by Nancy Rue

Lily Robbins stepped into the doorway of her sixth-grade classroom dressed as a Hungarian peasant. She took one look at her classmates all clad in their usual khakis and Cedar Hills Elementary shirts and burst into tears.

Snickers erupted from one corner of the classroom, where Ashley Adamson and the popular kids covered their mouths with their hands and gave each other looks that clearly read, We got her!

Reni and Zooey immediately zoomed to Lily’s side.

“She needs to go to the restroom,” Reni said to Ms. Gooch.

From their seats Suzy and Kresha, the other two members of the Girlz Only Club, waved sympathetically as Lily was whisked off to the bathroom.

“Why are you wearing your project costume today?” Reni asked as she pushed open the door. “Our presentations aren’t until Friday.”

“Ashley called me last night and told me they were today,” Lily said.

“And you believed her?” Reni said.

“She made it sound like it was for real,” Lily said. “She’s in my group.”

“Just change into your regular clothes,” Reni said.

“Yeah,” Zooey added. “You’d feel pretty lame walking around in that all day.”

Reni gave her a look. “Thank you, Zooey. That helps a lot.”

“At least she’s honest,” Lily said miserably. “Which is more than I can say for Ashley and them. You know what? I think we should go on a crusade for honesty.”

“I don’t know,” Reni said. “Remember when we all had to learn first aid because you wanted to be a doctor. And we all had to have makeovers because you wanted to be a model—”

“This isn’t like that,” Lily said as she whipped off her peasant scarf. “This is going to be a battle against dishonesty. We have to be absolutely honest in everything we do and say.”

“Do we have go on this crusade right now, Lil?” Reni said. “We have all this stuff going on for seventh grade: Suzy’s got soccer tryouts, Kresha has that big ESL test and I’ve got auditions for middle school orchestra tomorrow.”

Lily only heard her with part of her brain.

“We’ll tell the other Girlz about the plan at recess,” Lily said. “I think this is totally a God thing, Ren.”

Reni followed her out of the restroom and groaned.

Truth Crusade

For the rest of the day, Lily watched for dishonesty like a bird of prey.

She heard Shad Shifferdecker exaggerating about how many spitballs he shot in the computer lab. She saw Marcie McCleary trying to cheat off of Suzy’s paper during the vocabulary test. And on her way home, she saw a sign at the hoagie shop that said it had the best sandwiches in all of New Jersey. She was sure that wasn’t true, because she’d tasted better.

That night when she and Mom were cleaning the kitchen, Lily stopped with a plate halfway into the dishwasher and looked at her mother’s ponytail. Lily tried to imagine her with a bob or a perm.

“What are you looking at, Lil?” Mom asked.

“I was just thinking you would look better with a different hairstyle,” Lily said.

“Uh-oh,” she said. “Are you on a makeover kick now?”

“No, I’m not on any kind of kick. I’m just trying very hard to be honest in all things.”

“Now, Lil—” Mom started to say as the phone rang. “Just don’t go overboard.”

How can you go overboard? Lily thought. Isn’t the truth always the best thing?

Honesty Update

The next morning before school Suzy shared with the Girlz that she’d gotten up the courage to tell her father she had made a B on a social studies test, which was a huge deal since her dad expected straight A’s from her.

Reni said she didn’t really have anything to report because she was pretty honest all the time.

“Maybe you missed an opportunity,” Lily said. “You have to keep your eyes open. Like I told my mom she needed a new ’do.”

Suzy pulled her tiny black eyebrows together. “Do we have to hurt people’s feelings by being honest?”

“It didn’t hurt her feelings,” Lily said.

“It would have hurt mine!” Zooey said. “Do you think my hair looks stupid, Lily?”

“Don’t answer that,” Reni said.

“Why not?” Lily said. “I happen to think Zooey’s hair is cute.”

“But what if you didn’t?” Reni said.

“Well,” Lily said. “We all promised to be honest, and that’s what I’m going to be. I won’t be like Ashley, Marcie and Shad.”

