The Tantalizing Tale of Grace Minnaugh by Alice Kaltman

Author:Alice Kaltman [Kaltman, Alice]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Regal House Publishing
Published: 2019-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen: Boxy Blues

Tuesday was Swim Level Placement Day in P.E. All of the students in sixth grade were being tested to see if they could “float, fly, or flounder.” Grace was so appallingly cloddy at land-based sports that she usually turned red with embarrassment a whole period before P.E. classes even began. But swimming was now Grace’s forte, and she was eager to get in the pool and strut her stuff. There would be no balls to drop, no throws or passes to miss, just smooth, easy strokes and kicks. Grace would be safe as safe could be in a school pool. Chlorine might make her skin itchy but it wouldn’t turn her legs into a tail.

“No question, sweetie, you’re definitely a small,” Mrs. Presser declared as she distributed blue tank swimsuits outside the girls’ locker room.

“You’re kidding,” said Grace, holding the suit between thumb and forefinger, her nose wrinkling in distaste. It smelled like disinfectant and looked like something only a grandmother would wear. If it were purple, Mrs. Shelby might like it. “I have to wear this to swim class?”

“You and all the other sixth-grade girls,” Mrs. Presser told her. “Look at it this way, sweetie, everyone wears the same bathing suit in swim class, so everyone looks awful. No competition for who looks the most fabulous, so there’s no first-place beauty or last-place loser.” Mrs. Presser grinned at Grace like the Cheshire Cat. “Towels are at the end of the counter. Next!”

Grace grabbed a scratchy white towel and shuffled reluctantly into the locker room. While other girls talked and laughed as they changed into their boxy blue bathing suits, Grace found an empty locker at the far end of the last aisle. As she pulled her Ohio State T-shirt over her head, someone asked, “Mind if I sit here?” Grace poked her face through an armhole and saw Tanya on the bench next to her.

“Go ahead,” Grace answered with a smile.

Tanya held up her own stiffly starched bathing suit. “My older sister warned me about these yucko things, but I never thought they’d be this foul.”

Tanya spoke with a slight accent, Grace noticed, wondering where Tanya was from, but she felt too shy to ask. “Ugh! It feels even worse than it looks,” Tanya groaned, slipping her brown arms through the suit straps. “So, Grace, how do you like school so far?”

“It’s okay, I guess,” Grace replied. “Some of my teachers are interesting, but others are pretty dim.”

“I know, right? Mr. Conrad, my English teacher is, like, so boring I want to scream sometimes. But you’re lucky—I heard you got Karp for science.”

Grace narrowed her eyes. “I guess Christi told you we were in the same class, huh?”

“Yeah, she mentioned it.” Tanya glanced awkwardly at the floor. “Listen. Don’t get the wrong idea about me and Christi. It’s not like we’re BFFs or anything, it’s just that....”

Before Tanya could finish her sentence, Ms. Hayes, the gym teacher, burst into the locker room. She wasn’t much

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