"I'm going in," he said. And all three of them went into the cla.s.sroom, just as the bell rang again.

Chapter 12

School in the morning wasn't very different from school in the afternoon, Baartock decided. There were some of the work-sheets that had to be colored, but these were of shapes of things and numbers.

They got to work with a lot of pieces of paper with numbers on both sides that Jason said were called flash-cards. He said that you were to add the numbers on the front of a flash card, and your answer was the same as the one on the back of the card. The morning went by very quickly for Baartock.

Then, right before lunch time, Mrs. s...o...b..chner read another story.

This time, he understood most of the story. It was about a boy taking care of sheep, and when he got lonely, he would yell 'Wolf!' and all the villagers would come. They got angry at the boy, when they didn't find a wolf. But the boy got lonely and did it again, and the villagers got angry again. Finally, when the wolf did come, and the boy yelled 'Wolf!' the villagers didn't come.

When Mrs. s...o...b..chner finished reading the story, Baartock asked, "Why boy not scare wolf?"

"Well, wolves are big mean, animals," she said, "and the boy was probably scared of this wolf."

"Wolf scare easy," said Baartock.

"You'd just yell at it and it would run away," said one of the girls.

"Wolf scare easy," said Baartock again. He'd never seen a wolf, because there weren't any around there. But his father had talked about them. They were just like foxes, only bigger. Most of the animals in the woods were very scared of humans and of trolls, and would usually run way. There were two foxes that lived near Baartock's home, and it had been very hard to watch them. At first, they were very scared of him. It had taken a lot of food, and many nights of quiet waiting, before the foxes would come near him. Even now that they were used to him, if he made any sudden movement or loud noise, they would still run away. Anyway, Baartock was sure that he could scare a wolf.

"You couldn't scare anything," said the girl.

Baartock was really insulted. He was just about ready to do some scaring right then, when Mrs. s...o...b..chner said, "All right, that's enough. It's time to get ready for lunch."

Most of the children went to line up at the door and Baartock and a few children went over to their cubbies to get their lunches. Then they went to line up also. The girl was right in front of Baartock in the line. She looked back at him and said, "You couldn't scare anything."

Baartock could see Mrs. s...o...b..chner looking right at them, but he said very quietly, "Can scare you."

"Janice, Baartock, stop it right now. That's enough," Mrs. s...o...b..chner said, and the girl turned around.

The cla.s.s went down the hall to the cafeteria and Baartock waited in lunch line to get a container of milk and an apple. When he got to the end of the line, he held out some of the coins his mother had gotten from Mrs. Jackson, and the woman took two of them. He went over to the table where Jason was and sat down and started getting his lunch out.

Janice had been waiting to see where he would sit, and she came over and sat at the same table.

"Baartock, you couldn't scare anything," she said. Baartock started to say something, but Mrs. s...o...b..chner was standing near the table and she said something first.

"Janice. I told you to stop it," she said.

"But he said," Janice started to say.

"He didn't say anything. I've been standing right here. Now, just eat your lunch quietly, or I'll move you to another table."

"Yes, Mrs. s...o...b..chner," Janice said, and Mrs. s...o...b..chner walked off to another part of the cafeteria. Baartock had been listening, but he was hungry and had started eating his lunch. His mother had packed a good lunch.

"Oh yuch! What's that you're eating?" Janice shrieked. All the talking in the cafeteria stopped and Mrs. Jackson and Mrs. s...o...b..chner came hurrying over to the table. Baartock looked over and saw she was pointing right at him.

"What are you eating?" she shrilled again. Everybody in the cafeteria was looking at their table.

Baartock kept on chewing, but he opened up his sandwich to show her.

"Snake," he said, "very good." On the slice of bread was a row of little green snakes. Some were a little bigger than others and the heads and tails were hanging down over the edge of the bread.

It had been a good summer and there were lots of snakes and lizards.

"That looks really good," said Jason. "Can I have a bite?" Jason didn't really think it looked good, but he was enjoying teasing Janice.

"Oh! Mrs. s...o...b..chner, can I move?" Janice asked looking up at the teacher.

"I think you should," she answered, "and let Baartock eat his lunch in peace." She picked up Janice's lunch tray and she and Janice went over to the other side of the cafeteria. Mrs. Jackson walked off too, and everyone started eating their lunches and talking again.

After they were gone, Jason asked, "You really eat that?"

"Good," said Baartock. "You try." He held out his sandwich to Jason.

Jason took the sandwich, and looked at it as if it were going to eat him. Then, carefully avoiding the snake heads, took a tiny bite and started chewing. "It's ok," he said as he handed it back to Baartock, then he quickly took a drink of milk.

After finishing his lunch, Baartock took his lunch bag, which still had some acorns left in it, and he and Jason went out to the playground.

They were standing near the door when Janice came out.

"You should have had some of Baartock's sandwich," Jason yelled to her.

"It was really yummy."

Janice hurried off toward the swings and Jason and Baartock went over to the jungle gym and climbed to the top.

Soon, Mrs. s...o...b..chner came out to get the cla.s.s back inside. The rest of the afternoon went by quickly. There weren't any fire drills, and they got to play dodge ball at recess. Baartock thought it was a fun game. He liked being in the middle. The children in the circle had to throw a big ball, and it was easy to keep away from it. Even though Baartock wasn't the last one left inside the circle any of the times, he still had fun.

They went back to the cla.s.sroom and did some more worksheets. Baartock was surprised when Mrs. s...o...b..chner said that it was time to put everything away. "Now don't forget about show-and-tell on Monday," she said.

Baartock raised his hand, like he had seen the children do when they wanted to ask something.

"Yes, Baartock?"

"What showandtell?" he asked.

"You can bring in something to show the rest of the cla.s.s and tell about it. Something you like or you think is unusual. I'm sure that you have something you would like to share with the cla.s.s."

Baartock had an idea right away about something to bring, but he didn't say what it was.

"Now leave your tables straight and put your chairs in their places, then line up at the door."

There was a lot of rushing around and putting things away, and soon they were all lined up.

"All right. I want you to have a nice weekend. I'll see you on Monday," Mrs. s...o...b..chner said just as the bell rang. Baartock didn't jump this time. He had guessed that the bell was about to ring. They hurried down the hall to get to the school busses.

"See you Monday," Jason called as he ran off to his bus. Baartock walked along the sidewalk until he came to bus 62.

"You were right," Mr. Barnes said as Baartock go on the bus.