I looked around the room and saw that Rosemary T. and Hannah and Abby were already sitting together. They were at a table for four people, but Rosemary W. was sitting in the last spot. That was the spot they would have saved for me last year. Abby was using a cootie catcher to tell Rosemary T. her fortune. They were giggling and didn’t notice me at all.
My feelings started hurting like the dickens. I just stood in the middle of the room and didn’t know what to do. My mom and dad left, and I just kept standing there.
Mr. Harrison said for us all to take a seat, which really just meant me because I was the only one still standing. I sat down super quick and stared right at the front of the room.
“Happy first day of school! I’m Mr. Harrison!” Our teacher bounced up and down a little on his toes. “Let’s start with attendance so I can get to know all of you.”
My name wasn’t for a while, so I looked around the classroom. Mr. Harrison didn’t have any books on his shelves or things hanging on the walls. Every name he called said “Here” until the person sitting next to me yelled “Present!” I jumped on account of the loud voice and the different word.
“That’s a refreshing change of pace,” said Mr. Harrison. “I was getting a little tired of only hearing ‘Here’s.’”
Everyone laughed, especially Logan Dalton. He was the person sitting next to me and the person who’d said “Present.” Logan was in my class last year and was big into vocabulary words. I looked around my table for the first time and saw that I was sitting with the smart boys. That was a weird place for me to end up, but it could have been way worse.
If I had ended up with Charlie at the loud sports boys’ table, he might have called me Tinder and thrown things at me and yelled “Think fast” all the time. Christopher Martin was across from me with his supplies out on his desk, ready to go. He had two rulers, maybe in case one broke in the middle of a math problem. Trevor Watson was across from me too and was already reading, because that’s what he does. He had his book on his lap, so I couldn’t tell what it was about.
“Erin Devlin?” said Mr. Harrison.
That was a name I’d never heard before.
“Here!” called a girl on the other side of the room. She had long, black hair with bangs straight across and was wearing a tie-dyed T-shirt.
“I believe we have something in common,” said Mr. Harrison.
“We do?”
“Yes,” said Mr. Harrison. “You’re new here too, just like me. Where do you hail from?”
“Los Angeles,” Erin, the new girl, said.
“Hoo-ray for Hollywood,” said Mr. Harrison, except he sort of sang it.
“Have you ever seen a movie star?” asked Rosemary T. without raising her hand.
“Lots of times,” said Erin.
“How about a Laker or a Dodger?” asked Jack from the loud sports boys’ table.
“Only when I went to a game,” said Erin.
“Awesome,” said Jack.
“Very awesome,” Mr. Harrison agreed.
He started back in on attendance and called Abby’s name and then Hannah’s. Both times I looked over at their table and we waved to each other.
“Josephine-Kathryn Smith?” said Mr. Harrison.
I started to raise my hand and answer, but Rosemary T. raised hers faster. I got very confused and pulled my hand back down.
Mr. Harrison said, “Josephine-Kathryn?” to Rosemary T.
“No,” said Rosemary T. “My name is Rosemary Taylor, but nobody calls Josephine-Kathryn that name. She’s called Cinderella.”
Mr. Harrison laughed, and I was so surprised my mouth popped open. No one had ever laughed at my name before, except maybe Charlie. Then Rosemary T. laughed, and Rosemary W. laughed to be just like her. A few other people joined in. Now I was very, extremely confused. I’d never thought that my name was funny before.
“Are you trying to give the new guy a hard time?” asked Mr. Harrison.
“No, really, that’s her name,” Rosemary T. said.
“Truly?” asked Mr. Harrison. “A princess in our midst? Should I bow?”
Everyone laughed, and I shrank down in my chair.
“She’s not a real princess,” said Rosemary T., forgetting to raise her hand.
“She just has a lot in common with the real Cinderella,” said Rosemary W.
“This sounds like a very interesting story,” said Mr. Harrison.
“It’s not really,” said Rosemary T.
Kids started looking at me, and I shrank down a little bit more.
