It's Not Easy Being Mimi Read online

  So I’ll skip ahead a week or so. It was the day before the pageant. We would be having the dress rehearsal that afternoon.

  At recess we watched the older kids crawl all over the school, hanging lights and tinsel. They’d been put in charge of dressing up the school for the Pueblo del Mar Holiday Decorating Contest.

  “Why are they even bothering?” asked Hunter. “The reformatory always wins.”

  “Yeah, the reform school wins every year with that same lopsided star,” said Tonya.

  “The reformatory is where I plan to study when I’m older,” I announced.

  “Why?” asked Yoshi.

  “Because they get to wear uniforms. And live inside a private compound.”

  “A compound surrounded by barbed wire!” giggled Sofie.

  “And they all get to sleep together in one big room. A big pajama party every night. I can’t wait to sleep in the reformatory dormitory.”

  “I think they only accept boys,” said Boris.

  “That needs to change,” I said. “I’m determined to be the first girl to get in.”

  The bell rang. We trudged inside. When we reached the cafeteria, we stopped and inhaled deeply. The fourth graders had been chosen to make a gingerbread schoolhouse. Giant cookies were coming out of the oven. The smell was yumma-licious.

  Ms. Marzipan pointed her baton at us. She told us to stop loitering and escorted us to the auditorium for rehearsal.

  Dress Rehearsal

  Sofie was supposed to play the part of Mary, but she kept falling asleep at the manger. So Tonya got to be Mary after all, and Sofie was demoted to King #2. That way King #1 or King #3 could elbow her if she dozed off.

  But Sofie didn’t mind. Everybody but everybody wanted to be one of the three kings. The kings got to wear crowns with jewels and carry presents to the baby.

  Nobody wanted to be the shepherd, so I volunteered—under one condition: that Marvin could play the sheep.

  Rehearsal went well. Ms. Marzipan looked up from the piano and beamed when the angel appeared. The angel glided onto the stage on her skateboard. It really looked like she was flying. And tomorrow when she appeared unto me, my sheep, Marvin, would be there, and I knew he would bring the whole pageant to life.

  After we’d practiced the last song, I felt a tap on my shoulder.

  “Mimi, will you drive our stegosaurus home so I can finish him tonight?”

  “FINISH HIM?

  Look at him!

  He’s finished!”

  “He needs spots. And I want to spray shellac on him so he’ll be shiny.”

  My eyeballs almost rolled out of my head. “Okay. But meet me at the car in three minutes flat. I’ve got to practice herding Marvin this evening.”

  Disaster #1

  Of course Boris and Steggo were not back in three minutes. When ten minutes had gone by, I ran back in to look for them.

  Steggo was leaning up against the cafeteria door, so I poked my head inside.

  The lights were off, but the spicy baking smell still hung in the air.

  When my eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, I saw the gingerbread schoolhouse across the room. Guess who was standing there drooling over it?

  I marched over and yanked Boris away from the schoolhouse by his shirttail. When I let go, he fell forward and went right through the roof.

  “What’s going on in here?” It was Ms. Marzipan.

  Boris acted like he was hurt! He pointed at me.

  “Mimi, if you don’t practice better self-control, you’re going to end up at the reformatory.”

  The reformatory! If I hadn’t been so mad at Boris, I would have smiled.

  Ms. Marzipan snapped on the lights. “Now I’m going to have to spend the next hour piecing the roof back together with frosting.”

  “I’ll help you,” Boris volunteered.

  Ms. Marzipan just gave him a look.

  Boris and I didn’t speak the whole way home.

  I drove up and parked by the drainpipe. Tonya and Yoshi were outside cheering and clapping for Mr. Bosco. We had each decorated our own window. And now Mr. Bosco was running lights up the sides of the Periwinkle Tower and under the eaves, too.

  “Look! We might win the decorating contest!” Tonya twirled around and around and waved her wand at Mr. Bosco.

  Yoshi bounded across the yard. “We might beat the reformatory!”

  Boris and I stomped into the building.

