Shai & Emmie Star in Dancy Pants! Read online

  “We were trying to decide between brownies and strawberry ice cream. What’s your opinion, sweetpea?” Aunt Mac-N-Cheese was saying.

  My opinion is that you guys are hiding something, Shai thought.

  Well, she could improvise and pretend too. She tapped her chin with her index finger as if she were carefully weighing the choices. “How about brownies tonight and strawberry ice cream tomorrow night?” she suggested.

  “Brilliant!” said Aunt Mac-N-Cheese.

  “Brilliant!” Grandma Rosa agreed.

  Shai definitely had a mystery on her hands—not just a made-up short-story mystery for English class but a real mystery. And she was going to solve it!

  SCENE 4

  The Pajama Meeting

  That night, Shai gathered her siblings for a pajama meeting in her room.

  Pajama meetings were rare occurrences. Shai called for them only during emergencies and special occasions. The last pajama meeting had taken place about six months ago so they could come up with a present idea for Momma’s fortieth birthday. (They had made her a hunormous platter at the ceramics store with all their handprints on it, and Momma had cried happy tears when she unwrapped it.)

  Shai sat on the bed and gazed out at her audience. There was Jacobe in his footie pajamas, drinking milk from his pink sippy cup. Next to him was Samantha in her polka-dotty nightgown, cradling her dragon stuffy, Mr. Firebreath.

  At the far end was Jamal, who was still in his basketball clothes from practice earlier. He was in middle school, which meant that he was practically a grown-up, so his bedtime was later than the other kids’. He had brought along his history textbook and was going over it.

  The pets had come to the meeting too. Sugar, Patches, Marti, Sandy, and Noodle the Poodle were sitting at attention on the rug. Sweetiepie, Purrball, and Furball were lying on the bed. The only ones missing were Samantha’s hamsters, Ham and Ster, and the goldfish, Goldilocks.

  “Ahem.” Shai cleared her throat. “May I have your attention? I’ve—”

  “Shai-Shai, you forgot to say ‘please,’ ” Samantha cut in.

  Shai gave a loud drama sigh. Samantha was the queen of not saying “please” or “thank you.” “May I have your attention, please? I’ve called you all here today because we have a mystery to solve. Grandma Rosa and Aunt Mac-N-Cheese are keeping a big, huge secret from Momma and Daddy. We have to find out what it is!”

  Jamal glanced up from his history textbook. His new glasses made him look like a very smart bug. “Why can’t we just ask them?” he suggested.

  “I already tried that. They just pretended like there was no secret. But of course there is because I could tell,” Shai replied.

  Jamal rolled his eyes. “Okay, Nancy Drew. How do you propose we solve this mystery, then?”

  “Mystery, history, blistery, kisstery!” Samantha chanted.

  “I’m delighted you asked,” Shai said to Jamal.

  Shai opened her turquoise notebook. She had written down assignments for everyone.

  She tore out the assignment pages and passed them around.

  “Jamal, your job is to spy on Grandma Rosa and Aunt Mac-N-Cheese. Jacobe, your job is to help Jamal.”

  “Cake,” Jacobe mumbled. He pulled a brownie crumb out of his hair and put it in his mouth. The dogs trotted over to him and sniffed eagerly at his head. The cats continued lying on the bed and pretended not to notice the dogs.

  “Samantha, your job is to find the yellow clue,” Shai added.

  “Yellow glue?” Samantha repeated.

  “Clue. Clues help detectives solve mysteries. Like footprints . . . or a handkerchief with initials. Before, in the kitchen, I saw Grandma Rosa put something yellow in her apron pocket. I think she was trying to hide it from me. I need you to find it and bring it to me.”

  “If I find it, do I win the contest?” Samantha said eagerly.

  “This isn’t a contest. We’re solving a mystery together. Like a detective club. We could call ourselves . . . let’s see . . . how about the Spy Squad?”

  “Spy Squash!” Jacobe muttered.

  Shai uncapped her marker and wrote “The Spy Squad” in her notebook in extra-curly cursive. The Spy Squad. The Dancy Pants Trio. The Cool Books Club. She sure belonged to a lot of clubs and groups!

  Someone knocked on the door. Shai sat up very straight.

