Gertie's Leap to Greatness (10 page)

“Without telling me goodbye?” Roy said. “Will she come back?”

“No,” Mary Sue said sharply. “My father's finished filming. He's already left. And I'll be going home soon, too. I can't wait to be back in a
real
town.”

Mary Sue was leaving! Gertie almost clapped her hands together, but stopped herself at the last second.
Good,
she thought, straining her ears as she leaned toward the open door.
Sayonara, seat-stealer!

The voices in the other room rose as everyone muttered about Mary Sue leaving and about not getting to meet Jessica Walsh.

“But you can't go away!” Ella cried. “We're best friends.”

“Well, we may not leave
so
soon,” said a woman's voice.

The lobbyist,
thought Gertie.

“We haven't decided anything yet.”

“Yes we
have
,” Mary Sue said in a tone that would've gotten Gertie in a lot of trouble.

“We like it here.” Mrs. Spivey went on as if her daughter hadn't spoken. “My work really matters, and Mary Sue enjoys going to school with normal children. Isn't that right?”

“What other kind of children are there?” Roy asked.

Gertie had never thought she'd side with Mary Sue, but now she found herself hoping that Mary Sue would get her way and go back to California where she belonged.

She didn't hear Mary Sue's voice make any answer, though.

Come to think of it, she didn't hear Junior's voice either.

Gertie looked around the door for half a second. She didn't see Junior anywhere. Everyone in the living room was working on some kind of art project. Leo seemed to be painting a picture on a poster board.

What had they done to Junior? She imagined him tied up in the attic. Stuffed in a toilet.

“Can't wait to see her face when she sees this,” said Ella.

Gertie decided she would send Audrey next door to call the police to report a missing person or maybe a kidnapping or possibly a murder.

“She's going to have a duck,” said Leo.

This was no longer a gathering-information mission. It was a rescue mission. Gertie retraced her steps and sneaked back through the glass door. She whispered, breathless, “Audrey, I want you to run—”

Gertie froze, and it had nothing to do with the cold.

Audrey was gone.

Gertie slapped a hand to her forehead. She had lost Junior
and
Audrey. Aunt Rae was going to kill her. What would she tell Mrs. Parks?

She couldn't decide whether to be scared or angry. What if Audrey was in real danger, and it was all Gertie's fault? It would serve Audrey right if she were in real danger, because hadn't Gertie told her to stay right there? Poor Junior, poor scared Junior. How could he mess up the plan, when they had been over it three thousand times? This was all her fault.

Gertie stood outside Mary Sue Spivey's house and shivered, wondering what she should do. She shivered again, and then realized Audrey would've been shivering out here, too. She would've wanted to come inside. She was probably in the house getting warm.

Why, oh why, hadn't she let Audrey keep her jacket on? Gertie swallowed her fear, turned back, and entered the house again.

“Audrey?” she whispered to the big, empty kitchen. She slipped past the open door to the living room and sneaked down a hallway. A thick rug cushioned her steps as she went from door to door, slinking past the open ones and putting her ear to the closed ones, wishing and willing herself to hear Junior's and Audrey's voices. The rooms were huge, and the pictures and furniture looked like they belonged in a museum. Gertie wondered if Rachel Collins would've needed to go to Jones Street if Aunt Rae had had a house like this one. She pressed her ear to a door and heard footsteps coming.

Gertie ran. She opened the first door she came to, stepped through it, and pulled it closed behind her. She was in a big, dark closet.

“Hello?” called Mary Sue's mother from the other side of the door.

Gertie breathed into her hand and closed her eyes. A good spy wouldn't get caught.

“Must be the cat,” Mrs. Spivey said to herself.

Gertie Reece Foy wouldn't get caught.

When Gertie heard Mrs. Spivey's footsteps fade away, she sighed with relief and took a step back, expecting to fall into a soft heap of coats. Instead, she bumped into a soft heap of
person
. Someone was in the closet with her!

“It's me.”

