Switched at Birthday Page 15

  Mr. Brummel was working at the refreshments table. “Girls, why did you blow out the candle?” He patted his pockets, looking for a match so he could relight it.

  “Sorry, Mr. B.,” I said.

  Mr. Brummel found a match and struck it. “Please don’t blow out the candle again. This is Halloween, girls, not a birthday party.” He relit the candle. The wick sparked, then glowed.

  “Mr. B.,” Lavender said. “That candle comes from Kalamazoo.”

  “Does it?” Mr. Brummel shrugged. “How do you know that?”

  “It says so on the bottom,” I replied. “We checked.”

  “That seems like an odd thing to do,” Mr. Brummel said. “Checking the bottom of a candle to see where it comes from. What difference does it make to you?”

  “We thought it might matter,” I said. “Do you know anything about this candle, anything at all? Like how it got here?”

  “Or if it has any special, um, qualities?” Lavender added.

  “No,” Mr. Brummel said. “It doesn’t smell like pumpkins, if that’s what you mean.”

  “But Kalamazoo is your hometown,” Lavender said.

  “So?” Mr. Brummel said. “You’re from Baltimore, and they make spices here. Do those two facts have anything to do with each other?”

  “I guess not,” I said. We were groping for answers, anything that might solve our crazy problem. The whole cupcake and candle thing was beginning to seem silly.

  “I’ve got to go up onstage now,” Mr. Brummel said. “I’m judging the costume contest. Magic time.”

  “Magic,” Lavender said. “Exactly. We need magic….”

  Mr. Brummel mounted the stage and took the DJ’s microphone. “Attention, everyone! It’s time for the Costume Contest!”

  “Oh no,” Lavender said. “This is going to be bad.”

  “I’m bracing myself,” I said.

  “You definitely should,” Lavender said.

  Charlie and John came to get us. John took my hand. “Come on, Lavender,” he said. “Let’s enter the contest.”

  “We’ll never win,” I said. Winning a costume contest was the last thing I cared about.

  “Why not?” John said. “I think we look convincingly alien.”

  The four of us lined up with the others to march past Mr. Brummel and show off our costumes. I looked for Zoe, but I didn’t see her anywhere. That made me nervous.

  Here it comes, I thought. Some dreadful embarrassment. Some kind of smelly thing to dump on my head, or a big five-foot-high picture of me with my skirt tucked into my underwear, or maybe a song written just for me, all about how dorky I am.

  It wouldn’t be about me, really, of course, but about Lavender. Though I was having a hard time seeing where Lavender stopped and I began. The line was getting fuzzier all the time.

  Zoe could ridicule Lavender, but she’d really be making fun of me. And if she went after me — Scarlet — that would hurt too.

  The gym door banged open, and a tall black cat burst in, followed by a pirate. Or rather, a girl in a black cat costume, and another girl in a pirate costume. The cat was walking a big shaggy dog with a sign around its neck that said LAVENDER SCHMITZ.

  Kids started laughing at the dog as Zoe marched it around the room. Some of them tried to pet it.

  Hmmm … okay. That wasn’t a dream come true, but it was also not so bad. Yet.

  The dog trotted happily around the room with its tongue hanging out. Wow, I thought, that dog sure is hairy.

  Hairy.

  Very hairy.

  Then I understood what Zoe was up to.

  Lavender. The dog salon.

  The nasty joke I’d made about Lavender needing to go to a dog groomer because she was so hairy.

  Ugh, why had I ever made that ridiculous joke?

  Zoe was going to rat me out to everyone. Lavender already knew how mean I was. Soon Maybelle and John and Charlie would know too.

  I was in Lavender’s body. I felt her face get red and hot. This was embarrassing for me as Lavender. But in a way it was worse for the Scarlet inside me.

  Zoe paraded the dog through the crowd while kids laughed. John squeezed my hand. “Who is that?” he asked.

  “Zoe and Kelsey.”

  “They’re idiots.” He squeezed my hand again. It helped.

  “I know.”

