My New Best Friend

by Julie Bowe

  "Oh, I know!" Jolene chimes in, sitting down on the grass. "Let's make up a dance about that goofy boy who built wings with wax and then tried to fly to the sun." She laughs. "Typical."

  Meeka laughs, too, and sits down next to Jolene. "Or the one about the wicked goddess who left a golden apple at a party and—"

  "I'm gonna be a cyclops," Randi cuts in. "With Rusty. We're gonna glue a googly eye on our forehead and tell jokes."

  "Fine," Jenna says, looking up from her clipboard, "but you're going to be in my dance, too. All the do-good nymphs are." She glances at Meeka and Jolene. "And I've already decided which myth we'll do."

  "Which one?" Stacey asks.

  "We're going to dance the myth about Gaia, goddess of the Earth, and how she saved her grandson, Zeus, from being eaten by his father," Jenna replies. "I've still got my Gaia costume from Brooke's party, so I'll be her." She makes another note on her clipboard.

  "His father wanted to eat him?" Brooke says. She wrinkles her nose like a bug flew up it.

  Jenna gives Brooke a look. "Don't you ever pay attention in class? Old lady Eddy told us that myth when she subbed for Mr. Crow. First, Zeus's dad ate his five oldest children, then he got tricked into eating a goat and a stone. He would have eaten Zeus, too, only I came along and saved the day."

  Brooke shrugs. "Sounds like a fantasy."

  I snort. "Sounds like a stomachache."

  Randi looks up from dribbling ants. "I'll be Zeus!" she shouts.

  Jenna shakes her head. "In this myth Zeus is only a baby. I need someone smaller." Jenna thinks for a moment. "Tom Sanders is the smallest kid in our class. Plus, he knows how to dance. I'll tell him to be Zeus." Jenna makes another note on her clipboard.

  "Then I'll be his father!" Randi says. She picks up her basketball, brushes off the squished ants, and stuffs it under her shirt. She groans like she just ate five children, a goat, and a rock. "See?" she says, poking her belly. "I got my costume, too!"

  Everyone laughs. Except Jenna. "Fine," she says. "You can be the father. Wear a toga over your basketball."

  "What's a toga?" Brooke asks.

  "It's Greek for bedsheet," I reply.

  "What about me?" Stacey asks.

  Jenna turns to Stacey. "You'll be a nymph." Then she looks at Brooke, Meeka, and Jolene. "So will you. After I hide baby Zeus in a cave, you have to take care of him."

  "But I'm allergic to mold," Brooke says, swatting at a fly. "And caves are famous for it." She gives Jenna a sideways sneer. "Or don't you ever pay attention in science?"

  Jenna rolls her eyes. "Not a real cave, Brooke. "We're going to use—"

  "What about Ida?" Randi cuts in, drumming her basketball belly. "She still needs a part."

  Jenna grins. "That's what I'm getting at. I have the perfect part for Ida."

  I gulp.

  "What?" the others ask, even though I'm perfectly happy not knowing what Jenna has in mind.

  "Ida will be the place where I hide Zeus!" Jenna replies.

  I give Jenna a very serious squint. "The place?"

  Jenna nods. "I hide Zeus in a cave on Mount Ida. Isn't that perfect?"

  "I can't be a mountain!" I say.

  "Of course you can," Jenna says back. "All you have to do is stand still while we dance around you."

  "Won't people wonder why she's just standing there?" Stacey asks.

  "Of course not," Jenna replies. "It will be obvious she's part of the scenery when they see her costume."

  "Um ... excuse me," I say. "I'm all out of mountain costumes."

  "No, you're not," Jenna says. "Just paint a mountain on a box. Put it on. You're Mount Ida."

  "I have to wear ... a box?"

  "Yes," Jenna says. "Like you wore to Brooke's party, remember? Only bigger, so Zeus can fit inside, too."

  "Huh?"

  Jenna taps her pen impatiently on her clipboard. "I hide Zeus in a cave on Mount Ida," she explains. "That's why Zeus has to be someone small, like Tom. He has to fit inside the box with you."

  I jump up and punch my fists into my hips. "I am not wearing a box with a boy!" I shout.

  I hear a gasp from the other girls.

  Jenna's jaw tightens and her eyes narrow like fishhooks. "Fine," she says. "I'll make Rachel be Zeus. She's small and she's a girl."

