Stitches and Stones (5 page)

“Backward Day. You have to wear your clothing back to front.”

“That seems like it could be very uncomfortable,” Mr. Webber said.

“Yeah, especially if you have to go to the bathroom in a hurry,” Marcus quipped.

That got a giggle out of Zoey.

“That's why I designed a special dress that
looks
like it's backward but isn't!”

“That's my girl,” Mr. Webber said, smiling. “Always one step ahead of everyone.”

She wasn't one step ahead of the mean
commenters, though. By the time she sat down to write her evening blog post, there were even more comments, some from the same users and some from even more new users.

Zoey knew she was going to have to do something, but the problem was she didn't know what. She thought about talking to her friends, but they hadn't said anything about the comments, and since she knew they read her blog regularly, maybe that meant she was just overreacting.

When she finished the blog post, Zoey went to her worktable to look over her outfit for the following day. It had a collar on it—backward, of course—but Zoey felt like it needed a little something extra to finish it off. She looked in her sewing box at her collection of ribbon and other trimmings, but nothing was speaking to her.

Just when she was about to give up and go to bed, Zoey's eyes fell on the little tin she used to store buttons.

“That's it!” she said, taking it out of the box. She sifted through the tin until she found four big brightly colored flat buttons. Taking a needle and
thread, she sewed them onto the back of the dress.

“Perfect,” Zoey said, observing her handiwork. It always made her feel good to find just the right touch to finish off her designs, like putting in the final piece of a jigsaw puzzle.

She couldn't let the people making bad comments take that away from her. But how could she stop them? Zoey decided she'd sleep on it, and maybe she'd figure something out by the morning.

Looking Forward to Dressing Backward!

Spirit Week continues with Backward Day, and then tomorrow will be Decades Day! It's backward to the future. . . . Get it? Anyhoo, I've made an outfit with a backward collar and buttons in the back instead of the front. Pretty crafty, huh? I'm going to wear a long string
of beads down my back, although I'll probably have to swing them to the front when I sit in class or else I'll feel like the princess in “The Princess and the Pea,” with all those knobbly things distracting me.

I love thinking about clothes being backward. It's totally
looc
! (“cool” spelled backward). It makes me wonder about turning clothes sideways and upside down and inside out and even
slantways
(like the Wonkavator in
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
). How
looc
would that be?

It's nice to have a fun project to distract me from everything else going on. Life has been feeling pretty back to front at the moment, to tell you the truth. Spirit Week has felt more like Spiritless Week. But at least I've got the karaoke competition on Friday to look forward to. We've got a great dance routine worked out, thanks to Priti, our resident choreographer.

Okay, making it a short and sweet post today. Hoping tomorrow will be sweet too.

Usually Zoey loved checking her blog for comments in the morning before school—the comments from
her readers gave her a boost of confidence before she started her day. But not this morning. Not since all the new users had started saying nasty things about her.

This morning she opened her laptop hesitantly, afraid of what she was going to see.

The first few comments were from her regular readers, telling her what a great job she'd done with her Backward Day outfit, which Zigzagger called “inspired” and SewingMama thought was “So backward, it's forward thinking!”

But then . . . there they were. More nasty comments from new Sew Zoey readers.

That purple peace outfit looked like something a cat vomited up.

That's not a peace outfit. That's a freak show outfit. Because Zoey is a freak.

There were replies from Sew Zoey regulars saying that Zoey was absolutely not a freak and that the peace outfit was adorable. Maybe they gave Zoey
courage. Maybe it was because she'd had a good night's sleep. Or maybe she'd just had enough. She went to the blog administrator section of her blogging platform. After a little searching, she found out there was a way to block the usernames of the people who were posting the mean comments, so they couldn't comment on Sew Zoey anymore.

There. Done!

Zoey felt better right away, like her blog was her own again. It felt like it was back to the fun, safe, community of friends it had been before. But still, she worried. What if someone believed the lies in those comments? And why did those people hate her blog and her clothes and
her
so much? They didn't even know her!

She'd always been excited to come home from school and check her blog, but now it filled her with dread. She was worrying about her blog problems when she bumped into Priti in the hallway at school.

“Wow, Zo, you're more mopey than my grandmother's bassett hound,” Priti said. “Looks like you need a cheerleader, and I know just the person for the job—
me!
”

With that, Priti gave a flamboyant leap, which ended in a dramatic pose, right in the middle of the crowded hallway. Zoey couldn't help laughing. Priti didn't mind if other students were giving her funny looks. She was just herself, and that was enough to cheer up Zoey.

