EllRay Jakes and the Beanstalk Read Free

way. And Heather can be one of my stepsisters. And maybe Fiona can be the mouse who helps me clean up the kitchen.”
    â€œOne of the
ugly
stepsisters?” Heather asks, her mouth stopping mid-chew.
    It looks like Heather might stand up to Cynthia at last!
    â€œYou don’t have to be
that
ugly,” Cynthia assures her. “Just a little, maybe.”
    â€œI’m not sure I want to be a mouse,” Fiona almost squeaks, which basically ruins her objection. All that’s missing is whiskers and a tail.
    â€œAnd anyway,” Kry Rodriguez points out to Cynthia in a friendly way, “I don’t think the idea is for you to tell other kids what they have to be. It’s not like they’re all characters in a play about you.”
    â€œIt was just an idea,” Cynthia says, her nose in the air. But she doesn’t ever fight with Kry, because everybody likes her. I don’t know how Kry does that.
    â€œWell,
my
idea was to be the Little Match Girl,” Fiona dares to say. “Because she was really shivery and cold, like I am now,” she explains. “And she saw a shooting star once, and I did, too. And she probably had weak ankles, just like me.”
    Nobody seems to know what to do with all this information coming out of Fiona’s mouth. She hardly ever says a word!
    â€œWhat about you?” Kry finally asks Jared.
    â€œMaybe the Pied Piper,” Jared says, shrugging. “And you guys can follow me wherever I go.”
    Yeah, right.
That’s
gonna happen.
    â€œStanley’s not here today,” Jared continues. “But he can be the grasshopper from ‘The Grasshopper and the Ant.’ I’ll tell him.”
    â€œI’m not sure the grasshopper is the hero of that story,” Kry reminds him.
    â€œMaybe not,” Jared says. “But he has all the fun.”
    â€œI think I’ll be Snow White,” Heather says almost to herself. “I do like to sleep a lot.”
    â€œOr you could be Rapunzel,” Cynthia says. “Because you have such long, beautiful hair.”
    Heather cheers up, hearing this. A compliment from Cynthia is like an endangered species, it’s so rare. And I can tell for sure that Heather likes the idea of being Rapunzel a whole lot better than being an ugly stepsister. Maybe even more than being Snow White.
    â€œWhat about you?” Emma asks Kry.
    â€œHmm,” Kry says, tapping her chin. “I’m thinking either Little Red Riding Hood, because I love to visit my
abuela
, and we always bring her cookies. Or I’ll be Tinkerbell, if that even counts as a story. I’d like to make people’s wishes come true.”
    â€œEllRay can be the Ugly Duckling if he’s not gonna be an elf, right?” Jared says, poking Kevin in the ribs with his elbow. “Or Pinocchio, because he lies like a rug.”
    â€œI do not lie,” I say, defending myself—since it doesn’t look like Kevin’s going to do it for me. “Maybe I’ll be Jack, from ‘Jack and the Beanstalk.’ He ended up climbing the beanstalk and killing the giant, don’t forget.”
    â€œYeah,” Cynthia says. “After he sold his mom’s whole entire cow for some magic beans.”
    â€œIt ended up good, though,” I say, but I can feel my face get hot. I’d forgotten about those beans.
    I still like the idea of “Jack and the Beanstalk,” though. He climbed up that beanstalk one great big leaf at a time, didn’t he? Even though he didn’t know what he’d find when he got to the top? Jack was BRAVE
.
    And I’m the one who gets to decide.

4
    That Feeling
    â€œFinally,” Kevin says during our last recess. He has managed to corner me near the playground drinking fountain, where the water tastes so weird that you only drink it if you’re dying of thirst.
    â€œFinally what?” I say, like I don’t know what he’s talking