Mom and I were in and out of so many stores my head was spinning by the time we met Jenny at the food court. Jenny had found her friends, Tess and Catherine, while she was shopping and invited them to join us for lunch. They were sitting at a big table drinking shakes when we arrived. The thing I like best about eating at the mall is that I can choose my lunch from whichever food stand I want to. I don’t have to eat the same kind of food as everyone else. Jenny and her friends chose pizza; Mom waited in line for a salad; and I brought a big plate of fried rice and egg rolls back to our table. I love Chinese food.
“Are you going to eat all of that?” Catherine asked.
“Sure. Why?”
“You’re just so little. I can’t believe you can finish that whole plate of rice and two egg rolls!”
“Well, I can!” I hate when people say I’m little. Especially Jenny’s friends. They think they’re so big and grown up just because they’re in high school! I ate all of the fried rice, and I only left about two bites of the second egg roll. When I was finished I showed my plate to Catherine. “See?”
“Good job, kid,” she said. She was getting on my nerves. I was anxious to get back to shopping. Mom reminded Jenny we were leaving the mall at three-thirty. We picked up our shopping bags and hit the stores again.
Two hours later it was time to go home, so Mom and I waited for Jenny. I like the main entrance of the mall because right inside the doors there is a big fountain with a statue of a mermaid in the middle of it. Mom always gives me a penny to throw into the fountain and make a wish. Sometimes I change my wish, but usually there is only one thing I wish for. While we waited at the fountain for Jenny, I asked my mom for a penny. I made a tight fist and closed my eyes. I decided not to change my wish this time. Mermaid, I wish someone would find a cure for cystic fibrosis. Then I opened my eyes and tossed the penny into the fountain. Mom tossed a penny in, too. I wondered if her wish were the same as mine.
Jenny had more shopping bags than I did. “I bought you some great stuff,” she told me.
“Can I see?”
“Of course not! Not until Christmas.”
“Not even one gift?” I begged.
“Nope,” Jenny teased, “not even one. But I’ll show you what I bought for everyone else when we get home.”
I didn’t have time to look at Jenny’s packages when we got home because I had just finished a quick snack when Kelly and her mom rang our doorbell. Mom and I had plans to go ice skating with them. I was tired from shopping all day, but I love ice skating even more than I love scootering. Jenny had a date with her new boyfriend, but Alec decided to come with us. Kelly’s little brother and sister, Hayden and Kristen, came along, too. Kelly’s parents have a minivan, so there was plenty of room in their car for the seven of us. We sang Christmas songs as loud as we could while Mrs. Conrad drove us to City Point Skating Rink.
We all have our own skates, so none of us had to wait in the skate rental line. I got mine on as fast as I could, and then Kelly and I raced to the rink. There were a lot of people on the ice, so we had to be careful not to bump into anyone or go too fast.
“Hey, Tory, look who just got onto the ice!” Kelly was pointing to the opposite side of the rink. Potter, Jimmy, Ryan, and Scott were pushing each other around and laughing. I don’t think they even noticed Kelly and me across the ice.
“Maybe they’ll skate with us,” Kelly said. She was going to the Winter Dance with Jimmy Cullin, and she had been acting like she was in love with him ever since he had asked her.
“Maybe,” I said.
“Jimmy is so cute!”
“I think Potter is cuter,” I said.
“I think Jimmy is cuter,” Kelly said.
I could tell this conversation was going nowhere, so I made a suggestion, “Why don’t we go over and say hi to them.”
Kelly squealed. “Noooo! We can’t!”
“Of course we can,” I said. “Come on.” I took off, not really caring whether Kelly followed me or not. I was nearly run over by Ryan and Scott, who were skating faster than they should have been on the crowded ice.
“Sorry, Tory,” Scott apologized.
“Yeah, sorry,” said Ryan, “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I assured them.
“Hi, Tory.” Potter skated up beside me.
“Hey, Potter.”
Kelly caught up to us. She and Jimmy were already deep in conversation about something. Ryan and Scott skated away, but more slowly this time, so they wouldn’t knock over anyone else.
