Stitches and Stones (4 page)

An Outfit to Tie-Dye for!

I haven't started off Spirit Week in such great spirits. Someone pulled a horrible hat prank today, putting powder in the pillbox hat when I left it in the locker room during gym. I have my suspicions about who did it, but since I don't have proof, I'm not saying anything.

But their prank went wrong. I was going to switch hats with Libby at lunch, and since I was hot after all that running around, playing basketball, I didn't put the hat back on. That's how poor Libby ended up being the one who got pranked. When she took off the hat in class after the switch, powder got everywhere—in her hair, on her clothes, on the desk. The whole thing was so upsetting, she ended up going home a little early. I wonder if the people who did it realize the stupid thing they did ended up ruining someone's entire day? If they do, does it make them feel even the teensiest bit bad?

At least tomorrow is a new day: TWIN DAY! I designed and helped make these outfits for all of us. The principal said Twin Day could mean anything from dressing in the same outfits to being dressed as perfect pairs, things that go well together.

So, of course, our first thought was to do something related to food. Kate and Libby decided to be a milk bottle and Oreo cookie. To save time, I made the costumes by altering the shape of plain dresses from the thrift store. Then I designed collars, trim, and an Oreo cream belt, and Kate and Libby helped put it all together. I asked Priti if she would want to be peanut
butter and jelly, but she doesn't like PB&J. Apparently, her mom doesn't like peanut butter, so Priti never developed a taste for it. And Priti's dad grew up eating this stuff called Marmite in England. I tried Marmite once when I was over at her house, and it was gross. Sorry to any Marmite fans out there. Priti's dad joked you have to be born British to like it.

After a
lot
of discussion, we decided to be peace and love instead. I'm going to be wearing a tie-dyed headband and a dress with a peace sign, and Priti is wearing a dress we embellished with a sparkly red heart—because Priti loves to sparkle. Seriously: If peanut butter was sparkly, she would probably eat it!

Well, I better run—I have to finish my homework
and
sewing my twin outfit. Peace out!

“Rise and shine, honey!”

It felt like Zoey had just put down her needle and thread and gone to sleep when her dad came in to wake her up for school. She rubbed her eyes and yawned.

“Were you up late blogging?” Mr. Webber asked.

“No. I had to finish my outfit.”

“Well, don't forget you need sleep to finish growing, kiddo.” He kissed the top of her head. “Hurry up and get ready. I'll make you bacon and eggs to get you properly fueled.”

Zoey jumped out of bed and turned on her laptop to check her blog for comments, like she did every morning. There were more than usual this morning. Most were from her regular readers, responding to the tale of the horrible hat trick and saying that it reminded them of their own struggles in middle school. A Sew Zoey reader named Zigzagger wrote a short but encouraging message:

Boy, does that bring back memories! Don't worry, it gets better, I promise!

Then she read a comment from CrossStitchGal:

Remember: This too shall pass. Right now it probably seems like it won't, but trust me, it will. This type of thing happens to a lot of people in middle school, but that doesn't mean it is okay. I
don't know why girls are so mean to each other. Hang in there, honey!

Come to think of it, that was pretty much what the crew members on the set of
Fashion Showdown
told her a while back, when she had been a guest judge. Zoey, aided by the smell of frying bacon wafting up to her bedroom, started to feel more optimistic about the day ahead.

But then she read the next comment, by a reader who had never posted before named Kewlrnu:

Zoey is a TATTLETALE and a FRAUD. She doesn't even make her own clothes!

Zoey looked over at the peace-themed outfit she'd stayed up past her bedtime to finish. How could anyone say she didn't make her own clothes? She shrugged it off. But then she kept reading and saw another post from a new commenter named ZoeySucks:

Who cares about this dumb blog anyway?
These clothes are ugly! I wouldn't even let my mom wear them.

Her blog readers had made criticisms of her sketches before, but they were helpful and constructive, suggesting ways she could make her designs better or easier to construct or pointing out problems that might occur with fabrics. Or saying they didn't love an outfit. No one had ever been straight out . . . mean.

The screen of her laptop quickly grew blurry as Zoey's eyes filled with tears. Knowing there was someone—more than one someone—out there, people she didn't even know, who were willing to write such nasty things made her feel terrible. Who would do such a thing?

“Zooooey!” her dad called from downstairs. “Breakfast!”

Slamming her laptop shut, Zoey jumped up, quickly got dressed in her peace outfit, and ran downstairs. She wasn't even hungry.

“Everything okay?” her dad asked as she sat down at the kitchen table. He placed a heaping plate
of bacon and eggs in front of her. “You're looking kind of . . . glum. Eat something?”

Zoey didn't want to talk about it. She wanted today to be a better day than yesterday, and so far it wasn't starting off too promising.

“I'm fine,” she said.

“There's nothing a few slices of bacon won't cure,” her brother, Marcus, promised, biting into an extra crispy piece.

“I like your style,” her dad said. “Groovy!”

“Yeah, the dress is cool,” Marcus agreed.

Zoey just hoped her peace-themed outfit would make the rest of her day more peaceful than it had started out.

Kate looked great in her milk bottle costume when Zoey saw her on the bus.

