by Sally Warner
That was it for Alfie. “I don’t think you can be a party pooper if the party never happens in the first place,” she pointed out in a loud voice. “And don’t you have to be there to, um, poop the party?”
Uh-oh, she thought, her mouth starting to twitch. Don’t laugh, she told herself. That would just make everything worse!
If that was even possible.
But it was too late, because a couple of other girls were already giggling.
And Lulu heard them.
“Like you were ever gonna be invited, Alfie Jakes,” Lulu said, whirling around. “Stop laughing, you guys!” she yelled, stomping her foot—like a kindergarten baby, Alfie couldn’t help but think.
And just like that, she felt sorry for Lulu.
Sure, Lulu had messed up and done something wrong, bragging about her sleepover the way she had.
Making Bella cry.
Hurting other girls’ feelings.
Blaming Alfie for no reason.
And then trying to get the other girls to punish her.
But she knew Lulu Marino. And being laughed at was something that Lulu could not stand.
“I’m sorry about your party,” Alfie called after Lulu as the angry girl stormed her way across the playground. “Really, Lulu! Because it sounded like the best sleepover ever!”
But Lulu didn’t answer.
15
Ready for a Party
“So, it’s over, right?” Alfie’s mom asked that Thursday night as she and Alfie were making dinner. Tuesdays and Thursdays were Alfie’s evenings to help prepare the meal. EllRay got Mondays and Wednesdays. “Lulu’s sleepover has been called off,” Mrs. Jakes said, spelling it out. “Things must have started to settle down today.”
If you say so, Alfie wanted to tell her mom, though rude comments like that did not fly in her house. They led to family meetings, heart-to-heart talks, and, worst of all, “consequences.” Mr. and Mrs. Jakes were big on consequences when their kids did something wrong.
But things had not “settled down” in Mr Havens’s class that day. And Alfie was feeling frazzled.
Lulu still believed that Alfie was the one who had tattled about the sleepover.
And Suzette Monahan was as mad as Lulu that there wasn’t going to be a party.
And Phoebe—one of the upset girls whose parents had made last night’s phone calls—blushed each time Alfie looked her way.
And Arletty, the other upset girl, was sad that everyone else was sad.
And Bella had been jumpy all day.
“Alfie?” Mrs. Jakes was saying, pausing as she peeled a carrot. “Things settled down today once the sleepover was called off, right?”
“A little,” Alfie said from the sink, where she was washing some potatoes. She could not look her mom in the eye. She seemed so hopeful!
But Alfie was determined to keep her “in the loop” a little, at least, the way her mother had asked the night before. Life would just be easier that way, Alfie figured.
Alfie Jakes did not like it when life got tangled-up and complicated.
“Why did things settle down only a little?” her mom asked, taking a seat at the kitchen island. “Sit down, Alfie. Talk to me.”
“But these potatoes—”
“Princess could use a nice warm lap to curl up in,” her mother said. “The potatoes can wait. Speak, sweetie,” Mrs. Jakes told Alfie.
“Okay,” Alfie said, picking up the kitten. “Well, like I thought, Lulu thinks I was the one who told on her and ruined her party,” she reported gloomily. “Even though I didn’t do it. But nothing is ever gonna change her mind. I think some girls even believe her. Suzette does, for sure. And Lulu told everyone never to invite me to a party again—all year long. So there goes second grade.”
“They won’t listen to her,” Mrs. Jakes said. “They were probably just afraid to say anything.”
“But a couple of the girls are mad because they were sure they were going to be invited,” Alfie argued as Princess purred in her lap. “So they figure they missed out on one really fun party. ‘The best sleepover ever.’”
“What about the other girls in your class?” Mrs. Jakes asked, tilting her head.
“I don’t know,” Alfie replied as she stared down at her hands. “Some of them blame me, probably.”
