Baartock Read online

  Chapter 12

  School in the morning wasn't very different from school in theafternoon, Baartock decided. There were some of the work-sheets thathad 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 bothsides that Jason said were called flash-cards. He said that you wereto add the numbers on the front of a flash card, and your answer wasthe same as the one on the back of the card. The morning went by veryquickly for Baartock.

  Then, right before lunch time, Mrs. Stogbuchner read another story.This time, he understood most of the story. It was about a boy takingcare of sheep, and when he got lonely, he would yell 'Wolf!' and allthe villagers would come. They got angry at the boy, when they didn'tfind a wolf. But the boy got lonely and did it again, and thevillagers got angry again. Finally, when the wolf did come, and theboy yelled 'Wolf!' the villagers didn't come.

  When Mrs. Stogbuchner finished reading the story, Baartock asked, "Whyboy not scare wolf?"

  "Well, wolves are big mean, animals," she said, "and the boy wasprobably 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 talkedabout them. They were just like foxes, only bigger. Most of theanimals in the woods were very scared of humans and of trolls, andwould usually run way. There were two foxes that lived near Baartock'shome, and it had been very hard to watch them. At first, they werevery scared of him. It had taken a lot of food, and many nights ofquiet waiting, before the foxes would come near him. Even now thatthey were used to him, if he made any sudden movement or loud noise,they would still run away. Anyway, Baartock was sure that he couldscare a wolf.

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

  Baartock was really insulted. He was just about ready todo some scaring right then, when Mrs. Stogbuchner 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 fewchildren went over to their cubbies to get their lunches. Then theywent to line up also. The girl was right in front of Baartock in theline. She looked back at him and said, "You couldn't scare anything."

  Baartock could see Mrs. Stogbuchner looking right at them,but he said very quietly, "Can scare you."

  "Janice, Baartock, stop it right now. That's enough," Mrs. Stogbuchnersaid, and the girl turned around.

  The class went down the hall to the cafeteria and Baartock waited inlunch line to get a container of milk and an apple. When he got to theend of the line, he held out some of the coins his mother had gottenfrom Mrs. Jackson, and the woman took two of them. He went over to thetable 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 overand sat at the same table.

  "Baartock, you couldn't scare anything," she said. Baartock started tosay something, but Mrs. Stogbuchner was standing near the table and shesaid 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 eatyour lunch quietly, or I'll move you to another table."

  "Yes, Mrs. Stogbuchner," Janice said, and Mrs. Stogbuchner walked offto another part of the cafeteria. Baartock had been listening, but hewas hungry and had started eating his lunch. His mother had packed agood lunch.

  "Oh yuch! What's that you're eating?" Janice shrieked. All the talkingin the cafeteria stopped and Mrs. Jackson and Mrs. Stogbuchner camehurrying over to the table. Baartock looked over and saw she waspointing right at him.

  "What are you eating?" she shrilled again. Everybody in the cafeteriawas 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 oflittle green snakes. Some were a little bigger than others and theheads 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?" Jasondidn't really think it looked good, but he was enjoying teasing Janice.

  "Oh! Mrs. Stogbuchner, can I move?" Janice asked looking up at theteacher.

  "I think you should," she answered, "and let Baartock eat his lunch inpeace." She picked up Janice's lunch tray and she and Janice went overto the other side of the cafeteria. Mrs. Jackson walked off too, andeveryone 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 eathim. Then, carefully avoiding the snake heads, took a tiny bite andstarted 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 hadsome 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 overto the jungle gym and climbed to the top.

  Soon, Mrs. Stogbuchner came out to get the class back inside. The restof the afternoon went by quickly. There weren't any fire drills, andthey got to play dodge ball at recess. Baartock thought it was a fungame. He liked being in the middle. The children in the circle had tothrow a big ball, and it was easy to keep away from it. Even thoughBaartock wasn't the last one left inside the circle any of the times,he still had fun.

  They went back to the classroom and did some more worksheets. Baartockwas surprised when Mrs. Stogbuchner said that it was time to puteverything away. "Now don't forget about show-and-tell on Monday," shesaid.

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

  "Yes, Baartock?"

  "What showandtell?" he asked.

  "You can bring in something to show the rest of the class and tellabout it. Something you like or you think is unusual. I'm sure thatyou have something you would like to share with the class."

  Baartock had an idea right away about something to bring, but he didn'tsay 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 soonthey were all lined up.

  "All right. I want you to have a nice weekend. I'll see you onMonday," Mrs. Stogbuchner said just as the bell rang. Baartock didn'tjump this time. He had guessed that the bell was about to ring. Theyhurried down the hall to get to the school busses.

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

  "You were right," Mr. Barnes said as Baartock go on the bus. "The other road is shorter." He kept on talking all the way to thehigh school. He kept talking all the time until he stopped to letBaartock off the bus. Baartock wasn't listening to him. He wasthinking about showandtell.