The Italian meatballs were delicious. Jane spooned over hot, buttery noodles and enjoyed every bit of it. Jane's dad had three helpings.
"You girls could open a restaurant," Jane's mother said. "If you ever want a job cooking for my school, let me know." Her mom's school was a preschool where she worked as a teacher. "Our kitchen staff could definitely use some new ideas. What else did you girls do this afternoon?"
"Nothing," Jane said.
"Same," Caroline said.
It was one of their favorite replies to their mother's questions.
"Caroline, I saw you got a letter from the senator in the mail. Was that anything interesting? Had you written to him about something?" she asked again.
Jane almost never got any mail. But last year she had written to the senator about women health. It was an assignment on writing a formal letter. The Senator had written back, thanking her for her concern. Jane still had the letter.
"Actually," Caroline said, obviously trying not to look too pleased, "he was congratulating me on placing third in the state on the debate competition I did last semester."
"Oh, honey! Go get the letter. We want to see it!"
Caroline rolled her eyes at Jane, but she retrieved the letter from her room and handed it to their mother. She read the letter out loud, then passed it to Jane's father. Their dad didn't say anything but he beamed proudly at Caroline.
"We have to frame this!" Jane's mom said. "We can hang it in the hall, with all of your school pictures on the news." Then she stopped and looked quickly at Jane. "Do you still have your letter from the senator, dear? We can frame both of them."
"No," Jane lied. "I threw it away."
She was going to throw it away, too, as soon as she got to her room. Her letter was nothing like her sister's. Everyone in her entire class had written a letter to the senator and everyone had gotten the same letter back. The only one who had gotten a different letter had been Lucy Adams. Somehow even the law-maker had known that you couldn't write back to Lucy with a form letter. Her mom gave Jane a worried look. She pretended not to see it. She carried her empty plate to the dishwasher. Then she slipped upstairs to make another entry in her book.
~*~
On Sunday afternoon Emily came over to hang around in her room and just watched a senseless show.
"We need a motto for our club, too," Emily suddenly said. "Like 'Winning isn't everything.' or 'Useful as the G in Lasagna.'"
Jane giggled, but then she had a sudden inspiration. "I have it. 'Not all losers are born. Some are made. Others have losing thrust upon them.'"
"Where did you get that?" Emily asked suspiciously.
"I heard it somewhere," Jane said with a shrug. "About being born great. You know...you just have to change it around."
"That's a good motto I may say," her best friend admitted at last. Jane smiled. So Caroline was perfect. What else was new? Jane was glad that she and Emily had formed their silly club. There was something satisfying about being a founding officer of the one organization of which her sister could never be a member.
~*~
On Monday morning, Jane rode the bus to school and met Emily in the back seats. Sometimes Jane and Emily would hang together in the parking lot before the bell. Today, they just sat on the curb.
"Hey," Emily said in a low voice. "Look."
Jane looked up. She didn't see anything. Caroline and her group of friends were playing volleyball. A bunch of boys watched them, cheering them on. Farther along the curb, Lucy Adams was sitting all alone, her blonde curls hanging down over her face. She was scribbling something in the notebook that she always carried with her. Everyone knew that she was always writing poems.
"No Jane, over there," Emily said.
Then Jane saw her. She was tall, around Caroline's height. Maybe in her twenties. Or even younger, but old enough to be a teacher. She didn't look like any teacher Jane had ever seen. In fact, she was the most unteacherly person she had ever seen. The most noticeable thing about her was her hair. It fell down her back in long, shinning, silky waves. She looked like Rapunzel. And her hair was pure gold under the sun as if Rumpelstiltskin had spent all night spinning it out of gold. Her face was beautiful, too. Very beautiful. And her clothes were elegant. She wore a knitted sweater and white collar out, but under it, she wore a thin, swirly, shimmery skirt, even longer than her hair. She stood watching the students at the volleyball court.
"I think," Emily spoke in a thick, trance-like voice. "I think I'm in love."
This was not the first time that her best friend had been in love. Emily had already been in love with two movie stars, one lead singer in a rock band, and a check-out cashier named Stephanie who worked at their local supermarket.
Jane couldn't take any of Emily's love interests seriously, but at least none of them had lasted more than a week or two. Rapunzel was definitely the best-looking one yet. She looked like she came straight out of a Disney movie.
The bell rang. Jane and Emily joined the crowd of high-schoolers. Jane saw Rapunzel entered the building, too.
During morning announcements, Jane found herself wondering what someone like Rapunzel was doing in her school. She was too young to be somebody's mother. Maybe she was somebody's sister. Or a substitute? Jane had never seen a substitute with hair like that.
On the way to first-period science class, Jane and Emily looked into every classroom off the main hall, hoping for another glimpse of Rapunzel. They didn't see her. But when they turned into the science lab, there she was! Deep in conversation with Mr. O'Hara.
"Good morning, class," Mr. O'Hara said when all the students were in their seats. "I'd like to introduce our new science teacher, Ms. Grace Anderson. Ms. Anderson will be working with you for the next semester, as part of her master program at the university. She's going to explain what she has planned for us."
"Good morning," Ms. Anderson said. Her voice was as beautiful as her hair, and face, and a skirt. It was soft and low and a bit husky. Jane glanced over at Emily. Emily looked ready to faint.