“But now I’m curious,” said Mr. Harrison. “Someone fill me in! Once upon a time …”
Everyone laughed very loud and my cheeks got hot and I sank down more. Then all of a sudden I had had enough. I sat up very straight. “Excuse me!”
Mr. Harrison looked at me quite surprised.
“I think we should get back to attendance,” I said. “Mrs. Bentley, the school secretary, does not like it when attendance gets to her late.”
“I see,” said Mr. Harrison. “Thank you for the heads-up.”
“You’re welcome,” I said.
“And who are you?” he asked.
“I’m Josephine-Kathryn Smith,” I said.
“Ah,” he said, “the infamous Cinderella. Or do you prefer Josephine-Kathryn?”
I thought for a minute, wondering which I preferred.
“Cinderella has a nice ring to it,” said Mr. Harrison. “And it’s quite unique.”
I nodded, but kept thinking. Maybe now that I was a big kid upstairs it was time for a more regular name.
“You’d likely never meet another Cinderella,” he said. “Unlike the Rosemarys, for instance, that we have two of in our classroom alone.”
I nodded again, but still wasn’t sure. Maybe my nickname was funny. Maybe people would start laughing at me, like today.
“Who wants to be ordinary and have a name like everyone else?” he asked. “When you can be extra ordinary?”
That extra ordinary thing did it. “I’ll stay being Cinderella,” I said.
“Hoo-ray!” said Mr. Harrison. “I’m very glad. Now let’s finish taking attendance before Mrs. Bentley fires me.”
The class laughed and I did too, liking my name again and feeling a little bit not-ordinary.
Chapter 4
Gladiator Sandals
When the bell for recess rang, everyone jumped out of their seats and lined up by the door. I had to be super careful on the stairs again on account of my slippery shoes and all the big kids racing to get outside. I started sliding over to the four-square game that the Rosemarys had started, trying to scuff up my soles even more.
“Cinderella! Cinderella!” my neighbor Louie called from the kindergarten play area.
I slid over to the fence that keeps the little kids safe from the big kids. “How’s school so far?”
“It’s great!” he yelled. “See you later, alligator.”
“Bye for now, dairy cow!” I yelled back.
I slid over to the four-square game where Hannah and Abby had joined the Rosemarys.
“What are you doing, Cinderella?” Rosemary T. stared at my sliding feet.
“I’m getting my shoes less slippery,” I said. “Can I play?”
“Wouldn’t you rather play with the kindergartners?” asked Rosemary T.
“I bet they’d all slide around the playground with you,” said Rosemary W.
The two of them giggled. I stopped sliding.
“What do you guys think about the new teacher?” Abby asked.
“He’s annoying,” said Rosemary T.
“He thinks he’s sooooo funny,” said Rosemary W., “and he’s not.”
“He sure likes your name, Cinderella,” said Hannah.
“So what does he know?” Rosemary T. said. Then she saw the new girl across the playground and started waving. “Erin! Over here, Erin!”
The new girl walked toward us slowly.
“Hi!” said Ros
emary T. “Do you want to play four-square?”
“Maybe,” she said.
“I love your gladiator sandals,” said Rosemary T.
“Thanks,” said Erin.
“Did you get those around here or back home in Hollywood?” asked Rosemary T.
“Back home.”
“Too bad,” said Rosemary T. “I would love to have shoes like that.”
“Do you have pierced ears?” Rosemary W. asked.
“Yes,” said Erin.
“So do I!” Rosemary W. tucked her hair behind her ears so the red sparkly stones showed.
“Me too.” Rosemary T. turned her head right and left so her blue ones twinkled.
“I like your earrings,” Abby told the Rosemarys.
“We both got our birthstones,” said Rosemary W.
“I like yours too, Erin,” said Hannah.
“Those are awesome,” said Rosemary T. “I’ll get some like that when I can change mine.”
I looked over at Erin’s ears. She was wearing dangly peace signs. “I have a T-shirt kind of like your earrings,” I said.
“You do?” She stared at me very serious. I got a little nervous thinking maybe she didn’t like the idea that I had something the same as her.
