Clothes Minded

by Chloe Taylor

  Zoey had never heard Ivy refer to Josie as a friend, but Josie smiled back at Ivy and didn’t seem bothered by the comment in the slightest. So Zoey was forced to accept that maybe Ivy really was trying to be nicer, and she just needed some practice to be as nice as a regular person.

  Be open-minded, Zoey told herself. And she repeated it several times.

  As the group began working independently on their knitting, Sean gestured to Zoey to come and talk to him in the corner, opposite from where Mrs. Holmes sat doing some grading.

  Zoey went reluctantly, because she knew what a terrible, unprepared treasurer and VP she was. She never wore her FFC bracelet or scarf, she’d still only collected dues from half the group, and she was never on time to meetings. The truth was, she dreaded fashion club each week, and not because of Ivy. While she’d like the idea of the club in theory, in reality, it took away from her own sketching and sewing time. It was a lot of responsibility that she didn’t feel she wanted to balance with her Sew Zoey blog and business, and, in all honesty, it was so much more fun to go to the pet shelter and volunteer when she had free time! Puppies and kittens were just better, and nice for a change of pace.

  But she had made a promise to Sean to help him with the club, and now she was stuck. Zoey did not want to be someone who broke her promises. It was a Webber family rule.

  “I’m sorry I was late,” Zoey said quickly, before Sean could even speak. “And I didn’t mean to snap at Ivy just now. I’m still getting used to the new her.”

  Sean’s eyes crinkled as he smiled, putting his hands on her shoulders. “I don’t know how to tell you this, Zoey, but you’re fired.”

  She couldn’t believe what she’d just heard. “Fired?”

  He nodded, still smiling. “It’s a mercy firing. You don’t want to be here, and you really are a terrible treasurer. So I’m letting you off the hook. You can still be our, um, Fashion Fun Club consultant, if you want, and come by sometimes. But I can handle this, and you’re too busy with all your Sew Zoey stuff, anyway.”

  “Thank you, Sean,” Zoey said gratefully. “You just might be my favorite new friend.”

  He looked guilty for a second. “You won’t think that when I tell you who I plan to nominate as your replacement.”

  “Who?”

  He leaned close and whispered. “Ivy.”

  Zoey laughed, and the group looked over at them from their knitting. Zoey made her face serious once again and whispered to Sean, “Well, she did pay her dues. And she does show up on time. So she’s got me beat there, already.”

  “And she’s awfully good at knitting,” Sean said.

  “Ha-ha.”

  Sean and Zoey returned to the group, and Zoey spent the rest of the meeting—her last fashion club meeting—helping everyone master the basics of knitting. She felt good when their session was over. She’d tried the club, and it hadn’t worked out. Because sometimes things just don’t, like with Kate and Tyler. But it was still worth trying.

  As Zoey was packing up to leave, Ivy said, “Josie, did you watch the ice-skating championship this past weekend?”

  “Non! Some of my cousins were visiting from France and I missed it. Dis-moi, what happened?”

  Zoey braced herself for Ivy’s response. The only thing worse than watching Sonya’s wardrobe malfunction live would be to listen to Ivy describe it in detail to a roomful of people.

  “Oh, it was great,” Ivy said, to Zoey’s surprise. “Sonya Turley got the silver! And her costume was beautiful. A really inventive car wash-style skirt.”

  Zoey looked over at Ivy, to see if she was holding back laughter, or if she really was planning to skip the part where Zoey’s design had gone terribly wrong.

  But Ivy’s face was calm and happy as she continued to knit, and she didn’t even appear to notice Zoey looking at her. Ivy was just complimenting Zoey’s work, seemingly with no agenda.

  Maybe the Fashion Fun Club had changed Ivy for the better. Or maybe her cousin being bullied, or spending time volunteering at the home for the elderly, had made a difference. Whatever it was, Zoey wondered if it would last. Was the meanest mean girl of Mapleton Prep really becoming a nice girl?

