Hailey Twitch Is Not a Snitch (2 page)

“Why not?” I ask, pushing her hand away.

“
Because
no one else can see me. Only the person who freed me can, and that’s you.” She looks at me with a very serious look in her big blue eyes. “And if you tell on me, I will have to go away. I will have to go back to living in that magic castle all the time.”

“Okay,” I say slowly. “Of course.” It is not as fun to have a friend who no one else can see, but it is still fun, fun, fun! And I am going to teach her how to have even more fun, fun, fun. And we will not be rule mongers like Addie Jokobeck, and maybe I will teach Maybelle to dig a hole all the way to Antarctica just like I was going to teach Antonio!

“Now, Maybelle,” I say. “I want you to tell me all about how you were mean to those princesses in the castle and made them do all the chores and would not use your magic and had to get a big punishment for it.”

But when I turn back around, Maybelle is gone.

Maybelle Goes to School

Maybelle is still gone when I go downstairs to have a spaghetti dinner. She is still gone when I leave part of a meatball out on my bedroom floor to see if she is hungry (she’s not). She is still gone when my mom comes in to read me a story, and she is still gone when I wake up in the morning.

“Now, Hailey,” my mom says at breakfast. “After school today, you will be going to Addie’s house to work on your project.” And then she rushes out of the kitchen before I can even think about having a big tantrum!

“Ugh,” I tell my dad. “I really do not like Addie Jokobeck.” My dad is sitting at the table with me, eating oatmeal. “And that is because I do not think she is very good for fun adventures.”

“I’m sure it will be fine, Hailey-bug.” My dad takes a big slurp of his oatmeal, which cheers me up right away and makes me laugh, laugh, laugh.

And then Maybelle flies right into the kitchen!

“Good morning, sleepyhead,” she sings.

“Where have you been?” I ask. “I have been trying to find you all morning and night!”

“Where has who been?” my dad asks.

“No one,” I say as Maybelle swoops all around the kitchen. I cannot talk to Maybelle when my dad is right here. He will think I am craze, craze, crazy.

“Is there a draft in here?” my dad asks, frowning. His newspaper is open on the table, and the pages are blowing around a little bit.

“I don’t think so,” I say. I hop off my chair and take my cereal bowl over to the sink like I am supposed to. Then I grab my purple backpack off the hook near the door. “Well, see you later!” I say. “Off to the bus stop!”

When I get to school, Addie Jokobeck is sitting in her seat already. Addie Jokobeck likes to be sitting in her seat before school starts, even though we are allowed to walk around the classroom if we want. That is taking being good a little too far.

“Now, where is this Antonio?” Maybelle asks. But I cannot answer her because there are kids around. So I wander up around Miss Stephanie’s desk to get some privacy and that is when I see it. The list of all the partners! There is my name, Hailey Twitch. Right. Next. To. Addie. Jokobeck.

“There’s the list,” I whisper to Maybelle. “Of all the partners.” And then Maybelle does something very, very bad. She reaches out, grabs that list, and then smushes it up into a little ball. Before anyone notices, she pushes it down, down, down into the trash can.

“Maybelle Sinclair!” I say, shaking my finger at her just like my dad when he catches me doing something bad. “Why would you do that?”

“Because I am trying to be fun, of course,” she says. And then she flies away and disappears before I can stop her.

When it is time for school to start, I sit down next to Addie. Addie’s long brown hair is smooth, smooth, smooth. I reach up and try to pat down my blond hair. I forgot to brush it this morning. But it does not matter that my hair is a little messy, because I am wearing pink, sparkly butterfly hair clips that Kaitlyn left in the bathroom. Sparkly clips are better than smooth hair, thank you very much.

“Hi, Hailey,” Addie says. She gives me a big smile. “I lost another tooth.” Now one tooth on the top and one tooth on the bottom are missing.

I try not to care, but I do. “Did you get any money from the tooth fairy?” I ask her.

“No,” she says. “I am going to keep all my teeth forever.” And then she pulls out a little cup and shows me the tooth! Addie Jokobeck does not even want the tooth fairy to come! She wants to keep all her teeth forever instead of getting two dollars to spend on candy or glitter pencils or play makeup.

“My mom called your mom this morning,” Addie Jokobeck says. She puts her cup of teeth into her desk. “And you are coming over today so that we can figure out what to do about our project.”

