KAI: (scoops up frog with his hands) Got it!
BLAKE
CECILIA
Hola Abuelita,
Our new apartment is bigger, because we decided to share a space with prima Maria and her son Josué. Mami and Maria put their money together, so they were able to get a nicer place. There’s never quiet, because Josué is always blasting his music, but I don’t mind. I’d rather have family around. We’re taking turns cooking, and I love the smell of the polvo de chile in our kitchen.
Our neighbor has three small children, and she asked me to come over to play with them. I’d do it for free, but she offered to pay me. She calls me a “babysitter in training.” I’m going to save my money.
I can’t change the rules of immigration. Still, there are so many things I CAN do…mostly when I’m eighteen, but I can start preparing now. When I’m eighteen, I’ll vote against anything that separates families. And I’ll travel to visit you, Abuelita. I know it’ll take a very long time to save up enough money for a trip, but I’ll start now. Plus someday I want to go to law school and fight for Mami’s rights and for the rights of other families like ours too.
I miss my old friends from White Oak Elementary. Do the kids from my lunchtime soccer game notice I’m gone? I wonder if my B-5 friends think of me as often as I think of them. Are Emily and Sharon still eating lunch together? And Kai? Is he still reading underneath his desk? I miss Ms. Graham too. I even miss Kermit. Maybe I’m already forgotten. They’re not forgotten to me.
WORDS TO PRACTICE
I know I keep telling you this when we FaceTime, but your English is getting very good. I can tell you’ve been practicing.
forgotten = olvidado
neighbor = vecina
babysitter = niñera
apartment = apartamento
Besos y abrazos,
Cecilia
AVIVA
Date: January 13
A bunch of us met up at Pitts Park and walked together to the address on Cecilia’s emergency contact form. But Sharon was right—she’d moved. And the new family didn’t know to where. Kai pulled his hoodie over his head and I could tell he was feeling rotten.
I think we were all discouraged, but we moved on to our next stop, Ms. Graham’s house. I worried we’d come to the wrong place, because it looked like a grandma house. It had flowers and cracked gnomes that stuck out of the weedy grass. It did not look like a place where Ms. Graham would live.
Kayley pressed the doorbell, but I hung back next to Kai and Sharon. An old lady answered the door, a golden retriever by her feet. My heart sank. We had stolen the wrong address. “Can I help you?” she asked. She matched the house perfectly.
My voice stuck in my throat, but Sharon told her we were looking for Ms. Graham. She smiled really big, then turned and hollered, “Bea!”
Was she Ms. Graham’s mother? The grandma-lady didn’t look like Ms. Graham at all. She looked like a marshmallow, but not in a bad way. Marshmallow skin—white and soft and puffy. Marshmallow legs, marshmallow arms, sugary smile.
Ms. Graham came to the door in sweat pants and a baggy T-shirt. That’s not how she dresses for school at all. Her eyes got super wide, like she was surprised to see us. She just stood, all smiley for a long time, standing there like she wasn’t sure what to say.
HENRY
SCENE: Seven fifth graders standing awkwardly at their teacher’s door. At first it’s cringe-worthy quiet, and then, bam!, everyone’s talking all over each other.
AVIVA: We miss you, Ms. Graham!
EMILY: Ms. Graham, we are so sorry all this happened. We wish we could fix this. It’s not your fault we went to that shelter!
SHARON: It’s not fair that they’re punishing YOU for what WE did.
KAYLEY: (dramatic) We HAVE to save your job.
KAI: What can we do to help?
HENRY: (Long pause. Henry wonders if Ms. Graham even heard any of them. Blake awkwardly scuffs his feet.)
MS. GRAHAM: Hi, guys. I really appreciate you all coming out here—I miss you too. But…this isn’t something I can talk to you about.
AVIVA: But what about everything you taught us? Isn’t there anything, even something small, that we can do to help?
MS. GRAHAM: I’m sorry, you guys, and don’t worry—I’m okay—but you probably shouldn’t be here. This is between me and the school board now. (Ms. Graham’s mother puts her arm around her, and then she slowly eases the door shut.)
KIDS: (standing frozen like icicles for a ridiculously long time)
EMILY: What was that?
HENRY: Yeah, I’d been banking on a frog effect pep talk. You know, like “You can do anything,” “You’re the adults of tomorrow,” and blah blah blah. They just don’t make pep talks like they used to.
AVIVA: It’s not fair. Why does the school board get to decide? They don’t know Ms. Graham or us.
BLAKE: It’s too bad we aren’t on the school board.
HENRY: Well, why aren’t we?
KAYLEY: Duh—we’re kids. They don’t put students on the school board!
SHARON: Why not?
KAYLEY: They just don’t!
AVIVA: Maybe we should try to change that.
SHARON
A thousand thoughts
Left unsaid,
Like cartoon word bubbles
Hanging in the air.
We stood at Ms. Graham’s door
Waiting
For someone to tell us what to do.
We could’ve waited forever.
Because this time there are no directions,
No road map, no recipe.
