Summary

Butterfly Wishes – When Shay is forced to invite the entire class to her birthday party, Ally doesn’t want to go, but her mother insists. Then, because Albert and Keisha are unable to go, Ally goes alone. The party is at a butterfly conservatory, and once there, Ally recalls a story Albert once told, about how some cultures believed butterflies could grant wishes. Even though she knows she is not supposed to, Ally lightly closes her hand around a butterfly that has landed on her, and makes a wish. When she opens her hand, one of the butterfly’s wings is damaged. As the woman running the conservatory berates her, and as Shay taunts her, Ally comments in narration that “sometimes a person will do just about anything for a wish to come true” (118)

No Way to Treat a Queen – Later, Ally receives...