  “Intruders!” she warned the others.

  The door opened, and Momma and Daddy peeked in. Jacobe squealed and ran up to Daddy.

  “Wow, is this a party?” Daddy asked, scooping Jacobe up in his arms. “Buddy, why does your hair smell like chocolate?”

  “Yellow glue!” Jacobe announced. “Spy Squash!”

  Momma eyed Shai’s notebook and the assignment pages scattered around. “Hmm, looks like you guys are working on a top-secret project!”

  “No!” Shai said quickly. “This is not a top-secret project! They’re, um, helping me write a mystery story for my English homework!”

  “We are?” Samantha said, wrinkling her nose.

  Momma and Daddy exchanged a glance.

  “Oo-kay,” Momma said with a laugh. “Let us know if we can help too!”

  “Nope, we’re good,” Shai replied.

  “Nope, we’re good, thank you,” Samantha corrected her.

  Shai made another loud drama sigh.

  Being a detective was not easy!

  SCENE 5

  More Secrets

  On Saturday afternoon Shai and Emmie and Rio got together in the Williamses’ basement for their first “Singin’ in the Rain” rehearsal.

  Shai liked the basement, which was mostly for storage except for a big room with a comfy old couch and a ping-pong table. For today’s rehearsal, Momma and Daddy had moved the ping-pong table aside and put down a portable wooden dance floor on top of the concrete. The floor used to belong to Aunt Mac-N-Cheese from when she took tap-dancing lessons in high school.

  Shai had posted a very official sign on the basement door:

  She had added a picture of a T-rex with extra-sharp teeth, for good measure. So far, the sign seemed to be working.

  While Emmie and Rio did warm-up stretches, Shai plopped down on the couch and put on her tap shoes.

  “Should we practice just the beginning today? The part with the words?” Rio said, stretching his arms over his head.

  “Yes!” Emmie replied. She bent down and touched her toes.

  “No!” said Shai. “We should practice the whole thing. The words part and the no-words part and the ending, too.”

  “But Shai! That’s too much for one rehearsal,” Emmie complained.

  “We have to practice, practice, practice if we’re going to w—” Shai stopped herself before she said “win.” “If we’re going to have fun at Dancing With Kids!” she added quickly. “Come on, let’s get started. We have a lot to do!”

  Emmie raised one eyebrow at Shai. She was probably wondering why Shai was so insistent. Rio was probably wondering that too.

  Shai still hadn’t told them about her cupcake bet with Gabby. Of course, she didn’t like keeping secrets from her friends. But on the other hand, if she did tell, they would probably get mad at her for agreeing to Gabby’s bet without asking them first.

  Losing the bet was not an option either. Not to Gabby. And to be really honest, Shai liked to win. Momma always said she was competitive, just like Momma herself when she was in veterinary school and studied extra-hard to get the highest grades in her class.

  So really, the best solution was not telling Emmie and Rio and just making sure they won a ribbon at the competition.

  Which meant that they had to be no-mistakes and amazetastic and perfect.

  Which meant that Shai had to keep them on track.

  Shai stood up and tapped her feet against the wooden floor: taptaptaptaptap. Then she opened the music app on Momma’s phone, pushed the play button, and took her position. Rio and Emmie took their positions too.

  A cheerful song fille
d the air:

  I’m singin’ in the rain

  Just singin’ in the rain

  The three of them began dancing the steps that Ms. Englert had taught them. During the first few bars they had the same choreography: step-ball-change to the right . . . step-ball-change to the left . . . repeat seven more times. A step-ball-change to the right meant taking a sideways step with the right foot while lifting onto the ball of the left foot, then putting the left foot behind the right foot. A step-ball-change to the left was the same thing, except starting with the left foot.

  As Shai danced, she sideways-spied on Rio and Emmie.

  “Arms go the other way!” she snapped at Rio. “Toe heel turn!” she snapped at Emmie.

  Both Rio and Emmie shot her one-eyebrow looks.

  They were just beginning to rehearse the next section when Shai heard mysterious footsteps on the basement stairs. Was it Jamal? Or Jacobe? The most likely suspect was Samantha.

  Shai hit the stop button on the phone. “Samanthayouareinsomuchtrouble!” she yelled.

