Caitlin's Lucky Charm

by Lisa Schroeder

  They started the routine from the top. Caitlin shook her hips. Then she waved her arms in the air, right, right, then left, left.

  I’ve got this. Caitlin thought. Totally got this.

  Caitlin’s movements got bigger and bolder. She caught Brie glancing over at her, so Caitlin smiled.

  And still, she shook. And waved. And moved sideways, backward, and forward.

  It was perfect, Caitlin thought. She and Brie would bond over Zumba. Surely this would be the beginning of a wonderful friendship. Maybe the two of them could even find a gym that offered Zumba classes, so they could go together on the weekends. Maybe they could get coffee afterward and hang out in a café.

  Caitlin kept shaking and waving her arms as she envisioned her future as Brie’s Zumba twin. When the music suddenly ended, it took Caitlin a few seconds to realize it was time to stop dancing. And then she realized something else.

  She looked around the room and could see that everyone was watching her. Every. Single. Person. Some even had their hands over their mouths, trying to contain their laughter.

  “That’s enough,” Ms. Sharp said. “One thing I will not tolerate is making fun of other students. Keep your eyes on me, and don’t worry about what others are doing. Got it?”

  “But how do we know whether someone’s dancing or having a seizure?” some scrawny boy from the back called out. A bunch of kids laughed.

  The teacher told the boy his comment was inappropriate and to go stand in the hallway. But it was Caitlin who wanted the solace of the hallway, so she took off, through the doors and out of that horrible room.

  As she ran toward the locker room, blinking back the tears, she wondered if she would get in trouble for leaving class. Whatever. She didn’t care. Her dancing days were over. As soon as the bell rang, she’d be going to see her counselor about taking something else besides dance class.

  Anything else.

  Caitlin took the bus home after school, which dropped her off near Jade’s house. She decided to see if Jade was home from school yet. She sent her mom a quick text to let her know she was stopping by her friend’s house before she knocked on the door.

  Seeing Jade’s happy face after the terrible day Caitlin had was like seeing the first tulip after a long, cold winter.

  “Surprise!” Caitlin sang out as Jade opened the door.

  “Hey,” Jade said with a smile. “This is a surprise. Come in!”

  Caitlin stepped into the entryway, and Jade told her she could put her backpack and cardigan sweater on a little bench that sat there. The scent of chocolate hung in the air. Caitlin’s stomach growled. She’d hardly eaten any of her lunch, since she’d spent most of her lunch period talking to her counselor about changing classes.

  “Wow, cute belt,” Jade said after Caitlin took off her sweater. “Is that new?”

  Caitlin sighed. “Well, I’m glad someone likes it. My mom and I made it last night. I thought it was the coolest thing ever, and for some reason, I thought it would have magical powers and make me all kinds of friends today.”

  “But it didn’t?”

  Caitlin shook her head.

  “Come on. Let’s go to the kitchen. My mom made brownies.”

  “Hi, Caitlin,” Jade’s mom said. “Nice to see you.” She looked at Jade. “I have some paperwork to do, so I’ll be in the den.”

  After Jade’s mom left, the girls grabbed some brownies and poured glasses of milk before sitting on stools at the kitchen counter.

  Caitlin took a bite of her brownie that was still slightly warm, which made it a little bit gooey, just the way she liked it. “Mmm,” she said. “So good. At least I did one thing right today. Stopped by to see you.”

  “Why do I get the feeling things didn’t go very well at the new school?” Jade asked.

  Caitlin laughed. “Because they didn’t. At all!”

  She took a drink of milk and then she told her friend everything. She told her about the fun girls and the ridiculous cheese conversation. After that, she told her about the dance class and the mean seizure comment. And then she told her about spending most of her lunch period in the counselor’s office.

  Jade listened intently, only averting her eyes every once in a while to take a bite of brownie.

  After Caitlin finished talking, she sat back and sighed. “I just really wanted Brie and her group of friends to like me, you know? They seemed like the type of girls I belong with.”

  Jade finished her milk and set the empty glass down. “You could tell that just by looking at them?”

