Broken Birthday Read online

  To brave kids everywhere, especially Rachael Rose and Daniel Gregory

  —Courtney

  Text Copyright © 2017 Courtney Sheinmel

  Illustrations Copyright © 2017 Jennifer A. Bell

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews and articles. All inquiries should be addressed to:

  Sleeping Bear Press™

  2395 South Huron Parkway, Suite 200, Ann Arbor, MI 48104

  www.sleepingbearpress.com

  © Sleeping Bear Press

  TWIZZLERS is a registered trademark of Hershey Chocolate & Confectionery Corporation. Peachie O’s is owned by Trolli, a registered trademark and company owned by the Ferrara Candy Company. iPad® and FaceTime® are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Swedish Fish® is a registered trademark of Cadbury Adams USA LLC.

  Printed and bound in the United States.

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data • Names: Sheinmel, Courtney, author. • Bell, Jennifer A., illustrator. • Title: Broken birthday • written by Courtney Sheinmel ; illustrated by Jennifer A. Bell. • Description: Ann Arbor, MI : Sleeping Bear Press, [2017] • Series: Stella Batts; book 10 • Summary: “Stella and her family have special plans to celebrate her ninth birthday but everything changes when Stella falls and breaks her leg at school”— Provided by publisher. • Identifiers: LCCN 2016026744 • ISBN 9781585369218 (hard cover) • ISBN 9781585369225 (paper back) • Subjects: | CYAC: Fractures—Fiction. | Friendship—Fiction. • Birthdays—Fiction. • Family life—Fiction. • Classification: LCC PZ7.S54124 Bro 2017 • DDC [Fic]—dc23 • LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016026744

  Table of Contents

  Things I Wrote About When I Was Eight

  Closer to Nine

  My Birthday Observed

  More Bad Things

  All of a Sudden

  The Signal

  The Recovery Room

  Out With a Smash

  Officially Nine

  Happy Birthday

  My Birthday Wish

  CHAPTER 1

  Things I Wrote About When I Was Eight

  Hi, it’s Stella Batts again!

  I’ve written nine books since I turned eight years old. That’s because a lot of things happened to me that I wanted to write about, such as:

  Joshua in my class started calling me Smella, so I changed my name. But then I changed it back again.

  I taste-tested magic gum, which was fun. But then I got it stuck in my hair, which was NOT fun at all. Plus, my best friend Willa moved away, which was the most not-fun thing ever.

  But I got a new best friend, named Evie, who moved here from London. She has a cool accent.

  My baby brother, Marco, was born.

  I got to babysit Evie’s dog, and I lost it! Luckily, my sister, Penny, helped find it.

  Penny and I were flower girls, we got a new uncle and a new cousin, and we all went swimming in our flower-girl dresses!

  My friend Lucy and I made a secret newspaper. I wrote about the secret new Candy Carnival at our store, Batts Confections. (It’s not a secret anymore.)

  I got to be on my favorite show in the whole entire world, called Superstar Sam.

  I slept over in my school library.

  In this book I’m going to write about the amazing trip my family and I are about to take. And guess what? By the time I finish this book, the other thing that will have happened is I will have turned NINE YEARS OLD!

  CHAPTER 2

  Closer to Nine

  “Stella, there’s a phone call for you,” Mom said.

  I love getting phone calls!

  “Hello, this is Stella Batts,” I said, pressing the phone against my ear. “Who is this?”

  Next to me, my sister, Penny, whined in my other ear. “How come I didn’t get a phone call?”

  “Shhh, Penny, I can’t hear,” I said. “Who is this?” I asked again.

  “Guess,” said a voice on the other end of the phone.

  “Willa!” I nearly screamed. “Of course I know who it is! You’re my best friend! I can’t wait to see you in person! It will be my best birthday EVER!”

  “Me toooooo!!!!” Penny cried, leaning toward the phone.

  “It’s not going to be your birthday,” I told her.

  “I mean I can’t wait to see Willa, too!” she said. “WILLA!!!!”

