The Ghost of Lizard's Rock (6 page)

The other students in her group
were totally stunned. They all turned toward Allie at the same
time.

Ms. Carson sat down on a desktop
just behind the boy to listen more intently. “Go on Allie. Tell us
what you know.” Her look brought out the confidence in Allie to
continue talking.

Allie nodded her head slightly,
“Microscopes can tell us a great deal about the structure of atoms,
but even if we magnify the atom many times, we can’t see all the
parts at once. Instead, we create drawings or models to simulate
the atom with the electrons moving outside of where the neutrons
and protons are located. In this way, we can investigate each
common element atom in a simplistic way. The models are known as
atomic models.”

Allie looked across the room at a
model sitting on Ms. Carson’s desk. She pointed to the model, “That
is an atomic model.”

The boy in her group looked at the
other girls, “What did she say?”

“I don’t know, but it sure sounded
good!” The girl reached across the group to Allie and offered her a
‘high five’. Allie gently slapped it with her hand. Each of the
others did the same with grins on their faces.

Ms. Carson stared at this new
little girl in front of her in awe and thought, “I wonder what else
is in this little girl’s brain.” She stood up and looked down at
Allie. “Great answer. Your group will be first to
lunch.”

Allie quietly replied, “Thank
you.”

As soon as the teacher turned to
walk on to the next group, Allie’s group was asking her all kinds
of questions.

The ice was no longer
slippery!

Summer Memories

Mr. Anders led us down the long
hallway to our classroom. I decided to hang out near the end of the
line with Oliver, Jacob, and DD – I mean Dan. Troy was near the
front of the line walking between two of his buddies.

My eyes narrowed as I watched
Maddison working her way up the line until she was right behind
Troy; then right on cue she dropped her notebook purposefully on
the floor.

“Oh,” stated Maddison in her usual
dramatic way. She stared down at the notebook on the polished tile
floor as if she expected someone else to pick it up for
her.

Mr. Anders glanced over his
shoulder at the situation and then continued walking toward the
classroom. Troy and his friends did the same.

Maddison stood frozen as the line
continued to pass by her without anyone offering to help. Her
attention was finally broken as she saw a hand reaching down for
her notebook – Dan’s hand! In a flash, she shoved Dan out of the
way, picked up her notebook, and ran back up to her place in the
line - right behind Troy.

Oliver nudged me with his elbow,
“Oh!” It was a perfect imitation of Maddison.

It was so funny that I immediately
laughed out loud. Everyone in the line turned around at the same
time to see what was going on including Mr. Anders.

Not knowing what to do, I turned
around and looked down the empty hallway and acted as if the
laughter had come from somewhere behind me.

Mr. Anders stopped in the doorway
of the next classroom and turned around to face us, “Find your desk
and sit quietly.”

One by one, each of us nervously
filed into the room.

“Laughter is good for the soul,”
said Mr. Anders as I walked by.

I just smiled in
return.

“Mr. Jackson,” said Mr. Anders,
“laughter has a place and time. Make sure you pick the right place
and the right time.” Mr. Anders stared down into Oliver’s wide open
eyes.

Oliver muttered to himself as he
passed by, “How is it that everyone seems to already know me
already?” He entered the room shaking his head back and forth and
mumbled something else that no one could hear.

The classroom was set up with all
the desks in groups of fours making random squares scattered around
the room. He had placed name cards on each of the desks. The
challenge was to find each of our seats as quickly as
possible.

I mentally crossed my fingers and
hoped that I would be at the same table as Oliver or even DD. Well…
maybe not DD. It depended on his hands.

Maddison’s name card was on a desk
in the first group beside the door. I quickly scanned the other
three cards for my name. It was kind of a good and bad thing. The
‘good’ was that my name wasn’t on any card in the group. The ‘bad’
was that Jacob was seated right across from Maddison.

Maddison stood behind her chair
for a few moments waiting to see where Troy was going to be seated
before finally sitting down in her chair.

Troy continued to walk from one
group to the next looking for his name.

Poor Jacob looked heartbroken as
he folded himself into the seat across from Maddison. He stretched
his long legs out and accidently stepped on Maddison’s
foot.

“Ouch,” shouted Maddison in her
usual dramatic fashion. She looked at Mr. Anders, “This just isn’t
going to work!” She hoped that Mr. Anders would place her in
another group – one that included Troy.

“You’re right,” replied the
teacher. “John,” said Mr. Anders, “Switch desks with
Jacob.”

Maddison leaned back in her chair
and pouted.

The boys did as he asked, but
Jacob still looked uncomfortable as he stretched out.

Mr. Anders removed the desk from
in front of Jacob which was a non-assigned desk.

Jacob stretched his long legs out
and breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks.”

“Jacob,” said Mr. Anders, “Would
you mind placing the empty desk in the back corner of the
room?”

Jacob worked himself back out of
the desk and stood up. In one motion, Jacob picked up the desk with
ease, held it above his head and carried it to the back corner of
the room. Even Mr. Anders stared at Jacob’s incredible
strength.

The room was still in a state of
shock as Jacob sauntered back to his seat.

Oliver quickly found his desk in a
group near the back of the classroom and was already performing for
them. He looked up at me for a moment with a big cheesy grin on his
face as I walked by. Oliver had an audience and couldn’t have been
happier.

Dan found his desk in the back
right corner of the classroom. The other three kids in the group
had already pulled their desks apart from his. He was finally free
to use his hands!

