Cassie Comes Through (18 page)

Cassie stared at the glass. “So where are the sparkles?” she asked.

Lila laughed. “Oh, Cassie, you crack me up!”

After dinner there were chocolate ice cream sundaes for dessert, which were startastic. But even more wonderful was that Cassie finally figured out Lila's wish.

Once the table was cleared, Cassie and Lila spread out their books on the dining room table and did their homework together. Cassie did her reading comprehension homework, reading a long passage and then answering ten multiple choice questions, and her science assignment, then dawdled over the math homework, trying to look like a normal Wishling who couldn't add, subtract, divide, and multiply huge sums instantly in her head. She stole a glance over at Lila's math book. She was pleasantly surprised to see that every answer was correct.

“Hey, you're good at math!” Cassie said admiringly.

“I am,” said Lila. “Very good.”

Cassie next leaned over to take a look at Lila's reading comprehension answers.

“Um,” Cassie began, not sure how to broach the subject “You might want to take another look at those first…um…ten answers,” she said.

Lila sucked in her cheeks and looked for a moment like she might cry. Then she glared at Cassie and slammed the book shut. “It's fine,” she said tersely.

“But…” began Cassie.

“Just leave me alone, all right,” Lila said. She stormed off and Cassie was left sitting at the dining room table by herself. She could hear Lila stomping up the stairs.

Well, this is awkward,
she thought.

After giving the girl a couple of minutes to cool down, Cassie walked up the stairs, which creaked under her feet. After first opening the doors to two closets and a bathroom, she spotted a door with a sign on it that said
LILA'S ROOM
.

She grinned. “I'm a regular Detective Marmaduke Carbuncle,” she said to herself. She took a deep breath and knocked on Lila's door.

“Come in,” said a muffled voice.

Cassie opened the door. Lila was lying on her bed, her face buried in a pillow.

Cassie sat gingerly on the edge of the bed. “Do you want to talk?” she said.

With a heavy sigh, Lila flipped over on her back and stared at the ceiling, unable to make eye contact with Cassie.

“So now you know,” she said. “I'm great at math but I'm terrible at reading,” she said. “It's so humiliating. Ms. Olds must think I'm so dumb.”

Cassie felt a sudden tingly rush of energy. She shivered with excitement. “You wish Ms. Olds would appreciate you,” she said, her eyes shining.

Lila sat up, clutching the pillow to her chest. “I want her to like me,” she said. “So to get her attention, I try to make her laugh. But she ends up getting mad at me.” She sighed. “Meanwhile, people like Annabel Victor get all the attention. It's not fair.”

“Well, I have a suggestion,” said Cassie. “Save the jokes for lunch and recess. Just be your smart, kind, helpful self during the school day. Like when you helped me today at the ice rink. Ms. Olds is sure to notice and appreciate you.”

Lila got a hopeful look on her face. “You really think so?”

“I do,” replied Cassie. “And here's another thing. I'm pretty good at reading. I can give you some tips to help with this reading comprehension stuff. You might never be as good at it as math, but you could get better,” she told her. “It's kind of like ice skating. Take it slow. Pay attention. Practice, practice, practice. Use a dictionary when you get to words you don't know.” She laughed. “Okay, that's not like ice skating, but you catch my gift.”

“I catch your
drift
,” corrected Lila.

“See, you're paying attention already,” said Cassie. Though she thought her way made more sense.

The two girls got ready for bed.

Before Lila drifted off to sleep she asked, “Do you really think this plan to impress Ms. Olds is going to work?”

“I'm sure of it,” Cassie said confidently.
With me on the case,
she thought,
how could it
not
work?

They had pancakes
for breakfast the next morning. They looked just like starcakes to Cassie, only round. They tasted pretty similar, too. Cassie tried maple syrup for the first time and nearly poured the whole container onto her plate, it was so delicious.
Tessa would love this on her starberry waffles,
she thought.

“Do you remember the plan?” she asked Lila. “Plenty of participation, kindness, and generosity. Today and every day. There are much more positive ways of getting attention from your teacher.”

Lila bit her lip. “I'm a little nervous!”

“No need to be nervous,” said Cassie. “Just be yourself.” Then she hastily added, “Maybe without quite as many jokes, of course!”

Lila held her glass of orange juice up to Cassie. “To participation, kindness, generosity, and no jokes,” she said. Cassie stared at her blankly. “Pick up your glass,” instructed Lila. “Let's make a toast!” Cassie held her juice aloft and Lila clinked hers against it. And Cassie made another Wishworld observation:
“Toast” has more than one meaning on Wishworld!

