Ship of Dolls Read Online Free PDF Page B

Dog Breath. Remember that!”
    When you moved as often as Lexie had with Mama, you heard a lot of inventive name-​calling. Before she could use one of those names to pay Louise back for “Dog Breath,” her grandparents’ faces, looking sad, came to mind.
    So she answered with an amused voice she had heard Mama use. “Maybe you should ask Jack if
he
remembers.”
    Brushing past Louise, she left the classroom and looked for Jack in the yard. He was with a group of boys watching another do tricks with a yo-​yo. Lexie walked over. “Did you tell?”
    “Who?” He glanced at her as if he’d forgotten the doll.
    “Miss Tompkins!”
    “Tell her what?” He turned back to the yo-​yo.
    Lexie almost smacked his shoulder. “You know what!”
    “Oh, that.”
    Worry had been burning holes inside her all morning. “Jack! Did you tell?”
    He gave an appreciative whistle. “That guy’s good.”
    Lexie jerked his sleeve. “Jack?”
    Finally, he turned his attention to her. “No, your note said not to. Why not?”
    Relief washed through Lexie. “Because it’s not like a punishment. All I have to do is sew another dress for Emily Grace.”
    Jack raised his eyebrows. “Do you know how?”
    She might have felt insulted that he thought she couldn’t do it, except that she wasn’t sure she could. “I’ll learn. And I’ll get to measure Emily Grace and fit the dress on her while I’m making it. I’ll get to know her, Jack. I need that chance!”
    She took a big breath, then added, “If you take the blame, I won’t get to know her.”
    Looking as if it didn’t matter one way or the other, Jack turned back to the yo-​yo. “Wow! Look at that!”
    “Did you hear me?” Lexie demanded. Talking to Jack was like talking to a fence post.
    He didn’t take his attention from the yo-​yo, but at last he agreed. “I won’t say anything, if that’s what you want.”
    Lexie felt eyes boring into her. It was the way she felt when she frowned over a sentence diagram and suddenly Miss Tompkins asked if she needed help. She glanced around and saw Louise glaring from a corner of the schoolhouse. Laughter bubbled up through Lexie, along with some of Mama’s flapper breeze. Making sure Louise was still watching, she said, “You’re a prince, Jack,” and soundly kissed his cheek.
    He looked at her as if she had lost her mind.
    Ignoring whoops and whistles from the other boys, Lexie said, “See you around.”
    Then she walked directly past Louise to a group of girls playing hopscotch and took her place at the end of the line. As she waited her turn to hop, she glanced at the other girls, studying the dresses they wore. Could she really design and sew a dress for Emily Grace?
    I can
, she told herself. Sewing the dress would be easy. The hard part was going to be asking Grandma for help.
    When class started again, Lexie considered one girl’s dress after another. Was a bow too fancy for the plain dress the doll needed? Should the material be flowered, or striped, or all one color? How were sleeves put on?
    Miss Tompkins’s voice broke in, dismissing class. With relief, Lexie gathered her books. But the teacher spoke over the shuffling sound of the others. “Electra, please remain in your seat.”
    Those were the first words from Miss Tompkins that Lexie had heard clearly all afternoon. That might have been the problem. She might have missed hearing the teacher call on her. Maybe she would have to stay after class and write a hundred times that she would pay attention.
    It might be even worse. Maybe Miss Tompkins wanted to tell her she wouldn’t be making a dress for Emily Grace after all.
    As Jack followed the others from the room, he glanced at her with a look she couldn’t decipher. Then Louise paused beside her. “Bet you’re in trouble!” With a satisfied smile, she joined her friends in the doorway.

L exie’s fingers curled into fists in her lap. She looked straight ahead at the blackboard, waiting for