Second period—the dreaded class two periods before lunch—seemed to drag on forever with lunch still two hours away and the day stretching on so long ahead of it. But not for Lindsay, Kelly, Macy, and Sam; they loved second period this year. Not only was it their favorite class—home economics—but it was also the only class that they all had together. It was like a little break in the day.
On the first day of school, Mrs. Portney, the much-loved home ec teacher, allowed them to break into groups of four. It would be in those groups that the class would work on cooking, sewing, and other craft projects. Of course, the Lindsay-Kelly-Macy-Sam group was a nobrainer, and the girls quickly arranged their seating so they could be together.
The first project for the class was to make a stuffed pillow—but not just any stuffed pillow. This one had to be special, unique, and creative. They were allowed to use felt, stuffing, and any other craft materials they wanted. Things like pipe cleaners, movable eyes, glitter, rhinestones, fabric markers, and stencils were all available to be used by the class. Or they could bring things from home to contribute to their project. They had ten minutes to put their heads together to decide what to make.
“What about a teddy bear pillow?” Lindsay suggested.
“No, someone makes that every year,” Kelly said, shaking her head. “We want to do something really interesting.”
“Hmm. How about a rainbow pillow?” Lindsay tried again.
“Nah, too boring,” Sam replied.
“Oh! We could make a bicycle pillow with real wheels that spin.” Macy suggested.
The girls laughed. “Who would want to lay on that?”
“We could do a big heart that says ‘Macy loves Tyler’ and put an arrow through it,” Kelly teased Macy.
“Yeah, right.” Macy laughed.
“I know!” Sam said, getting excited. “Why don’t we do a Mrs. Portney pillow?”
The other girls just looked at her for a minute, not quite sure if she was serious or if she had lost her mind—or both.
“Well, we could make it really fluffy, just like Mrs. Portney. We’ll put an apron on the pillow, just like the one Mrs. Portney wears. We’ll give the pillow a cute pair of round glasses made out of felt and use a shiny fabric as the glass part.”
“Yeah,” Kelly jumped in, liking the idea and adding some suggestions. “We can put scissors, pencils, and a tape measure hanging out of her apron pocket.”
“We’ll put her in a navy blue dress just like the one that Mrs. Portney wears all the time,” Macy added.
“And then,” Lindsay jumped on board, “we’ll make it a gift to Mrs. Portney when we’re done.”
All four girls agreed that it was a winning idea, and they just couldn’t wait to get started. They looked around the room and saw that the other groups were struggling over ideas and having a difficult time getting started.
“Class, when you have your ideas, please just write them down on a slip of paper, along with the names of the students who are in your group, and turn it in to me before class is over today.”
“Uh, Mrs. Portney?” Sam hesitantly raised her hand.
“Yes, what is it, Samantha?” Mrs. Portney asked. She was the only teacher who didn’t annoy Sam when she called her by her full name.
“Well, we were just wondering....” Sam spoke for the group. “Can we keep our pillow idea a secret until we’re done? It’s kind of a surprise.”
“Oh?” Mrs. Portney grinned at the possibilities and shifted her glasses down so she could peer at the four girls over the top of them. “I suppose that would be all right, even though it’s highly unusual. But then again, what else should I expect from you four? As long as you understand that if you don’t tell me what you’re doing, I can’t help guide you in the process. But even without my help, you’re still responsible for every part of the project in order to get a full grade.”
“No problem, Mrs. Portney. Thanks!”
The bell rang, and it was time to head off to their separate classes. Kelly had English, Macy had math, Lindsay went to social studies, and Sam headed off to PE.
“Ugh! What happened to summer?” Kelly lamented to her friends as they slumped toward the cafeteria for lunch after third period on Wednesday during the second week of school.
“I know exactly what you mean,” Lindsay replied. “I thought they had to give you a few weeks before they started piling on the homework, but I think I already have two hours of homework for tonight, and the day is only half over.”
“So much for eighth grade being so great,” Sam laughingly agreed as she collapsed in her seat to eat her lunch.
“What’s with you?” Lindsay asked Macy when she noticed that Macy had hardly said a word since they met up by their lockers a few minutes before.
“Oh, nothing really,” Macy said unconvincingly. Her friends just looked at her, waiting, not about to let her off the hook that easily. “Well, it’s just that my math class is much harder this year, and I barely made it through last year’s class. My mom has been talking about a tutor, and I don’t want to have to do that.” She dejectedly slumped her shoulders and dropped her head onto her arms after pushing away her lunch tray.
