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Dedication For Kaia, whose bottomless well of creativity inspires me every day. Contents Cover Title Page Dedication Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter...
Dedication For Kaia, whose bottomless well of creativity inspires me every day. Contents Cover Title Page Dedication Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Epilogue Acknowledgments Glossary of Business Terms How Pearl Calculates Profits for Kawaii Crochets Auntie Cha’s Sparkling Mango Green Tea Boba Recipe About the Author Copyright About the Publisher Chapter 1 I DECIDED TO NAME THE hot dog Oscar. I mean, how clever is that? Oscar as in Oscar Mayer, the meat company. Get it? Hilarious, if I do say so myself. Even if hot dogs aren’t exactly a common dish in the Li household. Unfortunately, a funny name was the only good idea my brain had last night. Because after I stitched through the tail end of the yarn and tucked it into Oscar’s stuffing, I popped him into my backpack so I could bring him to school. With his little beaded eyes and slightly crooked smile, my newest crochet creation was just too adorable to keep to myself. I didn’t mean to sew his smile that way. I counted the number of stitches between his eyes wrong and ended up with an even number, which made centering his smile impossible. But I liked the way his crooked smile made it look like he knew something no one else did. And that yellow stripe I stitched onto his body for mustard . . . Oscar was a true masterpiece! Priya and Cindy, my two best friends, would love him. I had to take him on a field trip to Lynbrook Middle School. What a mistake. Fast-forward to now. The sound we’d been waiting for all day had finally rung, and just like that, sixth grade was over. Summer had officially started! I couldn’t wait to get out of the most boring computer skills class ever. I scooped up what was on the desk and grabbed my backpack to shove everything in . . . And out tumbled Oscar. After a few somersaults, he bumped up next to the crisp, clean white sneaker of Miss Perfect herself, Kendall Stewart. I lunged forward. But before I could get him back to safety, Kendall had Oscar in her manicured hands. “What’s this?” She turned him around to get a better look. “Aren’t we a little old to be playing with dolls, Pearl?” My cheeks burned. But against my tan skin, I knew it wouldn’t show. My mom liked to remind me that it was a good thing to not have your emotions show on your face. That way, you could hide them better. But sometimes, I wished they could do the talking for me. Maybe people wouldn’t be so quick to look past me if they knew what I was really feeling. Or if I had the guts to tell them. I’m not playing with dolls, I wanted to shout. I’m definitely too old for that. But making them with your own two hands? That’s not easy! Did I say what I was thinking, though? Of course not. My mouth liked to stop working whenever I had to confront someone, especially someone like Kendall Stewart. She always looked like she just stepped out of a movie, shining with that energy only beautiful, confident people have. Even the plastic charms on her bracelet matched the swirly pattern of the sundress she was wearing. “Hey, give that back!” Priya leapt to my rescue, her eyes flashing and her long hair whipping forward like a bolt of black lightning. She snatched Oscar from Kendall, shoved him back into my hands, and pulled me out of the classroom in a huff. When we got outside, I sighed with relief and threw my arm around her. “You’re my knight in shining armor, as usual.” I laughed. She flashed me a smile as big and bright as her oversized red sweater. “And you’re my damsel in distress,” she quipped back, slinging her own arm around my neck. That was our running joke ever since we became best friends in third grade. Even then, Priya was a fierce defender of the meek. The other kids always teased me for how small I was. But it was the day that a boy called me a “ching chong with glasses” that our friendship really took off. She shoved the boy so hard into the mud that he had to find another pair of pants from the lost and found. Then we bonded over our love of crafts when I shyly presented her with a rainbow clay lump covered with mounds of glitter as a thank-you. As we’d gotten older, I could still count on her to be my voice when it wouldn’t come out on its own. “Now that you’ve been rescued, let me see!” She held out her hand, flipping her hair back in that dramatic way she always did. I tossed her Oscar. “I love it!” she cooed, turning him around. “Very pop art.” “I finally finished him last night.” I pushed my glasses back up my nose. Charm bracelets weren’t my thing, but a fun collection of glasses was! The last day of sixth grade deserved a little extra flair, so I had picked out my bright red cat-eyed pair this morning. “See, I even sewed on mustard with this single crochet strand.” A jingling sound approached us from behind. Priya and I looked at each other and grinned. Without turning around, we both called out, “Hey, Cindy!” “Aww, how adorable!” Sure enough, it was Cindy, our other best friend. The long earrings dangling
Author: Marina Bruno; Isabel Álvarez
Year: 2023
Views: 47070
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