The next morning I wasn’t sure I could get out of bed. But I knew
I had to, so I did. I went right into the bathroom and found some aspirin.
Since school had a rule against bringing pills in, I swallowed three
and then went downstairs to drink some milk, so my stomach wouldn’t
rot.
My whole body hurt so much that I had to struggle to keep the milk
down. I headed off to school early, knowing the walk would take me even
longer than usual. My ankle still really hurt, and no amount of aspirin
was going to change that.
By the afternoon I was so tired that I wanted to cut the rest of my
classes and lie down somewhere. If the weather had been warmer, I probably
would have split and found a nice spot in the small park a few blocks
away. But it was cool and windy, not the kind of weather for napping
in the park.
My English teacher saved me. After taking one look at me she pulled
out a hall pass. “Go to the infirmary, Buzz.”
I did as I was told with no attitude, but when I got to the infirmary,
no one was there. So I lay down on a cot, put the hall pass on my stomach,
and went to sleep.
I didn’t wake up until someone shook my arm. “Hey,” she
said, “the nurse isn’t coming in today. You can’t
stay here.”
I groaned. “Is it 2:45 yet? I’m done at 2:45 today.” I
sat up slowly and peered at my watch. My head was swimming, but I could
see that it was almost two-thirty. “No point in going back to
class,” I mumbled. “It’s over in fifteen minutes.”
“
Well, you can’t stay here,” she said firmly. “I only
came in to close up. You can go sit in the hall outside the principal’s
office.”
I groaned again. “No thanks,” I said. “I’ve
spent entirely too much time sitting outside the principal’s office.”
She laughed. “You’re funny. Ah, what the heck,” she
said. “You can stay here until your class ends.”
“
Thanks,” I mumbled, leaning back against the wall to wait for
the bell. She thumped noisily around the room, opening and closing drawers.
I held my head. When the bell sounded, I stood up and stumbled to my
locker. It took me ten times longer than usual to get the lock open.
Once I did, I grabbed my jacket and headed out the door. I hoped Mrs.
Ellis was waiting for me at the post office.
I didn’t even get as far as the street leading to the post office
when Miss Carswell pulled up to the curb next to me. “Get in,” she
said. “Jill didn’t go to work today, so I’m driving
you to Atkins Corner.”
I almost fell as I got into her car. She looked at me. “All right,
who beat up on you? Your dad or those so-called friends of yours?”
I smirked but didn’t answer. She sighed. “I don’t
want to be a nag, Buzz, but I think you need some new friends.” I
grunted and stared straight ahead.
“
I won’t say another word about it,” she said softly. “But
if you ever need help, don’t hesitate to ask.”
I exhaled. “I know you mean well,” I said. “If you
hadn’t taken pity on me, I’d probably be in juvie hall now.
But I can’t just turn my back on the guys. I owe them. They’re
the only friends I have.”
She sighed in exasperation. “Sometimes nothing is better than
something, Buzz. And this is one of those times.”
I shrugged. “Just drive,” I said, and she did. In fact,
she drove right past the library and turned into a street full of small
houses with neat yards. “We’re meeting at Jill’s house,” she
informed me. “You and Susie can work on her math while Judy Barrows,
Jill, and I meet. We’ll call you in when we’re ready for
you.”
I didn’t like the sound of that arrangement very much and told
her so. She nodded. “It wasn’t my idea, but Judy insisted
and Jill agreed. Sometimes adults are such children.”
“
Well, just don’t make up your mind until you hear from Susie and
me,” I said. My voice sounded peevish, but I just didn’t
have the energy to try to sound civil.
The old woman grinned at me. “I never make up my mind until all
the evidence is in, Buzz.”
Susie opened the door. She looked annoyed but brightened when I said
hello to her. She acted shy in front of Miss Carswell.
I got my first real surprise of the afternoon when I was introduced
to Mrs. Barrows. From the way Susie had talked about her, I expected
a hatchet-faced kid-hater. Judy Barrows was young and very attractive.
She was pleasant enough to me and actually seemed to like Susie. I didn’t
get too much of a chance to talk with her because Mrs. Ellis shooed
Susie and me into the kitchen. “We’ll call you out in about
half an hour,” she said. Susie made a face, which her mother pretended
not to see.
“
Don’t let Barrows fool you!” Susie advised as soon as we
were settled at the kitchen table. “She hides her pigface when
grown-ups are around. She pretends to be all nice and sweet, but she
isn’t.”
I was tempted to laugh, though I knew Susie would be offended.
“
It’s a conspiracy,” Susie continued gloomily. “They
don’t really want me to learn math. They just want me to be a
good, little robot.” She stuck out her tongue. “And besides,
Pigface is jealous because more kids pay attention to me than to her
since my way of doing fractions is better.”
I had no idea what conspiracy Susie was talking about. If she wanted
to rant, that was fine, but I tuned out her complaints. I wondered what
the three women were talking about in the other room. If Mrs. Ellis
decided to fire me, I’d lose the chance to earn a little money,
but that would leave me free time to hang with the Razors—if the
Razors didn’t self-destruct. Of course, losing the job would mean
that I couldn’t pay Miss Carswell for her cracked window. I found
myself feeling sorry about that.
