Graceful Read online

  “Sounds good,” I reply, and we keep walking. We reach the diner, and I can see through the glass windows that a whole bunch of girls from Rory’s grade are sitting in the booths. Rory sees them, too, and slows down before they see us. Just then, both our phones ding with a text.

  “It’s from Tara,” Rory says, reaching for hers first. She begins to read it out loud. “ ‘My mother just drove past you guys on Main Street. She said to take off those ridiculous hats this instant, and that somewhere Angelina is getting a good laugh.’ ”

  Rory looks up from the phone. “You think she’s right?”

  “Tara’s mom knows Angelina better than either one of us does,” I reply. Still, I hesitate before taking it off. What if the voices come back? Ever so slowly, I lift it off my head. Ah, still quiet. I say a silent thank you to Angelina. The hat may look silly, but it did its job. I fold it down until it fits in my pocket.

  Rory crosses her arms. “I’m going to keep mine on just in case Mrs. Brennan is wrong and it will help you somehow. Plus, I’ve been embarrassed way worse than this in my day!”

  “That’s the spirit! Now, go get that cupcake!”

  “I will!” Rory says, chin up, head high. She glances at the booths, takes a deep breath, and steps inside.

  That girl is SPECIAL.

  Dear Julie,

  I’m typing this to you on my phone while I’m sitting on a stranger’s curb around the corner from my house, and then I’ll print it out and mail it tomorrow. My dad asked me the other day why you and I don’t just email each other instead of finding paper / finding a pen that works / finding envelopes / finding stamps / and dropping it in a mailbox, but it wouldn’t feel right. We’re pen pals, I told him, not email pals! And writing real letters is a lost art, anyway, right?

  So right now, me = riding in circles in my neighborhood with my headphones on. I love having my bike back because everything in this new town has been, well, NEW. My clothes, my house, my friends, my boyfriend, my school, my cousin Emily and her family, and even having a semi-normal relationship with my mom is new. I don’t mean to sound like I’m complaining, because it’s more than I ever dreamed I’d get in a hundred lifetimes, but THAT’S A LOT OF NEW. My dad told me last night how I’m adjusting so well to life here, and I feel like I am, most of the time, but then other times I just want to get on my bike and ride, ride, ride and shut everything out. I don’t want my friends here to know that I feel like this sometimes. I’m so grateful that you and I are in touch again.

  Hang on, a call from my mom coming in.

  Okay, just had to send a text to Grace and Rory, who for some reason are wearing funny hats in public. I’ve got to admit, life in Willow Falls is never boring. Well, I only have a little while to ride and then I’m going over to my cousin’s house. She’s going to show me how to fence. She says I’d be good at it because I’m so tall. Honestly, I’m not so sure I’m particularly good at anything. I think I just need to keep riding and stop grizzling! (That’s an Australian expression Ray says whenever he hears me complaining!)

  w/b/s

  Your friend Tara, who is in a weird mood

  CONNOR KELLY’S INVENTOR’S JOURNAL

  Type of product: 3-D Glasses for Glasses Wearers

  Inventor: Connor Kelly

  Description of invention-in-progress: So apparently the process of turning a television screen into 3-D is more complicated than I had at first suspected — there’s all this stuff about polarization, and tricking the eye into viewing two slightly different images at once, etc., etc., which I guess explains why no one has done it yet, or done it well. I was ready to throw in the towel (that’s inventor lingo for quit) when my beta tester (and best friend) David Goldberg and I started talking about it over lunch at school. I hadn’t told anyone my idea for the screen yet, but David kept asking if there’s anything he could do to make my life better because he’s practicing this whole “pay it forward” thing, so I explained my problem to him, and he said that he doesn’t really like to go to 3-D movies because it’s uncomfortable to wear the glasses they give you over his real glasses. DING DING DING! That’s the sound of a bell going off in my head. I can invent 3-D glasses for glasses wearers!

  What problem does it solve: This product would solve the problem of eyeglass wearers having to either take off their glasses to fit on the 3-D frames and deal with the decline in their vision, or suffer the discomfort of wearing both pairs at once.

  Who will want or need this product: 3-D moviegoers who wear prescription eyeglasses.

  Materials: 3-D glasses with lenses removed, oversized frames I snagged from my sister

  Steps: Analyze existing 3-D glasses frames, build my own pair complete with working lenses.

  Results: Fingers still crossed at this point!

  Final observations: I’ll tell ya when it’s done!

  Notes: David joined me in the garage, and the last few hours have been very productive. Between the two of us, we were able to come up with six pairs of the kind of 3-D glasses you get in the theatre. Unfortunately, none of the lenses are big enough for the oversized frame I want to set them in. I tried to melt them down so I could make larger ones, but all it did was bubble and blacken. So I borrowed a roll of cellophane from the kitchen, which hopefully Mom won’t miss tonight when she’s putting away leftovers. Then I took out the lenses from Grace’s huge sunglasses (which was easy because they are very cheap glasses and the lenses popped right out). I laid the lenses on the cellophane and traced around them. Then I cut the circles out and tried to color one red and one blue, but it was a mess, so I realized I should color them before I cut them out. So I repeated my first steps, but this time colored one with red marker, and one with blue marker, then cut them out. Then I taped the thin colored pieces of cellophane onto the glasses where the lenses were. This does not look pretty, but I tested it out on a 3-D comic book I have, and it totally worked.

  My beta tester said that the oversized frames allowed the stems (the side parts that go behind your ears) of the new glasses to extend farther past his ears than previous pairs, so they didn’t touch his own glasses. This is good. But then he complained that the bridge of the glasses still rested on his own glasses in an uncomfortable way. So now I am extending the bridge of the glasses so they rest on the nose in front of regular glasses.

  Roger said I could come over tonight to show him my progress. Have to go inside now for a snack. Inventing makes a guy hungry!

  To: [email protected]

  From: [email protected]

  Subject: Walk on a Fall Evening

  Hey there, Linda, old buddy, old pal. Just had to write to tell you about something cool that happened today. After an early dinner, I was taking a walk with my dad. (Which, by the way, is a sentence that I never thought I’d ever get to write — but that’s not the cool thing I wanted to tell you.) So anyway, we were turning the corner of our street when a girl on a bike zoomed by. She was going so fast she was almost a blur. I didn’t pay much attention because I was focused on enjoying the walking-with-Dad part, but then he nudged me and said, “Wasn’t that your girlfriend?” And he didn’t say it in a teasing kind of “nudge-nudge you have a girlfriend” way, which is one of the many cool things about him.

  I shielded my eyes with my hand and peered down the street, but the girl was already gone.

  “I’m pretty sure it was Tara,” he said.

  “Wouldn’t she have stopped if she saw us, though?” I asked as a cold chill rose up my spine. (By the way, Linda, I don’t usually say things like a cold chill rose up my spine, but that’s how it felt, and if you can’t be honest with your therapist, then what’s the point of therapy?) Anyway, where was I? Oh, right, so now I’m all worried that maybe Tara’s mad at me for something, and I try to think of what I could have done. Had I been spending too much time with Connor? Or my dad? Had I not helped her settle into town enough? Had I messed this up??

  “Breathe,” Dad said, shaking me. �