  "Rachel isn't in our class," I say. "And this is a clas—"

  "My mother is still the PTA president, even though she's had to miss some meetings lately," Jenna interrupts. "If I say Rachel will be Zeus, then Rachel will be Zeus."

  Jenna goes back to her clipboard.

  I sink down on the bench and think about the box costume I wore to Brooke's party. I think about being mistaken for an end table and having punch cups piled on me. Then I think about wearing a box that's painted like a mountain. And standing there in front of my whole class. And all of our parents. And of Rachel squeezing inside it with me.

  "But—," I start to say.

  "Now that we've got that settled," Jenna continues, "it's time for our club meeting."

  Jenna hooks her pen on her clipboard. "First, we need to award leaves for all our good deeds. Whoever gets the most leaves wins the special prize!"

  Jenna sets down her clipboard and marches over to a bush. She starts yanking off leaves.

  "What is the special prize?" Randi asks, scooting in next to Brooke on the bench. She rests an elbow on her basketball belly and starts picking at a scab. Each time she flicks a scab bit, Brooke flinches.

  "You'll see," Jenna says, walking back to us with her handful of leaves. "I'll go first. 1. I picked up litter. 2. I got some kid her ball. 3. I helped old lady Eddy cross the street." Jenna pulls three leaves from her fist and sticks them in her green braids.

  "Your turn, Stacey," Jenna says.

  Stacey thinks for a minute. "Let's see ... I helped Mr. Crow correct some papers," she says. "And I gave Ida my brownie at lunch." Stacey gives me a smile.

  Jenna frowns and gives Stacey two leaves. "Put them in your hair, like me," she says.

  Stacey sticks the leaves in her curls. Then she turns to me. "You're next, Ida."

  "Um...," I say, trying to think of something good I did today. All I can think of is making the bus driver wait for Jenna and I don't think she'll be handing over any leaves for that.

  "Hurry up," Jenna says. "We don't have all day."

  I fidget, thinking. "Um ... I watched gum."

  "You what?" Jenna says.

  I sit up a little. "I watched some girl's gum while she hung on the monkey bars. Saving her from a potential choking hazard."

  "Wow," Jolene says. "I think saving someone from a potential choking hazard is worth two leaves!"

  Meeka nods. "I think it's worth three!"

  Brooke and Stacey nod, too. Randi gives me a drum roll on her belly.

  Jenna just scowls and pulls one leaf from her fist. "One good deed, one leaf," she says. "That's the rule."

  "Since when?" Brooke asks.

  "Since now," Jenna says. "All in favor say, 'Aye.'"

  No one says a word.

  Jenna's jaw tightens. Everyone stays quiet.

  Finally, Jenna pries two more leaves from her fist. She tosses all three leaves at me.

  "Thanks," I say. I stick two of the leaves in my barrettes. I give the third one to Stacey.

  Stacey smiles.

  Brooke gasps. "Ida shared a leaf! That's another good deed!"

  "Yeah!" Randi says. "Give her another leaf!"

  Jenna clenches her fists so tight her knuckles whiten up like marbles in a sweat sock. "No!" she shouts.

  "Why not?" Stacey asks, sticking the leaf I gave her into her hair.

  "Because this is my club and I make the rules!" Jenna yanks the leaf back out of Stacey's hair and jabs it into mine.

  Then she drops like a rock onto the grass. "Take your turn, Brooke," she says.

  But even Brooke isn't much interested in earning leaves anymore. She, Meeka, Jolene, and Randi can only come up with three good dee
ds among them.

  "I say Ida should get the special prize," Randi offers. She sticks her leaf to her scabby elbow.

  Everyone turns to Jenna, waiting for her answer. Jenna frowns, but she opens her backpack. She pulls out half a bag of cookies. Vanilla.

  "Here," she says, tossing the cookies onto my lap.

  "That's the special prize?" Randi says. "They don't even have sprinkles!"

  Jenna's face is so burning hot now that it boils up some tears. "Maybe my mother is too busy to bake, and my father doesn't have much experience shopping for cookies!" she yells. Then she grabs her backpack and marches away.

  We all just sit there for a minute, watching her go.

  "She forgot her clipboard," Stacey says quietly.

  I open the cookie bag and pass the crumbs around.

