by AJ Stern
It was a very good thing she saw me when she did. I went over to her and felt her head, and it was burning hot. I told her she had to go to the nurse before her head fell off. She took me very seriously, too, because she ran down the stairs toward the nurse’s office.
On my way to art class, I saw that Evan was yelling at someone. I could hear him saying, “I know it was you. Tell me why you are spreading lies about me!”
The kid he yelled at burst into tears and said he hadn’t said anything. That was when Evan turned to another kid and pointed his finger at him.
“It’s you, then! You are telling lies about me!”
“No, I’m not! That’s not a very friendship thing to say to me,” the friend said before storming off.
I scooched away fast and was passing a classroom when the door swung open, almost hitting me in the face. Katy was walking out of the classroom with tears streaming down her face. Mr. Hirsch was very upset.
“I bet you will find your voice when you are sitting across from the principal, Ms. McLarney.”
I passed the principal, who was talking to Mrs. Benedict, and overheard him ask, “Have you seen Mark? He left early yesterday, and I haven’t seen him at all today.”
Uh-oh. I had told Mark he was going to be a millionaire and probably never needed to come to school again.
I was starting to get a very bad day feeling on my skin. I decided that I would just leave it alone and everything would sort itself out. I would not fortune-tell for the rest of the day.
I had art class, which meant I’d see Solomon. I would tell him that he could take a bath today. That way, he wouldn’t get into trouble and I’d be saving the day.
When I reached the art room he was already there, but he didn’t even look up when I walked in.
“Hi, Solomon,” I called. “I’m glad I found you.”
He looked up at me, and my stomach dropped a bit when he saw my face. “I am not glad to see you.”
“Why not?” I asked. I did not like when people were not glad to see me.
“I got in big trouble because of you,” he told me.
“You did?” I asked.
“Yes! You told me not to shower, and I got in trouble. Then you told me to pretend-shower, but my parents could smell that I was not clean, and I got into even bigger trouble. Now I am grounded because of you.”
“Sorry, Solomon. I didn’t know that would happen.”
“Then you’re not a very good fortune-teller, are you?”
“I am, too, a very good fortune-teller. I just told you what the cards told me!”
“I don’t care. If you were a real psychic, you would have seen that I was going to get grounded.”
“Well, I told other people the right fortunes,” I said.
“Humph, we’ll see about that,” he said. “It’s still early.”
I did not appreciate that Solomon did not believe in my powers. I felt very bad that he got into trouble, but that was the fault of the cards he picked, not my fortune-telling skills.
All the other kids started to stream in to art class, and I went to sit next to Solomon, but he got up and moved away, which hurt my feelings very deep down inside.
The rest of the school day was better than in the art room with Solomon. No one else complained or got in trouble, so I started to feel a little bit better. Besides, I couldn’t be in a bad mood because tonight was the big recital! I could not wait to see how amazing Elliott was going to be.
My mom and dad were coming to the recital, too. So we had a very early dinner, then changed into concert clothes and headed off to the school. I loved coming to school at night because you weren’t expected to do any hard work at night.
When we got there, the place was filling up with parents and teachers. I could hear some musical instruments way in the deep end of the school blurting and blaring out their warm-up sounds. The lights flickered on and off, which meant it was time to get in our seats.
My parents and I sat with Elliott’s mom. She was with my dad’s friend George! My mom had told me that they met at the party and were getting to be really good friends.
The band was sitting in all their seats, but the stage seemed emptier for some reason. That’s when I saw that the entire brass section was missing.
My stomach frogged up and down because that’s when I remembered about my fortune to Eric. I hoped that the brass section was just late. But not on account of my telling Eric that none of the horns would make a sound. The woodwinds were practicing, and Elliott saw us and waved, and we waved back.
The lights went out, and then they went back up again suddenly. People started fidgeting, and then finally Mrs. Wiley came out onstage.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I am so sorry for the holdup. It seems there’s been a little misunderstanding with the brass section. For some reason the kids had it in their heads that their instruments were broken and they’ve taken them all apart. We have been furiously assembling the instruments, but we could use some volunteers. If anyone is good at assembling brass instruments, please come backstage and we can get going.”
A few people got up out of their seats and went backstage.
“That’s one of the strangest things I’ve ever heard,” my dad said. “Why would they all take their instruments apart?”
“Mrs. Wiley said they thought their instruments were broken,” my mom told him.
“But that doesn’t add up. Why would ALL the kids think the entire brass section wasn’t going to work?”
My mom squinched her face up and said, “You’re right. That is strange.”
