“Is it about the jog-a-thon?” she asked. I nodded. “Is it anything I can help with?” she asked. A bunch of the teachers and staff at the school were helping with the jog-a-thon. Mrs. Sutton was coordinating the refreshment stand. But I knew she couldn’t help me with this.
“No, thanks,” I said. “It’s kind of personal.”
“Have a seat,” Mrs. Sutton said, motioning toward the bench across from her counter. “I’ll give him a call.”
I sat down and tried to catch my breath. The last time I’d sat on that bench, Jake and Doriane had been there with me. This time I was all by myself. Julie spoke to Mr. Gallagher on her own all the time, but that was different. She never did anything to get into trouble or make him angry. All she did was have trouble in school, and that wasn’t her fault. I glanced at the empty space next to me on the bench. Jake wouldn’t have come with me even if I’d asked him, and it wasn’t the kind of thing I could ask Doriane to help me with. It was about the jog-a-thon, but it was also about my family. Doriane didn’t really know about the stuff with my family. I hadn’t known her long enough to tell her.
“He’s ready for you, Katie,” Mrs. Sutton said.
I took one last deep breath. It was time to face Mr. Gallagher, all by myself.
Seventeen
MR. GALLAGHER WAS sitting at his desk. He stood up when I walked into the room, and he held out his hand. My palms were sweating. I tried not to look obvious as I wiped my right hand on my jeans to dry it off. Then I took his hand. I knew my handshake wasn’t as firm as usual, but Mr. Gallagher didn’t mention it, and he didn’t say anything about my sweaty palms. “Have a seat, Katie,” he said.
I sat in the same chair as I had before. The other two chairs were empty. “So,” Mr. Gallagher said. “You must be excited.” I nodded. “I think it’s going to be a great day,” he said.
“I guess,” I said.
“You know,” Mr. Gallagher said, “when you first came into my office, I didn’t think you could accomplish something like this. You’ve come a long way, Katie.”
I thought about when I’d stolen Mrs. Brenneke’s candy. “I haven’t changed that much,” I said miserably.
Mr. Gallagher shook his head. “I mean it,” he said. “I didn’t think there was any way to pull an event together so quickly. But you were so enthusiastic, and I decided to let you go forward because I thought that it would at least be a good experience. And now look at you. . . . You’ve made Hillside history!” I shrugged. Mr. Gallagher stood up and came around to where I was sitting and sat on the edge of the desk. The desk was so much higher than the chair, and the way he peered down at me from above made me feel very small. “I’m proud of you, Katie. Most people your age are too focused on the little things in their own lives. In fact, most adults are too focused on their own lives to make such a difference. I think it’s remarkable for a sixth grader to have done all this.”
It’s funny how sometimes when someone gives you a compliment, it makes you feel worse than ever. I felt my eyes grow bigger and bigger. There was a pressure behind them. I squeezed them shut and tried to make it all go away. But it was no use. I started to cry. “I’m not remarkable,” I said. “I do a lot of things that I shouldn’t. I’m really a terrible person.”
“Oh, Katie,” Mr. Gallagher said. He reached behind him and grabbed a box of tissues. “That’s just not true.”
“It is true,” I said. I took a tissue from him and held it over my eyes so I wouldn’t have to look at him. “And now I’m crying.”
“It’s okay to cry,” Mr. Gallagher said.
I shook my head. This wasn’t how I’d planned to ask for his help. How could he be proud of a sixth grader who acted like a baby? I focused on the little things, just like everyone else, and now I was crying about them. I knew if Mr. Gallagher knew the truth about me, he wouldn’t be so proud. He would go back to thinking I was just the bad kid who’d stolen Mrs. Brenneke’s candy.
“Believe me, Katie,” Mr. Gallagher said kindly, “you’re not the first student to cry in my office.”
“But I never cry,” I said. I wiped my eyes, and then I looked down and folded my tissue into little squares like I did with the cheese at Aunt Jean’s house. Then I realized Mr. Gallagher was looking at me, so I balled the tissue in my hand. It got shredded and sticky from my tears and my sweaty palms. “It’s just that nothing is going the way it’s supposed to. I’ve done horrible things. I’ve hurt people, and now it’s too late to take it back. Even Jake is mad at me.”
