Time's Up

by Annie Bryant

  “The closest I’ve ever come to running a business was a lemonade stand, and I drank most of my profits!” Reggie told her.

  Katani laughed, trying to shake off her discomfort. She finished her Marshmallow Treat and said, “Maybe we should talk about our project. I really liked the Egyptian Math unit earlier in the year.”

  “I can’t believe it!” Reggie’s eyes gleamed. “That’s totally what I was thinking! Just this weekend I found this really awesome website on Egyptian Math. That would be so cool! Let’s meet at the library tomorrow right after school. Can you do that?”

  “It’s a plan.” Katani smiled. It was so nice to have a partner who was already ahead of schedule.

  CHAPTER 7

  Stuck Like Glue

  Temporarily banned from her bedroom so her older sister Elena Maria could have a major heart-to-heart with a friend from school, Isabel was sitting at the dining room table, attempting to do her homework. But instead of words on paper, there were bits of scrap paper covered with her doodles scattered around in front of her and on the floor.

  Isabel’s mother and Aunt Lourdes had volunteered to do the dishes so Elena Maria and her friend could have some extra time. Water was running and dishes were banging and Isabel could hear her aunt humming and occasional laughter floating out of the kitchen. The last few days had been good ones for her mother, and Isabel didn’t want to ruin any of it on account of the major homework funk she was in.

  Isabel looked at the clock. For the last twenty minutes she had been staring at a blank piece of paper and hadn’t gotten anywhere. She didn’t even know what book she was going to read. There were plenty of books she liked but none she wanted to write five to six pages on.

  She looked up at the print of a painting by Frida Kahlo, framed on her aunt’s wall. She loved the bright colors of Frida’s paintings. As she stared at the picture, all Isabel felt like doing was drawing and working on her art projects—and she wouldn’t mind joining Avery on the rock-climbing team either.

  One thing for sure was that she did not want to write a book report. She doodled a cartoon of a bird sitting on the edge of a nest, clearly not ready to make the leap, and wrote, “Did you ever just feel stuck?” Just as she put her head on top of her books on the table, her mother walked in.

  “What’s wrong, chiquita?”

  Isabel never wanted her mother to worry about her. She and Elena Maria were supposed to make things easier for their mother. She was about to say, “Nothing, Mama,” when she realized she really needed to talk to her mother.

  “Well, the truth is, I can’t do my book report for English. I have no clue what book to pick. I hate to write….”

  “Shhh,” her mother said, taking a seat next to her and running her hand over Isabel’s long, dark hair. “What’d your teacher say? What kind of book are you supposed to read?”

  “We’re supposed to pick a favorite book to write a five-to-six-page book report on. I can’t do that. Book reports have too many words!”

  “Why don’t you choose one of those myths you love instead?” her mother wisely asked. “And then you could retell the story in a book with your own illustrations.”

  “Wow!” Isabel exclaimed. “That is an excellent idea. You’re a genius, Mama!”

  “Better get your teacher’s approval first,” Mrs. Martinez suggested.

  “I’ll ask tomorrow,” Isabel promised. “I hope she says yes. I know exactly what myth I’ll use: Icarus!”

  Isabel first read the story of Icarus when she was visiting her grandparents in Mexico City a few years before. Her grandmother had read it in Spanish, and later Isabel read it in English. Isabel imagined herself with wings made of feathers and wax and thread like Icarus had. She could see why Icarus was tempted to fly too close to the sun—it was the most beautiful golden ball hanging in the Mexican sky.

  Now pictures started forming inside her head of Icarus soaring too close to the sun, his wings melting, his feathers starting to fall into the sea. She picked up her pencil. She couldn’t wait to get started!

  The So-called Date

  That night in her room, Charlotte knew she should have been thinking of ideas for the math project before she and Betsy met tomorrow after school. But she would much rather work on her book report. She kept remembering their visit to the Anne of Green Gables house on Prince Edward Island. She and her father had traveled so much since her mother died. As soon as she saw the farmhouse she’d read and dreamed about, it felt like the home Charlotte had wanted for so long. She’d envied Anne living on the farm with Marilla and Matthew, and she had secretly been in love with Gilbert for years.

