Ann Martin - Mallory On Strike

"I don't want her to tell me," Claire announced as she took her turn. "I don't want to talk to her."

"You stepped on the line," Margo pointed out to her sister.

"Did not!" Claire shot back.

Margo turned to Jessi. "What do you think?"

"I didn't see it," Jessi said diplomatically, "but I'll tell you what. Why don't you take another turn, Claire, and Margo and I will both watch closely."

This time Claire managed not to step on the line, and she smiled triumphantly at her sister. "See?"

Even though she tried hard not to win, Jessi did anyway. When Margo suggested they play again, Claire shook her head.

"No. I want a new game," she declared.

Claire went back to the Kid-Kit and found the puppets, then held up the crown of flowers. "What's this?"

"That's the crown I wore in Coppelia," Jessi explained. She performed an arabesque, her leg suspended in the air behind her, and then stepped into a curtsy.

"Ballet!" Claire cried, putting the crown on her head. "Let's make a ballet!"

Margo, who loves playing dress up, took up the cry. "A ballet! And we can wear costumes and everything."

My family keeps a trunk full of old clothes in the rec room, just for that purpose. Before Jessi knew what was happening, Margo and Claire had taken her by the hands and pulled her inside the house.

"The puppets can be in the show, too!" On one hand, Margo put the Fozzie Bear puppet that was missing one eye, and on the other, she put the Kermit the frog puppet.

Claire had opened the trunk. She held up some faded chiffon dresses that had belonged to our grandmother. "Ballet dresses."

Jessi grinned. "They're beautiful. But you should know that in a ballet the dresses are called tutus."

"I thought those were short and made of that scratchy stuff," Margo said.

"Netting?" Jessi laughed. "Yes, they are, but a tutu can be long or short."

"Toot toot!" Claire danced around the room in a long pink satin gown. Or I should say, tried to dance. The dress was yards too big, and she tripped on the material with every step.

Margo pulled a blue chiffon dress over her head. It looked like a prom dress from the nineteen-fifties. (Jessi thought for half a sec-

ond that Claud might really like it, too. Clau-dia is very into fifties styles.)

"Now what should our ballet be about?" Jessi asked, as she rummaged through a stack of records lying beside an old record player.

"A beautiful girl!" Margo cried, spinning in a circle.

"Two beautiful girls," Claire said, imitating her sister. She threw her arms out to the sides and did three turns, which made her so dizzy she fell on the carpet, giggling.

Then Margo held up the bear puppet with the missing eye and said, "Two beautiful girls, and their mean, old sister — "

"Mallory!" Claire giggled, sitting up.

Jessi, who had found an album of The Nutcracker Suite and was putting the record on the turntable, spun around. She felt she ought to discourage them from saying mean things about their own sister. On the other hand, she thought maybe they would feel better if they acted out their frustration with Mallory.

"What should we call this, um, ballet?" Jessi asked as she placed the needle on the first song on the second side. She knew that the "Waltz of the Flowers" was perfect music for dancing.

Margo moved the bear puppet's mouth as she spoke in a high voice. "Let's call it Mean, Old Mallory."

"That's good!" Claire stood on top of the trunk. "And this will be the castle."

Margo climbed up beside her sister. "And we're the beautiful princesses trapped in the castle by — " She held up the puppet. "Mean, Old Mallory."

"Mean, Old Mallory!" Claire stuck out her tongue at the bear puppet, which Margo made bite her on the nose. Claire grabbed her nose and said, "Ow, that hurt."

Jessi couldn't help giggling. The two girls looked like they had been rehearsing their comedy routine for weeks. Then Jessi remembered that they were making fun of her best friend, so she tried very hard not to let them see her laughing.

"All right, princesses!" Margo spoke in her high puppet voice. "I want you to dance around the castle and then clean your room."

"No!" Claire stamped her foot in defiance.

Margo made the bear puppet wag its hand at Claire. "And I want you to be quiet. You're really getting on my nerves."

Jessi forced herself to keep a straight face, which was hard because Margo sounded just like me when I'm grumpy.

"But why do we have to be quiet, Mean, Old Mallory?" Claire demanded. She was talking very realistically to the puppet.

"Because I have to get my teeth tightened."

"Teeth tightened?" This time Jessi couldn't stop herself from doubling up with laughter on the couch.

Claire turned around with a big grin on her face. "Jessi thinks we're funny!"

"I think you're very funny," Jessi said, sitting up. "All of you."

"You better stop laughing," Margo said in her Mean, Old Mallory voice, as she made the puppet shake its fist at Jessi. "Or I'll ask you to scrub the floors and then you won't be able to go to the ball."

Margo had turned the ballet of Mean, Old Mallory into a strange form of Cinderella. Jessi sat back on the couch, quietly watching to see which way the story would go next.

The ballet soon became a mixture of Cinderella, the game Mother May I?, and The Three Little Pigs. Claire would ask, "Mean, Old Mallory, may I dance on the rug?" and Margo would say,. "No! And if you do, I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your crown off!"

The record came to an end and Claire, who was starting to get tired of being told no all the time, suddenly called, "They're home!"

Jessi listened carefully and could just make out the sound of a car engine. "Boy, that's good hearing, Claire."

"Come on," Claire said, picking up big bunches of the pink satin material in front of

her so she could run. "Let's go tell Moozie!"

"Tell Moozie what?" Jessi asked.

"About our ballet," Margo finished. "Mean, Old Mallory."

"Oh, no!" Jessi reached the top of the stairs just in time to see the triplets bolt into the living room, clutching their new sneakers. "You got my pair," Jordan was shouting at Byron.

Nicky was right behind the triplets, wearing a brand-new pair of loafers. Vanessa and I staggered in next, clutching bags full of T-shirts, new jeans, and socks.

Jessi tried to keep Claire from talking, but she couldn't reach her.

"Mal, guess what?" Claire squealed. "Jessi and Margo and I made up a ballet about you."

Jessi groaned and tried to look inconspicuous.

"It was about two beautiful princesses," Claire continued, "and their awful sister who's always yelling at them."

"Their sister was a real grouch because she had to write this story and have her braces fixed," Margo added. "So she wouldn't let them go to the ball or anything."

My mother came in from the hall just in time to hear Claire and Margo's story. "Now, girls, that's not funny."

"Jessi thought it was funny/' Claire said. "She laughed so hard she fell over."

"It was their dancing that was funny," Jessi tried to say. But Claire kept right on talking.

"Guess what we called the ballet?" she added, giggling. "Mean, Old Mallory!"

That was it. I'd had it with the triplets arguing in the store over who got which shoes. I'd had it with Nicky shouting out license plate numbers in the car. I'd had it with my family, with my friends, with everyone. On top of it all, my teeth really did hurt. I turned to Claire and yelled, "Oh, shut up!"

Jessi watched along with the rest of the family as I bolted out of the kitchen and ran up the stairs to my room. She winced when she heard me slam the door. Mom looked ques-tioningly at Jessi, but Jessi could only shrug. She didn't know what to say. Or do.