“Can we help?” Lindsay offered. “We could help you study. I have the same class as you, and Kelly is ahead of both of us.”
“Yeah,” Kelly jumped in. “If all of us help, you should be able to pull out of this, no problem.”
“I don’t know.” Macy wasn’t convinced. “I already failed my first quiz. I just don’t have a math brain, I guess. I think I’m prepared, but then the test starts, and I can’t remember anything about the formulas and the order of the steps. You can help me study, but I think my memory is the problem ... or something like that.” Macy looked defeated, and no one quite knew what to say to help.
Changing the subject to take her friend’s mind off her troubles, Sam jumped in with an idea. “I know!” she shouted.
Lindsay and Kelly were startled by her outburst and almost knocked over their drinks. “What’s gotten into you, silly?” Kelly asked, laughing.
“Well,” Sam continued, “Saturday is only three days away. Let’s have a sleepover at my house. We’ll celebrate making it through the second week of school by eating some junk food, watching some movies, and staying up late. What do you say?”
“Oh, count me in!” Kelly jumped at the chance.
“Me, too!” Macy quickly added.
“Well, you guys know my mom won’t let me stay out on a Saturday because of church on Sunday, so you’ll have to count me out,” Lindsay replied.
“Oh no!” Sam jumped in, shaking her head. She held up a finger so she could finish chewing her bite of food, swallowed, grabbed a quick drink of milk to wash it down, and said, “No way are we leaving you out. We’ll do it Friday.” To a chorus of agreement from the other girls, Lindsay agreed to the plans, and the girls were relieved to have something fun to look forward to.
“Now let’s make a list,” Macy, ever the planner, suggested, excited to be able to move on from the depressing talk of her math class. “What should we do, and what should we bring?”
“Definitely a movie,” Kelly suggested.
“Okay. And we can’t do a movie without a pizza.” Macy wrote Movie and Pizza on the list.
“What about a game?” Lindsay asked.
“Oh, girls, I have a game for us, but it’s a surprise. You’ll have to wait until Friday night to find out what it is,” Sam teased.
“Sounds mysterious.” Macy wrote down:
SAM'S SECRET GAME. And all of the girls giggled. They made their plans for Friday night and agreed that it would be a nice diversion to what was shaping up to be a tough year.
Macy, who was watching her weight as usual, picked the sausage and pepperoni off her pizza. Kelly, who never worried about her weight, silently reached over to grab Macy’s pepperoni.
“Hey!” Macy smacked her hand away. “What are you doing?”
“Well, you’re not going to eat them.”
“No, but I’d rather not have it shoved in my face that you can eat anything you want and never gain weight!” Macy whined.
“My mom gets so mad when I talk about dieting or watching what I’m eating,” Lindsay said. “She thinks we’re too young to worry about it and that we should just enjoy being kids.”
“No one wants to get fat,” Kelly snorted. “And we aren’t kids, but we aren’t grown-ups yet either, so I’m not going to worry about it just yet.”
“I agree that no one wants to be fat,” Lindsay countered, “but we should be careful and think about what we eat because it’s healthier, not so we can be skinny.”
“Easy for you to say,” Macy grumbled.
“I’m not skinny at all,” Lindsay said defensively.
“No, not skinny, but you’re not fat either. You’re perfect.”
“Oh, I don’t feel perfect. I don’t think anyone does,” Lindsay explained. “I just think we should be able to relax about things a little more. There’s too much pressure to be what other people want us to be. As long as we’re happy about who we are inside, that should be enough for people to be friends with us, right?”
“It’s not like it’s something you have to choose between, Linds. I mean, we can be nice and skinny at the same time, right?” Sam was confused.
“Of course you can. I’m just talking about priorities. I don’t want to be the kind of person who looks at someone’s outside appearance and judges them on whether they’re skinny enough or not.”
“True,” Sam agreed. “But unfortunately, not everyone feels that way. And for that reason, I’ll stick to my salad and skip the french fries when we go out to eat.”
“Yeah, and if you don’t mind,” Macy replied, still irritated, “I’ll pick off my pepperoni if I want to.”
“Okay, okay, okay.” Lindsay gave in, laughing. “I was just trying to give us a new outlook. You guys are perfect in my book, no matter how you look.”