Time's Up (15 page)

“Another brownie, Ruby?” Sally offered.

“Oh, a small piece, I guess,” Ruby answered. “It's my consolation prize.”

Katani tucked away the scarf her grandmother had knitted, separating it from the pile for Think Pink! She secretly decided to bead her grandmother's scarf into something beautiful to give Mrs. Weiss as a thank-you for introducing her to her rescuers, the Knitwits.

As she looked around the blue room, all of a sudden
Katani realized the anxiety that had been plaguing her for days was completely gone. Her scarves would be finished in time! Even better, being here with the Knitwits was just like being with the BSG—an excuse to hang out and have a good time together.

“Almost there,” June announced, looking at her watch.

Kelley stood up and, clutching Mr. Bear, pronounced in a loud voice, “Time's up, ladies!” Katani looked around.
Would the ladies think her sister was being rude?

But there were chuckles all around before June answered in a softer voice than Katani had heard her use, “We'll have you over again real soon, Kelley, but I don't think we'll be knitting fourteen scarves next week.”

Katani smiled at Kelley. Neither of them wanted the night to end. When it was time to leave, the normally reserved Katani gave each Knitwit a big hug and a thank-you, and promised that she would visit soon.

O
n Saturday morning Katani woke to a delicious smell of coffee, cinnamon toast, eggs, and bacon. Ray Charles was on the stereo. That meant her grandmother was up and about. Ray Charles was her grandmother's favorite Saturday morning music, and “Georgia on My Mind” was one of her favorite songs in the world. It was a happy morning. Katani hugged herself. The scarves were done and life was good.

Still in her teddy bear pajamas, Kelley was at Katani's desk and counting scarves for about the hundredth time. “Twenty,” she announced. “Twenty of yours and twenty of Mr. Bear's.”

Isabel's older sister Elena Maria had dropped off Mrs. Martinez's three scarves last night. Katani would have to call today to thank her. She smiled and got out of bed. She usually laid out her carefully chosen outfits the night before, but the night before, Katani had been so exhausted that she fell right asleep. This morning, she grabbed a pair of jeans and a black turtleneck. “There's still a lot to do.” She hugged Kelley. “But I'm starving. Aren't you?”

“Yes.” Kelley's face turned serious. “You know, Katani, I like vegans, but I love pepperoni, too!”

“Me too,” Katani said. “Let's go get some eggs and toast.”

When they got downstairs, Mrs. Fields was sprinkling cinnamon sugar on buttered toast. Katani's dad was pouring cups of coffee, and her mother was setting plates and glasses of juice on the table.

“I heard it went well last night,” Mrs. Summers said, smiling.

“It was beyond great, Mom. We finished the scarves—all fourteen I had left to do—and made scarves for teddy bears, too. That was Kelley-the-knitting-genius's idea. They'll be at the fund-raiser too—on display side by side.”

Mrs. Summers pulled Katani tightly to her. “I'm proud of both my girls,” she said. “Better sit down and eat. We have a big day ahead of us.”

When they sat down at the breakfast table, Mr. Summers asked Katani, “So, boss, what's the game plan?”

Before she'd gone to bed, Katani had made a list of everything she had to do to get the application off today and prepare for the Think Pink! fund-raiser. As they ate, Katani went over the plan with her family. Katani couldn't believe that even Patrice was giving up her Saturday morning to help with the contest project.

“You know, I really appreciate all of your help,” Katani told her family. “What would I do without my best fam?” She snapped her fingers in the air.

“We
want
to help you, Katani. That's what we're here for,” her dad spoke slowly. He took a long sip of coffee. “I remember my dad saying the same thing to me once a long time ago. When I was fourteen. I had this job painting houses for the summer. I was pretty good at it too. One of the guys was
afraid of heights, so he'd send me up to the top of the house. I always got stuck painting the roof trim.” He shook his head and drank more coffee.

“Anyway, at the end of the summer a neighbor made me an offer. He said if I painted his whole house in a week, he'd give me two hundred dollars. I know that doesn't sound like much now, but it was a lot then, as much as I made practically all summer. If I didn't finish, I'd get nothing.” He bit into a piece of bacon and chewed thoughtfully.

