School Days According to Humphrey (17 page)

Be-Careful-Kelsey was extremely careful when she handed Og out of his tank.

“Don't be scared, Og,” she said. “I'd never let anything happen to a special frog like you.”

Just-Joey tidied up my cage again, even though it didn't really need it. When Mrs. Brisbane came to check on him, she told him he'd done such a good job, she'd let him train all future Animal Handlers.

Joey was overjoyed. “Did you hear that, Humphrey?” he asked me later. “I'm a Trainer now, not just a Handler. Mrs. Brisbane really trusts me.”

I could see Joey's job was doing him a lot of good. In fact, all of Brisbane's Buddies seemed happy with their jobs . . . except two of them.

Tall-Paul and Small-Paul had worked together to clear the bulletin board, but they still hadn't put anything up there. Mrs. Brisbane had taken out boxes full of art supplies and paper, maps and posters, but they just couldn't seem to agree on what to put up. Small-Paul wanted to make the theme about autumn. Tall-Paul wanted to make the theme about animals. Then Small-Paul wanted the bulletin board to be about airplanes and Tall-Paul wanted it to be about cars.

“How about airplanes
and
cars? Transportation,” Mrs. Brisbane suggested.

The Pauls didn't think those went together.

I thought that the two
Pauls
didn't go together. I had obviously made an unsqueakably bad mistake when I decided to pair them up.

“Mrs. Brisbane, I don't think Paul G. and I make very good Brisbane's Buddies,” Small-Paul told Mrs. Brisbane after lunch on Tuesday. “Maybe you should switch us with somebody else.”

“You have to learn to work with people who aren't like you,” the teacher explained. “You'll have to do it many times in your life.”

Small-Paul looked miserable. “He won't even try.”

“And what about you? Are you trying?” Mrs. Brisbane asked.

Small-Paul didn't answer.

“You can do it, Paul!” I squeaked from my cage.

Og tried to be encouraging, too. “BOING-BOING!” he twanged.

Mrs. Brisbane looked over at us. “Look at those two. Can you think of two animals who are less alike than Og and Humphrey?”

“That's right! He's an amphibian and I'm a mammal!” I agreed.

“And yet, they share that table and actually seem to enjoy each other's company,” Mrs. Brisbane continued.

“He's cold-blooded and I'm warm-blooded!” I added.

“So I think two boys who are the same age and in the same class and both like things like planes and cars can learn to work together, don't you?” Mrs. Brisbane certainly made sense to me.

“I guess,” Paul said. He didn't sound convinced, though.

“So give it another try,” Mrs. Brisbane told him. “For Humphrey and Og, okay?”

I crossed my toes and hoped they'd try.

They did have a chance to work together later in the day, but they didn't talk at all. They just stared down at the boxes of art supplies.

Something I hadn't planned for happened next. Mrs. Brisbane asked Holly to return some playground equipment to Mrs. Wright. There were several bats and a box of balls.

Helpful-Holly had a little trouble carrying them all at one time. The bats crashed to the ground, the box tipped over and the balls bounced all over the floor. She picked them up, then admitted she needed some help.

“Would you like to ask someone else to help?” Mrs. Brisbane asked.

Holly looked around the room, and I almost fell off my tree branch when she picked Rolling-Rosie. The smile on Rosie's face told me she was pleasantly surprised.

“I can carry the box on my lap,” Rosie suggested. “You can take the bats.”

“Good idea,” said Holly.

After they had left, Mrs. Brisbane told the rest of the class, “That's what I like to see in my classroom. Working together. That's why I came up with Brisbane's Buddies.”

Small-Paul glanced at Tall-Paul when he heard those words.

I couldn't hear him, but he said something to Tall-Paul, who nodded. Soon, they were actually talking as they pulled things out of the box.

A little later, Small-Paul asked, “Mrs. Brisbane, could we borrow your pictures of the kids in the class and go to the library? We need to scan them into the computer.”

She was surprised, but of course she said yes and wrote a note to Mr. Fitch, the librarian.

The Pauls were both smiling when they came back.

After school, Mrs. Brisbane seemed unsqueakably pleased with herself. Just before she left, she came over to our table to say good-bye.