"I'm going to be working with you on your science fair projects," Ms. Anderson went on. "I think you all know that the annual science fair will take place on Thursday, February 28. I hope some of you develop projects that will be chosen for the regional science competition or even the state science competition. But most of all, I hope this will be a chance for all of you to learn more about the beauty and wonder of science."
If Mr. O'Hara had ever talked about the beauty and wonder of science, the class would have snickered. But as Jane looked around, no one was snickering now. Everyone was captivated by the beautiful creature standing in front of them.
Ms. Anderson explained more about how the science fair projects should be organized. Then she said, "Now I want you to form small groups for brainstorming about science fair ideas. I'll be circulating among your groups to begin talking with each of you individually."After they had counted off, Jane found herself in the first group, with three girls, including Lucy Adams —not Emily. Ms. Anderson pulled her chair over to join them."In science, we start out with questions," Ms. Anderson said in her low, throaty voice. "What questions about our physical world would any of you like to try to answer?"Jane had plenty of questions, but she kept them to herself. Why wasn't she growing taller? How come some people were better at things than other people? How could anybody have hair that
Jane floated through science class and art. Then, in third-period math class, she came down to earth with a thud.Mr. Putnam was a short, stocky man who always wore a bow tie and suspenders. He looked a little bit like an inflatable toy, held down by beanbag weights stuffed into his small, shiny black shoes."Boys and girls," he began, rocking slightly on his toes, "today we are going to start a new program called Peer-Teaching."Jane looked over at Emily. She could tell that Emily didn't like the sound of it either."In Peer-Teaching, students work together in pairs as partners. Partners study together during class several times each week."Jane met Emily's eyes again. They never wo
At lunch, Emily could talk of nothing but Grace Anderson."Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!" she moaned piteously to her ham sandwich. "I thought I was in love those other times, but they were nothing compared to this."Jane didn't want to talk about Ms. Anderson with Emily. She wished Emily hadn't seen her first. She wished Emily hadn't said that she was in love with her first."What do you want to do after school?" Jane asked to change the subject."Nothing," Emily said in the same lovesick voice that was beginning to get on Jane's nerves."We have to dosomething," Jane insisted."I guess we could mess around
By the end of the day, Jane had made three new entries for herUnfair Lifebook. In a black-bordered box on its own special page, she wrote: Monday, 27.Jane Waleski was assigned Lucy Adams as her partner in Peer-Teaching. From gym class she had: Monday, 27.Jane missed more baskets than anyone in the class except Emily Zuckerman. Coach Jim said, "Sometimes I find it hard to believe that you and Caroline Waleski are really sisters." As soon as Coach Jim had said it, Jane could tell that the coach felt sorry for letting the words slip out. "Just kidding, Jane," the coach said. "Come on now, concentrate!"
Jane tried to think of a project for the science fair, but she didn't know how to begin. In elementary school, she and Emily had just done whatever project their dads suggested, from a library book Jane's mother checked out every year on award-winning science fair ideas. One year they had done something with magnets. Another year they had let mold grow on different foods: apples, bread, yogurt. That had been Jane's favorite project.She forgot what their hypothesis had been, but she still remembered how gross the food had looked when the project was displayed in the elementary-school gym.This year she wanted to do something different—not an experiment out of a book but one she thought up all by herself. She fantasized about the judges to be astonished that a sixteen-year-old could have thought up such a project and carried it out
On Friday afternoon, classes were canceled for a school-wide pep rally in the gym. It was the game of the season. The school had its biggest rival in every sport coming into tonight's game undefeated.As Jane walked to the pep rally with Emily, she gathered data for another entry in Unfair Life:Friday, January 29th.On the way to the pep rally, three different people asked Jane Waleski, "Are you really Caroline Waleski's sister?"When the team came running out into the gym, the people in the bleachers went wild. Everyone was chanting Caroline's name. Emily joined the crowd until her throat was hoarse from yelling. Jane had cheered as loudly as she could for all the others, but she tried to cheer even more for her sister. She felt terrible for th
Jane made up her mind to stick to her rules. After making a list of her dream goals, she made it her life mission to cross each one of them.But the hard part was crossing them.She felt a sense of optimism, almost excitement flooding through her. She was also slightly overwhelmed by the things she had to commit to. Things that were mostly her least favorite things, like studying instead of watching her TV shows or hanging out with Emily.But she believed that every great man and woman had to sacrifice a lot to reach their goals, so no more whining. She would have to do the same or die trying. That was how serious she was.Jane had been shooting baskets from five until seven. She only made 30 baskets out of 100. Compared to her usual
The bell rang. Jane was stuffingATale of Two Citiesinto her backpack when she heard Lucy's voice beside her."You're readingDickens?"Jane nodded warily."Oh, IloveDickens. Have you readDavid Copperfield? OrOliver Twist?Olive Twistis my favorite. I've read it twice. I cried both times. I can't believe someone else in our class is reading Dickens."To her dismay, Jane found herself walking down the hall to English with Lucy by her side, still talking, talking, talking."I didn't know you were such a big reader, Jane," Lucy said, smiling at her. "I guess because yo