“Junior!” Gertie rubbed her chest. “Oh my Lord! My heart. What are you
doing
in here?”

“Shh.” Junior's breathing was loud in her ears. “H-hiding?”

“You've been in here the
whole
time?”

“Let's get out of here,” said Junior, clutching her arm. “Please.”

“No,” said Gertie, shaking him off. “We've got to find Audrey.”

“Audrey?” Junior squeaked. “You lost Audrey?”

“She lost herself!” Gertie whispered. “Oh my Lord. Oh my Lord.”

Audrey lost. All of them in enemy territory. She had thought that the worst thing that could happen was Junior getting kicked out. She had been wrong.

“Come on,” Gertie said, and opened the closet door.

She crept down the hall, now with Junior clinging to her elbow and tiptoeing behind her. Gertie led them into a dining room with a table big enough for twelve large people. Audrey wasn't hiding under the table. They looped around and ended up outside a room where Mrs. Spivey was tapping away at a keyboard. She didn't look up as they slid past the open door. Gertie's palms were sweating. She peeked into a second, smaller living room where a pair of small shoes was sticking up over the back of the sofa. Gertie's heart stuttered.

She hurried in, dragging Junior behind her. Audrey and a woman sat on the sofa, staring at the television. Gertie let out a sigh.

“I watch this show all the time,” Audrey was saying.

The woman worked a piece of gum up and down, up and down in her cheek.

“I wish my family was like that,” Audrey said.

“Audrey,” whispered Gertie, “you were supposed to stay outside. I've been looking all over for you.”

Audrey didn't look up from the television. “Got cold.”

“Come on,” Junior pleaded, still hugging Gertie's arm.

“Go play with the others,” said the woman. “We're watchin' John-Boy.”

“Who are you?” Gertie asked.

“Brenda.” She cracked her gum between her teeth. “The housekeeper.”

Gertie had thought that maids were supposed to wear black uniforms with frilly white aprons and little hats and say things in a funny accent like
'Ere are ze allergy tablets, my leetle pet.
But this maid wore jeans and tennis shoes and talked like anybody else.

“You don't look like a maid,” said Gertie.

“Probably 'cause I'm a
housekeeper.
” Brenda looked Gertie up and down. “
You
don't look like a happy little party guest.”

“We're spies,” said Audrey, without glancing up from the television.

“Spies?” Brenda cracked her gum again.

“Spies.” Audrey nodded once.

“Listen at that,” said Brenda, and she raised her voice. “Hey, Mrs. Spivey, we got us some spies in here!”

“No!” yelled Gertie and Junior together.

“What's going on?” Mrs. Spivey stood in the doorway, looking at the children and the housekeeper in confusion.

“Help,” Junior squeaked.

Footsteps shook the house. Gertie took several steps back and tripped over a chair.

Mary Sue pushed past her mother. “What are
you
doing here?” she asked Gertie. “This is a club, and you're not invited.”

“I was invited,” Gertie said, because it was the only thing she could think of. She stood up straighter. “You invited the whole school. And I'm a part of the school. And it's my right”—she shook Junior off and raised a finger—“my right as a citizen to be here.”

“Mary Sue,” said Mrs. Spivey, “don't you think we have room for one more?”

“She didn't RSVP,” said Mary Sue.

Gertie was going to say that she was just about to leave anyway, because it was a lousy party, when Jean pushed past all the others who had gathered to watch.

Gertie stared at her very own Jean, and all the air leaked out of her lungs.
Jean
was holding a large can that was covered in paper and had the words
Clean Earth Club
painted on it. A drop of blue paint slid down the can and dripped onto the white rug.

“Now, Mary Sue—” began Mrs. Spivey.

“Don't you get it? We don't want you here,” said Ella.

But Gertie didn't care about any awful thing Ella said, because nothing could ever make her feel more horrible than seeing Jean standing in Mary Sue's mansion, staring at the blue paint on the floor.

“You'd better be nice to her!”

