Part 10 (1/2)

I heard Dad tell Mark and Kevin to leave me alone, that I just needed some time to myself. Then Dad went away, his weight creaking on the stairs as he went down them.

After a while I heard a different kind of creaking on the stairs, and then I heard Uncle Jay's voice outside the closet door.

*Hey, Allie,' Uncle Jay said. *I hear you're in the closet. I'm home from my interview now. Want to come out and talk?'

*No,' I said.

*Oh,' Uncle Jay said. He sounded kind of surprised. *Well. Do you want to talk through the door?'

*No,' I said.

*Oh,' Uncle Jay said. *Do you not want to talk at all?'

*That's right,' I said. *I don't want to talk at all.'

*Oh.'

I heard some whispering, and then I heard Kevin say, *I told you!' and then I heard Mark say, *Shut up!'

Then Uncle Jay said, to me, *Well, Allie, if you change your mind, you'll know where to find me. On the couch downstairs. Your dad is making your favourite for dinner . . . tacos. With no salsa. We know how you hate anything red.'

I didn't say anything. Really, what was there to say?

Finally Uncle Jay went away.

After what seemed like a million years, I heard the front door open and close, and Mom yell, *I'm home!' Then she said, *Boy, that smells good. I forgot it's taco night!'

Then there was some talking. Then there was some more creaking on the stairs, and then, finally, I heard my bedroom door close, and someone tapped on my closet door.

*Allie?' my mom's voice asked softly.

For some reason the sound of my mom's voice made me start crying all over again. I couldn't help it. I was just so sad. Thank goodness I had Mewsie to hold on to.

*I a” I'm in h-here,' I called to Mom from the closet, my voice all sobby. It was a good thing Cheyenne wasn't around, because she'd really think I was a big baby if she'd heard me crying like that.

The next thing I knew, Mom was opening up the closet door. She didn't even ask if it was OK. Moms are like that. That's pretty much a rule, and you don't even have to write it down to know it's true.

*Oh, Allie,' Mom said when she looked down and saw me.

*I'm not coming out,' I said, still crying. I was holding on to Mewsie so tight, his purring was kind of sounding a little choked, like purr a” mmrrph a” purr a” mrrrack a” purr . . .

*That's all right,' Mom said, tucking her skirt behind her. *I'll come in with you.'

And to my surprise, she did exactly that.

Rule #12.

Tacos Make Everything Better. Well, Almost Everything.

It was strange, sitting with my mom in my closet. It wasn't something we had ever done before. Sat in a closet together, I mean.

But it felt a lot better than sitting in the closet alone.

*So what's going on?' Mom wanted to know. *Why are you sitting in your closet crying?'

*Because,' I said.

And the next thing I knew, the whole story had spilt out. Everything about Cheyenne, and her Talent, Not Talk s.h.i.+rt, and her boots, and Mrs Hunter moving my desk, and the Kissing Game, and the slumber parties, and Cheyenne going with Patrick, and Sophie going with Prince Peter, and Caroline going with Lenny Hsu (even though I was pretty sure Lenny still didn't know he was going with Caroline), and Erica going with Stuart, and Cheyenne trying to make me go with Joey, and Joey crying on the swings, and Cheyenne telling me my new name was Big Baby Finkle, and me telling Cheyenne she wasn't the boss of me, and Mrs Hunter looking so shocked and telling me to speak softly to my neighbour, and Uncle Jay shaving off his beard and changing for Harmony . . .

By the end, I was sobbing more than ever.

*And now,' I finished, hiccuping a little, *M-Mrs Hunter h-hates m-me!'

*Oh, honey,' Mom said, putting her arms around me. *Mrs Hunter doesn't hate you. I'm sure Mrs Hunter doesn't hate you.'

*She does,' I a.s.sured my mom. The thought of Mrs Hunter hating me made me feel as if my heart was breaking. *Everyone hates me! They're all going to call me Big Baby Finkle! I can never go back to Pine Heights Elementary again!'

*Don't be silly,' Mom said as she rocked me a little in her arms, just like she used to when I was younger even than Kevin. *Let me ask you something. When this Cheyenne girl talks about you girls going with these boys . . . what does that mean exactly?'

*I don't know,' I said, shrugging. *None of us does. Cheyenne says it's just what mature people do.'

*I see,' Mom said.

Being held by Mom was making me not feel so bad. I'd stopped crying just because I was smelling the Mom-y smells of her. She smelled like her perfume and, well, just like Mom. She was soft a” in a different way than Mewsie, who'd finally gotten tired of being cried on and run off to go find his catnip ball and go swat it around a” and comfortable and just perfect. Even if it was kind of getting cramped with the two of us in my closet.

*Well, I don't want you to worry about it any more,' Mom said. *Because I'm going to take care of it.'

I felt so nice, like nothing bad could happen to me, sitting there in the closet with Mom, smelling her nice Mom smells and feeling her nice Mom softness.

But I didn't understand what she was saying.

*What do you mean?' I asked. *How are you going to take care of it? You can't take care of it. You don't even go to Pine Heights Elementary.'

*I know,' Mom said. *But I still know how to take care of it.'

Panic seized me. And suddenly, I knew. I knew what she was going to do.

*Mom,' I cried, struggling to get out of her lap. *No! You can't! You can't call Mrs Hunter!'

*Allie.' Mom tried to hold on to me. *What's wrong with you? Why shouldn't I call Mrs Hunter? She told us when we first enrolled you that if we had any problems, we could call her any time. Well, I think this Cheyenne girl is a problem a”'

I agreed with Mom that Cheyenne was a problem. But I didn't want to be a telltale! A stool pigeon!

Although the thought of Mrs Hunter handling the problem of Cheyenne calling me Big Baby Finkle the way she'd handled the Kissing Game problem was deeply comforting, in a way.

Still. Everyone would know! And it wouldn't be like how everyone had known Stuart's mom had maybe called about the Kissing Game. Because that had happened to all the boys. The Big Baby Finkle thing had only happened to one person . . . me! I was the only girl in the entire fourth grade who wasn't going with a boy. Well, except for Rosemary, but she didn't count. All the boys were afraid of Rosemary.