“I can't wait to see you with Libby!” Zoey exclaimed. “You two are going to look awesome together.”

“Because of you,” Kate said. “Thanks for designing the costumes.”

“I loved doing it,” Zoey said. “And you helped!”

“Sort of. Hey . . . what happened to your headband?” Kate asked. “Did it fall off?”

Zoey reached up to her forehead. The tie-dyed headband she had made wasn't there.

“Oh no!” She groaned. “I left it at home! Things were . . . a little crazy this morning.”

“It's okay. You still look great without it,” Kate assured her.

But Zoey was upset she'd let herself get so flustered about the blog comments that she'd forgotten part of her costume. So far, Spirit Week definitely wasn't going according to plan. Still, she was determined to turn things around. By the time she and Kate got off the bus, Zoey had talked herself into believing that today was going to be a
much
better day than yesterday.

Her faith was shaken when the first people she and Kate encountered when they walked in the school door were Ivy, Shannon, and Bree. They were dressed as triplets, all wearing the same skirts, tops, and hairstyles. Zoey braced herself for the usual snotty remark about her outfit, but to her surprise, Ivy said, “Love your outfit!”

She couldn't believe her ears, especially when Shannon followed up with “So cool!” and Bree chimed in with “Yeah, totally!”

“Uh . . . thanks,” Zoey said, edging past them and pulling Kate along with her. As they walked away, Zoey thought she heard Ivy mutter, “Thank
you
for getting us in trouble,” but she wasn't completely sure.

Zoey and Kate kept walking in silence until they were out of the line of fire.

“Hey, I thought Backward Day was tomorrow,” Kate said. “Why was Ivy being so nice?”

“I don't know,” Zoey said. “But maybe she wasn't. I thought I heard her thanking me for getting them in trouble. Did you hear that?”

“No!” Kate exclaimed. “When did she do that?”

“When we were walking away. I think she said it under her breath. Maybe I'm imagining it.”

“Careful, Zo,” Kate warned. “I don't have a good feeling about this.”

“Me neither.” Zoey sighed. “But I'm not really sure what I can do about it.”

As much as Zoey tried to avoid Ivy, she couldn't
really help seeing her in the classes they had together. But it was Backward Day for the rest of the day, as far as Ivy was concerned. She kept complimenting Zoey at every opportunity.

Even Gabe noticed.

“What's got into Ivy today?” he asked. “She's not usually this nice to you. Actually, she's usually not nice to you at all.”

“No idea,” Zoey said. She didn't want to start spreading rumors by telling him her suspicions.

“Well, she's right. The peace sign on your dress
is
really awesome. You made it?”

Zoey nodded.

“You're amazing,” Gabe said. “Libby said you designed her costume too.”

Zoey felt her cheeks flush, and she started picking at a stray thread on her hem.

“I love sewing,” she said. “So it doesn't feel like work.”

“What, never?” Gabe asked.

“Okay, sometimes it does, especially when I have to do a zipper. But mostly it's fun.”

“Too bad homework isn't like that,” Gabe said.
“It always feels like work.”

Zoey had to agree with him on that.

But it wasn't her homework that ruined Zoey's afternoon. It was reading more mean comments on her blog post when she sat down at her laptop before starting her homework.

Some were from the same posters, Kewlrnu and ZoeySucks, the one who called her clothes ugly. But there were new users, too, saying equally mean things. One named Zzzzzzzoey said her Twin Day designs were “snooze-worthy.” All the mean comments were hurtful, but the ones accusing her of not doing her own sewing really stung. She expected her friends to mention the comments, but they hadn't said a word.

Am I being too sensitive?
Zoey thought.
Maybe, but every time I check Sew Zoey, there are more awful comments. They can't all be wrong . . . right?

At dinner that evening, Mr. Webber noticed that Zoey was unusually quiet.

“Is something the matter, honey?” he asked.

Zoey thought about telling her dad about the
nasty comments on her blog. But she was worried that if she did, he might make her stop blogging, and she loved Sew Zoey. She hadn't met most of her regular commenters in real life, and they were all different ages, but despite that she felt like they'd become friends, because they all loved fashion design and sewing. People like Fashionsista gave her encouragement to go on when she felt like giving up. She didn't want to lose all that, just because some people she didn't know were being mean.

“N-no,” she said. “Everything's fine.”

Her dad and Marcus exchanged glances.

“What?” Zoey asked.

“We're not buying it,” Marcus said. “Come on, what is it?”

There were pros and cons of having a family that knew you really well. Zoey didn't want to tell her dad about the comments, so she had to come up with something else.

“Oh, it's just Spirit Week hasn't been as much fun as I thought it would be, that's all,” she said.

“Why not?” Mr. Webber asked.

Zoey told them about the hat prank. Marcus
didn't always read her blog posts, but she thought her dad would have seen it.

“I'm pretty sure it was aimed at me, but Libby ended up going home a little early because she was so upset,” she said. “It was really unfair.”

“There's nothing fair about kids being mean to one another, honey,” her dad said.

“I've been looking forward to Spirit Week so much,” Zoey said mournfully.

“It's not over yet,” Marcus reminded her.

“What's on tap for tomorrow?” her dad asked.