Mrs. Jakes considered what Alfie had just told her. “You girls were really ready for a party, it sounds like,” she finally said. “I mean, you’ve been together for a month now, with a new teacher, and that’s something to celebrate. So it only makes sense that you were all ready for a good time. Celebrate the small things, I always say.”
“I guess,” Alfie said, thinking about it. “It did sound fun,” she admitted to her mom.
“Listen. You know I will do anything I can to help you get through this, don’t you, sweetie?” Alfie’s mother asked after a few silent moments.
“Mm-hmm,” Alfie said, nodding. “Only there’s nothing you can do.”
“Maybe we can come up with some ideas,” her mom suggested.
“We only need one idea,” Alfie said. “But it would have to be a good one.”
“Such as?” Mrs. Jakes asked, leaning forward.
“Well,” Alfie said, gazing up at the kitchen ceiling, “I dunno. The only thing that might work would be to have a party anyway. Somewhere else, I mean, because Mrs. Marino says she’s not in the mood anymore. But we would absolutely invite every girl in our class,” she added, thinking about Bella and some of the others.
“Including Lulu Marino,” Alfie’s mother said.
“I guess,” Alfie said with a sigh. “If she’d come. Except then, Lulu would say I stole her idea,” she added, drooping. “And she’d probably be right.”
“We might be able to find a way around that,” her mother said. “And we could have it here, maybe. It doesn’t have to be a sleepover, after all.”
“But we couldn’t have a party here,” Alfie pointed out. “We don’t have enough room for that many kids.”
“I think we could do it in a pinch,” her mom said. “How many girls are there in your class? Twelve, altogether? Thirteen?”
Alfie nodded. “Thirteen. But our house isn’t as big as Lulu’s house,” she pointed out. “And Lulu said her house was too small to hold all of us.”
“I think we could fit everyone in here,” her mom said. “It’s just a question of doing it—if you’d like to give it a try, that is. It would be crowded, that’s for sure. But I think everybody would have fun. Things don’t have to be perfect for people to have a good time.”
“Thirteen girls?” Alfie said, trying to picture it.
“With you as the host, and Lulu as the honored guest, since since she had the idea first,” her mom said. “Whatever kind of party you decide to have. If you’d like to have a party, that is.” She gave her daughter a searching look.
“Let me think about it,” Alfie said. “I’m not really sure.”
Lulu Marino as the honored guest? That was going pretty far!
“Okay,” her mom said. “But think fast, because tomorrow is Friday, sweetie. So if you want to have the party this Saturday night, I would have to get on the phone by tomorrow afternoon at the latest. Of course, we could always wait a few weeks if you’d prefer,” she said, tapping her chin as she thought.
“But everyone’s frazzled now, Mom,” Alfie said. “And you’re right—we’re ready for a party. We earned it.”
“I think you have,” her mother agreed.
“So, I’ll think about it fast,” Alfie said again. “Okay?”
“Well, keep me in the loop,” Mrs. Jakes said, standing up and stretching.
There was that invisible loop again!
“I will,” Alfie promised. “And thanks, Mom,” she added, giving her mother a surprise hug. “You make me have the
best ideas ever!”
“High praise indeed,” Mrs. Jakes said, smiling. “Now, let’s get back to fixing dinner.”
16
Upside-Down Heads
“We gotta talk, Lulu. Alone,” Alfie said just before lunch the next day, Friday, when Writing Workshop was over. Stories that had beginnings, middles, and ends—however hastily tacked on—had been piled up on Mr. Havens’s desk, and the All-Stars were rushing to the cubby room for their lunches.
Stomachs were growling.
A jumble of noise—excited chatter, and Scooter Davis’s and Bryan Martinez’s frantic yelps—provided an invisible curtain of privacy as she spoke.
“Why? So you can lie to me again about not wrecking my party?” Lulu asked, sounding almost bored. “There’s no hope of making it right now, Alfie. So why bother?”
“Because we used to be friends,” Alfie whisper-shouted. “So it’s important. Let’s meet in the cafeteria, okay? Because everyone else will be eating outside at the picnic tables.”
