Pippa park crush at firs.., p.5
Pippa Park Crush at First Sight, page 5
“Sounds good to me,” I said.
“Excellent.” Pastor Oh grinned. He had been holding an official-looking blue folder, which he now opened. He handed me a thick stack of papers. “That’s the script. I have both you and Marvel down as shepherds. That way you can be onstage during the actual performance and make sure everything goes smoothly. Or, at least, as smoothly as possible.”
Pastor Oh started to discuss lighting and sound details, but I was still stuck on the last thing he had said.
“Wait, wait, wait,” I interjected. “Shepherds?”
“Yes, I think you two will nail the part.”
“I didn’t know we’d be on stage! Isn’t there something else—”
But before I could protest any further, one of the kids burst into high-pitched wailing, and Pastor Oh hurried over.
“You’ll do great!” he called back to me, flashing two giant thumbs-up.
I stared at the back of his billowing robes, my lips turned down in a frown. Mina had told me I was going to help out with the play… but she hadn’t mentioned anything about being up onstage with a bunch of little kids in costume. What if someone from school saw me?
“Come on!” Annie said, tugging on my sleeve.
I followed her up the stairs to the stage, still frowning. But as we headed toward the chaotic manger scene, I tried to search for a silver lining. After all, it wasn’t like any of the Royals would pop up at my church. And although I wasn’t looking forward to putting on some rank-smelling old robe, maybe I could turn this into a positive thing… I was already doing Mina a significant favor, and after she found out about this next level of embarrassment, maybe she’d actually feel guilty for once and let me throw the party in our apartment without a fight.
“We’ve been working on this scene for forever,” Annie said, cutting into my thoughts. “The other kids keep saying their lines wrong. Not me, though. I study them every day. And over there? That’s Hana and Sun-Hee. They’re my sheepkicks. That’s like sidekicks, but for sheep.”
We reached center stage, and Annie scampered off to sit by her friends. Marvel already had two of the kids sweeping up the hay. When he spotted me, he grabbed a couple of shepherds’ walking sticks from the floor and tossed one to me.
He banged his stick on the floor, and all the farm animals fell silent.
“Everyone, this is Pippa,” Marvel said. Ten sets of curious eyes turned to me. I gave a little wave. “Under the authority of Pastor Oh, Pippa has been granted the Cane of a True Shepherd,” Marvel continued, his voice grave. I had no idea what he was talking about, but it seemed to mean something to the kids. They all nodded seriously. “That means the two of us are in charge. Right, Pippa?”
Marvel looked at me.
“Umm, right?” I said.
Marvel leaned in closer to me. He whispered, “You have to show your authority early, or they’ll walk all over you. Trust me. I spent my first rehearsal getting my nails painted with glitter by one of the sheep.”
I stifled a laugh, which ended up sounding like some sort of strange burp.
“Oh. Um. Right,” I said. “We’re in charge.”
As Marvel worked with Team Cow and Team Donkey to right the sloppy set pieces, I went over lines with Annie, Sun-Hee, and Hana.
“Baaawww,” Annie said. “The Baby Jesus has come. Rejoice, for he is the Son of God! Baaaawww.”
Hana and Sun-Hee baaawwwed in agreement.
To be honest, I had no idea why the sheep had actual lines, but it was easy enough to sit cross-legged on the floor while the girls argued about whether it should be more of an enthusiastic “baaaaww!” or a surprised “baww!” After a few minutes, I glanced over at Marvel. The hay was now back in place, but two of the donkeys were playing hide-and-seek. I couldn’t tell if Marvel noticed. He had plopped himself down on one of the haystacks. His huge headphones were still draped around his neck, and I spotted a smaller earbud wedged in his left ear. Some things never change.
I told the sheep crew to take it from the top and sidled over to him. “You seem to have lost a couple of donkeys.”
“They’re not lost. We’re playing a game. It’s called Curtains Up, Curtains Down.”
I tilted my head.
“When it’s Curtains Up, you say your lines. When it’s Curtains Down, you can rest.”
“I see. Umm… how long have the curtains been down?”
A faint tinge of pink colored Marvel’s cheeks. “Five… maybe ten minutes?” he said. “No longer than fifteen, I swear.”
