Just Grace and the Terrible Tutu (5 page)

 

At first Olivia looked like she might yell back at Marta, but then instead she said, "Fine! Princess Petaluna will walk into the cave! Now are you happy?" Olivia walked under the slide and pretended to pick something up from the ground.

We didn't get to see what was going to happen next because the bell rang and we had to go in. While we were running to line up, Marta ran over and said, "Do you want to play next time? It's really fun!"
NO way, thank you!
was what my brain screaming inside my head. But before my mouth could find a nicer way to say it Mimi said, "Okay, sure." And that is how she surprised me all over again.

WHAT I WAS WONDERING ABOUT

Mimi was not being her regular Mimi self. Fairy princess was not something she would normally want to play. I tried to ask her about it when we first sat down, but Miss Lois surprised us all by saying that today was going to be our first day of cursive writing. This was not something I was expecting, and for once it was something I wanted to learn, so I stopped not paying attention. All the girls in the class were excited—we could hardly wait to write in cursive. I don't think boys care so much about fancy writing. They never practice fancy letters like girls do.

Mimi and I have been practicing our names since last year. I already know how to make the big G and the big S all swirly and fancy. My name looks fantastic in script. I am glad that my name is not Valerie Newcome—she is not so lucky.

 

MISS LOIS IS VERY FAIR

Miss Lois said that everyone had to learn how to write all the letters in the whole alphabet, even the ones that were not in our names. Some people in the class were thinking the only reason to learn cursive was so that they could know how to sign their names fancy. They were not so excited about learning all the letters.

Sandra Orr put her hand up and said that she knew exactly why the girls should learn all the letters. Miss Lois is always really patient with Sandra, even though she knows that the words that come out of Sandra's mouth will probably not make any sense. Mostly this is because Sandra does not pay very good attention. Miss Lois's most favorite thing to say to her is, "Sandra, please try to keep your head out of the clouds." Sandra is an expert daydreamer.

Sandra said, "When girls get married they sometimes get a new last name, so it's probably good to be ready by knowing all the letters before that happens." Miss Lois smiled and said, "Thank you, Sandra—that may be true, but there are many other reasons to learn cursive that are useful for both boys and girls." I bet the boys were not so happy to hear that. For sure Sammy was not happy, because he crossed his arms and flopped his head down. Learning cursive was not making him feel happier about Mrs. Luther leaving. I bet if I had the superpower of hearing thoughts, his brain would be saying something very grumpy.

 

WHAT OWEN 1 SAID

Miss Lois said one of the very helpful things about cursive was that it was a faster way to write down words than printing. She said the brain could think of words very fast, but a lot of the time it was hard for the fingers to keep up. As soon as she said this, Owen 1 started waving his hand around to ask a question. He was back in class and trying really hard not to play with his shoes. I saw him touching them, but he did not pull on the Velcro.

Finally Miss Lois pointed at him. She was probably expecting him to ask to go to the bathroom. That was one of his regular questions, but instead he wanted to talk about cursive writing. This was something of a surprise.

Owen 1 said that he had rocket-fast fingers when he played video games, but when he picked up a pencil to write they worked more like crummy old roller skates. I thought he was going to get in trouble for being so negative, but Miss Lois got really excited. She said that Owen 1 had used a wonderful analogy to explain how he felt. Of course Owen 1 was instantly proud even though nobody, and for sure not even him, knew what Miss Lois was talking about. Miss Lois loves to teach new stuff, so right away she explained what an analogy was.

An analogy is an example of one thing that you can use to help you explain another thing.

 

Once she told us about it, I instantly knew that I had already been using analogies for a long time, even though I didn't know I was using them. It's nice to find out you are smarter than you thought you were. Thank you, Miss Lois!

ONE OF MY ANALOGIES

 

WALKING HOME

Sammy and Max walked home with us. Max wanted us to all hang out in his front yard, but Mimi said we couldn't because we had to go inside and work at her house. I didn't know what work she was talking about, but it was a good thing we weren't going to be with Sammy, because Sammy and Mimi were thinking two very different things about Mrs. Luther leaving.

 

As soon as we got inside Mimi ran upstairs to the old filled-with-junk room that is next to her bedroom. This was the room that was going to be changed from the junk room into the new sister's room.

FOUR THINGS I WAS SURPRISED ABOUT

1. The old filled-with-junk room was now completely empty.
   
2. Mimi's room next door was picked up and clean.
   
3. I was not as excited about those first two surprising things as I would normally be.
   

 

This was because my stomach was growling with hunger.

I usually like to have a snack after school, so it did not help that Mimi's whole entire house smelled like yummy fresh-baked banana bread.

Mimi seemed a little disappointed when I asked if we could think of new sister room ideas in the kitchen near the banana bread instead of on the floor in the empty junk room. She had set up a bunch of papers and markers on the floor for us, so I knew she was disappointed that I was changing her plan. If my stomach is hungry it just doesn't matter what my brain is saying. My stomach pretty much always has to win.

 

Mimi's brain was stronger than her stomach, because she only ate one piece of bread and normally she could eat about five. Today I had three. Sometimes Mimi's mom has to guard the bread so we don't eat too much and ruin our dinner. But today she didn't even say one thing about it. She just smiled, hugged Mimi, and said, "Mimi is so happy that you are going to help her decorate her new sister's room." "You bet I am!" said Mimi. "And it's going to be pink!" That last thing Mimi said was my number four of surprises.

MIMI IS NOT BEING MIMI

It's important to be patient with your friends, no matter what. This is an important rule of friendship.

Sometimes a friend can surprise you and it's exciting.

Sometimes a friend can surprise you and it's not so exciting.