CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Three Weeks, Four Days

It was finally time for our Civil War presentations. After weeks of research, skit-writing, rehearsing, and listening to Hannah whine, I was ready for the project to be over. I hurried into the classroom the morning of the presentations and carefully hung the bag with my costume in it on a coat hook on the back wall.

“Pansy!” Madison called to me from where she stood by the bulletin board. “Come look!”

A crowd gathered around the latest Independent Reader postings, and I knew from Madison’s face that it had to be good news. As soon as I walked over, she threw her arm around me. “You’re in first place!”

“Really?” I stared at the paper, and there was my name at the top of the list. I blinked to make sure I was seeing it clearly. For a moment, the thought flashed through my head that I might have earned some of those points unfairly. But before I knew it, I was surrounded by girls cheering and telling me how great it was that someone had finally beaten Daniel Walker, and I pushed the thought right out of my head.

I was number one, for the first time in my life!

As I stood there listening to the girls congratulating me, I thought back to last fall, when Anna told me she wanted to win the reading contest. “I’m going to earn more points than anyone!” she had said as we stood in the library looking for books to check out. She had looked over at me and added, “I’ve got an even better idea! Let’s both earn the most points. Then we can share the trophy!”

I’d giggled at the idea of sharing the trophy. Besides, racing through a bunch of books just to earn points didn’t sound so exciting to me—especially not last year.

“That’s okay,” I had said with a grin. “I’ll let you have it.”

Now I couldn’t wait to tell her the news. Because of Anna, I was now in first place, and we could still share that trophy!

Zach’s voice broke through the chatter of congratulations. “You won’t be in first place for long,” he sneered. “Haven’t you seen the book Daniel’s been lugging around lately? It weighs about ten pounds, and it’s gonna be worth tons of points. Just wait till he takes his next test, he’ll blow you away.”

“Like I care what you think.” I shot him a dirty look and pushed past him to my seat. Today, I was in first place, and no one was going to change that—not even Zach Turansky.

Soon it was time for our presentations. Madison changed into a long velvet pageant dress and piled her hair up on top of her head. I changed into black pants, the black hat I made at our autumn party, and Mom’s suit jacket, which was too long and hung off my shoulders.

Everyone oohed and aahed when Madison walked into the room. No one really noticed Hannah the spy in her plain black dress or Emma in her jean skirt and nurse’s cap. They were too busy admiring Madison and then laughing at me.

Oh, well. It was hard to look elegant when you were dressed like Abraham Lincoln. Especially if your beard was made out of construction paper, cotton balls, and string.

Our skit began with a conversation between Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln at the supper table. “This biscuit is delicious,” I said, picking up a piece of plastic bread and pretending to take a bite.

“Yes,” Madison said, dabbing at her mouth with a handkerchief. “Maggie is such a wonderful cook! Now, darling, what news do you have about the war?”

“I received a report today from the generals.” I reached under my plate for my report about the battles. As I leaned forward, my hat fell off my head, knocking over my plastic cup of real ice tea.

I inhaled quickly. I tried to grab my report, but it was too late. The tea had already spread across my paper, making the ink impossible to read.

Muffled giggles, coughs, and snorts filled the room.

Luckily, it was only a copy of the one I’d pasted onto our poster. “Um, it’s right here.” I picked up my hat and moved to where our poster was tacked to the board. I read from the poster like we had practiced, and all was going well until I heard another giggle.

My hat slipped down over my eyes and I pushed it up so I could see. I stared out at the audience. Everyone was staring at us, and they looked amused. Civil War battles weren’t exactly entertaining stuff, so I knew it had to be something else—me!

I’d looked at myself in the mirror when I dressed up at home, and there wasn’t anything funny about my outfit. So why did I keep hearing those scattered sounds from the classroom, sounds that told me someone was trying hard not to laugh out loud?

Was it the hat that I had to keep straightening on my head? Or was it the much-too-big suit with the rolled-up sleeves? Or maybe . . . could it be . . . gasp! Was my fly unzipped?

I tried to concentrate on reading out the facts of the war. But all I could think about was my zipper. Somehow, I had to sneak a look without making it obvious—but how? If I looked away from the poster for a second, I’d lose my place. Then Miss Quetzel might not give me a very good grade on the presentation.

The solution popped in my head as I finished reporting on the Battle of Williamsburg. I turned from the poster and said to Madison, “Mary, dear, will you pass me another biscuit?”

More sound effects from the audience. Madison wrinkled her eyebrows like she was trying to figure out what I was doing. She handed me a biscuit so quickly I didn’t have time to glance at my zipper. So I handed the biscuit back to her and said, “With butter, please?”

While Madison pretended to butter a plastic piece of bread, I stole a glance at my pants.

Whew. I let out my breath slowly. It wasn’t my zipper! So what in the world was everyone laughing at?

“Some people are not being very respectful listeners,” Miss Quetzel said to hush them up.

