chapter 11
“Hey, Amanda!”
Amanda turned around. There was Justin, standing right behind her in the cafeteria lunch line! “Oh, hi, Justin!”
“What’s for lunch today?”
“Oh, the usual...Beefy Taco Casserole...
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mushy mixed vegetables...hey. it’s Tuesday, you know!” Amanda wrinkled up her nose when she thought about the gross school lunches.
“So, Amanda, what’s going on? Hey. Omar told me about the dunk tank!”
“Oh, are you gonna do it?”
Sure! Omar and Connor and I all are. If’ll be rockin’!”
“Great! Well, I’m—going to meet Molly and Natasha at that table over there.”
“See ya. Oh, Amanda?”
“Uh-huh?”
“I”m—sorry that you didn’t get in the play. but—you know, it sounds like a pretty lame play anyway. And you’ll get in the next one—if you want to.”
“Thanks, Justin. I’m, uh, working on crew, doing costumes.”
“Hey! I just got a great idea! Maybe I’ll do a photo essay and show the play from the very beginning until the night of performance! You know, show all the different people involved, and how it comes together. You better watch out...I’ll be taking a picture of you in the costume shop!”
Sounds good,” Amanda said, smiling brightly at Justin. Then she had a great idea. ”Um, Justin?” she asked, trying to sound casual. ”Would—would you and Connor and Omar like to help out with something else? We’re doing a haunted house for our little brother’s Halloween birthday party, and we could use some creepy characters to hang out in it! It’s the Saturday before Halloween. if you’re interested.”
“You mean, dress up like Dracula and stuff? Sure!”
“Great! I’ll, um, e-mail you about it.” Amanda grinned at Justin and walked over to the Chef Girls’ table. She couldn’t stop smiling. He does like me...a little...I think!
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“So, I really think we should dress up as each other for Matthew’s party,” Amanda told Molly one morning as they walked to school. “Molly? Hello-o-o?
“Hmmm?” asked Molly, who’d been deep in her own thoughts. “Uh, dress up as each other? What are you talking about?”
Amanda sighed. “Molls! Remember that idea you had for our Halloween costumes? That we’d dress up as each other? It’ll be totally fun. We’ll get you all dolled-up, and put glitter in your hair, and I’ll wear your pine-green lowtop sneakers and your favorite beat-up jeans and your Brooklyn Dodgers baseball jersey. And, of course, I’ll wear the ponytail! And then we’ll see how well we fool people!”
“Oh yeah,” remembered Molly. “That was a great idea I had! And when everyone ask us why we didn’t wear costumes, we’ll just tell them that we couldn’t decide what to dress up as.”
“I can’t wait!
“Me neither,” said Molly absently. Her voice sounded far away because her mind was on something else—how she could help America’s Second Harvest.
And how she was going to find the time to do it.
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“Today we need to start becca’s dress for Act II”, Ms. Barlow told the costume crew one day after school. The crew of eight girls had gathered in the spacious storeroom that Ms. Barlow used to store all the props and costumes from past plays. Standing racks were crowded with dozens of costumes, cardboard boxes
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were overflowing with fabric and netting, and clear plastic tubs were crammed full of shoes. Hatboxes lined an upper shelf, strands of costume jewelry hung down from hooks, and an entire wall was covered with shelves holding props ranging from fake flowers to fake food.
Becca’s dress.
For a split second, Amanda felt a twinge of sadness. Then she caught sight of the fringed red flapper dress that she’d worn in last spring’s play, and she smiled. I’ll be on stage again, she reminded herself. Maybe sooner than later!
She turned to Ms. Barlow. “Would you like a little purse to match becca’s dress?” she asked Ms. Barlow. “I can sew one up from the extra fabric. It won’t take long. I could just make a tiny sack on a string.”
“Perfect!” said Ms. Barlow, her sparkling brown eyes sending Amanda a grateful look. “Yes, she’ll need one, since she’ll be walking through town in this scene. Wonderful idea!”
Amanda picked up a pair of shears and began to cut a large circle out of the pink gingham fabric. The afternoon passed quickly with the girls laughing and chatting while they sewed and sketched with Ms. Barlow.
Amanda felt completely at home in the cozy, cluttered room. This is the theater just as much as acting on stage is, she realized. It’s just as important—and just as much fun!
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“I spoke to Athena,” Molly announced to the Chef Girls when they’d arrived at the Moores’ house the Saturday before the harvest fair for a baking marathon. “She saw my article in the paper and asked if she could donate some stuff to sell. I said, Absolutely!’ So she’s going to make spanakopita and that walnut cake we had at her party.”
