The Valentine Star (3 page)

Dawn had written 6.

Six glasses of water every day.

Too much. You'd probably be ready to drown.

Emily erased her 2. She wrote 4.

More than two, but less than six.

Probably just right.

She looked up. Sherri Dent was staring at her.

Entity's face felt hot.

“I think someone is cheating,” Sherri said^

“I hope no one is looking at anyone else's work,” said Ms. Rooney.

Emily ducked her head.

That Sherri Dent, she thought. She was getting to be the biggest tattletale in the world.

Emily hoped Ms. Vincent didn't think she was a cheater. She certainly wasn't a cheater.

She erased 4 and put 2 back on her paper.

She started the third sentence.

Name two yellow vegetables.

She knelt up a little. Sherri had turned her paper over. She was writing fast.

Emily tried to think fast too.

Two yellow vegetables. Corn, of course.

She could think of string beans, and lettuce.

Too bad Ms. Rooney hadn't asked about green vegetables.

Maybe Ms. Rooney had made a mistake.

Maybe there weren't any more yellow vegetables.

Maybe she should tell Ms. Rooney.

Ms. Vincent would think she was very smart.

She raised her hand.

“Yes, Emily,” Ms. Rooney said.

“I think there's a mistake,” Emily said.

“Really?”

“Didn't you mean to say, ‘Name one yellow vegetable'?” Emily asked.

Ms. Rooney shook her head.

“I don't think …” Emily began.

Matthew turned around. “Don't you know any more?”

Emily felt her face get hot. She wondered if Ms. Vincent thought she was the dumbest kid in the class.

Just then Sherri Dent shot past her.

She went straight to Ms, Vincent's seat.

“I'm all finished,” she said; “I wrote three yellow vegetables.”

“Wonderful,” said Ms. Vincent.

Emily tore a piece of paper out of her notebook.

She wrote:

I'm going to get you.

She folded it four times. Then she tossed it toward Sherri's desk.

It landed on Sherri's chair.

Good, Emily thought. She swallowed.

She hoped she wasn't going to cry in front of everybody.

The next morning Emily went straight to the Valentine box. She slipped in three cards.

One for Dawh Bosco. One for Beast. And one for Timothy.

She still had a pile of cards to do.

She was going to make a card for everyone.

Everyone but Sherri Dent.

Emily went to the coatroom. Sherri was there too.

Emily made a little sniffing sound.

She hung up her jacket. Then she went to her seat.

She folded a piece of looseleaf into fours. It would make a nice Valentine card.

She picked up her red crayon and wrote:

Ms. Vincent is not mean.

She looks like a dream.

She put a red star on top.

Ms. Vincent would love it.

Ms. Rooney would love it too.

Emily had used two of her spelling words.

On the bottom she wrote:

Guess Who

She dashed up to the Valentine box and dropped it in.

Just then the door opened.

It was the office monitor. “Please bring the attendance to the office,” she said to Ms. Rooney.

“Right away,” Ms. Rooney said. She looked at Ms. Vincent. “Are you ready to give your lesson?”

Ms. Vincent went to the front of the room. “Boys and girls,” she said.

Emily saw that no one was paying attention.

She sat up straight. She hoped Ms. Vincent would see.

Matthew and Beast were playing “got you last.”

Dawn was making a Valentine card for Mr. Mancina.

It had about fifty green stars all over it.

Ms. Rooney clapped her hands.

Everyone stopped what he was doing.

“We are going to learn about February birthdays,” said Ms. Vincent.

She spoke in a little voice.

Emily could hardly hear her.

Ms. Rooney walked to the door. “Ms. Vincent,” she said. “Please speak a little louder.” She went out.

In front of Emily, Beast and Matthew were punching each other again.

Ms. Vincent cleared her throat. “Who knows a famous birthday in February?”

Everyone raised hands.

Matthew stopped punching Beast.

He raised his hand too.

“Yes, Michael,” Ms. Vincent said.

Everybody laughed.

“Matthew,” someone said.

Ms. Vincent ducked her head a little. “I'm sorry. Matthew.”

Emily looked over toward the window. Sherri was waving her hand hard. She was holding the big blue book.

Emily tioped Ms. Vincent wouldn't see her.

Matthew stood up, “A famous February person.”

“Yes,” said Ms. Vincent.

“My grandfather,” Matthew said. “Devoe Jackson.”

“De-voooooe,” Timothy Barbiero said, “I never heard of a name like that.”

Everybody started to laugh again.

