Just Grace and the Flower Girl Power Read online

  WHAT I COULD NOT BELIEVE

  What I saw outside was 100 percent surprising. Crinkles and Mr. Scruffers were both in the backyard—together. There was no barking, no hissing, and most surprising of all, no chasing! I watched Crinkles. He was walking funny—like the ground was covered in sticky syrup. He moved each paw up and down carefully, taking super slow motion steps across the lawn. The biggest surprise was Mr. Scruffers. She was sitting at the bottom of the stairs, perfectly still. Her eyes were watching Crinkles, but her body wasn’t moving. It was like Crinkles’s slow motion moves were hypnotizing her.

  THE TRANCE BREAKER

  Mom broke the trance when she opened the door and said, "Are we going or not?” All of a sudden Mr. Scruffers was like a rocket. She shot across the yard after Crinkles. I tried to get her to stop. “Walk time! Walk time! Walk time!” I shouted and jingled her leash. She stopped, looked at me, looked back at Crinkles, and then quickly ran up the stairs toward me. She likes a good cat chase, but lucky for Crinkles, she likes a good walk more.

  WHY MR. SCRUFFERS LOVES WALKS

  Squirrels!

  Mom likes it when we take Mr. Scruffers for night walks. It’s hard to see squirrels in the dark, so she doesn’t bark or pull as much. I’m not sure if that’s fair to Mr. Scruffers though. If I loved squirrels as much as she does, I’d be pretty disappointed if I didn’t see any.

  MY GOOD NIGHT TO MIMI

  At bedtime, Mimi and I flashed our lights at each other. We try to do this every night. Mostly we do four flashes each. Sometimes if Robert is in her room I see him waving too. I’m pretty lucky to have my best friend right outside my bedroom window. I have tried to get Mr. Scruffers to wave, but she’s not crazy about me touching her feet. It makes her growly.

  IS TODAY A SCHOOL DAY?

  This is the question Robert asks Mimi every day. Mimi says he is always hoping for the answer to be no. This morning I was feeling the exact same way as him. Mondays can be hard that way.

  Mimi and I walked to school with Max, her next-door neighbor from the other side. Max is Sammy’s best friend, but he is not like Sammy—he’s more of a normal, regular kind of boy. The most amazing thing about Max is that he can do handstands and hand walking. Not every one can do that. Its pretty cool.

  Mimi said Max tried to show Robert how to do it, but as soon as Max flipped upside down Robert ran screaming into the house. Sometimes little kids can be unpredictable.

  WHY TODAY IS NOT A NORMAL DAY

  On a normal day I would have lunch with Mimi, but today I don’t get to do that. Today I have to go to the library to meet with Mr. Frank. He is here at the school doing a special project. Mr. Frank said it’s helping him get more experience so he will be a better teacher. I didn’t tell him this, but I think he’s a really good teacher already. He is starting a comics club. When someone finds out you are good at something and they are making a club about that thing, they pretty much do whatever they can to get you to join their club.

  I would be a lot happier about the comics club if Mimi was in it too. I tried to get her join, but it was useless. Mimi hates drawing. Lunch with Mimi is my favorite part of the day, so missing it was going to make everything feel upside down. Just thinking about it made me want to be like Robert and run away.

  ANNOYERS

  There are boys in our class who are annoying. I’m not trying to be mean—it’s just true. The weird good thing that I have noticed is that even though there are more than one of them, they usually kind of take turns with their annoyingness. Not all of them act up at the same time. If they did Miss Lois’s head would probably explode, and I wouldn’t blame her. That would be a lot to handle.

  ANNOYING BOY WHEEL

  Today the annoyer was Owen 1. Miss Lois told him he had to wear shoes with shoelaces, but I guess he forgot. He must have opened and closed his Velcro shoe flaps about a hundred times this morning. Listening to him play with his shoes did not help my mood about missing lunch with Mimi one little bit.

  WHAT HAPPENED AT LUNCHTIME

  Mimi went off with Grace L. for lunch. I was happy about that. Grace L. is super nice. I thought I might be jealous but I wasn’t, plus it turns out that there are more people in the comics club than I thought there were going to be. Mr. Frank is very popular. He’s almost like a school celebrity—everybody likes being with him.

  MR. FRANK'S PROJECT

  Mr. Frank has this big idea that we should try to get to know our friends and families better and the way that we should do it is through comics. Here is what we have to do.

  Pick a person.

  Interview them and ask them what kind of games they used to play when they were young.

  Write and draw a comic about what they say.

  The best part of the whole thing is that Mr. Frank is going to take our comics and have them made into a book. It’s going to be a real book with a hard cover and everything. The school library is going to get five copies so people can check them out and read them. Of course we all wanted copies for ourselves, but Mr. Frank said the books were too expensive and the school didn’t have enough money for that. It seems like Mr. Harris, the principal, could maybe do a better job of deciding where to spend school money.

  Trevor asked if we could all have our names on the cover of the book. Mr. Frank said he wished we could, but that there probably wasn’t room for them all to fit. “I’m sorry,” said Mr. Frank. “The only name we can put on the cover is the name of the book.” Suddenly Trevor said, “Hey, let’s call the book Trevor!” I’m kind of surprised that Trevor is even in the comics club. He is not someone I would have picked, even if he can draw good planes.

