Georgia's Greatness (5 page)

We looked up to see Ms. Harkness standing there holding Petal's little pink umbrella up over her head. The umbrella was open, even though we were...
inside!

This woman was
insane!
The next thing you knew, she'd be running with scissors ... and she was supposed to be the adult!

In that moment, we loved Serena Harkness even more.

"I think we can all run between the drops to the gymnasium, can't we?" Ms. Harkness suggested.

So that's what we did, running between the drops behind our new teacher, zigzagging all over the Whistle Stop campus toward the door of the gymnasium. As we ran, Ms. Harkness sang a song, some crazy song involving kittens and whiskers and schnitzel with noodles. The song may have been crazy, but it was enough to distract Petal from worrying that we'd be struck by the lightning that was flashing all about. Petal never fretted even
once
about the roaring thunder!

We arrived at the door of the gymnasium, wet and breathless but curiously happy.

Once inside, we shook ourselves like cats coming in out of the rain.

Then, with Ms. Harkness encouraging us, we set about finding things to play with.

At first, we played some indoor soccer. Not because any of us liked soccer—we didn't—but because Mandy kept thinking that Will liked it, and she was trying to get his attention. So we played for fifteen minutes, kicking the ball back and forth.

But then Rebecca reminded Mandy that Will didn't like soccer at all, which caused Mandy to remember that she didn't like soccer either, and so we stopped.

"What do we do now?" Mandy asked.

"Play, children! Play!" Ms. Harkness shouted from the sidelines. She was still holding Petal's little pink umbrella over her head...
indoors.

"There's something not natural about that woman," Mandy muttered as she followed us to the gymnastic equipment, where we climbed all over the uneven bars and the horse thingy, some of us hanging upside down, not caring if our panties were showing. For once, even Annie didn't reprimand us about this. She was too busy hanging upside down herself.

"What do you mean by that?" Jackie asked Mandy. "Why would you say Ms. Harkness doesn't seem natural?"

"Because she doesn't," Mandy said. "Just look at her over there, with that umbrella over her head...
indoors.
" She shuddered. "She reminds me of that book
The Cat in the Hat.
"

"What are you talking about?" Rebecca demanded.

"I've always liked that book," Zinnia said, adding, "It's a doozy." But no one seemed to care.

"Those two kids in the book—" Mandy started.

"Sally and her brother," Jackie put in.

"Right," Mandy said. "Those two kids in the book are bored because it's raining out, so when the Cat arrives they're very happy."

"Not entirely," Jackie said. "They are somewhat happy, but they're also concerned, particularly when the Fish gets into the action."

"I've always been fond of the Fish," Petal said wistfully.

"The Fish is a great worrier," Jackie said.

"And rightfully so," Petal added.

"But don't you see?" Mandy said. "Petal is right. The Fish has every good reason to be worried because once the Cat in the Hat comes into the picture, things start to go horribly wrong!"

"But everything turns out all right in the end, doesn't it?" Jackie said.

"But it takes an awful lot of work to get there," Mandy countered. Now she had her hands on her hips. If we hadn't known any better, we'd have sworn this was a new Mandy!

"So what are you saying?" Durinda was puzzled. "Are you saying our teacher is the Cat in the Hat?"

"She's
not
our teacher," Mandy said irritably. "Mrs. McGillicuddy is. This other woman, on the other hand, she's just an ... impostor!"

We were so stunned at the notion, the
accusation
we stopped hanging upside down and things and instead circled around to confront Mandy.

"I don't think so," Annie said. "An impostor is someone who assumes false identity or title for the purpose of deception."

"Ms. Harkness is just a substitute," Marcia said.

"I'm fairly certain no one in the history of the world has ever impersonated a substitute," Durinda said, sounding like Annie.

We all thought for a moment about some of the nasty things we'd done to substitutes over the course of our education. Then we hung our heads in shame. We had been bad.

"Well, I don't think she's like the Cat in the Hat at all," Will piped up. "In fact, I think she's the most amazing teacher of all time! She's like Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty or Snow White or something, but with a shorter skirt."

Normally, we would have been jealous. We would have been jealous that Will, whom we thought of as belonging to
us,
was paying so much attention to a female other than us Eights.

But we couldn't be jealous. As he gazed at her adoringly, so did we all.

Well, except for Mandy.

"I want to be like her when I grow up," Durinda said, a light in her eyes.

"I want to be like her right now," Zinnia said, a light in her eyes too.

"I just wish I hadn't made such a jerk out of myself in front of her," Georgia said glumly.

"What do you mean?" we asked, turning to her.

"Hitting her in the forehead with that spitball," Georgia said. "I can't believe how bad my luck is at times! If I'd thrown that spitball a second earlier, it would have just struck the door; a second later, and I probably would have hit Frank Freud instead. But me, I had to throw it at exactly the worst moment possible, when it would hit
her
in the head. Now she shall hate me forever and I will never get a chance to be Teacher's Pet."

We were shocked.

Who would have ever dreamed that Georgia, hardhearted Georgia, would want to be Teacher's Pet?

We certainly wouldn't have.

But then we all swiveled our heads from Georgia over to Ms. Harkness, who was standing there under Petal's pink umbrella on the sidelines, and we could see her point. We
all
wanted to be Teacher's Pet now.

Well, except for Mandy.

"Georgia," Zinnia said, taking a step forward and placing her hand gently on Georgia's arm.

We were proud of Zinnia in that moment. There were times when she could be as timid as Petal, and Zinnia did worry too much about gifts, but because she was so sensitive herself, she was sometimes the most sensitive to other people. And cats. Well, at least
she
thought so.