There was just one problem with the plan—Annabel. Cassie knew that they only had six hours left to make Lila's wish come true and the girl thwarted them at every turn. When Lila patiently raised her hand to answer a difficult math problem, Annabel shouted out the answer. When Ms. Olds walked into the classroom with a big stack of books in her arms, and Lila raced to the front of the room to help her, Annabel leaned over and give Lila a little push so she accidentally knocked the books to the floor. Annabel then made a big show out of helping the teacher pick them up. And Cassie stewed when Ms. Olds gave Annabel a grateful smile.

“Class, please pass your homework forward,” Ms. Olds said. Everyone reached into their folders and handed their work to the person in front of them. Ms. Olds collected the sheets from the first person in each row and stacked them together. She flipped through the pages at her desk. “Lila, I don't see yours, did you forget to hand it in?” she asked.

Lila looked up, confused. “No,” she said. “I handed it in.”

Ms. Olds looked again. “I don't see it here,” she said.

Lila looked at Cassie nervously. Then instinct must have kicked in. To Cassie's dismay she started to say, “Hey, Ms. Olds, would you get mad if…”

Cassie knew what was coming next. She shook her head at Lila.
No jokes!
she thought. Not realizing exactly what she was doing, she willed Lila's voice to lower in volume. And that's exactly what happened. Lila's mouth was moving, but no sound was coming out.

Wow,
thought Cassie. I guess I found my secret talent. She practiced on the next student who raised her hand.

“Ms. Olds, may I please be excused?” the girl said, her voice increasing in volume with each word. She looked surprised.

Cassie stared daggers at Annabel, who was sitting primly at her desk, her hands clasped together. She knew the girl had to be the one who took Lila's homework. She pretended to be one thing, but was actually quite just the opposite. And she had all the grown-ups fooled.

The bell rang for lunch. Lila shook her head as she walked out of the classroom with Cassie. “Well, that didn't go so well,” she said. “And what do you think happened to my homework?”

But then Lila caught a look at Cassie's disappointed face. “Come on,” she said, trying to cheer Cassie up. “No need to look so upset. It's no big deal.”

Cassie's Countdown Clock told her differently. She was running out of time. It really
was
a big deal. Cassie waved Lila off. “I'll see you in the cafeteria,” she said. She looked around grumpily. Where was Ms. Olds now to see how sweet and understanding Lila was? But the hallway was empty. She looked again. Oh, no, it wasn't. There, across the hall, staring back at her, was Scarlet. She was still sparkly (at least to Cassie) but she was wearing leggings and a large black sweater that looked like it had been eaten by moonmoths over a bright pink shirt that peeked through all the holes. Her hair was almost entirely black (with pink bangs). But it was Scarlet just the same. And Cassie knew exactly what that meant.

“I know, I know,” said Cassie, shaking her head. “My wish is in serious trouble.”

“So what's going on?” asked Scarlet. “Lady Stella is really worried. You know you're running out of time on the Countdown Clock, right?”

Cassie told Scarlet the whole story.

“Oh, that Annabel sounds awful,” said Scarlet. “So what are we going to do?”

“We have to figure out a way to help Lila look good in front of Ms. Olds,” said Cassie. “Before the end of the school day, which is when the Countdown Clock will run out.”

“Well, you'd better figure it out fast,” said Scarlet.

Cassie thought for a moment. “Can you go down to the principal's office and tell her you're the new girl in class 261?”

Scarlet nodded. “And then what?”

Cassie shrugged. “And then she'll bring you upstairs and then…” her voice trailed off. “And then we'll figure something out.”

“Okay,” said Scarlet. She skipped down the hallway, then stopped and looked back. “I hope you know what you are doing,” she said.

Cassie smiled and waved. She'd figure it out. She was sure of it.

“You never came to lunch,” said Lila, when she found Cassie standing in the hallway outside of the classroom. “You must be hungry. I brought you a snack.” She handed Cassie a bag of some odd-looking twisty brown things. “Thank you,” said Cassie eagerly, tearing open the bag. She was hungry. “So can you continue to not tell jokes in class?” she asked.

Lila stared at the floor. “It's hard,” she said.

“Tell me a joke,” said Cassie. “Get it out of your system!”

Lila looked up. “Why was the math book sad?” she asked.