It’s up to us to figure this out.
What I need to know
Is what did she want to tell us?
What did she want to say?
And why did she hold back?
Did we make it worse
By tracking her down?
And can we make it better?
KAI
Dear Frog,
On the walk home from Ms. Graham’s, everyone started talking, saying maybe we could really try to get a seat on the school board. And if we did, then maybe then we could actually save Ms. Graham’s job.
That’s great, and I hope we can do it. But what about Cecilia? I’m beginning to think we’ll never find her.
Maybe Sharon was wondering the same thing, because she started saying that she didn’t want this whole homeless shelter thing to be for nothing. That we caused all these problems for Ms. Graham and for Cecilia and wasn’t there something good that could come from it? Didn’t we learn anything?
And then I was being sarcastic, and I said, “I learned my toes were about to freeze off.”
Sharon stopped walking right then, and Henry bumped into her. “Well, that’s something. That’s definitely something!”
BLAKE
KAYLEY
Dear Ms. Graham,
Yesterday, when we were at your house, I’ll admit that I was confused. Couldn’t you have invited us in, or at least said something encouraging?
I bet you feel awful about this whole thing. At least you’re not all alone, feeling sad. Your mother seemed really nice, and I can tell by the way she put her arm around you that you have a relaxed/comfortable kind of relationship. I’m guessing you don’t want to get in more trouble, or make things worse, but still! What about us? We need you.
Here’s the thing—if no one else is going to fix this, I guess I’ll have to. I’ve watched my mother take on “Issues” for years. Not to brag, but I know how to get things done.
Plus there should totally be a student on the school board! (That’s how we’ll get your job back.) Just watch me make this happen.
EMILY
; Status:
Dear Hope,
Kayley’s right. If the school board gets to make the decision about Ms. Graham, then the solution is simple: We need to get student seats on that board. And we need to do it fast, BEFORE they vote on Ms. Graham. I talked to my neighbor, who’s a retired principal. She said that first there will be an investigation, and then the findings will be presented at a school board meeting. So…there’s two places we can make our voices heard—(1) the investigation and (2) the school board. Where do we start?
I’ve been listening to other table groups in class. Aviva keeps talking about Malala and the power of her pen. How she stood up for what she believed. I thought about Dad’s job, and how he uses his writing to make a difference. I thought back to the homeless shelter, and how part of the reason I’d wanted to go was so I could write about it.
Suddenly I had this image of Harold’s purple crayon, and I wondered…is there any way to “write” our way out of this mess? None of the grown-ups are listening to what we SAY, but what about what we WRITE? Maybe this is what Ms. Graham was saying—maybe it’s exactly the kind of small thing that can make a big difference?
Love and luck,
Emily
PS Even when Kayley’s just trying to be helpful in her regular Kayley way, I sort of want to find reasons to hate her. I’m working on that.
KAI
Dear Frog,
I’d like to at least talk to Cecilia, but I’m not sure how. I wonder if any of her lunchtime friends know how to find her. Maybe I can write a note and ask one of them if they know where to deliver it.
* * *
—
Dear Cecilia,
We miss you at school. Do you want to meet at the library sometime? Here is my home number in case you ever want to call. 818-555-3833. My parents won’t let me have social media yet, so phone is the best way. Or you can send me a note here at school.
—Kai
SHARON
Something’s brewing
In room B-5.
We’re cooking up
A big pot of
Something from Nothing.
I read a book with that idea once
And it reminds me of a folktale,
Where a hungry stranger
Convinces people to each
Add a bit of what they have (nearly nothing)
To make a soup
That will feed them all (definitely something).
Each of us is
Adding our own ingredients,
Stirring it with some good intentions,
And breathing in
The bubbling aroma
Of hope.
All our “nearly nothings”
Might just make
A whole lot of
Somethings.
If we work together.
HENRY
SCENE: Kayley’s garage, which is larger and nicer than Henry’s entire apartment.
KAYLEY: Okay, everyone! (claps hands) Enough chitchatting. Let’s get started. We’re here to find a way to get a student seat on the school board.
KAI: What makes us think anyone’s gonna to listen to us?
AVIVA: (in a soft voice) We can make them.
HENRY: Uh, what? WE can’t even hear you. Speak up, Minnie Mouse.
AVIVA: (louder) Let’s find a way to MAKE them listen to us.
BLAKE: How?
KAYLEY: When my mother was trying to make the school lunches healthier, she sent in a formal request to put healthy lunches on the school board agenda.
SHARON: Let’s do that! And maybe we could make posters to advertise what we’re doing, and get people on our side.
BLAKE: I could design the posters.
AVIVA: Ooh! We could write one of Malala’s quotes on them. My favorite is this one—“When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.”
KAI: Yeah! We could put them up on walls and bulletin boards. There’s a place to thumbtack notices at Smoothie Smasher and also Daily Coffee. I can ask my brother, Thomas, if he can drive us around to different shops.
EMILY: We could also make a petition to show them that lots of people agree with us.
