Just Grace and the Flower Girl Power

by Charise Mericle Harper

  Mom waited in the car while I ran upstairs to get my money. SURPRISE! You CAN buy a great wedding present for less than twenty dollars!

  The second surprise was not so good. Cat treats can be really expensive, especially the ones that Luke had picked out. No wonder Crinkles liked them.

  I told Mom I was getting Crinkles some treats so he could feel special on Augustine Dupre’s big day. Mom smiled and said, “You’re such a big animal lover. I’m proud of you.” I didn’t tell her there was more, and that I actually had a whole big wedding plan. Sometimes it’s better and safer to keep some things a surprise.

  MIMI’S CAT FLOWER

  It was perfect! I loved it! For sure Crinkles wasn’t going to love it. Hopefully I could help him with bribery!

  WHAT I REALLY HATE

  Sunday spaghetti. Mom said I could just have butter and not eat the sauce. That was because Dad forgot that I don’t like squash. Mom said that if I did like squash I would have loved it, because it was delicious! Mom was happy, Dad was happy, and because I didn’t have to eat the squash, I guess I was happy too.

  WHAT THERE WAS NO TIME FOR

  I didn’t have time to do another comic for Mr. Frank. Even though I had interviewed Dad and I had the idea in my head, there wasn’t time to draw it. Sometimes not everything can get crossed off a list like you want it to be.

  MONDAY

  Not every day is exciting. Some days are just normal, regular days. Sometimes if you have had a lot of really busy days in your life, it’s nice to have a regular day. Today was one of those.

  THE BAD THING ABOUT TODAY

  After school, I couldn’t find Crinkles, and I really needed to start him on his flower wearing practice! Sometimes when you put new things on cats they go all floppy and won’t move. I know this because I once tried to have Crinkles wear a hat. He just fell on the floor and lay there like the hat weighed 1,000 pounds—which of course it didn’t!

  THE GOOD THING ABOUT TODAY

  I finished another comic for Mr. Frank.

  THE FLYING DONUT

  TUESDAY

  Tuesday starts with T and so does terrific! So far the comics club has done forty-three comics. That’s amazing and terrific! They are not all excellent, but still, forty-three is a lot. Mr. Frank is even more excited about the project than he was last week. He said he is going to try to have the school let us have a special art show night with invitations and snacks and maybe even music.

  WHAT CRINKLES CAN DO

  Crinkles can be bribed with his favorite cat treats. After school I went looking for him. As soon as I saw him I shook the little can of treats. I’m lucky he is already trained about the sound. He knows it from Luke doing it, and today it worked like magic. He walked right up to me.

  Crinkles was not excited about looking beautiful. As soon as I put the flower on his collar he flopped over onto his side and tried to get it off with his paws. I had to give him lots of treats to make him stop. Finally he sat up, probably because it was easier to eat the treats that way. My insides shouted, “Yay, Crinkles!” I tried to get him to walk, but he wouldn’t do it. I put a treat down about a foot away from him, but he wouldn’t stand up and walk over to it. I think he might have stopped being hungry. Next time I’d have to remember not to fill him up with so many treats right at the beginning. That and bring a camera. Mimi needed to see how cute he looked wearing her flower.

  WEDNESDAY

  Miss Lois doesn’t care one bit that I have a lot of wedding planning to do. If she did she would not have given me so much homework. I told her I was too busy getting ready for Augustine Dupre’s wedding to do three math pages tonight, but she didn’t change her mind. “That’s fine,” she said. “Just bring a note from home if you can’t do the homework.” Mom is never going to give me a note. I bet Miss Lois knew that!

  THE WEDDING PROBLEM SOLVER

  I wasn’t even thinking about my Crinkles wedding escape problem when I got the answer of how to fix it. It just popped right into my head. It wasn’t going to be easy, but if I could get the right help, it would work. I was sure of it. Now all I had to do was to get Sammy Stringer to say yes. Hopefully he was like Crinkles and could be bribed too.

