“Well,” Alfie said, gazing up at the kitchen ceiling, “I dunno. The only thing that might work would be to have a party anyway. Somewhere else, I mean, because Mrs. Marino says she’s not in the mood anymore. But we would absolutely invite every girl in our class,” she added, thinking about Bella and some of the others.
“Including Lulu Marino,” Alfie’s mother said.
“I guess,” Alfie said with a sigh. “If she’d come. Except then, Lulu would say I stole her idea,” she added, drooping. “And she’d probably be right.”
“We might be able to find a way around that,” her mother said. “And we could have it here, maybe. It doesn’t have to be a sleepover, after all.”
“But we couldn’t have a party here,” Alfie pointed out. “We don’t have enough room for that many kids.”
“I think we could do it in a pinch,” her mom said. “How many girls are there in your class? Twelve, altogether? Thirteen?”
Alfie nodded. “Thirteen. But our house isn’t as big as Lulu’s house,” she pointed out. “And Lulu said her house was too small to hold all of us.”
“I think we could fit everyone in here,” her mom said. “It’s just a question of doing it—if you’d like to give it a try, that is. It would be crowded, that’s for sure. But I think everybody would have fun. Things don’t have to be perfect for people to have a good time.”
“Thirteen girls?” Alfie said, trying to picture it.
“With you as the host, and Lulu as the honored guest, since since she had the idea first,” her mom said. “Whatever kind of party you decide to have. If you’d like to have a party, that is.” She gave her daughter a searching look.
“Let me think about it,” Alfie said. “I’m not really sure.”
Lulu Marino as the honored guest? That was going pretty far!
“Okay,” her mom said. “But think fast, because tomorrow is Friday, sweetie. So if you want to have the party this Saturday night, I would have to get on the phone by tomorrow afternoon at the latest. Of course, we could always wait a few weeks if you’d prefer,” she said, tapping her chin as she thought.
“But everyone’s frazzled now, Mom,” Alfie said. “And you’re right—we’re ready for a party. We earned it.”
“I think you have,” her mother agreed.
“So, I’ll think about it fast,” Alfie said again. “Okay?”
“Well, keep me in the loop,” Mrs. Jakes said, standing up and stretching.
There was that invisible loop again!
“I will,” Alfie promised. “And thanks, Mom,” she added, giving her mother a surprise hug. “You make me have the best ideas ever!”
“High praise indeed,” Mrs. Jakes said, smiling. “Now, let’s get back to fixing dinner.”
16 Upside-Down Heads
“We gotta talk, Lulu. Alone,” Alfie said just before lunch the next day, Friday, when Writing Workshop was over. Stories that had beginnings, middles, and ends—however hastily tacked on—had been piled up on Mr. Havens’s desk, and the All-Stars were rushing to the cubby room for their lunches.
Stomachs were growling.
A jumble of noise—excited chatter, and Scooter Davis’s and Bryan Martinez’s frantic yelps—provided an invisible curtain of privacy as she spoke.
“Why? So you can lie to me again about not wrecking my party?” Lulu asked, sounding almost bored. “There’s no hope of making it right now, Alfie. So why bother?”
“Because we used to be friends,” Alfie whisper-shouted. “So it’s important. Let’s meet in the cafeteria, okay? Because everyone else will be eating outside at the picnic tables.”
“Okay,” Lulu said, shrugging. “Who cares?”
She’d been like that all morning, even at recess. Lulu was drooping like one of the weed flowers Alfie used gather into scrubby bouquets for her mom.
Those flowers never lasted very long in her small hot hands.
But droopy was better than angry any day of the week, Alfie reminded herself, losing sight of Lulu in the crowded hallway.
The Oak Glen Primary School cafeteria came with its own invisible curtain of noise—and with soapy, greasy smells as well. Alfie spotted Lulu sitting alone at the end of a long beige formica table. She was arranging her lunch in front of her as if she were going to try to paint a picture of it, not eat it, Alfie thought.
Poor Lulu.
Poor mean Lulu, Alfie reminded herself sternly, recalling the way Lulu had acted all week—especially when she’d made Bella cry.
But Lulu wasn’t mean, not usually, Alfie thought. She remembered the long and happy first grade playdates they’d had together—playing with dolls, making their own playdough, telling stories, building fancy LEGO castles, watching cartoons—and playing “Upside-Down Heads.”
Their heads really did seem upside-down now, things were so messed up.
But just the thought of all that fun they’d had gave Alfie some of the confidence she knew she was going to need for this conversation. “Hey,” she said, slipping into the chair across from Lulu and reaching into her own lunch bag with pretend enthusiasm.
She was hungry, but could she eat?
“Hey,” Lulu replied, reaching for her sandwich. “What did you want to talk about?” She was starting to sound a little interested, in spite of herself.
“I’m really sorry about your sleepover, Lulu,” Alfie began, examining her own sandwich with exaggerated care. “Only I didn’t ruin it,” she added, repeating the words she’d spoken the day before. “I wanted to go, in fact,” she said, deciding to tell the truth.
“And I wanted you to come,” Lulu said, as if she were admitting something, too.
“So, what happened?” Alfie asked, her brown eyes wide.
“When Mama and I got the idea for the sleepover,” Lulu tried to explain, “she came up with all these rules, see. You know how she gets.”
“I guess I do,” Alfie said, not looking at Lulu. But she’d had lots of playdates at Lulu’s house last year, so she did know how Mrs. Marino could be at times.
Way too much in Lulu’s business, in Alfie’s opinion. Every little thing!
How long Lulu had to brush