  We did not have the holiday spirit.

  Disaster #2

  The emergency whistle woke me. I jumped up and peeked under the window shade. There was Boris, leaning against my car. If Boris was waiting for me, it must be late. Really late.

  I opened the window and reached for the drainpipe. A gust of icy wind hit me—and then I remembered: Today was the day of the pageant! I couldn’t take the drainpipe down to the car. I had Marvin’s pet carrier to deal with. And my sheep staff, too.

  I threw my jacket on over my shepherd robe. As I carried Marvin down the stairs—one step at a time—I thought about putting the top up on my car so Marvin wouldn’t catch a cold. But I realized there was no way I could do that with Boris’s stupid dinosaur sticking out.

  Boris could not wipe the grin off his face. He pointed to Steggo, leaning up against the tower.

  And okay.

  I’ll admit it.

  The stegosaurus looked magnificent.

  But it took us forever to wedge him in. His tail was still tacky, so we finally tucked him behind the seats headfirst.

  I set Marvin down on Boris’s lap.

  Marvin sneezed. Boris unzipped his king costume. Then he removed Marvin from his carrier. He settled Marvin on his striped shirt, zipped his costume back up, and wrapped his arms around him. My heart defrosted a tiny bit.

  As I backed down the driveway, the wind blew a string of pink lights off Tonya’s window.

  “Mimi, stop! Tonya’s lights!”

  “We don’t have time, Boris! We are so late!”

  By the time we got to school, my hands were frozen. Even though the wind was howling, we could hear Marvin purring next to Boris’s stomach.

  Boris and I actually shared a laugh.

  I turned around to help pull Steggo out, but Steggo was gone.

  “He must have blown away!” I said.

  “Mimi, get back in the car! We’ve got to find him.”

  “Boris! We. Are. Late. We can’t drive all over town looking for Steggo—we just can’t!”

  Boris handed Marvin to me and started to cry. I felt sorry for Boris. I might even have put an arm around him if I hadn’t been carrying Marvin.

  Baby Gifts

  By the time we finally made it backstage, the program had already begun. Mr. Bosco had hung a gigantic papier-mâché dreidel from the ceiling. The kids from the class next door were making it spin. They danced around it singing “The Dreidel Song.”

  “Where have you been?” asked Tonya when she saw Boris. She had been waiting to hold a conference with the three kings.

  Now that she was playing the baby Jesus’s mother, Tonya thought that gave her the right to inspect the baby’s gifts ahead of time.

  “What are you bringing the baby?” she asked Boris.

  Boris wiped away a tear. He held up a bag of caramels tied with a ribbon.

  “Boris,” she hissed, “you can’t bring candy to a newborn baby!” She tried to grab the bag, but Boris hugged it to his heart.

  Tonya approved of Sofie’s present, a stuffed unicorn. “The baby Jesus will love that one,” she said.

  Yoshi was eager to show his present, a big fat book.

  “Little Women?” Tonya smacked her forehead. “Hello, Yoshi. Jesus is a boy!”

  Yoshi’s face turned bright red. “I meant to grab Little Men.” Yoshi took off his glasses and studied the cover. It was mean of Tonya to yell, because she knew he couldn’t read yet.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll turn it around backward,” he said.

  Tonya snatched
the book away from Yoshi and rooted around in her purse. “Here, give him this.”

  “But Jesus can’t use a hairbrush!”

  Tonya snapped her purse shut. “It’s getting hot in Bethlehem,” she said. She marched over to the back door and used Little Women to prop it open.

  Suddenly there was a huge commotion. We heard shrieks of laughter, running, and stomping. I peeked out from behind the curtain.

  It was raining gold coins! Those crazy kids were throwing handfuls of chocolate coins into the audience, and the audience was going nuts.

  “Hanukkah gelt,” whispered Sofie.

  Backstage, we all looked at one another. This was going to be a tough act to follow.

  Disaster #3

  The stage lights flickered. My stomach got fluttery. Then Ms. Marzipan began playing “Mary Had a Baby,” and I started to get that good holiday feeling.

