Free Home Free by Sharon Jennings

asking her questions all the time. Sometimes, people just can’t answer them.”
    Then my father went inside and I waited a moment and then hurried to my Sanctuary. I stared up at the stars and wondered where all those planes were now.

Chapter 17
    Tuesday!
    In the morning I showed Cassandra Jovanovich how I put a rope between the two biggest poplar trees and hung the curtain over it. When we pulled it back, the grass in between the trees made a really super stage. Then we sold tickets for five cents and made lemonade to sell when the play was over. Everybody came with a costume, and then we all did our make-up together.
    Paula came by and said she wasn’t buying a stupid ticket to our stupid Halloween party and didn’t we know Halloween was in October? Then she called us all stupid and said, “Just you wait.” But I didn’t know what we were waiting for because Ronnie and Donnie liked being in the play and I didn’t think they’d beat us up ever again.
    But we really didn’t care about Paula anymore because we were all having fun. I was supposed to be the director, but Cassandra really did everything. She showed Ronnie and Donnie how to sound scary and she showed Linda and Nancy how to look like real royalty. And she frightened everybody because she was so mean when she did the evil witch. But she always smiled at Laura Butterfield and then I saw that Ronnie and Donnie were always smiling at Laura Butterfield, too. I tried to figure out what it was about Laura Butterfield. I stared at her lots and then I knew.
    She looked fragile. She looked like you could snap her in half. With her tiny body and white hair, she looked like the light could shine right through her. She didn’t look real. That’s why she made such a good fairy. She looked just like the fairies Arthur Rackham draws.
    And I tried to understand why Ronnie and Donnie were so different around her. I figured it out, too. I think they wanted to protect her from breaking. I think instead of wanting to fight
with
everybody all the time, Ronnie and Donnie finally wanted to fight
for
something. And I knew that Laura Butterfield needed fighting for. And when I figured all of this out, I felt shivery down my spine. I had a new idea for another play. It would be about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. And the princess they had to protect would be just like Laura Butterfield.
    Soon everybody was there. Lots of kids came and even some parents. My mother brought cookies for after, but she said she wasn’t paying five cents to get into her own backyard.
    So we started, and we were pretty good until Tinkerbell grabbed the curtain and trotted around the yard with it. Everyone started laughing, but Cassandra just made up some lines and told everybody to be quiet or she’d turn them into toads. Then she grabbed Tinkerbell and tied him up. Ronnie and Donnie put the curtain back up and we got through the rest of the play.
    The audience clapped at the end and we took a bow. And then Cassandra told everybody to wait a minute and called my name. She made me go to the front and she told them all that I was the writer of this wonderful play and they clapped for me, too. I smiled and waved and looked for my mother, but I guess she’d gone back inside.
    Then we sat around and talked about how good we were and finished the lemonade and cookies. Then I got the cast to autograph my copy of the play because that’s what they do in real theater and some day we might all be famous.
    Then Ronnie and Donnie’s mother said I had real talent and hoped I’d keep writing. And Debbie Walker’s mother, Muriel, said I should write for Hollywood!
    And when everyone else was gone, just Cassandra and I were left to clean up.
    â€œWe’re a good team,” Cassandra Jovanovich said. I felt a thrill!
    â€œSee?” I exclaimed. “We’re kindred spirits. I knew it!”
    Cassandra rolled her eyes, but she