Suddenly Susie’s voice penetrated the fog.
“
Buzz, you stupid boy, you’re not listening to a word I say, are
you?”
I jerked and shouted back, “Stop yelling!”
“
I’m not yelling,” she squealed in reply, “and anyway,
I can yell if I want to. It’s my house.”
I started to laugh and found it hard to stop.
“
What’s wrong with you?” she asked impatiently. “Are
you drunk?”
I held my ribs to keep the laughter from rocking my insides. Finally
I stopped. “No, I’m not drunk. I’m just stiff. I got
in a fight yesterday, and I didn’t win.”
“
You don’t have a black eye,” she said, eyeing me suspiciously.
I shook my head. “No, but I have lots of bruises on my body.”
“
Can I see them?” she asked.
I shook my head again. “No, you can’t.”
“
Why not?”
“
Because I’m not going to take off my clothes,” I replied.
“
Well, I don’t want you to,” she said archly. “I bet
you’re hairy and ugly.”
“
Am not,” I protested.
“
Prove it!” she demanded.
I pulled my shirt out of my jeans and unbuttoned the bottom button.
Then I pulled the shirt up, displaying a series of nasty bruises on
the lower edge of my ribcage.
“
Jeez!” Susie said. “You really did lose the fight, didn’t
you?”
“
It was three against one,” I explained. “Two held me and
the other one punched and kicked.”
“
Brrr!” she shuddered. “Boys are so rough.”
“
Anyway,” I said, “I’m sorry I wasn’t listening
to you, but even if she’s as bad as you say she is, she’s
your teacher. You can’t just walk away, you have to learn to work
with her.”
“
You think she’s cute, don’t you?” Susie asked accusingly.
I felt my face get warm. “Don’t be stupid!” I replied. “I
expected a really ugly woman, but she looks okay. That’s all.”
“
Ha! You may think she looks okay, but she’s not. She’s a
pigface.”
“
Susie, stop going on about the pigface, will you? We’re supposed
to be doing some math in here.”
She pouted. “All right, Buzz Haynes. I have a math problem for
you and its solution.” She jabbed the air with her small fist,
her bitten fingernails showing up ragged under their coat of pink nail
polish. “There are twenty-five people in my class. Fifteen of
them including me didn’t understand fractions at all when I started
these tutoring sessions. That’s three-fifths of the class, which
is more than half. Then I started bringing my pennies to school and
solving problems with them. Nine of those twenty-five started solving
problems with pennies or bottle tops, not including me. That’s
ten all together, which is two-fifths of the twenty-five that make up
the class, and…” she hesitated for just a moment, then continued, “two-thirds
of the ones who didn’t understand what Mrs. Stupid Pigface was
saying.” She folded her arms over her chest.
“
She says she’ll take my pennies away if I bring them to class
because they’re disruptive. And she told everyone else not bring
pennies or bottle tops. But if they’re disruptive, it’s
because the way she’s teaching fractions doesn’t make sense.
We need something else, something we can see and move around and count.
But she says we’re not babies anymore and we have to use pencil
and paper to do math. Huh! Babies don’t do math with pennies or
bottle tops or pencil and paper.”
Susie was so outraged that she slapped the table. At that moment her
mother stuck her head in. “What’s going on in here?” she
demanded. “Are you having an argument?”
Susie shook her head. “No, we’re not having an argument.
I was just explaining some fractions to Buzz. Right, Buzz?”
I nodded. “It’s okay, Mrs. Ellis. Susie just gets excited
sometimes.”
Susie sniffed and folded her arms over her chest again. “Are you
ready to let Buzz and me hear what you’re saying about us?” she
demanded.
Jill Ellis shook her head. “Not yet, honey, but soon.” She
backed out of the kitchen, carefully closing the door as she left.
“
We should try to listen to what they’re saying,” Susie suggested. “I
bet Mrs. Pigface is telling lies about me. Again.”
I shook my head and pulled out my pencil. “Show me what you can
do!” I ordered, writing out a few fractions on my notebook page. “Don’t
use any props to reduce these!”
She snorted and took my pencil and the notebook. “Easy as pie,” she
grumbled, and reduced the fractions with no problem.
“
Well, maybe Mrs. Barrows is right and you can do math without pennies,” I
said, trying to sound encouraging.
Susie frowned. “I can’t add or subtract fractions without
making pictures,” she informed me. “She took off from my
homework because I drew some pictures.” She pulled out a page
from a workbook. “See?”
A big red C- and a comment topped the page: “You got all the answers,
but you must show your work with numbers.”
“
I did show my work,” Susie hissed, “just not the way she
wanted.”
The grade really didn’t seem fair. “Well, she’s the
teacher, so we have to figure out a way that satisfies her,” I
said, wishing Susie would stop complaining.
Susie made a really ugly face, pulling her cheeks and rolling her eyes
back into her head. “Blech!” she said softly. “Blech!
Blech! Blech!”
Before I had a chance to respond, the door to the kitchen opened again,
and this time Miss Carswell stuck her head through it. “Buzz,” she
said, sounding slightly hoarse as usual, “please come out to the
living room. We’d like to talk with you.”
|
|