  Downstairs her father was preparing for a writing seminar he was teaching later in the week. He was also in the middle of a piece he had to finish by Friday for a travel magazine. As busy as he was, he did everything he could to make the Victorian house on Corey Hill their home because he knew how much it meant to Charlotte.

  She glanced at the clock and thought she had better get going on her book report. She was starting to think that maybe she should reschedule the movie with Nick this weekend. There just wasn’t enough time for everything. Sighing, Charlotte pulled out her well-worn copy of Anne of Green Gables and started taking notes on her favorite parts of the story. She was rereading the scene where Anne stops talking to Gilbert Blythe because he teases her about her red hair when she had a horrible thought. Would Nick stop talking to her if she said she couldn’t go to the Omni show this weekend? Suddenly, she had to e-mail Sophie, her best friend in Paris.

  TO: Sophie

  FROM: Charlotte

  SUBJECT: What should I do????

  Ma meilleure amie,

  I wish I could zap you here right now, mon amie! We could walk to Montoya’s for a hot chocolate and I could tell you everything.

  Nick asked me to go to the Museum of Science to see an incredible movie on the Serengeti. Of course I’m dying to see it, especially w/him. We’ve had the best talks about traveling to Africa and everywhere else. The problem is I don’t know if it’s a real date or not. Part of me wants that & the other part of me is shaking in my boots! He’s such a nice friend, and I wouldn’t want to change that. I don’t know what to do or think!

  Quel problème!

  The other thing is, I’m really busy at school this week, and our so-called date (he never called it a “date” either!) is in 6 days! Will Nick ask me to go again if I say I can’t go this weekend?? Au secours!

  Tell me about everything with you. It’s so cold here! I miss you! Give your family une accolade from me.

  Love, Char

  Who’s Freaked Out?

  Katani was sitting on her bed figuring out what it would cost to buy yarn and what she could charge for her scarves when her sister Patrice appeared in her doorway. “Telephone, Katani! And make it quick. I’m expecting a call.” Patrice loved bossing her around whenever she got the chance. “Think fast!” Patrice laughed, tossing the phone to Katani.

  Katani miraculously managed to keep from fumbling the phone.

  “Nice catch.” Patrice smiled.

  Katani leaned back and put the phone to her ear. It was Marky, from High Hopes riding stable.

  “I just wanted to check to see if you were going to sign up for Pony Camp this summer,” she said.

  “I totally forgot!” Katani had a sinking feeling in her stomach. She couldn’t believe she’d completely forgotten to fill out the form, even after Claudia had reminded her.

  “It’s probably not too late,” Marky reassured her.

  “I’ve been so caught up in this contest. The deadline is so soon!”

  “It is a really cool contest. I wish I had some business talent, but I don’t.” Marky sighed. “Did you know Whitney made three hundred dollars in one day at Myopia?”

  “I know,” Katani answered dryly.

  “She told me she might enter the contest too.”

  I knew it! Katani fumed. That’s all she’d wanted to do from the beginning: ent
er the contest herself. Her suspicions about Whitney were definitely confirmed. Katani felt her head go hot and she felt dizzy.

  “Katani?” Marky asked. “Are you still there?”

  “Sorry, I got distracted,” Katani answered. “My sister has to use the phone.”

  “Oh. Well, I’ll see you at the next lesson. Good luck with the contest!”

  “Thanks, Marky.”

  As she hung up the phone, Katani felt like hiding in the closet with a blanket and Mr. Bear. First Betsy and now Whitney. Who else was applying to the contest…everyone she knew?

  She looked over at the clock. The second hand seemed to be going faster and faster. Katani took a deep breath. She knew she had style and she thought she had the ambition and drive to make things happen. She was just going to have to work even harder on these scarves to make sure Kgirl was the number-one young entrepreneur.

  “What are you doing, Katani?” Kelley asked, looking at the papers spread out all over Katani’s bed.

  “Working on our pinkie swear secret,” Katani said.

  “Me too!” Kelley said cheerfully. “I’m drawing outfits for Mr. Bear—you can knit them for us.”