“It will be all right, Katie,” Mr. Gallagher said. “I know it doesn’t seem like it now, but friends fight and then they work things out.”
“But I haven’t even told you the worst part yet,” I said.
“What’s that?” Mr. Gallagher asked.
“My family doesn’t care about the jog-a-thon at all.” I told Mr. Gallagher about Stephanie and the tests Julie needed to take. “So now no one’s even coming, except my dad,” I said. “Doriane’s parents will be at the jog-a-thon, and it wasn’t even her idea. Her stepmother got a babysitter for her little brother so she could be there. But my own real mother has something better to do. She always thinks Julie’s stuff is more important than my stuff. And Julie’s so mad at me now that she won’t even speak to me. We were getting along and now we’re not again. I don’t even really know why. It’s not like I had anything to do with Stanford.”
“It’s difficult for Julie,” Mr. Gallagher said. “She’s jealous of you. Imagine how it must feel for an older sister to see things come so much easier to a younger sister.”
“But it’s not my fault,” I said. “It’s not fair. I want her to come to the jog-a-thon as much as she does.”
“You’re right, it’s not fair. It’s an important day and Julie should be there,” Mr. Gallagher said. He handed me another tissue. I wiped my eyes and remembered how Doriane’s father had told her she was oversensitive, but just then I understood how awful it is to feel helpless. I blew my nose and tried to stop crying. Mr. Gallagher stood and walked back over to the other side of his desk. He bent down to pick up the wastepaper basket and held it out to me. I dropped my dirty tissues into it.
“I need your help,” I said. “Julie says you’re a very helpful person.”
“I do my best,” Mr. Gallagher said.
I took a deep breath. “Well, since you’re a principal,” I said, “I thought maybe you could call Stanford and reschedule the tests. I told my mom she should do that, but she doesn’t want to upset anyone at Stanford. She wants Julie to have the best chance to get into the class.”
“I have a friend who’s a professor over at Stanford,” Mr. Gallagher said. “I can start with him and see if there’s any chance at rescheduling those tests, but I need to speak to your mother first.”
“I don’t know,” I said. I knew if Mr. Gallagher called Mom, she’d talk him out of it.
“Leave your mother to me,” Mr. Gallagher said. “I think I know what to say to her.”
“Thanks,” I told him. It was no wonder Julie liked him. I knew he would take care of talking to Mom about everything, and maybe things would get better with Julie too.
But he couldn’t help me make up with Jake. That was up to me to fix.
Eighteen
IT’S STRANGE TO wait and wait for something and then wake up one morning and the wait is over. The day of the jog-a-thon finally arrived. I let Dad drive me to school. I figured I should conserve my energy for the jog-a-thon. We walked out to the car and I noticed that it was misty out. There’s always fog in the mornings, but the fog seemed a little thicker this morning. I could barely see the tops of the trees.
It was the Friday before Memorial Day, so we had a half day of school. But my morning classes seemed to last even longer than a full day of school usually did. I had French first period, and we were supposed to translate the sentences on the blackboard. I looked at the words on the board, but they didn’t seem to make any sense. For the first time I u
nderstood what Julie must feel like—confused and overwhelmed. There was no way I could think about translating things when there was too much else to worry about. What if the fog didn’t clear up? What if no one came? What if someone got hurt? What if I finally met Sophie and she didn’t like me? What if Doriane figured out I was a liar and told Sophie everything? I bent down and pretended to concentrate on translating the sentences, but it was useless. I just hoped Madame Saffron didn’t walk by me and see my blank page.
After French came math and then biology. I watched the clock carefully during bio, because I was leaving halfway through class to go over to the high school. Mr. Gallagher had given Doriane and me special permission to leave early. I looked up and watched the clock change. Once it hit eleven thirty, I got up. My teacher, Mr. Rosenbaum, nodded at me as I walked out.