  Mr. Frank has lots of patience, because he just smiled at Trevor and said, “Very funny, but I already have a name. This book is going to be called Community Comics.” Even though Mr. Frank’s name for the book is not very excellent, it’s still a lot better than Trevor.

  THE BAD THING ABOUT COMICS

  Mr. Frank said that we each have to do at least five whole pages of comics, and that is because we have to make the book be one hundred pages long. As soon as he said this people started saying things like “Okay,” “Sure,” “No problem,” “I could do twenty,” “This will be easy,” and “I’ll hand mine in tomorrow.” Of course, I did not say any of these things, and that is because I am the only one who is used to making comics. If you are used to making comics, you know one very important thing.

  Drawing comics takes a super long time and you can for sure not make five pages of comics in one single night.

  WHAT I COULD HAVE SAID

  I didn’t say this because I knew if I did people would start saying things like this...

  ...and I didn’t want the comics club to be over because of me.

  THE BAD THING ABOUT MR. FRANK

  When Mr. Frank said, “Super! I knew you’d all be excited,” I suddenly knew one other very important thing.

  Mr. Frank does not know very much about comics.

  And knowing this made me think of how things were probably going to go from good, which was how mostly everyone was feeling today, to bad, which is what the feelings would be in the next week. In the next meeting people were not going to be saying what they had said today. Instead they were going to be saying...

  WHAT I DID NOT WANT TO HAPPEN

  I did not want Mr. Frank to be sad about his project not working out. But more than that, I did not want everyone to quit, and for me to be the only person left to do all one hundred comics by myself. The only good thing about doing all that comic drawing is that it would for sure keep me too busy to think about not being the flower girl at Augustine Dupre’s wedding, but still, I did not want to do it.

  Sometimes a big idea can suddenly pop right into your brain. This happens a lot on TV. It does not happen so much in real life, so when it does that’s extra lucky.

  MY BIG IDEA

  WHAT EVERYONE SAID ABOUT THE PHOTO BOOTH IDEA

  “Yes! Yes! Yes!” Pretty much everyone in
the world loves photo booths. They are fun, silly, and not even super expensive for the photos. If Mom would let me, I’d for sure get one for our house.

  WHAT MR. FRANK SAID ABOUT THE PHOTO BOOTH IDEA

  Right away I could tell that Mr. Frank liked the idea. “I like the idea,” said Mr. Frank. “But I think those photo booth machines are pretty expensive. We don’t have enough money for that. But maybe we could take regular photos and make them look like photo booth photos. Or maybe you could draw pretend photos. Wait...”

  Mr. Frank held his finger in the air. He stopped talking. We all watched his brain work. He closed his eyes—four or five seconds later they suddenly opened. “I got it!” shouted Mr. Frank. Grace F. screamed and dropped her pencil. She was standing right next to Mr. Frank, and she was not expecting him to shout. In fact, none of us was. It was very exciting.

  MR. FRANK'S NEW PROJECT

  Call the book Community Comics: The Photo Booth Book.

  Pick a person.

  Interview them and ask them what kind of games they used to play when they were young.

  Use only four squares to tell the story

  THIS IS WHAT EACH PAGE WILL LOOK LIKE

  THIS IS WHAT WE CAN USE TO TELL ABOUT OUR INTERVIEW

  Everyone was in love with Mr. Frank’s new idea. It was a great idea, and lots better than the original one.

  THE TWO REASONS WHY I WAS SUPER HAPPY

  I didn’t say anything about it, but I was feeling that my brain had worked in exactly the same way that Augustine Dupre’s brain does. My brain gave Mr. Frank a new idea, and he didn’t even know I had done it. Too bad I couldn’t give his brain the idea to make Miss Lois let us watch a movie all afternoon. For sure I’d have to practice more before I was good enough to do that kind of brain control.

  Mr. Frank was letting us tell our interview stories without having to make drawings. That meant one thing—maybe I could get Mimi to be in the club too!

  WHAT MR. FRANK SAID BEFORE WE LEFT AND AFTER MAX SPILLED HIS SOUP ON THE LIBRARY CARPET

  At first he said, “OH, NO!” Then when he was on the carpet with all the paper towels he said, “From now on please don’t bring soup or anything in a thermos for lunch on comics club day. Bring a sandwich! See you next week. And have fun with those interviews.”

  I was just about to step out of the library when Mr. Frank called my name. I thought he might be needing me to get him some more paper towels for the soup, but instead he said, “Thanks, Grace, for all your help. I appreciate it!” I was surprised. I guess I’m not as good at secret mind control as Augustine Dupre is. If you are good at it the person whose mind you controlled doesn’t even know you did anything. I nodded my head and smiled, but I don’t think he saw me. He was pretty busy scooping up noodles.

  WHAT CAN MAKE YOUR DAY GO FROM GOOD TO EXCELLENT

  The rest of the day was pretty ordinary, and somehow, even though Owen 1 was still messing with his shoes, it didn’t bug me as much.

