Tilly and the Conundrum of the Necessary Adult

Tilly and the conundrum of the necessary adult

By Sophie Hamm

Dedicated to my amazing friends from

Maple Leaf:

Lily, Xiaohan, Kaliyah, and Addie!!

Maple Leaf Writing Project

Brattleboro, VT

2017

Chapter 1: Well Hmph

Dear Dad,

I was supposed to receive a letter today! Your letter. When you left Mom, Margaret, Charlie and I, you promised, no matter what, that you would send us a letter each Wednesday. And It´s Wednesday! The Mailman came, and said ¨Nothing today, Tilly.” What is that supposed to mean? Well, hmph. You better give me an explanation, sir!

Love,

Tilly

Tilly looked at the note she had written when she was 10. She had never ended up mailing it to her father, the last time he had gone away on one of his ¨Projects”, whatever that meant. When she had showed her letter to her mother, all she received was a stern talking to. That was 2 years ago, and her father had come back. But, no sooner was he back, had Tilly seen him leave again.

¨Wow! I was bossy!” she said aloud, after reading the note for the last time.

¨You still are bossy!¨ replied a voice from outside Tilly´s bedroom. It was her younger brother, Charlie. He was only a year younger than Tilly, but, certainly didn't act like it. Or look like it. With his mohawk hair, and crazy skateboarding outings, a lot of people were misguided and thought Tilly was the younger one.

Today, he was wearing one of his nicer outfits. Jeans, a plain t-shirt, and converse sneakers. But, his hair ruined it. It was blue, and spiked up all over the place. Tilly thought he looked like a porcupine.

Tilly, on the other hand, still was wearing her pajamas. She wasn’t an early riser.

¨Oh, be quiet!¨ Tilly snapped, She started walking towards the door. She leaped over her pile of clothes and slammed the door, just in time for Charlie to jump out of the way.

¨Well, anyways, Mom wanted to tell you that you're gonna be late for school, Tilia. The bus already-¨ Charlie was caught off.

BEEP BEEP! ¨That must be Travis and his older brother!¨ Called Tilly. She pulled on her school clothes. ¨I’ve got to go! Just tell mom I'm going with Travis today, not the bus, and we will walk home, ´kay? And please, do NOT call me Tilia!¨

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Chapter 2: Downtown

Every Friday, Tilly’s mom let her and her brother (not her sister because she’s in college. She could go out anytime she wanted.) do something fun. Sometimes they went out to pizza, other times they had a movie night. But tonight, Tilly’s mom was at work, so she said that they could go downtown by themselves.

Tilly planned to go to the movies. She invited Travis, her best friend to go with her. They were going to see the movie “Paws” a movie, like Jaws, but about an evil cat instead. It was kind of weird, but it was the only movie Tilly's mom would let them see, considering all the others were rated R.

They bought gummy bears, popcorn, and soda and sat down to watch the movie.

After the movie, as Tilly and Travis waited for her mom to pick them up, Tilly looked around to see any interesting fliers. Then, she spotted one. It was for a film contest! She felt really excited. She loved making films, and so did Travis.

“Hey, look at that!” Tilly pointed to the flier. ¨My mom doesn't have enough money to send a big box of stuff to my dad, but if I win the $50 dollar prize, maybe I could send something to him”

¨Don´t worry, I won't need all the money! If we do win, anyways, we could split it!¨

¨Okay!¨ Travis agreed. So, they signed up.

Chapter 4: Uh oh...

After they got home that night on Friday, Travis reviewed what they had done.

First, Tilly had marched back into the movie theater. Then, she asked the man at the front desk to have the sign up for the film festival. He asked “Where is the adult to sign it?” with a questionable look on his face. Tilly just replied “Outside! I’ll bring it out to my mom so she can sign it!” She grabbed the paper and skipped outside.

“Uh.. Tilly?” Travis had asked. “There is no parent to sign!”

¨Yes there is! My mom´s right here!¨

¨Oh...Good!¨ Travis noticed Tilly’s mom around the corner.

