Kate the Great, Except When She's Not

by Suzy Becker

  “Well, you get the idea. You girls have the run of the place. Let’s get your bags and make you comfortable—” There is a bloodcurdling scream, followed by eight more bloodcurdling screams.

  “Dad, someone’s on the floor!” I say.

  “Sorry, watch your step,” he says.

  “I’m serious, it’s not funny. Turn the lights on!”

  I’m so happy to see Nora, I hug her, even with that gross newspaper stuck on her.

  My dad clears off the basement floor for our sleeping bags.

  “Cake is served!” Mom calls.

  Dad comes into the kitchen, all showered and shaved, as we are finishing our cake. Everyone starts clapping.

  “Did I miss something?” He winks.

  After cake, we watch Beetlejuice and have popcorn. Nora falls asleep during the movie. Brooke goes to get her underwear. “We shouldn’t,” I say. “This could make her swear off birthday parties forever.” I have to wake Nora up to go downstairs to sleep.

  I am the second one up the next morning. My dad is reading the paper at the kitchen table. “You get any sleep, Champ?”

  “Mm,” I say.

  “How do silver-dollar pancakes sound for breakfast?” I give him a thumbs-up. By the time the batter is ready, we’re all awake (except Robin).

  After breakfast, everybody packs up. Mrs. Staughton is the last parent to pick up. “Adam, word is this was the best slumber party ever! I don’t know how you’re going to top it.”

  “I’ve got a whole year to work on it,” he says, smiling the innkeeper’s smile.

  “Good morning, Gene!” I say when I get on the bus, because it is extra-good.

  “Not so fast, young— I should say ol’ lady!” He turns and hands me a birthday pencil with a birthday stick of gum. “Happy birthday, Kate!”

  “Is your birthday almost over?” Nora says when I sit down beside her. “I get to stay home on mine.” I can’t imagine staying home and missing Mr. Lovejoy announcing my birthday on the loudspeaker or everybody singing at morning meeting. “What did you get from your parents?”

  “I don’t know yet,” I say. She opens her book and reads the rest of the way to school.

  Brooke, Nora, and I walk into school together, as usual. Mr. “Killjoy” shakes my hand. “Happy birthday, my friend!”

  Mrs. Block smiles when I walk in. “Happy birthday, Kate! You know, I loved being ten.”

  It sounds like something Robin would say.

  Mrs. Block hands everybody a star on their way in from my birthday recess. They have to write a birthday wish and pass them in.

  Then Mrs. Sanelli comes down to take us to library. She and Mrs. Block keep looking over at me as they’re talking. I smile a nice birthday smile back.

  As I walk by the checkout desk, Mrs. Wright wishes me a happy birthday and hands me a birthday bookmark. I pivot and head for my book stash at the end of Biography Row.

  “This?” There were so many this-es.

  “I am aware it’s your birthday today. Mrs. Block and I had a conversation. I don’t want to punish you on your birthday, but THIS has to stop. Do you understand me?” I nod. “TODAY.”

  I stack the books and stand up. “Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT consider reshelving those yourself. You may take them up to the front and Mrs. Wright will place them on the cart. No borrowing privileges today.”

  “Oh well,” Brooke says when we’re back in the Book Nook. “Takes the pressure off being perfect for another year.”

  “How’s the birthday so far?” Gene asks at the end of the day.

  “Mostly good,” I say. “Gene, when’s your birthday, anyway?”

  “December twenty-fifth,” he says.

  “You must get gypped.”

  “I’m doing all right, doing ALL right,” he says. When he smiles, the back of his head wrinkles.

  Nora is not doing all right.

  “Sorry my birthday is so annoying,” I say as I sit down.

  “Everything’s annoying, but I’m trying not to annoy you on your birthday,” she says.

  “It’s not me that’s annoying, just my birthday, right?”

  “Okay, that’s annoying,” she says.

  I’m quiet for a while. Then I say, “But you’re still coming trick-or-treating?” She nods. We’re quiet the rest of the way.

  Grammalolo comes to my birthday dinner, even though she does not care for stuffed peppers or lemon desserts. “I think it’s her way of letting you know she thinks you’re extra-special, Champ,” my dad says. My mother sighs and shakes her head.

