Ivy woke up thinking about the film contest. She flung her quilt back and sat down at her desk with a newly sharpened pencil and opened her journal to a fresh page.

JOBS, she printed at the top. She nibbled on her pencil eraser. It tasted smooth and surprisingly salty. Eventually she wrote Dog walker. Then, Babysitter. After that, Lawn mower, House cleaner, and Dishwasher. She’d seen how hectic it was through the swinging doors at the Really Fine Diner. Maybe they’d be desperate and hire someone underage. She nibbled on her eraser again. Window washer, Papergirl, Gardener.

With that, she slapped her notebook shut and went to the bathroom. She peered into the mirror as she brushed her teeth, trying to see if she looked different. She thought she did, around the eyes. More determined.

• • •

On the way to school she looked for a sign that anyone might need her to do anything. She passed the house she liked so much and wondered if the woman who lived there might need a gardener. But the lawn was mowed and the flower beds, though wild-looking, seemed to be in good order, so probably not.

At school she studied the bulletin board in the entryway and got excited when she saw the words Attention, Babysitters! at the top of one bright blue piece of paper. Then she saw the poster was advertising a babysitting class. She plodded off to Ms. Mackenzie’s room, tugging on her braid.

“Earth to Ivy,” Tate said when Ivy bumped into her on the way into room 203.

Ivy smiled at her distractedly.

“So I was wondering, do you want to go see a movie this weekend?”

Ivy blinked. “What?”

“A movie. Do you want to go see one? Saturday night, maybe? Or Sunday afternoon? My grandparents could take us, or my mom. We could pick you up.”

Ivy imagined Tate seeing her house, meeting her mother. Her stomach clenched. Besides, she didn’t want to—couldn’t—miss spending the weekend with the Everses. “I, um. Yeah, it sounds fun. But—I don’t know when I could.”

A curtain eased over Tate’s eyes. “Okay, sure. I get it.” She started rummaging in her book bag.

Ivy yearned to make the curtain sweep back again. “It’s just that I go away every weekend. But when summer vacation comes, then I probably could.”

Tate quit sorting through her books. “Okay, then. It’s a plan. Sort of a plan, anyway.” She stuck her hand out and Ivy shook it firmly.

• • •

After school Ivy went into the dry cleaner on Broadway. The woman behind the counter guffawed when she asked about the HELP WANTED sign in the window. She actually slapped her leg, which Ivy’d never seen anyone do before. “Right. A schoolkid, that’s the answer to my prayers.”

Ivy slunk out. She almost didn’t have the nerve to check the second place that had occurred to her, but she had to have that camera she’d seen in the pawnshop. She was going to do what she’d told her mom. She was going to get a job and enter that contest.

She pushed through the door into the dark, narrow deli. It had grimy floors that needed mopping.

“I’m looking for work,” she told the man who leaned on the counter studying a newspaper.

The man wore pink-framed ladies’ reading glasses and an apron that needed bleaching. He scratched the back of his head. “Man, oh, man, kid. I ain’t really hiring.”

Ivy frowned.

He looked apologetic. “Even if I was, I’d need someone during the day. Someone—you know—older. Not in school.”

Ivy studied her boots. Sometimes it seemed like they were her only friends, these slightly too-large shoes that had traveled so far with her.

“Wouldn’t be surprised if you wasn’t a better worker than most of the adults I ever put on the payroll.”

Ivy looked up sharply, but his face was regretful and closed.

• • •

At home Ivy fixed herself a hot dog and a can of beans and studied the help wanted ads in the newspaper she’d bought at the deli. She read each description carefully, turning it every direction in her mind to see if there was any way each job might fit her. It was like trying on clothes from the discount rack at the dollar store, and like those clothes, nothing was quite right. Nothing at all seemed like it would earn a kid three hundred and fifty dollars in a couple of weeks.