  “It’s me, Shaianne, honey!”

  Grandma Rosa appeared on the landing. She held a tray in her hands. A magazine was tucked under one arm.

  Shai had not made any progress on solving the mystery of Grandma Rosa and Aunt Mac-N-Cheese’s secret since the pajama meeting. She knew that her siblings were busy with their assignments—or she hoped so, anyway. She, too, was busy, making her brain try to figure out what the secret might be.

  Grandma Rosa set down the tray and the magazine on a crate. The magazine was called Perfect Parties. On the tray were a plate of banana nut muffins and three glasses of iced tea with fresh mint.

  “I thought you children would enjoy some snacks,” she said. “This is peach iced tea, and the mint is from my herb garden. How is your dance routine coming along?”

  “Great!” Shai replied with a smile.

  “Uh-huh.” Emmie didn’t smile.

  “Yup.” Rio didn’t smile either.

  Shai frowned. Why were Emmie and Rio acting all grumpy? But maybe they were just hangry (which meant you were angry because you were hungry).

  Everyone sat down on the comfy old couch. Grandma Rosa told a funny story about the time she had to do a tap-dance routine for a Broadway play.

  Something caught Shai’s eye. On the cover of Grandma Rosa’s magazine was a picture of a beautiful cake decorated with real flowers. Next to the photo were the words: PERFECTION IN FIVE EASY STEPS!

  Hmmm, Shai thought, perking up.

  Perfection meant being perfect. And perfect was exactly what her trio needed to be in order to win a ribbon at Dancing With Kids.

  Could Grandma Rosa’s magazine help with that?

  SCENE 6

  Five Easy Steps

  Shai sat at the kitchen table and kicked her heels against the rung of the chair. She blew on her hot chocolate with extra marshmallows and took a tiny sip, being careful not to drip on her Sunday church dress that Aunt Mac-N-Cheese had made for her out of green silk and ivory lace.

  Shai was reading the article called “Perfection in Five Easy Steps!” in Grandma Rosa’s magazine. Grandma Rosa had left it lying around on the counter with a bunch of colorful stickies attached to the pages.

  But the article wasn’t about how to be perfect. It was about how to throw a perfect party.

  Still, the advice might work for a dance competition, right?

  Shai reached for her notebook and pen. Flipping to a blank page, she began copying the article into her notebook . . . except that she replaced the word “party” with “dance routine”:

  PERFECTION IN 5 EASY STEPS!

  1. Set clear goals for your perfect party. dance routine

  2. Be a leader! Put together a team you can trust and make sure they understand your directions.

  3. Watch videos of perfect parties dance routines and learn from their examples.

  4. Make your perfect party dance routine a priority. Your hard work will pay off in the end!

  5. When the big day comes . . . have fun!

  Shai read over what she had written down and nodded to herself. She liked all the advice, especially number three about watching videos. She would ask Jamal to help her find some dance videos on the family computer. She, Emmie, and Rio could watch them at their next rehearsal.

  “Ahoy!”

  Shai glanced up from her notebook. Samantha stood in the kitchen doorway. She had changed out of her own Sunday dress. She now wore a pink ballet tutu over Jamal’s old pirate costume, which included a dangly eye patch and a shoulder parrot.

  “Are you a pirate?” Shai asked.

  “Aye, aye, matey!” replied Samantha. She held up a black loot sack with a skull-and-crossbones sign on it.

  “Is that your pirate treasure?”

  “Aye, aye, matey!” Samantha pirate-swaggered up to the table and dumped the contents of the loot sack.

  Shai surveyed the pile. There was a yellow marble. A yellow crayon. Some yellow Lego pieces. A spool of yellow thread. A yellow doll dress. A yellow scarf. A yellow toothbrush. One yellow mitten.

  “Um . . . what are these?” Shai asked.

  “These are the yellow glues! I solved the mystery, matey!” Samantha announced.

  “Oh!”

  Shai didn’t know how to tell her little sister that none of these were clues. Then she remembered step number two in Grandma Rosa’s article: Be a leader! Put together a team you can trust and make sure they understand your directions. The advice could work for mystery solving too.

