Nobody's Perfect (17 page)

“When did your father say that?”

“When I was upset with Alexis,” said Megan. “Dad said she was probably trying extra hard to be perfect because Justin was maybe not one-hundred-percent perfect. So I asked him if we do that. And he said we don't have any problem not being perfect.”

Lainee paused in her cake decoration and held the spatula aloft. “I think what your father was trying to say,” she explained, “is that nobody's perfect. We all have our strengths and we all have our limitations.”

Megan went to the freezer and pulled out a bunch of ice-cold grapes. She dropped them in the punch bowl as well. “What's a limitation?” she asked.

“Like a weakness,” Lainee continued. “We have to learn to accept our strengths
and
our weaknesses—because both of them make us who we are.”

“Okay, I get it,” said Megan. “Nobody's perfect.” She pushed the punch bowl to the middle of the counter so it wouldn't get knocked onto the floor, and she wiped her hands clean on a kitchen towel.

“Yes. For example,” her mother continued, “I've been asking you to get that bag of purple feathers out of the dining room for two weeks—”

“Nobody's perfect, Mom!” said Megan.

“Do it,” said Lainee.

“I'll do it,” said Megan, “if you don't mess up the cake.”

Lainee snuck a lick of purple frosting off the end of the spatula and smiled. “I will if you will,” she said.

“Deal,” said Megan.

Before she left the kitchen, Megan dropped in front of the computer and switched on the Internet connection.

“What are you hopping on the Internet for?” asked her mother.

“I promised Lizzie that I would video instant message her so she could come to my party even though she lives an hour away,” said Megan.

“Megan, don't you think that's a bit much?” her mom asked, exasperated.

“Mom, she wants to meet my friends!” argued Megan.

Lainee held up her hands in defeat. “It's your party,” she said.

With that matter settled, Megan ran into the dining room. She grabbed the bag of purple feathers off the sideboard and looked for a quick place to stash it before the party. Unfortunately, the drawers of the sideboard were full and the cupboards underneath were packed with platters and dishes.

I don't have time for this
, thought Megan.

She darted into the front hall and opened the closet door. It was crammed with overcoats, raincoats, galoshes, and umbrellas.

Megan spotted a tote bag on the floor packed with Matt's baseball equipment.
Perfect
, thought Megan. She stashed the bag of purple feathers in the palm of Matt's baseball glove for safekeeping and tucked the glove back into the tote bag. Then she pushed the closet door shut, grabbed on to the banister, and flung herself upstairs to change for the party.

•  •  •

Since it was a slumber party, Megan had instructed her guests to wear “purple pj's” and to bring a change of clothes for breakfast in the morning. Megan's mom had agreed to make blueberry pancakes for breakfast, but she had said, “Nothing purple after that. All things must end.”

Megan had already decided to wear a really dark purple pajama top with a really bright pair of purple pajama pants. The top was decorated with daisies and the bottom was decorated with ducks, but Megan figured that didn't matter.
Purple goes with purple, and the more purple, the better
, she thought.
Besides, it's a little less than perfect and all the better for it.

She had hardly finished buttoning the top and tugging on her purple fuzzy slippers when the front doorbell began to ring.

•  •  •

It was Kaitlyn, wearing a long lavender nightgown. She waited at the door with an overnight bag over her shoulder and a wild purple birthday present in her hands. “Happy Birthday, Megan,” she screamed, beside herself with giggles.

“You're the first one!” cried Megan.

It wasn't long before Casey and Maya joined the party. Casey wore a long plum-colored bathrobe, and Maya had on a long baggy lavender T-shirt. And then three more girls, Tracy, Kim, and Melinda, arrived at the door. Only six girls had arrived so far, but already the decibel level in the house was threatening to go through the roof.

Matt nudged his dad and said, “The nice thing about boys is they're
quiet
!”

Megan's dad said, “I'm with you.”

Right on cue, the front doorbell rang and all the girls screamed again. Matt opened the door to find Cindy on the doorstep in an extremely silly pair of violet pj's.

“Am I late? Am I late?” she cried, visibly upset. “I hate being late!”

“You're not late!” snapped Megan, grabbing Cindy's arm and yanking her into the party.

“Oh, no!” cried Matt, looking at his watch. “I'm late too! Mom, where's my baseball uniform?”

“Upstairs,” Lainee shouted from the kitchen.

Matt charged upstairs two steps at a time.

Megan and Cindy headed for the living room, where all the other girls burst into shrieks, squeals, and giggles at their arrival.

David winced. “I'm ready when you are,” he shouted after Matt, dangling the car keys. “I'll be waiting in the car!”

David opened the door to find two more girls on the doorstep.

“Hello,” he said. “What are your names?”

“Elizabeth,” “Bethany,” the girls murmured politely before bursting into another volley of shrieks at the sight of Megan behind him.