  Zoey hoped so. Either way, she couldn’t wait to start some new Sew Zoey projects, now that she’d been officially fired from the fashion club and would have more free time. New projects were always fun . . . and all she needed to do to find her next one was to stay clothes-minded, and open-minded, too!

  Be clothes minded, not close-minded. . . .

  Turn the page for a sneak peek at the next book in the Sew Zoey series:

  Fired Up

  I know you’re not supposed to enjoy being “fired” from a job, but I’ve been all “fired up” with new ideas for outfits since getting kicked out as treasurer of the Fashion Fun Club. Aunt Lulu said maybe the club was too much of a good thing. That sometimes you need to take a break and do something completely different (and for me, that means not sewing related), so your mind can wander to new and exciting creative places. It’s also really nice to have time to do nothing at all!

  That’s why I love volunteering at the pet shelter. With all those adorable dogs and cats to walk and play with, you never know what’s going to happen next. I always come away with more energy for my sewing projects.

  We’re starting the next elective in school soon. I’m excited to try industrial arts. I wonder if I can somehow figure out how to combine woodworking and fashion. But how would you sit down in a wooden dress? Hmm . . . will clearly have to give this a bit more thought.

  “I need your advice,” Kate Mackey announced to her best friends, Zoey Webber, Priti Holbrooke, and Libby Flynn. “I’m thinking of giving Tyler another chance.”

  The girls were in their pajamas, lounging around on Libby’s bed. It was sleepover night at the Flynn house.

  “What made you decide that?” Zoey asked. Kate had broken up with Tyler Landon, who’d had a crush on her, a few weeks earlier after only a few dates, partially due to Zoey’s misguided attempts to help him woo her. Under Zoey’s helpful advice (which turned out to be not so helpful after all!), Tyler had been behaving differently than usual because he’d thought it would make Kate like him.

  “Well . . . we have a great time together when we volunteer at the food pantry,” Kate said.

  “Not to mention the fact that he’s supercute,” Priti observed.

  Kate blushed. “Well, yes, there is that,” she admitted. “But also he’s promised just to be himself this time.”

  Now it was Zoey’s turn to blush.

  “I was only trying to help,” she said for what must have been the umpteenth time since her matchmaking fiasco.

  “I know,” Kate said, smiling. “All is forgiven . . . Really.”

  “Whew!” Zoey exhaled, relieved. “I’d hate to think I completely ruined everything.”

  “You guys seem to have a lot of fun when we’re at the food pantry,” Libby observed. She’d started volunteering there, in addition to her school community service at the pet shelter, so she had seen Kate and Tyler together.

  “I’m glad you’ve decided to give Tyler another chance,” Zoey told Kate. “What if I’d messed up the course of true love?”

  “True love?!” Kate exclaimed. “Let’s not go overboard. I just think he’s nice. And funny.”

  “And supercute,” Priti added.

  “I guess,” Kate mumbled, blushing a little.

  “Well, now that we’ve agreed that Tyler is supercute, can I show you something superexciting?” Libby asked.

  “Yes, please!” Priti said.

  Libby jumped off the bed and went to her desk.

  “Look! Hot off the press!” she said, holding out an embossed card threaded with gold ribbon. “My Bat Mitzvah invitation. Isn’t it cool?”

  “It’s beautiful!” Priti exclaimed.

  “I love the gold ribbon,” Zoey said. “It makes the lettering pop.”

  “And the gold lining inside the env
elope matches the lettering and the ribbon,” Kate observed. “So pretty!”

  Libby climbed back onto the bed and sat crossed-legged.

  “A few years ago, I wasn’t even sure I was going to have a Bat Mitzvah. Dad’s Catholic and Mom’s Jewish, but neither of them are that religious. We celebrate all the holidays, but more the traditions than the religious stuff,” she explained.

  “So what made you change your mind?” Zoey asked.

