Part 7 (1/2)

Baartock got up from the table and took his tray over to the window in the wall. Looking inside, he saw that there was someone to take the trays and wash the plates and forks and spoons. Leaving his tray, he went out the door to the playground to find Jason.

Chapter 9

By the time Mrs. s...o...b..chner came out to the playground to call her cla.s.s, Baartock had almost forgotten how hungry he was. He had found Jason and they had raced four times, and Baartock had won three times.

Then several other boys had joined in, and they'd played tag. That was a whole new game for Baartock. He liked being 'it', then he could do the chasing. When he was 'not it', he could run faster than any of the other boys, so they didn't try to chase him at all.

They went back into the cla.s.sroom, and all the children went to their seats and got out their pencil boxes. Baartock was horrified to discover that his pencil box was missing. It wasn't on the table where he'd left it. It wasn't in the drawer at his place at the table. It was his brand-new pencil box and he hadn't even used the crayons yet, and now it was gone. He didn't see it anywhere.

”h.e.l.lo. You must be Baartock.”

He looked around to see an adult standing right behind him.

”I'm Mrs. Pangle, Timmy's mother.” She pointed at one of the boys at the next table. ”I come in two afternoons a week. I'm the aide for this cla.s.s.”

Baartock might have asked what an 'aide' was, but he was worried about his pencil box. ”If you're looking for your box, I put it in your cubby.”

”Where cubby?” He didn't know that he had a cubby, but if that was where his box was, he wanted to find it.

”It's right over here.” Mrs. Pangle led him to the back of the room, and stopped near the door going outside. ”Here you are,” she said pointing. ”This is your cubby.”

There, just as she had said, was his missing pencil box. He picked it up and held it, almost afraid that he might lose it again.

”My cubby?” he asked.

”That's right. See, right here, 'Baartock'.” At the top of his cubby was a little card with marks on it. He thought they looked like the marks Mrs. Jackson had made on his pencil box. He looked at his box.

The marks were just the same. ”I fixed it for you while you were at lunch.”

He remembered what Mrs. Jackson said that humans say when only one gives something. ”Thank you,” he said.

”You're welcome, Baartock. You shouldn't leave your things on the table, unless Mrs. s...o...b..chner tells you to. It makes the room messy and you might lose something. Either put them in here, or in your drawer in the table.”

He didn't to tell her that he wasn't going to lose his box again. He held on to it tightly. ”And over here is where you can hang a coat,”

Mrs. Pangle said, pointing to some hooks in the wall. ”This one is yours.”

There were cards over each hook, and there was a mark on one that he recognized. That must be his hook.

”You'd better get back to your seat now. But I'll be here if you need help.”

He went back to the table and found that someone had given him some sheets of paper with marks all over them. They didn't look like the ones he and Jason had used the crayons on before. And they weren't.

”It's a writing worksheet,” Jason said. ”You're supposed to make letters on the lines that look just like the ones they've made.”

Baartock looked at the papers, then opened his box and got out his crayons.

”No, you're supposed to use your pencil,” Jason said, seeing what Baartock was holding.

Baartock looked around and saw than none of them were using crayons.