Just Grace and the Terrible Tutu (9 page)

THE PLAN FOR SUNDAY

Lily's family is moving into Mrs. Luther's house tomorrow at lunchtime. Mrs. Luther is letting them use all her furniture and kitchen stuff, so mostly they only have to move in their clothes. Yvonne asked us if we could watch Lily from eleven-thirty until two p.m. Of course we said yes.

Mimi was much more chatty than I was. She was totally organized and ready. If there was a mother's helper crown she would have been the one wearing it. She showed Yvonne a list of games, crafts, and fun activities that she had written down. Yvonne was very impressed. I was very impressed too, but secretly I was most glad that there wasn't one single unicorn thing on the whole list.

 

WHAT I WAS HAPPY ABOUT

After the little meeting Mimi and I went back to her house. That was a huge relief. I was glad not to be staying at Mrs. Luther's and playing with Lily for the rest of the afternoon. Mimi and I did not talk about the morning and how Lily had wanted her to be a troll. I was glad about that too. Sometimes if things are happy and good, it's not the best idea to talk about something sad and upsetting.

Mimi really wanted us to work on her new sister's room, so I tried to help and keep everything smiley. Even though it was going to be pink and frilly, which is not so much my style, I still wanted to be filled with energy about it.

 

THE BEST PART OF THE NEW ROOM

While we were drawing what the room was going to look like Mimi's dad came in to see how it was going. When he saw the plan he said, "Wow. That's a lot of pink." That's exactly what I was thinking too, but I had not said it out loud. "I'm not sure all that pink is going to look good," said Mimi's dad. "What if you just make one of the walls pink?" "Oh, Daddy! This is a girl's room! Girls love pink!" Mimi was getting upset.

Mimi's dad tried to get her to be calm. "Mimi, you're a girl. Your room isn't all pink." But Mimi wasn't wanting to change her mind. "Daddy, that's because I'm not little. Little girls like dolls, and princesses, and pink! It's a fact!"

Mimi's dad was not giving up. He said, "Mimi, that's silly. You never loved pink or even dolls when you were a little girl. Remember? Listen, if you tone down this room and have just one wall of pink, I'll make you a deal. I'll let you paint it yourself. Think about it. Okay?" Mimi was beaten. "Okay, Daddy," she said. She sounded sad and unhappy, but as soon as her dad was gone, she jumped up and down and said, "Grace! Did you hear that? We get to paint the room ourselves!" I was pretty excited about that too. Not all parents let you paint a room all by yourself.

 

WHAT I DID AS SOON AS I GOT HOME

After dinner I went upstairs to draw a new Not So Super comic. I wasn't in a bad, sad, or even unhappy mood, which is when I usually draw them. This time I just had a really funny idea.

That night before bed I flicked my lights on and off for Mimi. She did it to me too.

 

This is our good-night signal, and it was nice to have everything feeling regular and happy again.

WHAT I HAD FOR BREAKFAST

I have a little bit of a superpower. It's called empathy. Having empathy power means I can 100 percent tell when someone is sad, even if they are acting and pretending to be happy. When this happens I always use my energy to try to find a way to make them feel better. Usually when I feel my empathy power working I like to eat French toast. It's kind of like my superhero breakfast.

 

This morning was different though because I was not feeling anyone's sadness. Instead, I was feeling like maybe I was going to be needing the extra energy for me. And that was mostly because I was worried about Lily. I was even wearing my good luck Super Girl underwear. Sometimes it's a good idea to be as ready as possible, just in case.

 

WHAT WAS SURPRISING ABOUT MIMI

I was just finishing off my breakfast when Mimi walked in. She was looking like I had never seen her look before. Normally Mimi and I do not wear pink, but today we were both being different. Me a little, Mimi a lot! My Super Girl underwear had a little bit of pink writing on it, but Mimi was an explosion of pink. I had hardly even ever seen pink-lovers wear so much pink. Sometimes if you are super surprised it's hard to think of what to say. And even if you don't mean to, you might just look at the person who is surprising you with your mouth open.

 

I was glad Mom walked in the room, because I was still being quiet. "Mimi, aren't we cheerful today," said Mom. "And what's that you have there?" Mom was pointing to a bag that Mimi was carrying. I hadn't even noticed it, mostly because I was so surprised about the pink. "It's balloons," said Mimi. "I've been practicing balloon animals." "Balloon animals? Wow, Mimi—that's so cool." I was glad to have something I could talk about. "What can you make?" "Not so much yet," said Mimi. "It's a lot harder than you'd think. They keep popping."

WHAT MIMI COULD MAKE

 

WHAT HAPPENED AFTER BREAKFAST

I decided not to say anything about Mimi's outfit. I knew exactly why she was wearing it, so what was there to talk about? I was only hoping it was going to work.

Mimi and I practiced balloon animals for a while, but she was right: it was hard. In the end we were not much better than when we started, but it was fun!