Miss Perfect
It was hard having “Miss Perfect” for a sister.
Kim grabbed her backpack as the school bell rang.
“Oh! One more thing!” Mrs. Jones stopped the fourth-graders before they bolted out the door. “I was supposed to tell you this morning—the Diné Culture Committee is sponsoring an essay contest on what it means to be Navajo. The prize is a week-long vacation to Los Angeles to represent our school at the Native American Kids’ Conference.”
Kim swept her hair out of her face. She focused intently on Mrs. Jones.
“If you decide to enter, your essay is due Monday morning. The winner will be announced Friday afternoon. Have fun!”
Maybe winning this contest will finally prove to everyone that I am as good as Amanda, Kim thought as she climbed onto the school bus. She plopped down on a green seat.
Just then, Amanda bounced onto the bus.
“Did you hear about—” Kim began.
“The contest?” Amanda interrupted. “I wrote my essay at lunch. Are you going to enter?”
Kim mumbled an answer as Amanda smoothed her new sweater and matching skirt. How did she finish the essay so quickly?
It was hard having “Miss Perfect” for a sister. Amanda got straight A’s. She was captain of the girls’ basketball team. Her experiment won first place at the Science Fair, and her drawing won a ribbon at the Northern Shiprock Fair. She always did everything right!
Kim folded her arms and stared out at the mesa as the school bus bounced over the dirt road toward their house. We’ll just see who wins this time, she thought.
What does being Navajo mean to me? Kim wondered as the school bus pulled to a stop in front of her family’s white trailer.
As Kim and Amanda stepped off the bus, Kim could see her grandmother sweeping sand from her doorstep. Nálí lived in the round hogan behind the trailer. She had taught Kim a lot about being Navajo.
As Nálí turned her head, Kim smiled and waved. Now she knew what to write.
Kim rushed to her room, pulled out her notebook, and began to write. Everything I know about being Navajo, I learned from my nálí. . . .
Kim’s words flooded onto the page. She wrote about helping shear the sheep and then washing the wool. She told how Nálí had taught her which roots and bark to collect for dyeing the yarn. She recounted the many winter evenings she’d played string games while watching Nálí weave. And she described how she always loved hearing the story of how Spider Woman had taught the Diné people to weave. Kim could have written a hundred pages!
As she closed her notebook, Amanda peeked into the room. “Finished? Let me read it.”
Kim watched nervously as Amanda read.
“Good,” Amanda said, handing the essay back to Kim, then leaving the room.
Good? Kim scowled. What does that mean? Not good enough, Kim concluded. She ripped the essay out of her notebook, crumpled it, and threw it on the floor.
Kim stared at a clean sheet of paper. Maybe she should make her essay more exciting. She could write about what a great dancer she was and how she danced at all the powwows. Or she could tell how she had learned to speak Navajo when she was just a baby and how she knew all the stories and traditions.
But those were lies! Kim had never danced at a powwow and only knew enough Navajo to understand Nálí.
Kim reached down and picked up her crumpled essay. She carefully smoothed out the wrinkles and began to recopy it neatly onto a new sheet of paper. Another thing Nálí had taught her was to be honest. Boring or not, this was the essay she would enter.
Early Monday morning, Kim handed in her essay. The week crept by, and Kim thought the big day would never come.
When Friday finally arrived, Kim could hardly concentrate on her schoolwork. She felt as if she might explode. When would they announce the winner?
At last the three o’clock bell rang, but still no announcement. Kim held back tears as she trudged to the bus.
“Kimberly!”
Kim glanced back to see Amanda waving a paper at her.
“Kim, the contest! They announced the winner!”
Kim sighed. “You won?”
“No, you did! They told me to give you this letter.”
Kim hurriedly read the letter. She couldn’t believe it! She had finally won something!
“I told you it was good,” Amanda said, smiling.
Kim looked at Amanda. She truly seemed pleased for Kim. Suddenly Kim felt silly for being jealous of Amanda.
“The letter says I win a trip to L.A. for me and my family,” Kim said, grinning. “We’re going to have so much fun together!”
Then she gave her perfect sister a big hug.
