon on TV. But I had already seen all the episodes, and I felt weird about lying there watching TV because I knew I wasn’t really sick. Now that we were home, my stomach wasn’t even jumpy anymore.
What if there was actually something magic about Magic Blankey, and it turned you into the opposite of whatever you were? Like, if you were sick, you got healthy, and if you were healthy, you got sick.
“I think I’m going to rest in my room,” I told Mom. I kicked the blanket off and stood up.
“Do you need anything?” she asked.
She was sitting on the side chair with her feet up on the ottoman. Mom says when you’re pregnant, your ankles swell up and start to hurt. It doesn’t really make any sense, since it’s not like the baby is in your ankles. But anyway, she looked comfy. Her hands were on her big, blown-up belly, like she was cradling a giant jawbreaker candy. I didn’t want to make her move, especially if the baby got hurt from her driving me home.
“No, I’m fine,” I told her.
“I’ll come check on you later,” Mom said.
When I got to my room, I thought maybe I would work on my book. Or maybe I would write a different kind of book—not an autobiography but a short story.
Once upon a time there was a girl whose best friend moved away. She never got another best friend, and so she lived unhappily ever after.
What a sad story. I tried picturing Batts Confections in my head, because sometimes that makes me feel better, except I didn’t even know what it looked like, because the candy garden was gone. I ended up taking a nap even though I hadn’t even known I was tired. I didn’t get up until I heard Mom’s voice saying, “I think she may be asleep, but let me check.”
When I opened my eyes, Mom was walking toward me. The Magic Blankey was tucked under her arm and the phone was pressed against her ear.
“Oh no, Dave, I think I just woke her,” Mom said. She came over and put the blanket down on the bed. I moved my foot so it wasn’t touching it.
Mom leaned down to feel my forehead. “She doesn’t feel hot, but the nurse said it was her stomach. Let me ask … Stel, it’s Daddy on the phone. Do you want to talk to him?”
I shook my head no.
“I don’t think she’s feeling up to it,” Mom said into the phone. She paused. I knew Dad was talking back to her because I could hear muffled sounds coming from the receiver, but it was too fuzzy to make out the exact words. “I don’t think you should bring any treats home if she’s sick.” She paused again and then said, “Okay. Bye, honey.”
She pressed the button to hang up the phone and turned back to me. “Dad’s going to keep Penny out for a bit, so it should be peaceful here for a little while longer.”
“Where are they?”
“They’re dropping Zoey off and then heading to the store. It’s closed for the afternoon while the candy circus is installed, and Dad wants to oversee things there.”
“I want to go too,” I said.
“I know,” Mom said. “It’s tough to be sick, isn’t it?”
I rolled over and smushed my face into my pillow. “But I’m not sick,” I said.
“What?” Mom asked. “I can’t hear you.”
I turned my head so my mouth wasn’t covered up. “I’m not sick,” I said. Then I smushed my face back into my pillow.
“Stella,” Mom said. Her voice was slightly louder than her regular voice. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“You’re going to be mad,” I said into my pillow.
“Look at me,” Mom said. “I can’t hear you when your face is buried.”
I turned my head to Mom again. The jumpiness was back in my stomach. “You’re going to be mad,” I said again.
“I’m not leaving until you come clean,” she said.
So I did.
I started at the beginning—how I called Willa and she didn’t want to talk to me. How Dad took us to Man’s Best Friend, and I played with the Maltese who I was so sure was meant to be mine. But she wasn’t mine–she got sold to someone else. Then Dad brought me over to Evie’s house. She didn’t like me at first, but then it seemed like maybe she would be my new best friend. Except when we got to school she didn’t even want to sit with me.
“Oh honey,” Mom said. “First of all, I’m sure you misunderstood what Willa was saying.”
“I didn’t misunderstand,” I insisted. “She said she didn’t want to talk to me.”
“Well then I don’t know,” Mom said. “But I do know it takes time to make a new best friend. It’s not the kind of thing that happens overnight.”
“I wish it would,” I said. “That’s why I said I was sick and you had to come pick me up, even though you’re not supposed to drive.”
I waited for her to yell at me. But instead she picked up the phone and punched in some numbers. Was she calling the school to say I’d lied to the nurse?
Someone answered. I could hear a voice, but it was too muffled to hear who it was. “He
y Dave,” Mom said. “Can you swing by the house? I think Stella can go with you after all.”