“It wasn't a big house but it wasn't small, either. I said yes even though I had a paper route going and school was starting that very week.” He looked up at Katani. “Do you know how long it takes to paint a house?”

Katani shook her head.

“A long time. I ruined my school clothes and had to skip the first days of school.” He chuckled. “I wasn't even close to finishing, but I wanted that money more than anything. Of course Dad caught me. I broke down and told him about the job. I was sure he'd make me quit right there and yell at me. Dad was kind of a yeller back then. But, instead, my father said to my brothers, ‘Tomorrow we're all going over to that house and we'll stay until it's painted.'”

Mr. Summers's eyes circled his family. “That's what we're going to do today.”

“Dad, we can't paint a house today. We have to finish the contest!” a worried Kelley blurted out. “Time's up, you know.”

No one laughed, as they all knew Kelley hadn't meant to be funny. They could hear the urgency in her voice.

“No, we won't paint any houses today,” Mr. Summers said. “We'll help Katani until her project is finished.”

“And me,” Kelley protested.

“Of course you,” Mr. Summers said as he teasingly tugged one of Kelley's pigtails.

“All right, let's do it! Let's get this application in the mail!” Mrs. Summers declared, and started clearing the table.

Grandma Ruby brought out her trusty old typewriter and plunked it on the end of the dining room table to write up a recommendation. She said that typing on the old Remington made her more creative. Mr. Summers proofed Katani's essay and business plan one final time. Then he added a new ink cartridge to the printer so Katani could print out copies. Mrs. Summers helped arrange the scarves for Patrice to photo-graph, and Patrice made a bunch of eight-by-ten copies of the best shots. Kelley put the Think Pink! boxes for the scarves together, counting the total boxes and the total scarves again as she spread them in a line across the dining room table.

“Still twenty of yours and twenty of Mr. Bear's!” She danced around the kitchen happily.

As each item on her list was completed, Katani checked it off. She folded the scarves so the beaded hearts showed on the top, wrapped them in tissue, and packed them in boxes to take to Think Pink! Her mother and Patrice had offered to drop them off at the store later that day.

Next, Katani called Mrs. Martinez to thank her.
“No es nada,”
she said. Isabel said that sometimes, too. It meant “it's nothing” or “no problem.”

“It's a lot,” Katani told her. “I never would have gotten the project done without everyone helping me. Actually, do you mind if I tell Isabel about it now?”

“Of course!” Mrs. Martinez replied. “I will get her.”

A minute later, Isabel picked up the phone. “Hey Katani. What's up?”

Katani took a deep breath. Would Isabel be mad that
Katani hadn't told her about how her mom was helping?

“Izzy, I just wanted to let you know how your mom really helped me this week,” Katani began. “I was trying to do too much by myself, knitting all those scarves for the contest, so your mom offered to help me by knitting a few.” Isabel was silent, so Katani pressed on. “You're really lucky to have her as your mom. So…thanks, I guess. For letting me benefit from a little of her mom-ness too.”

When Isabel didn't respond, Katani asked, “Um, Isabel? Are you mad?”

There was a sniffle on the other end of the phone. “No!” she exclaimed, but Katani could tell she was crying. “It's just…thanks, Katani. I know my mom is really special. And I was wondering why she was so happy this week. I think you helped her feel useful again. My mom used to be a very busy woman—‘all the time busy,' my dad used to say.”

Wow!
First she made Kelley happy, and now Isabel's mom. Suddenly it seemed like she was doing good deeds right and left. And it was all because she was letting other people help her too!

As soon as she got off the phone with Isabel, Katani called Maeve and asked her to come over. When Maeve arrived, Katani brought her to her bedroom and handed her one of the boxes tied with pink ribbons.

“This is for you,” Katani explained. “I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't introduced me to the Knitwits. You really saved me! And Sally made the best brownies in the world. I'm going to make them for the next Tower sleepover.”