Mr. Anders walked quickly over to
Dan’s group and whispered something to all of them. He said
something quietly to Dan. A few seconds later the group was back in
formation and Dan’s hands were back on his lap.

I found my spot in the group near
the front of the classroom next to the windows. My seat faced the
door and unfortunately - Maddison. I could see that she was still
trying to get sympathy for Jacob stepping on her foot.

“Foot?” I hadn’t even thought of
it at the time. My eyes made contact with Jacob at that very
moment.

Jacob had the strangest grin on
his face.

“There’s no way Jacob did that on
purpose.”

Jacob seemed to know what I was
thinking and looked down at his desk with a smile on his
face.

I continued to watch Jacob, “…or
did he?”

I was so relieved that Maddison
was not in my group, I didn’t even bother to check the other name
cards until Troy sat down beside me – I mean right beside me. Even
our desks were touching each other.

“Hey again,” Troy
smiled.

“Um,” My voice cracked a bit but I
managed to smile. “Hey.”

I looked across the room at
Maddison. Her eyes were bulging out in envy.

The morning passed in a blur of
‘getting to know you’ activities in my classroom. I’m not sure why
teachers always think we want to write a paragraph telling them
about our summer vacation. I guess if I had done something fabulous
like gone to Paris, I might have been more excited about sharing my
paragraph with the class, but there is no way to making hanging out
in Tiny sound fun or exciting.

I listened to paragraph after
paragraph from the students in all the other groups; very conscious
of the fact that Troy was sitting right beside me.

I felt Troy’s shoulder moving
against mine and then I heard him whisper, “Boring!”

“Very boring,” I turned my head to
face him. Our faces were only inches apart. Our eyes seemed to be
locked on each other.

Troy’s beautiful dark blue eyes
seemed to scan every inch of my face. His deep tan made his blue
eyes stand out even more.

“Looks like you had a great
summer,” Troy’s eyes looked down at my paper and back up to
me.

I whispered back, “It was okay.” I
stammered, becoming all too aware of the intensity of his
stare.

I thought, “Your eyes are so
blue.”

Troy smiled and whispered even
more quietly, “It looks like your summer was far more than just
okay.”

I felt a slight tremor of
embarrassment as I thought, “He’s actually talking to
me!”

Suddenly, all my thoughts were
broken by Mr. Anders’ voice.

“Huh,” it was as if I had been
awakened from a dream and didn’t know what was happening around
me.

“Kati,” repeated the teacher with
a slight grin on his face, “Please read your paragraph.”

I was sure my neck was quickly
turning bright red, which I usually do when I am
embarrassed.

I slowly stood up and began
reading my paragraph out loud. I stopped for a moment and looked
around the room. To my amazement, it seemed that everyone had
awakened from their trances and was actually listening to my
story.

I was somewhat relieved when I
read the final sentence and sat back down in my chair.

“Nice job,” whispered Troy even
though he was looking down at his paper.

“Thank you Kati,” stated Mr.
Anders. He looked back down at his student list. “Maddison, you’re
next.”

Maddison stood up and posed a
smile all the way across the room to Troy.

“Give me a break,” said a voice
from a group in the back of the room. All eyes looked at Oliver who
was looking down at the floor.

Mr. Anders gave Oliver just one
look. It was clearly a warning meant for him.

Oliver turned toward Maddison who
was now giving him the evil eye.

Maddison looked back down at her
paper and began reading about her wonderfully ‘spoiled’
summer.

Almost immediately everyone in the
room except Heather and Rebecca quit listening to Maddison and
started doing other things.

I sat in fascination as I watched
Rebecca and Heather pretending they were actually listening to her.
After a few seconds of the drama, they too were looking elsewhere
around the room.

I glanced out the corner of my eye
to see what Troy was doing. I could see that he was reading his own
story again and totally ignoring Maddison. I tried not to let
anyone see the satisfaction on my face.

Maddison finished her story and
looked around the room. Her eyes narrowed as she quickly realized
no one was listening – not even Rebecca and Heather. She slammed
her paper down on the desk and sat back down in her chair in
disgust, crossed her arms in front of her chest.

My smile changed to a soft
giggle.

Mr. Anders ignored Maddison’s
behavior and looked back at his student list. His eyes turned
toward Troy and told him that he was next.

I turned my chair to face Troy as
he stood up. This was the perfect moment to just stare at him and
those beautiful blue eyes or so I thought.

Troy stood up, turned his body
just past me and held his paper at just the right angle, so that he
could look over the top edge of the paper and down into my
face.

I nearly fell out of my chair when
he winked at me with those beautiful blues.

“I hope no one saw that,” I
thought. My face must have turned fifty shades of red
again.

My mind flashed back in time as I
listened to Troy read his paragraph. I had known him since
kindergarten, but we’d never really talked to each other until now.
That was probably because I was just ‘one of the guys’ back then
who just happened to like bugs and sports.

There was no doubt about it. I was
absolutely fearless when it came to sports during those years and
even today. Maybe, it was all the time I spent playing with my
brother at home or the fact that I just enjoyed competing against
anybody no matter who they were. I definitely have a problem with
losing at anything!

I looked at Maddison across the
room. She was still pouting. It would be so cool if I could just
play 10 minutes against her in a little one-on-one basketball. We’d
see very quickly who was the toughest.

Maddison must have sensed that I
was thinking about her and gave me one of her famous ‘dirty’
looks.