They then showed it to Tilly's mom and she said: ¨Okay! That sounds like fun! And the showing sounds great, but I might no-” But Tilly rushed back inside, and showed the newly signed paper to the supervisor. He looked at it, then took it from Tilly’s outstretched hands. “Very good… remember: the due-date is Wednesday, so get it done quick.” he had said in a emotionless voice.

Now, Travis and Tilly were sitting in her bedroom. They were doing the rest of their film. out the rest of their film, which was about hamsters. Travis had a hamster named Rat (It’s a long story) and they made their film about his adventures. It was really funny. They worked really hard on it, and Tilly thought that they definitely deserved to win. They only had one day,though, to finish it up, and they still had a lot to do.

Travis had already successfully sneaked his hamster to Tilly’s house. He did this by slipping Rat in his coat and just walking out the door. The first time he tried, though, he was caught by Charlie when he actually managed to get to Tilly’s house. So, he had to be more sneaky. And he did manage, eventually, to get Rat, the star, to get into Tilly’s bedroom. They started working. Everything went well (apart from the time when Rat tried to eat his little safari hat). They were almost done. All they needed to do was send the email. As Tilly checked her email, she noticed a new email. She clicked on it. It said in big, bold letters: THERE WILL BE A GUEST JUDGE AT THE SHOWING!!! But, it didn’t say who the judge was…

Tilly and Travis went back to her room. Tilly picked up the flier they had grabbed from the movie theater. Suddenly, Tilly noticed something. The showing, which they needed an adult for, was on a Monday!

Tilly's mom worked on Mondays, and she wouldn't be able to make it to the showing.

¨Uh oh….¨ Tilly said.

Travis looked at the flier. ¨My mom works on Mondays, too, and so does my dad!¨

Who will come? Tilly thought. If no one does, then.. We'll be disqualified.. And I can´t send anything to my dad! I won't see him ´till… I don´t know! Suddenly, Tilly felt very sad.

Chapter 4: School

Travis and Tilly went to school the next day hoping that they could find someone that could come. At first, Tilly wondered why they even had to have an adult, but she soon realized that it was probably because there would be a whole bunch of kids there. Tilly didn't think that the Movie People and the ¨guest judge¨ would want to take care of 30 kids.

They sat down at the cafeteria table and thought.

¨Hmm...¨ Travis said.

¨Wait, why do you want the money?¨ Tilly asked him.

¨Oh! Well, I just wanted to save up because I wanted to get some Magic Cards!!¨ Travis said.

¨Oh… okay.¨ Tilly thought her reason was more important, but she couldn´t say that, because Tilly didn't want to be mean.

The bell rang, right as Travis was about to say something, but he started walking back to class and so did Tilly.

When they got there, Mrs. Callison, the 6th grade teacher was sitting at her desk. She was glaring at her students, even though they had done nothing wrong. She was always like that. For that reason, she wasn’t the most popular teacher. But, luckily, Tilly only had her for a few more months with her, then she´d be in 7th grade. Tilly was looking forward to that.

“Students, good afternoon. Today, we will be working on finishing up our endangered species projects. They are due by the end of class. Now, get to work! You only have half an hour.” Mrs.Callison said with a bored expression on her face. Her hair was pulled up in a tight bun, probably for lice precautions. She had a snooty look on her face.

Tilly sighed. “Back to work, as always.” she thought. She picked up her pencil and started writing (in cursive, Mrs.Callison’s standards) the last of her essay. She didn’t get why they had to have it in print. Why couldn’t they just use computers? But, Tilly knew that Mrs.Callison would just say “I don’t want your brains turned into more mush!” So, Tilly kept quiet.

She wasn't sure what she and Travis were going to do, though. She really wanted to send her dad something… and his birthday was coming up.

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Chapter 5: The Showing

Tilly and Travis decided to just go to the showing. They had to tell her mom, though, before she went to work. Tilly was surprised when she said ¨Okay! It's fine, just go!¨ and winked at them as she walked out the door.

Tilly's mom also went in the wrong direction. Not toward the hospital, where she worked, more like the direction of Downtown.

¨That was weird!¨ Travis said.

