Just Grace and the Trouble with Cupcakes Read online

  I needed Mimi to see that letter. Robert shook his head. I breathed again, but Mimi wasn’t finished. “Is it gone?” she asked. He nodded. How? I wondered. Two seconds later I knew the answer. “Did you flush it down the toilet?” asked Mimi. Robert didn’t move. He looked scared.

  WHAT HAPPENED NEXT

  I didn’t want to wait for what was going to happen next. I didn’t want to take any chances. I ran upstairs, grabbed Grandma’s pot, and took out the last penny. I held it tight in my hand and made a wish.

  WHAT WAS LUCKY

  The penny. When I opened my eyes Mimi was standing in the doorway, looking at me. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I thought you didn’t want to be friends anymore.” “Of course I did,” I said. “I made you a special apology letter.” And then because I wanted Mimi to know how really sorry I was, I told her all about it.

  WHAT WAS ALSO LUCKY

  When Mimi and I came back downstairs, we were friends again. Robert was still in the kitchen, and still eating cupcakes! “How many have you eaten?” asked Mimi. I looked at the plate. Almost all of them were gone. “No more!” said Mimi, and she snatched the one he was holding out of his hand. I think he was too surprised to complain. “You’re lucky you’re not sick!” she said. “And you’re also lucky that Grace is going to forgive you for flushing her letter down the toilet.” Robert looked at the ground. I didn’t know what to say, so I just nodded.

  “I think I’ll eat this one,” said Mimi. She looked at the cupcake she was holding. She’d gotten it away from Robert before he’d even had a chance to bite it. “I’ll have one too,” I said, and I took the last one from the plate. For a second I thought about saying, High-five for cupcakes!, but then I changed my mind. That really wasn’t the right thing to say, especially after everything that had happened. I took a bite and said something else. It was perfect.

  YUMMY + DELICIOUS =

  CATCHING UP

  Mimi and I had a lot of catching up to do. We had two days of not talking to make up for. I told her all about Owen 1 and how I was feeling a little bit better about being in his group. She said she was surprised to hear that and I said I was surprised to say that, and then we both laughed. After that Mimi told me all about her group. They already had a plan for their entire carnival game. They were not like us—we were still trying to figure out what to do.

  THAT NIGHT

  Mimi and I flashed our bedroom lights on and off at each other. It had been a long time since we’d done it. We usually flash three or four times. When it was my turn, I said a word for each flash. Even though Mimi couldn’t hear me it felt like the right thing to do.

  WHAT MAKES A DAY EXTRA HARD

  Knowing that you won’t get to work on the fair for even one minute of school time. Even Owen 2 complained. I thought that might make a difference, but Miss Lois just said, “Let’s concentrate on our work. We’ll have lots of time to think about the fair tomorrow.”

  Everyone noticed that Mimi and I were friends again, and even though a lot of people asked, we didn’t tell them one thing about why it had happened. Some things the world does not need to know.

  MORE FAIR WORK

  On Thursday I woke up late and had to hurry to meet Mimi. When I got downstairs Mom handed me one of those terrible French toast granola bars to eat on the way. It was better than nothing, but not much better.

  Mimi and I had to rush to make it on time. It’s kind of hard to talk while you’re running, but Mimi was able to tell me one important thing. She was going to Philadelphia with her family for the weekend. I was sad about that, but I didn’t complain. Losing Mimi for only two days was a lot better than losing her forever!

  After the announcements were over, Miss Lois let us work in our groups. “Look what we brought,” said Ruth. Both she and Owen 1 held up balloons. “If we blow them up, we can maybe get some more ideas about our game,” said Owen 1. “Okay,” I said. If Miss Lois didn’t like it, then she could tell us to stop. I was tired of saying no.

  EXPERIMENTS WITH THE BALLOONS

  Balloons are not easy to throw—they just kind of float.

