mister.â
âI did not make a mess,â I say. âYou did.â
âNo, you!â
âNo!â
âYou, you, you!â Then Cousin Angela moves over to the sink. There is a pool of blue nail polish right in there. She dips her fingers in that blue. And then she smears them right on her cheek. âFace paint!â she says. âHAHAHAHAHAHA.â
Wow. She is laughing a lot about that face paint. She thinks it is the most hilarious thing ever invented.
âMaybelle,â I whisper. âPlease, please, please use your magic to clean this place up. If you do, I will be your best friend.â
âYour best friend is Addie Jokobeck,â Maybelle says. She is dipping her nails into that polish, too.
âBut you will be my new one,â I say. âIf you clean it up. And we can do all the fun things that best friends forever do!â
Maybelle thinks about it. Then she pulls her wand out. She points it at that nail polish bottle. And then it is flying back up into the air and even more nail polish is coming out.
âAhhh!â Cousin Angela screams.
âAhhh!â I scream.
It is all over. Like a big rainstorm of blue sticky nail polish.
My mom and Aunt Denise and Cousin Genevieve come running into the bathroom.
âGirls!â my mom says. âWhat is all this yelling about?â Then she sees that very big mess. âHailey,â she says. âPlease go to your room.â
⢠⢠â¢
We cannot try on the dresses. And dinner with the broccoli soup is even canceled. That is because Cousin Angela and I are two big messes covered in blue nail polish. We both need to have baths immediately.
âWhy did you do that, Maybelle?â I ask when I am in my bath. I am covered all up in bubbly bubbles. I have a very scratchy sponge. I am supposed to be scrub, scrub, scrubbing all up.
âYou know why,â Maybelle whispers. âI am trying to be bad at magic so that Mr. Tuttle will not make me go back to the castle.â
âYes, but you could have been bad at magic without making a big mess.â This nail polish is not very good at coming off of skin. It is stuck right on my arms no matter how hard I scrub. âOr you could have made that big mess go on Cousin Angela only.â
âHailey!â my mom calls. âDid you get all that nail polish off yet?â
âI am getting there!â I say. There is still some blue on my legs. And on my arms. But I am wearing long sleeves and long pants for pajamas so no one will have to know. It will be like my own little secret.
⢠⢠â¢
The next morning I wake up for school very, very early. It is so exciting that I can hardly wait. And that is because I am going to be wearing that flower girl dress right to school!
But first it is time for breakfast.
âHello,â I say when I get downstairs. âGood morning, Kaitlyn!â I am wearing jeans. And a gray T-shirt with a big smiley face on the front. That is a trick. So that no one will think I am wearing my dress to school. Because Maybelle is right about that. It is not allowed.
âWhat are you up to?â Kaitlyn asks me. She is sitting right at the table eating a bowl of oatmeal.
âI am not up to anything,â I tell her. I am trying to look very innocent on my face. I go to get my cereal bowl out of the cupboard.
âYes, you are,â she says. âYou are not wearing anything sparkly. And you are being very nice to me. You are up to something. â
âI am being nice to you,â I say, âbecause I am very sorry that I spilled your blue nail polish all over.â
âYou spilled it all over?â Kaitlyn says. âThat was a brand-new bottle of nail polish!â
âYes, well, Cousin Angela was pretending to be a big girl. And she knocked it all over.â I push the box of Apple Oâs across the table to her. âWould you like some cereal, Kaitlyn? I will pour it