“Do you want to skate?” Potter asked me.
“Of course, that’s what I’m here for.”
“No, I mean…I meant…do you want to skate with me?” Potter’s ears were red, but this time I couldn’t tell if he was embarrassed or just cold.
“Yeah, sure.” I did want to skate with Potter, but I didn’t want to act silly around him the way Kelly was with Jimmy.
“Good,” Potter said, and he reached down and grabbed my hand. I was wearing my old purple mittens, and Potter had on a pair of green gloves. It’s pretty hard to hold hands with mittens on. I started giggling.
“This isn’t very easy, is it?” I asked, indicating our mittened hands.
“Will you be too cold if you take off your mittens?”
I was warm enough from skating around with Kelly.
“No, I can take them off.” I pulled off both of my mittens and shoved them into the back pockets of my jeans. Potter did the same thing with his gloves. He reached down for my hand again. It felt much nicer that way. His hand was warm. We skated around the rink like that a few times. When we skated past Kelly and Jimmy, I saw that they were also holding hands. Alec skated by us a few times, and I was surprised to see that he was holding hands with a girl from his class. She was pretty, and her long brown ponytail flicked in the breeze as they passed us. Her name was Amanda. Alec was taking her to the Winter Dance. Potter and I had skated around the rink about six times when Potter asked me if I wanted to get some hot chocolate with him.
We stood in line, still wearing our skates. I looked around for an empty table while we were waiting. I didn’t see any. I did see a bench occupied by my mom and Mrs. Conrad and Hayden and Kristen, who were already drinking hot chocolate. Their skates were lying on the floor beneath their feet. I looked at my watch. It was almost six. Potter ordered and then I pointed to where everyone was sitting on the bench. We walked over, and I introduced him to everyone. Mom reminded me that we were going to leave in half an hour.
“I know,” I said. I was pretty sure she would be reminding me about taking my pills again in a minute!
Kelly must have checked the time while she and Jimmy were skating because they were hobbling towards us on their skates. Alec was right behind them, but I didn’t see Amanda anywhere.
“Does anyone have to go to the bathroom before we drive home?” Mrs. Conrad asked. I started to giggle but when I saw the look on Kelly’s face, I stopped right away. Kelly looked like she wanted to disappear. Jimmy made it worse for Kelly by saying, “I do! I do!” I wanted to hit him.
Kelly didn’t talk to her mom the whole ride home. I didn’t blame her. When the Conrads dropped us off, I thanked Mrs. Conrad for the ride and told Kelly I’d see her on Monday. We both knew we would probably talk to each other on the phone at least a gazillion times before Monday so I didn’t even bother to say I’d call her later.
Chapter Twenty-One
On Saturday, I walked over to Liza’s house for lunch. It was getting colder outside, so I had to walk fast to keep warm. By the time I got to her back door I was coughing pretty hard. I waited for a moment to catch my breath, and then I rang the doorbell.
Mrs. Frank served homemade macaroni and cheese and turkey hotdogs for lunch. I sat at the table with Liza, Cara Lynn, and Mrs. Frank. When I took my enzymes out of my pocket, Liza remembered them from the first night I babysat.
“Those pills are so Tory doesn’t get a bellyache from her food,” Liz
a told her mom.
I was embarrassed and didn’t know what to say. Mrs. Frank knew I had been in the hospital, but I wasn’t sure if she knew why.
She just said, “Yes, I know.”
I decided to tell Mrs. Frank exactly what the pills were, just in case she actually didn’t know. I didn’t want her to think I was some druggie and wasn’t capable of taking care of Liza and Cara Lynn.
“They’re called digestive enzymes. If I don’t take them, the food I eat would just go right through me, and I wouldn’t get any nutrition. I’d get sick and I wouldn’t grow.” Mrs. Frank nodded, and I decided to go on. “I have cystic fibrosis.” There, I said it.
“Ah,” Mrs. Frank said. “That’s why you were in the hospital.” It was a statement and a question at the same time.