  Chapter 12

  "I'm going to walk to Stacey's house after school so we can get her stuff for the weekend," I tell Mom the next morning. "And then we'll walk here."

  "If you want, I can drive you there before my four o'clock piano lesson," Mom offers.

  "Um ... no thanks," I say. "We need to ... um ... get some exercise."

  Mom grins. "Sounds good," she says.

  I pick up my backpack and Jenna's clipboard and hurry out the door.

  A few minutes later, Jenna marches up to the bus stop like usual.

  "Here," I say, holding out her clipboard. "You forgot this yesterday."

  She takes the clipboard from me. "I don't even need it anymore," she says. "I've got the whole dance memorized."

  "What dance?" Quinn asks.

  "For the parents show on Greek Day," Jenna says. "My club is doing it."

  "What club?" Tess asks.

  "The Do-Good Nymphs," Jenna replies, shaking back her green braids. She's wearing her nymph fish shirt again. "Everyone's in it. Even Ida."

  "Even me!" Rachel adds. "You're only in the dance, Rachel," Jenna says. "Not my club."

  Rachel ducks her head.

  I give her shoulder a nudge. "Lucky you," I whisper.

  "Me, Rusty, and Zane are doing the Trojan War for the program," Quinn says.

  "How can you do a whole war?" I ask.

  "We're just doing the part where the Trojans get tricked into thinking a giant wooden horse is a present from the enemy army. But really, the army is hiding inside it. We're gonna make a horse-shaped piñata, fill it up with plastic army guys, and bust it open!" Quinn takes a hard swing with an invisible bat.

  Jenna huffs. "The Trojan War is a legend, not a myth."

  Quinn shrugs. "Same diff. We still get to bust open a horse!"

  The bus comes around the corner and Jenna steps up to the curb. Rachel tugs on my sleeve and hands me a sticky note with lots of scribbles on it. "There's no reason to worry," she says. "Everything will be fine."

  Jenna rounds up all the nymphs before school to show us the dance she has memorized. Then, at recess, she shoos some second graders out of the pigpen so we can practice. "Randi, you stand over there and pretend to eat your children. Stacey, Meeka, Jolene, and Brooke, do the dance I showed you this morning. Ida, you stand in the middle and try not to get in the way."

  Jenna makes us practice until the bell rings, which means I don't get any time with Stacey to talk about calling her dad tonight to tell him she's sick. At lunch, Jenna makes us eat quick and then patrol the lunchroom for food fights. During afternoon recess, we're back in the pigpen, practicing.

  Later, Mr. Crow hands out shoe boxes and craft stuff so we can make pretend shrines. Mr. Crow told us shrine comes from a Latin word that means box. It's a place where gods and goddesses get worshipped by their fans. My shrine is for the god Ares because Mr. Crow also told us the Roman name for Ares is Mars and I figure any guy who gets a planet named after him deserves to get worshipped.

  I'm busy gluing a cotton ball couch inside my shoe box so Ares will be comfortable when a note lands on my desk.

  Did you remember to plug in the mermaid Cast night?

  S.

  I glance across the aisle at Stacey and her shrine for Athena, the goddess of wisdom. She gives me a sideways smile. I write my reply and toss it back.

  Yep. Extra early. My dad hadn't even fallen asleep in front of the TV get.

  I.

  I squeeze a square of glue onto my shoe box floor and sprinkle glitter over it for a rug. Another note appears.

  Meet me at the pigpen after School. Only don't let Jenna see you. She wanted me to come to her house this weekend to work on props for the dance, so I had to tell her I'm going to my dad's right after school and won't be back until late on Sunday.

  S.

  P.S. We are going to have so much fun!

  As soon as I finish drawing Ares on a craft stick and propping him up on the couch, Mr. Crow tells us it's time to line up for music. "Why didn't you tell Jenna you're staying with me?" I whisper to Stacey as we get in line.

  "Because she might mention it to her mom, and then it might get back to Kelli, and that might cause problems," Stacey whispers back.

  "I thought the mermaid would make sure we don't have any problems," I say.

  Before Stacey can answer, Jenna steps up to us. "Passing notes during class is against the rules," she says. "So is talking in line."

  She hands a note to each of us.

  Do-Good Nymphs Dance Practice

  When: Monday, after school

  Where: Jenna's House

  Who: All Do-Good Nymphs

  (Attendance is required!!!)

