Daisy Dreamer and the Totally True Imaginary Friend Page 2

  “I can’t stand that Gabby!” I secret-shout to myself.

  Then I slump into a blob on the floor and blob down the stairs and blob into the den. I am blobbing toward the kitchen when Mom hands me the phone.

  “Daisy, it’s Upsy! She wants to talk to you.”

  I take a deep breath and tell Upsy about the terrible thing that happened. But you know what? She doesn’t even feel sorry for me. She says, “Daisy Dreamer, I’ve learned that if the idea is good enough, it will always come back to you.”

  I sigh dramatically. Upsy is just trying to make me feel better. And guess what? She does make me feel a little better.

  Things Get Weird

  At school the next morning, we work on our Native American village project. That mean ol’ Gabby acts like nothing happened.

  She swishes her sideways ponytail at me and asks, “Can I have the glue stick now?”

  So I hand over the glue stick.

  Then she points to the purple crayon next to me. “I need that purple crayon,” she says.

  I flick the crayon across the table.

  “Hand me that ruler,” she demands.

  And this time I pretend not to hear and go back to work on my tepee.

  As I draw a half-moon on the flap of my tepee I think about what Upsy said. If the idea is good enough, it will always come back to you. But my drawing of Posey was not just an idea. It was an idea on a page—a missing page.

  While I work, I try to wish my idea back. Come back! I think. Come back! Come back! But of course nothing comes back.

  At recess, Jasmine, Lily, and I split up to look for my torn page. We look in the Hideout, around the swings, and under the monkey bars. Nothing. I head back to the blacktop. On the way, something brushes against me.

  I put my hand on the back of my head. Whatever it is falls to the ground. Then I look at it more closely.

  “MY MISSING PAGE!” I cry. And I can’t believe it, so I bend over, pick it up, and smooth the crinkled page out. But something’s wrong. Upsy’s words are still there, but the picture of Posey is gone! Now, how can that be? I wonder.

  Then I feel a tap on my shoulder.

  “Are you looking for me?” someone asks.

  I turn around, and my eyes grow wide. “POSEY!” I cry, and I cup my hand over my mouth. My drawing is standing in front of me! And he’s alive and talking.

  Then I remember my manners. “My name is Daisy!” I say, and I hold out my hand. “Daisy Dreamer.”

  Posey stares at my hand and then back at me.

  “It’s polite to shake hands when you, uh, meet someone new,” I add.

  So he grabs my hand and shakes it—but instead of shaking it up and down, he shakes it sideways!

  “Now you tell me your name,” I say as the weird handshake continues.

  And this question makes him laugh. “You know my name!” he says. “I’m Posey!”

  And that’s when things begin to get really interesting.

  So. Totally. Cool.

  “POSEY?” I cry. “But that’s impossible! You’re a DRAWING!”

  He laughs even harder. “But I’m not just a drawing,” he says. “I’m your idea!”

  Then I pinch my arms, my legs, and my cheeks. THIS IS SO. TOTALLY. COOL, I think. Because it really is! I can’t wait to tell Lily and Jasmine. Then I glance around the playground, but I don’t see them anywhere. I look back at Posey, who is staring into one of the classroom windows.

  “Who’s that?” he asks, pointing to himself in the window.

  This time I laugh. “That’s you, silly!” I say. “That’s your reflection.” Then I wonder if this is the first time Posey has ever seen himself.

  “Wow,” he says. “I’m magnificent!”

  And I blush because I’m the one who drew him! We’re having so much fun staring at Posey’s reflection that I don’t even notice Jasmine and Lily walk up.

  “Daisy, what are you doing?” asks Jasmine.

  Lily nods. “And who are you talking to?”

  I whirl around. “Guys, you’re not going to believe this!” I say. Then I point triumphantly at Posey.

  The girls look to where I’m pointing. Then they look back at me and shake their heads. I can tell they don’t get it.

  “It’s Posey!” I cry. “He’s real!”

  Lily arches an eyebrow and looks at Jasmine. Jasmine looks at me and bites her lower lip.

  “Do you feel okay?” Jasmine asks.

  I raise my hands at Posey. “Can’t you see him?” I ask.

  They shake their heads again.

  “Only you can see me,” Posey says. “But if you want your friends here to see me too, just say so.”