  “Inside voices, girls,” Mom said. “Please.”

  “Let me talk to Willa,” Penny said, in a soft inside voice.

  “No,” I told her, in my soft inside voice.

  “I don’t mind if Penny wants to talk to me,” Willa said.

  Willa is very nice. As a matter of fact, she’s the nicest person I’ve ever met in my whole entire life! But I knew she’d called to talk to me, not Penny.

  “It’s not fair,” Penny told Mom.

  “Hold on,” I said into the phone. I walked out of the kitchen, down the hall, and into my room.

  “You know what’s weird?” I asked Willa. “You know exactly what my house looks like. But when you walk in yours, I have no idea what it looks like.”

  “You’ll know in two more days,” Willa said.

  “I know!” I said. “I’m so excited!”

  If you haven’t guessed already, that was the amazing trip I mentioned in Chapter One—a trip to Willa’s house in Pennsylvania. From Saturday morning until Tuesday night—four days and three nights!

  “I’m more excited,” Willa said.

  “And I’m the MOST excited,” I told her. “I’m so excited I feel like . . . I feel like I could hug the whole entire world. That’s how excited I am. And the best part is, it’ll be my birthday when I’m there.”

  “A sleepover birthday,” she said. “My mom and I planned it all out. You and Penny will sleep in my room, and your parents and Marco will sleep in Jackson’s room.”

  “With Jackson?” I asked. Jackson is Willa’s younger brother.

  “Jackson is going to sleep in Spencer’s room,” Willa said. Spencer is her older brother. “My mom said it’s like musical beds.”

  “That’s funny,” I told her.

  “So, what are you doing between now and when you get here?” Willa asked.

  “Right now we’re making cupcakes for my party at school tomorrow,” I told her. “We can’t frost them yet, because we’re waiting for my dad to come home from the store with all the toppings. There’s going to be rainbow sprinkles, chocolate sprinkles, chocolate chips, cubes of fudge, and probably a million more things.”

  “A million? Really?”

  “No, not a million. But a lot. As soon as he gets here, we’ll decorate the cupcakes. Then I’ll go to sleep, and wake up and go to school, and have my party. Then after that, Mom will pick me and Penny up. We’ll go to sleep one more time and when we wake up it’ll be time to go visit you.”

  “Do you know what I’m doing?” Willa asked.

  “No, what?”

  “I’m making you a friendship bracelet.”

  “Is that my present?” I asked.

  Some people like their presents to be surprises, but I like to know because then I can be happy about whatever is going to happen for even longer.

  “You’ll see,” Willa said in a teasing voice.

  “But I—” I started.

  Just then Willa’s mom said something to her in the background, and Willa said, “Stella, my mom says I have to hang up now because it’s almost my bedtime.”

  “What?” I said. “It’s not even six o’clock.”

  “It’s three hours later in Pennsylvania,” she reminded me.

/>   “Oh yeah.”

  “Got to go,” she said. “I’ll see you in two days. Tell Penny I’m sorry I didn’t talk to her, but I’ll see her, too!”

  “Bye, Willa,” I said.

  After we hung up, Dad still wasn’t home, so I decided to pack for the trip. I’ve had a lot of experience packing, because I’d helped Mom pack my bag for Aunt Laura’s wedding, and I’d practically packed by myself to go on my school library sleepover.

  This was a bigger trip, so packing was even more important. I pulled things from my closet, my dresser, and my desk, and made a big pile of stuff on the floor.

  Someone knocked on my door. I have a sign posted that says This is Stella’s Room. If You Are Not Stella Then Please Knock. Penny never reads the sign. Marco doesn’t know how to read. So the person knocking had to be Mom.

  “Come in,” I told her.

  She did, along with Penny and Marco. Mom and Penny walked, of course. Marco crawled. It’s his new trick. He’s getting pretty good at it. Mom and Dad made a rule that Penny and I had to keep things clean from now on. It was always the rule, but now they are SUPER strict about it, because whatever gets left on the floor, Marco pops into his mouth to eat. Books, pens, pen caps, socks, my Glinda the Good Witch Wand, Penny’s favorite stuffed animal Belinda. You name it, Marco will try to eat it.