  "Be sure to tell your parents you have to be there," Jenna tells us as we walk down the hall. "Oh, and Ida, you should come over to my house tomorrow so we can paint your box."

  I gulp. "Um ... I can't," I say. "I'm going to ... be busy." I glance at Stacey.

  "Doing what?" Jenna asks.

  "Um ... helping my mom. With some hammering."

  Jenna frowns. "Can't your dad help her with that?"

  "Um ... no," I reply. "He's not allowed to hammer. It's a rule."

  Jenna lifts her chin and I see it quiver a little. "Never mind," she says, pushing past us.

  Stacey gives my arm a squeeze. "That was quick thinking, Ida!" she says. "Good thing the mermaid's helping us, huh?"

  "Good thing," I reply.

  When we get to Stacey's house after school, her Grandma Tootie is snoozing in front of the TV. We sneak into Stacey's bedroom and she calls her dad to tell him she's sick and needs to stay home. Then she calls Kelli and tells her she talked to her dad and he's going out of town, unexpectedly. Then she asks if she can spend the weekend with me instead. Five minutes later, we have all of Stacey's stuff packed up and we are heading for the door.

  "Is that you, Stacey?" Grandma Tootie looks up from her recliner.

  We stop and turn around. "Yep," Stacey says. "Dad called to tell me something came up this weekend, so Kelli said I can stay at Ida's instead."

  "Your dad called? When?"

  "Just a few minutes ago," Stacey replies.

  "Huh," Grandma Tootie says. "I didn't hear the phone."

  "Well, you were sleeping," Stacey says. "So I picked it up fast."

  Stacey gives her grandma a smile.

  I give my shoes the once-over.

  Grandma Tootie picks up the remote and changes the channel on the TV. "Well, you girls have fun," she says.

  "We will!" Stacey says back and yanks me out the door.

  When we get to my house, my mom is teaching piano and my dad is still at work, so we grab a snack from the kitchen, dump Stacey's stuff in my bedroom, and head to the attic. That's because on the way here Stacey had the best idea ever.

  We push boxes to one end of the attic to make a secret room. I unroll an old rug, and Stacey sets the wobbly piano bench on it. "This bench can be the shrine," she says. "We have to make it really nice so the mermaid will want to stay here permanently."

  We hurry downstairs to the kitchen for tape and aluminum foil. Then we go back and cover the bench with it. I find an old strin
g of Christmas tree lights and hang it on the wall behind the bench/shrine. We find some fake spiders and doll body parts and scatter them around because that's the kind of stuff evil mermaids like. Then we run to my room, partly because all those spiders and body parts creep us out and partly to get the mermaid. We set her on the shiny bench/shrine and plug her in. The whole place glows with her evilness so we know she likes it here.

  "We should write her some fan mail," I say.

  "Oooo ... good idea," Stacey says back. She dashes over to my dad's tool bench and grabs a jar of pens and pencils. "I'll get some paper from your room!" she says, heading for the door.

  "Wait!" I say. "I have a better idea."

  I take the jar and dump out the pens and pencils. "Fill this up with water in the bathroom," I say, handing her the empty jar. "And grab a roll of toilet paper. I'll get some markers."

  Stacey gives me a puzzled look.

  "Mermaids live in water, right?" I say.

  Stacey nods.

  "So, if you want to send a mermaid fan mail, the best way is with water."

  Stacey still looks confused, but she flies out the door with the jar.

  I run to my room and dig through my desk. I find two purple markers that smell like sour grape gummy worms.

  I head for the door. I stop and give George a smile.

  George does not give me one back.

  "Don't be jealous, George," I say. "Someday I'll build you a shrine, too."

  George doesn't budge.

  I take off for the attic, sniffing my markers the whole way.

  Stacey sets the jar of water next to the mermaid and I hand her a marker. We tear off some toilet paper and get busy writing.

  Dear Mermaid,

  We built this shrine just for you.

  It took almost 1 hour or 2.

  Do you like it? We do!

  -Stacey

  Dear Mermaid,

  We are gour biggest fans. Let us know if you need a new Light bulb or anything.

  Ida

  We crumple up our notes and drop them into the jar. Right away the water turns a very magical purple.

  Stacey gasps. "The mermaid did that!"

  I nod.

  A minute later, our writing fades away and all that's left is the paper, floating like clouds in a magical purple sky.