I sat as still as possible and did not move one muscle of my mouth or say one single word at all. Finally, after what felt like five school years, the adults came back to the audience.
When the brass section came out, the audience gave a big clapping shout of hurrahs! I looked at Eric, and he seemed very nervous. Not like his normal “I am better than everyone else in the world” self.
Then Mrs. Wiley stood in front of them and started to conduct. Everyone lifted up their instruments and started to play, except for Eric. The other kids in the band started looking at him and whispering to him, but he just sat there and quietly shook his head no.
I wished right then that I could disappear into the smallest molecule of dots. That’s how terrible I felt about telling Eric his instrument wouldn’t play. That’s how terrible I was starting to feel about the fortunes I told everyone.
The entire concert came and went, and Eric didn’t pick up his instrument once. When it was over, everyone clapped so hard, they stood up and kept clapping. A standing ovation! I was right after all!
In the lobby afterward, Eric’s parents were standing over him, and I could tell they were very upset. That’s when he saw me and pointed. His parents looked over and my parents looked over, and they exchanged questioning looks.
“Who are those people, and why are they pointing at you?” my mom asked.
“That’s Eric, and those are his parents. I might be in a little bit of trouble, actually and as a matter of fact,” I said, just as Eric and his parents came to stand right next to us.
“Hi there. I’m Lydia Cooper and this is Dave Cooper,” Eric’s mom said to my parents. “It seems your daughter might have given our son the idea that no matter what he did, his instrument would not play tonight and he just shouldn’t bother.”
My parents looked at me, and I felt my face glow the brightest red, like in Star’s dress.
“Is that true, Frannie?” my mom asked me. “Why would you say something like that?”
“It wasn’t my fault. It was his fortune!” I explained.
“His fortune?” my dad asked.
“She opened a fortune-telling business at school,” Eric said in a sort of tattlish way.
“You did what?” my mom asked.
“I opened a fortune-telling business. I’m very good at it, too.”
“But you don’t know how to tell people’s fortunes, Frannie.”
“Sure, I do!” I said. “I was Star’s assistant!”
“But she studied how to do it for years. You studied it for an hour. That does not make you an expert.”
That was not a good day feeling kind of sentence.
“I’m very sorry about this,” my mom said to Eric’s parents. “We will certainly find a way for Frannie to make this up to you.”
Then they smiled and said good-bye, and my dad said, “We’re going to have a good, long talk about this when we get home, Frances.”
I knew I was in big trouble because he Frances-ed me.
On our way to find Elliott, I saw Mark and his parents, who were scanning the room for someone. When they saw me, they did not look away. Instead, they started to walk in my direction, and that is when I knew actually and certainly that I was about to be in the biggest trouble of ever.
“Hi,” Mark’s mom said. “I’m so sorry to bother you, but are you Frankly?” she asked me and my parents. We all shook our heads yes. Even though I knew I was going to get in trouble, my heart grew the biggest smile when she called me Frankly.
“It seems your daughter has convinced our son he doesn’t need to show up to school anymore.”
“I don’t!” Mark said. “I’m going to be a millionaire. I don’t even need school!”
My parents’ faces were the most furiousal I’d ever seen them.
“Oh, Mark, I’m sorry to tell you that Frannie made up those fortunes. She doesn’t really know how to tell fortunes,” my mom explained. Mark’s face almost fell off his face, and I felt a little maddish that my mom was telling him this.
After they walked away, my parents said I had to find every kid whose fortune I told and tell them the truth.
“Right now?” I asked.
“I see no better time,” my dad stated. “Everyone is here. You just need to find them. So let’s go.”
And that is what we had to do. We walked around until I found Katy and Valerie and Paige and Elizabeth and Solomon and everyone else whose fortunes I pretended to tell. I told them that just because I told the fortunes did not mean the fortunes were true. In fact, the fortunes were not true at all, even if they felt true. I was very sorry if I made bad things happen. I thought I was going to be a natural, but maybe I was not.
I must have been a very convincible fortune-teller because it took a foreverteen amount of years to convince everyone that their fortunes were not going to come true. I had to admit out loud that I was not actually a fortune-teller. After I apologized my entire face off, we could finally go home.
I felt a big relief off my chest, but I also felt a little bit bad that I hadn’t thought the whole thing through.
My fortunes were so good, I didn’t think that anything could possibly go wrong. Star’s fortunes were good and hers didn’t go wrong. But my parents reminded me that I am not an actual fortune-teller and Star is.
When we got in the car, I breathed a sigh of relief.
