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Big Ideas
THE NEXT DAY, SEVEN girls gathered in Andrea’s living room. She put colored construction paper on the coffee table and beamed at everyone.
“Okay, girls. The goal is to cut out thirty hearts. That’s only like five each.”
“Are we cutting out anything besides hearts?” Maureen, a girl Cassie knew from Girls Club as well as school, asked.
“Like what?” Andrea asked.
“Like, I don’t know, wedding cakes,” she said. “Or candles.”
“Shoes!” Cara Barnes said. Cassie was surprised Cara had come, since she usually seemed too engrossed in boys and looking cool to appear at a function like this.
“Shoes?” Several girls gave Cara a strange look.
A pink tint crept over the bridge of Cara’s nose. Her brows lifted above the soft brown eyes, her perfectly curled hair falling down her back. She looked fifteen, not twelve. “Yes. When my sister got married, she shopped for hours looking for the right shoes to go with her dress.”
“Kind of makes sense,” Andrea said, nodding. “Okay. Thirty hearts, and then some shoes and cakes!”
Cassie picked up a pair of scissors and knelt next to Andrea. She cut in silence, listening to the chatter and giggles of the other girls. After two hearts, her wrist started cramping. She put the scissors down and shook it out. She cut out another heart before Andrea got out a bag of chips. She started on another heart, but realized her greasy fingers were leaving streaks on the construction paper, so she put it aside.
“DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT her wedding dress looks like?” Maureen asked. Her long brown hair slid over a shoulder as she reached for more chips.
“Oh, I hope we’ll get to see it!” Andrea said.
“Maybe she’ll invite us,” Kendra said.
“Yeah, right,” Maureen scoffed. “Like she’d want to have a bunch of sixth-graders at her wedding.”
“Seventh-graders,” Cara corrected. She alone continued cutting, her hearts perfect and symmetrical as she laid them down on the carpet. She didn’t look up from her task. “We’ll be considered seventh-graders by then.”
“She already said we’re invited,” Cassie said. “Right?” Had she heard that wrong? She thought Ms. Timber invited them all when she made the announcement.
Silence met her statement, no one confirming her words.
“I have an idea!” Andrea turned around and booted up the computer at the desk behind her. “Let’s look at dresses and try to guess what hers looks like!”
That sounded way more fun than cutting. Cassie and the other girls gathered around Andrea, the cutting forgotten.
“Where do you think they’ll go on their honeymoon?” Monica asked.
“Somewhere exotic,” Jessica said. “Like Hawaii.”
“Or somewhere fun like Branson,” Maureen said.
“Branson?” Allison laughed. “That’s just across the border in Missouri. How fun would that be?”
Maureen’s face flushed pink. “We go all the time. I love it.”
The other girls all laughed.
“I’ve never been,” Cassie said, trying to take the spotlight off Maureen. “Sounds fun to me.” She remembered her family’s trip to Disney World last year and added, “I want to go to Disney World on my honeymoon.”
That just brought on more laughter, though Cassie couldn’t imagine why.
“You and Maureen are so boring,” Allison said. “I want to go to France.”
Cassie looked at Andrea, who shrugged. She leaned over and whispered, “I’d go to Disney World too.”
*~*
THE LAST DAY OF SIXTH grade arrived, and as Cassie selected a long blue t-shirt and black jeans to wear to school, her stomach tightened. Not just because it was the last day of school, either, but because of Ms. Timber’s surprise party.
Her mom usually stayed in bed while Cassie got all the kids on the bus, but today she was up.
“Last day of school!” she said cheerfully when Cassie walked into the kitchen. She swiveled a white cake on the round pedestal, carefully dotting it with the icing bag in her hand.
“Is that for Ms. Timber?” Cassie asked, unable to tear her eyes off the white confection. It looked as beautiful as anything in a store.
“And it’s not done yet.” Mrs. Jones took a step back and beamed at the cake.
“You remember what time to come?”
“Of course. Now go on before you miss the bus.”
Cassie shepherded her siblings out the door. Her mom had the cake almost ready. Now as long as Andrea remembered the decorations, the party should be good.