  WHAT SAMMY SAID

  As soon as I asked him, Sammy said, “NO!” It was a big no—the kind that seems like it could never be turned into a yes, but I know Sammy, so I tried again. “You won’t have to stand even close to Crinkles,” I said. “Plus I’m paying.” “What kind of pay?” asked Sammy. I quickly thought about my money at home and how much I had left over. “Uh ... four dollars and twenty-six cents,” I said. Sammy thought for a moment. He shuffled his feet then said, “Well, I do need to get more gum for my project. Do you swear that the cat is not going to come even close to me? “Not anywhere near. Hand over my heart,” I said. “I swear!” “Okay,” said Sammy, “I’ll do it, but don’t tell anyone. I don’t want anyone to see me.” He turned and started to walk away. I ran after him. "And don’t forget, you have to wear the oven mitts!” “I know! I know!” said Sammy. "And the other stuff too.” I watched him go. I was happy ... but wondering. Sammy is like that.

  MAKING THINGS RIGHT WITH MAX

  A good friend does not let a whole week go by without trying to fix a hurt friend’s feelings. Even though Max and I are not best friends, we still see each other a lot, so him being mad at me was not good. I couldn’t tell if he was still upset with me, so I was a little nervous when I went up to talk to him. Mimi said to be brave, so I tried that. “Be brave, Grace, be brave!” I said it to myself five times over so I could have more brave energy. When Max saw me he sort of smiled—so that helped too.

  WHAT I ASKED MAX TO DO

  I took a deep breath, closed my eyes for a second, and then said, “If you have time on Sunday, I really need help with Mr. Scruffers. I need someone to be in control of her at Augustine Dupre’s wedding.” Max smiled. “I’m really good with dogs,” he said. “I can do it!” I was glad he said yes, and secretly double glad that he didn’t ask for money.

  THE TWO OTHER GREAT THINGS THAT HAPPENED TODAY

  Five new people have joined the comics club. So far we have made fifty-three comics! Mr. Frank said that he is 100 percent sure that we will be able to get one hundred comics done!

  During Flower Cat training today Crinkles walked six steps! Mimi has to fix the flower, though, because he pulled off one of the petals while I was trying to get it on his collar. He’s fast with the claws!

  THURSDAY

  I forgot all about Mimi’s allergies. She can’t really touch stuff that has been near a cat. She was super nice about it, though, and asked her mom to fix the flower instead. Mimi’s mom did a good job. It looks the same as when it was new.

  SCHOOL

  The good thing about school today was that it went by kind of fast. Miss Lois actually planned a pretty fun day for us. In two weeks we are going on a field trip to visit a historical (that means old-fashioned) town. We spent the whole day talking about olden times. For sure it’s more fun to talk about olden times than it was to live in olden times. Life was not easy back then!

  WHAT CRINKLES GETS TODAY

  If Crinkles cared about that sort of thing, today would have been his gold star day! He was amazing. He walked all the way across the yard with his flower on, and didn’t even stop once to try to scratch it off. Now I am really excited about Sunday!

  FRIDAY

  Today I had another good idea. I’m going to put Crinkles’s favorite cat treats in the bottom of Delphine’s flower basket. That way Crinkles will smell them on the flower petals she throws. Maybe that will make him go down the aisle easier. At first I thought Delphine could just throw some cat treats on the ground, but then I thought about Mr. Scruffers. For sure she would see them. I did not want her to be running down the aisle thinking we were playing some kind of cereal game. A good wedding planner has a lot to think about. It uses up a lot of brain power. I hardly had any left to listen to Miss Lois.

  MOM�
��S GREAT IDEA

  Mom said to invite Mimi over for a movie night. We got two movies and pizza and Mom even baked cookies for dessert. Augustine Dupre was having a party downstairs, but we were too busy to go down to visit her. Mom said it was probably a grownup party, but I know that Augustine Dupre doesn’t care about stuff like that. She always likes to see me!