“Yes.” I guess my mom hadn’t told her.
“What’s sixty...?” Liza started, with a cute, confused look on her face.
“Do you mind explaining it to her?” Mrs. Frank asked. “I know a little bit about it, but I think your explanation would be better than mine.”
“Sure.” I explained CF in the simplest way I knew. “Cystic fibrosis is a sickness and it makes me cough, and it makes my belly hurt if I don’t take those pills.”
Liza was a lot more interested in this explanation than she had been when I brought out my enzymes the first time.
“Do you remember when I wasn’t at school, and Zoe helped Kelly with your class?”
Liza nodded. “You were sick and we made you cards.”
“That’s right. Being sick is part of having CF.”
“Are you sick now?” Liza looked worried.
“Well, not really. I feel pretty good. But I still have CF even when I feel good.”
“Mommy, do I have CF, too?”
“No, sweetie,” Mrs. Frank assured her, “you don’t.”
“And you never will, Liza. I was born with it. That’s the only way to get it. A person has to be born with it.” Liza looked interested but also relieved when I said that.
“I’m glad you feel better, Tory.” She climbed off her chair and came over to me. She put her arms around my waist, and we gave each other a tight hug. “And I’m sorry you got born with a sickness.”
I looked at Mrs. Frank then, and she looked like she was going to cry. I knew my babysitting job with the Franks was safe.
After lunch, Cara Lynn took a nap, and Liza and I went into the den to watch Cinderella, just as I said we would last time I was there. Cinderella is one of my favorite movies from when I was little. The tiny mice are so cute, and they make me laugh. We turned off the lights, and Mrs. Frank made us popcorn, just like at the movie theater. Liza sat in my lap while we watched the movie. It was already starting to get dark out by the time the movie ended. Liza and her dad drove me home, and I thanked Liza for a fun afternoon.
“See you on Monday,” I told her.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The rest of November and December seemed to fly by. It snowed a lot, and everyone was busy getting ready for the holidays. Kelly and I went Christmas shopping in the stores near our houses a few times, and I went to the mall a few more times with my mom. The kindergartners were working on a project to decorate their classroom for Christmas and Hanukkah. Their decorations were in different languages to represent the countries the children were from.
Kelly and I decided to make Christmas and Hanukkah cards for each of the kids in kindergarten. We spent a whole Saturday in my room cutting out construction paper. Red for the girls, green for the boys, and blue for the four kids who were Jewish. We wrote all the cards in English except for the five we made for the kids from other countries.
Writing the cards in French was easy because Kelly and I had learned to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in our first year of French class. Joyeux Noel et Bonne Année, I printed across the front of a green card for Claude. For Gia’s card, since she spoke Greek as well as French and English, we wanted to write in Greek, too. That was hard. We had to go online and look up a translation program for English to Greek. I couldn’t pronounce Kalá Xristouyenna, Efthyhisméno to Neo Étos! Not even spelled out using our alphabet. I let Kelly write that card because the Greek alphabet is different from the one we use, and Kelly’s handwriting is better than mine. We wrote two cards in Spanish, which Jenny helped us with because she was taking Spanish in high school. She wrote Feliz Navidad y Prospero Año Nuevo on a piece of paper for us to copy. We decided to give the kids their cards on the last day of school before Christmas vacation.
* * * *
We learned a bunch of new dances in gym class, just as Mrs. Jason said we would. It was more fun than most of us expected. And certainly more fun than floor hockey or dodge ball. Kelly was good at the dances, probably because she takes gymnastics. I, on the other hand, was afraid I wouldn’t remember any of the steps, and I would be on Potter’s feet all night. I hoped he would be wearing a very old pair of shoes.
A week before the dance Isabella brought a CD to school and told our gym teacher she had wanted to teach us some moves. With Sara’s help, Isabella showed our class a dance called the Lightning Show. Most of my class already knew how to do it, but we were glad to have something more lively than the foxtrot, which was a dance my grandparents did when they were our age.