CHAPTER 8
The Candy Circus
The sign on the door to Batts Confections said “Closed for Renovations.” But we just walked right in. Stuart spotted us and called out, “Hey Dave. Hiya, girls.”
I know when someone says “hi” to you (or “hiya,” like Stuart did), you’re supposed to say “hi” back, but Penny and I were too distracted. The candy garden was gone! Of course we knew it was going to be, but when you’re used to something looking a certain way, it’s totally weird when it looks completely different.
There was the top of a circus tent hanging from the ceiling. It was striped red and white, like a candy cane. But it didn’t go all the way down to the floor like a regular tent. It was just hanging, so you could see what was underneath.
In place of the candy flowers, there was a big red circle on the ground. Then two medium-sized circles, one blue and one yellow, on either side of the red circle. Instead of the chocolate waterfall, there was a red-and-white-striped cart. But wait! We always dipped Oreos in the chocolate fountain! What if I never had an Oreo dipped in chocolate ever again?
Against the wall were a bunch of unpacked boxes, kind of like at Evie’s house, except these boxes were marked “lions” and “zebras.”
And standing in front of it all was a clown. A mannequin clown, not a real-live clown. He was as tall as Dad and he had rainbow hair and big red circles on his cheeks. His mouth was turned up in a smile, but it was a fake-looking smile, so he didn’t actually look happy to see you. And his hands were WAY too big for his body. It was like they were really meant for a giant.
“Whoa,” I said.
“Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!” Penny said. “I hate that clown! Get it out of here!”
“See what I mean, Dave?” Stuart asked.
“Daddy, Daddy, we can’t stay here,” Penny wailed. She attached herself to Dad’s leg, and when he took a step closer toward the clown, she yanked on his leg in the other direction so he almost fell over.
“Honey, don’t do that,” Dad said. “He can’t hurt you. He isn’t real.”
“What if he turns real?” Penny asked.
“That’s not possible,” Dad said.
“Sure it’s possible,” Penny insisted. “He could be an evil clown that makes you think he’s not real, but then he turns real and … and …”
“And what?” Dad asked.
“And casts a spell on me so I disappear!”
“He’s not a magician,” I told her.
“How do you know?” Penny asked. “He could be a clown with two jobs. Mr. Madden the Magician came to the store before, so maybe he heard about it.”
“Oh, Penny,” Dad said.
“We need to leave RIGHT NOW,” she said.
“I have to check the boxes before we go, and figure out how we want the circus set up. You and Stella can help,” Dad offered.
“Really?” I asked. I’d helped out at the store before, but never setting up the display that’s the FIRST THING you see when you walk in the door.
“I don’t want to help,” Penny sniffed. “I don’t care how it’s set up.”
“How about this,” Dad said. “You and Stella can go upstairs for a little bit while Stuart and I go through the boxes down here.”
“We’ll keep an eye on the clown and make sure he stays with us,” Stuart promised.
“Okay,” Penny said. She untangled herself from Dad’s leg. Then she came over and grabbed onto my arm with both of her hands. “Let’s go upstairs right now,” she said.
I still wanted to help out, but I knew I had to take care of Penny. Dad called “thanks” and Penny and I went up to the party room on the second floor. It’s decorated like the dining room in a castle. I sat down on the chair at the head of the table. Dad says the chairs are ornate, which means they’re very decorative. They’re dark and have swirly designs on them.
Penny wandered over to the jelly bean collage that hangs on the wall. It’s made to look like a portrait of a king and queen, and she likes to count the jelly beans. But suddenly she ran back to me. “I just thought of something,” she said. “What if the clown sneaks away from Dad and Stuart?”
“Stuart said he’d watch the clown,” I reminded her.
“Yeah, but what if he’s looking in a box and Dad’s looking at some other stuff, and the clown sneaks up here and tries to cast a spell on me?”
“I’d jump in front of you so you’d be safe,” I said.
“Wow, you’re so brave,” Penny said.
A few minutes later Dad called out, “Girls! Come on down!”
The boxes were all opened up. Some animals were set up on the circles, but not in any real order. It didn’t look like a circus yet. Also there were ropes and Bubble Wrap on the floor.
“Where’d the clown go?” Penny asked, her voice shaking.
“Don’t worry,” Dad said. “I stuck him in the office downstairs. I don’t think we need him anyway.”