  Mom scooped Marco up quick as a wink when she saw everything piled on my floor. “Stella, what on earth is happening in here?”

  “It’s okay,” I told her. “I’m not breaking any rules. I’m just packing.”

  “It looks like you’re packing to go away for a month,” she said. “I don’t think you need a dozen shirts for a long weekend in Pennsylvania.”

  “Only eleven,” I told her.

  “And your flower-girl dress from Aunt Laura’s wedding?” she asked.

  “I thought I might need something fancy for my birthday,” I explained. “That dress is the fanciest thing I’ve got.”

  “I’ll get my dress, too!” Penny said, and she moved toward the door.

  “Not so fast,” Mom told her.

  “That’s right,” I said. “It’s my birthday, so I should wear the fanciest thing.”

  “It’s not fair,” Penny said again, pouting.

  “Stella Rae,” Mom said, shaking her head. She sat down on my bed with Marco in her arms. “We really need to pare down this pile.”

  “I know what pair means,” I told her. “And I know what down means. But what does pair down mean?”

  “It’s P-A-R-E down,” she said.

  “Ooh, goody,” I said. “A new word!”

  I love new words. I like to put at least one new word in every book I write, and sometimes even more than that.

  “What do you think it means?” Mom asked me.

  “It means you want me to bring less.”

  “Exactly. Now, put everything away, and I’ll pack for you later.”

  “I’m old enough to pack myself,” I told her. “After all, I’m nine.”

  “You’re eight,” Penny said.

  “I’m afraid she’s right, for a few more days at least, my sweets,” Mom said.

  “I’m closer to nine than I am to eight. I’m only three days away from nine, but my eighth birthday was . . . three hundred and sixty-two days ago.”

  “One day you won’t want to be any older,” Mom said.

  “Sure I will.”

  “No, you won’t. Trust me.”

  Grown-ups always think they’ll know what kids will want when they’re older. But I had a feeling Mom was wrong about me. I loved getting older—especially since it meant I got to have a birthday.

  “I don’t want to be any older,” Penny said. She dropped to the floor and rolled around a bit. “Goo goo gaga. I’m a baby. I can’t even crawl. I’m younger than Marco now!”

  “Penny, get up,” Mom said. “You’re a big kindergarten girl—and that’s way more exciting than being a baby. Think about all the things you can do!”

  “You just said getting older was a bad thing,” I reminded Mom.

  “I said there was no reason to rush it along,” Mom said.

  “Goo goo gaga,” Penny said, rolling around again. “Goo goo ga ga ga. Ooh, I can feel the garage opening!”

  “How’d you feel that?” I asked.

  “The floor vibrated,” she said, as she sprang to her feet. “Daddy’s home! The toppings are home!”

  “Yay!” I said.

  Marco clapped his hands.

  “What took him so long?” Penny asked.

  “He had to work,” Mom said. “You know that. Stuart hasn’t been around as much.”

  Stuart is my favorite person who works at Batts Confections.

  “Why not?” I asked.

  “Because he’s graduating college in a few weeks,” Mom said. “And he’s getting ready to move to New York.”

  “He’s leaving us?” I asked.

  “I’m afraid so,” Mom said.

  “I hate when people move away,” I told her.

  “I know,” she said. “But now we’ll have another person to visit on the East Coast.” She looked down at my pile of clothes on the floor. “Tell you what, my nearly nine-year-old girl. I’ll give you an early birthday present right now. You can wait on cleaning up, as long as you promise to do it after cupcakes.”

  “I promise,” I said. “Thanks, Mom.”

  CHAPTER 3

  My Birthday Observed

  The next day, Dad drove our carpool to school. Here’s who was in our car:

  Dad, of course

  Me and Penny

  My friend Evie

  Penny’s friend Zoey

  “Happy birthday,” Evie said to me when she got into the car.