“Okay,” Lulu said, shrugging. “Who cares?”
She’d been like that all morning, even at recess. Lulu was drooping like one of the weed flowers Alfie used gather into scrubby bouquets for her mom.
Those flowers never lasted very long in her small hot hands.
But droopy was better than angry any day of the week, Alfie reminded herself, losing sight of Lulu in the crowded hallway.
The Oak Glen Primary School cafeteria came with its own invisible curtain of noise—and with soapy, greasy smells as well. Alfie spotted Lulu sitting alone at the end of a long beige formica table. She was arranging her lunch in front of her as if she were going to try to paint a picture of it, not eat it, Alfie thought.
Poor Lulu.
Poor mean Lulu, Alfie reminded herself sternly, recalling the way Lulu had acted all week—especially when she’d made Bella cry.
But Lulu wasn’t mean, not usually, Alfie thought. She remembered the long and happy first grade playdates they’d had together—playing with dolls, making their own playdough, telling stories, building fancy LEGO castles, watching cartoons—and playing “Upside-Down Heads.”
Their heads really did seem upside-down now, things were so messed up.
But just the thought of all that fun they’d had gave Alfie some of the confidence she knew she was going to need for this conversation. “Hey,” she said, slipping into the chair across from Lulu and reaching into her own lunch bag with pretend enthusiasm.
She was hungry, but could she eat?
“Hey,” Lulu replied, reaching for her sandwich. “What did you want to talk about?” She was starting to sound a little interested, in spite of herself.
“I’m really sorry about your sleepover, Lulu,” Alfie began, examining her own sandwich with exaggerated care. “Only I didn’t ruin it,” she added, repeating the words she’d spoken the day before. “I wanted to go, in fact,” she said, deciding to tell the truth.
“And I wanted you to come,” Lulu said, as if she were admitting something, too.
“So, what happened?” Alfie asked, her brown eyes wide.
“When Mama and I got the idea for the sleepover,” Lulu tried to explain, “she came up with all these rules, see. You know how she gets.”
“I guess I do,” Alfie said, not looking at Lulu. But she’d had lots of playdates at Lulu’s house last year, so she did know how Mrs. Marino could be at times.
Way too much in Lulu’s business, in Alfie’s opinion. Every little thing!
How long Lulu had to brush her teeth.
How much money she had to save from her allowance each week.
“In her grill,” as Alfie’s big brother EllRay might say, pretending to be tough.
Maybe Mrs. Marino was like that because Lulu was an only child, Alfie told herself now. Who knew? Lulu was kind of like her mother’s main job, Alfie thought—and her hobby too, for that matter.
Think of all Lulu’s super-cute outfits, for instance.
And her bangs, always so perfectly trimmed.
Things like that took time.
And it was a lot of responsibility for Lulu, Alfie thought. She felt sorry for her. Almost.
“See, last summer was hard,” Lulu was trying to explain.
Alfie blinked, wanting to keep up. “You mean in Maine?” she asked, surprised. Lulu and her parents had been gone the whole summer, she remembered. It had been the longest vacation in the world, as far as Alfie was concerned. “Why? Wasn’t it fun? It sounded fun.”
“It was fun being with my grandparents,” Lulu said. “Only I didn’t have anyone much to play with, either.”
“What about your cousins?” Alfie asked. “I thought you had tons.”
“They’re older,” Lulu said, her voice soft with leftover sadness. “The point is, they’ve been friends with each other since forever. So Mama and I were kind of lonely on that island,” she said, poking a hole through what was left of her sandwich.
“Huh,” Alfie said, thinking about it.
“I would have video-called you,” Lulu continued, “only I couldn’t get a signal.”
Wow, Alfie thought—but it was an island! She would have had fun. She wondered if any mermaids swam nearby—if mermaids were real. She could never decide about that.
But she would have left out snacks for them, just in case.
