Yay Closer to you Pearl whispered to me and we grinned at each other as everyone in our row started making space for Ainsley After we’d finished and I’d sat back down a wadded-up ball of paper flew through the air and landed on my desk I knew exactly what that flying paper was I opened it up and smoothed it out Sure enough Nicholas Rigby had drawn me a picture This one showed me on a roller coaster in Orlando with my arms in the air and my hair blowing in crazy directions I folded the picture neatly and put it on top of the pile
of Nicholas’s pictures that I kept in my desk Because even though that boy’s impossible he’s still a ridiculously good drawer Then I turned and whispered to him Thanks Like I always did And he kicked the back of my chair not too hard like he always did Then Mrs Ramji asked us to take out our Creative Writing notebooks and work on our Brooklyn Bridge poems while she and Pearl helped Ainsley get set up I loved my Brooklyn Bridge poem So I worked on it very hard And realized only later that I should’ve been paying attention to Ainsley instead Because during that time
she started casting a glittery spell over Pearl She really did
Pearl came home from school with me that afternoon Because it was a Monday And Pearl always came home from school with me on Mondays Wednesdays too Because her mom was still at work We loved those afternoons We usually trained my little dog Antoine And did our homework And baked when we had time That Monday we had time So we decided to make chocolate cupcakes My very nice babysitter Natalie preheated the oven