  Zoe impatiently cut to the front of the costume parade. She wanted to make her point, get her prank in now before Mr. Brummel or some other teacher stopped her. She led the dog up onto the stage in front of Mr. Brummel.

  “What are you supposed to be?” he asked. “A dog and a cat?”

  Zoe grabbed the microphone from him. “Mr. Brummel, I’d like to make a public service announcement if I may.”

  “Can it wait until after the contest?” Mr. Brummel said.

  Zoe elbowed him away. “No, it can’t. This is for all you dorks out there who think Scarlet Martinez is your friend. I’m looking at you, Maybelle, and you, John, and Charlie, and especially you, Lavender Schmitz.”

  Zoe looked right at me. I’m Scarlet, you twit, I thought.

  “Somebody should shut her up,” John said.

  “Scarlet is not the nice girl you think she is,” Zoe said. “I have proof. You all should know what kind of friend Scarlet really is.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut. I wished so hard that I’d never said anything mean about anyone. I wished I could take it all back. I wished I could start all over again and choose new friends. I’d choose Lavender. And Maybelle. And Charlie. And John. But not Zoe.

  The microphone squealed and I heard a scuffle on the stage. I opened my eyes. Lavender was up there, wresting the mike out of Zoe’s hands. Mr. Brummel looked on like a ref at a boxing match.

  “Get it! Get the mike!” the crowd yelled. “Go Scarlet!”

  Lavender managed to snatch the mike away. The crowd cheered.

  Lavender cleared her throat. “I know what Zoe’s going to say. I’d like to explain.”

  The room went quiet.

  “I once did something very mean to Lavender,” she said. “She already knows all about it. She doesn’t need to hear that bad old joke again.”

  I swallowed. What was Lavender doing?

  “I’m sorry about what I did,” Lavender said. “It was a mistake. I’m a different person now. I apologized to Lavender, and she forgives me. She told me so herself.”

  Lavender looked at me when she said that. I got the message. She forgave me.

  “Isn’t that nice of Lavender?” Lavender said. “She’s very cool. You all really should get to know her better.”

  Zoe pulled the mike toward her mouth. “That wasn’t what I was going to say! Scarlet’s a traitor and a —”

  Mr. Brummel reached between them and grabbed the mike. “Girls! Can we please get back to the costume contest?”

  Defeated, Zoe and the dog left the stage and ran out of the gym. Kelsey followed.

  I felt sad for Zoe. We were once best friends. I thought we were, anyway. She thought we were too.

  It hurt to lose a friend. Even a friend I’d grown out of.

  The costume parade continued, though no one seemed to care about it anymore. Finally it sputtered to a close.

  “Before I announce the winners,” Mr. Brummel said, “I’d like to remind you all that you are participating in an ancient ritual. Halloween is a chance to cast off our old workaday selves and become someone new. A creature of fantasy, whatever our fantasies may be.”

  While Mr. Brummel rambled on, I watched Lavender and Charlie. He held her hand. Once in a while he looked at her through his curtain of hair, as if he couldn’t believe she was real. As if he couldn’t believe how lucky he was to be holding her hand.

  I wished I could be in her place. Back in my old body. Holding hands with Charlie. Seeing him look at me the way he was looking at her.

  John put his arm around me. Lavender glanced over at us.

  She wanted to trade places with me too. I could see it
in her eyes.

  “Halloween is a holiday of tradition and superstition, much like the theater —” Mr. Brummel said.

  All of a sudden, Lavender’s eyes bugged out.

  She made some quick excuse to Charlie and grabbed my arm.

  “I think I found the answer!” she whispered. “We’re saved!”

  She pulled me away from the crowd.

  “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “To the auditorium.”

  I knew I had the answer. I just knew it. I ran to the auditorium as fast as I could, dragging Scarlet behind me. “What is it?” she kept asking, while I kept wanting to say, “Run faster!” But I understood why she couldn’t run faster — she was saddled with my stubby legs — and decided to be kind.

  When we got there, the auditorium was locked.

  “We’ll have to get the key from Mr. Brummel,” Scarlet said. She sat down in front of the door, out of breath.