KAI: That’s easy. We can stand outside the grocery store with clipboards.
EMILY: I was thinking about writing something. I’m pretty sure anyone can submit an article for the editorial section of a newspaper. I’m not sure if I can make it good enough, but if I can, maybe it’ll get published?
HENRY: Awesome. And maybe we could make a video clip that we could post on my YouTube channel.
KAYLEY: You have a YouTube channel?
HENRY: Doesn’t everyone?
AVIVA: My parents won’t even let me watch YouTube.
HENRY: It’s actually a private channel that my parents set up to show home videos to my grandparents in Taiwan. Maybe we can make a video and email it out to all the parents in our school?
KAYLEY: We can ask everyone to forward it to ten more people. And then it’ll go viral!
SHARON: If we make it really catchy, it might.
HENRY: It can be sent through email and posted on internet sites. I’ll be the director. Blake can help with tech stuff.
KAYLEY: Okay…let’s make teams. If you want to be on Emily’s Writing Team—go stand by the third refrigerator.
HENRY: How many fridges does a family of three need?
KAYLEY: Anyone who wants to help Blake with design should stand by the kayaks. Henry, (gives Henry the evil eye) no kayak comments. If you want to be on the Video Team, go stand by the skis.
HENRY: And exactly how many sports do you all do? I don’t see any skydiving equipment around here. You’re missing out. From what I hear.
AVIVA: (quietly) I think we should at least try to talk to the investigator. If the investigator doesn’t think it’s Ms. Graham’s fault, then they won’t recommend firing. Right?
KAYLEY: It’s worth a try. You’re in charge of that team.
AVIVA: (squeaks) Me?
KAYLEY: If you want to be on Aviva’s Team—go stand by—
HENRY: The safe!
KAYLEY: There is no safe in the garage.
HENRY: There should be. (looks around)
KAYLEY: Aviva’s Team—go stand by the pool table.
HENRY: Can we be on more than one team?
KAYLEY: You can be on any team you want, as long as it’s not MY team. You’re driving me bananas.
EMILY: I’m excited. This might work!
KAYLEY
Dear Ms. Graham,
Last night when my mother was at her PTA meeting, I invited everyone in the class for a kids-only meeting. We tossed around ideas like tennis balls. Some were completely IDIOTIC, but I figured the whole point of doing this was to get as many ideas as we could and pick the best one, so I didn’t make any comments about anything.
Last night I did a really good job at one thing—being Polite. Truthfully, I would’ve liked to tell Aviva to shut up already about Malala (she keeps spouting off Malala quotes), and to laugh at the stupid suggestions people made, but I didn’t. At first it was really hard and kind of uncomfortable, like trying to hold in a burp. But then that feeling just went away.
Ms. Graham, it made me think about your lesson on honesty and how honesty is not an excuse to be mean. Maybe being right isn’t an excuse to be mean either. I’m pretty much always right (can’t help it), but I’m trying harder not to rub it in everyone’s faces.
PS Okay, so can I just say that me, Aviva, and Emily are pretty much leading Operation Frog Effect here? So tell me again, WHY are more men in power than women? Huh? I’m going to make it my business to change this.
* * *
—
AVIVA
Date: January 19
(17 days until February 5 school board meeting)
I’m not sure how I feel about being in charge of my own team. I sort of want to hand it off to Sharon. Wouldn’t she do a better job? Maybe I can recruit members who will kind of take over? I guess I’m just scared of messing this up.
I better find a way to get started. Maybe I’ll bring Kermit’s little carrier over next to my desk for moral support.
EMILY
Status:
Dear Dad,
I’m writing you a letter. An honest-to-god letter with pen and paper. I know, right? It’s like out of a history book or something. I’ve decided that writing is a good way for me to voice my opinion, especially when what I’m trying to say is hard or really important. It takes practice, so here I go. There’s something I’ve been wanting to say to you for a long time.
It was great that you came home when you were worried about me. But honestly, you feel like my uncle more than my dad. You’re gone all the time. I need you here, at least some of the time. I love you and having you gone SUCKS. I’m sorry for the bad word, but I can’t think of any other way to describe it.
I hope you don’t get mad from this. But if I don’t tell you how I feel, then you won’t know.
Love and guts,
Emily
PS Next time we talk, remind me to tell you about this SUPER-COOL project my friends and I are working on. You’d be proud.
CECILIA
Hola Abuelita,
I joined a new community soccer team. We call ourselves Team Fusion. When I found out we practice two hours, four days a week, I was so excited. I love every part of practice—the warm-ups, the drills, the scrimmage. Everything. Because practices are longer, Mami can come watch after work. She tells me I look like I was born to run.
I told Mami how much I’m missing your cooking, and we decided that she should teach me all your recipes. Mami told me she keeps recipes mostly in her head, but we can write them down and make our own little recipe book. We’ll call it Recetas de Abuelita.
WORDS TO PRACTICE
scrimmage = juego de práctica
Operation Frog Effect Page 12