“Mm-hmm. I’m sure,” I said. I didn’t know why, but I felt strangely comfortable around him—or, at least, comfortable enough to tease him. Maybe it was because I knew him, sort of. Or maybe it was just that something about him made me want to joke around. “Why are you here, anyway? At the pageant, I mean.”
“What, you don’t think it’s out of the goodness of my heart?” Marvel asked, clasping a hand against his chest.
But when I arched my eyebrow, he admitted, “I lost a bet to one of my brothers. This was the punishment.”
Grinning a tiny bit, I pointed at his phone. “So, what are you listening to?”
He patted the haystack, and I sat down next to him, a few inches away. He showed me the screen of his phone: 2YA2YAO! by Super Junior.
“Oh, nice,” I said, even though I had never heard the song before. “I like Super Junior.”
“What do you think of this one? I’ve been listening to it nonstop.”
I cringed. I had hoped he wouldn’t ask me.
“Umm…,” I said.
“Don’t tell me you’ve never heard it.”
“Well…”
“You don’t listen to K-pop?”
“No, I do,” I said. “Sometimes. I used to listen to it more.” And because I sounded like I was lying, I added, “Really.” Which probably made it sound like even more of a lie.
But I was telling the truth. I listened to BTS whenever I needed to cheer up, and I still grooved to all my favorites. But mostly, I listened to the songs Mina had been into when she was younger—like “Tell Me,” “Hot Issue,” and “Day by Day.” I listened to Super Junior, too, but I hadn’t checked out their new releases in years. Since none of the other kids at Victoria Middle or Lakeview listened to K-pop, it seemed somehow embarrassing, so I hadn’t kept up with as many new songs. Now I felt even more embarrassed because I couldn’t keep up with Marvel.
But while he made a little tsk-tsk sound, his eyes glinted playfully.
“Get ready for some homework then.”
Marvel held his hand out. I stared down at his empty palm, wondering what he wanted.
“Your phone.”
I handed it over, still confused. It wasn’t until he started typing that I saw he was putting his number into my contacts.
Even though the whole interaction was giving me a warm feeling in my chest, I tried to play it cool, like boys asked me for my number all the time. Or, rather, took my phone and put their numbers in it. Truth was, I couldn’t remember any time this had happened. Buddy and I hadn’t swapped numbers until way after we were friends, and Eliot had to give me his number, being my tutor and all.
Eliot. I realized just then that I hadn’t thought about him in at least an hour, which—I was kind of ashamed to admit—was almost a personal record. But before I had time to process that, Marvel handed me back my phone.
“I’ll send you some of my favorite songs later,” Marvel said. “Don’t worry. If you don’t like them, you can block my number.”
“Make sure you pick some good ones, then,” I said.
Marvel smiled. He had a nice, kind smile—it stretched across his entire face. In fact, a lot of things about Marvel were nice….
My stomach did a small flip as I realized we were sitting closer to each other than I had thought.
“Hey! That’s mine!”
Behind us, Team Donkey and Team Cow broke out into a squabble. So much for Curtains Down. Marvel stood, tapped his cane twice on the ground, then marched over to the kids like a soldier going off to battle.
Wishing we could have kept chatting, I returned to the Sheep Crew. They had given up on their lines and were now playing with one of those little paper fortune-tellers.
“Want to try it?” Annie looked up at me and smiled.
I shook my head. After Mrs. Lee and her horrible tarot cards, I was dead set against fortune-telling of any kind. “We don’t have time. Rehearsal is almost over.”
Sure enough, within a few minutes, Pastor Oh clapped again, and we all gathered on the edge of the stage.
“Excellent job today!” He beamed. “I’ll see you all on Friday. Tell your parents that you’ll be here until eight—it will take a while to get into the costumes.”
As Pastor Oh dismissed us, I could see Marvel eying me from across the stage, like he was thinking about coming over. Before he could, Pastor Oh beckoned me his way. I was disappointed that I couldn’t talk to Marvel, but I quickly reminded myself that there would be more rehearsals. And then I could feel my forehead creasing, because since when did I want more rehearsals?
