Just Grace and the Terrible Tutu (10 page)

 

WHAT HAPPENED ON MOVING DAY

On the way over to Mrs. Luther's house I started to get kind of nervous. Mimi seemed totally fine and happy. I was wishing I could feel like that too. The minute I saw Lily I knew that Mimi was going to be sad. Lily was wearing a tutu just like before, but instead of it being pink it was bright blue.

Lily's mom was standing next to Lily. "
Bonjour, les filles,
" she said. It was cool that she was speaking French to us even though I didn't really know exactly what she was saying. I don't know French so I just said, "Hi, Yvonne. Hi, Lily." Lily's mom was one of those moms who wants you to call her by her first name. "Grace! Grace! Grace!" Lily grabbed my hand and started jumping up and down. "Guess what my new favorite color is? Guess?" I know that little kids like it when you give them wrong answers. So I said, "Yellow? Green? Purple?" even though I knew the answer was for sure going to be blue.

"It's blue! See!" shouted Lily. She held out her skirt and twirled so we could both see. I was glad that she wasn't just talking to me. "And you love pink," she said, pointing at Mimi. "I liked pink five weeks ago, but now I love blue." "She changes almost every day," said Yvonne. Mimi looked uncomfortable, like maybe she wanted to run away or throw up, but she just fidgeted and looked down. I was glad she was staying.

WHAT I WAS HAPPY ABOUT

 

1. Even though they pretty much all looked the same, Lily really liked the balloon creations.
   
2. She did not ask Mimi to be a troll or any other kind of disgusting creature.
   
3. Yvonne made us sandwiches and lemonade so we could have a picnic outside.
   
4. Mimi had a great activity suggestion that took up a huge part of the time, plus it was lots of fun.
   

 

The only bad thing was that Lily didn't spend any time talking to Mimi. She wasn't mean to Mimi, but she wasn't super friendly to her either.

WHAT WAS HARD TO BELIEVE

When it turned two o'clock, I couldn't believe it was already time to be done. Yvonne came over to thank us for watching Lily, and it was a good thing that she was taking Lily somewhere fun, or she would have for sure been upset about us leaving. I know this because as soon as Lily saw her mom walking over she said, "I don't want them to go. Can Grace stay for a sleepover?" Mimi was probably not so happy that Lily had said only my name, but she was kind and generous and didn't say one word about it.

 

THE OTHER THINK THAT WAS HARD TO BELIEVE

Yvonne gave us each ten dollars! That was a lot of money. Mom was going to be freaked out! Hopefully she wasn't going to make me give it back. Of course we said, "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you." About ten thousand times.

WHAT BEING A MOTHER'S HELPER CAN DO TO YOU

Both Mimi and I were super tired so we decided to just go home instead of hanging out. I guess even though it seemed pretty fun, having a job really is hard work.

WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO

Sometimes when you get something unexpected you have to touch it over and over again to help your brain believe that it is real. It's almost like it has magic powers, because each time you look at it and touch it, it makes you feel happy all over again. After a while Mom said I had to put the ten dollars away before it got ripped. She was right—it was probably a good thing to do. Somehow this ten dollars felt special and different from the ten dollars Grandma gave me for my birthday. I didn't want to get them mixed up, so I put the new ten dollars in my jewelry case instead of in my money box.

 

WHAT I AM GLAD ABOUT

I'm glad that no one gets to see my comics except me, because now I was feeling a little bad about making Lily into the Terrible Tutu.

WHAT I ALMOST FORGOT

Just as I was about to fall asleep I remembered that I forgot to flash my lights for Mimi. I was super tired, but I got out of bed anyway. It's like having to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Your body wants to stay in the cozy bed, but your brain knows you really need to get up, and so you make yourself do it. As soon as my hand reached the light switch Mimi flicked her lights at me too. That made it totally worth it.

CURSIVE DAY

I was happy about school today, and feeling pretty good about going. Today we were going to finish off learning all of the capital cursive letters. On Friday, Miss Lois had said that if we practiced enough we might be able to have our writing look as good as the writing that is on fancy invitations. Mostly everyone was excited about that.

 

LILY ON A MONDAY

While I was waiting outside for Mimi I saw Lily getting into the car with her mom. She saw me watching her and shouted, "
Au revoir,
Grace! I'm going to school!" "Me too!" I answered back. From far away like this she was cute. Of course she wasn't going to real school.

MIMI

I was glad to see that Mimi was not wearing an all-blue outfit. She actually looked pretty normal, except for a big flower in her hair. It didn't look bad—it just wasn't a usual Mimi thing.

 

TWO BY TWO

We started walking and by the time we got to the corner Sammy and Max were walking with us too. Sammy seemed much happier than he had been on Friday. Max was full of questions about the new Fren ch family, but I had to answer them all because Mimi was not being her normal chatty self. I don't think he was finding what I was saying very interesting. As soon as we got to the playground, he waved at us all and ran off.

"Boys are so rude," said Mimi. She crossed her arms and made a grumpy face. Sammy was still standing next to us, so I felt like I had to say something. "Well, maybe not all boys." "Thanks," said Sammy. He shrugged his shoulders and walked on without us. "Mimi, what's going on? Are you mad at Max or Sammy?" Mimi seemed nervous. "No, I'm fine. It's okay." And then before I could ask her anything more the bell rang and we had to run so we wouldn't be late.

THE GIGGLY GIRLS

Normally at school Mimi and I don't do too much with the Giggly Girls. We call them that because they are always telling secrets and laughing. I don't know what they think is so funny, but after a while just being near them is kind of annoying.

After we had been in class for about an hour, I could tell that Mimi was being interested in them. She asked Bethany if she could borrow her eraser, and then when she gave it back she whispered something that made her laugh. Bethany is the leader of the Giggly Girls. She lives in a house full of sisters. My friend Jordan once said that someone told her that all the sisters were gigglers. I don't know if it's true, but if it is, being in their house would for sure make me crazy.

THE OTHER BIG REASON WHY I KNOW THAT MIMI IS INTERESTED IN THE GIGGLY GIRLS

Sometimes even if you notice something unusual, you might not understand why the unusual thing is there until later on. This is exactly what happened with Mimi's hair flower. Looking at her, and then at all the Giggly Girls, I suddenly knew why she had the flower in her hair.