Perfect Patchwork Purse by Corey Ann Haydu

Author:Corey Ann Haydu
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2021-03-02T00:00:00+00:00

“I’m sorry,” Del said when they reached their school’s front door.

“I haven’t had magic my whole life,” Alma said. “There wasn’t any magic at the lake. So it’s okay that I don’t have any here either.”

But Del knew it really wasn’t okay at all.

11

A Stolen Idea

-Alma-

At school, everyone was getting ready for the end-of-the-school-year events. There was the concert and the picnic and the parade. Alma was especially excited about the parade. Every grade at school got to decorate a float for it, and Del said it was always so much fun.

A few weeks ago, Alma had thought of a million cool ideas for it. They could make it look like a dragon, or like a slice of pizza, or make it look like a beach, with sand and seashells and a big papier-mâché sun. They could all wear bathing suits and maybe they could even use sprinklers so that there could be water too. When she thought of that idea, Alma knew it was the best one. Plus, it would remind her of her old home on the lake. It was truly perfect.

But now she was pretty sure it wasn’t a good idea at all.

“We have to decide as a group what we’d like our float to be,” their teacher, Ms. Henn, said. “Who has thoughts?”

Alma could tell Del was looking at her, waiting for her to share all her great ideas. Alma wasn’t really in the mood. Probably what she’d come up with wasn’t so great anyway.

“Can it be purple?” Felix asked. Felix loved purple.

“It has to be more than just purple,” Del said. “It needs to be something creative.”

“Purple is creative,” Felix said.

“Purple’s just a color,” Del said. “Alma has all kinds of creative ideas.”

“Well, we’d love to hear them!” Ms. Henn said.

“I don’t know . . . ,” Alma said. She wanted to tell them about the dragon and the pizza and the beach. She wanted to say they could even have purple towels or purple bathing suits or, who knows, a purple papier-mâché sun! But she didn’t feel very sure of herself. She didn’t feel like someone special enough to contribute. Still—Del was nodding at her, and Ms. Henn was smiling, and even Felix and Agatha and June were begging her to tell the class her ideas.

The only person who wasn’t looking at her was Cassie. Cassie was looking in her purse, digging around for something.

“Well, I was thinking—” Alma started.

But before she could say another word, Cassie gasped. “Oh my gosh, look!” she said.

Alma didn’t want to look.

But everyone else did.

Cassie held up one single, perfect seashell. It was pink and shiny. It was curved and probably sounded like the ocean inside. It was beautiful.

“It’s a sign!” Cassie said. “We should decorate the float to look like the beach!”

Alma’s heart dropped.

“What a wonderful idea!” Ms. Henn said.

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