I headed over to Pastor Oh. “You wanted to see me, Pastor?”
“Just to say thank you for today,” he said. “Thank you for running lines with the sheep, uh, I mean, girls! You’re quite the natural leader.”
I couldn’t help the tingle of pride in my chest. Pastor Oh thought I was a natural leader? Me?
“I’ll see you next rehearsal,” Pastor Oh said. “Tell your family I said hello.”
“Will do,” I said happily, still glowing from his compliment.
By the time I got outside, Marvel and Peter had already left for home. Oh well. I boarded the bus and grabbed a seat in the front. As the bus slid forward, I checked my phone and wrinkled my nose.
Caroline had sent a list of the top caterers in Victoria to the group chat. I clicked over to the first website she recommended and stifled a gasp. It was how much for tomatoes on bread? I blinked hard. Maybe I had read the number wrong. But there was the exact same number of zeroes when I opened my eyes again. I tugged on a loose strand of hair. I had barely thought about what to do for food. Somehow, I figured everyone would just chip in for it. But judging by Caroline’s text, I was obviously wrong.
As I panic-scrolled through her other options, Helen texted me.
OH! Forgot to ask. I’m supposed to babysit tomorrow a.m., but Buddy wants to hang out. Can you cover? It’s only 3 hrs, so you’ll be free by noon! It’s a friend of my mom, and she pays $$$.
Although part of me wished Helen had asked me to hang out with her and Buddy, as soon as I saw the money signs, I no longer cared. I didn’t know how much cash three dollar signs would translate to, but now that I had to pay for the food, I could use as many of them as I could get.
Sure! Just text me the address and I’ll be there.
Awesome, Helen texted back. They’re cute kids. Plus, their mom has lots of friends, so if you make a good impression, I’m sure you could get a lot more gigs.
Suddenly, I wished I was having this conversation in person and not texting. I wanted to hug Helen!
YES! I typed back, unable to hide my enthusiasm. You’re the best.
By the time I reached my apartment, I was feeling so much better about this party.
With all my new cash, I would have enough money to buy the food and any dress I wanted. Now all I had to do was convince Mina to let me have the party in our apartment. And when she heard all about what a “natural leader” I was, she would have to say yes. I smiled. As long as I worked hard enough, I could do this. I was going to throw the ultimate party and wear the perfect dress. Now I just needed a date.
As I headed up the stairs to my apartment, Eliot’s blue eyes flickered in my mind. To my surprise, though, they slowly morphed into a pair of playful brown ones. I looked down at Marvel’s contact in my phone, and my stomach flipped as an idea hit me.
Who knew? If I played my cards right, maybe I could even have a great date, too.
6 PIPPA PARK, BABYSITTER EXTRAORDINAIRE
22 Days Until Christmas Eve!
“There’s our little sleepyhead,” Jung-Hwa greeted me. He stood over the hot stove, flipping pancakes. This was something he normally did on Saturdays, but since I didn’t have school today and he had a day off from work, it was Pancake Wednesday.
“Morning!” I smiled.
I grabbed three pancakes off a plate, drenched them in syrup, and took a seat next to Mina. She had a full plate in front of her, but she hadn’t touched her food. She had her reading glasses on and was focused on sorting through this week’s mail.
“So,” I said, stuffing a mountain of cakey goodness into my mouth, “I have exciting news.”
“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Mina said automatically.
I quickly chewed and swallowed. “I’m taking over Helen’s babysitting gig today!” I told them, grinning from ear to ear. “I thought about what you said the other day, about things being hard, so I wanted to do my part.”
I had expected Mina to look ecstatic, but while she did seem pleasantly surprised, she also seemed concerned. “Are you sure you can handle that? You already have a lot going on with school and the pageant.”
“It’s just three hours!” I waved her worries away. “Besides, Pastor Oh said I’m a natural leader!”
“Well, I think that sounds like an excellent idea.” Jung-Hwa grinned at me.
I smiled back. He looked so proud of me that I knew now was the time to bring up the party.