“Great!” said Shawn as she opened a new package of sugar. “And I talked to my neighbor. Mrs. Brooks.
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She’s from Scotland. She said she’d make scones and donate them to the fair.
“Oh! I had a great idea! I’m going to whip up some pesto sauce and bottle it!” added Molly. “I guess I’ll go back to Choice Foods tomorrow for more basil and garlic and stuff.”
“That’s awesome!” exclaimed Amanda, who was stirring
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fresh cranberries into batter for cranberry-orange bread, a recipe from Mrs. Ross. “Can we talk about
Matthew’s party for a minute? You know, our other huge project? Cause as soon as we’re done with the fair, we’ll have to get to work on that.”
The Chef Girls groaned.
“Hey at least we have the three guys to help us. But we still have to decide who’s doing what.”
“Then we’d better call a meeting with Omar and Justin and Connor,” suggested Natasha.
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“OK, guys, settle down,” said Peichi, sitting in a big booth between Justin and Omar the next day. The Chef Girls and Omar, Justin, and Connor had met up at Pizza Roma to talk about the haunted house. The boys were being rowdy-and people were turning to look at them.
Omar raised his hand. “Dude, I call Frankenstein,” he said.
“You’ll be perfect for that, since you’re such a goon,” Connor teased him. “I want to be Dracula.”
“No, man, I want to be Dracula,” protested Justin as he reached for another slice of pepperoni pizza. “I have a tuxedo! I had to get it for a wedding once.”
“Do you think your mom will let you wear if for this party? asked Amanda. ”You might get it all dirty.
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“Sure”, he said with a shrug. “I’ve almost outgrown it.”
“Connor, I just figured out what you should do!” said Molly, snapping her fingers. “We’ll make you look like a head on a platter!”
“What?” cried the group.
“It’s so cool!” exclaimed Molly. “I saw it once in Park Terrace during the Halloween parade! Don’t you remember. Manda? We’ll get, like, a cheap card table at a thrift store, and have Dad cut a hole in it. And we’ll stick your head through the hole! We’ll cut a hole in a tablecloth and put it over the table so the kids can’t see your body. And we’ll decorate the table with food and napkins and stuff! And in the dim lighting, it’ll look so creepy!”
Connor chuckled. “Yeah, let’s make it look like just part of the party—it would be even better if we could cover my head with. like, a cake plate cover. Then the little kid comes over for some cake, takes off the cover, and I get to scare him to death!
“Ooohhhh!” cried the friends, laughing.
“We’ll try to do that. said Molly, ”if we can find or make a cover big enough for your head—but don’t forget, you have to be able to breathe.”
“If we make a cover, then we can put air holes in,” Natasha pointed out.
“Perfect,” said Molly. She was sitting right across from Justin, and Amanda was next to her. I was worried that this would be totally weird, Molly though. But everyone’s cool! She and Amanda were having so much fun that it didn’t feel awkward for either of them to be hanging out with Justin.
“Oh!” exclaimed Omar. “I could make my costume so that one of my arms is inside my jacket—I’ll borrow an old blazer of my dad’s cause it’ll be really big—and then we can make a papier- mâché arm. And we’ll slide it up into the sleeve of my jacket. Then I’ll shake hands with a kid, and when the kid grabs it, it’ll fall off!”
“Do you really think that’ll work?” asked Shawn, wrinkling her nose doubffully ‘“Cause the arm won’t go very far if it’s still in the sleeve.”
“Good point.”
“Well, anyway,” said Molly “this party is gonna be great! Natasha, you’re going to be a ghost, right?”
Right! replied Natasha eagerly. “I’ll wear this old, long, white lace dress, and I’ll put white powder all over my face and hands—”
“You should ‘appear’ in the living room once all the kids have arrived,” interrupted Amanda. “And lead them downstairs into the haunted house!”
“Ooohh!” exclaimed Molly excitedly. “We’ll make up a story that you’ll tell them-that this was your house, before something horrible happened to you!”
“That rocks!” said Connor. “Hey, is anyone gonna eat this last slice of pizza?”
Justin and Omar lunged for the slice just as Connor grabbed the crust. “Hands off! I called it!” Connor yelled.
“Dude, don’t be a pig,” Omar said, with his mouth full.
“Man, you ate, like, half a pizza yourself!” Justin said to Omar.
With a tug, Connor pulled the pizza toward him, and it split into three pieces. The boys scarfed down their last bite of pizza, then each wiped his hands and mouth on his shirt.
Amanda and Molly did the “twin thing” again. So gross! Then Molly smiled wickedly at her twin, leaned over and whispered, “They’ll be perfect for the gross-out part of the haunted house!”