“Oh, you've got to see this!” Priti exclaimed. “I've come up with this amazing tap dance routine I could perform during the bridge part of our karaoke song.” She handed her books to Zoey. “Watch, and be amazed!”

Zoey watched, along with a few other students who stopped to stare, as Priti performed a short tap dance routine in the hallway. Everyone clapped when Priti finished with a flourish of jazz hands and tapping feet.

“That
was
amazing,” Zoey said to the now panting Priti. “But are you sure you want to take on something new? I'm having a hard time remembering the dance we're doing for the rest of the song.”

“It'll be worth it.” Priti took her books back from Zoey. “But I still think we need something more to make absolutely sure we win. Wait! I know! Can you
do something to make our School Color Day outfits stand out for the karaoke competition?”

Zoey thought for a moment, and then she remembered the fabric in the Holbrookes' spare room closet. “I can make some fab accessories with that sparkly sequin material we found in your hat closet,” she said. “Why don't I come home with you after school, and we can start working on them? We can practice the song at the same time.”

Priti's smile faded. “No . . . it's okay. My mom and I can drive it over later.”

“Why?” Zoey asked. “Maybe I can join you for one of your mom's Indian fusion dinners! I'm still drooling over that calzone thing!”

“No,” Priti insisted. “My parents aren't . . . um . . . I mean, my dad has the flu.”

Zoey was confused. Mr. Holbrooke seemed fine the other day when they were over at Priti's house, and her friend hadn't mentioned anything about anyone being sick until now. Maybe it was just one of those twenty-four-hour bugs, she thought.

Priti continued, a little less flustered. “You know, I wouldn't want you to catch any flu germs or
anything. Especially before our big performance.”

“Okay, thanks,” Zoey said, realizing that Priti didn't seem to want her to come over. “Tell your dad I hope he feels better.”

“Oh . . . sure!” Priti called over her shoulder as she rushed away down the hall, as if she were suddenly and desperately anxious to get to class.

Zoey could see that Priti wasn't acting like her usual upbeat self. Maybe Priti's dad really was sick, but it also seemed like Priti didn't want to talk. Zoey wondered if Priti would confide in her soon or if it was time to ask her if she needed to talk. She wished there was some kind of friendship manual, with all the rules written down like sewing patterns, step by step by step.

Zoey was still thinking about Priti when she passed by Ivy, Bree, and Shannon in the hallway between classes.

“Hey, Zoey,” Shannon said, waving to her. “How'd you do your hair like that?”

Zoey had done her hair in a backward—or, well, upside down—French braid, in honor of Backward
Day. She spoke cautiously, bracing for a snide remark to whatever answer she gave. “Why?”

“It's cool!” Shannon replied.

“Yeah, actually, it is,” added Bree. “Can you show us how to do it?”

“We won't bite,” Ivy said, seeing Zoey's puzzled expression.

Now Zoey was really confused. Had aliens arrived at Mapleton Prep and switched the mean girls with nice ones? Were they just being on their best behavior because of Ms. Austen's warning? Somehow, Zoey decided, this felt genuine, so she decided to give them the benefit of the doubt.

“Well?” Ivy asked.

“I saw a how-to video online,” Zoey said. “I think they called it an upside-down French braid.”

“It looks complicated,” Shannon said.

Zoey paused. “Not really. You just start braiding from the back of your head, by your neck, and then work your way up to your forehead. Look it up online.”

“Thanks!” Bree said.

“Yeah, thanks, Zoey,” Shannon piped in.

Zoey walked away, thinking about what had just happened. Shannon was Zoey's friend in elementary school, and sometimes she was still nice to Zoey when Ivy and Bree weren't around. But she wouldn't usually be nice to Zoey in front of Bree or Ivy. What was going on? Did they really just like her hair? Being nice wasn't their style.

Zoey was distracted on the bus ride home. She almost didn't care about the trio of girls at school anymore when she thought about what had happened recently on Sew Zoey. People she didn't even know had written in to say that they didn't like her clothes and that she was a joke. She hoped that blocking the users would make a difference, and it felt good to do something. But was holding her breath on the way home, waiting to see what would happen when she checked her blog again.

“What's the matter, Zo?” Kate asked. “You're in la-la land. Did you hear a thing I just said?”

“I'm sorry.” Zoey sighed. “I just . . . I'm really upset about these comments that keep showing up on my blog. Really nasty ones. More every day.”

“Oh! I saw those. They were awful!” Kate exclaimed. “But since you didn't mention them I thought they weren't bothering you. Who would write something like that?”

“I don't know. That's the problem. But it's really starting to freak me out. I thought they would stop, but it just keeps getting worse. I kind of thought I was being too sensitive since you and Priti didn't say anything, but I guess not.”