  “Maybe we should tie something on the end of it,” said Robert. “Then it will be heavier and easier to throw.” There weren’t a lot of choices. We tried a pencil, but that was too light. “We could use my pencil case,” said Ruth. “It has two pencils and this eraser in it.” I was just tying the pencil case to the bottom of the balloon when Miss Lois came over. “You’re working so well together,” she said. “But maybe you could save the experimenting part of your project to do at home. You could meet after school or on the weekend.” Everyone in my group was surprised except me. I had a feeling we weren’t going to be allowed to be throwing balloons around in the classroom. None of the other groups were doing stuff like that.

  “What a rip-off!” said Owen 1. “Where are we going to practice?” complained Ruth. Without even thinking I said, “You can come to my house.” “When?” asked Robert. “Today?” Today was too soon. I needed to ask Mom about it first. “Uh . . . how about Saturday,” I said. “Okay,” said Owen 1, “I guess that’s better than nothing.” I frowned. Better than nothing? No wonder Owen 1 always got in trouble. He had terrible manners.

  LUNCHTIME

  At lunch Mimi told me that she was having her group over to her house too. “They’re coming on Friday,” she said. “And you can come too. We’re going to have pizza.” I had three thoughts.

  MY THOUGHTS

  They don’t need me there.

  Mimi’s group is better than my group.

  I really like pizza.

  Sometimes if you are feeling a little sorry for yourself you can say the wrong thing. This was almost one of those times, but I stopped myself before it happened. “Okay,” I said. “I’ll come for pizza.” “Oh, good,” said Mimi. “Now it’ll be more fun.” “I wish you could come to my group on Saturday,” I said. Mimi smiled and shook her head. There was a big difference between hanging out with her group and hanging out with my group. She was probably thinking she was lucky that she was going to be away in Philadelphia.

  WHAT HAPPENED IN THE AFTERNOON

  Miss Lois made us do regular schoolwork. There was a lot of groaning and complaining. But before she made us do math, she showed us the cupcake crowns she had made for the winners of the Cupcake Challenge.

  THAT NIGHT

  Nothing exciting happened, except that I told Mom about having Owen 1, Robert Walters, and Ruth over on Saturday. Mom said she was sure everything would turn out fine. That was easy for her to say—she’d never met them.

  Now with Mimi being gone there wasn’t anything fun to look forward to for the whole weekend.

  FRIDAYS ARE THE BEST DAYS EVEN IF NOTHING AMAZING HAPPENS, BECAUSE IN YOUR BRAIN YOU KNOW THAT TOMORROW YOU DON’T HAVE TO GO TO SCHOOL

  THE GOOD THINGS THAT HAPPENED TODAY

  I had lunch with Mimi and Sunni. This was a double surprise because I’d never eaten lunch with Sunni before, and the second part of the surprise was that she was actually pretty nice.

  Miss Lois let us work with our groups for the last half of the afternoon. Since we still didn’t know what we were going to do for our game, we just mostly sat around and watched everyone else. I was really hoping that working with the balloons on Saturday was going to help us figure out what to do. Otherwise we were going to be in big trouble.

  After school I walked home with Mimi, Sammy, Max, and Sunni. It was a little weird having Sunni there, but by the time we got to my house I was used to it. “What time is pizza?” I asked. “Five-thirty,” said Mimi, “but you can come over at five.” “Okay,” I said. “I’ll see you later.” I watched them all go into Mimi’s house, and then I went inside. I knew it was wrong, but I couldn’t help it. I was feeling a little sad and a little jealous.

  SAD + JEALOUS = SADLOUS

  Being with Mr. Scruffers helped. Most of the sad went away, but the jealous part was harder to get rid of. I guess jealousy is stickier.

&nbs
p; MIMI’S HOUSE

  At five o’clock I went over to Mimi’s house. When I saw their game I couldn’t believe how good it was. It was excellent. “It’s called Candy Toss,” said Sunni. “Who made all the candy?” I asked. “Mimi and Sunni,” said Sammy. “Max and I painted the cupcakes.” “Did you know Sunni can sew?” asked Mimi. “Once I showed her how, she did a really good job.” Sunni looked down and her face turned red. It was the first time I had ever seen her embarrassed.

