Eva frowned and tried to peer under the door, but she saw nothing except the faded carpet and could hear nothing but Leah playing with her dolls. With a sigh, she pushed herself up into a sitting position, then slowly rose to her feet. As quietly and sneakily as possible, she crept back to Jane’s room.

“Well?” Jane asked eagerly. Her shoulders slumped when she saw Eva’s face. “You didn’t see or hear anything, did you?”

“Zilch. And I seriously doubt she’s going to play with her dolls at the pageant,” Eva responded.

“It’s bothering me to not know,” Jane whined. “I mean, we both know what we’re doing, but Leah…”

“It’s a total mystery what Leah’s doing.”

“Exactly. I haven’t heard or seen her practicing anything. She’s been just going around, doing thing as normal. I can’t imagine what she’s going to do.”

“Maybe she is going to play with her dolls,” Eva mused aloud.

“Eva, be serious. You’re supposed to be the smart one. Leah is not playing with her dolls there.”

“How do you know? She might.”

“And you’re supposed to be the smart one,” Jane muttered. “Look, there’s got to be some clue about what she’s going to do.”

“Well… what has she been doing a lot?”

“All her usual stuff. You know, playing, eating, sleeping…”

“Okay, so it must be something she does a lot… and I think we can eliminate eating and sleeping,” Eva muttered. “You don’t think she really is going to play…?”

“She’s going to get laughed off of the stage. And we’ll be laughed at, too.”

“It’s just like you to worry about being laughed at.

“She is. She’s such a kid, and she hates dressing up and doing super-girly stuff. They’re going to eat her alive.”


Eva sighed and nodded slowly. “You’re right, I guess. But there’s got to be something we can do.”

“There’s still time to get her to change her talent.”

“Right!”

The two girls raced over to their sister’s room and barged in. Leah looked up from her dollhouse and smiled cheerily. “Hey,” she greeted her sisters. “If you wanted to play with me that bad, you should have knocked. Whatever. Come on, you can play Bob and Jessie.”

“Maybe later,” Eva replied.


“Leah, you need to change your talent for the show,” Jane blurted out.

“Why?” Leah asked, turning her attention back to the dollhouse.

“Because… because people are going to laugh at you,” Jane responded.

“But it’s what I’m really good at! I’m not super-smart or ultra-pretty. Besides, I don’t care if people laugh at me.”

“But Leah--” Eva tried to argue with her younger sister.

“--I’m not going to run from people if they laugh at me,” Leah responded, her tone of voice becoming uncharacteristically annoyed.

Eva backed away, deeply hurt by Leah’s words. “Fine,” Eva finally said. She tugged at Jane’s arm. “Let’s leave her alone, then.”

“But--” Jane protested.

“Everyone has to learn from their own mistakes sometimes.”