Stitches and Stones Read Free

jeans. We cobbled together an outfit with Sashi and Tara’s help (as in, they let Kate borrow some clothes). Priti is lucky to have not just one but two older sisters whose closets she can raid. Somehow I never feel the urge to go “shopping” in Marcus’s closet! Wait—I totally wore his old shoes to school this year. Nevermind!
    Libby and I fell in love with the same hats: An awesome fascinator that looks like an orchid and the cutest retro pillbox hat with a veil, so we are going to share. Libby and I were video chatting constantly last night, checking out different combinations of outfits to match. It’s kind of like playing a clothing slot machine—mixing and matching shirts and skirts and shoes untilthe winning combination falls into place.
    Ding, ding, ding!
    And the winner is: still my tulle skirt, because luckily it goes well with everything. I had to try on fifteen different tops to figure out which one would work, and finally I settled on a pale green shirt that picks up the color of the orchid’s stem but still looks good with the pillbox hat. Libby is going to wear a yellow skirt and a cream-colored shirt.
    I can’t wait to see what hats all the other kids are wearing. I wonder if our teachers will wear hats too? After all, it is Spirit Week!
    I just hope I don’t end up with hat hair. That’s the only thing I don’t like about hats. But everything else I love !
    Mapleton Prep was a sea of hats when Kate and Zoey got off the bus on Monday morning.
    â€œLook at Thomas! He’s got one of those aviator hats with the goggles, like Amelia Earhart had. Cool!” Kate exclaimed.
    â€œAnd what about Nicole! She’s got a realfireman’s hat,” Zoey said, pointing.
    â€œYou mean fire woman ,” Kate corrected, giggling.
    â€œYou’re right, I do,” Zoey said.
    Much to Zoey’s amazement, even Mr. Dunn, her social studies teacher, got in on the fun. He was wearing a multicolored beanie with a propeller on the top, and he announced to the class it was his geek hat.
    â€œI’m a geek, and I’m proud of it,” he said. “The geeks shall inherit the earth.”
    Zoey liked the sound of that. Go, geeks! She never thought Mr. Dunn would get into the spirit for Hat Day. Maybe he wasn’t as tough as he seemed!
    â€œAnd now put your books and notes away, because geeks should always be prepared for a pop quiz,” Mr. Dunn said.
    Zoey took it back. On second thought, maybe Mr. Dunn was as tough as he seemed!
    Her English teacher was sporting a fedora, worn with an oversized jacket and slim dark jeans. Zoey loved everything about English class, except one of her least favorite people was in it—Ivy Wallace.
    â€œNice hat,” Ivy said when Zoey passed by on her way to her desk.
    Zoey was about to offer a surprised “thanks” when Ivy added, “Too bad you had to wear it with that outfit. What are you, six years old, wearing a tutu to school?”
    It was hard to ignore Ivy’s comments, but Zoey knew Ivy’s goal was to see Zoey upset, so she just kept walking till she got to her seat.
    â€œWow, cool hat!” said her friend Gabe Monaco.
    Zoey smiled. Ignoring Ivy just got easier. Gabe was wearing a shiny black top hat, like the guy on the lid of the Monopoly box. The hat sat on top of his brown curls, and Zoey secretly thought it looked kind of adorable on him.
    â€œI love your hat too,” she said. “It looks like it could be in a museum.”
    â€œIt probably could be in a museum,” Gabe admitted. “It was my great-grandfather’s. Mom had it in a trunk up in the attic. She even had Grandpa’s formal tuxedo.”
    â€œYou should have worn it! It would have been awesome.”
    â€œI thought about it,” Gabe said. “But I wasn’t sure how into it people were going to get, and I didn’t want to be that guy who came to school totally