Just Grace and the Terrible Tutu Read online

  I gave Augustine Dupre a super-big hug when we left. I could hardly wait to meet the new people. They were going to be French, fancy, and fabulous!

  THEY LOOK VERY FRENCH!

  WHAT IS HARD TO DO IF YOUR BRAIN IS BUSY DOING LOTS OF THINKING

  Go to sleep, but I made myself do it, because I couldn't wait until tomorrow to tell Mimi.

  WHAT MIMI SAID AS SOON AS I TOLD HER ABOUT OUR NEW JOB

  "Grace! This is the perfect way to practice being a big sister. It's just perfect!" And then Mimi gave me a big hug. She was so happy. If your best friend is super happy and smiling, it is really hard not to be that way too. We walked to school holding and swinging hands. It's too bad boys don't get to do that sort of thing, because it feels really nice.

  When we got to school we saw Sammy and Max hiding behind one of the trees near the end of the playground. From where we were standing it didn't look like a very good hiding spot. At first we couldn't see why they were hiding, but then Mimi pointed to the swings and we saw Samantha Logan looking around. She is one of those girls who love to play chasing-boys games. Lucky for Sammy and Max, the lineup bell rang and Samantha ran off to find her class.

  Mimi and I must have been smiling a lot, because while we were waiting to go in, Sammy and Max wanted to know what we were so happy about. I think maybe Max thought we had won a prize or something. When we told them we were excited about being mother's helpers for the new French family moving in to Mrs. Luther's house, both Max and Sammy said, "What?" at the exact sametime. But I was pretty sure their What?s were meaning two very different things. Max's What? meant, That's it? That's why you're excited? I don't get it. And Sammy's What? meant, Mrs. Luther is gone? How can that be true?

  HOW TO RUIN AN ENTIRE DAY OF SCHOOL FOR SAMMY STRINGER

  Tell him that his favorite cool grownup friend has moved away. Mrs. Luther doesn't look cool on the outside, but inside she is about the only person who understands Sammy 100 percent of the time.

  HOW TO MAKE SAMMY STRINGER FEEL A LITTLE BETTER AFTER SNACK TIME

  Tell him that she will only be gone for four months, because you forgot to mention that part before.

  WHAT ALWAYS GETS MISS LOIS A LITTLE GRUMPY

  Miss Lois is our teacher, and she is slowly learning how to be more fun and interesting. Mr. Franks was our old student teacher and he came to our class to learn teacher stuff from Miss Lois, but I think she learned some stuff from him too. Especially how to not be boring and talk for too long when everyone has stopped listening. She hardly ever does that anymore, and pretty much everyone likes her much better now.

  But there is one thing that changes the new fun Miss Lois back into the old non-fun Miss Lois in about two seconds. It happens so fast, it's like she's been zapped with super-grumpy power or something. And if you know our class, it's no big surprise that the zapper person is ... Owen 1.

  Owen 1 sometimes thinks I am his friend, but mostly I am not, and this is a good thing because Owen 1 is almost always getting into trouble. His big number one troublemaking thing is his playing with his shoes. Normally this would not be a bad thing except for that Owen 1 is shoes make a lot of noise. The noise-making part is the Velcro flaps. He pulls them apart and pushes them back together, and pulls them apart and pushes them back together, and pulls them apart and pushes them back together, over and over and over again. And each time he pulls them open, it makes a loud ripping, scratchy sound that pretty much bugs the whole class.

  WHY IT'S A GOOD THING MISS LOIS IS NOT A CARTOON CHARACTER

  If Miss Lois were a cartoon character her head would get big and smoke would come out of her ears, and then she would make a loud sound like a train whistle. That's how much she hates Owen 1 playing with his shoes.

  Even though she tries real hard, Miss Lois can't be patient with Owen 1 forever. Every day she says the same thing: "Owen 1, will you please leave your shoes alone!" But after a while she just finally has to get mad. If she was allowed to, she would probably roll her eyes, but I don't think teachers can do that kind of thing. So instead she points to the door and says, "Owen 1, you get yourself down for a visit with Mr. Harris! Now!"'

