What a Doll! (6 page)

“Oh. That's the worst,” Emmy said after a pause.

“I know, right?” Cadence said. “I got a text from her this morning. She said she felt like she was spinning around on a crazy-fast merry-go-round all night. But I think she's better now.”

“That's good,” Emmy said, not really meaning it.
Maybe she ate too many of those traitor strawberries,
she thought. Serves her right.

CHAPTER 6

After school that day Sam was sitting on the steps as Emmy tossed her bag
down and went into the kitchen for a snack. Sam wasn't so bad, as far as little
brothers went. But he did have two major flaws. One, he constantly wanted to be
included in everything Emmy did. Two, he was always pawing through Emmy's things.
Usually, it seemed, he was in search of sweets, which Emmy liked to keep stashed in
her bag. (Their mom was a little too concerned about limiting their sugar intake, so
what was Emmy supposed to do?)

Pawing through Emmy's bag was exactly what Sam was doing after school
that day as he sat on the steps, and he hit the jackpot. Gummy bears! Emmy saw the
flash of the wrapper as she came back into the room, and Sam leapt quickly up the
stairs.

“Um,
hello
?” Emmy called after her
brother.

Sam turned around innocently. “Hello,” he said, as if Emmy hadn't been
being sarcastic with her “hello.”

“What did you steal from my bag?” Emmy snapped.

“Nothing,” Sam said, hiding both hands behind his back. He was such a
bad liar.

“Give it,” Emmy said, lunging up the steps.

Sam had a “busted!” look on his face as he held out the package of
gummy bears and Emmy grabbed it. But one hand was still behind his back.

Emmy sighed impatiently. “Do you really think I don't realize you have
something else in your other hand?”

Poor Sam looked totally defeated as he held out his other hand, which
gripped the little doll Emmy had bought the day before. Suddenly Emmy was more than
mildly annoyed, she was furious. Which was strange because she'd barely given the
doll any thought since yesterday. When she'd cleared her desk off before school,
she'd stuffed it in her backpack, but didn't even remember that it had been in there
all day. Suddenly she felt very attached to it.

As quickly as it had taken Emmy's reaction to shift from annoyed to
furious, Sam's expression changed from guilty to nasty, and he threw the doll as
hard as he could all the way down the staircase, then ran into his room and slammed
the door. Emmy scrambled down the stairs to retrieve the doll, grateful that it was
made of cloth and therefore not breakable.
Little brothers can be
such a royal pain,
she thought as she stuffed the doll back into the
front pocket of her backpack.

Every day before school, if it wasn't raining or freezing cold, kids
liked to hang out in the yard before the bell rang. Of course, when Lizzy and Emmy
used to walk to school together, they'd hang out there too, joining in a game other
kids were playing or sometimes just talking to each other. Now Emmy faced this
before-school scene alone, and Lizzy hung out with Sophie and Cadence. They were
always giggling and looking as if they were having just the greatest time ever
enjoying some grand private joke.

But as she approached the school yard the next morning, something
looked different, even from a distance. There were lots of kids standing around
Lizzy, not just Sophie and Cadence. Lizzy definitely seemed to be the center of
everyone's attention. And they were all focused on something near the ground.

As Emmy got closer, she saw that one of Lizzy's legs was thick and
white. Oh, wait, that would be a cast, Emmy realized. And Lizzy was standing with
crutches.

It was always such a big deal when someone showed up at school with a
cast, as if he or she had been away at war and lived to come home and tell the tale.
Rumors quickly circulated—
The bone in his arm was sticking right
through the skin! She had to be taken in an ambulance to the emergency
room!
—and the kid with the cast usually appeared to enjoy the
attention.

And Lizzy, it seemed, was no exception. She was talking and laughing,
gesturing dramatically to the crowd.

Emmy felt a rush of sympathy and concern for Lizzy. Forget about the
extra attention, breaking a bone couldn't have been fun. It had to have really hurt.
Emmy wanted to know what had happened, so she approached the crowd. But she could
barely get near Lizzy with so many kids swarmed around her.

Lizzy had managed to accommodate her cast and still look great in her
outfit. She barely looked awkward at all. She was wearing a pair of leggings with
the one leg rolled way up to show the whole cast, which was bright white and clean.
When Emmy took a closer look, she saw that there were thin pencil marks on it
dividing the cast into seven stripes.

As if reading Emmy's mind, Cadence asked, “So what are those pencil
marks for?”

Lizzy's face lit up as she dug into her backpack and pulled out a
package of thin permanent markers in every color of the rainbow. “My mom had a great
idea,” Lizzy announced to the crowd. “When everyone signs the cast, they can use a
different color in a different section. So when everyone's finished signing, my cast
will look like a big handwritten rainbow. The more people who sign it, the better!”
Kids nodded and oohed and ahhed appreciatively as the bell rang. And besides Sophie
and Cadence, several boys were scrambling to help Lizzy inside to start the school
day. It was as if she had her own private staff of butlers.