  “I know it sounds weird, but yes. I could see us doing crafts or going to the movies together. They looked … fun!”

  “You know what you have to do?” Jade asked as she stood up and took the empty plates and glasses to the sink.

  “What?” Caitlin asked.

  Jade came back to the counter. “You have to get involved in things. That’s the best way to make friends. Once this first week is over, they’ll start announcing activities. Sports. Clubs. The fall play. That kind of thing.”

  “Yeah,” Caitlin said. “I definitely want to try out for the play. Theater is one of the reasons I wanted to go to this school. You can forget about sports though. Not really my thing.”

  “Well, as long as you get involved in something,” Jade said. “I’m thinking of trying out for volleyball this year. Who knows if I’ll be any good, but I think it looks like fun.”

  Caitlin suddenly realized she hadn’t been a very good friend. This had been Jade’s first day at a new school too. Of course, a lot of kids they went to school with last year were going to Jade’s middle school, but still, it wasn’t very nice to not ask about it.

  “I’m sorry,” Caitlin told her friend. “All I’ve done is talk about my horrible day. How’d your first day go?”

  “It was fine. Melanie Booker is my locker partner. We have a bunch of classes together. Oh my gosh, our PE teacher is so funny. He sang to us while we ran laps around the gym.” She started to sing, “‘You are never, ever, ever going to stop the running.’” She laughed. “It was hysterical. Whatever song he could think of, he sang and then turned it into a crazy health and fitness song.”

  Caitlin tried to smile. She also tried to push down the regret that was rising up, telling her she shouldn’t have applied to ACMA. She could have been having a good time with Jade in that PE class.

  “Come on,” Jade said. “Let’s go to my room. My mom bought me a bunch of new beads. We can make bracelets or something.”

  “Ooh, that sounds like fun,” Caitlin said as she hopped up. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and looked at the time. Her mom had texted her back, asking her to be home by four thirty. “I have to go in thirty minutes though.”

  “No problem,” Jade said.

  If only the rest of the day had been this easy, Caitlin thought.

  * * *

  Later, when Caitlin got home, she was surprised to find her dad’s car in the driveway. Usually he didn’t get home until at least six o’clock.

  Her first and only thought was that he’d been fired.

  The butterflies she’d felt all day at school came back with a vengeance. She considered turning around and going back to Jade’s house, where things were normal. But of course she couldn’t stay there forever. She’d have to come home sometime.

  Caitlin opened the door quietly and listened. What she was listening for, she wasn’t sure. Yelling? Tears? Telephone calls to family members breaking the terrible news?

  She could hear muffled voices upstairs, so that’s where she headed. She stopped outside of her parents’ room, where the doors were slightly ajar, and listened.

  “Miranda, how many times do I have to tell you, I don’t know,” her dad said. “I don’t know when they’ll make the decision about my position. Or any of the other positions, for that matter.”

  “But it’s not fair,” her mom said. “It’s not fair to keep us guessing and wondering like this. How are we supposed to live i
n the meantime?”

  “Just like we talked about. We only buy the absolute essentials right now, and we save money like it’s going out of style. We have to be ready, just in case.”

  “I’m trying, but it’s hard,” her mom said. Caitlin thought it sounded like her mom might start crying. “I canceled the satellite TV, like you told me. The kids are going to be pretty unhappy with us.”

  “What about the girls’ phones?” Mr. Rogers said. “We’d save a lot of money if we canceled those.”

  “Don, isn’t that a little extreme? If you lose your job and go on unemployment benefits, then, yes, I’ll cancel the phones. But that’s how I stay in touch with them. I don’t want them to be without phones unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

  Caitlin didn’t want to hear anymore. It was so depressing. She tiptoed down the hall, toward her room.

  “Hey, Peaches,” her dad said.

  Caitlin turned around. “Oh. Hi.”

  “Glad to see you’re home. How was your first day?”

  Caitlin didn’t want to add to her parents’ problems. “It was fine,” she replied quickly. “How come you’re home so early?”

  “Oh, I had a dentist appointment, so I took the afternoon off. My teeth are all clean and shiny, see?” He gave her a big grin.

