Owen 1 picked Robert Walters, and Grace F. picked Grace L., but the big surprise was Mimi’s turn. She picked Sunni. Nobody said anything, but I could tell that everyone was shocked. They were all thinking, Why didn’t she pick Grace? I was the only one who knew the answer.
Sunni is not my favorite person, so I was pretty sure Mimi picked her on purpose to punish me! My face felt hot. I knew it was red. I looked down at my desk to hide it. I don’t know if it was true or not, but I felt like everyone was staring at me. When it was Mimi’s next turn, she picked Sammy. Grace F. looked at me from the front of the room and moved her eyebrows up and down. I could tell that she was asking if I wanted her to pick me. I nodded and then slumped in my seat. At least being on Grace F.’s team would be okay. But that didn’t happen, because when it was Owen 1’s turn, he picked me!
THE HORRIBLE SURPRISE
I couldn’t believe it. Out of all the teams standing at the front, his was the one team I really, really, really did NOT want to be on, and now I was on it. Even being on Mimi’s team with her being mad at me would have been better. I shook my head. Any team with Owen 1 and Robert Walters on it was not a good team—it was a disaster team!
Grace F. looked at me and shrugged. I stood up. It was not easy to make my feet walk over and stand next to Owen 1. Mimi picked Max next. Sammy and Max were best friends, and they’d been on a team with Mimi before, so that made sense.
The last person to be on our team was Ruth. She’s a girl, but she’s friends with Owen 1 and Robert Walters and pretty much acts just like them, so that wasn’t any better for me. I had one new big feeling about the fair—IT WAS GOING TO BE A NIGHTMARE!
OUR CLASS PROJECT
After everyone was in a group, Miss Lois explained what we were going to do next. Each group had three things they had to do for the fair.
Make up a carnival game that had something to do with the theme of cupcakes.
Work at the fair at their game from eleven to twelve-thirty. After that, our part of the fair was going to be closed and we could go and do other stuff.
Compete as a team in the Cupcake Challenge.
WHAT IS THE CUPCAKE CHALLENGE?
Miss Lois’s class always has a challenge. Anyone in third grade can enter a team and do it, but if you are in her class you don’t have a choice: you have to do it. Last year it was the Bird Challenge, and the year before that it was the Pets Challenge. Miss Lois and the gym teacher, Mr. Clausen, make up the challenge, and it’s always some kind of fun obstacle course or relay race. Last year the winners got to have their pictures in the front hall of the school for a whole week, plus they got special prize T-shirts.
Some people might think that winning the challenge is not a big deal, but they would be wrong. Winning the challenge is important, and probably one of the biggest things that can happen to you in third grade. Everyone in our class wants to win it!
WHAT OUR TEAM HAD ABSOLUTELY NO CHANCE OF
Winning the Cupcake Challenge.
WHAT OWEN 1 TOLD ME
After Miss Lois finished explaining everything, she said we could meet with our groups. Our group met at Owen 1’s desk, which was the only good thing that had happened all afternoon. It was good because Owen 1 sits right behind me, so for our meeting I at least got to sit in my own chair. It wasn’t a big good thing, but when only bad things are happening to you, you notice the good things even if they are super tiny.
As soon as we were all sitting down, Owen 1 looked at me and said, “I picked you because you are good at drawing and you like superheroes. So you can draw a really good Spider-Man for our game.” “That’s awesome,” said Robert, and he high-fived Owen 1, then Ruth, and finally he tried to high-five me, but I ignored him. I was thinking about Owen 1’s idea and getting more and more unhappy by the second. Spider-Man was a terrible idea and I couldn’t wait to tell him why.
WHAT I TOLD HIM
Owen 1 wasn’t listening to me, because the next thing he said was “It’ll be great. I’ll show you pictures. You can copy them.” I turned around and looked at the front of the room. I felt like crying. Here was the best thing of the whole year finally happening, and it was ruined. It was supposed to be fun and exciting and amazing, and instead it was going to be none of those things. It was going to be horrible.
HOW MISS LOIS SAVED ME
Miss Lois was walking around the room listening to all the groups talk about what they wanted to do. After about two minutes at our group she said, “Remember, class, your game has to have something to do with cupcakes.” Owen 1 banged his hand on the desk. “That ruins everything!” he complained. I smiled. It was the only smile I’d had all afternoon.
I looked across at Mimi. She caught me looking. I turned away. Two seconds later I heard her laugh really loud. I know Mimi, so I could tell that it was a fake laugh. It was a laugh to make me unhappy and it worked 100 percent.
WHAT I WAS KNOWING
That I was going to be walking home alone.
As soon as the bell rang I packed up my stuff super fast and raced out of the room. I did not want to be walking home behind Max, Sammy, and Mimi. I ran all the way to the edge of the schoolyard before I stopped and walked. I was the only one on the sidewalk. Being alone by yourself is better than being alone when there are lots of people around you, especially if all the other people are together in a group.
When I got home Mr. Scruffers jumped all over me like usual. It was exactly what I needed. Mr. Scruffers could be one of those dogs that visit sick people, because just being with her can make you feel better.
