In Memory of Gorfman T. Frog by Gail Donovan

Author:Gail Donovan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2010-03-01T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

Silent Lunch

Rain on Monday meant indoor recess. Josh was hanging out with Michael. The girls were reading or folding paper into cootie catchers, and the other guys were playing table soccer with balls of wadded paper or fighting with Payson to let them have a turn at the classroom’s only computer.

Ms. O’Reilly had taken the telephone out into the hallway. She kept glancing in through the door’s glass window, but as long as the noise level didn’t rise so high it went through the door and interfered with her phone call, she stayed out in the hall.

“Hey”—Josh pointed at the picture Michael was drawing—“that’s a good frog!”

“Thanks.” Michael stopped drawing and sniffed the air. “What’s that smell?”

“Popcorn,” answered Josh. “Somebody’s making microwave popcorn in the teachers’ lounge. Indoor recess is bad enough, and then we have to smell popcorn before lunch! There ought to be a rule against that.”

“Not that smell,” said Michael. “The candy smell. Somebody’s got candy!”

Candy was against the rules.

“It’s not candy,” said Charu, pulling up a chair and sitting down with them. She jerked her head toward Lisbet. “It’s excessive application of lip gloss. E-x-c-e-s-s-i-v-e. Excessive.”

Lisbet had lip gloss in the shape of a Tootsie Roll. Every time she popped off the cap and smeared her lips the smell of Tootsie Roll filled the air.

“That’s disgusting!” said Josh.

“I know,” agreed Charu. “Spell that d-i-s-g-u-s-ti-n-g.”

“Did I miss something?” asked Michael. “Do we have a spelling test today?”

“Sorry,” said Charu. “I’m working on my words. The middle-school spelling bee is in October.”

“No offense, Charu,” said Josh. “I know you’re the best speller in our class. But you’ll be a sixth grader. Don’t eighth graders usually win?”

“My mom says there’s a first time for everything,” said Charu. “My mom’s way into me winning. Hey,” she added, making a sorry-for-him face. “Too bad about your frog.”

“Thanks,” said Josh.

“How did you know?” asked Michael.

Charu shrugged. “Everybody knows.”

“It was probably my sister,” said Josh. Probably Cady had told every single kid she saw on the playground Saturday, and they had told all their brothers and sisters. By the time he’d gotten to Hollison Elementary Monday morning, the entire school seemed to know.

“So what happens now?” asked Charu. “Are we still going to study him?”

“I don’t know,” said Michael gloomily. “We spent the whole morning on math facts.”

“You mean we wasted the whole morning!” said Josh. “We might not have much time!”

“What are you talking about?” asked Charu.

“Tadpoles!” said Josh. “In the woods behind my house. Pretty soon they’re going to lose their tails and grow legs, and what if they grow too many? I need to learn all about deformed frogs, but I’m grounded from computer.”

Payson shouted, “Score!” and pumped his fist in the air.

“Oh,” said Josh. “Duh.” He was sitting in the same room as a computer. All he had to do was get Payson off it.

Josh felt queasy, and not from the smell of Tootsie Roll lip gloss. He felt gross, remembering his phony apology and Payson’s phony forgiveness. Yuck.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.