What a Doll! (8 page)

After dinner that night Emmy stuck her head into Sam's room. He was at his desk, drawing.

“Hi!” she said, just a little more friendly and cheerful than the usual way she spoke to him. He looked up, surprised and, it seemed, more than a little pleased.

“Hi,” he said. “What're you doing?”

“I came to see if you wanted to play,” she said.

Sam's face lit up. “Sure. Let's play zoo,” he suggested, referring to a game they had played with their stuffed animals when they were younger. Sam dutifully began organizing the huge pile of stuffed animals as if they lived in a zoo.

“Actually, I have another special toy to play with,” Emmy told Sam.

“A stuffed animal?” Sam asked.

“Not really. It's a doll,” Emmy said. Sam wrinkled his nose.

“No, it's that new doll. You know, the little one? It's a cool game, I promise,” Emmy added quickly, trying to sell Sam on the idea of playing with it. “Look.” She ran into her room, grabbed the doll, and rushed back into Sam's room, wiggling it around in the air.

“Okay,” Sam said. “What's the game?”

“Um, I don't have a name for it,” Emmy began, “But let's play in my room, okay?” Sam nodded a bit reluctantly but grabbed a few of his favorite stuffed animals and then followed Emmy into her room. And that's when Emmy took a good look out her window . . . right into Lizzy's room.

Lizzy, Sophie, and Cadence were all there. A big-screen television sat in the corner of her room. Emmy wondered if Lizzy's parents had bought it for their darling, popular Liz as a get-well-soon present, or if they were just allowing her to borrow one from another room for her big sleepover with her real best friends.

From what Emmy could see, the three girls were gearing up to watch television, play video games, and eat junk food, which was available in huge amounts. Three sleeping bags were spread out in front of the television. Emmy could feel the expression on her face morph into a scowl as she remembered all the times
she
had spread out her sleeping bag on Lizzy's floor.

Emmy turned her attention back to Sam. “Look what I can do.” Emmy threw the doll up high and caught it. Sam smiled, impressed.

“Now you try,” Emmy said, tossing the doll to Sam and then peering out her window again. Sam gladly accepted the challenge and began throwing the doll up and catching it. A few times he threw it so high that the doll hit the ceiling. And a few times Sam missed and the doll landed with a thud on the hardwood floor.

As Sam tossed, threw, and twisted the little doll around, Emmy continued to watch what was happening in Lizzy's room. The girls were sprawled out and relaxed on their sleeping bags, but then something crazy started happening. Lizzy sprang up and began jumping up and down as high as she could, cast and all. She jumped and jumped like she was on a pogo stick, her cast banging on the floor.

Cadence's body language suggested that she was telling Lizzy to sit down, and Lizzy sat down sheepishly. But about five seconds later she started jumping again. A few times she lost her balance and fell hard on the ground. Now Sophie and Cadence were staring at her as if she'd completely lost her mind.

Emmy turned her attention back to Sam, who had started making the doll do a funny little dance.

“What else can you make it do?” Emmy prodded her brother, who had begun making a stuffed monkey stand on its head. He shrugged. He seemed to be losing interest in playing with the doll and was more interested in his animals. Emmy had to do something.

“How about making the doll stand on its head like your monkey?” Emmy asked. She knew it was a lame little game, but Sam was just a little boy and he seemed happy to have the company and to please Emmy.

“Yeah!” Sam said, and began balancing the doll on its head, where it stayed for a few moments before eventually falling over.

Time to look out the window again,
Emmy thought with glee.

And what a scene it was. First Lizzy was doing a weird little dance, her arms and legs flailing about as though she were a puppet on a string. And then, without a pause, she went straight into a headstand, balancing awhile before falling and knocking over a bowl of potato chips with her big cast. The chips landed all over the floor and in the sleeping bags.

Sophie got up to clean up the chips, looking extremely put out.
Maybe they won't be able to sleep with all the crumbs in their sleeping bags,
Emmy thought.
Oh well. Too bad.

And then Lizzy went right into another headstand, her rainbow cast sticking high up in the air. Sophie and Cadence stared at her, their mouths wide open in shock. Then Cadence whispered something to Sophie and they both laughed.

After her second headstand, Lizzy went back to her place on the bed, like she didn't know what had come over her all of a sudden. Like someone else had taken over her body. She sat down for a minute and looked at the television screen.

Oh, no,
thought Emmy.
I'm not done with you yet.

Emmy turned around. “My turn!” she crowed to Sam. By now she had positioned herself in such a way that she could see into Lizzy's window and play with Sam at the same time. “Look what I can do with it.” She threw the doll against the wall so hard that it bounced off and landed with a loud plunk on the floor. Emmy picked it up and did it again as Sam laughed and laughed. This was the most fun Emmy could remember having with her brother.

Then, like a jack-in-the-box, Lizzy popped off the couch and ran straight into the wall, hard. Then she collapsed on the floor in a heap.