  On the way home I told Mimi all about the comics project. I tried to sound super excited so that she would want to do it too. After about the millionth time of promising her, “There’s no drawing at all! You don’t have to draw!” she finally said yes. “Okay, I’ll try it,” said Mimi. “But if I don’t like it, I get to leave.” “You’ll stay,” I said, and that was because I knew one thing. Mr. Frank is the nicest teacher in the world. Mimi would be like me. She would want to help him.

  WHAT I SAW WHEN I GOT HOME

  The UPS truck was parked outside my house again. I wasn’t expecting anything, but still maybe there was a surprise for me. I said a quick goodbye to Mimi and ran inside. Mr. Scruffers instantly attacked me. It’s not easy to take off your shoes and hang up your coat when there is a dog jumping on you and barking like crazy. Finally I just picked her up. She always calms down when I hold her. Good thing she’s pretty small.

  BIG DOG VERSUS MR. SCRUFFERS

  Mom was in the kitchen. “Mom, did we get any packages? A present for me? The UPS truck is outside.” Mom shook her head and said, “The only one in this house who is getting lots of presents is Augustine Dupre. She’s the one getting married.” I thought about this for a second. “Does she get to open them before the wedding?” I asked. Mom looked up. I knew she was trying to read my mind, so I just smiled. “I think so,” said Mom. “Why are you...?” Before she could say anything else I dropped Mr. Scruffers on the floor and ran down to the basement. If there is one thing I love, it’s opening presents! Maybe Augustine Dupre needed some help. Lucky for her, I happen to be an excellent present opener.

  PRESENT OPENER SKILLS

  WHAT I WAS 100 PERCENT SURPRISED ABOUT

  Augustine Dupre was not alone. When she answered the door, there standing right next to her was the UPS man. At first I mostly noticed his brown uniform, but then I looked up at his face. “AHHHHH!” I screamed. “It’s you!” I pointed, and then covered my mouth. I couldn’t speak. Nobody could. We just stood there, all three of us, with surprised faces.

  WHAT HAPPENED NEXT

  Luke was the first one to go back to normal. He smiled—it was the smile from the photo booth photo. "Are you okay?” he asked. “I didn’t mean to scare you.” My brain was thinking of a million things, but somehow my mouth was still able to work. “Yeah, I’m okay ... uh. Hi,” I said. And then I put my hand up for a mini-wave.

  Augustine Dupre was the next person to speak. “Grace, would you like to come in? I have some lemonade and cake, or cookies or croissants?” I nodded yes and walked straight to the kitchen table and sat down. It was nice to get off my legs. They were feeling a little wobbly.

  WHAT HAPPENED FOR THE REST OF THE VISIT

  Augustine Dupre and Luke were both super nice to me. It was weird to see them together without Luke just delivering a package and then leaving. Of course now that I was sitting at the table with him, I was a little embarrassed that I had not remembered who he was.

  We ate Augustine Dupre’s homemade croissants, drank lemonade, and talked about the wedding. Augustine Dupre and Luke did most of the talking. I was just happy to listen, because my brain was pretty busy trying to get used to everything I was now knowing.

  They told me their love story of how they met.

  They told me they were getting married in two weeks because that’s when Luke’s family was going to be visiting from France.

  They told me that they were thinking about something special for me to do at the wedding. That part wasn’t figured out yet, but it was nice that they were still thinking about it.

  And then right before it was time for me to go, Augustine Dupre showed me a few of the presents she was extra excited about. At first I was disappointed that they were already opened, but when I saw what they were I was a lot less disappointed about that part.

  Birthday presents are definitely more exciting than wedding presents. It wouldn’t have been very exciting to open any of these!

  THE BIG QUESTION I ASKED AUGUSTINE DUPRE WHEN SHE WALKED ME TO THE DOOR

  “Are you moving away?”

  THE ANSWER

  Augustine put her hand on my shoulder and said, “We can’t stay here forever, but for now we have no plans to move. Luke likes it here too.” It was the best answer I could hope for. If Crinkles understood English he would have been happy too. The love of his life was not going to be moving away.

  THE REST OF MY NIGHT

  Nothing super exciting happened. I had dinner, did my homework, and went to bed without even asking to stay up ten extra minutes. And even though there was no way she could understand me, I told Mr. Scruffers all about my visit with Augustine Dupre. Sometimes it feels good to just say stuff out loud.

  TUESDAY

  The most important thing that happened all day happened the minute I met Mimi outside for our walk to school. “Guess what?” I said. “What?” asked Mimi. “You’ll never guess. Not in a million years!” I said. “Well, then tell me!” said Mimi. She was wearing her impatient face, the one that m
eans I don't want to guess anymore! I looked at her, took a big breath, and said, “Guess who Augustine Dupre is going to marry? It’s the UPS man!”

  WHAT MIMI'S FACE SAID

  WHAT MIMI'S MOUTH SAID

  “OHMYGOSHICAN’TBELIEVEITAREYOUKI DDINGWOWTHAT’SSOCRAZYICAN’TBELI EVEITTHEUPSMANISLUKE? WOW!!!”