“No, Karen,” Elizabeth said. She gave me a tight hug. “I’m sorry if that is what you thought. But Augustania was a real holiday for you and your friends.”
Daddy poked his head into the living room. “Karen, why don’t you invite your friends over for a barbecue tonight, and then you can watch yourselves on the news.”
That sounded like a great idea. I called my friends and everyone came over for dinner. (But Sam and Linny did not feel like eating too much after all that pie.)
At seven o’clock, we sat down in front of the television set.
“Look, there is Cami Warner!” Nancy said.
We watched Cami walking down our street. She explained to the viewers about Augustania. She even mentioned all of our names. Then we saw ourselves at the dog parade, the luau, the pie-eating contest, and in the big-house kitchen making sundaes.
I was happy to be on television and to see my friends. But I was still sad that Augustania was not going to be a national holiday.
Just when the news program was ending, the phone rang. Kristy said that it was for me. And that is when my bad news turned into good news.
Augustania Forever!
“Hello? This is Karen Brewer,” I said into the phone.
“Hello, my name is Stephen Andrews,” a boy said. “I’m from Farmington.”
It was the boy from Kid Power!, one of the organizers of the big playground cleanup.
He told me he had just seen the report on television about Augustania. He said he really liked the dog parade, the sunflowers, and all the ice cream.
“Augustania was a great idea,” he said.
“Thanks,” I replied. “It was a lot of work. It was hard to be a leader of an important committee. But my friends and I had a great time.”
“My friends and I are looking for a new project,” Stephen said. “Would you mind if we had an Augustania celebration of our own?”
Wow! How gigundoly cool! I was about to give him my answer, but then I remembered my friends. I knew that as a good committee head, I had to ask them what they thought. After all, it was not just up to me. It was up to all the founders of Augustania. I asked Stephen to hang on for a minute.
I ran into the den and told my friends about the phone call.
“Cool!” Hannie and Maria said.
“He saw us on TV?” Nancy said, giggling. “We are famous!”
“All right, Augustania!” David Michael said as he hit a high five with Linny.
“So what do you think?” I asked. “Should we tell Stephen it is all right?”
“Yessss!” everyone answered.
I ran back to the phone. I told Stephen that he should definitely celebrate Augustania in Farmington! He wanted to know how we planned the day and everything about our committees.
When I hung up the phone, I went back to my friends. They were eating watermelon and talking about the day. Daddy had taped the news program, so we watched the video of our holiday all over again. It was fun to see my friends on television. I especially liked the end, when Cami Warner interviewed me!
“Wow, we did it, Karen,” Hannie said.
“We all worked together,” Melody added.
“Three cheers for Augustania!” I shouted.
“Hip, hip, hooray! Hip, hip, hooray! Hip, hip, hooray!” we cheered.
Maybe Augustania was not a real national holiday, but it was going to be celebrated in another town. Maybe it would even be celebrated across the whole state. Long live Augustania!
About the Author
ANN M. MARTIN is the acclaimed and bestselling author of a number of novels and series, including Belle Teal, A Corner of the Universe (a Newbery Honor book), A Dog’s Life, Here Today, P.S. Longer Letter Later (written with Paula Danziger), the Family Tree series, the Doll People series (written with Laura Godwin), the Main Street series, and the generation-defining series The Baby-sitters Club. She lives in New York.
Copyright © 1999 by Ann M. Martin
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
First edition, 1999
e-ISBN 978-1-338-06280-9
Ann M. Martin, Karen's New Holiday
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