Nearly every student arrived in the classroom before Andrea. Cassie tried to start her morning journaling just to keep her mind occupied, but every two seconds her eyes flicked to the doorway. Finally, just as the final bell rang, Andrea slipped inside. She threw her backpack into the cubbies and ducked into the desk next to Cassie, her cheeks pink and her breathing fast.
Ms. Timber stood up, welcoming the class and talking about the day’s activities.
“Where were you?” Cassie hissed out one side of her mouth. “I was starting to think you weren’t coming.”
“Sorry,” Andrea whispered back. “I forgot everything.”
“What?” Cassie gasped, and then clamped a hand to her mouth. No one had noticed her, though. They were busy cheering along to everything Ms. Timber said.
“Don’t worry,” Andrea whispered, scooting her chair forward and bending closer to Cassie. “We went home and got it all. What about you? Is your mom bringing the cake?”
“Yes.” Cassie’s muscles relaxed. This really was going to work out. “Wait till you see it.”
*~*
ANDREA CAUGHT CASSIE’S eye as Ms. Timber lined them up for recess. Each hour had been filled with one activity after the other. But the best one, in Cassie’s opinion, was about to happen. Andrea gave Cassie a long, slow nod, which Cassie returned. She then turned around, caught Maureen’s eye, and gave the same nod. Maureen did it back. Cassie smiled and faced the front. The plan was in motion.
The girls filed out with the rest of the sixth grade class, but one by one dropped to the back of the line. When Ms. Timber turned the corner of the building, the seven of them ran back inside the classroom.
“Quickly, quickly, quickly!” Andrea said, pulling out the cut-out hearts and shoes. (No one ever got around to cutting out cakes.)
“Isn’t your mom bringing food?” Jessica asked Cassie.
“She’ll be here any minute,” Cassie said, her pulse racing. She’d been very specific about the time. Now would be a very bad time for her mom to be late.
They taped their cutouts to the desks, the windows, even hung a few to the ceiling.
Then Mrs. Jones came in carrying a cake concealed beneath a crystal dome. “Hello, girls,” she said, setting the cake on the desk. She lifted the dome, and they crowded around to “oo” and “aw” over it. Mrs. Jones had looped white ribbons of icing around the cake, accented with little silver balls. Glorious pink roses sat on top.
“It looks great,” Cassie said, beaming at her mother. Not that Cassie expected anything less. Her mom was gifted with cakes, always making the most amazing ones for birthdays.
“Oh!” Andrea exclaimed, looking at the time. “We have to get outside. If we’re not there at line-up, she’ll miss us!”
“I’ll just hide behind the backpacks,” Mrs. Jones said.
The girls scurried out, hurrying to rejoin their classmates before Ms. Timber noticed they’d been gone. When she blew the whistle to line up, Cassie jostled into place next to Andrea. They looked at each other, and Cassie couldn’t resist the grin that spread across her face. Her fingers nudged Andrea’s.
“She’ll be so surprised!” Andrea whispered, gripping her hand. They put their heads together and giggled, then acted solemn just as Ms. Timber walked by.
Each step toward the building dragged on, and Cassie held her breath as Ms. Timber grabbed the door.
“Hey!” Todd said loudly as he walked into the classroom. “What’s this?”
“What?” someone else said. Loud voices and exclamations burst into the hall.
Ms. Timber furrowed her brow, pulling the exterior door closed and hurrying inside.
Cassie stepped inside right before her teacher and looked up to see her reaction.
“What—?” Ms. Timber gasped. Her eyes went wide, and she pressed a hand to her chest.
“Surprise!” Maureen shouted, and the rest of the class joined in, even though only a handful of them had known about the party.
“We wanted to surprise you,” Andrea said, coming up. She looped an arm through Cassie’s. “We planned this.”
“Did you see your cake?” Maureen gestured to the beautiful white cake on the desk.
Ms. Timber swallowed, and moisture pooled in her eyes. “I don’t even know what to say. I’m touched.”
Cassie and Andrea grinned at each other.
