The Umbrella Lady by V.C. Andrews

Author:V.C. Andrews
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: 2021-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

Mazy surprised me at breakfast right after she served me some scrambled eggs. She was better at making them than Mama was, although I would never say so and even felt guilty thinking it.

She paused in front of me, putting her hands on her hips, which told me something important was coming.

“I have to take you to the public school,” she said.

“I’m going to school?” I asked quickly. Finally, I thought.

“Only to take a special test.”

“What kind of test?” I asked, my voice dripping with disappointment.

“A test to see how you’re doing with homeschooling. The state requires it.”

“When?”

“Today,” she said.

“Today?”

I thought I would need more time to prepare. I hadn’t been in a school building ever. What if I failed this special test? What would happen? Would I never be able to enter public school? How angry would Mazy be?

“Don’t look so worried,” she said, smiling. “This is why I didn’t tell you ahead of time. You would have built it up in your mind and made yourself so nervous and sick you wouldn’t do well. If I didn’t think you would do well, I wouldn’t have arranged it yet. I would have found ways to put it off, but I don’t think I’ll ever have to do that with you.”

She sat and sipped her coffee.

“I used to teach in this school system. Children from all the surrounding communities go there. The grade-school principal knows who I am. I had been teaching four years when she first began. She always looked up to me. I gave her good advice about her career, so she owes me. You’ll be treated special.”

“Doesn’t a mother or a father have to be the one to take me there?”

I saw how much the question annoyed her. She pressed on her lips and dropped the corners before replying.

“Normally, yes, but that’s not possible, is it? And you have to take the test. Actually, I’m looking forward to your taking it.”

“Why?”

“I’ll admit it has to do with my ego.”

“What’s that mean?”

“I was the best grade-school teacher they had.” She finished her coffee and rose to take the cup to the sink but stopped and turned back to me. “Those who don’t believe it will eat their skepticism and choke on it once they learn what I have accomplished with you in so short a time. Actually, they’ll be jealous.”

“Jealous? Of me?”

“No, silly goose, of me. I doubt any of them in all the grade-school classes has a student like you. Your talents could have gone to waste. Sometimes things happen for the best, even though we might not realize it for a long time, a lifetime, in fact.”

What did she mean? What had happened was for the best? It was good that there was a fire and my mother died and that Daddy left me here? Maybe she meant only the best for her.

“I told the grade-school principal, Mrs. Elliot, that you are my granddaughter, anyway,” she casually added. “You must remember to say the same thing if you’re asked, just like I always told you to do.

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