“Brisbane's Buddies seems to be working out,” she said. “Even though I'm still not sure how those cards got switched around. Did Aldo do it?” She laughed. “You wouldn't tell on him if he did.”

Which was true.

The next morning, Small-Paul and Tall-Paul—together—asked Mrs. Brisbane if they could put up their bulletin board during recess.

“Yes,” she said. “I just hope Mrs. Wright doesn't find out. She wants all students to get fresh air.”

Tall-Paul laughed, ran over to the window, opened it and took a deep breath. “There. I've gotten my fresh air.”

Small-Paul raced over and did the same thing. “Me too,” he said.

Then they returned to the bulletin board.

“I made a plan,” Small-Paul said, showing Tall-Paul a piece of paper. I was glad to hear someone else in Room 26 made plans besides just me.

Tall-Paul studied it carefully. “That should work,” he said. “I guess I'll take the top part.”

“Okay,” Small-Paul replied. “I'll take the bottom.”

I climbed up to the tippy top of my cage to watch as the bulletin board magically came to life.

Tall-Paul put up letters across the top reading BRISBANE'S BUDDIES—WE WORK TOGETHER.

Meanwhile, on the lower half of the board, Small-Paul put up pictures of students Mrs. Brisbane had taken on the first day of school. The boys had enlarged them on the computer and printed them out. He put them in pairs according to their jobs.

Next, Tall-Paul put pictures on the upper half of the board.

When they got to the middle, they worked together and didn't seem to mind one bit.

They worked quickly in order to finish before recess ended.

“Now add the drawings we did last night,” Tall-Paul said.

Soon, the job titles were accompanied by drawings the boys had made depicting each job. For Animal Handlers, there were excellent drawings of Og and me.

Suddenly, I had an awful thought. “They won't need two Animal Handlers if they move one of us to Room Eighteen,” I told Og.

Og splashed loudly in his tank. They were angry kinds of splashes.

By the time the other students in the room returned, the bulletin board was finished and it looked GREAT-GREAT-GREAT.

All the kids seemed to enjoy having their pictures on the board. I enjoyed having mine up there, too. But what I really enjoyed was seeing that my Plan worked after all!

Small-Paul and Tall-Paul walked out of the classroom together at the end of the day, talking about getting together with their planes and cars. I don't think either of them noticed that they weren't the same size.

“Whew!” I said when Og and I were alone again. “We did it, but it was a lot of work.”

“BOING-BOING-BOING!” Og agreed.

Aldo came in later to clean the room. “I'm glad to see you two are still together,” he said. “Richie told me that Miss Becker said she'd decided on which classroom pet she wanted.”

My tummy did a flip-flop. “Which one of us is it?” I squeaked.

“She said it would be a surprise,” Aldo added as he swept under our table. “She'll tell them tomorrow. Oh, and she said Ms. Mac helped her make up her mind.”

My tummy did a somersault. Ms. Mac LOVED-LOVED-LOVED me, so of course, she told Miss Becker to pick me. I still missed my old friends from last year. So why did I feel sad about leaving Room 26?

Aldo spent a long time in our classroom that night, because he brought in stacks of extra chairs and left them in the corner.

“Mrs. Brisbane said she's going to need these tomorrow,” he explained.

Why did Mrs. Brisbane need more chairs? Was she going to get more students? If so, wouldn't she need a helpful classroom pet more than ever?

Later, I made a few more notes in my notebook.

I opened the lock-that-doesn't-lock and strolled over to Og's tank.

“Og, old friend, I think I'm going to be leaving Room Twenty-six,” I said. “Even though I don't want to.”

Og bounced up and down so hard, I thought he'd pop the top off his tank. “BOING-BOING-BOING!”

“I'm sure you'll still help the students with their problems,” I said. “And I'll come visit you every night.”

Og calmed down a little then.

“Maybe Mrs. Brisbane will bring another pet in to keep you company. A cold-blooded animal, like you.” I thought that would make him feel better, but I don't think it did.

He dived into the water side of his tank, splashing furiously.

I understood.

I went back to my cage, but I didn't sleep much that night.

My last night in Room 26.

I
was on edge all morning. Everything in class was running smoothly now, and suddenly the new students of Room 26 didn't seem so strange anymore. Too bad I'd be leaving so soon!