Diana held out a sheet of paper. I looked at her drawings. They showed a couple of gigundoly fancy hats, covered with flowers and fruit. One of them even showed a bird perched on a twig.
“These are cool!” I said. “It would be so neat if we could find hats with, like, airplanes on them, or hot-air balloons.” I sat up in bed, excited. I have an excellent imagination. (Everyone says so.) I could see that Diana and I could have the most amazing Easter bonnets Stoneybrook had ever seen!
“Airplanes?” Diana hooted. “Hot-air balloons? Who ever heard of those things on a hat? No, my idea is much better. Now, we have to go shopping to buy plain straw hats and the stuff to decorate them with. They will be beautiful. They will win the contest. You will see.”
“Oh,” I said. “Okay. If you say so.” I did not see what was wrong with airplanes and hot-air balloons. I have seen pictures of beautiful hot-air balloons. But I wanted Diana to be happy.
That afternoon Merry drove Andrew, Diana, and me to Washington Mall outside of Stoneybrook.
“Your mother asked me to pick up some things at the Party Place for your family gathering on Sunday,” Merry said as we entered the mall.
“Oh, who cares about the family gathering?” said Diana. “Our bonnets are much more important than that. Let’s find hats first.”
I glanced at Merry. By the look on her face I could tell she thought Diana was being rude. But I guessed Merry wanted to be nice to our guest, because she said, “Okay, I suppose we can look for bonnets first.”
Well, let me tell you. If you have never shopped for Easter bonnets with my cousin Diana, you do not know how complicated it is. First we went to a department store to look for straw hats. They did not have any good ones. So we had to go to another department store. We did not find any good straw hats there either.
Finally we went to Heads Up, a store that sold all sorts of hats. There we found perfect straw hats for both of us. (Andrew and Merry were getting tired of looking at hats. I could not blame them.)
Next came the search for plastic flowers. Back to the first department store. Then the second department store. Then the Dollar Store. Then Hank’s Hobby Shop. Finally we found a huge selection of plastic flowers, fruit, ribbons, and even plastic birds at Clarke’s Crafts.
The hats and materials we bought were really cool. But Merry was not merry. She was mad! We had spent too much time chasing after bonnet stuff. Merry had not had a chance to pick up any of the things we needed for Sunday.
“I guess we will have to come back tomorrow,” said Merry. She looked irritated and worn out. Andrew was whining about how he never wanted to see another hat or plastic flower. I felt a little guilty that they were upset. But it did not seem like my fault. And our bonnets were going to be awesome. I could not wait to wear mine to the parade.
As we drove home, Diana talked and talked about how beautiful our hats would look. I wished she would keep quiet until we got home. Merry’s face was getting more and more frowny.
Finally, Merry said, “Diana, we spent the whole day searching for hats. It is time to change the subject.”
Diana looked amazed. She started at Merry’s face in the rearview mirror. Then she quit talking altogether. I was embarrassed. Merry had never hurt any of my friends’ (or cousins’) feelings before.
“Anyway,” Diana whispered to me, “we will definitely get the prize for best Easter bonnets.”
“Um-hmm,” I said, looking out the window.
Bubble Gum Blues
We were late getting home, so Merry had to rush to get supper ready. Diana and I went upstairs to my room. We spread our hats and flowers and fruit and birds and ribbons all over my bed to admire them.
“No one will have bonnets as amazing as ours,” said Diana, picking up a plastic pear. She pretended to bite into it and said, “Mmm, ripe.”
I giggled. Then I noticed that she really was chewing on something.
“What’s that? Do you have gum?” I asked.
“Oh, sure,” said Diana. She reached into her pocket and brought out a box of Bubble Babies. Bubble Babies are little candy-coated pieces of bubble gum shaped like baby animals. All the kids I knew loved them.
She shook the box, and I heard the Babies inside rattling around. “Want some?” she asked.
“Sure!” I said, holding out my hand.