“Take Hannah’s square.” Rosemary T. bounced the ball to Erin.
Erin let the ball bounce by her. “No thanks.” She looked at me very serious again.
“Cinderella, right?”
I swallowed. “Yes.”
“I need to talk to you,” she said.
“Okay.” Now I really was worried about my earring comment, which didn’t seem bad to me at all the more I thought about it.
Everyone looked at Erin. She didn’t say anything for a minute. “In private.”
I kind of gulped a little bit again. “Okay.”
She started walking away from us, toward the benches by the basketball nets. I followed after her, and we both sat down.
“Are you for some reason mad that I have a T-shirt like your earrings?” I asked.
“Why would I be mad about that?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “It just seemed like maybe you were.”
“I don’t care about my earrings,” she said.
“I would if I had earrings,” I said. “But probably mainly because I can’t have any yet.”
“Why not?” she asked.
“It’s a long story,” I said.
“Once upon a time?” Erin smiled.
I smiled back. “So what did you want to talk about in private?” I felt a little more brave now that I knew she wasn’t mad at me.
She looked at me very serious again, and I got back to being worried.
“I need advice,” she said.
“I’ve never been the new kid before,” I said.
“I have, tons of times,” she said. “I don’t need advice on that.”
“Oh,” I said. Then I got very, extremely excited, because I was just dying to give some advice. My favorite TV show is It’s Me or the Dog, which stars Victoria, who is always giving people advice about their dogs. I also like it when me and my Grandmother Smith read Dear Abby letters from the newspaper. We try to figure out what we would tell the person before we see what Abby has to say. But before I could find out more, the bell rang and recess was over.
By the time lunch finally came I could barely wait to talk to Erin. When we were washing our hands, Rosemary T. told Erin that she should sit with us at lunch, which was pretty nice. Rosemary T. isn’t the best at including everybody. It might mean I’d have to wait a little longer to hear about the advice Erin needed, but maybe she wasn’t feeling so private about it anymore. She might talk about it in front of other people now.
The line for milk moved very slow. When I finally headed to our table, there was a chair saved for me next to Rosemary T. At least I thought it was saved for me, but when I got there Rosemary T. said: “Sorry, Cinderella. We promised to save a place for Erin.”
“Oh. Okay.” I walked over to the other table. “Is this seat saved?” I asked Hilary. We were best friends in kindergarten, but we hadn’t been in the same classroom since.
“No,” she said. “Go ahead.”
“Thanks.” I sat down and tried to listen to Hilary and Katie talk about a video with two dogs and a cat in it. Usually I would have loved to hear all about it, but my insides were hurting like the dickens, so much that I couldn’t pay attention. The lunchroom was noisy, but even though I was in the middle of a super crowded table and a super crowded room, I felt alone. I chewed and tried to swallow and blink-blink-blinked my eyes. There was no way I was going to cry right then and there. No way with a capital N.
“Erin! Erin!” Rosemary T. yelled, and waved to her. Erin had just made it through the lunch line. She headed over to Rosemary T.’s table and was about to sit down; but then she looked around, saw where I was sitting, and headed over.
She sat right down next to me and didn’t ask if any places were saved or anything.
The alone feeling started to go away, and I could swallow again.
“What’s for lunch?” I hardly ever got to buy lunch, so I was very interested.
“Cheese pizza and pears and green beans,” she said.
“Yum and yum and yuck,” I said.
“What?” she asked, and then she got it. “Oh yeah. Yum and yum and yuck.”
“So what do you need advice on?” I whispered, in case she was still feeling private.
“On wicked stepsisters,” she whispered back.
“Hmm,” I said, very surprised.
“You know about them, right,” she whispered, “because of your name.”
“Hmm,” I said one more time.
“Because I’m about to get two of them, and I really need some expert help.”
I knew I should tell her that I didn’t know anything about wicked stepsisters and that I really got my name because of my shoe trouble. The thing was, I didn’t want her to get up and go sit with the Rosemarys or anywhere else. I also really liked the idea of giving someone advice, like I mentioned before. I just sat there and thought and thought. I guess I thought a little bit too long though, because Erin got tired of waiting.
