fourteen

The girls were both breathing heavily from running up the stairs. “I . . . got it,” April panted. She bent over to pull up the leg of her jeans and slid down her pink sock. She grabbed the phone and stood up.

“Ta-da!” She tried to smile and catch her breath at the same time. “How awesome . . . am I?”

Grace took the phone. “OK . . . fingers crossed that this works.”

April crossed her pointer and middle finger, then her ring finger and pinky. “Yep.”

“Hi Abbey,” said Grace as she texted, “can April and Austin stay over for pizza and a sleepover?” Grace hit send.

Each time April blinked felt like an eternity. They stared at the phone. Silence.

Grace swallowed. “Ya know, Eve’s grandma may be right.”

“’Bout what? Having a gift?”

“Yep. I mean . . . remember the door? You may be able to do other stuff. Like last week when my dress was tucked into my tights by accident after I left the bathroom. ’Member that?”

April smirked. Don’t laugh. Don’t laugh. She was SO traumatized.

Grace continued, “Do you know how many kids screamed ‘fail’ and ‘loser’? I seriously wished I were invisible. But, as much as I wished for it—nada! But YOU wanted the door to close, and you did it. You wanted Austin to stop picking on you and . . . POOF!” Grace threw her arms in the air. “Now he is smaller than my grandmother’s mop. And, you turned on your fan in your bedroom just by thinking about it.” She ended her speech by putting her hands on her hips and nodding her head.

“Ok . . .” April wiped her sweaty hand on her pants. “But, I don’t want to get into a mess like this again.”

“I know. But, think about what WE could do,” Grace said, smiling.

“We?”

“Yeah! You, me, and Eve can fix stuff.” Her smile stretched from ear to ear.

“What kind of stuff?” April asked.

“I don’t know . . . uh . . . we could make sure all the puppies at the pound get a home. Uh . . . we . . . could . . . Oh! You could get Ms. Meanie back for giving you that detention. You could make her come to school looking like a clown. Imagine it! Her makeup painted all over her face.”

They both laughed.

“But, what if something goes wrong again?” April asked.

“We’ll have Eve’s book,” said Grace. “What else could possibly go wrong?”