She tapped a couple of Bubble Babies into my hand. I got a pink baby koala bear, a green baby whale, and a blue baby squirrel.
I popped them into my mouth. “Delicious,” I said, quoting their television ad. “And nutritious.”
“And best of all, free,” said Diana, smiling.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“They did not cost me any money,” said Diana matter-of-factly. “I swiped them from the Dollar Store.”
I gasped and almost choked on the gum. “You swiped them?” I asked. “Swiped, like stole? Like shoplifted?”
“Yup,” Diana said, nodding. “Just slipped them in my pocket and walked out. Easy as pie.” She shrugged. “All the older kids do it back home.”
Well, I did not know what to say to that one. I thought of the older kids I knew: Sam. Charlie. Kristy. Kristy’s friends, who baby-sat for Andrew and me all the time. I knew there was no way that any of them would steal anything. They were too nice. They were too honest. They were my friends.
“The big kids I know do not steal,” I said.
“Well, the ones I know do,” said Diana. “It is no big deal. It is fun, and you have to be brave and mature to do it.” She turned her back on me. Obviously she did not want to talk about it anymore.
Neither did I. I had some thinking to do. I remembered that Diana had wanted to cheat at the Easter egg hunt. And now shoplifting! I knew shoplifting was a really, really awful thing to do. What would Mommy do if she found out? What would my aunt Ellen do? Diana would be in so, so much trouble. I decided Diana was not acting like herself. I was worried about her.
Should I tell a grown-up about what Diana had done? I did not want to get her into trouble. I was not sure what to do.
* * *
That night after dinner, Diana called her family in Pennsylvania. The more I had thought about it, the more I believed that the right thing to do was to tell Mommy about the stealing. It would not be tattling, because I would not be doing it to get Diana into trouble. I was worried, and I wanted to help her.
Mommy and I were alone in the kitchen. I was just about to say something when Mommy said, “What a terrible day I had today.”
“What happened?” I asked.
“I found out that someone stole one of my nicest necklaces from the craft center,” Mommy said.
“That is awful!” Mommy makes necklaces to sell at the craft center where she works. And they are the most beautiful necklaces ever! I could not believe that someone would steal from her. It made me furious.
“It is,” said Mommy. “Now I will not be able to sell that necklace. And we could have used the money for our family celebration.” Mommy sighed. “Why do bad people have to do things like that?”
I thought about Diana stealing gum from the Dollar Store. “Maybe they are not bad people,” I said. “Maybe they are mostly good people who have bad ideas.”
“You are probably right, Karen,” said Mommy. “Maybe I should not be so upset. Thank you for trying to cheer me up.”
Mommy hugged me. I thought about Diana, and my stomach hurt.
Diana’s Other Bad Idea
Diana and I spent Thursday morning decorating our hats. To tell you the truth, I did not really want to be around Diana. Then I felt bad that I did not want to be around her. After all, we are supposed to be best cousins.
I had thought and thought about the gum, and still thought I should tell Mommy what Diana had done. But it was not easy. I had not been able to do it. I wished that I could talk to the other two Musketeers. They are always ready to help their third Musketeer when she has a problem. But I could not talk to them. I did not want them
to know such an awful thing about Diana. So I was on the floor in my room with Diana and a bunch of plastic flowers and fruit, even though I was not excited about our Easter bonnets.
Diana and I glued plastic flowers all around the brim of each hat. Above the flowers we bunched plastic fruit — grapes, lemons, limes, apples. We had even bought one pineapple each, to put on the very top. Next we wove ribbons through the flowers and fruits. Finally, as the most amazing thing, we glued our plastic birds onto little twigs that were stuck into one side. Diana’s bird was red, like a cardinal, and mine was blue, like a bluebird.
We tried them on and admired ourselves in front of a mirror.
“Fabulous,” I said sadly. “We are sure winners.”
Diana frowned. “It is a good start,” she said. “But it is not quite enough.”
“Not enough?” I repeated. “What else could we put on these hats? Real, live Easter bunnies?”