“That is whole class, Lee-Lee!” Kresha said in her heavy Croatian accent.

“Exactly,” Lily said. “And it looks like it’s up to us to fix that.”

“I’m not fixing anything today,” Reni said. “I have to focus on my audition this afternoon.”

The Best Policy?

On the way over to Cedar Hills Middle School, Reni was so nervous she looked like she was going to throw up.

“You don’t have anything to worry about, Reni,” Lily truthfully said. “There isn’t anybody else in this school who plays the violin as good as you.”

“That’s just it,” Reni said. “They‘re auditioning kids from two other elementary schools that feed into Cedar Hills Middle. There could be kids that have taken lessons for years!”

“You the best,” Kresha said, throwing her skinny arms around Reni’s neck. “Nobody better.”

Lily didn’t see how she could honestly say that, and she was about to point that out when they arrived and Reni got out of the car.

“We’ll pray for you,” Lily said as she hugged Reni. “You’re going to be awesome.”

And that was the truth. All the Girlz—and Reni’s mom—held hands and prayed before tryouts started. When Reni played, they held their breaths and clapped wildly when she was finished. She only made one tiny mistake, and so far that was better than anybody else. Lily was so proud she thought she might fizz open like a soda can.

Reni joined them just as the last girl walked on the stage to audition.

“You’re the best so far,” Lily whispered to her. “You’re SO going to get in.”

Reni grinned and put her hot, sweaty, shaking hand in Lily’s until it stopped quivering.

The last girl, somebody from Delanco School, began to play. It was obvious she had been taking lessons for a while, because her bow eased over the strings as if she weren’t even trying. Her audition was perfect.

“That’s okay,” Lily whispered to Reni, who was clapping as loudly as everyone else when the girl finished. “You’ll still get in.”

Reni’s hands stopped in mid-clap. “Huh?” she said.

Lily stopped, too, the truth poised on her lips. I have to be honest, she thought. I’m the leader of this whole crusade.

“What do you mean, I’ll still get in?” Reni asked. “Do you think she played better than I did?”

Lily looked down at her lap.

“You do,” Reni said. “You do think she’s better than me!”

“Well, yeah,” Lily said. “She was better, but—”

Reni turned away from Lily and leaned across Kresha and Zooey to tap her mother’s leg.

“Mama,” she said close to tears, “can I come sit by you?”

True Wisdom

Mom was out front waiting in the van. When Lily climbed in, she said, “Mom, I thought honesty was supposed to make things better.”

“Ah,” Mom said. “So you put your foot in it, huh?”

Lily told her what happened. Before she even got to the part where she told Reni the truth, Mom was finishing her sentences for her.

“How did you know?” Lily said.

“I saw it coming, Lil,” Mom said. “You always go into these things whole hog.”

“But I just wanted to be completely honest, so I wouldn’t be a liar like Ashley!”

“You’re already honest,” Mom said. “It’s one of the best things about you. But one of the other best things about you is your loyalty to your friends.”

“If I’d said that other girl wasn’t better when Reni asked me, that would have been a lie! What am I supposed to do?”

“Did it make any difference in the outcome of things for you to tell Reni the truth?”

“No.”

“Is Reni a better violinist now because you told her the other girl was a better player than she was?”

“No. And now she hates me.”

“She doesn’t hate you.” Mom’s ponytail bounced as she shook her head “She’s just upset because you hurt her feelings. The truth is always the truth, but sometimes it’s just better left unsaid.”

“So I should have said, ‘All I know is that you were awesome.’ ”

“Exactly.”

“What if I mess it up again?” Lily asked.

“Let’s practice,” Mom said. “Lily, should I really lop off my ponytail because it looks lame?”

Lily felt her sad face going into a grin.

“You know what?” she said. “You wouldn’t look like Mom without it.”

	Q: Why did the football coach walk into the telephone store? A: He needed a receiver. Jessica S., 10, Texas Clubhouse Jr. Click here to subscribe