I hadn’t seen Jake, except during homeroom. I heard a lot of kids talking about the jog-a-thon in between classes, so he must have remembered it was today. Doriane met me at my locker. I packed up my backpack for the weekend, and we walked over to the high school together. The sky was blue and clear. I looked up as I walked and stumbled a little.
“Are you nervous?” Doriane asked. I could tell she was nervous because she was playing with her hair again.
“Yeah, I’m nervous too,” I admitted. It would have been awful if I’d fallen and sprained my ankle. Then I wouldn’t have been able to run at all. I stopped looking at the sky and started concentrating on where we were going.
As we approached the high school, I saw our sign, flapping a little in the breeze. We had ordered it from Doriane’s father’s company: EMILYS RUN—THE HILLSIDE MIDDLE SCHOOL JOG-A-THON. The names of the Super Sponsors were listed in smaller letters underneath. I saw the names of Dad’s company and Doriane’s father’s company, and Aunt Jean’s name. Signage, just like Aunt Jean had said. I hoped all the Super Sponsors would be happy with it.
Mr. Gallagher was on the track. He was talking to another man right by the bleachers. He looked up and saw Doriane and me and waved us over. “Katie, Doriane, this is Alan Manning. He’s the principal here at Redwood High.”
I shook Mr. Manning’s hand. “Thanks for letting us use the track,” I said.
“My pleasure,” Mr. Manning said.
Doriane and I got to work. We had to set up the refreshment area and hang up a few more signs. Mrs. Sutton from Mr. Gallagher’s office was at the refreshment stand already. We helped her unload the stuff kids had made. There were a lot of cupcakes and cookies. Doriane and I didn’t really have time for lunch, but Mrs. Sutton let us each have some juice and a cupcake so we would have energy for the jog-a-thon. The runners would be getting free water, too. “Make sure you drink a lot of water, girls,” she said. “I don’t want you getting dehydrated when you run.”
Before long, people started arriving. At first it was just high schoolers, who got out of class at noon. The high school has a requirement that the students do a certain amount of community service each year, and Mr. Manning was giving community service credit to kids who volunteered to help at the jog-a-thon, so a bunch of high school students were going to help out. I also saw members of the high school band off to the side. I could tell who they were because they were in bright red-and-white uniforms. Doriane and I kept looking at each other and shaking our heads. It was hard to believe that it was all really happening.
Finally the kids from Hillside arrived, walking over in one huge group. Some parents started arriving too. I saw Mrs. O come in and take a seat in the bleachers. I thought it was nice of her to come even though Jake wasn’t running. I wondered where Aunt Jean was. She had driven into San Francisco to get Sophie almost two hours before. It shouldn’t take so long to go from Redwood City to San Francisco and back.
“Hey, Katie,” Julie called. I turned and saw her walking toward me. Julie’s friends Val, Jennie, and Allison were with her. I was so happy to see Julie. Mom had announced a couple nights earlier that she had talked to Mr. Gallagher and had been able to reschedule Julie’s tests. Mr. Gallagher’s friend who was a professor had offered to come in on a Saturday and supervise Julie taking the tests so she could spend Friday at the jog-a-thon. “It’s really the best possible scenario,” I had heard Mom tell Dad before she had even told Julie and me. I was standing at the edge of the stairs, just out of their view, so I could hear everything Mom said but she didn’t know I was there. “Julie will get to take the tests by herself, so she won’t feel pressured by other kids around her. Besides, it’s important that she go to the jog-a-thon.” I heard Dad agree with her, and I ran upstairs to tell Julie. She was hiding out in her room as usual, and when I knocked on her door, she shouted at me to go away. But I went in anyway.
“Mom says you can come to the jog-a-thon,” I told her. I was practically whispering. Even though Mom and Dad were downstairs, I was afraid they would hear me and then maybe they would change their minds.
“Give me a break,” Julie said.
“No,” I said. “I swear. I talked to Mr. Gallagher about it, and he must have talked to Mom, because I just heard her tell Dad that you were going.”
