and a boyfriend and everything, like Joan.”
“Carolyn’s a real teenager now,” agreed Mom. “She’s what the magazines call a ‘bobby-soxer.’” Mom smiled, and then said with a sigh, “All you kids are growing up so fast! It feels like just a minute ago Joan got her first prom dress. Remember that gorgeous pink one? It’s still in the closet somewhere. And now Joan’s getting married, for goodness sakes.”
Maryellen grabbed her chance. “By the way,” she asked casually, “how’s my bridesmaid dress coming along?”
“Well, Mrs. Fenstermacher helped me cut the fabric,” said Mom. “Now I just have to sew the pieces together.”
That didn’t sound too hard. “Do you think, I mean, I was wondering if you might have it finished by my birthday?” Maryellen asked.
“Ellie, sweetie,” Mom said, sounding tense. “When you’re planning a wedding, a lot has to be done far in advance. So even though the wedding is not until the end of the summer, I’m already awfully busy with the preparations. There’s so much to do, and I want it all to be perfect. I’ve got to reserve the caterer and decide the menu. Then I’ve got to order flowers from the florist, and find musicians and choose the music… The list goes on and on. I don’t know if I’ll have time to finish your dress by next week or not. We’ll see.”
Scooter snorted in his sleep, as if to say, Humpf—“we’ll see” isn’t very reassuring.
That was what Maryellen was thinking, too.
Mom seemed glad to change the subject as they pulled up to the high school. “Run in and tell Carolyn we’re here, please, sweetheart,” she said to Maryellen.
As Maryellen walked in, rock ’n’ roll music was blaring so loudly that the whole gym seemed to be thumping to the beat. The gym was packed with girls in pretty, swirly dresses and boys in letter sweaters or jackets and ties, and it was decorated with loops of colorful crepe paper strung between the basketball hoops and the windows. All along the walls, shoes were lined up, and the kids on the dance floor were in their socks, dancing fast to rock ’n’ roll. Maryellen thought the sock hop did sort of look like fun, except for the dancing-with-a-boy part. She looked around, and when she spotted Carolyn, she hardly recognized her. Carolyn was dancing with a boy, dancing as well as a dancer on TV! And she looked beautiful. At home, Carolyn wore the bobby-soxer’s standard outfit of jeans with the cuffs rolled up, an old shirt of Dad’s tied at the waist, bobby socks, and penny loafers. But tonight she was fancy. The full skirt of her dress was nipped in at the waist, and it swooshed gracefully when her partner twirled her under his arm. Her feet just flew. Maryellen caught Carolyn’s eye and waved. Carolyn waved back, and as the music ended, she said good-bye to her partner and hurried over.
As she watched Carolyn come toward her, waving good-bye to her friends, her eyes sparkling and her cheeks flushed, Maryellen had a quick, jumbled-up mix of feelings. She felt a little envy, a little pride, a little sorrow, a little curiosity, and underneath it all, hope for her own future. Being a teenager looked pretty nice.
Hope was something that Maryellen needed more and more as rehearsals for the birthday-party variety show went on. Every day after school, everyone in the show came over to the Larkins’ house to practice. At least they were supposed to be practicing. But really Wayne and Davy just ran around lassoing each other, chased by Tom and Mikey. The ballerinas, Beverly and Karen Stohlman, couldn’t agree on who’d do what in their ballet. Carolyn was always inside talking on the hall phone with a boy named Douglas Newswander, who was the one she’d danced with at the sock hop. And Karen King kept changing her mind about what song she and Angela would sing.
“Oh, I’ve had the most wonderful idea,” Karen King said to Angela the afternoon before the show was supposed to go on. “Instead of singing ‘Rock Around the Clock,’ let’s sing ‘How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?’ We can borrow poodle skirts from Ellie and Karen Stohlman, and Scooter can be the doggie in the window! Won’t that be cute?”
“Mm-hmm,” said Angela. “Except I don’t know the words to that song.”
“I do,” said Karen King. “It goes like this:
How much is that doggie in the window?
Something, something, waggedy tail.
How much is that doggie in the window?
La la la la doggie’s for sale.
“Anyway, sort of like that,” Karen King went on breezily. “It’ll be easy to learn the words.”
“By tomorrow?” asked Maryellen, trying not to sound shrill. “You’re going to learn the something, somethings and la la la’s by tomorrow? Because that’s when the show is. It’s way too late to be loosey-goosey. This is our last rehearsal.”
“We know,” said Karen King with exaggerated calmness. “You don’t have to get all huffy about it.”
“Also,” said Maryellen, “good luck talking Scooter into having a ‘waggedy tail’ or doing anything you want him to do when you want him to do it.” Davy had already given up on lassoing Scooter because Scooter wouldn’t sit up. Scooter would just lie there looking like a sack of potatoes. “Davy has to lasso me instead of Scooter,” she pointed out.
“Well, if you’re going to be Scooter for Davy, you can be a doggie in the window for Karen and me, if Scooter won’t cooperate,” said Angela. “You could tie Davy’s rope around your waist, and swing the end to be the waggedy tail.”
“Ohhh-kay,” said Maryellen tepidly. Her own part in the show was so small that she was filling in anyplace, in any act, where anyone needed her for anything. For example, neither Beverly nor Karen Stohlman wanted to be the boy ballerina in their ballet because they both wanted to wear a tutu. So Maryellen had to wear pants and be the one they leaned on when they stood on tiptoe. She also had to help Tom and Mikey with their puppet show. Tom and Mikey liked to move the puppets, but they didn’t know what to say, so Maryellen had to make up a story for them to match what the puppets were doing, which was mostly sleeping, waking up, and hugging, because that’s really all Tom and Mikey knew how to make the puppets do. It was her job to turn the pages of Carolyn’s sheet music because Carolyn hadn’t yet memorized all the notes in the rock ’n’ roll song she was going to play, called “Shake, Rattle and Roll.”
Shaken, rattled, and not at all ready to roll was how Maryellen felt right now. It was time to rehearse the most important part of the show—her own speech and song. She stood in front of the carport and began. “Fighting Polio,” she said, sort of out of breath. “Dr. Jonas Salk—”
“Wait a minute, Ellie,” Karen King interrupted. “In the real show tomorrow, aren’t you supposed to wear your bridesmaid dress when you make your speech? When’ll you have time to change out of your pants?”
Maryellen pushed her hair off her sweaty forehead. “I guess after Carolyn’s music.” She didn’t want to admit to herself or to anyone else that even though Mrs. Fenstermacher was over all the time helping Mom, her dress still wasn’t finished.
There was another thing she didn’t want to admit, either. And it was that her act, which was supposed to be the whole point of the show, was a dud. Her song wasn’t too bad, but she had become