  “Very nice.”

  Caitlin’s mom came out into the hallway. “Honey, it’s your turn to help me with dinner. Put your things away, wash up, and then come down, all right?”

  “Okay. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

  As Caitlin washed her hands in the bathroom, she looked at herself in the mirror. She wasn’t sure what was worse, making a fool of herself at school or hearing her parents argue about money. At least at school she had the opportunity to make things better. There wasn’t anything she could do to help her parents with their finances.

  Caitlin decided Jade was right. She had to find ways to get involved in things at school. Not only would it help her to make some friends, but it would also give her something to keep her mind off her parents’ problems. She had a feeling home wasn’t going to be a very fun place to be for a while. Especially with no satellite TV.

  It was up to her to try and make her own fun.

  The rest of the week was fairly uneventful. Caitlin had decided to keep her head down and try to be invisible, so people would hopefully forget about her embarrassing first day.

  At lunchtime, she sat at the “reading table,” set up specifically for students who didn’t want to talk while eating lunch but wanted to read instead. Of course, it wasn’t that Caitlin didn’t want to talk to people, she just didn’t really have anyone to talk to.

  Every day, she watched Brie and her three friends having the time of their lives at their table. Two of them bought hot lunch every day, while the other two brought sack lunches from home. Sometimes one of the girls who brought a lunch from home brought treats for all of the girls, like little candy bars or a big bag of grapes to share. It seemed like something Caitlin, Mia, Libby, and Hannah would have done if they were lucky enough to go to the same school.

  When a letter from Libby arrived on Thursday, Caitlin was thrilled. She made herself wait to open it, however, and took it to school to read during lunch on Friday. She told herself it would be good to have something to look forward to. And it was. She sat down in her usual spot, took out her ham and cheese sandwich, and carefully opened the letter from Libby.

  Dear Caitlin,

  Hello! How are you? I hope this letter finds you well. I’ve only been home a few days now and am missing you and the other girls something fierce. I thought I’d write to you first, since you and I seemed to be the most nervous about the new school year.

  I hope things are going splendidly. By the time you get this (since it has to fly over an ocean to reach you), both of us will be back at school. My new secondary school is called Bennett Memorial. I’m wondering what it’s going to be like, being in a school with sixteen-year-olds. The way you do it there in America, with the older teens in high school and the younger teens in middle school, sounds much better to me.

  Did you come home from camp to find any surprises? I certainly did. My best friend, Rebecca, has taken up with a new group of friends. They’ll all be going to a different secondary school than me, so Rebecca hasn’t wanted to include me. I’ve felt fairly left out since I arrived home. She seems to be crazy for one of the boys in the group, and he’s all she wants to talk about. It’s so annoying! Why must girls be like that, all because of a cute boy? It doesn’t make any sense to me.

  In other news, Dexter was so happy to see me. I think he missed me as much as I missed him. We’ve been going on lots of walks together, since my best friend is too busy for me.

  Please write back when you can. I miss you!

  Your Cabin 7 BFF,

  Libby

  Caitlin smiled as she folded up the letter and put it back in the envelope. Libby was so formal in the way she talked sometimes, and now Caitlin could see she wrote her letters that way too. Sweet and proper Libby. Oh, how Caitlin missed her. And the rest of her camp friends.

  A teacher came to the reading table carrying yellow and blue flyers. He passed out one of each to every student. Caitlin opened the blue one first and read it.

  INTERESTED IN GOVERNMENT?

  DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A LEADER?

  STUDENT COUNCIL BOARD MEMBERS

  AND CLASS PRESIDENT ELECTIONS

  COMING SOON!

  STUDENT LEADERS MEET WITH SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS

  TO DISCUSS STUDENT PERSPECTIVES. THEY ALSO

  PROMOTE STUDENT VOLUNTEERING AND DECIDE ON

  FUND-RAISING EFFORTS.

  FILL OUT THE FORM BELOW AND SUBMIT IT ALONG WITH A

  STATEMENT OF NO MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED WORDS ABOUT

  WHY YOU ARE INTERESTED IN RUNNING FOR A POSITION.

