Because of Mr. Terupt (8 page)

James really liked the surprise I had for him. I put together a collection of photographs of Middle Eastern farms and farming. He sat down and started talking about them and studying them. Seeing James like this made me happy.

Jeffrey surprised us. Once Joey showed up, Jeffrey pulled out this little memory game that he had made, with pairs of matching cards with different Ramadan pictures on them. He and Joey played.

It was a super wonderful day. Mr. Terupt was smiling. So was I.

A
ct 5, Scene 1

“Hi, honey. How was school?” Mom asked as I climbed into the car. Mom was great about giving me rides home whenever she could. Some kids, like Jeffrey, had to ride the bus every day.

Mom’s trying to get serious about her writing. She’s already very skilled at it, having helped on some of Dad’s plays back in California, but now she’s writing for herself. That’s why she’s free in the afternoons to pick me up sometimes. We’re lucky to have enough money so that my mom doesn’t have to get a steady job right now—she can actually pursue her passion. I hope I can do that someday, too. Mom did get a part-time job at a local bookstore, so she can interact with
people and keep her mind from wandering back to California. My mind still wanders back there, but not like it did a few months ago. My dad hasn’t called again.

“School was fine,” I said. I buckled my seat belt and away we drove. “Mom, you’ve heard me talk about Anna and Danielle, right?”

“Yes. Is something wrong?” Mom stepped on the brakes harder than usual and we jerked to a halt at the stop sign.

I shook my head. “Nothing’s wrong,” I said. I looked my way. “Coast is clear.” Mom eased off the brakes. “Anna asked Danielle and me over to her house.”

“That’s great, Jessica,” Mom said.

“Yes, but I know Danielle won’t be going.”

“How do you know that?”

I filled Mom in on what I knew about Anna’s mother. And I explained why Danielle’s mom wouldn’t allow Danielle to associate with the likes of Anna. Mom turned right onto our road.

“Well, I’m not going to say no just because Anna’s mother made a mistake once.” We pulled into our driveway and Mom put the car in park. “If Danielle is a nice girl, I bet her mother is, too,” Mom said. “But we’ll make up our own minds about what kind of person Anna’s mother really is.”

“Dad made a mistake. You didn’t want to give him another chance,” I said.

“Your father didn’t want another chance,” Mom said. “He made that clear before we left.” She paused. “The divorce papers came today.”

I sat all quiet. Mom’s bluntness really zapped me.

“I’m sorry, honey,” Mom said. “I’m sure your father will call soon.”

I shrugged. “You don’t need to lie to make me feel better.”

“Okay, you’re right.” She sighed. “I’ve always been honest and up-front with you.” Another sigh. “I don’t know if he’ll call.”

A
ct 6, Scene 1

Anna’s house was small but cozy, just the right size for her and her mother. It was painted white with gray shutters, and there was a nice front porch. Anna met us there. We said our hellos and before I knew it, my mom was shaking hands with Terri (that’s Anna’s mom). Terri invited my mom in for a cup of coffee and they disappeared into the kitchen. Anna led me to her bedroom.

“I hope our moms become friends,” I said.

“Me too,” Anna said. “My mom doesn’t have any.”

Neither does mine, I thought. In California, my dad was always the one working and socializing, while my mom hung out with me. We didn’t see him much. Even back then, he was very busy. He called the other day and asked Mom if
she’d received the divorce papers. That was it. He didn’t even ask to talk to me.

“You’re reading
Belle Teal
,” I said to Anna. I saw the book sitting on her nightstand. “Do you like it?”

“I do,” Anna said. “Mom brought it home for me from the library where she works.”

I didn’t know Terri worked in a library. How exciting. I wanted to talk to her about books. And then Anna told me that her mother was taking some art classes. She showed me some of her mom’s artwork. Amazing! I immediately thought of Danielle, and hoped she would get a chance to meet Terri and discover for herself the connection they shared. After that Anna showed me the rest of her books and her rock collection. Then I taught her how to make worry dolls, something I’d learned about from one of the characters in a book I read. I figured the dolls could worry about my dad, because I was done with that. Our playdate was perfect and it flew by like a day at the amusement park. We said our thank-yous and good-byes and agreed to do it again.