I looked over at Andy in the front row. He had his hand clamped over his mouth, like he was trying not to make a sound.

I reached for the biscuit. Madison opened her eyes wide and motioned with her head to look down. I’d already checked my pants, and I knew I was safe. I squinted back at her. She ran her hand across her chin.

I reached up to touch my beard. It was hanging halfway off my face! So that was the problem! I turned around and reached up to fix it. My foot landed on something soft. When I glanced at the floor, I noticed the pile of cotton balls around my feet.

What should I do now? Keep going with the presentation, pretending like half my beard was not scattered across the floor and all I had was a brown piece of construction paper hanging from my chin? Or stop, pick up the cotton balls, fix my beard, and then finish with the presentation?

I glanced back at Madison, hoping she’d make the call. But she just shook her head and shrugged, like she had no idea what to do.

And that’s when I made a decision. A decision to save our skit. “Excuse me folks. We need to pause for a brief commercial break.” I looked over at Hannah and Emma, who stood off to one side, waiting for their cue. “This commercial announcement brought to you by Hannah and Emma. Back in a moment!”

Hannah and Emma looked at each other. Then Hannah walked to the front of the room and did her best to sell for “Civil War Biscuits,” straight off of Madison’s plate. The other girls joined in, and while they put on a biscuit commercial, I picked up all the cotton balls, grabbed some tape from my desk, and stuck them back on my beard. Then I retied my scarf, straightened my hat, and returned to my spot just as Hannah was taking a fake bite into the biscuit and saying, “Mmm, mmm, good!”

“And now,” I said, staring bravely out at my classmates, “back to your regularly scheduled program.”

We finished the rest of our skit without a hitch. The class broke into applause at the end. I bowed, the others curtsied, and I found it hard to keep a smile off my face as I returned to my seat.

I, Pansy Smith, felt truly extraordinary.

***

“Great presentation, Pansy!” Andy said as we headed to the playground at recess.

“Thanks.” I followed him up the monkey bars and sat next to him. “Why didn’t you tell me that my beard was falling off? I looked right at you, and I could tell you were trying not to laugh.”

“I motioned to you. Didn’t you see me put my hand on my chin?”

I shook my head. “You covered your mouth. But you never touched your chin.”

“Sure I did.” Andy flipped through his notebook until he found his Zeraclop City drawings. “It’s okay, though. That’s what made it so funny. What made you think to stall with the commercial?”

“Well, I had to do something! Hey, since I’m finished with my research, maybe I can come over this afternoon to work on the city.”

Andy looked up from his notebook. “Really? I thought you were busy with reading. And skating. And Girl Scouts.”

“I can take a day off, you know.”

Daniel waved up at us, and I waved back. I noticed he was holding a book, some thick one with dragons on the cover, but today he wasn’t reading while wandering the playground.

“Hi, Daniel,” Andy said, climbing down from the bars. “I have that notebook I was telling you about.”

“Cool,” Daniel said.

My mouth dropped right open as I stared at the two of them, talking and laughing. Andy had told Daniel about Zeraclop City? It was supposed to be private, between Anna, Andy, and me!

I jumped down after him. “You told Daniel about the notebook?”

Andy handed the notebook to Daniel, then looked at the ground. “Daniel likes to create cities, too. He’s coming over this afternoon to work on it with me.”

“Yeah, it sounds awesome.” Daniel put his book down and flipped through the notebook. “Wow, you are some artist, Andy!”

“Thanks,” Andy said.

“But—but that was our city, Andy.” My voice dropped to a whisper. “We started working on it with Anna, remember?”

Andy looked over at me and shoved his hands in his pockets. “Yeah, sure. But she can’t work on it with me now. And you’re always too busy. Daniel was interested, so I thought I could use his help, too.” He turned to Daniel. “Come on, let’s go to the field. Bryce and Luke want to see the plans, too.”

I crossed my arms in front of my chest and kicked the dirt with my foot. How could Andy do something like this? He didn’t ask my permission, and he certainly hadn’t asked Anna’s!

Daniel turned to look at me. “You coming, Pansy?”

I shook my head, my eyes watering as I watched them walk away. Andy was supposed to be my friend. So what if I’d been too busy over the last few weeks to help him work on the city? Zeraclop was special to me—and to Anna. Didn’t that mean anything to him?

“Pansy!” I was startled out of my thoughts as a group of girls suddenly surrounded me, telling me they liked my costume and my presentation.

“It was the best in the class,” Samantha Dawkins said.

“Yeah,” Lisa Pierce agreed. “It wasn’t boring at all.”

“The commercial was so funny!” Janet Beene added.

Madison, Emma, and Hannah joined, too. “We’ve been looking for you, Pansy!” Madison said. “I saw Andy on the field, but he was with a bunch of boys.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I guess he’d rather hang out with them than me.”

“That’s okay,” Madison said, linking her arm with mine. “You’ve got us to hang out with now. And that’s way better than any old boy!”