“I’m glad that’s over,” I said.
“What’s over?” my mom asked.
“The fortune-telling trouble. I’m glad I got all my apologies over with. Now I feel much better.”
“Good. I like when you are in tip-top shape to deal with the consequences of your actions.”
I sat up really strict and tallish.
“The consequences? But I just apologized to everyone.”
“Sorry is not always enough.”
“What is my consequence going to be?” I asked.
“Well, since you caused trouble on school grounds, I think it’s up to the school to punish you.”
“The school?” I could not even believe my ears about this terrible news.
“Mrs. Pellington in particular. I’ll call her in the morning and tell her she has been hired for the job.”
I was not excited to go to school the next day. Not one bit at all.
I woke up with the most horrendimous feeling on my skin. I was not excited about Mrs. Pellington’s punishment. It was probably going to be something really schoolish, but not in a workerish kind of way.
A for instance of what I mean is that she would probably make me wash the entire school from head to toe. Or she might make me teach every single class at the exact same time, which seemed like a very impossible thing to do.
However and nevertheless, none of those things were my punishment. The first order of business she told me was to take down my business and officially close the shop. I could not get any help from anyone, and I had to do it during recess. I returned the bowling ball back to Elliott’s cubby and threw out the empty bag that once had all the fortune cookies. Then I went back to our classroom.
“Frances, I have decided that you will be eating your lunch here every day for the next week,” Mrs. Pellington told me.
“By myself?!”
“Yes. It will give you plenty of time to consider all the other career options that are not fortune-telling.”
“But I was a very good fortune-teller, Mrs. Pellington. Everyone said so,” I told her.
“Maybe they said so at first, but it sure didn’t turn out well for everyone in the end, did it?”
I looked at my shoes. “I guess not.”
“I’ll go and get your lunch for you. Stay right where you are and think about all the things you told everyone and how your words affected other people’s actions.”
“Okay,” I told her.
Mrs. Pellington walked to the door and then stopped and turned around.
“Frannie?”
“Yes?” I asked, hoping she might be changing her mind about my punishment.
“If you are such a good fortune-teller, why didn’t you know you were going to get into trouble?”
I looked up at Mrs. Pellington who smiled at me and walked away, leaving me alone in the classroom stumpified about that question.
I had to admit that perhaps maybe I wasn’t as good a fortune-teller as I thought I was. Or maybe even as good as I wanted to be, but I was very good at making cards. I guess sometimes I forget that not everything I think up is true. Even Star told me that I get caught up in my own fantasies.
And that’s when I realized that Star had been right with each of her fortunes for me. But I had been wrong with every fortune I told.
Maybe Mrs. Pellington was right. It was time to think of a new career. Fortune-telling was not my strong suit.
That is why I walked over to the trash can and threw my cards out. It was time for me to consider a new line of work.
“Aimee Chapman!” I blurted out.
My parents stopped talking. Elliott stopped talking, and they all looked at me.
“Aimee Chapman,” my dad said like it was a statement type of sentence.
“Aimee Chapman,” my mom said in a “that is the most geniusal idea I’ve ever heard in my worldwide life” voice.
“Aimee Chapman,” Elliott said in his “I cannot believe that my best friend is the smartest person who was ever born on this planet” voice.
Aimee Chapman was a very famous singer who even had songs in movies. She was a grown-up type of singer, but she was funnish, so everyone loved her—kids and adults. She wore stylish clothes like swirly-colored scarves and hats with feathers in them and blazers that were too big for her. They made her look sometimes like she was going to an office. That was one of my favorite parts about her, outside of her songs which I really loved and knew all the words to. I’ve seen pictures of her, and she even carries her guitar in a guitar type of briefcase. That made me feel like we would be very good friends and be understandable of each other.
Aimee Chapman was the right person for the job of saving Noah’s Ark. We all felt that way. That was why after dinner, my parents, Elliott, and I jumped into the car and drove over to the Ark to tell Noah. We all ran to the front door and even though all the lights were out, we knocked.
“Come on, Noah!” I said out loud. “Please be inside.”
We knocked again.
When we wer
e convinced he’d gone home for the day, we headed back to the car, and just then, Noah opened the door!
“Noah!” I called.
“Frannie!” he called back.
Elliott and I ran to the door, and my parents followed us.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
That’s when I looked at him, and in my most seriousal and professional voice of ever I said, “Aimee Chapman.”
Then he broke out into a very handsome smile, nodded his head yes, and said her name like it was the cure for all the problems on earth.