  “Yes, please!” I cry.

  Then Posey snaps his fingers.

  And that’s when Jasmine and Lily gasp.

  “Wow, he looks just like . . .”

  “Your drawing!” says Lily, finishing Jasmine’s sentence.

  “Now do you believe me?” I say.

  An Imaginary Friend

  We pepper Posey with questions like:

  “Where did you come from?”

  “How old are you?”

  “What’s your favorite color?”

  “Do you like ice cream?”

  Then Posey spins around in a circle.

  “I’m just plain old Posey!” he declares. “Daisy’s imaginary friend.”

  We all shake our heads in wonder.

  “Just think of me as a dream come true!” Posey says.

  That’s easy for me because Posey really is a dream come true. My dream.

  And then, right in the middle of my happy thoughts, Gabby and Carol show up.

  Carol nudges Gabby with her elbow. “Go ahead—show her!” Carol whispers, loud enough for us to hear. “Show her—I dare you.”

  Gabby has a piece of paper in her hand. Carol nudges her again.

  “Okay, okay!” Gabby says.

  Then Gabby shoves the paper in my face. “So, Daisy, we, um, found your missing drawing.”

  I take it and look at the picture. It’s an ugly monster.

  Gabby and Carol snort and giggle.

  “And you know what’s so funny?” Gabby adds. “Your picture looks exactly like you!”

  Jasmine folds her arms. “What’s the matter with you two?” she says angrily. “That’s a rotten thing to say and a rotten thing to do.”

  Carol whips her black hair around and pulls Gabby by the arm. “Come on,” Carol says. “That Daisy Dreamer is nothing but a monster screamer!”

  Then they walk off chanting, “HEY, EVERYONE! DAAAAAAISY DREAMER’S A MONSTER SCREAMER! DAAAAAAISY DREAMER’S A MONSTER SCREAMER!”

  Right then Posey makes a magic move with his hands, and the monster picture I am holding zooms after Gabby and Carol. The ugly picture bounces in front of their faces, and both girls scream in surprise.

  Jasmine, Lily, and I burst into laughter. Actually, the whole playground burst into laughter too!

  Posey makes the paper dance and chase the girls all over as they try to escape. Up the slide, down the slide, and behind the swings, there’s nowhere to hide from the monster they drew.

  Hmm, I’m going to LIKE having an imaginary friend, I think with a smile.

  A Whole New World

  “How was your day?” Mom asks. Mom always asks me about my day on the way home from school.

  I whiz by her on my skateboard. Posey floats alongside me. Mom can’t see him. Obviously.

  “Today was only the best day of my entire life!” I answer. Then I look back over my shoulder to see Mom’s face. She has on a really huge smile.

  “That’s great to hear, Daisy. What made it so special?” she calls after me.

  “My imagination!” I shout.

  Posey races next to me and sees a gray car pass by. He stops short. I veer away to avoid bumping into him.

  “What’s that?” he exclaims. “An elephant on wheels?”

  I almost fall off my skateboard. “It’s just a
minivan,” I say. “They’re pretty common around here.”

  Hmm, I guess they don’t have cars where Posey comes from. It seems like there are a lot of things they don’t have where Posey comes from.

  At home Posey gets into everything. Actually, he goes a little bonkers.

  First he opens and closes all the kitchen cupboards. Then he pulls all the vegetables out of the refrigerator, and I have to put them all back. Obviously. But Posey kicks a head of lettuce into Sir Pounce’s cat dish. The kibble explodes everywhere.

  Then Mom calls from her office, “What’s going on in there?”

  “Stepped on the cat dish!” I say, and I quickly sweep up the kibble and put back the veggies.

  Sir Pounce comes to check on his dish. That’s when Posey decides to introduce himself to my cat. He shakes Sir Pounce’s paw. But Sir Pounce pulls it back and runs away.

  “Oh no. We are not friends?” Posey questions.

  I roll my eyes. “Sir Pounce is a spy,” I say. “Spies trust no one.”

  Posey nods and walks into the bathroom. This time he introduces himself to the toilet. He grabs the handle and shakes it up and down. The toilet flushes and gurgles. Posey watches the water swirl in the bowl. Then he flushes it again and again. And now he is very good friends with the toilet.

