The Dress Disaster ~ February, 2009

“Emma, may I come in?” came my younger sister’s voice from outside my door.
“One minute, Megan,” I said, quickly putting a bookmark in the book I was reading and hurrying to the door.
“Yes?” I said to Megan.
“Mommy is taking me to the costume store so that I can pick out my Halloween costume and buy some candy, and she said that you can come if you want, but you don’t have to,” Megan said quickly.
“No, that’s all right, Megan. I got my costume last week so I think I’ll stay here, all right?” I replied.
“Okay, but one last thing. What kind of candy is your favorite?” she asked.
“The chocolate one,” I said.
“That’s my favorite too,” said Megan as she skipped down the stairs.
“Bye,” I called at Megan. Before I had gotten my costume last week, I had told Megan that I was going to be a medieval princess. She immediately decided she would be a princess too. But of course she didn’t know what medieval means so she was going to be a fairy princess instead.
I couldn’t wait until Halloween. It was going to be so much fun this year. My best friend Sophie and I were going to go trick-or- treating with her mom. My mom was going to take Megan.
One hour later, when Megan and Mom got home, Megan was twirling up the stairs in a pink dress. She had a silver tiara in her hair. She also had wings on her back with a wand in her hand.
“Good costume,” I said.
“Isn’t it?” Megan said happily as she twirled around the hallway. She stopped twirling to catch her breath and said, “Why don’t you get in your costume too?”
“I want my costume to be a surprise, don’t you?” I said.
“No,” she said blankly.
“Well,” I said, “It’s my costume and I can do whatever I want to do with it, right?”
“All right,” said Megan, “but help me out of my costume. I don’t want it to get ruined.”
The next day after lunch I got on my jacket and crunched through the leaves down the sidewalk toward Sophie’s house. She had invited me over to watch a new movie, and I couldn’t wait.
“I thought you’d never get here!” Sophie said. We walked into the kitchen. Sophie’s mom was getting out a pot to make popcorn. Sophie and I got the kernels, oil, salt, and butter. First, we put the oil in the pan and waited until it was hot enough and then we put the kernels in. Then, when all of them had popped into popcorn, Sophie’s mom put all the popcorn in a big bowl. Sophie and I put in salt and butter and took the bowl downstairs. We put the bowl down on a table in the corner of the room. Sophie put in the movie and pressed play, and we both sat down on the couch.

~~~

Back at home, Megan felt left out. She was eating her peanut butter and jelly sandwich alone. She had planned out her day while she was eating. First she would eat popcorn and watch a movie alone. Then she would play in the leaf pile alone. Alone, alone, alone--it was everywhere! Why didn’t she have such a good friend like Sophie was to Emma? Maybe it was because she was still in preschool but if she had been born three months earlier she would be starting kindergarten.
“Well, maybe,” she thought, “I could do something that I can’t do when Emma is around. Like turn on the lava lamp in Emma’s room. Or maybe I could go to the attic with no older sister to say ‘no you can’t touch that.’” Then she got the best idea yet.
“Mom, I want to do something before I watch the movie, okay?” Megan said.
“All right,” her mom said from the basement where she was getting the movie ready for Megan. Megan dashed up the stairs to Emma’s room.

~~~

“That was a great movie,” Emma said to Sophie. They were in Sophie’s room making beaded bracelets.
“I know; it was awesome.” Sophie replied.
“Emma,” Sophie’s mom called up the stairs, “Your mom just called and said she wants you home.”
“Okay,” I said.
“Thanks for coming over,” Sophie said.
As I walked home the air felt so chilly. I pulled my jacket closer around me. I hurried the rest of the way home.
“What’s for dinner?” I asked my mom when I got home.
“Pizza,” my mom said.
“Pepperoni?” I asked anxiously.
“Yes,” my mom replied.
“Yum!” I said, as I hung up my jacket.
“Megan, time for dinner!” I called up the stairs. A very pale Megan came downstairs.
“You look sick,” I told Megan.
“Well, I’m not,” Megan said firmly.
“All right,” I said to Megan, “but that doesn’t change the fact that you look sick.” Megan came into the kitchen. All through dinner she hardly touched her food.
“This is your favorite. Why aren’t you eating?” I asked her.
“I’m not hungry,” she said.
“All right,” I told her, “but don’t blame me when you’re hungry later.”
“I won’t blame you, you’ll blame me.” Megan said.
“What?” I asked questioningly.
“Never mind,” Megan said, getting up and walking up the stairs slowly. It was my turn to help with the dishes so I had to stay downstairs a little longer than Megan, but as soon as I could I hurried upstairs. I walked over to Megan’s room but she wasn’t there, so I went into my room. The sight made me almost fall over.
“What did you do?” I gasped out to Megan. My Halloween costume was spread out on the floor. It was dirty, and ripped and wet.
“I knew you’d be mad,” Megan sniffled. Mad? She didn’t know the half of it!
“Earlier when you went to Sophie’s house, I decided I wanted to see your costume, so I got it out of the closet and I thought I saw a wet spot. I thought when I went outside later I would take it with me so it could dry, and then when I wasn’t looking it blew into a bush. After dinner a few minutes ago I thought I would try to sponge it up but that didn’t help. I don’t blame you if you’re mad. I’d be mad if you ruined my fairy costume. Please don’t ruin it! Please, please!”
“I won’t touch your fairy costume, okay? Now dry those tears.” I said calmly. “All I have to do is buy a new one. Look, I’ll just hang it up here so I can tell what it looks like for when I buy a new one.”
“How am I going to buy a new one in time for Halloween?” I thought. “Oh well, I’ll worry about that later. For now I have to help Megan get ready for bed.” After I got her in her pajamas and got her in bed I got ready for bed myself. When I got in bed I thought about what had happened and decided that no matter what Megan did I would still love her because she’s my sister and I love her.

THE END