Maeve opened the box to find one of the gorgeous scarves Frances knitted in every shade of pink. “Oh, Katani, I love it! It's GORGEOUS! Are you sure it's an extra?”

“I'm sure.” Katani nodded. “I want you to model it tomorrow at the fund-raiser.”

Maeve let out a squeal. “Me, your personal model?”

“Everyone will want one when they see you wearing it.”

“Dahling, that's one assignment I can handle, no problem! I better practice.”

Maeve stood in front of the mirror and wound the scarf around her neck, tying it in a knot in the front. Then she flipped the scarf back so it hung down her back and strutted around the room, pretending to talk to various crowds of people, flinging the ends of the scarf this way and that. She tucked her cascades of red hair behind her ears, wrapped the scarf over the top of her head, then tied it under her chin and pranced around the room again until Katani begged her to stop, saying, “I think I've got the image.”

Suddenly Katani looked at the clock. “Whoa,” she said, “I have to get to the post office before it closes.”

“I'll go with you,” Maeve told her, “for the good-luck walk!”

Katani had already organized and paperclipped the original application, the copies, and all the attachments. Before she put it all in an envelope, she went through her checklist one final time. Then she sealed it up and announced, “I'm ready.”

“I'm going too!” Kelley said.

As the trio walked to the post office, Katani held the envelope to her chest just like Kelley had held her green bag the day before. A sliver of sun shone through the mass of gray clouds.

“I can't believe it's really done!” Katani shouted.

“Done, done, done!” Kelley sang.

Today, Kelley copying her didn't even bother Katani. She
felt like she was walking on air. “I was so stressed out this week, I never thought I'd pull it all together.”

“You just needed a little help,” Maeve told her, “from someone like moi. I'm your good-luck fairy!”

“Mr. Bear helped too,” Kelley added.

“Yes, he did,” Maeve said.

“And let's not forget the Knitwits,” Katani added.

“But you pulled it all together, and I just know you're going to win!” Maeve exclaimed. “I'll be your personal model when you guys travel. I bet the great Audrey Hepburn started out modeling for one of her friends!” Audrey was Maeve's favorite old-time actress.

“We're all going to Washington—all of us, and Mr. Bear!” Kelley shouted.

“Don't count your chicks before they hatch,” Katani warned her sister. But she smiled when she said it. Nothing was going to make her unhappy today.

“Look, there's Miss Pierce.” Maeve waved to a petite woman walking toward them with a bag of fruit in her arms. They said hello to Charlotte's landlady, who rarely left the house.

“I saw the sun peeking out, so I decided to venture out to Yuri's for some fruit,” Miss Pierce told them.

“Are you a vegan, Miss Pierce?” Kelley asked earnestly.

“No.” She laughed. “I'm not. But I do love fruits and vegetables, and I hear vegans are very healthy people.”

“Me either,” Kelley said. She had become obsessed with who was a vegan and who was not. When she heard that Patrice's friend Shante was a vegan, Kelley really wanted to go and watch her eat. But Patrice told her it wasn't polite to talk about how and what people ate.

“I just needed a little fresh air. Where are you girls off to?” Miss Pierce continued.

“To the post office.” Katani held out her envelope. “I'm mailing an application to an entrepreneur contest.”

“If you go by Think Pink! you'll see Katani's scarves on display, and tomorrow they're having a fund-raiser. They're selling her scarves to raise money for breast cancer research,” Maeve blurted. “You could come.”

“What a lovely idea. I'll certainly try to make it,” Miss Pierce replied, although the girls could hear the hesitation in her voice. Miss Pierce was a very shy woman, and social gatherings sometimes made her very nervous.

“We better hurry before the post office closes!” Katani said. “Hope to see you tomorrow, Miss Pierce.”

Maeve's Notes to Self:

• 1. Treat self to double Swedish Fish.
  
• 2. Work on performance draft of R & J (call Betsy again???) and check out Leonardo's website (he is soooo cute).
  
• 3. Try on outfits to wear to Think Pink! party—where I'll be the MODEL!
  
• 4. Paint nails the same pink as Katani's scarves.
  
• 5. E-mail Dad.