• • •
The next morning I wake up for school very, very early. It is so exciting that I can hardly wait. And that is because I am going to be wearing that flower girl dress right to school!
But first it is time for breakfast.
“Hello,” I say when I get downstairs. “Good morning, Kaitlyn!” I am wearing jeans. And a gray T-shirt with a big smiley face on the front. That is a trick. So that no one will think I am wearing my dress to school. Because Maybelle is right about that. It is not allowed.
“What are you up to?” Kaitlyn asks me. She is sitting right at the table eating a bowl of oatmeal.
“I am not up to anything,” I tell her. I am trying to look very innocent on my face. I go to get my cereal bowl out of the cupboard.
“Yes, you are,” she says. “You are not wearing anything sparkly. And you are being very nice to me. You are up to something. ”
“I am being nice to you,” I say, “because I am very sorry that I spilled your blue nail polish all over.”
“You spilled it all over?” Kaitlyn says. “That was a brand-new bottle of nail polish!”
“Yes, well, Cousin Angela was pretending to be a big girl. And she knocked it all over.” I push the box of Apple O’s across the table to her. “Would you like some cereal, Kaitlyn? I will pour it for you.”
“Mom!” Kaitlyn yells. “Mom!”
My mom comes running into the kitchen. She is wearing some very fancy work clothes of black pants and black high-heeled shoes. “Wowza,” I say. “You look like a knockout.”
“Thank you,” she says. She pours some Apple O’s into my bowl.
“Mom, Hailey spilled my nail polish all over, and I just bought that nail polish with my babysitting money!” Kaitlyn says. Kaitlyn thinks she is so smart because she has a babysitting job.
“Everyone just stay calm,” I say. “It is just some nail polish. It is not the end of the world.” Some people have real problems. Like getting music at the wedding. And stopping their sprite from having to go back to the castle.
I take a big spoonful of Apple O’s. One falls off my spoon and onto the table. Maybelle picks it up and starts to eat it right up. Apple O’s are her very favorite cereal of all time.
“Hailey will pay you back for the nail polish,” my mom says.
“Those are very beautiful shoes,” I tell my mom. This is called distracting. Because I cannot pay Kaitlyn back. I do not have any money. I do not have a job. And I spent my allowance already. And me and Russ have not had a lemonade stand in forever and ever.
“Hailey,” my mom says. “Today after my meeting I will bring you over to Aunt Denise’s house. You and Cousin Angela will clean out Uncle Adam’s car to earn money to buy Kaitlyn new nail polish.”
I gasp. “But I did not even spill that nail polish or use it!”
“Then how come your pinkie nail is painted blue?” Kaitlyn asks.
Oops.
I do not have time to think about having a job later at Cousin Angela’s house. And that is because I am trying to figure out a way to sneak that dress off to school.
“Why are we in your mom and dad’s room?” Maybelle asks. We are tip, tip, tiptoeing quiet as a mouse into my mom and dad’s bedroom. My mom and dad’s bedroom is off-limits. But there is no choice. My flower girl dress is in here.
“Shhh!” I tell Maybelle. Even though no one can hear her, she should be very quiet. We are on a secret mission. I take that beautiful blue dress out of the closet. Then I go into the hall and try to quick run into my room. But before I can get there, I go running right into my dad. Uh-oh.
“Hailey,” he says. “What were you doing in our room?”
“Just moving my dress into my own room,” I tell him. This is not a lie. I am moving it into my own room. But I do not tell him that I am wearing it to school. And I do not tell him that my mom did not tell me to move that dress.
“Okay,” my dad says. “Have a good day at school.” Dads are good when you are trying to do something that you do not have a permission to do. And that is because they do not ask too many questions. They are in their own world.
“You have a good day, too!” I say very happy.
Then I am run, run, running back to my room. And I am pulling on my flower girl dress. And I am putting it on right over my jeans and T-shirt! The sleeves of my T-shirt are a little sticking out. But it still looks very beautiful.
