Chapter 10
Autographed Orange High-tops

Walking home from school with my mom and Tess and Erin should have been very, extremely fun, but I was too nervous. Erin and I were going to make posters for my shoe, and that meant I had to tell my mom the news. I took a big breath of air to get brave and spilled the beans.

“Mother,” I said.

“Mother?” My mom’s eyebrow started to go up.

“I have some bad news to share, and it is bad with a capital B. My tap shoe is missing.”

My mom’s eyebrow kept going up.

“But, but, but,” I said, trying to make her eyebrow go down again. “Erin and I are going to make posters all about it today and hang them all over the block.”

Her eyebrow stayed half up and half down.

“We already checked all through the Lost and Found and I made an announcement and Mrs. Bentley says we can hang posters at school. Also, I searched all over the house and I told Miss Akiyama and I searched all over the dance studio too.”

I looked at my mom, but I couldn’t tell which way her eyebrow was going.

“Halt!” said Tess. That’s army for “stop,” and she said it because we were standing in front of our house.

Erin and I raced inside and up to my room so we wouldn’t have to talk any more about it.

“Do you have a shoe collection?” Erin asked.

I looked around my room. “I didn’t think I did, but maybe I do.”

“Why is this one in a frame?” she asked.

“I guess because it’s sort of special,” I said. “It’s half of the first pair of shoes I ever wore. They were a present, but I lost one on the way home from the hospital.”

“It sure is cute,” said Erin. “What’s this one doing on a shelf?”

It was an autograph-covered orange high-top.

“I lost it down the bleachers at a basketball game,” I said. “The team signed it before they sent it back to me.”

“That’s pretty awesome,” she said.

“Snacks ready!” my mom called. “And the poster supplies are laid out.”

Erin and I ran to the dining room and got to work. We wrote LOST across the top of each poster in big letters. Next we drew a picture of my tap shoe. We made it ruby red with a fancy bow like in real life. We wrote my shoe size and then we put down my name and address. At the very bottom we wrote REWARD really big to get people’s attention, since it worked in class.

We headed out the door with some tape and heard the bouncing noise.

“There’s Charlie playing basketball of course, like I told you he would be,” I said. “And I guarantee you that Rosemary T. will appear as soon as she sees us.”

“Alas,” said Erin.

And all of a sudden there was Rosemary T.

“Hi, Erin,” she called, racing out of her house. “What are you doing with Cinderella?”

It was pretty obvious what we were doing, so I just went ahead and told her. “We’re putting up posters about my missing tap shoe on all the streetlights.”

“You’re not allowed to put one up on our streetlight,” she said.

“Why not?” I asked.

“Because you didn’t ask permission.”

I thought about ignoring Rosemary T. and just taping one up. Then I thought she’d probably tear it down as soon as we left.

Right then Mr. Taylor drove up in his shiny car. “Hello, girls,” he said.

“Hi, Daddy!” said Rosemary T. “This is the new girl I told you about, Erin. Erin, this is my dad who is in charge of a bank.”

“Pleased to meet you, Erin,” said Mr. Taylor. “Good to see you as always, Cinderella.”

“Good to see you too.” Right then I got a big AHA! “Mr. Taylor, would it be okay with you if we taped one of our posters up to your streetlight?”

“It’s not my streetlight,” he said. “It’s the city’s.”

“Are we supposed to ask the city if we can put these up?” I got a little bit nervous because I am usually a very law-abiding citizen.

“Oh no,” said Mr. Taylor. “They don’t care as long as you take them down afterward.”

“I promise we will as soon as we find my tap shoe,” I said.

“Then tape away,” he said back.

There was only one other person on my block who cared about the posters, and that one other person was Charlie. Of course. I wanted to put a poster on his light post too, though, so we’d just have to put up with him.

“Hey, Tinder and Erin,” he called.

“Tinder?” asked Erin.

“It’s a long story that I will tell you about later,” I said. Charlie never called me that at school, which I realized was really pretty nice.

“Can we put one of our posters up here?”

“Sure,” he said, and bounced his ball over to the streetlight to read the poster.

“You didn’t need to include your name and address, you know,” he said. “If anyone ever finds a missing shoe, they know who it belongs to.”

I tried to put a “you’re very annoying” look on my face.

He laughed and dribbled his basketball away. Just then the top part of the poster came untaped and folded down. I jumped up to try to get it taped again, but it’s very hard to jump in clogs. I kicked them off and tried again. Erin jumped too, but she couldn’t reach either.

“Do you need help?” Charlie yelled from his driveway.

“No!” I yelled back, even though a taller person would have helped.

Then Erin had the brilliant idea to pick me up and boost me. She got me high enough so I could reach it and then we crumbled to the ground. All we could hear was Charlie laughing. I was very, extremely embarrassed, and Erin probably was too. We gathered up the tape and two leftover posters and my shoes to head home, but there was a problem.

“Where’s my other clog?” I asked.

Erin twirled around in a circle, spying all around. “I don’t see it anywhere.”

I looked over to Charlie and yelled: “Did you take my shoe?”

“What would I do with a dumb old girl’s shoe?” he yelled back.

I couldn’t think of anything to say back to that, so I had to go home without one shoe. Alas.

During dinner, our neighbor Mr. Hansen came over, looking grumpy and embarrassed.

He was carrying his dog in his arms, and his dog was carrying my clog in his mouth.

“He won’t drop it,” Mr. Hansen said. “I don’t want to yank it out because it might ruin your shoe.”

“Ralph?” I said, all shocked. “You stole my shoe?”

Ralph started wriggling, looking very cute and a little bit naughty.

“You’re not going anywhere until you give up the shoe,” said Mr. Hansen.

“How about a trade, Ralph?” I held up a breadstick. “Can he have some?”

“It’s fine by me,” said Mr. Hansen.

I walked over to Ralph and waved a piece of breadstick under his nose. He started drooling down my clog.

“Mmm,” I said, taking a big bite.

That did the trick; he dropped my shoe and grabbed the breadstick. “Thanks, Ralph.”

“This dog will be the end of me.” Mr. Hansen said that all the time, and I believed him.

“Did Ralph get out today?” I asked.

“Not that I noticed,” he said, “but he must have at some point, unless you threw your shoe into our yard.”

“Nope,” I said. “So now he knows how to break out and break back in again,” I said.

“I guess so.” Mr. Hansen took a cup of coffee from my dad.

“Hey, Mr. Hansen,” I said. “Did Ralph happen to find a ruby red tap shoe too?”

“I don’t think so,” said Mr. Hansen.

“Could you check around when you get home?” I asked. “It’s a very important shoe. Rosemary T. said I can’t be in the dance recital without it.”

“That is an important shoe,” said Mr. Hansen.

“And if I can’t be in the recital, Rosemary T. will for sure get to do the solo part.”

“I see,” said Mr. Hansen.

“She told me that at recess today,” I said. “She said she is the best dancer in the class and she’s also Miss Akiyama’s favorite. I’m not sure about all that, though.”

“That’s enough, Cinderella,” said my mom.

“I am not spreading rumors, it’s . . .”

My mom’s eyebrow started to go up, and the room got very quiet.

My cheeks went a little warm. “By the way, Mr. Hansen, there’s a reward for my shoe.”

“Rewards are good,” said Mr. Hansen. “What are you offering?”

“I’m not sure yet,” I said.

Mr. Hansen smiled. I started to feel a little better about almost getting in trouble in front of him.

“We’ll keep our eyes open,” he said. “Mrs. Hansen, me, and especially Ralph.”