The Totally Made-up Civil War Diary of Amanda MacLeish by Claudia Mills

Author:Claudia Mills
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Published: 2011-05-09T04:00:00+00:00

On the computer in her mother’s basement office, Amanda searched for “Irish dancing” and “Civil War.” Right away she found a Web site about an Irish brigade celebrating Christmas during the Civil War by doing Irish jigs and reels. Then she searched for “hay” and “alfalfa” and found out that alfalfa was actually a kind of hay, and it was indeed grown in Maryland; there were whole Web sites for buying and selling it.

Should she call Beth and Meghan to tell them that they were right, after all? Maybe they had been secretly worried about whether their dance was historically accurate, and would appreciate the reassurance. And maybe the kind thoughtfulness of the call would make them feel sorry that they had gone off together without her.

Beth picked up the phone. At least she wasn’t too busy jigging with Meghan to hear the phone ring.

“Hi, Beth, it’s Amanda.”

“Hi.” Beth didn’t sound particularly friendly.

“I just want to let you and Meghan know that I checked on the Internet about Irish dancing during the Civil War, and it’s fine, they did have Irish dancing back then.”

“You checked on the Internet?” Beth sounded suspicious rather than grateful, as if Amanda had been trying to prove them wrong instead of right.

“Well, I was checking some other stuff, for my Polly diary. I just thought you and Meghan would want to know.”

“Sure,” Beth said. “Thanks.”

Amanda waited to see if Beth would ask her if she could come over now to join them. Beth didn’t.

“So, bye,” Amanda said.

“Bye,” Beth said. And that was that.

Annoyed with herself for calling, Amanda dragged out her math homework. Then, before she could talk herself out of it, she called James.

“Hi, James. It’s Amanda. MacLeish. From school.” As if he knew lots of different Amanda MacLeishes with high, nervous voices.

“Hey,” James said. His hello sounded a lot friendlier than Beth’s.

Amanda hesitated. Then James said, “Math homework, right?”

“Well … do you mind?”

“No, it’s fine. Let me get my book.”

As before, James was better at explaining the problems than even Beth or Mr. Abrams.

“You should be a math teacher,” Amanda told him.

“I want to be a scientist.”

“Like Albert Einstein,” Amanda said.

“That’s right,” James said. “Just call me Al, for short.” Amanda could hear the grin in his voice.

“Are you going to play the violin for the concert?” Amanda asked.

“I’m going to audition.”

“How long have you been playing violin?”

“Since first grade. I take lessons at the Arts Center. What about you? Are you going to try out for the concert? Aren’t you a dancer?”

“No, that’s Beth.” And her new best friend, Meghan.

“You could read one of your Polly entries.”

“Everybody has Civil War diary entries.”

“Not as good as yours.”

Amanda wondered if James could hear her own grin in the moment of pleased, shy silence before she said, “Thanks.”

“Gotta go,” James said.

When Amanda hung up, her heart felt less bruised and sore than it had all day. And now it was time to visit Polly.

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