“So when we got back,” Lulu was saying, “Mama told me it was time for us to have some fun. And so we decided it would be a good time to have a sleepover. I partly wanted to do it for my mama,” Lulu confided, like this was a secret. “She likes to plan stuff so much. That’s why her feelings were hurt on Wednesday night, when she started getting those phone calls saying how wrong she was about the party.”
“But didn’t your mom know about the school rule?” Alfie asked.
“She didn’t break the rule,” Lulu reminded her. “I did. I guess I kind of got carried away with the whole thing, once I saw how much everyone wanted to go to my party.”
“Uh-huh,” Alfie said, nodding. “I kind of get that. But how come you had to go and make Bella cry the way you did?”
“I didn’t have to,” Lulu admitted. “But I wanted to—when I saw her in the restroom that day. She kind of made me feel bad, looking so sad and lonely. And that made me mad for some reason. I don’t know why,” she added with a tiny shrug. “Just like I don’t know why I said you weren’t my friend anymore,” she added softly, looking away.
Alfie held her breath.
17
Even
“I’m sorry I said you weren’t my friend anymore,” Lulu said again.
In front of everyone, Alfie added silently. “Oh, did you say that?” she asked out loud, kicking the cafeteria chair with her sneaker. “I guess I didn’t hear.”
“Yeah, you did,” Lulu said, laughing. “But the point is, I didn’t mean it. So do you forgive me?”
“You meant it a little bit,” Alfie said, her voice quiet. “For a second, at least.”
“But being mad at someone for a second doesn’t count,” Lulu said. “Not for Upside-Down Heads like us,” she added, and she slid Alfie a pleading look.
“Why did you say it?” Alfie asked as she remembered the awful moment.
“Like I said before, I got carried away,” Lulu said.
“Well, can you quit getting carried away?” Alfie asked, only half joking.
“I can try,” Lulu said.
“Okay, then,” Alfie said. “But getting back to before, I think your cousins not wanting to play with you should have made you want to be nice to Bella.”
“But it didn’t,” Lulu said, frowning a little. “So, okay, I yelled at Bella for no reason. And I guess I’m sorry.”
“Tell Bella that,” Alfie said. “And then we’ll be even.”
“Okay. Maybe,” Lulu said as
she opened a small bag of grapes and popped one into her mouth. “But how come you want that so much?”
“Because it’s the nice thing to do,” Alfie said. “Just like it would have been nice if your cousins played with you last summer.”
“And not kept ditching me,” Lulu chimed in. “On an island. Like, who was I supposed to play with? The rocks? And it kept raining!”
“So, tell Bella you’re sorry,” Alfie said again.
“Okay, okay,” Lulu said with a dramatic sigh. “I’ll apologize. I promise. But we’re still stuck with no party,” she added, scooping her lunch trash back into its crumpled brown paper bag.
“Maybe we are, and maybe we aren’t,” Alfie said, thinking.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lulu asked.
And Alfie told her the basic idea.
“So let me get this straight,” Lulu Marino said a few minutes later. “You want to have a party tomorrow—at your house? And invite all the girls in our class?”
Alfie nodded. “Because that was such a great idea you had,” she told Lulu.
“And that’s why you would be, like, the honored guest at the party,” Alfie went on.
“Really?” Lulu asked.
“Mm-hmm,” Alfie said, nodding some more. “But I wanted to check it out with you first.”
“What kind of party?” Lulu asked. She was starting to get excited.
“I dunno yet,” Alfie admitted.
“Not a sleepover,” Lulu said. “Because I want to be the first one in our class to have a sleepover—like the big girls have.”
“Okay,” Alfie agreed. “But what else sounds like fun?”
Lulu shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe something kinda like a sleepover,” she said slowly. “A party where you get to wear your cutest jammies. And then just eat something and go home.”
“Yeah,” Alfie said, picturing it. “The girls could come wearing their awesomest jammies. And eat breakfast, maybe. With no sleeping over.”