Lucy hadn’t heard anything back from Mrs. Gallagher, she told us at lunch the next day. She and Theo were both eating cheeseburgers and tater tots. I had my usual, a turkey sandwich. Even though I wasn’t sitting with the It Girls, I knew they were watching, and I wanted to do the right thing. “But I did some supplemental work of my own, in the meantime,” she said.
Theo chewed and swallowed. “Details?” he asked.
“I’m getting to them,” Lucy told him. “I knew my grandmother had a really busy day. Monday is one of the days she volunteers at the food pantry. Plus my dad’s assistant at the bowling alley—”
“Your dad has a bowling alley?” I asked.
“Yup, Tanaka Lanes,” Lucy said proudly. “Make a left on Main Street, and a right on Sheridan, and you’re there!”
“Wow, everyone’s parents have the best jobs,” I said.
“You can come anytime you want,” Lucy said.
“Thanks.”
“You guys always seem to get off topic,” Theo said. “Can we get back to your supplemental work?”
“By the way, Theo,” Lucy said. “You’re invited to Tanaka Lanes anytime, too. But as I was saying, my grandma had a busy day, because she volunteered and filled in at the bowling alley. The manager cut back on his hours, so that’s why. She left a note that she’d be home a little bit late. I saw a pile of laundry in the basket in the hall, and I decided to help her out. I’d never used the washing machine before, but I thought to myself, Lucy, how hard can this be? And the answer was, Not too hard. I lugged the basket over to the machine, and threw the clothes in. The cap on the soap stuff doubles as a measuring cup, so it was easy to figure out how much to pour in. I wasn’t exactly sure what buttons to press, but somehow I got it working. It was really fun. I never thought laundry would be so fun, but it was.”
“Serotonin at work,” Theo said.
“Your grandmother must’ve been happy,” I said.
“Well, that’s the thing,” Lucy said. “When I pulled everything out to put in the dryer, it had changed colors. I thought maybe it looked a little, like, bluish, because it was all wet, and sometimes water is blue.”
“No, it’s not,” Theo said. “It’s just that the other colors are absorbed more strongly by water than blue is. Same with the sky.”
“Anyhoo,” Lucy said. “I put it in the dryer, and when it came out, the white things were still a bit blue. Turns out you’re not supposed to mix colors like that.”
“Oh, no!” I said.
“My dad was really mad when he saw—like really mad. I tried to explain I’d just been trying to do a kind thing and I’d made a mistake, but he said I shouldn’t have helped if I didn’t know what I was doing. He said it’d cost a lot of money to replace things I’d ruined. My grandmother was great about it, though. She told him to go start dinner. I’d already set the table, and at least I hadn’t messed that up, and he calmed down and said he knew I had the right intentions. Then my grandmother showed me how to separate clothes, and use bleach for the white things. She managed to get all the blue out, so our stuff looks normal again. Plus she seemed to appreciate what I’d tried to do. I think it still counts, don’t you?”
“Definitely,” I said.
“Yes, I think so,” Theo said. “Because the act was perceived as kind. Which is our problem with Mrs. Gallagher.”
“More like Mrs. Gallagher’s problem with us,” Lucy said.
“Po-tay-to, po-tah-to,” Theo said. “Either way, we put all our eggs in one basket, and we need to diversify.”
“I don’t know why you’re talking about eggs and baskets.”
“It’s a metaphor,” Theo said. “What I mean is, we left her a note and that’s the only thing we did.”
“Plus the supplemental stuff,” Lucy reminded him. “We’ll have plenty of things to write up in our report.”
“Are we supposed to write a report?” I asked. “Or is it just a presentation to the class?”
“Mr. Dibble didn’t specify,” Theo said. “Sometimes I wonder about his teaching skills.”
“Be kind,” Lucy chided.
“I’m not saying anything unkind,” Theo said. “I’m stating a fact: I wonder.” It was like the summer reading. Those details hadn’t been specified, either. But I doubted that Mr. Dibble had been trying to trick us into work. Not that I knew him well, but that didn’t seem to be his style.
“Let’s ask him after class,” I said.
“All right,” Theo agreed. “Now back to Mrs. Gallagher. It occurs to me that when we left the letter we didn’t take into account all the things that could go wrong. She could’ve thrown it away accidentally. Or maybe she read it, but she didn’t think cleaning her yard was a kind thing to do.”
“How could she not?” Lucy asked.
“I guess it’s possible she likes things messy,” I said.
“Precisely,” Theo said. “So this is what I think we should do. I think we should leave her another note.”
“But she could throw that one away, too,” I said.
“No, she won’t because we’ll put it in a care package.”
“What kind of care package?” Lucy asked.
“We’ll have to brainstorm on that,” Theo said. “And then we’ll put everything in a box or basket or something, and put a note on top, offering to clean her yard, if she wants. We can do it this afternoon.”
“There’s only one problem,” Lucy said. “Wednesday is my piano lesson day. I won’t be home till later.”
“And I have dinner at my dad’s tonight,” I added. “But I can think of things and e-mail you.”
“All right,” Theo said. “And then we’ll put the care package together tomorrow after school.”
“Works for me,” Lucy told him.
I turned around. Monroe was staring at me. She caught my eye and nodded. I turned around again. “I have an It Girls’ meeting, and I missed it yesterday, so I can’t miss another.” I paused. “Hey, Lucy. Can I give you something?”
“Oh my goodness, you have a present for me?” Lucy squealed.
“Hold on,” Theo said. “We need to figure this out.”
“It’s already figured out,” Lucy said. “We’ll each brainstorm care package ideas for Mrs. Gallagher, and Chloe can bring whatever she wants to add to school tomorrow, and then you and I will drop it off. Okay?”
“Okay,” Theo said.
“Okay,” I said.
“Okay,” Lucy said. “Now, what do you have for me?”
“Um,” I said. I pulled my backpack onto my lap, and unzipped the small pocket. The patch was right there.
I knew Monroe was watching, but she couldn’t see exactly what I was doing, since the backpack was in my lap, and my back was to her. I pulled out the sunshine pocket mirror from Lia’s sister’s party, and handed it to Lucy. “Here,” I said. “Because it’s your favorite color.”
“Oh my goodness!” Lucy said. “You’re so kind! This should count as supplemental work because it’s definitely giving me more serotonin. Thanks, Chloe!”
I shifted my body closer to her, blocking Monroe’s vision even more. “You’re welcome,” I said. Then I raised my hand, and scratched my head, and gave the signal.