  When Mr. Dayberry gave the signal, the curtains opened. Boris had punched holes in the star of wonder, and Mr. Bosco was up on a ladder shining a spotlight behind it. It made the most beautiful glimmer, just like a real star.

  “Shepherd! Angel! Are you ready?” Mr. Dayberry whispered.

  We nodded. It was almost time for the angel to appear unto me. I opened Marvin’s carrier and fastened his sheep costume on. It was actually a diaper, but from the audience it made him look just like a lamb.

  The angel grabbed her harp. “My wings!” she whispered. I stood and flipped them right side up. Then I reached down to fasten Marvin’s leash, but Marvin was gone. I almost fainted.

  I heard Mr. Dayberry read, “ ‘And there was a shepherd in the field nearby, watching her sheep by night.’ ”

  I was supposed to be out there already!

  I grabbed my staff and raced onstage without my sheep, because the angel was just about ready to appear unto me.

  As Mr. Dayberry read, “ ‘And an angel appeared . . . ,’ ” Sofie gave a push and the angel glided up to me. When Mr. Bosco shone the spotlight on us, the angel’s eyes got huge. I could read her lips: “Where’s your sheep?”

  I was worried sick. It was dark backstage. Marvin’s favorite game was squeezing himself into tiny, dark places and hiding. I would never find him. And what if he got outside? A storm was brewing. And cars did not always slow down for our school.

  A Surprise

  Ms. Marzipan raised her baton, and everyone sang:

  “We three kings of Orient are;

  Bearing gifts, we traverse afar,

  Field and fountain, moor and mountain,

  Following yonder star.”

  The three kings strolled out and laid their gifts beside the manger.

  After Mr. Dayberry finished reading the Christmas story, the curtain closed. We all managed to line up behind the manger in the dark for the grand finale. Mr. Dayberry made us hold hands.

  Yoshi hopped up on a stool with his ukulele. He played the prettiest chords as the curtain swooshed back open. This time Mr. Bosco wiggled the spotlight really fast behind the star and made it shimmer.

  We sang “What Child Is This?” The audience even joined in, because everyone was under a spell. I would have been under the same spell, only I had a stomachache from worrying about Marvin.

  When we got to the last line, “The Babe, the Son of Mary,” Mr. Bosco shone the spotlight directly on the manger. He made the light get brighter and brighter and brighter.

  The baby Jesus gave an angry MEOW.

  Hay flew everywhere. Mary and Joseph jumped up.

  Marvin leaped out of the manger, where he’d been sleeping peacefully under the hay. He landed with a CLOMP. Then he ran from the spotlight, his diaper trailing behind him.

  The audience burst into applause.

  The Grand Finale

  The curtain closed. I scrambled backstage, calling Marvin’s name. That’s when I felt the rush of cold air from the door and heard the traffic roaring by.

  The stage lights flickered. I dragged myself back to the stage. The curtain swept open for the last time. Ms. Marzipan wanted us to take a bow. Then Boris was supposed to step forward to thank everyone for coming and invite them to have cocoa and gingerbread in the cafeteria.

  Only Boris never stepped forward. We bowed again. We looked around. Ms. Marzipan’s smile started to get crooked. We bowed and bowed, and bowed again. Then Tonya curtsied and we all curtsied; even the boys wearing robes decided to curtsy. We didn’t know what else to do.

  BAM!

  The back door slammed. Boris ran up behind us and scampered to the front of the stage. He was out of breath and couldn’t talk for a few seconds.

  And his stomach looked really big.

  “Thank you,” he gasped. “Please join us in the cafeteria for refreshments.” And then his stomach started wiggling like crazy.

  He turned around. When he spotted me, he unzipped his golden robe and laid Marvin in my arms.

  “Praise Jesus, Jehovah, and Buddha, too,” Mr. Bosco said from up on his ladder.

  The audience lost it. The curtain closed quickly. The show was over.

  “Boris, how did you find him?” I cried.