“If you don’t want to help me, just say so,” she said.
That kind of woke me up. “I want to help you,” I said.
“Good,” she said very loud and final, and there was no getting out of it now.
Chapter 5
High-heeled Shoes with Curlicue Toes
Me and Tess and my mom walked home from school with Louie and his mom and little sister. Louie loved kindergarten and talked a mile a minute about pizza for lunch and the classroom pet turtle. I had a lot on my mind, so I didn’t talk at all. I was thinking about advice giving and wicked stepsisters and what Dear Abby would have to say on this subject.
After we left the Thomases at their house on the corner, my mom said, “A penny for your thoughts.” That doesn’t really mean she’s going to pay me anything, though. It’s just a way to get me started talking.
“There’s a new girl in my class named Erin Devlin,” I said.
“What’s she like?” asked my mom.
“She’s really tall and has long, dark hair and bangs and pierced ears,” I said. “And I’m just mentioning her ears to explain her and not for any other reason.”
“Got it,” said my mom.
“I’m sitting at the smart boys’ table,” I said.
“You are?” asked my mom.
“There were no places left with Hannah and Abby and the Rosemarys.”
We walked in the house, and it just smelled regular—not like chocolate chip cookies. Alas.
“I have some sort of homework to do today,” I said. “It involves watching It’s Me or the Dog.”
My mom’s eyebrow went up just a little tiny bit like she didn’t quite believe me.
“The new girl, Erin Devlin, and me are doing a research project on our own,” I said. “Can I
have my snack in front of the TV?”
“You can if you keep an eye on Tess for me,” said my mom. “I’ve got to get the website to my client today.”
“Okay,” I said, putting some crackers and apple slices on a plate.
Tess and I sat on the floor in front of the TV.
“This is sort of homework, sort of research,” I told Tess. “The new girl is going to get some wicked stepsisters, and she needs advice on how to handle the situation.”
Tess nodded. She sat Mrs. C on the floor between us.
“So I want to watch Victoria very, extremely closely and get some advice-giving tips from her. Then I need to learn as much as I can about wicked stepsisters.”
I took a bite of apple and thought of something. “I better take notes.” I ran to get a spiral notebook from the extra school supplies in my room. I grabbed one for Tess too.
When It’s Me or the Dog started, I wrote across the front of the notebook:
WICKED STEPSISTERS NOTEBOOK.
Tess looked over at my notebook and started scribbling on the cover of hers.
In this episode there was a family with a little hot-dog dog called Wickersham. He was a smidgy little dog, but he barked at everyone. I couldn’t just watch Wickersham, though, even though he was funny, because I needed to study Victoria.
The first thing she did was ask a whole lot of questions, like how old Wickersham was. Then she said to pretend she wasn’t there and sat in a corner just watching the people and the dog. In hardly any time Victoria knew how to fix the problem. She got Wickersham to stop barking; and by the end of the show, the whole family was happy.
Before I forgot anything I grabbed up my notebook and turned to page one. On the first line I wrote:
ADVICE GIVING all in capitals.
On the next line I wrote: Ask lots of questions. Pretend to be invisible. Watch close.
Tess was scribbling in her book too. “Woilà!” She held up a picture.
“Good,” I said. “Now we need to learn about wicked stepsisters.”
I pulled The Big Book of Fairy Tales off the bookshelf. I sat down next to Tess and started reading “Cinderella.”
“Once upon a time there was a little girl whose dear mother died.” I looked at Tess to make sure she wasn’t too shook up by this news, but she wasn’t. “Her father married for his second wife the proudest and unkindest woman that ever was seen.” Now why would a dad marry someone like that? He has a kid, for heaven’s sake; you’d think he would be very, extremely careful who he brought home. That makes me wonder why Erin isn’t worried about a wicked stepmother too. That should be my first question for her.
Cinderella Smith Page 2