“Is everybody here now?” David asked Megan as the girls pressed past him and into the party.

“Almost, Dad,” said Megan.

David tried to exit once more but ended up holding the door for Trina and Keisha, the Dunbar twins, who were running up the walk with big purple birthday presents in their hands.

•  •  •

“Say hello to Lizzie!” Megan cried.

Megan and eleven of her friends crammed into the kitchen alcove to holler “Hey!” into the camera at Lizzie.

On the screen Lizzie was wearing a purple nightcap and purple sunglasses and waving “Hey” right back to them. She blew a noisemaker and tossed a handful of confetti into the air.

Cindy leaned low into the camera frame and signed, “Hey, Lizzie, remember me?”

“Of course, Cindy!” Lizzie signed. She had met Megan and Cindy at the same time at summer camp. “Hey! You guys have to sing ‘Happy Birthday' to Megan with me!”

The girls started singing a ragtag version of “Happy Birthday” into the camera, but Megan interrupted. “Wait, you guys, not yet,” she protested. “Not everybody is here yet!”

“Who's not here?” asked Lizzie.

At that moment Matt charged downstairs. “Mom, I can't find my baseball glove!” he hollered. “I need my baseball glove for the team photograph!”

“Where'd you leave it?” said Lainee.

“I don't know, but I can't leave home without it!” said Matt, pushing through the girls in his baseball uniform to cross the kitchen.

“Look at Matt in his uniform!” said Tracy, as Matt nudged past. All the girls cooed and chattered excitedly.

Megan leaned toward the computer camera so that she could sign to Lizzie and point across the kitchen at Matt. “Lizzie, that's my brother, Matt, in his new baseball uniform!”

“Mom, make them stop,” muttered Matt.

“I'm afraid they have us outnumbered,” said Lainee. “Megan, have you seen your brother's baseball glove?”

“In the front hall closet,” said Megan.

“
Where
in the front hall closet?” asked Matt, shouting to be heard over the noise.

“Girls, girls!” cried Lainee, clapping her hands for attention. “Too much chaos in the kitchen! Say good-bye to Lizzie! I need you to move this party back to the den.”

“Good-bye, Lizzie!” the girls chimed toward the computer.

“Good-bye! Happy birthday!” signed Lizzie.

Megan signed, “Thanks! I'll talk to you later!” to Lizzie. Then she corralled the girls and nudged them toward the kitchen door. “Back to the den!” Megan cried.

“What should we play?” cried Cindy. “Pin the Tail on the Purple Donkey?” All the girls laughed as they pressed through the door into the den.

“Or maybe Duck, Duck, Purple Goose!” shouted Maya, and the girls laughed even harder.

“We can't play anything yet,” Megan protested, “because all the girls aren't here yet!”

“Who's not here yet?” asked Casey. “Who could it be?”

At that moment, the front doorbell rang. Cindy tugged on Megan's sleeve. “The doorbell! I hear the doorbell!” she said.

“I'll get it!” Megan cried. She crawled over the Dunbar twins on the sofa and ran for the door, skidding on the front hall tiles in her fuzzy purple slippers. Matt was on his knees inside the front hall closet. “Megan,” he said with irritation, “my baseball glove is in the front hall closet—where?”

“Right in front of your nose,” said Megan, reaching for the door. When she yanked it open, nobody was there. That was odd. Megan stepped into the doorway and looked left and right.

“Surprise!”
cried Alexis as she jumped from the bushes.

Megan screamed and laughed. It was Alexis.

She entered the front hall and the entire gang of girls jumped with excitement.

At that same moment Matt spotted his baseball glove inside the tote bag in the front hall. He snatched the glove and yanked it from its hiding place. Unfortunately, the bag of purple feathers slipped from where Megan had stowed it and sailed clear up to the ceiling where it snagged on the rafters overhead. Big billowing clouds of purple feathers fell onto the girls in the front hall. Feathers plummeted all around and all the girls screamed. It was a fuzzy blizzard of purple, purple everywhere. A snowstorm of purple.

Some girls started spinning with their arms outstretched as the purple feathers swirled past. A few girls opened their mouths to catch the feathers like snowflakes. Other girls pumped their arms like birds taking flight, to keep the flurry of feathers in the air—and the feathers caught in their hair and covered their shoulders and clung to their clothes.

“Oh, no!” cried Matt. His uniform was covered with purple fuzz. “I'll be the only purple player on the entire baseball team!” All the girls laughed.

“Welcome to my Positively Purple Party!” cried Megan. “The most purple party ever!”

ALSO BY MARLEE MATLIN

DEAF CHILD CROSSING

ALSO BY DOUG COONEY

THE BELOVED DEARLY

I KNOW WHO LIKES YOU