Gracie hung back and waited for Miss Toni to stop digging around in the closet and call her over. She was sure her teacher was going to scold her for not doing her design homework like the rest of her teammates. But the truth was, she had lots of ideas for her joker costume—and that was precisely the problem! She couldn’t whittle her design down to just one or two things that worked well together—she wanted to use them all. She was great at making costumes for her dolls at home, but when it came to her own outfit, especially one that was supposed to be both funny and fabulous, she had a hard time figuring out where to start and what to edit out.
“Ah! Here it is!” she heard Miss Toni say as she pulled a red garment bag off the rack and laid it down on the floor in front of her. “This is what I was looking for.”
She unzipped the bag to reveal a patchwork dress made of dozens of scraps of different colored and printed fabrics. “This was for a dance I choreographed called ‘Crazy Quilt,’” Toni told her. “See how no two pieces of fabric are the same?”
“Uh-huh,” Gracie replied. “It’s pazy.”
Toni smiled. She was slowly learning to pick up on Gracie’s lingo. “Definitely pazy—pretty and crazy at the same time. That’s what your joker costume should be. Let’s have a look at that bag of stuff you brought in.”
Toni also brought out a plain white leotard and leggings. “What if you stitch all these scraps on like this,” she said, placing them this way and that on the legs. “See? No rhyme or reason to it. No pattern. Just whatever tickles your fancy.”
“But it’s not a fancy costume,” Gracie insisted. “Not like Scoot’s or Bria’s. And I’m not sure I’ll be able to dance in something that tickles.”
“‘Whatever tickles your fancy’ means whatever you like,” Toni explained.
“Oh!” Gracie replied. She began to piece the scraps together till they formed a colorful collage. “Can I use the pom-poms, too? Maybe on the bottom of the pants so they jiggle when I dance? I think that would be fun.”
Toni nodded. “So do I. Why not add them around the neckline and the wrist cuffs as well? And leave the hat and shoes to me.”
“Really?” Gracie asked. “But you said no helping, and that’s helping.”
“It can be our little secret,” Toni said with a wink. “Besides, I said no helping from moms or Lady Gaga’s costume team. I never said no helping from your teacher.”
Gracie pretended to lock her mouth and throw away the key. “I won’t say anything—not even to Scoot,” she promised.
“Good,” Toni said, handing Gracie the leotard and leggings. “I wouldn’t want to ruin my reputation as a tough teacher.”
Gracie shrugged. “I’m not sure what that means, but I don’t think you’re a tough teacher. I think you’re a nice teacher.” She hugged Toni around the waist and dashed out of the studio with her fabric, pom-poms, and a plan in hand. She ran into Anya and dropped all of her materials on the floor.
“What’s the rush, Gracie?” Anya asked, helping her clean up the collision.
“I’ve just gotta get to work on my costume,” Gracie explained. “I have so much to do!”
“Oh, so it’s a fashion emergency?” Anya teased her. “Need some help?”
For a moment, Gracie considered. It was a ton of scraps to stitch on to the leotard and leggings, and threading a needle could be a little tricky. Still, she had made a promise to Miss Toni.
“I can’t. No help.”
Anya smiled. “Okay. I understand. You want to sew solo.”
“Exactly!” Gracie said, crawling on the floor to salvage a few more buttons that had fallen from her bag.
“Well, what if I just spot you?”
“Like if I was doing a back tuck off the balance beam in gymnastics?” Gracie asked.
“Just like that,” Anya said. “So if you’re cutting some fabric or pinning something down, I’ve got your back. No helping, just spotting.”
To Gracie the gymnast, it sounded perfectly reasonable.
“K-dokey,” the little girl replied. “You can be my official costume spotter.”
They worked together for over an hour—Gracie stitching, Anya threading and cutting—until Scarlett came out of her stretch class to collect her sister.
“Wow, that looks amazing, Gracie,” she said, admiring the patchwork design. They’d gotten most of the legs and part of the arms covered in fabric squares.
“Anya didn’t help—she was just spotting me,” Gracie insisted.
“I knew that,” Scarlett said, smiling. “This costume has Gracie written all over it.”
Gracie held it up to the light. “It does? Where?”
Scarlett chuckled. “I mean, it’s got your style and flair.”
“Oh,” Gracie said. “Yeah, it’s jokeriffic, don’t ya think? The pom-poms were all my idea.”
Anya pretended to bow to Gracie. “I just watched Gracie work her magic.”
“Funny you should say that,” Rochelle said, strolling out of studio 2. “Miss Toni just told me that you and I are doing a magic duet at Smooth Moves.”
“Do you think you’ll pull a bunny out of a hat?” Gracie asked Anya.
“Or make Liberty disappear?” Rochelle joked.
Anya wouldn’t even hazard a guess. Who knew what trick Miss Toni had up her sleeve this time! She’d just have to wait till after the break to find out.