Diana grinned. “That would be good,” she said. “But not possible. No, I think we need some more plastic leaves and berries. And even if we cannot have live bunnies on our bonnets, we can have the next best thing. Last night I noticed some pictures of a little white bunny in a magazine. We can cut out the pictures, put them in frames, and stick them on our hats.”
“That is a great idea,” I said reluctantly. (Why did Diana have to have such good ideas? It was making everything harder.) “But I do not think I have enough money to buy picture frames.”
“No problem,” Diana said. “Let’s ride downtown on our bikes. We can find picture frames there, right?”
“I guess so,” I said. “We cannot go by ourselves, though. Maybe Kristy can go with us. There is a new store called Nikki’s Knickknack Shack. They sell practically everything. But I still do not think we have enough money to buy frames.”
“We will not have to buy them, Karen,” said Diana. “We will do like I did with the gum. We will swipe them.”
“In front of Kristy?” I said. “Anyway, stealing is a terrible idea.”
“It is not that big a deal, Karen,” said Diana. “Like I said, all the big kids back home do it. And we can do it without anyone seeing us. You are not a baby, are you? Are you chicken?”
I did not know what to say. I definitely did not want to help Diana steal. But I also did not want her to call me a baby or a chicken. I decided to change the subject, fast. Maybe Diana would forget about the store altogether.
“I saw my friend Hannie’s bike next door in front of Nancy’s house,” I said. “You have not had a chance to meet Hannie and Nancy yet. Let’s go to Nancy’s house. We can go to the store later.”
Diana shrugged. “Okay. We will get our stuff this afternoon.”
No Floats?
We walked to Nancy’s house and rang the doorbell. I introduced my best cousin to my two best friends. (I had wanted to have Diana all to myself when she arrived. But now I could use some company!)
“Karen told us about Maine,” said Nancy. “That diary sounded really cool.”
“Sure, if you like kids’ stuff,” said Diana. “I am kind of old for diaries and magic gardens now, though. Hey, do you want to come see the bonnets Karen and I are making for the parade on Sunday?”
“Okay,” said Hannie. “But you know, about that parade —”
“Our bonnets are going to be the best ever,” interrupted Diana. “We decorated them with flowers and fruit and even little birds. I am sure that they are much more beautiful than anything either of you two kids have.”
Nancy and Hannie looked at Diana for a moment silently, blinking. I was horrified. My eyes were wide.
“What Diana meant to say —” I started, but Diana cut me off.
“Our bonnets are amazing,” Diana said. “The parade marshal will probably ask us to lead the whole parade. We will be up in front of all the marching bands and fire trucks and baton twirlers and —”
“Ha-ha-ha-ha!” Hannie and Nancy laughed out loud.
“Do you two still think the Easter parade is that kind of parade?” Nancy asked, guffawing.
“What do you mean, ‘that kind of parade’?” I replied. “What other kind of parade is there?”
“My mommy explained that an Easter parade does not mean marching bands and majorettes and floats and stuff,” said Hannie, still giggling. “It just means that people dress up in their best clothes and walk back and forth — parading — and talking and having fun. You did not know that?”
I shook my head. “No baton twirlers?” I asked, feeling a little foolish. “No floats?”
“Nope. And we have known for days,” said Nancy, looking at Diana. “I cannot believe you two thought … ” She cracked up all over again.
I looked at Nancy, thinking about how Diana and I had been planning our Easter bonnets all week. I had been so excited when I thought about the marching bands and the baton twirlers and the floats. I had even hoped the people on the floats would throw little chocolate bunnies to the crowd, and Diana and I, in our fancy hats, would try to catch them! Suddenly it all seemed very funny. I grinned, then I smiled, then I giggled, and finally I was laughing hard with my two best friends. “No floats?” I exclaimed. “What kind of parade is this?”
It was great being with my two best friends again.
Then I glanced at Diana. She was not laughing. She was scowling. Her face was red, and she looked angry and embarrassed.