Later that night Mom made the official announcement to Julie and me. But I sort of didn’t believe it until I saw Julie actually walk onto the high school track the day of the jog-a-thon. She was in tight black running pants that came down to just below her knees. There was baby blue stitching on the seams of her pants, and her shirt was the same color blue as the stitching. Leave it to Julie to have the perfect outfit for a jog-a-thon. I didn’t even know that she ever exercised.
“I’m glad you’re here,” I told Julie. I never really say things like that to Julie, and she looked surprised, but then she smiled.
“Me too,” she said. “I’m sorry I’ve been so mean.”
“It’s okay,” I said. “I know the school stuff is hard.” I hoped she wouldn’t be mad that I’d brought up school. I knew she hated that it was hard for her and not hard for me. “I mean, at least the tutoring stuff is almost over.”
“Well, I still have to meet with Stephanie even after I finish the tests,” Julie said. “But I guess she’s not all bad. After the Stanford stuff is over with, she wants me to take her to the mall. She said I owe her, since she helped me with reading and all that, and she needs help with fashion.”
“That’s really cool,” I said. “You’re good at helping people with fashion.”
“Thanks,” Julie said.
I wasn’t sure what to do next. It would have been too weird to hug her. “Have you seen Aunt Jean yet?” I asked.
“No,” Julie said. “But look—there’s Mom and Dad.” I looked where Julie was pointing. Mom was holding her hand up to shield her eyes from the sun. She turned her head from side to side, scanning the crowd. I figured she was looking for Julie. She probably wanted to remind her about something Stephanie had said. I could tell when she spotted us, because she dropped her hand and began to walk more quickly toward Julie and me.
“Katie,” Mom said, “I’ve been looking for you.” Looking for me! I could barely believe it. “Aunt Jean just called from the car,” Mom said. “She and Sophie ran into some traffic but they’ll be here any minute. She didn’t want you to be worried.”
“Thanks,” I said.
“Speaking of the devil,” Dad said, “look. There she is. Jean! Jean, we’re over here!”
I turned around and saw Aunt Jean, and the girl next to her who had to be Sophie. She was really tiny. I could hardly believe we were the same age. She was in a tank top and cropped pants like Julie’s, except Sophie’s pants were light pink and they weren’t as tight. Her clothes looked great, although I bet she still shopped in the children’s department. But her face looked exactly like the picture she’d once sent me. “Sophie!” I called out. I ran over to her and hugged her even though I was really just meeting her for the first time. It felt like I’d known her much longer.
“So this is Sophie,” Dad said. “You know, you’re quite famous in our
house.” Sophie blushed, but I could tell she was pleased.
“I like your outfit,” Julie told her.
“Thanks,” Sophie said.
“You must get the best clothes in New York.”
“Yeah,” Sophie said. “But actually this isn’t from New York at all. My grandmother got it for me in Florida.”
Mr. Gallagher came over to say hello to my parents. “You have two wonderful daughters,” he said.
“I know,” Mom said. She patted me on the back.
“So, what do you think, Katie?” Mr. Gallagher asked. “Is today everything you hoped for?”
I looked around. There were Mom, Dad, and Julie, and Aunt Jean, and Doriane. Julie’s friends were standing right by us, and beyond that were all my teachers and all the other kids I went to school with. Even Sophie was there. Almost all the important people in my life were standing there, all in the same place. But I wished Jake were there too, no matter how hard I tried not to think about it. I didn’t know how to answer Mr. Gallagher. Luckily, Mr. Manning came over to say it was time to get started.
“Are you all set, Katie?” Mr. Gallagher asked. I was supposed to go with him to announce the start of the jog-a-thon. He had asked Doriane if she wanted to help too, but Doriane had said she didn’t want to get up in front of all those people. But I wasn’t scared.
“I’m all set,” I said.
Mr. Gallagher and I went to the center of the track, where the podium had been set up. He welcomed everyone and talked about how important it was for Hillside to give to the kids who were in the Mexican earthquake. He spoke about Emily and the newspaper article that got it all started. Then he told everyone to run safely and drink a lot of water. I looked over at the crowd of students as Mr. Gallagher spoke. The track was packed. Almost everyone from Hillside was running. The track team wore special shirts with the names of the Super Sponsors listed on back. That’s when I saw Jake.
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