  A ladder was set up next to the board with the cupcakes painted on it. Sammy was standing on top of it. “Hey, Max—throw me the candy,” he said. Max tossed it to him. “I’m going to try the game from up here,” said Sammy. He leaned over and dropped the candy onto the cupcakes. Each piece landed perfectly, right in the middle of the frosting part on the cupcake.

  THE CANDY TOSS GAME

  “It’s good we’re not using the ladder for the game,” said Sammy. “It’s too easy.” I picked up a piece of candy and threw it. I missed the board completely. “It’s not easy from the ground,” I said. Both Sammy and Max smiled. It was a good game.

  After our pizza dinner everyone had to go home. Mimi had to go to bed early because she was leaving at six in the morning for her trip. That night Mimi and I flashed our lights at each other eight times—four for tonight, and four for tomorrow night when she was going to be gone.

  SATURDAY

  I didn’t really have much to do to get ready for the group to come over, but still I was nervous about it. Mom said she would get some balloons from the store, and I got the art supplies and cardboard and paper out. I tried to think of a great idea for our game, but all I could think about was Mimi’s game and how good it was.

  As two o’clock got closer I started to feel more and more nervous. It was strange to have people I didn’t know very well coming over. I would have felt a lot better if Mimi was with me too. The first person to arrive was Robert Walters. I am lucky that he is a huge dog fan, or we would have had nothing to talk about. As soon as he heard Mr. Scruffers barking in the backyard, he wanted to go outside and see her. Then once he met her, he wanted to throw the ball for her. I thought he might say something about it being weird that she was a girl dog with a boy name, but he didn’t. “I wish I could have a dog,” he said. He didn’t even mind touching her slobbery ball.

  Ruth and Owen 1 came about ten minutes later. Robert wanted to start playing with the balloons, but I said that Mom was getting them and she wasn’t back from the store yet. Dad came outside to check on us, so I introduced him to everyone. He already knew all about Owen 1 because I complain about him a lot, but he didn’t say anything. Grownups are good about not saying stuff that could hurt other people’s feelings.

  “Does your dog do any tricks?” asked Owen 1. “Just one,” I said. “But it’s not very exciting. All she does is sit.” “Can we see?” asked Ruth. “Okay,” I said. I took the ball from Robert, held it high in the air, and said, “Sit, Mr. Scruffers. Sit.” For a second she just stood there and didn’t do anything, but then she sat down. “Can she shake?” asked Robert. Without waiting for an answer, he bent down and grabbed her paw. Instantly Mr. Scruffers fell over. “That’s so cool,” said Owen 1. “It’s like you zapped her. Like you have a superpower. How did you do that?” “I didn’t do anything,” said Robert. She just did it by herself. “Wow!” said Owen 1. “That’s the coolest dog!”

  Robert and Owen 1 each tried the trick with Mr. Scruffers about three or four times. They loved it. Mr. Scruffers could do a cool trick and I didn’t even know it.

  MOM’S MISTAKE

  Mom came out of the garage a few seconds later. Right away I could see that she had bought the wrong kind of balloons. I forgot to tell her to get the kind you blow up yourself. “I had to go to three stores to get these,” she said. After all that trouble there was no way I could tell her they were wrong, so all I said was thank you.

  I tied the balloons to a chair so they wouldn’t fly away, and then we talked about what to do next. “I brought my pencil case,” said Ruth. “Let’s see if it works,” I said. I took one of the balloons and tied Ruth’s pencil case to it. “It needs to be heavier,” I said. Ruth found some stones and we put them inside the case.

  “Now let me try throwing it,” said Owen 1. He grabbed the balloon and tried to throw it, but his arm got tangled in the string. “Stupid balloon,” said Owen 1. He tried to kick it but missed. It was hard not to laugh. “I’ll hit it for you,” said Robert. He threw Mr. Scruffers’s ball at the balloon. It whacked against the balloon and pushed the balloon and the pencil case a few feet away. “Let me try that,” said Owen 1. It worked for him too.