Emmy was glad her first few classes weren't with Lizzy. She already
needed a break from
The Lizzy Show
after the scene in the
playground.
Funny how no one even noticed my haircut,
she
thought,
and yet they can't take their eyes off Lizzy's
cast.
She dreaded lunch and the scene she was sure she would see in the
cafeteria—kids lining up to sign Lizzy's cast. She wasn't too far off base, either.
There wasn't exactly a line, but there was a small crowd around Lizzy's table during
the entire lunch period. Kids were taking turns trying to walk with her crutches.
Emmy tried to focus on her grilled cheese and tomato soup. “Comfort food,” her mom
would have called it. But it wasn't much comfort at all.

As usual, she and Lizzy had English together after lunch. They'd been
reading haiku, and Ms. Calhoun explained that now it was time to try writing their
own. A haiku has three lines. The first has five syllables, the second has seven
syllables, and the third has five syllables. It was fun to try to fit the syllables
into the correct pattern. At the end of class, anyone who wanted to could read his
or her haiku to the group. Emmy struggled to transport herself to a different time
and place to write about, and decided on the Fourth of July, which, coincidentally,
was the last time she and Lizzy had really had fun together. They'd walked with
their families to the river and watched fireworks go off over the Manhattan
skyline.

FIREWORKS

Pop, bam , sizzle, boom

Colors lighting up the dark

Independence Day

Emmy was pretty pleased with her haiku, but when Ms. Calhoun invited
students to read their work to the group, she felt shy and didn't raise her hand.
Lizzy did, though, and when called on, slowly struggled to get to her feet and reach
her crutches so she could stand in front of the class.

“It's okay, Lizzy,” Ms. Calhoun said. “You can read from your desk.”
Lizzy seemed disappointed about this, but took a dramatic breath before she began
reading:

PAIN

Sharp, stabbing zinger!

Pain rushes through me and I

Can't even breathe right

“Wow, very nice, Lizzy,” Ms. Calhoun said. “I assume this was about
your recent experience of breaking your leg?” Everyone laughed. Except Emmy. Because
the truth was, Lizzy's haiku described Emmy's hurt feelings just perfectly.

The day wore on and each time Emmy saw Lizzy, she was surrounded by a
team of helpers. And as promised, her cast was slowly becoming a handwritten
rainbow. Emmy wondered if Lizzy would ask her to sign it. But by the end of the day
Lizzy hadn't even glanced in Emmy's direction. It was as if Emmy didn't exist.

Once again Emmy felt her sadness harden into anger as she walked home
alone. She even felt a little glad that Lizzy had broken her leg. No more strawberry
picking, and it would definitely put a damper on any costume she had planned with
Cadence and Sophie. What kind of costume could incorporate a big clunky cast?
Never mind,
Emmy thought bitterly,
Lizzy
will think of some fabulous way to make it work. And everyone will feel so sorry
for poor Lizzy that she'll win first prize.

Then suddenly Emmy emerged from these thoughts and realized she had
never found out how Lizzy had broken her leg.

CHAPTER 7

Later that afternoon Emmy sat in the orthodontist's waiting room. Dr. Costa's office was just a block away from her house, so her parents had started letting her go to routine appointments like this one by herself. Today she was just going to have her clear braces tightened, which was a quick and painless procedure. The discomfort would come in the next few days, when her whole mouth would be sore from the tightening.

If only braces were as cool as a broken leg,
she thought, leafing through a women's fashion magazine in the waiting room. Page after page of models stared back at her, looking about as far from human as aliens. One wore a dress that looked like it was made of aluminum foil; another had a face painted like a leopard. She didn't usually read these kinds of magazines but was strangely drawn to the images. It was sort of impossible to look away. “Fashion” was a word she had heard spoken by Lizzy all too often lately, and it seemed like something Emmy needed to learn a thing or two about. She didn't even like shopping, though, so how would she ever change her look from kid to tween?

It felt like it was taking a long time for her name to be called. She flipped a page and saw a model with black nail polish on. Emmy herself had only ever painted her nails pink or red, but come to think of it, she'd seen a few girls at school with darker colors on their nails, like deep blue or purple. She and Lizzy used to give each other manicures and pedicures using their mothers' nail polish, which was the usual variety of pinks and reds.

Maybe it would be cool to do something new,
Emmy thought.
The black seems kind of cool.
And then a thought popped into her head. It was a thought she wasn't proud of, but there it was nonetheless.

Maybe Lizzy would think it was cool.

After all, painting her nails black was a risk Lizzy hadn't taken, and this time Emmy could be the one to show Lizzy a thing or two about what looked cool. Emmy kept thinking about Lizzy telling her she needed to update her look. Well, consider it updated.