“You better put that dress back, Hailey!” Maybelle says. “You are going to make a big mess of it. It is looking very stretchy over the clothes you are wearing.”
“It is okay,” I tell her. “I am going to be very careful.” I am tuck, tuck, tucking the bottom of my dress right into my pants.
I put a nice big heavy coat on over that dress. To cover it all right up.
I get my book bag. And I take my lunch box out of the fridge.
“Good-bye, Kaitlyn,” I say. “It is time for me to leave for school.”
“Good-bye,” she says. She does not sound like she really cares too much. She is still mad about that nail polish. But she will get over it.
“Good-bye, Mom and Dad, I am going to be late for the bus so I will see you later!” I yell up the stairs. And then I go running out to the bus stop.
• • •
When I get to school I am causing quite a spectacle. A spectacle is when you cause a big scene and people pay a lot of very good attention to you. Being a spectacle is fun. It is like being famous.
“Hailey!” Addie Jokobeck gasps when she sees me. Her eyes get big, big, big like two round beach balls. “You are wearing a fancy dress.”
“Yup!” I say. “I am!” I hang my coat up in the back of room four on my special hook. I did not have my flower crown ready yet. Cousin Genevieve is going to buy them right on the wedding day.
But that is not even a problem. On account of how I picked some flowers from the outside of school. And then made them into a crown.
“I made you a flower crown, too,” I tell Addie Jokobeck. I plop it onto her head. “You look very beautiful, Addie.” I clap my hands and twirl around in my dress. “Do you see how fluttery this dress is?”
“Yes.” Addie Jokobeck is touching her crown. It is getting a little bit tangled all up in her hair. Oh, well. She can use some scissors to cut it out later if it gets too stuck.
“Uh-oh,” Maybelle says. “Here comes Natalie Brice.”
Natalie Brice is coming in. And Natalie Brice is holding something in her hand. And that something is a camera!
“Cameras are not allowed in school, Natalie Brice,” I tell her. I am keeping my voice very sweet. And that is because I want her to notice my beautiful princess wedding dress.
“Yes, they are,” she says.
“No, they are not.”
“Well, I am just going to show you a picture of me in my beautiful dress.” She puts that screen of the camera right in Addie Jokobeck’s face. And she says, “See, Addie, I had a jewel crown. With real diamonds that cost thousands of dollars.”
I look over Addie’s shoulder at that picture. Natalie is wearing a beautiful dress! And a jewel crown! With real diamonds that cost thousands of dollars!
“Look at my flower crown!” I yell. “Everyone in room four look at the flower crown that Hailey Twitch is wearing.”
Some people turn to look. That is when the spectacle part really starts.
“That flower crown is wilted and ugly,” Natalie says. She wrinkles her nose right up and looks at me like I smell like old garbage.
“It is not,” I tell her. “And Addie Jokobeck has one, too.”
“Hers is wilted and ugly, too,” Natalie says.
“It is not! These flower crowns are gorgeous.”
But Addie Jokobeck does not look so sure. She is trying to pull her flower crown right off her head. And she is l
ooking like maybe she thinks it is ugly and wilted.
“You stole those flowers from outside,” Natalie says. And then she decides to be a big tattletale. “Miss Stephanie!” she says. “Hailey Twitch stole some flowers from outside of the school, and she put them on her head.”
“No, I did not,” I say. I am keeping my voice very calm. I quick cross my fingers behind my back, and then I say a little fib. “We have these same flowers at home. The same ones that are right at this school.”
“Hailey,” Miss Stephanie says. “What is that you are wearing?”
“Thank you for noticing, Miss Stephanie.” I do another big twirl. I am hoping maybe Antonio Fuerte will notice how fancy I am looking. So far he is in the corner playing trucks and not paying too much attention. “This is a very amazing flower girl dress that I am going to wear when I am a flower girl.”
“Does your mother know you wore that dress to school?” Miss Stephanie asks.