“Anyways, this is kind of a change in subject… but I was sorta thinking that maybe it would be fun if I invited some friends over,” I said. “On Christmas Eve. Actually, that afternoon. Like a little get-together. For lunch. I mean, you still haven’t met any of my friends,” I said to Mina, “and Jung-Hwa loves to cook, so we wouldn’t even have to buy that much food, and I would do all the cleaning, and can’t you picture how festive it would be? Plus, now that I’m starting to babysit, I can pay for all the decorations. In fact, I’ll handle everything! All you two have to do is sit back, have a cup of cocoa, and enjoy the party!”
I finally paused, but only because I had run out of oxygen. I inhaled quickly, trying to restock.
“Also, I think it would help distract us from Omma not coming this year.” I felt a little guilty bringing this up—and I really was sad that Omma wasn’t coming—but I thought mentioning it could help my cause.
“That sounds great.” Jung-Hwa tapped the tip of my nose with his finger.
Bouncing with enthusiasm, I turned to Mina. But she wasn’t looking at me anymore. She quietly got up from the table and crossed over to Jung-Hwa. I checked her face for some sign of whether this was going wonderfully or terribly, but I might as well have been talking to the wall.
She handed Jung-Hwa an opened envelope from the mail. And although he was facing away from me as he read it, I could see his shoulders tense.
“You really think it’s a good idea?” I asked Jung-Hwa.
He handed the letter back to Mina and turned to me. “I always think you have good ideas,” he said, but he seemed distracted.
“Mina, what do you think?” I persisted.
No reply.
“Is everything okay?” I asked.
Still no answer.
“Hello?” I waved my arms over my head.
Jung-Hwa nudged Mina, who turned to me. “It’s fine. Why don’t you go get ready for your babysitting job?” she said. “We’ll handle the cleanup today.”
I almost did a double take. Mina had accepted the party idea so easily! Not only did she not say no, but she wasn’t even making me help clean today!
“Sure,” I said. “I can tell you more of the details later. I wonder if I should bake a cake. Jung-Hwa could help!”
Mina and Jung-Hwa had both gone back to ignoring me, but as I headed out of the kitchen, there was a bounce in my step. The conversation had gone better than I had expected. Jung-Hwa was totally into the idea, and Mina hadn’t said anything bad—and that had to be a win! Now I just had to nail this whole babysitting thing. Everything else, I was sure, would fall right into place.
I thought about Mrs. Lee’s tarot cards and how worried I had been about them. Now they actually seemed silly. Mina was right. The only one responsible for my future was me!
After changing clothes, I headed downstairs and rode my bike to the address Helen had texted me. I showed up five minutes early, determined to make a good impression. I rang the doorbell, then smoothed down my blouse with my hands, making sure there were no wrinkles in it. I had worn the same blouse I usually wore for school, but with a pair of jeans and sneakers. I hoped it would do.
Then the door swung open, and suddenly, I felt a bit overdressed.
“Mrs. Winters?” I asked.
“Oh, hel-loo,” Mrs. Winters sang. She stood in the gigantic entryway, wearing a pair of stretchy leggings and a tank top, her chestnut-brown hair up in a messy knot. Behind her, another woman pulled on tennis shoes. “You must be Pippa. And please, none of that ‘Missus’ stuff. I’m Andrea. This is my friend Maggie. Come on in.”
Mrs. Winters—Andrea—led me inside. The house was enormous, as most of the homes around this neighborhood were, and looked like it belonged on the cover of an interior design magazine—modern furniture, fresh daisies in crystal vases, and not a single stain to be found on any of the plush wheat-colored rugs. I didn’t know how Andrea could keep her house this nice with two kids running around. Mina made sure that Jung-Hwa and I pulled our own weight around the apartment, but it was never this spotless.
“Right this way,” Andrea said.
I followed her into the marble-countered kitchen, which smelled like vanilla and sugar. A pan of freshly made gingerbread cookies cooled on top of the stove. Andrea grabbed a list of rules off the table and handed it to me. It was pretty simple. No violent television. Cookies allowed, but no more than two. No letting the sisters roughhouse.
“The girls ate a late breakfast,” Andrea told me. “So they shouldn’t be that hungry. There’s a first aid kit in the bathroom and a list of important numbers on the fridge if anything goes wrong.”