“I’m never going into your office ever again,” Penny told him.
“Maybe one day you’ll change your mind,” Dad said. “Anyway, Stuart said he could set up the rest of the circus on his own, so we can go.”
“Goody!” Penny said. “I don’t even like being in the same building as the clown.”
“Take care, Batts family,” Stuart said. “I’m in for a long night.”
“Can I stay to help you set up?” I asked.
“I’d certainly welcome an assistant,” Stuart said. “I can drive you home when we’re done. Is that all right, Dave?”
“It’s a school night,” Dad said. “But Stella can help you for a little bit, as long as she’s feeling okay.”
“I am!” I said.
“All right. I’ll swing back here and pick you up in an hour.”
“We’ll probably be finished by then, because two people working goes faster than just one,” I said.
“That’s surely true,” Stuart said.
“Okay, kids,” Dad said. He calls Stuart a kid, even though I think Stuart is already grown up. He has a job after all. And he calls Dad “Dave,” instead of “Mr. Batts,” the way other kids do. “I’ll see you later. Ready to go, Pen?”
Penny shook her head.
“What’s the matter?” Dad asked.
“If Stella stays to help, then I want to.”
“Are you sure?” Dad asked.
Penny looked scared, but she reached out to hold my hand and said, “Yes. I want to be brave, like Stella is.”
Sometimes I don’t mind so much when Penny copies me.
Dad went downstairs to check on a few things in his office, and the three of us got busy unpacking the boxes. There were zebras made of dark chocolate and white chocolate. Penny held up a lion made of hardened sugar. “How did they get this into the right shape?” she asked.
“I think they must wet the sugar and put it into a lion-shaped mold to let it harden,” Stuart said.
“What’s this?” I asked, pulling out another chocolate thing. It looked like a bird, sort of. But I’d never been to a circus with birds before.
“Oh, those are the bats. You know, like Batts Confections.”
“I don’t think bats belong in a circus,” I said.
“I suppose you’re right,” Stuart said. “I just thought it would be fun—chocolate bats at Batts Confections. Maybe we’ll save them and have a haunted house one day.”
Penny’s eyes opened wide.
“Or not,” Stuart said. “We can just eat them.”
“Can I have one now?” I asked.
“How about we ask your dad when he comes back up,” Stuart said. “I don’t want you to ruin your appetite for dinner.”
It was fun to decide where stuff went. We set all the lions on the blue circle. Two of them sat on little stools, and another was jumping through a mini hula hoop. The lion tamer was standing by with a whip. On the yellow circle, the bearded la
dy herded the zebras. Stuart put the red-and-white cart in the middle of the big red circle. He said it was a popcorn machine, and there were lots of different toppings you could put on the popcorn—like caramel, butterscotch, or crumbled Oreos. It all looked delicious, even if it wasn’t a chocolate fountain.
After a little while Dad came upstairs and said it was time to go.
“Can we play with the Bubble Wrap and jump rope first?” Penny asked.
“Actually, that rope is the trapeze,” Stuart said. “But it got all tangled up in transit, so I need to untangle it before we hang it up.”
“One time my purple necklace got all tangled, and Willa was the only one who could fix it,” Penny said.
“She would really like this,” I said. “She likes making things look clean and neat. She’s the only kid I’ve ever known who actually LIKES to clean things up!”
“We should’ve invited her,” Stuart said.
“She moved away,” Penny said.
“Yeah, and I don’t think she likes me anymore,” I said.
“Nonsense,” Dad said.
“Of course it’s nonsense,” Stuart said. “Stella Batts is one of the most likeable girls there is!”
“And brave,” Penny added. “She said she’d eat a haunted bat!”
“It’s just a chocolate bat,” I said.
“Stella and me want some, okay Dad?” Penny asked.
“Stella and I,” Dad corrected. “And yes, you can take one home for after dinner.”
“That gives me an idea,” Stuart said. “We have all these unused chocolate bats. What if we made up a care package for your friend Willa? We could send bats for everyone in her family.”
“That’s five people,” Penny interrupted.
“Okay, five bats,” Stuart said. “Maybe something is bothering Willa that you just don’t know about, and it’ll make her feel better to get something sweet. Bats from Miss Batts herself!”
“I like that idea,” Dad said. “What do you think, Stel?”
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