MY NEW IDEA
After playing with Mr. Scruffers, I decided to make Mimi an apology letter, and not just a normal apology letter, but an amazing apology letter. Making this kind of letter takes a long time. If someone ever gave me one, I would know right away how sorry she was, because if someone spends a long time to make a letter, then she is very, very sorry and you should probably forgive her.
After I finished the letter I found a box and put my two favorite cupcakes and the letter inside it, and took it over to Mimi’s house. I was too nervous to see her, so I put it on the step, rang the doorbell, and then ran home super fast. After she read the letter, I just knew she would forgive me. She’d either come over or call me, so I waited downstairs so I could be close to the door and the phone. Since I had nothing to do but wait, I got my drawing stuff out and drew a comic. Drawing comics usually makes me feel better if I am sad, but this time it didn’t work that way. It just made me feel more anxious for Mimi to call.
WHAT COULD HAPPEN NEXT
After about an hour I told Mom to yell for me if the phone rang, and I went upstairs to my room. After about two hours, I got worried that no one at Mimi’s house had heard me ring the doorbell. Maybe the cupcakes and the letter were still sitting outside on the step. I took Mr. Scrufffers on a walk around the block so I could check, but when we walked by Mimi’s house and looked, there was nothing at her door. The box was gone.
After about three hours, I had some new thoughts. These new thoughts were not good, so I told myself not to think about them, and I went into the living room and watched TV with Mom and Dad. After four hours, the thoughts came back. Sometimes it takes a long time for your brain to believe something, especially if it is something you don’t want to believe. I didn’t want to believe what my brain was telling me, but after four hours I kind of had to.
FEELINGS
At first I was really sad. Mr. Scruffers is a good pillow when your eyes are full of tears. She knew something was wrong, and even though she couldn’t fix it, just having her be there with me made it feel a little better. That’s probably why Mom wanted me in the car with her after taking Grandma to the airport. It’s nice to have someone with you when you are sad. After a while I stopped crying. I was glad about that, because I was getting tired of blowing my nose every five seconds.
Mr. Scruffers was looking at me like she wanted to know what was wrong, so I started to tell her about everythi
ng that had happened. She likes it when I talk to her, and she’s a good listener as long as you don’t say one of her jump-up-and-get-excited words. As I was telling the story, something strange happened—my sad started turning into mad—and not just a little mad, but really mad.
MY REASONS FOR BEING MAD
I made a special note for Mimi and she didn’t even say anything about it.
I said “cupcakes” by accident. It just popped into my head. If people say something by accident, you should forgive them. Because an accident is not the same as on purpose.
She took the cupcakes I gave her and probably ate them. If you are not going to forgive someone, you shouldn’t eat their cupcakes. You should give them back.
But mostly I was mad because of this.
WHAT IS NOT GOOD
It’s not a nice feeling to go to sleep angry, but sometimes you just can’t help it. Before I went to bed I picked up the superhero guessing ball and threw it in my closet. I didn’t care if it was super cool—it was from Mimi and I didn’t want to look at it.
THE NEXT MORNING
I asked Mom to make me French toast for breakfast. Today was a day I was definitely going to need extra energy. Working on a carnival game with Owen 1, Robert Walters, and Ruth was not going to be easy. But Mom said, “I don’t have time to make French toast, but here, I got you these French toast granola bars. I bet they’re just as good.”
WHAT WAS NOT DELICIOUS
The French toast granola bar. Any time something is pretending to taste like something it’s not, you probably shouldn’t eat it.
I left for school five minutes early. I didn’t want to walk out the door and see Mimi walking ahead of me. On the walk to school I got madder and madder with every step.
WHAT IS HARD TO DO
Keep it a secret that you and your best friend are not talking to each other. Of course everyone knew. Some people asked me about it, but I wouldn’t tell anyone anything.
WHAT WAS A SURPRISE
Owen 1 was still upset about yesterday and not getting to do his Spider-Man idea. “Spider-Man’s my favorite,” he said. “I don’t want to do anything else.” He put his head on his desk and stayed quiet. I didn’t want to feel sorry for him, but my empathy feelings started working and I couldn’t help it. I have a mini superpower: whenever someone is sad or unhappy my brain makes me do whatever I can to help that person. Usually that’s not a bad thing, but Owen 1 was someone who was not my favorite, so that made it more complicated.
MY OUTSIDE FEELINGS DON’T LIKE OWEN 1, BUT MY INSIDE FEELINGS WANT TO HELP HIM
“Maybe we can still make it a Spider-Man game,” I said. Owen 1 didn’t look up. “Can it be a strength thing?” asked Robert. “Sure,” I said. I took out a piece of paper and wrote down the word strength. It wasn’t much, but it was a start. “How can we do that with cupcakes?” asked Ruth. I had no idea. “Let’s figure out the game first, and then we can do the cupcake part later,” I said. “Can it be a throwing game?” asked Owen 1. Suddenly he was interested. I wrote down the word throwing next to strength. “What’s next?” asked Ruth. I looked up. They were all looking at me. I don’t know how it happened, but I could tell that something had changed—suddenly I had become the team leader.