  A GROUP OF TEACHERS WILL SELECT THE STUDENT

  NOMINEES BASED ON THE WRITTEN STATEMENTS.

  THE NOMINEES WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR PUTTING

  TOGETHER CAMPAIGNS AND GIVING A

  THREE-MINUTE SPEECH.

  READY, SET, RUN FOR STUDENT GOVERNMENT!

  The yellow flyer said:

  ANNOUNCING THE FALL PLAY

  CHARLOTTE’S WEB: A MUSICAL

  INSPIRED BY THE BOOK WRITTEN BY E. B. WHITE

  DIRECTED BY MRS. SEARS

  AUDITION SIGN-UP SHEET IS OUTSIDE THE

  MUSIC ROOM.

  A play based on Charlotte’s Web. Caitlin felt like it was a sign, after meeting Sonny and Wilbur last week. She was meant to try out for this play, and something told her she would get a part. A really good part.

  As for student government, there was one position that interested her above anything else. President of the sixth grade. Because, she figured, if she could somehow manage to become president, Brie and her friends wouldn’t be able to resist including her in their group. Hopefully they’d stop seeing her as a bothersome bumblebee and more like a graceful and friendly butterfly.

  Caitlin stuffed the fliers and the letter into her backpack and then threw away her trash, wanting to get to the music room before the warning bell rang.

  “Hey, Caitlin.”

  She turned around to find Esther standing there.

  “Oh. Hi.”

  “I wanted to tell you, I’m forming a Battle of the Books team, so we’ll be ready when the books are announced in November. I know you said you like to read. Would you want to be on my team?”

  “Battle of the Books? What’s that?” Caitlin asked.

  Esther tucked her hair behind her ear. “There’s a list of books and each team assigns members to read a bunch of them. Teams compete against each other, answering trivia questions about the books. It’s really fun, and there are prizes awarded at the championship battle.”

  Caitlin looked at the clock on the wall. The bell was due to ring in just a few minutes. She really wanted to get her name on that list for the Charlotte’s Web auditions
.

  “Yeah, okay,” she told Esther. “I can be on your team, I guess. I gotta run. See ya later!”

  Esther smiled. “Okay, thank you! I’ll let you know when our first team meeting is.”

  Caitlin waved and hurried off toward the music room. As she made her way past the table where Brie and her friends sat, she heard someone say, “Come on. Let’s go to the music room before the bell rings.”

  She couldn’t believe it. This was really her lucky day. The fun girls were trying out for the musical too! This was perfect. After all, nothing said friendship more than the story of Charlotte and Wilbur.

  With all of the excitement going on, Caitlin wasn’t paying very close attention. One of the girls at Brie’s table had her leg sticking out just slightly, and Caitlin didn’t see it. She tripped on the girl’s foot and landed flat on the floor, sprawled out on her stomach. Completely embarrassed, Caitlin popped up just as quickly as she’d fallen down. Everything hurt, but she told herself to ignore the pain, along with the snickers and whispers going on around her.

  Just get out of here, she told herself. Fast.

  “Are you okay?” she heard Esther ask from behind her.

  But Caitlin didn’t give her an answer. She rushed out of the room, once again hoping to escape the humiliation that didn’t seem to want to leave her alone.

  So much for being a graceful butterfly.

  “Isaac?” Caitlin called out as she opened his bedroom door.

  Caitlin looked around his room and cringed. Apparently their mother hadn’t been in there in a while. It was like a giant LEGO monster had vomited plastic blocks everywhere. On his nightstand. In his laundry basket. All over his unmade bed. She found herself wondering if he just crawled in and slept there with them. Ouch.

  “Isaac, I know you’re in here somewhere,” she said. “Come on, we have to get ready to go to the soup kitchen. They had a couple of volunteers call in sick, so we’re helping out tonight.”

  “I’m in here.”

  His little, muffled voice came from the closet. She went over and opened the door. A giant green and brown afghan their grandmother had made hung like a curtain from the clothes rack, held there with the help of some duct tape (lots and lots of duct tape).