Horrible Harry Moves up to the Third Grade (2 page)

I waved.

I was just as glad to see her, though.

“Welcome to third grade, boys. I can't wait to hear about your summer.”

“Forget summer. What's going on here?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Harry replied. “Who's that bald guy in Room 2B. And where are Miss Foxworth and Mrs. Chan?”

Miss Mackle smiled. “Every summer brings some changes. As you know, we moved upstairs. And South School just hired two new teachers. Mr. Moulder for second grade, and Miss Zaharek in kindergarten. Mrs. Chan retired.”

“What happened to Miss Foxworth? Did she fall off a cliff or something?”

“No, Harry,” Miss Mackle said. “She got married over the summer and changed her name. Now she's Mrs. Carpenter.”

“She looks different,” I said.

“She changed her hair,” Miss Mackle said. “She's a blonde now.”

“Ooooooh,” we replied.

When the bell rang, Harry and I found our seats. They had our names on them. Mine was by the window. Harry's was next to the pencil sharpener and wastepaper basket. He seemed to like that. He gave me the thumbs-up sign.

I wasn't so sure, so I just nodded.

Was
everything
going to change in third grade?

The first thing I did when I sat down was look out the window. Everything looked so different from the second floor. Last year, I could see the school Dumpster, lawns, and cars on the street. Now there were just clouds and the sky.

“Look!” Harry blurted out from across ‘the room. “There goes Lifestar, the helicopter. I bet it's taking a bloody person to the hospital.”

Mary made a face. “I was hoping you might change over the summer, Harry But you haven‘t,” she groaned. “You're still gross.”

I smiled.

At least that was
one thing
I could count on.

Ida raised her hand. “Where's the monitor chart, Miss Mackle?”

“Up here,
in cursive,”
she said, pointing to the front bulletin board.

It looked like Greek to me. I tried reading it:

I couldn't even read the job I had.

The rest of the kids' names were in the envelope at the bottom. I couldn't read the words on that either:

“Welcome to third grade, boys and girls,” Miss Mackle said. “I am so excited that we looped. Here we are for a second year together! I hope you all got my postcard asking you to bring a summer memento to class.”

Everyone nodded.

Even Harry.

Harry did his homework? Now I knew I was on another planet!

“Before we have our morning conversation about our summer, let's have our class leaders start the pledge.”

Harry and Sidney each carried a small flag to the front of the room. I knew why Miss Mackle put them together. They have a tough time getting along. Sidney does something stupid and then Harry gets revenge.

I wondered if that would change, too?

After the pledge and “The Star-Spangled Banner,” we all sat down at our desks. “Now,” Miss Mackle said, “let's share our summer experiences. Song Lee, will you begin?”

Song Lee opened the brown bag on her lap.

Everyone leaned forward to see what was inside.

“My aunt visited us from Korea. When we took a walk, I found this.”

We watched Song Lee hold up a jar that had something golden inside. It looked like an egg wrapped in silk.

“Aunt Sun Yee and I found this under a fence post. It is a spider egg sac. In the spring, it will hatch into many spiders just like Charlotte's magnum opus.”

Miss Mackle sighed. “Ohhhh ...”

I could tell the teacher loved Song Lee's memento. She put her hand over her heart.

“Can I go next?” Sidney blurted out. “I've got a momento, too.”

“Memento,”
Mary corrected. “No, you can't go next. I have a question for Song Lee. What did you put on top of your jar?”

Song Lee giggled. “Aunt Sun Yee's pantyhose. We cut up an old pair.”

When everyone laughed, I thought about Song Lee. She spoke English so well now.

“Can we keep the egg sac in the classroom?” Dexter asked.

“Yes,” Song Lee replied. After we all watched her set the jar gently on the science table, we raised our hands again.

“Go ahead, Sidney,” Miss Mackle said.

“Finally,
” Sidney groaned.

Then he started unwrapping something in aluminum foil. “My stepdad and I did a lot of barbecuing this summer, so I brought this as a souvenir.”

We watched Sidney hold up a burnt wiener.

“It got left on the grill.” Sidney cackled.

A lot of people laughed, but Harry and I didn't. We thought it was dumb. Who would bring something like that to class?

Sidney LaFleur.

I went next.

“I brought rocks,” I said. “I got them at the Old New-Gate Prison and Copper Mine in East Granby. They're real copper. And this is an old Granby copper coin.”

When I held the stuff up, everyone oooohed and aaahhed.

“Gee, Doug,” Miss Mackle said, writing something down on her clipboard. “That would be a great place to visit, since we're studying rocks in science! Maybe I could arrange a class field trip to that mine.”

“Yeah!” everyone said.

Oh boy, I thought secretly. That's what I get for leaving one small part out of my story. I never went down into that mine. I was too chicken. Two days before my family went to Old New-Gate Prison and Copper Mine, Harry and I had watched the movie
Tom Sawyer.
It was great except for one awful part where Tom and Becky get lost in the mine, and Injun Joe falls down the hole in a cave. I made up my mind then, I would
never
go underground.

Please, God, I prayed. Don't let us go on a class field trip to
that mine.

“Okay,” Harry said. “My turn.” And he held up a picture of himself in that scary elevator ride, THE DROP OF DOOM, at Mountainside Park. “I wasn't afraid at all,” he bragged. “It was a piece of cake.”

That made Song Lee and me roll our eyes.

We knew better.

Sidney cracked up. “Yeah. Tell me more, Old Yeller! Tell the truth! Tell ‘em you had a HUGE case of the heebie-jeebies!”

When Harry held up a fist, I knew what he was thinking. Revenge.

That was the second thing that didn't change in third grade.

I just worried what Harry might do.