  “I sneaked out during Yoshi’s song to look for Steggo. I didn’t see Steggo, but there was Marvin. Sitting on the sidewalk giving himself a bath.”

  “How did you ever get him to come to you?”

  “I found an old cheese cracker in my pocket. Cheese is his favorite food.”

  I laughed and kissed Marvin’s head. Then I saw Boris’s miserable face.

  Looking Up

  A Miracle on Wheels

  That evening freezing rain began to fall. But we all gathered outside anyway to admire the Periwinkle Tower.

  Hunter hiked up the sidewalk to join us, and Sofie slid down. Pueblo del Mar shimmered with holiday lights. We skated on the slick driveway. We fell and laughed. Even Tonya was happy. “Mr. Bosco fixed my pink LEDs!” she shouted.

  Everyone was full of cheer except for Boris.

  That’s when the weirdest feeling came over me. I wanted Boris to be happy too. But I didn’t know what to do. I slipped over beside him so that the brim of my hat protected his head from the rain.

  Yoshi jumped up and down and pointed to the roof of the Periwinkle Tower. “I wish we had something to put up on the very top!”

  “Something BIG,” said Hunter.

  “Something shiny,” said Tonya.

  “Something with a tail,” added Sofie, galloping across the lawn in her riding boots.

  OOOGA!

  A horn blasted. Mr. Bosco’s pickup truck sloshed up the drive. “Does anyone belong to this?” he shouted. “Dr. Furr looked up from dinner, and this thing was staring at him through the window. He sees animals all day long, but this one nearly gave him a heart attack.”

  I looked at Boris. Boris looked at me. We smiled.

  And then we both had exactly the same idea at exactly the same time.

  Our Vacation

  The freezing rain turned to snow. The whole week of vacation, we all had the best time playing together. Every day Sofie would ride her sled down to the tower, and Hunter would tromp up the hill.

  On our second day of vacation Sofie and I were building a snow cat behind the tower when we heard Yoshi give the emergency whistle. We ran into the lobby, where the others had already gathered.

  A gigantic box had just arrived from Japan! It was full of presents from Santa. There was something for everyone.

  A big tin of cocoa along with some cat stickers for me. Comic books wrapped up in a green jacket for Yoshi, a seashell mirror for Tonya. Sofie got a unicorn that turned into a horse when you removed its horn.

  Hunter looked disappointed because his present was so small. It took him forever to open it because of the baseball glove on his left hand. But when he finally managed to untape it, he jumped up and down, shouting: “Two tickets to the opening game!”

  Boris got the most incredible gift: a real gum ball machine.

  After he pocketed all the green ones,
he set up the machine right there in the lobby by the red couch. That way when we got cold outside, we all could come in, sit down, and chew gum together.

  Marvin loved his present too: a toy Swiss cheese with a mouse hidden inside.

  Every evening during our vacation we’d wind up in my apartment. I’d pop open the big tin of cocoa and pass out spoons. We’d stand in front of my window and watch the snow fall and eat cocoa straight from the tin.

  Sometimes Yoshi wore his new green jacket and played “Greensleeves” on his ukulele. Then when Sofie was about to fall asleep standing up, he’d play “Somewhere over the Rainbow,” and everyone would slide down the banister and go home.

  * * *

  Take it from me: Things change.

  Over the past month things had gone from bad to worse . . . to better and better.

  P.S.

  Wait—I almost forgot the most important part! For the first time in history, the Periwinkle Tower won the Pueblo del Mar Holiday Decorating Contest. All six of us, including Sofie and Hunter, got to shake the mayor’s hand.

  But there was only one medal.

  We let Boris wear it.

  * * *

  I’m glad Boris moved into the tower. The two of us have plans. Plans to start an all-drum band. Plans to start a potato delivery service. Plans to start a gum club in the lobby.

  It’s funny. Boris and I really aren’t alike at all. He loves caramels and I love chocolate-covered raisins. He has blond hair and I have dark hair. He wears stripes and I wear dots.