Driving home, Mom said, “What you heard about Terri was right. Poor girl.”

I stayed quiet. After seeing Terri myself, I knew the story was right. She looked very young.

“I told her about your father,” Mom said.

I remained quiet. I didn’t know how to feel. Surprised. Angry. Happy. I felt all of these at the same time. Mom was quiet now, too. I guess we were busy thinking to ourselves.

D
anielle wasn’t able to come to my first playdate because of bad timing, but Jessica made it. We had a blast! Jessica’s mom drove her over, but instead of dropping Jessica off and leaving, she came to our front door and accepted Mom’s invitation for a cup of coffee.

I was really glad. My mom never has anyone over, so it turned out to be her first playdate, too. Maybe she was done paying for her “mistake” now. I sure hoped so. And since I was the “mistake,” I felt like it was my fault. I wanted to help her find a friend, and a husband.

The afternoon flew by.

After Jessica and her mother left, Mom pulled me into a hug. “Those are genuine people, Anna,” she said. “You’ve
found a good friend there. You can get as close to her as you want.”

Mom’s words made me smile. I hoped Danielle could come the next time. I was sure Mom would think the same of her.

“C
lass meeting,” Mr. Terupt announced.

This was one of my favorite times in the classroom. We all moved our desks out of the way and made a circle with our chairs. Everybody sat in the circle, even Mr. Terupt. He held on to the microphone. It wasn’t a real microphone, but we used it as our talking object. You can only speak when you have the microphone. I waited for Mr. Terupt to get us started.

“It looks like our chain should touch the floor soon, as long as you guys can give me another great day or two,” Mr. Terupt said.

The chain was our class reward system. Mr. Terupt had hung a single link from the ceiling on the first day of school, and he attached a link each time we had an outstanding day
as a class. Our goal was to get the chain to touch the floor, at which point we’d earn a free day.

“You’ve done super so far,” Mr. Terupt said. “So I’m wondering what you’d like to do for your free day.”

Mr. Terupt passed the mike to his left. You didn’t have to say anything if you didn’t want to. Alexia passed it along to the next person. Ever since Mr. Terupt had taken her out into the hall, she hadn’t said anything.

Luke was the first one to make a great suggestion. “Why can’t we just have time to do whatever we want? It’d be like indoor recess, but we could plan it better, and just have free time.”

“I like Luke’s idea,” Jeffrey piped up when he got the mike. “If it’s free time, maybe James and Joey and Emily, or any of the Collaborative kids, could come up for a little bit—or, if we wanted, some of us could go down there.”

“We could bring in games,” Anna added, taking the mike.

Then it was my turn. “I think we should do what everyone’s suggested for part of the day,” I said, “but maybe we could go outside, too.” Everyone cheered. It was weird, having the other girls agree with me. If Alexia had been her old self, she would have controlled them, but now that Alexia was sidelined, all the girls got along better.

Not having girl wars didn’t mean everything was perfect. I still had a problem—Anna. I hadn’t gone to her playdate because I’d been too chicken to ask my mom. I made up some excuse about it being a bad weekend for my family. Jessica told me she had a great time and that Anna’s mom was friendly. Now Anna asked us about coming over again.

“Find out when it’ll be a good weekend for your family, and we’ll plan the playdate for then,” Anna told me.

I’ve got to mention it to my mom this time. I just have to.

Mr. Terupt was last to speak at the meeting. “I like what I’ve heard,” he said. “We could plan for part of the day to be spent inside, playing games, then we’d get some fresh air. I’ll think about it some more and let you know. But first you need to earn the last link. Meeting adjourned,” he said. He always ends by saying that.

I really like these meetings. The first time we had one, Mr. Terupt told us that it was a way for everyone to have a voice. I didn’t get it at first, but now I do.

W
e finally earned a class reward. Or almost. I really hoped Mr. T would come through for us about going outside. So I shot my hand up as soon as class started the next day.

“What is it now, Peter?” Mr. T said.

“Have you thought about us going outside? The school rule says we can’t go out in the snow. We can go out on the blacktop, but it’s too crowded and there’s nothing to do.” Everyone was quiet. They listened because they knew I was right.

