Heidi Heckelbeck Takes the Cake Read online

  BUSY BEE

  Heidi Heckelbeck was the busiest girl on the planet. Dad called her Lil’ Miss Busy Bee.

  On Monday, Heidi had swim practice with her team, the Little Mermaids. They worked on the butterfly stroke.

  On Tuesday, Heidi had Young Rembrandts. It was an after-school club with her art teacher, Mr. Doodlebee. The club had been working on a giant aquarium collage. Heidi made a pink neon jellyfish from paper plates, paint, and yarn.

  On Wednesday, Aunt Trudy took Heidi to the Fine Arts Museum. They got to see all kinds of original art, from paintings to sculptures to videos.

  Heidi’s math tutor came over on Thursday—that’s because Heidi needed help with word problems, especially the ones with fractions.

  And, of course, Friday night was Movie Night at the Heckelbecks’. They watched Henry’s favorite movie for the fifth time. Not that Heidi was counting.

  Saturday morning was all about the swim meet. The Little Mermaids crushed the Aqua Maidens in freestyle and breaststroke.

  Then, on Saturday afternoon, Heidi accidentally booked two playdates for the same day!

  Luckily, Bryce Beltran and Laurel Lambert didn’t mind, and they all played together.

  And finally, on Sunday, Heidi helped her little brother create a costume for his history project. After that she had to finish her own homework.

  Her whole family was impressed.

  “How do you do it, Lil’ Miss Busy Bee?” her father asked as he pretended to interview Heidi about her busy schedule.

  Heidi pressed her hand against her chest. “Well, as you know, I have a FAB-U-LOUS social life, DAH-LING!” she said in a grand movie star voice. “And HOW do I do it, you ask?”

  Heidi picked up her daily planner. It had unicorns and rainbows all over it. She pretended to show it to a wide audience.

  “THIS is how I do it,” she said. Then she hugged her planner close to her chest. “I would be nowhere without my trusty planner! It’s the ONLY way I can keep it all straight, DAH-LING!”

  Dad nodded thoughtfully. “And what if you ever lost it?” he asked.

  Heidi placed the back of her hand against her forehead. “Oh, DAH-LING! I should simply be LOST without it!” she said. “Even a famous person such as myself needs to know when to study for math and when to go out on the town.”

  Dad laughed. “There you have it, ladies and gentlemen!” he said. “Lil’ Miss Busy Bee keeps it all straight with a planner. And now it’s time for a word from our sponsor.”

  That was Dad’s way of ending the show.

  PINT-SIZE BEN FRANKLIN

  “Where’s my planner?” Heidi shouted on Monday morning before school. “I can’t find it ANYWHERE!”

  Dad turned from the stove and looked at Heidi. He held a spatula in his hand. He had been making pancakes for breakfast.

  “Uh-oh! Sounds like Lil’ Miss Busy Bee might be in a lil’ bit of trouble,” he said.

  Heidi stomped her foot. “That is NOT funny, Dad!”

  Mom hugged her coffee mug in both hands. “Calm down, Heidi,” she said. “Just take a moment to retrace your steps.”

  Heidi blew three quick, short breaths to calm herself. It didn’t help at all.

  “But I’ve already retraced my steps, AND I have looked EVERYWHERE!” she complained. Then Heidi counted off the places she’d looked on her fingers. “My planner is not in my bedroom! It’s not in my bathroom! It’s not in my backpack! It’s not in the kitchen! It’s not even under the mail on the front hall table!”

  That’s when Benjamin Franklin walked into the kitchen. It wasn’t the real Ben Franklin. It was her little brother, Henry, dressed like Ben Franklin. He was holding a kite and a notebook.

  “I think you are looking for this,” he said.

  Heidi’s eyes grew wide, and she shrieked so loud that Mom covered her ears. Heidi snatched the planner out of her brother’s hand. Then she kissed the cover five times.

  “Oh, my gosh, THANK YOU!” Heidi cried. “You literally saved my life!”

