Remembering Mrs. Rossi (9780763670900) (12 page)

My father likes walking me to school. He says walking me to school always gets his day off to a good start. We’re supposed to leave the house
promptly at 8
. Sometimes we do. Sometimes we don’t. Then he’s late for work, I’m late for school, and no one’s day is off to a good start.

Chapter 2: Two Muffins

One day we leave at 8:15. Not my fault. Halfway there,
uh-oh,
it’s raining! No umbrella. Not my fault. We get a
little
wet . . . He says,
Poor me, soaking wet!
Passing Carmen’s Diner —
mmnnn
— steamy hot muffins in the window.

Pleeeeease, Daddy, please!!
The lady puts two in a bag. One for me, one for Mrs. Rossi (
That Olivia’s such a nice girl
). I think I’ll eat mine now, walking in the rain. Father says,
Bad idea, Olivia
. . . but I open the bag and pull out my beautiful muffin. Then —
nooooo!!
— all the rain in the world falls right on my muffin. It breaks into millions of pieces on the sidewalk. I start to cry. Father doesn’t say,
I told you so,
but we both know what he’s thinking.

Chapter 3: One Muffin

He drops me off at school. I am sad. I walk sadly upstairs to room 222 and I can smell Mrs. Rossi’s muffin. I pick off a tiny little piece and stuff it in my mouth. I do it again . . . again . . . again . . . goodbye, muffin.

Chapter 4: Zero Muffins

Eating Mrs. Rossi’s muffin wasn’t the nicest thing I’ve ever done in the world. I wish I didn’t do it and I’m sorry, Mrs. Rossi. And that is my confession.

Dear Mr. Mayor (Sir):

Did you ever hear of Mrs. Rossi? Because she used to be my teacher and she died. She wasn’t even that old. Just medium old. Mrs. Rossi was extremely pretty, for a teacher. She always put on red lipstick right before lunch and she had this dressy red coat and once she let me try it on! But she didn’t like spiders and one time I saw her smash a big spider. Mrs. Rossi loved books and stories and reading and one time she invited a real
Author
to our class so he could tell us how to be a famous
Author
. He was very, very old and very, very kind. He even brought slides so we could see his house and his desk and you were allowed to ask a question and I asked,
Do you like your job?
Guess what Mrs. Rossi told the
Author
? She told him
we
were
Authors,
too!

I never met a famous
Mayor
before. Do you like your job? Do you want to come over to our school? Go to room 222. Drew’s mom made cupcakes when the
Author
came over. Do you like cupcakes? We have the best classroom. Mrs. Rossi said it’s our home away from home. There’s a science corner and library corner and a giant map of New York City. Mrs. Rossi made lots of red circles around her favorite places on the map of New York City. There’s a sign on our door.
Mrs. Rossi’s Class.
Nobody’s allowed to touch our sign. We’re keeping it there forever.

Sincerely yours,

Sofia

The maddest I ever saw Mrs. Rossi was when some of the kids in the class — okay,
most
of the kids in the class — were mean to Mrs. Lester. That’s the lady who works in the cafeteria and I never even knew her name was Mrs. Lester until that day. I always just called her the cafeteria lady.

This is what happened. It was macaroni-and-cheese day and they started this game. See, everyone at our table had to say something bad about the macaroni and cheese. I know it sounds stupid, but if you didn’t do it, they might say something bad about you. Then Mrs. Rossi is standing there and she makes us go back to the classroom NO RECESS AND NO TALKING. Not even a word. You have to sit around and think about Mrs. Lester’s FEELINGS. And think up a way to make Mrs. Lester feel APPRECIATED.

A lot of the kids wrote a letter of appreciation to Mrs. Lester.

Some kids including me made a picture of appreciation for Mrs. Lester.

Some kids wrote a poem and Julie made a paper bracelet.

Mrs. Rossi made an invitation and we all signed the invitation that said:
Please come to our class tomorrow at 12:30.

Tomorrow at 12:30 this is what happened. MRS. ROSSI MADE LUNCH FOR MRS. LESTER! She even put it on a silver platter and Mrs. Lester even got to sit in Mrs. Rossi’s chair! We read our letters and poems and Sofia danced. Peter even played the trombone and Benny and Alex sang a really crazy song and everyone was laughing, even Benny and Alex. It was fun and Mrs. Lester felt appreciated.

Not to brag but I’m a good (great!!) baseball player, just like Jackie Robinson. My specialty is pitching. My other specialty is hitting. I’m still not bragging but I ALWAYS get a hit. Except for that day. That Bad-Luck Saturday. Because guess who shows up in the park when I am playing baseball? Mrs. Rossi. Oh, brother. So now my teacher is watching and all I keep thinking is MY TEACHER IS WATCHING . . . MY TEACHER IS WATCHING. . . . Goodbye concentration. I strike out and strike out and strike out, and as you can see, it is all HER fault. (Mrs. Rossi’s). After the game she shakes my hand. “Even Jackie Robinson didn’t get a hit every time, Joe.”

I wish Mrs. Rossi didn’t die so she could watch me play baseball again. I would hit a home run, definitely.

Hi! My name is Louise! I’m in Mrs. Rossi’s class. I have brown hair. Brown eyes. Next fall I’m getting braces if my mom gets big tips at the diner! I have seen your pictures on Mrs. Rossi’s desk. I like the seesaw picture best. You are cute!

Very truly yours,

Louise

P.S. I wish you could be my little sister. We could share my room.

This year for my Christmas tree I’m making a beautiful gold star for the top of my tree in honor of Mrs. Rossi. Whenever I look at my star, I will say a special prayer for Mrs. Rossi. The End.