  Mr. Harris is the principal of our whole school. And mostly he is not someone you want to visit in his office. I have a feeling that Owen 1 is probably going to have to change to lace-up shoes real soon.

  MISS LOIS AND THE GIANT CLOUD OF BROWN

  I am not a color expert, but I bet if grumpiness were a color it would be that brown blah color you get every time you mix all your paints together in a big mushy mess. That's the kind of color no one would ever make or choose on purpose. Even though I couldn't see it, I bet that was the color of Miss Lois's grumpy cloud. It stayed up over her head all through reading, math, and spelling, and right up until lunchtime. Miss Lois tried to make her words sound happy and normal, but we could all tell the cloud was still there. The cloud made everyone not like Owen 1 even more than they had not liked him before. This was too bad, because Owen 1 did not have a whole lot of extra liking energy to lose. I was glad I was not him.

  HOW MIMI SURPRISED ME AGAIN

  After lunch we get to have recess and go outside. Mimi and I hardly ever go over and hang out by the fake rock wall, but today Mimi wanted to go there. I was thinking that maybe she wanted to try climbing it, but mostly she just wanted to stay around where Marta and Olivia were playing with some of the other Fairy Girls. They call themselves Fairy Girls because their favorite thing to do in the whole world is to play princess fairy. Since we were standing there and Mimi was not talking, we ended up mostly listening to them play their game.

  It didn't sound very fun. There was a lot of arguing about super fairy powers. "Princess Petaluna can totally fly into the cave and get the magic stone!" said Olivia. "No she can't!" shouted Marta. "She lost her wings! Don't you remember? She has to go back and ask the Violet fairy to let her have some new ones! You always want to do what you want to do. It's not fair! If my fairy has to lose her wings, then yours does too!" Marta was really mad—she was shaking her arms, and both her hands were in fist shapes. Everyone was watching. We couldn't help it.

  At first Olivia looked like she might yell back at Marta, but then instead she said, "Fine! Princess Petaluna will walk into the cave! Now are you happy?" Olivia walked under the slide and pretended to pick something up from the ground.

  We didn't get to see what was going to happen next because the bell rang and we had to go in. While we were running to line up, Marta ran over and said, "Do you want to play next time? It's really fun!" NO way, thank you! was what my brain screaming inside my head. But before my mouth could find a nicer way to say it Mimi said, "Okay, sure." And that is how she surprised me all over again.

  WHAT I WAS WONDERING ABOUT

  Mimi was not being her regular Mimi self. Fairy princess was not something she would normally want to play. I tried to ask her about it when we first sat down, but Miss Lois surprised us all by saying that today was going to be our first day of cursive writing. This was not something I was expecting, and for once it was something I wanted to learn, so I stopped not paying attention. All the girls in the class were excited—we could hardly wait to write in cursive. I don't think boys care so much about fancy writing. They never practice fancy letters like girls do.

  Mimi and I have been practicing our names since last year. I already know how to make the big G and the big S all swirly and fancy. My name looks fantastic in script. I am glad that my name is not Valerie Newcome—she is not so lucky.

  MISS LOIS IS VERY FAIR

  Miss Lois said that everyone had to learn how to write all the letters in the whole alphabet, even the ones that were not in our names. Some people in the class were thinking the only reason to learn cursive was so that they could know how to sign their names fancy. They were not so excited about learning all the letters.

  Sandra Orr put her hand up and said that she knew exactly why the girls should learn all the letters. Miss Lois is always really patient with
Sandra, even though she knows that the words that come out of Sandra's mouth will probably not make any sense. Mostly this is because Sandra does not pay very good attention. Miss Lois's most favorite thing to say to her is, "Sandra, please try to keep your head out of the clouds." Sandra is an expert daydreamer.