  Henry raised one finger and used his best Ben Franklin voice. “It looks like electricity isn’t the only thing I discovered.”

  Everyone laughed. Then Heidi inspected her planner inside and out. Everything looked okay, except for a few speckles of paint on the cover from when she had helped Henry paint his kite. Phew!

  Heidi slipped her planner into her backpack and sat down next to Henry for breakfast.

  “You know what?” she asked.

  Henry raised his eyebrows. “What?”

  “You actually look like the REAL Ben Franklin—only pint-size,” Heidi said.

  Henry smiled and held up his kite. The kite had a coat hanger for a string so it would stay in the air like it was flying. The end of the string had a key attached to it.

  “Tell us all a little about Ben Franklin,” Dad suggested.

  Henry stood up and pointed to his wig. The wig was bald in the middle and had long hair on either side. “Hi, my name is Ben Franklin, and I am one of the Founding Fathers of our country,” Henry began. “And I’m also losing my hair.”

  Heidi giggled.

  Henry—or Ben—continued.

  “And did you know my face is on the hundred-dollar bill? That’s because I did a lot of really cool things, like when I was eleven years old, I invented swim fins. I also invented bifocals, which are a type of eyeglasses.”

  Henry put on a pair of fake eyeglasses and pointed to them.

  “Another very cool thing I did was prove lightning is electricity when I flew this kite in a thunderstorm.”

  Henry held up his kite. “From this experiment I also invented the lightning rod, which is still used on top of houses and buildings today.”

  Heidi raised her hand. “What’s a lightning rod?”

  Henry explained that a lightning rod attracts bolts of lightning and sends the electricity to the ground instead of hurting the buildings.

  “I did lots of other cool stuff too!” Henry went on. “I started a magazine, and I helped write the Declaration of Independence. People say I also had a great sense of humor.”

  Then Henry bowed. The whole family clapped.

  “Bravo!” said Mom and Dad.

  Henry held out his arm toward Heidi. “I couldn’t have become Ben Franklin without Heidi’s help.”

  Heidi smiled. “No problem,” she said. “Anything for my little Benny!”

  M.I.A.: MISSING IN ACTION

  Heidi hopped on the school bus and walked down the aisle. She scanned the seats for one of her best friends, Bruce Bickerson. She didn’t see him anywhere.

  Hmm, maybe he didn’t ride the bus today, Heidi thought.

  Then she saw Bryce, her neighbor, who slapped the empty seat beside her. Heidi sat down.

  “So guess what?” Bryce began. “Last night I made dinner for my whole family—ALL BY MYSELF! You wanna know what I made?”

  Bryce was a talker. She didn’t stop long enough for Heidi to answer.

  “I made pizza skewers! And it was SO easy! All I had to do was thread pepperoni slices, mozzarella balls, little squares of pizza dough, and cherry tomatoes on sticks. Then my mom grilled them. After that we dipped the pizza tidbits in marinara sauce. It was SO yummy!”

  Heidi smiled as Bryce roared on.

  “And you know what my mom said? She said I should have my own cooking show. Isn’t that SO cool?! Oh, and did I tell you about the salad I made to go with our pizza skewers?”

  Bryce gabbed for the entire ride. Poor Heidi nodded like a bobblehead the whole way. She loved listening to her friend, but sometimes Bryce had A LOT to say.

  When they arrived at school, Heidi hurried off the bus. She spotted Bruce getting out of
his dad’s car and waved like crazy.

  Bruce didn’t wave back, even though Heidi could tell he was looking right at her!

  That is weird, Heidi thought.

  Then somebody tugged on Heidi’s backpack really hard! She whirled around and saw her other best friend, Lucy Lancaster.

  Lucy folded her arms. “WHERE WERE YOU?”

  Heidi stepped back in surprise. Lucy sounded really angry.

  “What do you mean, where was I?” Heidi asked. “I just stepped off the bus. Was I supposed to meet you somewhere?”