“Well, Peter, I like how you’re thinking ahead. I did talk to Mrs. Williams, and she gave us special permission to go out in the snow as long as
everyone
has snow pants and hats and gloves and boots.”

“She gave us special permission even after we all saw her underwear?” I said.

“Yes,” Mr. T said, trying to move us past the giggles that started.

“Permission for the snow?” I asked again, just to make sure I had it right.

“In the snow,” Mr. T said. “The key being
everyone
needs to bring their stuff, or else we can’t go out.”

I couldn’t believe it. When I went to bed that night, I had visions of snowballs dancing in my head.

It was going to be the best class party day ever.

A
ct 7, Scene 1

The class bubbled with energy. Mr. Terupt had just attached the last link needed for our paper chain to touch the floor. The links were hard to come by with the likes of Peter and Alexia in our classroom, but we did it.

“Congratulations. You’ve earned your free day,” Mr. Terupt said. “A class party day.”

Peter couldn’t believe it. None of us could, really, but Peter was beside himself. The only thing he could wrap his brain around was going outside to play in the snow.

“Don’t forget your snow stuff, California girl,” he said to me. I didn’t need reminding. It was all I could think about, but not because I was excited.

Act 7, Scene 2

I raised my hand tentatively and waited for Mr. Terupt to call on me. It was nearly time to go home. I couldn’t wait any longer.

“You have a question, Jessica?”

“Yes … sort of,” I said. “I have a problem. I don’t have any snow pants. I didn’t need them in California.”

Silence. It was like I sucked all the excitement out of the classroom with a gigantic vacuum hose. Peter glared at me. I couldn’t look at him. Then I saw Luke raise his hand. Mr. Terupt called on him.

“Lukester.”

“I have a pair of snow pants Jessica can borrow. They’re my sister’s old ones.”

“Thatta baby, Lukester!” Peter yipped. “Saved!”

“Thanks, Lukester. That’s very nice of you,” Mr. Terupt said, looking in my direction. “I’m sure Jessica will take them.”

I could only nod.

“Yes!” Peter yelled. “This is going to be great!”

I thought so, too—especially after Luke’s generosity. I always thought Luke only cared about himself. Maybe I was wrong to prejudge him.

Mr. Terupt sat at his desk smiling. He reminded me of the old professor in
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
. Did he know everything?

T
wenty-seven links. That’s how many it took for the chain to hit the floor. I was wrong. I had estimated twenty-six. Mr. Terupt had us estimate the final number when we only had five. Most everybody jotted down random guesses, but I took a ruler and measured the length of what we had and the length left to reach the floor. The real problem was that the links were all different sizes. A variable that I couldn’t control. I averaged the links that were hanging and used that to help me come up with twenty-six.

“All right, gang,” Mr. Terupt said. “Twenty-seven links. Let’s see if anyone guessed that.”

He had all our guesses stuffed in an empty coffee can. I was hoping to be the closest. Maybe nobody got it right. He pulled our little scraps of paper out one by one.

“Twenty-one.
Thirty
[dollar word]. Fifty!” Everyone laughed except me. “Twenty-three. Aha,” he said. “Here’s one. Twenty-seven.”

I lost. I can’t believe I was wrong.

“And the winner is … Anna.”

She must have guessed. There’s no way she could have figured it out. Anna walked up to Mr. Terupt with her head held high. At least the winner wasn’t Peter or Alexia.

“Congratulations, Anna,” Mr. Terupt said. He handed her a homework pass. She was all smiles. I didn’t need one of those, anyway.

“Yay, Anna,” Jessica said. “Way to go!”

“But wait,” Mr. Terupt said. “There seems to be one more estimate that’s correct.”

“Must be Luke’s,” I heard someone whisper.

“Drumroll, please,” Mr. Terupt said.

Baatttttttttttt!

“And the second winner is … Peter.”

No way
, I screamed inside my head. Of course Peter made a major production of walking to the front of the room and taking a dramatic bow. “Thank you. Thank you,” he said. “This is a great honor.”

Mr. Terupt handed him a homework pass. “Get out of here,” he said. Everyone laughed, except me.

Peter flashed his homework pass in my face. The Elmer’s sneakers didn’t bother me, but this did. I felt hot. My face and ears burned. I turned lobster red. I could feel it. I’m going to get even, I thought.