“Yes, of course.” That is another fib. “She says it is okay as long as I am very, very careful and do not spill anything on it like marker or paint or food.”
“Hailey.” Miss Stephanie sighs. “Please come with me.”
• • •
Miss Stephanie takes me right down to the main office!
“Do I have to go and see the principal?” I ask as we are walking down there.
“No,” Miss Stephanie says. “But I do want us to call your mom and make sure that you are allowed to be wearing that dress.” Her shoes are making clacking noises on the hallway. Clack, clack, clack. She is having a teacher’s aide watch our class. It is a very big mess of a situation, if you want to know the truth.
“Uh-oh,” Maybelle says. She is flying all around my head. “Someone is going to be in very big trouble and that someone is you.”
“Miss Stephanie,” I say. “My mom is in a very important meeting, and she cannot come to the phone right now.” I shrug. “Sorry, it is out of my hands.”
But Miss Stephanie is not listening. She is in the main office, and she is asking the secretary for my mom’s phone number right away. And then she is calling her! She is dialing that number immediately. And then she is asking right away if I am allowed to be wearing that dress.
“What did she say?” I whisper when Miss Stephanie is hanging up the office phone.
“She said she is coming to bring you some different clothes.”
• • •
My mom is very, very, very mad. On account of how I wore that dress to school. And on account of how she had to bring me new clothes and miss her very big important meeting.
This day is getting worse and worse. Especially after school when I have to go work at Aunt Denise’s house.
“Hello, Hailey,” Aunt Denise says when she opens the door. “Come on in.”
My mom is coming in, too. Her and Aunt Denise are going to sit in the kitchen and drink coffee and eat cake while me and Cousin Angela are working our butts off. That does not sound like a very fair plan.
“I hope we are not going to be doing any yard work,” I say. “I hate yard work.” Yard work is very hard because you get dirty and you have to use a wheelbarrow. I know all about it because one time I had to do some yard work for my neighbor Mr. Frisk. He is very old. Maybe even one hundred. And so he cannot do yard work all by his own self.
“Today you are going to be cleaning out Uncle Adam’s car,” Aunt Denise says. She holds out one trash bag to me. And one trash bag to Cousin Angela. Cousin Angela takes the bag. She is picking her nose.
“That girl is very gross,” Maybelle says. “She is always picking her nose.”
Me and Cousin Angela go outside. I am hoping this is going to be an easy job. But when we open that car door, it is a very big disaster area! Uncle Adam’s car is even worse than Kaitlyn’s room! And Kaitlyn’s room is the biggest mess I ever saw in my whole life.
Cousin Angela holds her nose. “That car smells,” she says. Then she drops her trash bag right on the driveway. She picks up a jump rope and starts skipping right away. Skip, skip, skip.
“Maybelle,” I whisper. “Do something about this!”
“About what?” Maybelle asks. She is sitting on the hood of the car. Doing nothing.
“About me having to do all this work all by my own self,” I say.
“What should I do about it?” Maybelle asks.
I sigh. I have to think of everything around here. “You could break that jump rope right in half.”
Maybelle looks over at Cousin Angela. And she pulls out her wand. And then she makes that jump rope all sparkly, and suddenly Cousin Angela is going faster and faster and jumping all over.
“Maybelle!” I whisper. “I said to break that jump rope right in half. Not make it go faster.”
“Sorry.” She gives a big shrug. “I guess I am not so good at magic.”
It is a very big lie. She is pretending not to be good at magic so that Mr. Tuttle will not send her back to the castle.
I think about maybe having a big fit or a tantrum. Or maybe I will go inside and be a big tattletale. But then I have a fab, fab, fabulous idea.
“Oh, Cousin Angela,” I call right over to her. “I have a great idea for you!”
“What?” She sticks her finger right up in her nose again.
“How would you like it if I clean out this whole car, and you do not even have to do one thing? That is called not even having to lift a finger!”
She thinks about it. “So you will be my servant?”