  Grammalolo shoves a big present in front of me after the table is cleared. “It was your mother’s,” she says. Grammalolo has a habit of wrapping up my mother’s old things for our birthdays. Robin got a lot of the best stuff because Grammalolo wasn’t sure she was going to have any more grandchildren.

  “Oh, Mom,” my mother says. “I can’t believe you saved that!” It’s her favorite sweatshirt from when she was ten. I try for a second to imagine her in it.

  “Can I give her these now?” Grammalolo asks.

  “Hold on a second—your mother and I have this for you,” my dad says.

  “All right, Lois,” Dad says to Grammalolo. “Now it’s your turn.”

  She hands me a small unwrapped box. “These were mine.” I lift the top. It snaps back and rests on its hinges. “They were my very first pair. I got them when I was ten.”

  I go over and hug her. Fern hands me an envelope. “They’re Rocky’s whiskers,” she says before I have a chance to open it.

  “Wow, Fernie. Where’d you find them?”

  “Find them … yes …” My mother makes a snipping motion. “Fern, come help me get the pie!”

  “Shhh,” Fern says, and points at me.

  I blow out all eleven candles and wish the same wish I always wish that hasn’t come true. (And I can’t tell you, or it never will.)

  Then my dad starts the last of our birthday traditions: “Ten things we love about Kate!”

  “Adam, I will NOT let you do this for my birthday this year,” Grammalolo says. “We’ll be here all night.”

  Ten actually go by fast. My mom writes them all down and puts them in my birthday book. Fifty-five in all, now.

  “Your friend’s in a much better mood,” Gene says when I get on the bus the next morning.

  Nora asks what I got for my birthday. When I tell her, she says, “Are you going to get them done at the mall?”

  Mrs. Staughton confers with Brooke, then announces that we will be switching pod presidents a week early since November is an extra-short meeting month. Allie is now technically the president, but Mrs. Staughton sits her down. “You girls all did a wonderful job on Saturday. Now we need to shift gears and start to think about our Thanksgiving baskets for the elderly. And, of course, November is the month we hold our annual Harvest Food Drive with the Boy Scouts.”

  “Except this year”—Allie pounds her presidential fist on the table—“this year, we’ll win!”

  “Win?” Mrs. Staughton says. “Girls, we’re all winners when we collect food. And other nonperishable items.”

  “It’s a contest, Mom,” Heather explains. “Last year, the Boy Scouts won the overnight to Luau Keys.”

  “That place gave my sister a bad rash,” Nora says.

  “I wasn’t aware there were prizes,” Mrs. Staughton says.

  Mrs. Hallberg steps in. “Allie, why don’t you get our Halloween safety game going?”

  On Halloween night, my mom actually makes us wear our Guide Glow Sticks.

  “I’m so glad Nora decided to join you,” Mom says.

  Mrs. Klein drives up. We’re cracking up (no egg pun intended) watching Nora get out of the backseat in her costume. “Girls, help her out!” my mom says.

  We run over. Brooke grabs Nora’s right hand, and as soon as she has cleared the door, I grab her left. Nora and Brooke can’t walk side by side without knocking each other, so I try to stay in the middle.

 
; I catch up. My mom snaps a picture.

  We are a threesome. A strange threesome. But we’ve come a long way.

  Pod 429 takes on Pack 22. The Farley’s Fourth Harvest Food Drive turns into a showdown for the:

  Who will win? Let’s ask.

  Someone will have a moving experience.

  Mrs. Staughton will astonish.

  My dad will bring out his best jokes yet.

  Will they be funny?

  Kate owes her greatness in part to the exceptional editing and encouragement of Phoebe Yeh, the art direction of Ken Crossland, the editorial assistance of Rachel Weinick, and the dedication of the rest of the team at Crown Books for Young Readers. I would also like to thank my BAF Edite Kroll, my early readers and guest calligraphers (Brooke James, Kathy McCullough, Audrey Swartz, Kerry Oblak, Aurora Becker, Bella Cotter, and Jessica MacLeish), and the James and Butka families, who provided Kate and me with writerly retreats.

  Suzy Becker is best known for her international bestseller All I Need to Know I Learned from My Cat. She is the author-illustrator of three other books for kids, one book for babies, and four books for grown-ups. Kate the Great is her first illustrated novel. Suzy has also had other jobs: lemonade-stand owner (age seven), greeting-card company mogul (not the ski kind), and one of the cofounders of the Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School. She and her family live in central Massachusetts.