  Katani stifled a groan. She wanted to shout, No way, I have NO time, don’t you get it?! This was only the busiest week of her life! But just then her IM message bar flashed with a new message from the BSG. Katani couldn’t wait to tell them all about Whitney and everything. But Kelley was still standing beside her, waiting patiently.

  Katani took a manual on learning to knit and purl for beginners from her desk drawer and handed it to Kelley. “I’ll teach you to knit—tomorrow, okay? You can look at this for now.”

  Smiling, Kelley held the book to her chest. “It’s a date, a very important date!”

  Maeve dumped her book bag out on her oh-so-pink bedspread and flopped back on her luscious pink heart pillows. Thank goodness for all this delicious pink! she thought, yawning. It was times like this when Maeve wished that all her learning problems would just float away in a giant pink balloon never to be seen again. Of course, one day she’d be famous and none of this school stuff would matter, she told herself as she let out a sigh the size of Texas. Unfortunately, she needed major 411 now. She couldn’t believe that her tutor, totally adorable Boston College student extraordinaire Matt Kierney, would choose this week of all weeks to be out of town. But if the BSG were too busy to help, who could she turn to?

  She sat up and started flipping through the papers on her bed, trying to remember what other homework she had. She’d been so stressed out since English class, she hadn’t even remembered to fill out her daily planner. Suddenly, she noticed a bright yellow piece of paper on the floor, half hidden under the bed. “Super Test and Term Paper Prep with Bets: B or Better or Your Money Back. Contact: Betsy Fitzgerald, Honor Student.”

  CHAPTER 8

  A Little Pink Fixes Everything

  As soon as she arrived home from school the next day, Maeve pulled out a pint of strawberry swirl ice cream and a jar of Fluff and mixed them together until she had her favorite perfect pink concoction—Maevelicious Pink Pluff.

  “That’s so gross.” Sam made a face. At the kitchen table, her eight-year-old brother was reading a book on the Civil War and eating a banana covered in peanut butter.

  “That is disgusting,” Maeve said, pointing at his mushy snack, which was smeared on the corners of his mouth.

  “Maeve,” her mother called from the dining room. “What are you two eating?”

  “Just a little Pluff and banana gob. I need some energy to work on my English paper, and Sam is just being disgusting,” she said in a syrupy sweet voice.

  “Well, please keep it down in there. I have a lot of work to do this afternoon,” her mom ordered.

  “Okay, Mom.” Maeve stuck her tongue out at Sam.

  “Which was the first war to use submarines?” he asked with his mouth stuffed with banana.

  “Yuck,” Maeve said. “You shouldn’t talk with your mouth full. That’s gross.”

  “You don’t know?” Sam asked. “Make a guess. If you guess, it I’ll give you some gob!”

  “Maeve and Sam,” their mother called.

  While Sam went back to reading, Maeve took her dish and book bag and headed for her bedroom. She couldn’t stop thinking about what Dillon had told her on the walk home. Betsy had really helped him with his music paper on Beethoven. Now that Ms. Rodriguez had told her she could go ahead with her Romeo and Juliet idea, Maeve wanted Betsy to help her, too, but she was afraid that Katani would be totally offended. Dillon even said that Betsy was keeping files of all her “business” tutoring sessions to use as part of her submission package for the contest. Typical Betsy. It would be on record that Maeve had hired Katani’s competition. How could I do that to the Kgirl?

  Maeve glanced up at the photo of the BSG in the “Best Friends” frame on her night table. Dressed in black striped pajamas for Pajama Day at school, the girls had gone as jailbirds, ball and chained together. It had been so much fun! Maeve grabbed a pencil and began chewing on it. “Idea, come to me!” she intoned. Nothing! Maeve jumped up from her bed and ran to her guinea pigs’ cage as visions of giant F’s danced in her brain. She really didn’t have any other option—she would have to call Betsy Fitzgerald, Tutor to the Desperate. First, though, she had to make sure it was fine with her mother, since she would be paying. “What can I do? Cleo and Caesar, I need help!” she wailed to her guinea pigs as she shoved aside a fleeting picture of a wounded Katani.