  Next I steer Posey upstairs. He notices a light switch in the hall and flicks the switch. The lights come on. He smiles. He flicks it again. The lights go off. Then on. Then off. On-off. On-off. On-off . . .

  “Daisy, why are the lights flickering?” Mom calls again.

  I hold the light switch in place. “Just my pretend dance party, Mom!”

  She doesn’t ask any more questions. Phew! Then I push Posey into my bedroom and shut the door. I run to my bathroom and shut that door too. No more toilet flushing! I hurry back into the room only to find Posey swinging from my ceiling fan!

  “POSEY, STOP!” I shout.

  Posey hops down.

  I drop onto the bed. “You’re such a mischief maker!” I say breathlessly.

  He smiles. “I was just saying hello to everything,” he says. “Your world is so new to me.”

  I look around the room and try to imagine it all being new. “Well, you don’t need to introduce yourself to everything,” I say. “Hmm, if you don’t have cars, toilets, light switches, or ceiling fans in your world—what do you have?

  Posey plunks down on the bed beside me. “Magical stuff,” he says.

  “Magical stuff?” I say, because if there’s one thing I like, it’s magical stuff. “What kind of magical stuff?”

  “Would you like to see for yourself?” he asks.

  I think my eyes might just pop right out of my head. “Would I ever!”

  Posey hops off my bed. “Then let’s go!” he says.

  “Just like that?” I question.

  “Just like that,” he says.

  Oh wow, I think. Is this really true? Is this really happening to me? Am I, Daisy Dreamer, actually going to visit an imaginary world . . . ?

  Check out Daisy Dreamer’s next adventure!

  Is this really true? Is this really happening to me? Am I, Daisy Dreamer, actually going to visit an imaginary world . . . ?

  “Are you ready, Daisy?” asks Posey, my very real imaginary friend.

  I think hard. But only for one second, because do I want to see a world full of magical stuff? You better believe I do!

  “YES!” I shout out and jump, jump, jump for joy. Obviously. “But how do we get there?”

  Now, I have been to lots of places in my life. I’ve been to my grandma Upsy’s house, and I went to the aquarium on our first-grade field trip. I’ve even had a sleepover at my best friend Lily’s house! But I’ve never been someplace imaginary.

  Posey doesn’t answer my question. He’s too busy going through my stuff. So how do you get to an imaginary place? I ask myself. Do you have to wear magic shoes? Or fly on a winged hippopotamus? Or take a hot-air balloon? Then WHACK! A sock hits me in the side of the head.

  “OW!” I say, even though it doesn’t really hurt.

  Then WHOOSH! I duck out of the way of my hairbrush just in time. Hey, that WOULD have hurt! I say to myself, and I shield my head with one hand.

  “What do you think you’re DOING?!” I shout as things continue to fly across my room.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  LITTLE SIMON

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

  1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  First Little Simon paperback edition April 2017

  Copyright © 2017 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  Also available in a Little Simon hardcover edition.

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  LITTLE SIMON is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc., and associated colophon is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc. For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or business@simonandschuster.com.

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  Designed by Laura Roode

  Cover illustrations by Genevieve Santos © 2017 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Anna, Holly, author. | Santos, Genevieve, illustrator.

  Title: Daisy Dreamer and the totally true imaginary friend / by Holly Anna ;

  illustrated by Genevieve Santos.

  Description: First Little Simon paperback edition. | New York : Little Simon, 2017.

  Series: Daisy Dreamer ; 1 | Summary: “In the first book of the Daisy Dreamer series, seven-year-old Daisy Dreamer learns that everything she’s ever imagined or drawn is all real! She meets her totally true imaginary friend, Posey, who invites Daisy to explore the extraordinary world filled with all the things she’s always daydreamed about”—Provided by publisher.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2016011902 | ISBN 9781481486316 (hc) | ISBN 9781481486309 (pbk) | ISBN 9781481486323 (eBook)

  Subjects: | CYAC: Imagination—Fiction. | Imaginary playmates—Fiction.

  BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Readers / Chapter Books. | JUVENILE FICTION / Imagination & Play. | JUVENILE FICTION / Fantasy & Magic.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.1.A568 Dai 2017 | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016011902