I am about to tell Addie Jokobeck that I am very busy lately, so she shouldn’t get too excited. But before I can, Miss Stephanie says, “Good morning, class! Before we start the day, I’d like to remind everyone of the country they’ve been assigned for our special project.” Today Miss Stephanie is wearing dress-up pants with little stripes on them.

“That’s strange,” Miss Stephanie says. “I can’t find the list.” She looks all over her desk. She even looks under her tissue box. But it is not there.

“Miss Stephanie,” I say. My hand is shoot, shoot, shooting into the air. “Time to have new partners! I will be partners with Antonio, and you can write it down on a new list! Mexico, please, for Hailey Twitch and Antonio Fuerte!”

“But you and me are partners, Hailey,” Addie Jokobeck says. “And we are making French fries.”

“You will keep your same partners,” Miss Stephanie says. “And I will make a new list.” She looks very confused.

Addie Jokobeck grins at me and I can see where her two teeth are missing. I try to smile back, but my lips do not move.

At lunchtime, I sit in my lunchroom seat right across from Russ. And then Addie Jokobeck sits down next to me, even though she was not invited to sit in that seat! Addie is eating a sandwich that has cucumbers on it. Cucumbers do not go on bread. And they are not what you eat for your school lunch.

There is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in my lunch box. It has grape jelly, which I do not really like. “Antonio!” I yell down to the other end of the lunch table. “What kind of sandwich do you have down there?”

He opens his lunch box to check. “Tuna fish,” he says.

“Does it have celery in it?” I yell. I do not like celery with my tuna because it makes everything all crunch, crunch, crunchy.

He lifts up the bread and looks at his tuna. “Yes,” he says.

“Rats,” I say. Usually when I trade lunches with Antonio, he will come and sit by me. And then he will teach me Spanish words, like
perro
means dog, and
loco
means crazy.

“You should not trade sandwiches, anyway,” Addie Jokobeck says. “Trading food is not allowed in the lunchroom of Smith Road Elementary.”

“Bologna and cheese is the best sandwich to have,” Natalie Brice says. She is sitting right next to Antonio with a dumb bologna and cheese sandwich in her dumb purple lunch bag. She pulls off the bread. Natalie Brice has a smiley face made of mustard on her sandwich. “
And
,” she says, “the other best thing to have is money for an ice cream from the lunch line.”

Natalie Brice knows that I never, ever am allowed to get ice cream from the lunch line! My mom says it is a waste of money to buy that ice cream. And then Natalie Brice says, “I love, love, love tuna with celery in it. Antonio, let’s switch our sandwiches.”

“Sandwich switching is not allowed in the lunchroom of Smith Road Elementary!” I yell. Then I give Addie Jokobeck an elbow in the side. “Is it, Addie?” But Addie is too busy talking to Megan Miller, who is sitting next to her on the other side. Just when I need her to be a rule monger, she doesn’t come through.

So Antonio and Natalie ignore me and switch those sandwiches right away!

“Thank you, Antonio.” Natalie takes a big crunchy bite of her new sandwich. “Maybe you can come over tomorrow. And we can talk about our project and maybe help my dad work on the new tree house he is building me.”

“Eww,” I say, wrinkling up my nose. “That tuna sandwich kind of smells.”

“You have a tree house?” Russ asks. He sounds very happy and excited. Also his hair is sticking up, up, up a little bit in the back all over his head. But I do not tell him this, because that is not good manners.

“Not yet,” Natalie says. “But I’m getting one.” Then she takes her ice cream money out of her pocket and jangle, jangle, jangles it around in her hand. Natalie Brice is very good at being show-offy.

So then I say, “Well, I might be getting braces on my teeth! And you are, too, right, Russ?” Russ and I have a secret plan to put tracks on our teeth. Tracks on your teeth are called braces, and they are very shiny and beautiful. Kaitlyn has them because she is fourteen. My mom says tracks are very expensive. But not if you make them yourself!

But no one is listening. They are all listening to Natalie talk about her tree house.

“Tomorrow I will be working on it with my dad,” she says. “It is going to be pink. And have two doors. And a ladder that goes up, and a little window so you can look up at the sky.” I chew my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I try not to think about how if I had a tree house, I would want it to be pink with two doors and a little window so you can look up at the sky.

“So you can come over tomorrow if you want, Antonio. You too, Russ.” But before they can answer, Janie, the cafeteria lady, turns the lights on and off. And we all have to be quiet.