  Lucy tapped her foot. “I mean yesterday,” she said impatiently. “Where were you YESTERDAY?”

  Heidi tried to remember. “Well, I was at home,” she began. “And then I cleaned my room, did my chores, and helped Henry with his costume for history.…”

  Lucy continued to tap her foot.

  “Why do you seem so upset?” Heidi asked.

  Then Lucy threw her hands up in frustration. “Because YESTERDAY was Bruce’s BIRTHDAY, and you were M.I.A.!” she scolded.

  Heidi covered her mouth with her hand and blurted out, “Merg!”

  It was the only thing she could say.

  BEST-FRIEND FEELINGS

  Heidi sat at her desk and opened her planner. She had nothing down for Bruce’s birthday. The only note on Sunday was Help Henry with his history project.

  So Heidi flipped the page to the next week.

  There, in big bold letters, she had written Bruce’s birthday. It was in her planner, but on the wrong day.

  Heidi sighed and looked over at Bruce, who sat next to her. But he was ignoring her.

  Wow, Bruce won’t even LOOK at me! Heidi thought. She could hardly blame him. Heidi would’ve been mad if Bruce had missed her party too.

  Then Mrs. Welli rang a chime and called the class to order.

  “Please pull out your writing notebooks,” she directed. “Today we’re going to write sentences using exclamations. Does anyone know what this kind of sentence is called?”

  Nobody answered, so the teacher spoke up. “It’s called an ex-clam-a-tory sentence.”

  Then Mrs. Welli explained that exclamatory sentences expressed feelings, like happiness, surprise, or anger. She wrote some examples on the board.

  The class giggled.

  “Now it’s your turn,” Mrs. Welli said. “I want you to write three exclamatory sentences.”

  Heidi tapped her pencil eraser on her desktop and tried to think of a sentence. She could hear Bruce scribbling something. Heidi peeked at his notebook. He had written: I cannot believe you FORGOT my birthday!

  Heidi drew in a sharp breath.

  Then Heidi wrote her own sentence: I made a HUGE mistake!

  Bruce frowned and penciled a new response: You really hurt my feelings!

  Then Heidi shot back: I didn’t mean to!

  But that didn’t matter, because then Bruce wrote: You made me MAD!

  And Heidi wrote:

  I am SO sorry!

  Then Mrs. Welli asked the students to share their sentences aloud. After a few students went, Mrs. Welli called on Bruce.

  “Bruce, you’ve been quiet today. Would you share your exclamatory sentences with the class?” she asked.

  Bruce reluctantly read all his sentences. The class giggled.

  Mrs. Welli hushed the laughter. “Can anyone tell us what feelings Bruce is expressing?” she asked.

  Natalie Newman, Lucy Lancaster, and Melanie Maplethorpe raised their hands.

  “Shock!” Natalie said.

  “Sadness,” Lucy said.

  “Oh! Anger!” Melanie added. “Like, anger at a bad friend, maybe. A bad friend who forgot Bruce’s birthday.”

  Mrs. Welli clapped her hands. “Well done!”

  Luckily, the bell rang before the teacher could call on Heidi to read her sentences to the class. As everyone packed up, Heidi tapped Bruce on the shoulder.

  “Look!” she said, pointing to her planner. “I made a mistake and wrote your birthday down on the WRONG day. Silly me—right?”

  Bruce shoved his notebook into his backpack. “It’s not silly to ME,” he said. “I have a birthday ONCE A YEAR, and this one was special. My parents rented out the WHOLE arcade.”

  Heidi looked at her feet. “I know.”

  Bruce clipped his backpack. “And then my best friend doesn’t even SHOW UP,” he went on. “Now you are making up an excuse about why you missed my party. I mean, do you even understand best-friend feelings?”

  Heidi’s planner dropped onto her desk with a thud.

  “I’m really sorry,” she said. “What can I do so you’ll forgive me?”

  “NOTHING,” Bruce said as he ran out of the classroom. “Unless you can turn back time!”

  ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK

  Hmm, Heidi thought. Maybe there is a way to turn back time.

  She raced to her room the moment she got home. She pulled her Book of Spells out and looked up time travel spells. One caught her eye. It was called Rock around the Clock.

  Rock Around the Clock

  Have you ever wished you could fix a mistake in the past? Perhaps you broke something that belonged to somebody else. Or maybe you missed an important event—like your best friend’s birthday—even though you really wanted to be there. If you want to go back in time and make things right, then this is the spell for YOU!

  Ingredients:

  1 watch

  1 birthday candle

  date of mistake

  1 toy car

  Mix the ingredients together in a bowl. Then hold your Witches of Westwick medallion in one hand and hold your other hand over the mix. Chant the following spell:

  Turn back the clock and make it fast!

  I need to fix a mistake in the past!

  “This spell should do the trick!” Heidi whispered, and she got right to work.

  First she wrote down the day she made the mistake. Then she snagged a red toy car from Henry’s messy room. In the kitchen she scored a birthday candle and a watch left in what her parents called “the everything drawer.” It was almost like a magic drawer where her family kept the most random things.

  Once she had the ingredients, Heidi zipped out of the kitchen. But before she got very far, Mom cleared her throat. Loudly.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Mom asked.

  Heidi froze. Uh-oh, she thought.

  “I know those ingredients,” Mom went on. “Toy car, birthday candle, watch… are you trying to turn back time?”

  Heidi slowly turned around. I am SO busted! she thought.

  Since it’s always better to fess up, Heidi told Mom how she had missed Bruce’s birthday party by mistake.

  “I’m sorry, honey,” Mom said. “And now you want to turn back time to fix it?”

  Heidi nodded hopefully.

  “Well, the answer is no,” Mom said firmly.

  Heidi frowned. “But WHY?”

  “Time spells are very risky,” Mom explained. “Even the best witches and wizards avoid them.”

  Heidi dropped the ingredients on the kitchen table. “So now what am I going to do?”

  Mom picked up the toy car and rolled it back to Heidi. “You’re going to think of another way to make things up to Bruce.”

  BEN FRANKLIN’S BIG IDEA

  Heidi sat on the edge of her bed and folded her arms.

  “Oh MERG!” she growled. “If I can’t use MAGIC to fix things with Bruce, then what CAN I do?”

  Suddenly Heidi’s door swung open. It was Henry—still in costume.

  “Ben Franklin, at your service!” he declared.

  Heidi shot her brother the stink eye. “Oh, go fly a kite!” she said.

  Henry frowned and fake laughed. “Ha-ha. You are SO funny! But seriously, I heard you talking with Mom.”

  Heidi held her breath to not scream. Her little brother was a first-class super spy. Then she exhaled. “So what?”

  Henry held up one finger and cleared his throat. He always did tha
t when he had something important to say. “The honorable Ben Franklin once said, ‘Do good to your friends to keep them.’ ”

  Heidi rolled her eyes. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  Henry leaned on her bed. “It MEANS you may have missed Bruce’s birthday party, but what if you threw him a SECOND birthday party?”

  Heidi’s mouth fell open. She was ready to yell “GET OUT,” but her brother was onto something.

  “Oh wow! That is a GREAT BIG EXCELLENT idea, Ben Franklin!” said Heidi.

  Then she hopped off the bed and hugged the pint-size bald guy.

  “I better get started planning now!” she cried.

  First she got permission from her parents, and they got permission from Bruce’s parents. Then she called Lucy with the news.

  “This will be the BEST win-my-best-friend-back birthday party EVER!” Heidi declared.

  TOP SECRET!

  First Lucy came over to Heidi’s house right away. Then Heidi and Lucy designed the party invitations on the family computer. They chose a border of balloons and confetti. After they found the perfect art, they filled in the party details.…

  Heidi had her parents check the invitations—just to make sure there were no mistakes. Heidi was done making mistakes. Then the girls printed the invitations and sealed them in bright blue envelopes.