Everyone in the room turned to look at Audrey. She stepped in front of Gertie, put her hands on her hips, and glared up at everyone.

Gertie closed her eyes.
No, no, no.
She opened her eyes.

“One day,” said Audrey, poking out her stomach, “she'll be the boss of all y'all. Because she's on a mission to be the best fifth grader in the world!” Audrey crowed the last part.

She looked around at the bigger kids and Mrs. Spivey and Brenda. Gertie stopped breathing.

Ella laughed. Roy and Leo. Mary Sue. They were all laughing at her.

“Oh, yeah,” said Leo. “That'll be the day. Gertie's not the best at anything.”

“See?” Mary Sue glared at Gertie. “She hates me because I'm better than her. She's jealous of me.”

Ewan pushed his glasses up on his nose and shook his head at Gertie.

Gertie's ears were hot. She couldn't breathe at all. She saw dark spots. She saw a dark streak run across a shelf that was high on the wall. But the black streak must not have been a hallucination caused by oxygen deprivation, because it knocked a vase from the shelf. China smashed against the floor.

“Panther!” said Brenda.

Junior jumped a foot off the ground. “Delilah!” he yelled.

“Panther, get down from there!” said Mrs. Spivey.

A black cat leaped off the shelf and landed on Junior's head. He screamed. The cat's claws latched on to Junior's face and shoulders.

Mrs. Spivey and Brenda lunged at him, each one grabbing one of the cat's legs. The cat squalled. Junior squalled louder.

“Don't hurt him!” shrieked June. Maybe she meant Junior, or maybe she meant the cat.

Gertie gasped in a gulp of air and pushed forward. She grabbed another one of the cat's legs and leaned back, pulling with everything she had. The animal yowled and let go of Junior. It landed on the floor and streaked away.

Junior ran.

Gertie fled after him, not even knowing where she was going, following a yelling Junior as they burst through the front door and pounded up the sidewalk.

They were running for their lives. Lungs burning. Tennis shoes tearing into concrete. Until finally they stopped, panting. Gertie's eyes stung. She leaned against a light pole and put her hands on her knees.

“It was a cat,” Junior said over and over. “C-c-cat cat cat.”

Gertie nodded. She stayed bent over, catching her breath until she heard feet slapping the pavement. Then she stood to watch Audrey coming toward them.

Audrey was gasping for air when she finally caught up. “Whew,” she breathed. “Whew! We showed them, huh?”

“No!” said Gertie. “We didn't show anyone!”

Audrey's mouth made a small round
o
, and her face wrinkled up like it did when her feelings were hurt. But
she
was the one who had messed everything up. She was the one who had told everyone.

“You ruin everything!” Gertie said. “No wonder your parents never want you around!” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Gertie wanted to take them back. They were bad words. They were the wrong words.

Junior's skin went white beneath the red claw marks on his face and neck. Audrey's butt landed on the sidewalk.

Gertie knelt beside her. “Audrey,” she said, “I didn't mean it.” And she
hadn't
meant it, she really hadn't. The words that had come out of her mouth had been an awful accident. Like dropping your ice cream cone, like falling off your bike, or stepping on a cricket.

“I'm sorry,” Gertie said.

Audrey held her knees as tears spilled over her eyelashes.

Gertie put her arms around her. Her hair smelled like apples. “I'm so sorry.”

She hadn't meant it. But Gertie knew that this time no amount of explaining was going to make it better.

 

15

Oh, Junior

Junior was having what Aunt Rae would call an existential crisis.

“I've never felt so panicked,” he said. “I couldn't do it. And I thought,
If I don't do this, then I'm the worst friend in the world.
And then I got panicked about being the worst friend in the world. And maybe you wouldn't want to be my…”

Gertie leaned her head against the bus seat and gazed out the window, not seeing anything. Maybe everyone at school would've forgotten what had happened. Maybe they'd forgotten about Gertie crashing the party. Maybe they'd forgotten what Audrey had said.

“I wanted to help you, but when I tried to walk in the room…”