Ms. Vincent said, “That's not very kind.”

“He wasn't famous, I bet,” said Jason.

“He was famous in our family,” Matthew said. “He had three cars.”

Emily looked over at Sherri.

Sherri was waving her hand even harder.

“Who can tell us another one?” Ms. Vincent asked.

Dawn Bosco raised her hand. “William Henry Harrison.”

Ms. Vincent blinked. “Wonderful.”

“Is that your grandfather?” Beast asked. Dawn shook her head. “No, he was a president. My Aunt Olga told me. Her birthday was the other day. It's the same day as his. February ninth.”

Suddenly Emily remembered. She raised her hand. “George Washington,” she called out.

“Good,” said Ms. Vincent.

“I know about his life too,” said Emily. “I don't even need a big blue book.”

“The whole world knows about George Washington,” said Sherri.

“He was our first president,” said Ms. Vincent.

“I know all about Abraham Lincoln,” said Sherri. “They called him Honest Abe. He was our sixteenth president.”

Sherri looked at Emily.

She made a pointy know-it-all face.

“His birthday is today,” Sherri said.

“That's pretty good,” said Beast.

“Neat,” said Ms. Vincent.

Emily slid down in her seat.

She felt like banging Sherri on the head with a book. A big blue book.

When Ms. Rooney came back, they started board-work.

It was math, Emily's best subject.

Emily drew nine sticks on her paper.

She crossed out four of them.

She began to count. “Nine take away four is …”

Up in front, Ms. Rooney was counting too.

“Thirty … thirty-one … ” Ms. Rooney said.

She was adding up the lunch money.

Emily put a big five on her paper.

She waited for Ms. Rooney to call her name.

Emily was the lunch-money monitor for February.

It was the best job in the classroom.

“Emily Arrow,” said Ms. Rooney.

Emily rushed up to Ms. Rooney's desk. She took the brown lunch-money envelope.

Jill Simon, her lunch partner, was absent.

Emily looked around the classroom.

She looked at Sherri. She made a little face.

Sherri made a face back at her.

Then Emily looked at Richard.

He was drawing a picture. It looked like a fat gray groundhog.

He had been drawing pictures of groundhogs since Groundhog Day.

“I
pick Beast,” Emily said.

Ms. Rooney nodded.

Richard put down his crayon. He stood up.

Quickly they went down the hall.

“I'm glad you picked me,” Richard said.

“I'm glad too,” said Emily.

“I thought you were going to pick Sherri Dent,” Richard said.

“Never,” Emily said.

“She's pretty smart,” Richard said. “She knows all about Abraham Lincoln.”

Emily walked a little faster. “She's a know-it-all.
She's a tattletale know-it-alj. SheVa pointy-face tattle tale…”

“She's a pretty nice kid,” Beast said. “She gave me a candy bar last week. For nothing,”

Emily thought for a moment. “She used to be.” She frowned. “But not anymore.”

They went into the cafeteria.

The cafeteria lady was waiting for them.

She took the lunch-money envelope.

Emily and Richard went back into the hall.

They stopped at the side doors. They looked out at the piles of snow.

“It's hot in here,” Emily said.

“Boiling,” Richard said.

Emily pushed open the door a crack.

She poked her nose out. “Smell that air.”

Richard took a sniff. “Neat,” he said. “Wouldn't you love to go outside?” Emily asked.

“Just to run down the path and back,” Richard said.

“We'd get in trouble if someone saw us,” Emily said.

“We could go fast,” Richard said.

“Go like a rocket ship,” said Emily.

She took another breath of cold air. “Ready?”

“Go,” said Richard.

They pushed the door open wider.

They tore down the path. Emily could feel the snow crunching under her feet.

At the end of the path she touched the telephone pole.

Then she ran back to the door. She pulled at the knob.

“Hey,” she said. It didn't turn.

She shivered. The door was locked.

“Yikes,” said Richard. “Let me try that.”

Together they pulled.

Emily could feel the wind. It tore at her blue sweat-suit.

She peered through the window in the door.

Two little kids were walking down the hall.

They were carrying trays of milk.

“Here come the kindergarten snack monitors,” Richard said.

Emily banged on the door.

The kindergarten kids looked at her.

One of them nearly dropped the tray.

They hurried past.

Emily shivered again.

“Maybe we should run to the front door,” Richard said.

Just then someone else walked down the hall.

“I think it's a fifth grader,” Emily said. She banged on the window.

“Hey,” Richard said. “It's my sister, Holly.”