  “Thanks, Samantha. Could you keep looking, though? I think what Grandma Rosa put in her pocket was flat. Like maybe a yellow card or a yellow piece of paper.”

  “Arrrgh,” Samantha said, pouting.

  Jamal came into the kitchen just then. Jacobe trailed after him, dragging a rubber ducky on a yarn leash. Sweetiepie jumped onto the table and pawed at Samantha’s yellow marble. She knocked it to the floor, and Purrball and Furball chased after it.

  “Are Momma and Daddy back yet?” Jamal asked Shai.

  “They took the dogs for a walk. Then they’re picking up some pizzas at the restaurant,” Shai replied. Daddy owned a neighborhood pizza restaurant called the Super Slice. “How’s your detective assignment going? Did you spy on Grandma Rosa and Aunt Mac-N-Cheese yet?”

  “Well, Jacobe and I just saw them in the backyard,” Jamal said.

  “Did they say anything mysterious?” Shai asked.

  “They were talking about Grandma Rosa’s house. They said something about getting it ready.”

  “Ready for what?”

  Jamal shrugged. “Dunno. Then Aunt Mac-N-Cheese mentioned Jacksonville.”

  “Jacksonville?”

  Jacksonville was a city in Florida. It was about a five-hour drive from Atlanta. Last year Daddy’s parents, Grandpa Ben and Grandma Marie, had moved to Jacksonville, to a retirement home by the ocean. Shai and her family, including Grandma Rosa and Aunt Mac-N-Cheese, had visited them at Thanksgiving time.

  “Did they say any other mysterious things?” Shai asked Jamal.

  “Uh-huh,” Jamal said, lowering his voice. He glanced around as if to make sure no one was listening. “They said that the stolen treasure is buried under the magical cauliflower tree! Its exact location shall be revealed during the next full moon!”

  “Ha-ha, very funny,” Shai muttered.

  Jacobe tried to grab Sweetiepie’s tail. “Cake!”

  “Her name isn’t Crabbycakes anymore. It’s Sweetiepie,” Shai reminded her little brother.

  Jacobe chased Sweetiepie down the hall. Jamal went over to the refrigerator to find a snack. Samantha stuffed a yellow paper napkin into her black loot bag.

  Shai’s mind churned.

  Jacksonville, Florida.

  Grandma Rosa’s house.

  The yellow clue.

  What did this all add up to? What, exactly, was Grandma Rosa and Aunt Mac-N-Cheese’s big secret?

  SCENE 7

  Con
fession Time

  “Did you finish Little Women yet?” Emmie asked Shai as they walked into school on Monday morning. “Who do you like best, Jo or Beth or Meg or Amy? And what do you think ‘hobbledehoy’ means? Isn’t that the awesomest word ever?”

  “Hmm?”

  Shai was lost in thought. Never mind “hobbledehoy” . . . she was still mulling over what Jacksonville and the other clues might mean.

  She was also worried about the Dancing With Kids competition. It was happening in exactly three weeks and five days, and the Dancy Pants Trio had rehearsed only once. They still had a long way to go to achieve “perfect”!

  Shai tried to remember the words she had written in her notebook yesterday. Watch videos of perfect dance routines and learn from their examples. Make your perfect dance routine a priority. Your hard work will pay off in the end!

  Emmie elbowed her. “Helloooo? Earth to Shai!”

  “What? Hey, so I think we should add extra rehearsals this week. And next week too. And the week after that. Maybe we should rehearse every day? My parents said we can keep using the basement if we want. We have to make our dance routine our priority. Our hard work will pay off in the end! Oh, and I found videos of dance routines that I want to show you guys. We can learn from their examples!”

  Emmie put her hands on her hips. “Seriously?”

  “Huh?”

  “This dance competition is supposed to be fun. That’s what Ms. Englert said. Why are you making it so un-fun?”

  Shai put her hands on her hips too. “What do you mean? This is fun.”

  “Hardly!”

  Emmie’s cheeks flushed red all the way to her ears. This only happened when she was embarrassed or mad. In this case, it was definitely mad.

  Shai sighed.

  The two girls crossed the lobby. A group of second graders hurried by with their violin and cello cases. Principal DiMarco stood outside his office and wished everyone a good morning as they passed by.