  Sandra said, "When girls get married they sometimes get a new last name, so it's probably good to be ready by knowing all the letters before that happens." Miss Lois smiled and said, "Thank you, Sandra—that may be true, but there are many other reasons to learn cursive that are useful for both boys and girls." I bet the boys were not so happy to hear that. For sure Sammy was not happy, because he crossed his arms and flopped his head down. Learning cursive was not making him feel happier about Mrs. Luther leaving. I bet if I had the superpower of hearing thoughts, his brain would be saying something very grumpy.

  WHAT OWEN 1 SAID

  Miss Lois said one of the very helpful things about cursive was that it was a faster way to write down words than printing. She said the brain could think of words very fast, but a lot of the time it was hard for the fingers to keep up. As soon as she said this, Owen 1 started waving his hand around to ask a question. He was back in class and trying really hard not to play with his shoes. I saw him touching them, but he did not pull on the Velcro.

  Finally Miss Lois pointed at him. She was probably expecting him to ask to go to the bathroom. That was one of his regular questions, but instead he wanted to talk about cursive writing. This was something of a surprise.

  Owen 1 said that he had rocket-fast fingers when he played video games, but when he picked up a pencil to write they worked more like crummy old roller skates. I thought he was going to get in trouble for being so negative, but Miss Lois got really excited. She said that Owen 1 had used a wonderful analogy to explain how he felt. Of course Owen 1 was instantly proud even though nobody, and for sure not even him, knew what Miss Lois was talking about. Miss Lois loves to teach new stuff, so right away she explained what an analogy was.

  An analogy is an example of one thing that you can use to help you explain another thing.

  Once she told us about it, I instantly knew that I had already been using analogies for a long time, even though I didn't know I was using them. It's nice to find out you are smarter than you thought you were. Thank you, Miss Lois!

  ONE OF MY ANALOGIES

  WALKING HOME

  Sammy and Max walked home with us. Max wanted us to all hang out in his front yard, but Mimi said we couldn't because we had to go inside and work at her house. I didn't know what work she was talking about, but it was a good thing we weren't going to be with Sammy, because Sammy and Mimi were thinking two very different things about Mrs. Luther leaving.

  As soon as we got inside Mimi ran upstairs to the old filled-with-junk room that is next to her bedroom. This was the room that was going to be changed from the junk room into the new sister's room.

  FOUR THINGS I WAS SURPRISED ABOUT

  The old filled-with-junk room was now completely empty.

  Mimi's room next door was picked up and clean.

  I was not as excited about those first two surprising things as I would normally be.

  This was because my stomach was growling with hunger.

  I usually like to have a snack after school, so it did not help that Mimi's whole entire house smelled like yummy fresh-baked banana bread.

  Mimi seemed a little disappointed when I asked if we could think of new sister room ideas in the kitchen near the banana bread instead of on the floor in the empty junk room. She had set up a bunch of papers and markers on the floor for us, so I knew she was disappointed that I was changing her plan. If my stomach is hungry it just doesn't matter what my brain is saying. My stomach pretty much always has to win.

  Mimi's brain was stronger than her stomach, because she only ate one piece of bread and normally she could eat about five. Today I had three. Sometimes Mimi's mom has to guard the bread so we don't eat too much and ruin our dinner. But today she didn't even say one thing about it. She just smiled, hugged Mimi, and said, "Mimi is so happy that you are going to help her decorate her new sister's room." "You bet I am!" said Mimi. "And it's going to be pink!" That last thing Mimi said was my number four of surprises.

  MIMI IS NOT BEING MIMI

  It's important to be patient with your friends, no matter what. This is an important rule of friendship.

  Sometimes a friend can surprise you and it's exciting.

  Sometimes a friend can surprise you and it's not so exciting.

  And then other times they can surprise you and you think, "Where has my friend gone? This person who looks like my friend is not acting anything like the friend that is my best friend." That is what I was thinking about Mimi, because Mimi and I have never been girls who love pink!

  "All little girls love pink," said Mimi. This was not true, because a long time ago when Mimi and I were little girls we didn't love pink. When we were little my favorite color was orange and hers was yellow. But it sounded like Mimi had forgotten about that.