  Pink Revelation

  As Katani walked into Think Pink! she realized that Razzberry Pink’s store displayed every shade of pink under the sky. The store always reminded Katani of something out of a fairytale. As she breathed in the sweet strawberry scent of the store, a lightbulb went off in her head.

  Ms. Pink just had to say yes! But first, Katani had to wait until the store owner was finished helping a customer choose a pink suede handbag in the shape of a heart.

  “My little niece is going to adore this,” the woman gushed. “Ava loves pink more than anyone.”

  Except Maeve. Katani smiled as she sorted through the Think Pink! scarves. There were plenty of silk scarves in various pink patterns but only a single knitted one in plain wool. Her heart beat even faster. She could hardly wait for Ms. Pink to finish ringing up the lady’s heart handbag, pink lizard earrings, a book called We Are All Pink Inside, and a jar of some kind of neon pink jam.

  After the lady waved good-bye, Katani nervously approached the register. “Do you have a minute, Ms. Pink?”

  “Of course.” The young woman with the magenta pink hair smiled at Katani. She looked so chic in her marbled pink framed glasses, magenta pink polka dot T-shirt, tight glittery pink jeans, and pale pink leopard clogs. Only Ms. Pink could carry that outfit off, marveled Katani.

  Katani decided to cut right to the chase. After all, she thought, businesswomen have to take risks. “I noticed that you didn’t have a lot of winter scarves. I was wondering…umm…thinking, actually…” Pull yourself together right now, Katani Summers, an embarrassed Katani scolded herself. “I mean, I made a line of mohair scarves in various shades of pink. Like this one.” She unwound the scarf around her neck and handed it to Ms. Pink. Now we’re talking. Katani felt in control again. “But with a beaded motif at the end. Do you think maybe you could you sell something like that?”

  Ms. Pink fingered Katani’s soft scarf. “Well, I think I could, Katani. We do need more winter scarves, and I love these…they’re so…” She smiled. “…deliciously pink. If you could bring in twenty of these by the weekend for Breast Cancer Awareness Week, I’ll feature them at my fund-raiser for breast cancer research,” she explained, and pointed to the poster behind the register.

  Katani’s mouth opened, but it took a few seconds for her to respond, “I think…I mean, I know I could do that.”

  “Think Pink! is a proud supporter of social causes. I want a portion of all our proceeds to go back into h
elping the community.”

  Katani nodded excitedly. This was perfect for the contest! Everything was falling into place.

  “My grandmother Lulu died of breast cancer when I was just a girl,” Ms. Pink went on, looking past Katani into the already darkening afternoon sky. “She loved pink too. You can’t believe how happy it makes me that pink is the breast cancer research color.”

  Her gaze returned to Katani and she said, “I think your scarves will be a big hit.”

  There was one more important thing Katani had to ask. She summoned all her courage and blurted out, “Do you think you can give me a down payment on the order so I can buy the yarn?” Then she held her breath and crossed her fingers.

  Ms. Pink glanced at the cash register. After what seemed like a long pause, she answered, “I will, but you’ll have to get the scarves to me on time. Deal?”

  “Deal.”

  “I’m having the fund-raiser on Sunday afternoon, so I’ll need the scarves that day.”

  “All right.” Katani could feel her fingers start trembling. As excited as she was, the reality was just beginning to set in. Twenty scarves by Sunday! She’d get them done no matter what, she told herself. As she looked at her watch, she realized that she better get to the yarn store right away.

  Space Cake

  Katani practically danced around JB’s Bead, Yarn, and Craft store, filling her shopping basket with all the different shades of pink mohair yarn she needed. The way Ms. Pink had treated her like a real businesswoman gave Katani confidence and completely re-energized her about the contest.

  As she picked up a skein of pale pink yarn, Katani heard the door open. She looked up to see, of all people, Whitney! What was she doing here? Katani ducked her head, pretending to stare intently at some sparkly beads. Whitney was absolutely the last person Katani wanted to see right now. When Whitney had disappeared into another part of the store, Katani hurried to the register to pay for her yarn and make an escape. But when she turned around, a shopping bag in each hand, Whitney was walking directly to her!