Kelly and I brought our stack of Christmas and Hanukkah cards to school on the last day before winter vacation. At recess, we passed them out to the kindergartners. A lot of the kids still didn’t know how to read, but Miss Denny thanked us and said she was very impressed with our work. Liza tagged along right behind me as I passed out my half of the cards.
When I was done she said, “Can I give you your Christmas present now?”
I didn’t think we should exchange our gifts in front of the class. I let Kelly know Liza and I would be right back. The kindergarten classroom has a little cloakroom where the kids hang their coats and backpacks. There’s a little bathroom inside. The toilet in there is so tiny! It’s only a few inches off the floor. Liza followed me into the cloakroom and then she went to her hook. Her name was printed on a card above it. Miss Denny had let the kids color their own name cards on the first day of school. Liza’s had a rainbow and skinny red and pink hearts. She took down her little pink knapsack and pulled out a package with a big green and red bow on it.
“I wrapped it myself,” Liza said proudly, “and I made the card, too.” On the front of the card there was a white snowman and the words Merry Christmas Tory! On the inside she had written, Tory you r my favrit baby sitr. Lov Liza and Cara Lynn. It was so adorable!
“It’s from Cara Lynn, too,” Liza said.
“Should I open it now?” I teased her because I knew she couldn’t wait to see me open her gift.
“Yes! Hurry!” She jumped up and down a little and clapped her hands twice.
Very slowly I pulled off the shiny green and red ribbon and carefully undid the tape that held the bright red wrapping paper closed. Inside was a beautiful, fabric-covered book.
“See. There’s fish on it, like your backpack,” Liza said. The colors were bright, and the fish looked almost real. “It’s a book for writing in,” Liza explained as I flipped through the blank pages. “You can write secrets and special stuff in there.”
“It’s wonderful, Liza!” I hugged her. “Thank you very much. It’s exactly what I wanted.”
“It is?” Liza was beaming.
“Yes, it is. Now, may I give you your present?”
“Goody,” Liza said, and clapped her hands together again.
Liza was not as careful with the wrapping paper as I had been. She plucked the red bow off the top of the little box and then tore the paper off. But she was careful when she lifted the lid off the box. Her eyes grew very wide as she pulled out a gold chain with a tiny glass slipper.
“Just like our favorite movie,” I told her.
In a hushed voice Liza said, “Put it on me. Please.” She turned around, and I fastened the clasp a
t the back of her neck. Liza turned back to face me. She reached down and touched the tiny glass slipper and whispered, “It’s so beautiful, Tory. I love you.”
I hugged her again. “I love you too, sweetie.”
Before we left the cloakroom, I gave Liza another present to put into her knapsack to take home for Cara Lynn. It was a new picture book my mom had written, called My Room for Myself and the Things on My Shelf.
Chapter Twenty-Three
There was not much to do in school on that last afternoon before winter vacation. Last year we had a Christmas party in the afternoon. This year, since we were having the Winter Dance, our principal decided we should use the last afternoon more constructively.
My friends and I didn’t agree. Neither, it seemed, did Mrs. Jason. We were supposed to be working in our writing books. Most of the kids were milling around the classroom talking about what they were going to do over the holidays. Mrs. Jason was busy packing things up for the break. Late in the afternoon she called us all to attention.
“I want to give you a homework assignment to work on during your break,” she began. Not surprisingly we heard that old familiar groan from the back of the classroom. But this time the groaner was joined by most of the kids in our class, including me. Mrs. Jason didn’t ignore the groan this time.
“That will be enough,” she said.
Shayna raised her hand, and Mrs. Jason said, “Yes, Shayna?”
“Mrs. Jason, aren’t we supposed to get a break from homework? I mean, isn’t this supposed to be a vacation?”
“You’re right, Shayna, but I think you will find this assignment rather interesting.”
Teachers always think the work they give out is interesting. They’re wrong. Most of the work they give us is just the opposite: boring.
Mrs. Jason continued, “You all remember the question I asked on the first day of school?”
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