THE CARNIVAL GAME
Inventing a carnival game was not easy—especially with my group. I spent a lot of time saying, “No, we can’t do that.”
THINGS I HAD TO SAY NO TO
Throwing really heavy weights
Throwing real darts
Throwing anything big
Throwing sticks
Throwing rocks
Throwing anything pointy
Finally Owen 1 got mad and threw his hands in the air. “What can we throw? Balloons!” He banged his fists on his desk. I looked over at Miss Lois. She was watching us, but she didn’t get up. We were safe for now. I didn’t want Owen 1 to get sent to the not-paying-attention chair. We needed him to help with the game. Suddenly I had a thought. Maybe balloons were a good idea. I wrote down the word balloons. Owen 1 looked up. “Can they be water balloons?” he asked. Ruth looked at Owen 1 and shook her head. “Even I know the answer to that,” she said. I looked at her and smiled. It was nice not to be the one saying no.
WHAT WAS A SURPRISE
Miss Lois telling us it was time to stop working for the day. I couldn’t believe it was already time to go home. “We won’t work on these again until Thursday,” she said. The whole class groaned. Working on carnival games was a lot more fun than regular work. I looked over at Mimi but she was talking to Sammy. Before we left, Miss Lois gave us all forms to take home. The top half was for explaining our assignment, and the bottom half was a tear-off sheet for our parents about signing up as volunteers. Every family was supposed to have a least one parent be a helper for the fair. I knew who was going to do it in my family—Mom loves to volunteer.
THE SURPRISE INSIDE
Mr. Scruffers was not at the door when I got home. This was unusual. At first I was worried, but then Mom yelled, “She’s in the backyard!” What she said next was the surprise part. “Robert is outside playing with her until his mother gets back. Where’s Mimi? I thought she’d be with you.” “I don’t know,” I said. I didn’t want to tell Mom about us fighting. I tried to change the subject. “Here, you have to sign up for this.” I pulled out the school fair flyer and waved it in the air. Mom took it without looking and put it on the counter. “I’ll do it later,” she said. “Go over and put a note on Mimi’s door so she knows to come here when she gets home.”
Having Mimi over was the last thing I wanted, but I couldn’t say that. I pulled a piece of paper and a pencil out of my backpack and walked toward the door. “You can have a cupcake when she gets here,” said Mom. “Okay,” I said. But I didn’t want to think about Mimi or eating cupcakes.
CUPCAKES THAT ARE STILL LEFT FROM MAKING THEM WITH GRANDMA
THE SURPRISE OUTSIDE
When I opened the door Mimi was standing right outside. It was not what either of us was expecting. Mimi looked at the ground. “No one’s home at my house,” she said. “I know,” I said. “You’re supposed to come over here until your mom gets back. Robert’s in the backyard.” Mimi sighed. I pushed the door open wider, and she came in. “I’ll get Robert,” I said. Mimi didn’t say anything.
As soon as I opened the back door Mr. Scruffers came running over to see me. She jumped up once, but then stopped. She was tired. Robert was good at using up her energy. “Hi, Grace!” shouted Robert. I waved back and said, “Do you want a cupcake?” He ran over. “You have the best cupcakes!” he said. “How do you know?” I asked. He didn’t answer and raced past me to the kitchen. Mimi had probably given him one of my cupcakes. It was going to be hard not to say anything about that. I took a deep breath and followed him.
Mimi was already sitting at the table. Robert sat down next to her. I grabbed the plate of cupcakes and put it in the middle of the table. “I’m not hungry,” said Mimi, and she crossed her arms. “Well, I am,” said Robert. “I am too!” I said. I took a cupcake. “I want the kind with the gummy bears on top!” complained Robert. Mimi looked at Robert. “There aren’t any with gummy bears,” said Mimi. “Pick from what’s here. Grace doesn’t have any gummy bears.” “Yes, she does!” said Robert. He was getting mad. “They were on the other cupcakes!” Suddenly Robert covered up his mouth with his hands.
WHAT IS EASY TO TELL
It’s not easy to tell if a grownup is lying, but little kids are different. They aren’t good at it yet, so it’s easier. Mimi and I both looked at Robert and we both had the same question. “What other cupcakes?” Robert looked up at us, and then all of a sudden he started to cry. “It was an accident,” he sobbed. Mimi was confused. She had no idea what Robert was talking about, but I did. My brain was slowly figuring it out.
Robert nodded his head. “Here,” I said. I gave him the cupcake in my hand. It didn’t have gummy bears on it, but it worked. He stopped crying and
took a bite. “What’s going on?” asked Mimi. She looked at Robert again, but he didn’t say anything—his mouth was full of cupcake. She shook her head and looked at me. I took a deep breath, and then told her about the box with the apology letter and the cupcakes. “You wrote me a letter?” she asked. I nodded. “You ate my cupcakes?” she asked. Robert nodded.
Mimi looked back and forth at both of us, like she couldn’t believe what she was hearing, and then suddenly, she looked at Robert. “Where’s the letter?” she asked. Robert looked down and shook his head. “Did you throw it in the garbage?” she asked. I held my breath and crossed my fingers. Please say no.
Just Grace and the Trouble with Cupcakes Page 4