  “Let’s have a race,” yelled Robert. He grabbed another balloon and tied some sticks to the bottom of it. Then he put both balloons next to each other, and grabbed one of Mr. Scruffers’s other balls. “I’ll hit the red one and you hit the green one,” said Robert. “The first person that gets their balloon to that bush over there is the winner,” said Owen 1. I shook my head. No wonder they never got anything done at school. They didn’t know how to concentrate. We were supposed to be working on our carnival game, not racing balloons.

  Everyone was surprised to hear me yelling. But they were even more surprised when I told them why. “That’s it!” I said. “You just invented the carnival game!” “We did?” they asked. I nodded and pointed to the balloons. “Now all we have to do is make it a Spider-Man cupcake theme.”

  It took a while for everyone to agree on what to do, but by five o’clock we had our game all finished. I was surprised. It actually turned out pretty good. This time when Robert Walters said he wanted to high-five, I let him hit my hand. The only thing I was not super excited about was the name, but everyone else liked it so I said, “Okay.” Sometimes you just have to go with the group, even if you think they are making a not excellent choice.

  SPIDER-MAN VERSUS THE CUPCAKE MONSTER

  I didn’t know it while it was happening, but working with my group was the most fun I was going to have all weekend.

  WHAT HAPPENED THE REST OF THE WEEKEND

  Nothing—it was boring. I missed Mimi, but I did come up with three superpowers that the superpower ball couldn’t guess.

  Empathy Power

  Balloon Power—you can float like a balloon.

  Slobber Power—you slobber on things to keep people from touching them.

  FOUR EXCITING THINGS THAT HAPPENED ON MONDAY

  Mimi told me about her trip to Philadelphia. She said she had a great time. Her three favorite things were visiting the aquarium, seeing the Liberty Bell, and visiting an old prison. She said the prison was really interesting, but the best thing was touching a shark at the aquarium. It was only a baby shark, but still that was pretty cool.

  Miss Lois wore her finished cupcake hat so we could all see it.

  Sandra Orr’s mom brought in a giant cupcake costume for someone to wear on the day of the fair. She said it was an old Halloween costume, but it was perfect for our carnival.

  Miss Lois said she needed families to volunteer to make cupcakes. Right away my hand went up. I had to—I had the best cupcake recipe in the entire world.

  This was a lot of exciting news to have in one day.

  Before we left, Miss Lois reminded us that we needed to turn in our project plans and our parent volunteer forms. She said, “I’m assigning parent volunteer jobs this week. I need those forms.”

  WHAT MIMI AND I TALKED ABOUT ON THE WAY HOME

  As soon as I got home I reminded Mom about the form she had to fill out and then I put my group’s project plan in my backpack by the front door. I didn’t want to forget it for tomorrow. We’d done a much better job than I thought we would. It was surprising, but I even felt proud of it. I smiled, gave it one last look, and then ran outside to the backyard to see Mr. Scruffers.

  WHAT WAS A SURPRISE ON TUESDAY

  Miss Lois picked our project plan as the model to show the class. It was a good thing that we’d included
a description about how to play our game. A lot of other teams had forgotten about that part.

  On the way home I invited Mimi over to see Mr. Scruffers’s new trick, but she said she had to fix some of the candy beanbags for her carnival game. “Sunni’s not really that great a sewer,” she said. “Oh,” I said. Maybe that’s why she had been blushing. At school Sunni is good at everything, so it was kind of nice to find out she isn’t perfect.

  THE TWO FUN THINGS THAT HAPPENED ON WEDNESDAY AFTER SCHOOL

  I showed Mimi Mr. Scruffers’s new trick. She loved it. She could hardly believe that Robert had figured it out. He had found a new trick where we thought there was nothing. That was pretty amazing.