The Ghastly Glasses by Beatrice Gormley

Author:Beatrice Gormley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: friends, school, humor, fifth grade, magic, cats, fun, special powers
Publisher: Beatrice Gormley

7. The Captain of My Fate

For a moment, Andrea sprawled on the trash bags, the clang resounding in her ears. Then she realized that footsteps were fading away on the pavement outside. He was going to leave her here! She hammered on the side of the bin with her fists. “No! Wait, Mr. Hinkle! You’ll be sorry if you—”

Andrea stopped hammering, rubbing her smarting hands on her pants. Mr. Hinkle wouldn’t be sorry at all. He was gone—leaving for the day, he had told the secretary.

For the day! Andrea started to bounce around like a monkey in a cage, banging the lid and sides. “Help! Help! Help!”

Gasping for breath, Andrea realized she was yelling to an empty parking lot. And no one in the school building could hear her, with the windows all shut. She had to pull herself together.

Andrea sank down on the pile of trash bags, hoping she wasn’t sitting right in the garbage from the broken bag. She had to think things over carefully, without panicking again.

She shivered. Pulling her sweater cuffs down over her hands, she made fists to tuck her fingers inside. Thank goodness she had worn a turtleneck jersey and a sweater and corduroy pants today. Folding her arms, she hunched over her knees for warmth.

Now that she was calmer, Andrea realized there was no reason to get so upset. Mr. Hinkle might be gone, but other people would come into the parking lot. Someone’s mother, for instance. Mothers often came to the school to help a teacher or to put on a birthday party in a classroom.

But just escaping from the trash bin was not going to solve her problems. Andrea sighed. She was in big trouble. Why, why had she thought it was all right to go ahead and improve people with the mysterious glasses?

As a matter of fact, the glasses hadn’t improved anyone. Nobody had changed exactly the way Andrea wanted them to. There was some connection between what Andrea had wished and how they actually changed, but not a connection that helped. It was like working a long-division problem and getting 482 instead of what you were supposed to get, 824. Same digits, but Mrs. Seberg would still put a red X beside the answer.

“I didn’t know,” Andrea pleaded to herself. She remembered something she had heard in a detective movie: Ignorance of the law is no excuse. She gulped. She deserved to be locked up—not just in a Dumpster, but in jail.

She had done terrible things, and she had thought of doing things that might have turned out much worse. What if she had wished Julie would be decent to her, and Julie started following Andrea around like a devoted puppy? What if Andrea had used the glasses on Mom, and she had spent the family’s savings on tankers full of milk? Or on Dad, and he had done push-ups until he keeled over?

Groaning, Andrea sat up. At least she wasn’t so cold anymore. The nest of trash bags seemed to keep the warmth in, the way the comforter on her bed did.

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