As I opened the door and received a blast of cool air and drizzle on my face, Jason put up his hood and said, “So, I’m thinking tartans!”
“Being Scottish is so easy,” I grumbled as I zipped up. “What, are you just going to print some plaid pictures off the Internet?”
“She said it was open-ended!”
“I think she wants a bit more effort than that, Jason.”
“Do you have any idea of what you want to do?” he asked.
“I guess I’m the official representative of Korea,” I said as I shrugged.
“No, like what specifically?”
“I specifically have no clue,” I replied.
“Well, when Mrs. June was talking, I couldn’t help but think of your grandma and how she likes to bring your dad food every week.”
“Go on.” I stopped and stared at him.
“I dunno, I just thought you could do something about Korean food.”
Huh. Maybe he was on to something. I started thinking about food, possibly because I was so hungry, and I was lost in thought when Madison Wong stopped me.
“Hey, Krista!” she said. Madison and I were friendly, but not friends. She and Emma hung out a lot.
“Hi, Madison,” I scrunched up my nose and looked at her through the rain. I wiped some rain off my nose.
“I sent you an email this morning, check it later okay?” She gave Jason a funny look that I couldn’t figure out.
“Okay,” I replied, slightly confused. She had never sent me an email before. I guess if you had to describe Madison, you’d say she was one of the popular girls. She was always very well dressed, but it always seemed to me that she was slightly overdressed. Madison wears a lot of sparkly shoes. She always has. She has a sparkly shoe addiction. I clearly remember she wore ballet flats to Sports Day last year. She kind of reminded me of my grandmother for some reason. Also, she never wears a raincoat. She wears denim jackets and bomber jackets and other materials that seem to soak up, not repel water.
But aside from what I thought was impractical dressing for school, she just seemed more mature than all the other girls. She seemed to draw people to her. She wasn’t ever silly or funny or loud. She was kind of a natural leader.
When she walked away with her squad of friends, Jason said, “You want to check right now?” Jason pulled out his cell phone, which he wasn’t supposed to have at school.
“Jason!” I whispered. “Put it away!”
“Nobody’s looking, Krista. Here, log in.” He passed it to me.
I hated the idea of getting caught, but I really wanted to know what Madison’s email was all about.
I stared at the email, a little bit stunned.
“It’s an invitation to her birthday party,” I finally managed to say.
“Oh, okay,” Jason said.
“Jason. You’ll never believe it, but it’s a theme party. The theme is Red Carpet Party.”
“You mean like an awards show ‘Red Carpet’?” Jason used his fingers to do air quotations.
I sighed and looked up at the sky. If there was one thing I hated, it was wearing a dress.
It was a lot to think about. At home after school, I plunked myself down on my bed to think. A big school project, for which I had no real ideas, and Madison’s invitation. I was the only one who hadn’t replied by the end of the day. On the list was her usual group of friends, but she also included a few surprise guests, me being one of them. I couldn’t figure out why.
“I hear you’ve been invited to a party,” Tori said, barging into my room without knocking. I hate when she does that.
“How do you know?” I asked, surprised.
“A bunch of your loser classmates have older sisters who go to my school you know.” She sat down on my bed. “So, what are you going to wear? I assume you’ll need my help.”
“I haven’t even decided to go yet,” I told her. Why was she being so nice to me, anyway?
“What? It could be really cool. You should think about it.”
“You know I don’t like dressing up. So what you think might be cool might actually be awkward and humiliating for me. Ever think about that? And also, I’m a bit busy being Korea’s lone representative at the school. It’s been a crazy day!” I was getting pretty worked up.
“What, a Cultural Fair or something?”
“No, Heritage Month.”
“Oh Mrs. June’s project! I totally remember that.” She half-laughed. “I asked Grandma if I could borrow her Korean dress. It was very uncomfortable and I felt like a total loser because it is so big and not flattering.”
“You wore it to school?” I asked.
“Yes, it was part of my project. I did a whole thing about traditional Korean clothes.” Leave it to my fashion-obsessed sister to work clothes into a school project.
She stood up suddenly and clapped her hands together. “I still have it, you know, the Korean dress.”
“I believe it’s called a hanbok,” I said smugly.
She kind of scrunched her face at me and gave me a sneer. She hates it when I correct her. I rarely get a chance, so when an opportunity comes my way I grab it.
“Krista, I have a great idea!” Tori was sounding a little too excited. She jumped up and ran out of my room, leaving me very confused and alone.
CHAPTER 4
We went to the library to research our projects again the next day. I was a little bit stumped. After Tori and I had talked, she hadn’t really helped me figure out what I was going to do. She had just disappeared into her room. So while we were in the library, I grabbed an old encyclopedia off the shelf because I actually like flipping pages instead of staring at a screen. I guess I’m old-fashioned, but I still like books.
I looked up Korea. I started skimming the page