“Yes. I will be your servant.” I do a big sigh. “And if I am your servant, then that means that I have to clean this whole car. And it means that you will not have to be a flower girl! Because I will have to do the whole job for you.” I put a fake sad face on. “That will be a really hard job, but I will have to do it because I am your servant.”
“No!” Cousin Angela screams. She starts swinging the jump rope around her head. “I am the flower girl!” Yikes. She is getting closer and closer with that rope.
“But if you aren’t the flower girl, then you don’t have to clean out the car.” I am moving back, back, back quick as I can. Because that rope is swinging very close to me. It is making me a little nervous if you want to know the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
“I AM GOING TO BE THE FLOWER GIRL!” Cousin Angela is screaming.
And that is when I lose it.
“MOM!” I yell. I am running all across the lawn like a crazy person. “MOM, AUNT DENISE, COUSIN GENIEVIEVE, PLEASE SOMEONE COME OUT HERE AND SAVE ME FROM THIS ROPE!”
My mom comes running out onto the porch. “Girls!” she says. “What is all this yelling about?”
“Cousin Angela is chasing me with a jump rope!” I say. I am still running all around the yard. My hands are waving all in the air. But when I look behind me, Cousin Angela is not even chasing me one bit.
She is standing in the driveway. She is holding a trash bag. And she is cleaning out Uncle Adam’s car.
“Hailey, what are you talking about?” Aunt Denise asks. She is out on the porch now, too. So is Cousin Genevieve. They are all looking at me like I am maybe a little bit crazy in my head.
“Cousin Angela was chasing me around with a jump rope.” I point over to the rope. But it is just sitting on the driveway now. Like it is no big deal.
“Angela!” Aunt Denise calls. “Is that true?”
“Is what true, Mommy?” Cousin Angela asks. She is dropping an old paper cup into her garbage bag.
“Did you chase Hailey around the yard with a jump rope?”
“No, Mommy,” Cousin Angela says. She shakes her head no, no, no. “I was just cleaning out the car.”
“Are you sure, Angela?” Aunt Denise asks.
“Yes.” She is nodding up and down. “But there is one thing that happened. And that is that Hailey told me
that if I did not stop being a flower girl, then she would tell you that I chased her around with a jump rope.”
“What?!” I shriek. “That is a big fat lie, Cousin Angela, and you know it!”
“YEAH!” Maybelle says. She puts her hands right on her hips and gives a mean look to Cousin Angela.
“Hailey, please stop yelling at me,” Cousin Angela says. And then she drops her garbage bag on the ground. And bursts right into tears.
And I get stuck cleaning Uncle Adam’s car out all by my own self.
After I am done cleaning out that disgusting, gross, horrible car, it is time to go and look at shoes. Perfect, sparkly, beautiful shoes! Just like Dorothy from this one movie I know called The Wizard of Oz. Only that girl Dorothy’s shoes are red. And mine are going to be pink, pink, pink!
“Oh,” the saleslady says when she sees me. “You again.” She does not look too happy to see me. That is not very polite.
“Yes, it is us again!” I say. “We are here to get some wonderful sparkly shoes. So please show me the shoes for flower girls.” Now I am old enough to know that there are shoes for brides and shoes for flower girls. I am not going to make that mistake again.
“Here are the shoes for the flower girls,” the saleslady says. “Let me know if you need any help.” She is looking at us with a very nervous look on her face. I think she is scared we are going to cause a big scene.
“These are the ones!” I pick up the sparkly shoes. “I would like these in my size, please.”
The saleslady asks the sizes of me and Cousin Angela. Then she goes to get those shoes.
When she comes back, I slide my feet into those shoes right away. They are a little bit pinchy in the toes. But I do not care. They are very perfect. Better than Natalie Brice’s jewel crown even.
I am looking at myself in these very wonderful little foot mirrors. I cannot get enough of it. “These shoes are the most beautiful shoes in the world,” I tell Cousin Angela. “Do you love them?”