  “My grandpa,” Libby said. “He only just escaped the Holocaust as a young boy. In fact, his name wasn’t Van Langen when he was born. But his parents hid him with non-Jewish neighbors when my great-grandparents were sent to a concentration camp. And then . . . Well, they didn’t come back after the war, and he ended up adopting the name of the family who hid him and saved his life.”

  “That’s so sad,” Kate said. “He never saw his parents again?”

  “Never,” Libby said, shaking her head. “And he hardly ever talked about it until recently, when he said it would mean a lot to him if I had a Bat Mitzvah. So that’s why I decided to do it. But it’s so much work, which is the reason I haven’t been around as much lately.”

  “I’ve never been to a Bat Mitzvah before,” Zoey admitted. “What do you do? What do we do? And more to the point, what do we wear?”

  The girls all laughed.

  “Zoey always gets right down to the important questions,” Priti said.

  “Well, there’ll be a service in the synagogue,” Libby explained, then reached over to the bedside table and picked up some papers. “And I have to read a section of the Torah in Hebrew. I’ve been going to a tutor, and practicing my Torah portion every night before I go to bed, and listening to tapes so I get the pronunciation right. See?”

  Zoey looked at the unfamiliar alphabet. “It looks like Greek to me.”

  “Ha!” Libby said. “It felt like Greek to me when I first started. Except now that I’ve been studying it for a while, I can tell it’s Hebrew, even though it’s still hard to read.”

  “I can’t believe how much work you have to do,” Priti said. “It’s really great that you’re doing this for your grandpa.”

  “It’s not just for him. It’s become important to me too,” Libby said. “But I also have to make a speech, which I’m really nervous about. But on the plus side, I get to have a really fun party after the service.”

  “Party? Did you say party?” Priti perked up immediately.

  “I’ve been to a Bar Mitzvah party before—it was really fun,” Kate said. “They played lots of games, and the food was amazing.”

  “Yeah, Mom and I met with the caterers last week,” Libby said. “The theme of my Bat Mitzvah is going to be ‘Sweet,’ so needless to say we’re going to have yummy desserts!”

  “So . . . you read from the scrolls during a service, and then there’s a big party with yummy desserts? That’s a Bat Mitzvah?” Zoey asked, wanting to make sure she had it straight.

  “That’s not all,” Libby said. “I also do a mitzvah project, which means doing something to make the world a better place by helping others.”

  “What’s your project?” Kate asked.

  “Well, since I started volunteering at the food pantry, I’ve noticed they only give out canned and packaged goods, which must get really boring and isn’t as healthy as having fresh produce,” Libby said. “So I’ve started a vegetable patch to grow fresh produce to donate there. Dad helped me.”

  “But that sounds like even more hard work,” Priti groaned. “Are you going to have time for any fun?”

  Libby laughed. “Gardening is fun. Come over and help me weed sometime! Maybe next Sunday?”

  Priti looked skeptical. “Hmm . . . sounds like a great time . . . ,” she said. “But I think I’m busy that day. Or any day when getting dirt under my fingernails is involved!”

  “Do you get lots of presents?” Kate asked. “The kid whose Bar Mitzvah I went to did.”

  “Well, yes,” Libby said.

  “Who are you inviting?” Zoey asked.

  “About a zillion relatives, half of whose names I don’t even remember; kids from school—Josie, Gabe, Miles; Tyler since I got to know him at the food pantry; a bunch of my friends from Sunday school; and . . . Emily.”

  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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  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  SIMON SPOTLIGHT

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

  1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  First Simon Spotlight paperback edition February 2015

  Copyright © 2015 by Simon and Schuster, Inc.

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  SIMON SPOTLIGHT and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  Text by Caroline Hickey

  Designed by Laura Roode

  Jacket design by Laura Roode

  Jacket illustrations copyright © 2015

  ISBN 978-1-4814-2928-3 (hc)

  ISBN 978-1-4814-2927-6 (pbk)

  ISBN 978-1-4814-2929-0 (eBook)

  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2014942152