  “It’s not really her birthday yet,” Penny told her.

  “I know that,” Evie said. “I’m her best friend after all.”

  “Well,” I said. “Willa’s actually my best friend, but she moved away. So you’re my best friend who lives in Somers.”

  “Hey, Stella,” Dad said.

  “What?”

  “Nothing. We’ll talk later. How about some car tunes?”

  “Yay! Car tunes!” Penny said. “Put on the show tunes channel!”

  Penny likes show tunes because that’s what our Grandma Dee listens to.

  “What was that?” Dad said. “I think I heard a question . . . but I’m not sure. Something was missing.”

  “PLEASE!” Penny added.

  “Well, in that case,” Dad said, and he flipped on the radio. “Here you go.”

  But I was almost nine, so I knew Dad had only mentioned car tunes because he wanted to distract me. That trick always works on Penny, because she’s only five. I’m too old to be easily distracted.

  “What do we have to talk about later, Dad?” I asked.

  “Not now, Stel,” he said. “This is my favorite song.” And he turned the volume up.

  “I don’t like this song,” I said.

  “All right, Stel,” Dad said, changing the station. “How about this one?”

  “Better,” I said.

  “But I liked the other song better,” Penny said. “It’s not fair.”

  “Sure it is,” I told her. “It’s MY birthday.”

  “Not for two more days,” Penny corrected.

  “You don’t always celebrate your birthday on your birthday,” I said. “It’s like how we have President’s Day Observed off from school. I wonder if I’ll get any presents today.”

  “Oh no,” Evie said. “I didn’t bring one for you.”

  “That’s okay,” I told her. “There are still more days. But you want to know one of the things that Willa is giving me? A friendship bracelet! Because we’re best friends!”

  “I love friendship bracelets,” Evie said. “I made them for Sara and Tesa in London. I’ll make one for you, too.”

  “That’s okay,” I told her. “I don’t need it. I’ll have Willa’s.”

  “You can never have
too many friendship bracelets,” Dad said.

  “You don’t have any!” Penny squealed.

  “That’s because I’m not in school anymore,” Dad said. “But speaking of school—here we are.”

  He pulled up in front of the big sign that says SOMERS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.

  “All right, everyone,” Dad said. “Up and out. Stella, Mom and I will see you after lunch.”

  “And you’ll see me, too, right?” Penny said.

  “I’ll see you after that,” Dad said. “When you come home from school.”

  “It’s not fair that you see Stella more times than you see me,” Penny told Dad.

  “I’ll see you after lunch during school when it’s your birthday,” Dad said.

  He’d still see me more times than he’d see Penny, because I’m three years older, and I’ll always have three more years of time than she did. I would’ve told her that, but Evie pulled on my arm and said she didn’t want to be late. Then Dad said he didn’t want Penny and Zoey to be late, either. So we said good-bye and got out of the car.

  Penny and her friend Zoey went to their classroom, and Evie and I went to ours. Our teacher, Mrs. Finkel, was standing at the front of the room. She clapped her hands to signal that it was time to get started with our day. We did some math work, and then some social studies.

  If it was a normal day, after social studies we’d take a break for snack. But since it was My Birthday Observed, it wasn’t a normal day. We skipped snack time.

  “Boo!” Joshua shouted when Mrs. Finkel announced that we’d be opening our science textbooks instead.

  “No Calling Out is a Ground Rule,” Mrs. Finkel reminded him. “But if you want to visit Principal O’Neil’s office, I’m sure he’d be happy to have you this afternoon while the rest of us celebrate Stella’s birthday.”

  Joshua didn’t call out again after that. None of us did. After our morning lessons it was time for lunch, and then recess.

  Usually lunch and recess are my two favorite parts of the day. But on My Birthday Observed they went by so slowly. SOOOOOOOO SLOOOOOOOWLY. That’s what happens when you’re waiting for something good to happen. It’s like being at Batts Confections and waiting for the homemade fudge to cool. Dad says it takes three to four hours, but trust me when I say it feels more like three to four DAYS.