  “I’ll go back to the dance and find him,” I offered. “You wait here.”

  I jogged back to the gym, my long Scarlet legs floating me easily across the school grounds. The costume contest was over and the stage was empty. Madame Geller manned the drinks table alone.

  “Have you seen Mr. Brummel?” I asked.

  Madame Geller shook her head. “He disappeared a few minutes ago. Didn’t say where he was going. I wish he’d come back and help me like he promised.”

  I searched the whole gym, but Mr. Brummel was gone.

  Rats.

  Scarlet was still waiting in front of the auditorium. “I couldn’t find him,” I reported. “He hasn’t come by this way, has he?”

  “No. What are we going to do?”

  “I don’t know. The idea I had — well, I have a feeling it will work best in the auditorium, on a real stage.”

  “Nothing we try ever seems to work out,” Scarlet said.

  “Not easily, anyway,” I added.

  We sat quietly for a minute, watching the red taillights of a car drift away from the gym.

  “Lavender.” Scarlet cleared her throat. “Why did you defend me tonight?”

  “Well, I did it because …” Why had I defended her? It had felt right. I understood her better, how she could have gotten lost somewhere along the way. How I’d gotten lost too. How I might have gotten caught up in the same mess, in her place. “I guess because I forgive you.”

  “Thank you.” Scarlet picked at a spot of green face paint. “If we ever do manage to switch back into our own bodies, I’m going to do things differently.”

  “Me too.”

  “For one thing, I’ve been hanging with the wrong people,” Scarlet said. “People who don’t know how to be friends. Maybelle and John — they’re real friends. And Charlie too.”

  She was right. I’d always told myself I had no friends. But I had wonderful friends. The best kids in the school. Maybelle, John, Charlie — and Scarlet.

  “I thought no one liked me because I’m not pretty like you,” I said.

  “Lots of people like you,” Scarlet said. “Even though you’re a grump half the time. Anyway, you shouldn’t define yourself by your looks.”

  “I can’t believe that you, of all people, are saying that to me. You’re the one who’s famous for being so pretty.”

  “Right. And what did that get me? It didn’t get me friends I can trust. It didn’t get me the lead in the school musical. And it didn’t get me a starting spot on the soccer team — that was hard work and talent.”

  “You’re so modest,” I teased.

  “I’m just saying, good looks haven’t gotten me any of the things I care about most.” She peeled away a little more green face paint, frowning. “Being pretty’s definitely the most important thing to my mom. And she’s not happy. She ended up with that blockhead Steve and that horrible zombie Ben.”

  “Ben’s not so bad, you know.”

  “What? Hasn’t he been insulting you? Calling you plastic-head and a pawn of the corporate conspiracy?”

  “He started out that way. But he’s just as unhappy at home as you are. Steve is really hard on him. At least your mother cares about you. Steve is just selfish. And Ben is lonely. Don’t let Steve push you around. You and Ben could team up against him, get him to respect you more.”

  “Steve doesn’t listen to me. And Ben deserves to be lonely. He’s so mean!”

  “If you try being a little bit nice to him, he’s not so mean.”

  “Why doesn’t he be nice to me first?”

  “Because he’s worse off than you. Besides, somebody has to go first.”

  “Well, you could be nicer to your family too,” Scarlet said. “Your mom — all she wants to do is make you happy. She’ll do anything! And Rosemary looks up to you, and you keep putting her down. And your dad’s pretty funny, once you get used to his sense of humor.”

  “They’re so embarrassing,” I protested. “My mom would hug me twenty-four hours a day if I let her. She’d never stop! And my dad lives to mortify me.”

  “Yeah, but they love you, and you know it.”

  She was right, of course. I missed my cozy, embarrassing family. “If I ever get to live with them again, I promise to appreciate them more.”

  “If if if,” Scarlet said. “If only we could switch back!”

  “We can,” I said. “I’m pretty sure I know how. But we have to get into the auditorium first.”

  Scarlet stood up and tried the door again, rattling it. “I’m ready to be myself now. I’m so ready!”