  SATURDAY

  The biggest, most important thing I have to do today is to practice with Crinkles one more time. We have been doing our practicing in the front yard, so I am hoping he will be out there again. Mimi said she is all ready for her part. Her job is to stand with Robert and make sure he doesn’t eat his crackers too fast or drop them. It doesn’t seem like a hard job, but it’s a really important one. If something goes wrong with Robert, everything will be ruined. Mr. Scruffers won’t sit calm and still, and Crinkles won’t do his fancy slow motion walk down the aisle to meet Augustine Dupre. Just thinking about it made my stomach feel bubbly. More than anything ever, I wanted Flower Cat to work!

  Mom could tell that something was up. She thought I was worried about my handing-out-the-flowers wedding job. “You’ll be great tomorrow, don’t worry,” she said. I tried to smile, but I could only do the not-real school one. It made her suspicious. “Grace, is there something else I should know about?” she asked. For a second I thought about telling her, but then I changed my mind. What if she said, “Absolutely not! You cannot do Flower Cat!” I did 100 percent not want that to happen, so I said, “No, nothing. Everything’s fine.” Somehow this made my stomach even more bubbly, and now I was getting a headache too. “Why don’t you go outside?” said Mom. “Maybe you need some fresh air.”

  WHAT WAS HAPPENING IN MRS. LUTHER’S YARD

  There were lots of people at Mrs. Luther’s house. They were putting lights in the trees, setting up tables and chairs on the lawn, and unloading all sorts of boxes into the garage.

  If there is lots of activity in the neighborhood, people notice and want to see what’s going on. That’s probably why Mrs. Witkins, Mr. Hurley, Max, Sammy, Mimi, and Robert were all standing on the sidewalk, watching. “I’m getting Robert used to the idea,” said Mimi. “He’s pretty excited.” Robert nodded his head yes so that I’d know that Mimi was telling the truth. “So what exactly am I supposed to do tomorrow?” asked Max. “Let’s talk now,” I said. “I’ll explain everything again.”

  The talk was a good idea. Now everyone knew exactly what they were supposed to do. Explaining things out loud is a good way to find out if there are any mistakes in your plan. It was the way I suddenly knew I had one big mistake in my plan, and it was about Crinkles.

  WHAT I SUDDENLY THOUGHT OF

  How was I going to find Crinkles at the exact time I needed him? What if he was nervous about all the people in the yard and ran off and hid somewhere? What if he stayed in Mrs. Luther’s house and wasn’t even outside? It was a big, horrible, ruin-everything problem that I had no idea how to fix! Lucky for me the no-idea part only lasted for about ten minutes. Fixing it wasn’t going to be easy, but if I could use Augustine Dupre’s brain-control trick, everything might still work out.

  WHAT I SAID TO AUGUSTINE DUPRE

  Augustine Dupre has empathy feelings for Crinkles. I know this is true, and I hoped those feelings were going to help me too. I watched for a second when she didn’t seem too busy, and then I went over to talk to her. “Have you seen Crinkles?” I asked. “He probably doesn’t like having all these people around. Do you think he’ll get nervous and run away? Remember how he didn’t like Mrs. Luther’s cast? It’s too bad that he can’t just be somewhere nice and quiet while all this is going on tomorrow.” I looked up, to see if my questions were working—to see if my brain was giving her brain an idea.

  Augustine Dupre put her hands up to her mouth. “You’re right, Grace,” she said. “I haven’t seen him. He won’t like this.” She looked over at Mrs. Luther’s house and then looked at her apartment. Suddenly she smiled. “Wait,” said Augustine Dupre. “Mrs. Luther’s house isn’t a good choice because there will be too many people going in and out of there preparing the dinner, but my apartment is quiet. Maybe he can stay there until tomorrow night, when it’s all over. He likes it. It’s safe.” I clapped my hands. “That’s a great idea,” I said. "And I won’t tell anyone.” “Okay,” said Augustine Dupre. “It’s our little secret.”

