Free How High the Moon by Sandra Kring

Mrs. Bloom’s head lifted and her eyebrows crawled right up to hide under her bangs when she got to my face. “This child is wearing makeup!” she said.
    Mrs. Bloom turned to Mr. Morgan and asked him who we were and why we were there. Poor Mr. Morgan looked too scared to move, so I started talking. “I’m Isabella Marlene, but you can call me Teaspoon. Everybody does. Well, everybody except my teachers. And this here is Charlie Fry. We…”
    Brenda got that your-name-is-ringing-a-bell look, and even though I was staring up at Mrs. Bloom, I saw her stretch a little taller, even though she was still squeezing her hands like she was wringing out wet laundry. “She’s… she’s my new Sunshine Sister,” she blurted. And didn’t
that
just figure, Brenda Bloom being a part of that do-gooder program, her being so perfect and all.
    “I was just showing her and her little friend around the theater,” Brenda added.
    “Actually, he’s my neighbor,” I corrected, but I went along with her fib about me being her Little Sister in that dumb program.
    “I thought Mrs. Gaylor said you were planning to pair with Veronica Hanson, the little girl who lost her mother a couple of years ago?” Mrs. Bloom said.
    “Veronica Hanson? Oh, I know her!” I said. “She’s in my grade, but she’s in a different classroom. She lives with her new stepmom and her dentist daddy. And while she ain’t exactly heading for a walk down the Sweetheart of Mill Town runway, she sure doesn’t seem like a big enough mess to be a Sunshine Sister to me. She gets good grades and keeps her hair combed and everything. It just goes to show, though, things aren’t always how they look.”
    “Well, I was, but…” Brenda looked at her mother, her perfect pearlies biting at her lip. She looked over at Charlie and me, then gave her ma one of those just-a-minute signals with her finger. She opened the door and asked Charlie and me to follow her. “And you,” Mrs. Bloom said to Mr. Morgan while we were walking out, “if you’re done with your work, you can leave. I don’t pay you to stand around and eavesdrop.”
    Brenda led us to two seats up against the wall opposite the projector room. “Don’t go anywhere,” she said, like she was a mind reader and could tell that I was already thinking that the second she turned around, me and Charlie should make like a banana and split.
    We were about to, too, until we got to the aisle and I realized that we could hear Mrs. Bloom and Brenda’s voices coming through the glassless window in front of the projector. Sure enough, they were talking about me!
    “I know, Mother… but… then we had our meeting where Miss Simon gave us a bio on each Little Sister, and afterward, she took me aside and personally asked if I’d pair up with Isabella. Her teacher is considering holding her back in fifth grade for another year, and says she’s in desperate need of a good mentor.”
    “Well, I just spoke to Mrs. Gaylor and she said—”
    “I know. I know. I haven’t gotten the chance to tell Mrs. Gaylorabout the request yet, because she was gone by the time Miss Simon and I got done talking. I’m sure she’ll agree to switch things around once I tell her that Mrs. Carlton and Miss Simon both said that they couldn’t think of a girl better suited to be Isabella’s big sister than me, because I’ve been raised to perfection and would have so much to teach her.”
    “She said that?” Mrs. Bloom asked, her voice as proud as if she’d just won an Oscar Award.
    Man oh man, I said in my head. Teachers! What snitches, telling the Sweetheart of Mill Town that I might become a flunky! Why, I’d bet my last Sunday school dime that Mrs. Carlton and Miss Simon told her that I have a couple of drops of bad blood in me, too.
    “Well,” Mrs. Bloom said. “You’ll certainly have your work cut out for you, judging by the looks of her.” Mrs. Bloom gave one of those now-what-was-I-doing groans, then she said, “I need