“I knew that all along,” she told Hannie and Nancy, jutting out her jaw. “And Karen and I are still going to win the best bonnet contest, and you two little babies will not. You will see.”
“We will not see,” said Hannie. Now she looked mad too. “Because there is no way we are going to the Easter parade with you, Diana. You and Karen will just have to go by yourselves. Then you can watch us win the Easter bonnet contest.”
“Karen, your cousin reminds me of someone in our class,” said Nancy. I did not even have to ask who Nancy was thinking about. I already knew what she was going to say.
And Nancy said just what I expected. “Diana, you remind me of Pamela Harding!”
I dropped my head into my hands and groaned. My own best cousin reminded my best friends of my best enemy, Pamela Harding. What was I going to do?
Nikki’s Knickknack Shack
Well, let me tell you, Diana and I did not stay long at Nancy’s house after that. My friends were really mad at Diana, and Diana was really mad at my friends.
I felt caught in the middle. I wanted everyone to like everyone else. I wanted us to be the Four Musketeers. But I could see that, at least for today, it was not going to happen.
Once we were at home again, Diana said we had to go to Nikki’s Knickknack Shack now. I still did not know what to do about Diana’s terrible idea, but Diana insisted that we go soon.
I tried to delay a little by calling Kristy. If she could not come with us, we could not go at all. But Kristy answered the phone on the first ring. She was home. She did not have any plans to baby-sit. She agreed to come over on her bike and take us downtown. I had a feeling that something awful was about to happen, and I did not know how to stop it.
We parked our bikes outside Nikki’s Knickknack Shack and went inside. I was so nervous that my heart was beating fast.
They had everything at Nikki’s. Shoes, shirts, jewelry, little figurines, vases, lamps, fancy pillows, candles. There were even three whole shelves of plastic flowers, plants, and greenery. Kristy headed for the back of the store. She did not ask us much about what we were doing. She had a long list of things to buy for a school project.
Diana and I picked out some leaves that looked like holly, with little red berries attached. (They looked sort of leftover Christmassy, but that was okay.)
“All right,” I said with relief, reading the price tag. “We have enough money for these leaves.”
“We still need the picture frames,” said Diana.
“But we don’t have the mon —” I said, getting upset.
“Karen, I told you before,
it will be no problem,” interrupted Diana. “You go and pay for this stuff, and I will get the picture frames.”
“Kristy might see you! I do not want you to swipe them!” I said in a whisper.
“Okay, I won’t. Just leave it all to me,” said Diana firmly.
My stomach started to hurt. My whole Easter was being ruined! Diana had been fun for a little part of her visit but she had been awful for the rest of it. She hated my friends, and they hated her. And now she wanted me to help her shoplift.
I thought about the necklace that had been stolen from Mommy’s booth at the craft center. Mommy had been very upset by the theft. She said we could have used the money to pay for the family celebration. I did not want to do to Nikki’s Knickknack Shack what someone had done to us.
“Diana,” I said, “you cannot steal anything. It is wrong.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “I will not help you. And I will tell Kristy if you do it yourself.”
The Worst Easter Ever
“Karen, you are making a big deal out of nothing,” hissed Diana.
“What if you get caught?” I said. “What do you think Kristy will do? It will not be nothing then.”
“I will not get caught,” said Diana angrily. “At home we do it all the time, and no one gets caught. Only babies are chicken. Are you a baby, Karen?”
“I am not a baby or a chicken, and I do not steal things from stores!” I said, my voice rising. I did not care if Kristy heard me. I was just as angry as Diana now.
“Be quiet!” said Diana. “You will get us in trouble.”
“You are the one who is going to get us in trouble,” I whispered angrily. “Let’s just leave. I’ll go get Kristy.”
I started dragging Diana across the store.
“Let go of me!” said Diana, wrenching her arm away from me.
“Diana, my mommy just had a necklace stolen from her at the craft center,” I said. “She was very upset about it, and so was I. And I am not going to let you do that to somebody else!” I stared hard at Diana. She stared hard at me.