Free Hailey Twitch Is Not a Snitch by Lauren Barnholdt, Suzanne Beaky Page A

Maybelle Sinclair
    When I get home, I am feeling very upset about all this. I stomp inside to the kitchen.
    “Hello, Hailey,” my mom says. Her hair is in a ponytail, and she is stirring a big pot of spaghetti sauce on the stove. The whole house smells like warm and yummy tomatoes. But it is not enough to cheer me up. “Why are you stomping?”
    “Because,” I say. “I am very upset.” I sit down at the kitchen table.
    “About what?”
    “Today at school we got put in partners and I have to be with Addie Jokobeck.” I show my mom the paper Miss Stephanie sent home with us.
    “This looks fun,” she says.
    “It is supposed to be fun,” I say. “If you are doing it with someone fun like Antonio, or with someone like your best friend, Russ. Not if you are doing it with Addie Jokobeck.” I do not tell my mom that Addie Jokobeck is not fun and that maybe Antonio is going to have so much fun with Natalie making Mexican food that he will forget all about me and our plan to dig a hole all the way to Antarctica. And that maybe Addie is going to ruin the whole thing by making plain old French fries.
    “I’m sure Addie will be a great partner,” my mom says.
    “I am cranky,” I tell her. “And I would like to go up to my room, please.” When I get cranky, I am supposed to tell people so they will leave me alone until I don’t feel cranky anymore. When I forget, I end up having a tantrum or a fit.
    A tantrum is when you make a big scene and have a bad temper. Usually I have them when someone is trying to be the boss of me. It starts out by feeling very, very cranky, and then it will keep getting worse and worse until I get my way. A lot of times, I will end up maybe yelling and screaming, or stomping so that my feet make very loud, angry noises. I might even throw myself on the floor and lie on my back, or maybe hide in some racks of clothes if we are in the mall.
    “Okay, Hailey,” my mom says. “Thank you for telling me you are cranky.” She nods and goes back to stirring the sauce, and I go right up the stairs and into my room.
    This is not fair! I want to be partners with Antonio because he has black hair and black eyes and on Family Heritage Day he did a special Mexican dance and even taught me how to do it, too. I want to stomp all around my room but I can’t because I know my mom will hear me and say, “Hailey, please stop all that stomping around,” so instead I go over to my magic castle dollhouse to play—but then I remember that I lost the queen doll who lives in there one time when Russ and I were giving her an operation.
    So I pull out the doll of the princess instead.

    “I wish I was a princess,” I say to her. “And then I would not have to go to Addie Jokobeck’s because princesses are very rich and get to have anything that they want.” I know this because, one time, I heard my dad say that money can buy you out of anything. I bet money could buy you right out of a bad partner at school and right into a special partner like Antonio Fuerte. “And then I would be able to have fun, fun, fun, FUN, FUN!”
    I decide to put that princess doll back into the magic castle and then go over to my bed and spend some time feeling sorry for myself.
    But suddenly, something comes flying out of that castle!
    It whooshes right out of one of the castle windows and there is a bright, bright, bright flash of light and then something soft, soft, soft brushes against my cheek. I push it out of the way, but it brushes against me again. And then something that feels like wind is going all through my room! And it pushes me down, down, down to the ground and when I get back up, there is a little person, flying in front of me!
    She has sparkly yellow hair and light purple wings and big blue eyes.
    “Hello,” she says.
    Plunk . I am so shocked that I fall right back down onto the floor.

    “Oh, no!” the person says. “Are you okay?” And then she flies down to the ground and is looking right at me. “Did