Sophie hit a button on the remote control, pausing whatever it was they were watching. Sophie and Cadence continued to look annoyed, and they looked like they were yelling at her. Emmy could just imagine their snobby voices:
Would you stop! Seriously, what is your problem?
But Lizzy ran into the wall again and again. Depending on how Emmy threw the doll, sometimes Lizzy would slide feet first, sometimes she'd slam her shoulder into the wall. Each time, she hit the wall so hard that she'd fall down. But each time, she'd get up and do it again. She looked like a little kid who wasn't getting enough attention and had resorted to doing crazy tricks.

Finally, she stopped and sat there on the floor, confused. She looked dazed.
More specifically,
Emmy thought,
she looks like a cartoon character who has just hit its head. Stars and swirls might as well be circling above her.
For a split second Emmy worried that maybe she went a little too far. After all, what if she had given Lizzy a concussion? But then Emmy shoved the thought out of her head. Lizzy was just getting what she deserved, Emmy figured.

Then Lizzy's mom entered the room. She looked concerned and more than a little perplexed. She bent down next to Lizzy, and Cadence and Sophie looked like they were explaining something to her. They still looked totally annoyed, but also a little scared.

How's your fabulous sleepover going now?
Emmy asked Lizzy in her head.
Guess it's not going exactly the way you'd planned. Guess you hadn't planned on being a total spaz.

Lizzy sat up straight and looked like she was trying to collect herself. Then Emmy saw Cadence and Sophie rolling up their sleeping bags and putting on their backpacks. They walked slowly out of the room as Lizzy's mom gently tried to put Lizzy in bed and tuck her in under the covers. She must have thought she had a fever or something. She must have thought she was delirious.

And that seemed to be the end of Lizzy's sleepover party. Emmy laughed out loud, forgetting that Sam was still in the room. She couldn't help herself. It was probably the last time Cadence and Sophie would ever talk to Lizzy again.

Emmy went to sleep that night unable to stop herself from feeling wildly pleased by her actions with the little doll. What a fool Lizzy had made of herself at her own sleepover party!

The next morning Emmy felt more energetic than she had in a long time. She enjoyed her weekend. She was in such a good mood she offered to help her mom do the grocery shopping and her dad sort the recycling. She also helped Sam with his homework, which pleased her parents to no end. All the while she kept the doll on her desk. She was just waiting for inspiration. What else could she do to Lizzy with this magic little doll?

Monday morning finally rolled around and for once she found herself not dreading going to school. As she approached the school building, she noticed Lizzy making her way through the front door on her crutches . . . alone. Where was her usual entourage? They were nowhere to be seen.

Now she'll know what it's like to feel ignored.
Emmy thought, barely able to keep the smile off her face. At lunch Emmy glanced over at Lizzy's usual spot with Sophie and Cadence, but Lizzy wasn't there. Emmy scanned the lunchroom, trying to find her. She finally saw her eating alone at a table near the corner. She looked miserable. As Emmy got up to bus her tray, she walked slowly by Sophie and Cadence. She could hear their conversation clearly. Being invisible had its benefits.

“Whatever,” Sophie was saying. “If she wants to be weird, let her be weird with other people. She didn't need to ruin my night.”

“I know, right?” Cadence replied. “She was acting like she'd just escaped from the loony bin.” This made both girls crack up.

Emmy continued walking with her tray and, as she exited the lunchroom, took a backward glance at Lizzy, alone in the corner, her crutches propped up on the wall next to her. For a moment she felt bad for her and paused as she considered going over to Lizzy and talking to her. Then she remembered what a totally bad friend Lizzy had been to her.
Let her come to me,
Emmy thought as she turned her back and walked out of the cafeteria.

After school, sitting at her kitchen table, Emmy made herself a snack of crackers and peanut butter. Happily munching away, Emmy replayed the day's events in her mind and relished the idea of Lizzy's rapidly dwindling popularity.
Could Lizzy even
get
more miserable?
Emmy wondered.
Oh, yes. Yes she could.

Emmy went to her room and picked up the doll from her desk, stroking its long yarn hair. She looked out her window into Lizzy's room, but her old friend wasn't there.

“Don't you think it's about time for a makeover?” Emmy asked out loud, addressing the doll. “I have a vision.”

She reached across the desk for her scissors and held them out, pointing them at the doll like a magic wand.

Then Emmy slowly, methodically cut the doll's hair off, in as random a pattern as possible. There were pieces sticking out every which way. It took a few minutes to snip all that yarn off. When she had finished, she held the doll up and admired her work.

Emmy looked at the doll as if it had spoken to her. “What, you don't like it?” she asked the doll innocently. The doll's button eyes stared back vacantly.

Emmy's voice had two layers: it was warm on the surface but cold as ice underneath. “I think it looks cool.”