  “Ready?” Mr. Brummel stepped out of the shadows. “What are you two doing out here?”

  I jumped to my feet. “We’ve been looking for you, Mr. B.! Can you let us into the auditorium?”

  “I’ve got the keys. If you left something in there, I can get it for you —”

  “It’s not that,” I said. “It’s —” How to explain?

  “We were so inspired by the speech you gave at the Spooktacular,” Scarlet jumped in, “that we wanted to rehearse on our own, right now.”

  “That’s right,” I said. “Lavender’s going to practice her songs, and I’m going to listen.”

  “Well, I guess that’s okay,” Mr. Brummel said. “It’s kind of nice, actually. Do you need help with the lights?”

  He unlocked the door and let us in, switching on the houselights. Then he disappeared backstage. After a few seconds, two spotlights illuminated the stage.

  We’d told him that Lavender wanted to practice her songs. How did he know we needed two spotlights?

  “I’ll be back later to lock up.” He hopped off the stage and started out the door. “Have fun!” He switched off the houselights on his way out, so that the spotlights on the stage were the only illumination.

  Scarlet and I stood on the dark stage in the silent theater, hovering between the two spotlights.

  “Okay, Lavender. He’s gone. What’s your plan?”

  “When Mr. B. said theater and then superstition, it reminded me of that rhyme he taught us,” I said. “Know the role you want to play and say the name three times this way —”

  “Backward and forward and so on,” Scarlet said. “I did that rhyme.”

  “So did I.”

  We looked at each other.

  “Maybe,” I said. “The cake and the candle didn’t work — at least, not by themselves. Maybe we need to add the chant too. Let’s try it again. Only this time, say the name of the person you want to be now. Who do you want to be more than anyone else in the world?”

  “Scarlet Martinez.”

  “And I want to be Lavender Schmitz.”

  “So I say my own name? And you say your own name?”

  I nodded.

  “Do you really think it will work?” Scarlet asked.

  “Who knows?” I said. “Do you have any other ideas?”

  “No,” she admitted. “Let’s try it.”

  “Maybe the rhyme will have more power if we chant it at the same time,” I said. “Together.” />
  “Okay.”

  “You take stage right and I’ll take stage left.”

  I moved into the spotlight on stage right. Scarlet stood in the light on stage left. We looked at each other across the boards. She nodded. It was time to begin.

  We chanted:

  Know the role you want to play

  And say the name three times this way:

  backward, forward,

  upward, downward,

  inward, outward,

  eastward, westward,

  northward, southward,

  most of all, heavenward.

  “Redneval, Redneval, Redneval,” I recited. “Lavender, Lavender, Lavender.”

  I said my own name upward, downward, inward, outward, eastward, westward, northward, southward.

  I heard Scarlet on the other side of the stage, chanting her own name the way I chanted mine.

  Then I clasped my hands together in the most fervent prayer and looked toward heaven. The spotlight bleached my vision.

  “Lavender Lavender Lavender!” I pleaded.

  “Scarlet Scarlet Scarlet!” Scarlet shouted.

  The names echoed through the theater, then faded away to silence.

  We waited.

  Suddenly the spotlights went out. The auditorium was dark.

  “Help!” Scarlet cried. “Someone turned off the lights!”

  “I’ve got it.” I groped my way backstage to the light board and flicked a switch. The stage lights came on, just one big flood of light.

  I looked across the stage at Scarlet. She stared at me with her big hazel eyes.

  Scarlet’s eyes. Not mine.

  She was wearing a hula outfit, tall and athletic with dark-blond hair.

  Shaking, I held up my hand. It was coated with green body paint.

  Because Lavender was an alien for Halloween.

  And I was Lavender again!

  “It worked!” Scarlet squealed. “It worked! We’re back!”

  “We’re back!” I cried. I grabbed her hands and we jumped up and down, squealing. Just like I used to see her do with Zoe. But this was different. This was real happiness. And real friendship.

  We went back to the gym to find John and Charlie. They were wandering around looking for us.

  “I get Charlie now, right?” Scarlet whispered.

  “And I get John,” I said.