  "Pink sounds lovely!" said Mimi's mom, and then they both looked over at me and smiled. I could tell they were waiting for me to say something nice. "Pink is girly," I said. It was the only thing I could think of that was true and that did not sound negative. "Exactly!" said Mimi. "And we have to be girly."

  WHAT YOU DO WHEN YOU GET HOME FROM A CONFUSING VISIT WITH YOUR BEST FRIEND WHO MIGHT NOT REALLY BE YOUR BEST FRIEND BECAUSE MAYBE SHE WAS TAKEN AWAY BY ALIENS AND REPLACED WITH A ROBOT WHO LOOKS JUST LIKE HER

  Write a new Not So Super comic, because drawing comics always makes me feel better about stuff.

  WHAT WAS A SURPRISE AT BREAKFAST

  Today was not a school day. Right away that makes everything about the day a lot better. I don't have to rush around getting ready, and I can hang out in my room and relax. That's why I was surprised when Mom said, "Grace. Breakfast. Now." Usually I only hear those words from Monday to Friday. I went downstairs in my pajamas and was just getting ready to complain when I saw Augustine Dupre standing in my kitchen. One hand was holding a bag from the doughnut store, and the other one was holding on to a little girl wearing a bright pink tutu.

  "Oh, I'm sorry—were you still sleeping?" asked Augustine Dupre. She put her hand up near her mouth like she was worried. "We can come back later." I was surprised to see her there, but I did not want her to leave. "No, I'm awake. See." And I jumped up and down a few times to prove it. "I'll get dressed. I'll be right back. Wait for me." And then before anyone could say anything else I ran upstairs to change. How embarrassing! Mom could have told me we had visitors! And I wasn't even wearing good pajamas. Ugh! Sometimes she drives me crazy.

  WHAT YOU SHOULD DO IF YOU RUN OFF WHILE SOMEONE IS WAITING TO MEET YOU

  Apologize. A lot!

  WHAT HAPPENED NEXT

  Mom said, "I'm sorry." I said, "I'm sorry." Mom gave me a look that meant, How could you run off like that? I gave her a look that meant, You could have told me we had visitors. And then a little voice interrupted everything and said, "Why is your shirt on backwards?" When something unexpected happens right in the middle of something serious, two things can happen.

  You can get upset and maybe even cry.

  You can laugh.

  Sometimes you can't tell which of these two things your body is going to decide to do until the very second that it happens. Lucky for me I laughed.

  WHAT LILY WAS LIKE

  Lily was wearing a pink tutu.

  Lily liked jelly doughnuts, but mostly she liked the jelly. She sucked the middle out of about twelve jelly doughnuts and left the empty little doughnut shells all over the table and floor.

  Lily wanted to play house. I had to be the baby.

  Lily wanted to catch frogs. I was supposed to kiss them.

  Lily wanted to play mermaid. I was the dry mermaid on land.

  Lily wanted to play doggy. I was the doggy.

  Lily was a lot of work.

 
; WHAT I WAS KNOWING ALL OF A SUDDEN (PART ONE)

  Being a mother's helper was not going to be as easy as I thought it was.

  WHAT I WAS KNOWING ALL OF A SUDDEN (PART TWO)

  This job was maybe going to be more perfect for Mimi than it was for me.

  WHAT WAS GOOD

  After a while, which seemed like forever, Augustine Dupre finally said it was time for them to go. I thought that maybe four hours had passed, but when I looked at the clock it had only been one hour and twenty minutes. I don't know why it really seemed a whole lot longer. Augustine Dupre said they would come back later so I could meet Lily's mom.

  "Maybe you could help her tomorrow," said Augustine Dupre. "It's moving day, so I'm sure she will need you." "Yay," said Lily. "Can I stay here until tomorrow?" Lily did not want to leave. "She likes you," whispered Augustine Dupre. This sounded like a good thing, but at the same time part of me was not so 100 percent sure.