¨Yeah… Well, she said yes, so we might as well just go!¨

They walked to the theater. When they went inside, it was really crowded. There were about 60 people in there! ¨WOAH!¨ Tilly thought. She went inside the main room with the stage in it and sat down at one of the 3 seats that were marked ¨Tilly G. and Travis B.¨ So did Travis.

Then, it got dark, and a man stepped up onto the stage. Tilly crossed her fingers, hoping they wouldn't be first.

¨Thank y-¨ The man stopped. Then he yelled into the audience. ¨SOOOORRRYYYY THE MIC BROKE!!!!¨ Everyone laughed. ¨WE WILL BE BACK SOON WITH A NEW ONE!!!¨ Then he gasped for breath and everyone laughed again. Tilly realized this was more laidback and fun than she´d thought it would be. She began to relax.

Then, the man came back on stage with a new microphone. ¨Thank you everyone for coming. Your children have worked very hard on their movies or shows, and we all appreciate their effort. Now, please come up here.. George and Thomas, and we will show you their film called: Adventures with sharks.¨

Two kids Tilly had seen from school came up on stage with what Tilly thought looked like their Grandpa. Then, George and Thomas´ film started.

As it was playing, Tilly thought about her dad. He had always loved making films and had gone to college for Film Making. Now, he worked for National Geographic. He did some of the pictures. He wasn´t around a lot, and everyone missed him. Even though Tilly had done the film for the money for her dad, she had also just done it kind of in memory for her dad.

Tilly also wondered why her mom just let her go. She knew they could be disqualified… maybe she didn't properly read the flier, or didn't know you would be disqualified. Well, I'm glad I'm not in trouble with my mom! Tilly thought. Her mom got very angry when Tilly did something wrong or sassed her. Tilly knew it was just because her dad wasn't around.

Travis shoved her. ¨C´mon, they just said our name!¨

Uh oh! Tilly thought. But, reluctantly, she followed Travis. When they got up there, the man gave them a funny look. ¨Where is the adult?¨ he whispered.

¨Uh… the adult..?..¨ Tilly felt like she might cry. She really wanted to send something to her father, but she knew now, she couldn´t.

¨Yeah… Where is he or she???¨ asked the man.

Travis replied. ¨WE.. Uh… he´s-¨

Suddenly, a voice came up from over the direction of the judges: ¨Right here!¨ one of the judges stood up and it was….. TILLY´S DAD!!!! He rushed over and said ¨This is my daughter.¨

¨DAD!!!!!¨ Tilly hugged him. ¨WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?!?!¨

¨I had to come back to meet some colleagues of mine around Easter. I was planning to surprise you, but when I saw that there was a contest for films, I knew you would enter in it. I wanted to see your film, so I came home early!

¨Well, William, Mr. G, ... whatever you´d like to be called, thank you!¨ The man smiled. Then his smile turned into a frown. ¨But, since you are one of the judges, I'm afraid it's not fair for you to be judging, considering your daughter is one of the contestants… what will we do…?¨

Then the man announced to the crowd ¨INTERMISSION! EVERYONE- FREEEEE CANDY IN THE LOBBY!!!!¨ And smiled a big smile. He looked down at Tilly and said ¨So,.. What do you think we should do?¨

¨I don't know,¨ Tilly replied. ¨WAIT!” She had a great idea. “Actually.. I don´t need to be in the contest! I wanted the money to send my dad something, but he's right here!¨ She hugged her dad again.

The man, who´s name was Carl, said ¨OK¨ and then Tilly sat back down.

WOW! Tilly thought. My dad planned all of this behind my back! Now He’ll stay forever and we’ll have fun!

¨Sweetie, I'm sorry… I'm not actually staying forever.. Only for a couple weeks, then I have to fly back to Los Angeles.¨ It was her dad.

¨WHAT!?!?!¨ Tilly suddenly felt very angry.

¨Calm down!¨ Travis said.

¨It´s fine, Tilly, I’ll be here for Easter!¨ Tilly´s dad stroked his chin. ¨Just write me a letter if you miss me! Because I miss you all the time.¨

¨But-I wish you were here all the time!”

¨It´s okay.¨ her dad replied.

And it sort of was.

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THE END

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