  Then, right before I was about to leave, she said one more thing. “Do you think you could visit with him a little tomorrow—between the wedding and the dinner? I’ll leave my door unlocked.” She looked at me hoping I would say yes. “Of course,” I said. “No problem.” And then I smiled my 100 percent real smile, because suddenly I was 100 percent really happy!

  For the whole rest of the day I was perfectly sure that everything was going to work out perfectly! But then something weird happened. As soon as nighttime came, all my good feelings faded away, just like the sun.

  MY ALMOST LAST THOUGHT BEFORE FALLING ASLEEP

  I should be careful and not give Mr. Scruffers very much cereal tomorrow morning when we play our game. That way she’ll be extra hungry and concentrate extra hard when Robert eats his crackers.

  MY LAST THOUGHT

  I don’t know if there is a job for people who plan wedding stuff, but if there is, that is not the kind of job I want when I grow up. It is way too filled with worries!

  SUNDAY

  I woke up extra early, even before Mr. Scruffers. We went downstairs like normal, but instead of it being seven a.m. it was six a.m. Mom must have been excited too, because she came down at seven-fifteen and she never gets up that early on Sundays. “How about some French toast?” she asked. It was the perfect thing for a day like today. I know it’s probably not true, but I like to think that French toast gives me extra power, and today was definitely a day for needing extra power.

  WHAT WAS BAD ABOUT THE MORNING

  Waiting! It was super hard to wait for the wedding to start. Time seemed like it was moving as slow as on a boring school day. I couldn’t find anything to do. Mom finally let me watch TV just so I would stop walking back and forth all over the house.

  Mimi came over at about ten-thirty. “I can’t wait for the wedding,” said Mimi. “It’s going to be great!” “Really?” I asked. “Of course,” said Mimi, “and Augustine Dupre is going to love Flower Cat! Today is going to be the best day of her entire life. She gets to be married and get a super-amazing present, both at the same time.” Mimi bounced up off the sofa. “Come on. Let’s go check out the wedding.” “Okay!” I said. It felt good to be doing something. I followed her outside.

  MRS. LUTHER’S YARD

  Everything about the set up for the wedding was beautiful. There were flowers and pretty white and yellow bows everywhere. It was amazing.

  I was happy that the wedding aisle looked just like I thought it was going to, it made me feel better about my plan. There were three people still working and putting things together—two ladies and one man. They were really busy but didn’t look unhappy or worried. Maybe I was wrong about the wedding planner job.

  THE BEST THING ABOUT BEING IN MRS. LUTHER’S YARD

  Watching everyone get ready for the wedding used up all the waiting time!

  WHAT IS A GOOD IDEA

  I was just about to rush home to get dressed when Mimi said, “Grace, wait! One more thing! Even though I’m not really invited to the wedding, do you think it’s okay if I wear something nice?” “Oh, Mimi,” I said. “That would be great.” “Good,” she said. "And don’t worry, I’ll dress Robert up too!”

  WHAT WAS PERFECT

  The twirl I did in my fancy dress right before I went outside to the wedding.

  WHAT WAS A BIT OF A SURPRISE

  I thought Augustine Dupre would be in Mrs. Luther’s yard, waiting, but Luke said she wasn’t going to come out until just before the wedding started. That way everyone could be surprised about how beautiful she looked. It was a great idea! I couldn’t wait to see her walk down t
he aisle.

  WHAT WAS NOT A SURPRISE

  Delphine looked adorable! And she did not notice at all when I put some of Crinkles’s treats in the bottom of her flower girl basket under all the flower petals.

  WHAT I WAS EXPECTING

  Mimi, Robert, and Max were all waiting for me by the big tree in my front yard, just like we had planned. Mimi looked great. She was wearing her favorite yellow dress, but my favorite thing was the little fancy bow tie she made for Robert from one of her headbands. The only person who was missing was Sammy. At first I was nervous, but I looked down the street and way in the distance I saw someone waving. I could tell it was Sammy, but he was too far away for me to really see what he was wearing.