"I really don't think Ms. Harkness hates you," Zinnia said once she'd secured Georgia's attention. "Don't you remember? She told you she was going to keep a special eye on you. And she touched your nose. She hasn't touched any of us. In fact, I'd say you're her favorite. I think when she found you on her desk, she was awfully impressed."

It was a long speech for Zinnia to make, and she looked as though she'd exhausted herself. We were proud.

We turned to Georgia to see how she had taken this.

She still looked sad, as though she wasn't wholly convinced and would dearly love to believe Zinnia was right ... but wasn't sure.

"Or maybe," Rebecca added darkly, "the reason she wants to keep a closer eye on you has nothing to do with being special, at least not in a good way."

"How do you mean?" Georgia asked.

"You know," Rebecca said, "you on the desk? The spitball you hurled at her forehead?"

"I didn't
hurl—
"

"Maybe," Rebecca said, "Ms. Harkness suspects, and rightfully so, that you're the student most likely to cause trouble."

"I prefer," Georgia said with a sniff, offended, "to believe she wants
me
for Teacher's Pet."

"I still think she's the Cat in the Hat," Mandy maintained, interrupting all our theories about Ms. Harkness and Georgia. "I think she is"—and here Mandy took a huge breath before finishing—"A Bad Person."

"Oh, will you please stop with that?" Georgia demanded, snapping out of her sad and offended mood just long enough to get mad.

"Fine," Mandy said. "I guess I can't help it. I miss Mrs. McGillicuddy."

She
what?
How could anyone possibly miss the McG?

But before we could say this to her, she added, "And I think we should all cheer her up by making her get-well cards."

It seemed like an over-the-top notion at first. Shouldn't getting a break from us cheer up the McG enough? But then we thought about the times when we'd been sick and Mommy and Daddy had bought us get-well cards, even though they lived right in the same house with us. (This was, of course, before they had disappeared. Or died.) Those cards had made us feel good, loved,
better
even, and we could see Mandy's point: cards from us just might be the difference between living and dying for the McG.

So that's what we did when we returned to our classroom after the Longest Recess the Whistle Stop Had Ever Seen
Ever:
we set to work, spending the rest of the day making cards for our absent teacher.

As for our new teacher?

She offered to mail the ten cards for us on her way home. She even offered to spring for the stamps.

***

"I'm worried about what it will be like when we get home," Petal said as we boarded the bus.

"What are you worried about?" Annie asked. She might have said "What are you worried about
this time?
" That's what Georgia and Rebecca would have said. Even Marcia might have said it on a bad day. But Annie was always the most patient of us with Petal and Zinnia.

"Will our house still be there?" Petal fretted. "It's raining so hard. Maybe it's all under water by now!"

"Don't you remember?" Rebecca pointed out. "We live in a magnificent stone house."

"It's practically a castle!" Zinnia added.

"And it's high on a hill," Jackie said gently. "Water tends to go downhill, not up, so our house won't be under water."

"Yes," Petal said. "I remember all that now. But do you think the foundation of our house is strong? Because if it's not, with all this rain, and then the wind..."

Really, sometimes Petal was a lot to take. We did worry what it would be like when the time came to have her take center stage for a month. She'd probably make us huddle with her under our beds for the entire month of June, never discovering her own power or gift at all.

Poor Petal, we realized as she went on and on. She just couldn't help herself.

It was a good thing then that when we arrived home from school something happened to make Georgia forget about her depression and Petal forget about worrying.

One of the cats was missing.

CHAPTER FIVE

Usually, when we arrived home from school, we found all eight cats waiting for us right inside the door. The cats were hungry or they needed us to clean out the litter boxes for them or maybe they just wanted a good scratch behind their furry ears. Those cats: they were always after something.

But on that day, there were only seven cats there to greet us: Anthrax, Dandruff, Jaguar, Minx, Precious, Rambunctious, and Zither. Greatorex, Georgia's cat, was nowhere in sight.

"Where
is
she?" Georgia cried, concerned.

Even the seven remaining cats looked concerned. They looked frantic too, more frantic than they had looked since the night back in January when our evil neighbor the Wicket had broken into our home and gone through Mommy's private study in search of her Top Secret folder.

"I'll try to get information out of them," Zinnia offered, referring to the cats, "but it's very hard to talk to them when they get like this."

"Why don't we all change out of our wet things," Annie suggested, "and put on our play clothes? Then we can search."

"But if she were in the house," Georgia said, "then the other cats would have seen her and they wouldn't look so frantic. She must be out there." Georgia looked out through the window. "She must be lost in the monsoon!"

"She will drown for sure," Petal said. "Cats hate rain. Plus, Greatorex doesn't have an ark."

"Will you both stop it?" Rebecca said. She turned on Georgia. "You're beginning to sound as bad as Petal." She turned on Petal. "And you sound as bad as...
you!
"

"I'll make hot cocoa for everyone," Durinda offered.

At least she wasn't trying to serve us all tea again.

"It will be fine," Jackie soothed Georgia. "We'll find your cat."

"I don't see any evidence why that should necessarily be true," Marcia said, "but why don't we take Jackie's word for it anyway?"

Normally, the first thing we did after arriving home from school was our homework, because Annie made us, but not on that day. There were two reasons for this: (1) we were all upset about Georgia's cat going missing—although no one was as upset about it as Georgia—because it reminded us of the night our parents disappeared, or died; and (2) Ms. Harkness, beautiful Ms. Harkness, hadn't assigned any.