I don’t think Margaret should go to the front of the line just because she was born into an ‘A’ family. I didn’t ask to be born into an ‘S’ family. Margaret Allen is marching right up to the tippy top front of the lunch line with a big letter A right where it matters.I’m Hadley K Merit Shay, with a big S where it counts and a big H where it doesn’t.
From about the Q’s on back, we may as well have brought our sticky peanut butter and honey lunches from home.
We can all smell the cookies.
We get what the word ‘singed’ means.
We know who burnt the cookies.
I think the lunch ladies wear those hair nets tight on purpose so we won’t recognize them later in town and point them out to our parents. I don’t know if they can’t smell burnty things, or if they just smile big to pretend it all away and hope we won’t notice.
I figure those cookies will be served just about when the Q’s group gets to the tray window….which really means the R group since there are no Q names in Ms. Clay’s class. Which really means that Monte Rasmussen, Neil Reed, Martha J. Rolland, and I, will get way dark brown, peanut butter cookies that should have come out sooner, and they shall no longer be ‘sumptuous’ or some word like that, and that Skyler Tayman, and Misha R. Wheatley will probably not even get cookies at all. I don’t really blame those ladies for sneaking the good cookies before us kids come to the lunchroom. They probably deserve it with all the loud trays banging around all day. I just blame having to be near the end of the line everyday because my last name begins with ‘S’ and is: Shay. That’s all.
Same with recess. Margaret Allen and Shelly Bensen always get the best swings because Margaret runs out quick from the front of the line and grabs two swings and winds the chains and won’t let go for Shane Atkins or nobody no matter what they have to trade.
Same with the spelling Bee. I forgot how to spell all of those words by the time they got to the Shay part of the class. If you really want pretty much the truth, I probably practiced my spelling list as hard as Cody Burch who, as we speak, has a spelling trophy on his dresser at home. And they were hard words. VERY HARD. And I was prepared and ready. But you can’t be ready forever you know.
Oh no. OH NO! Don’t tell me. There is no more chocolate milk! You-have-got-to-be-kidding! This is Tuesday and I always have chocolate milk on Tuesdays. This is my one day each week to have a real school lunch and now it is all ruined! It is all burnt and missing and ruined. My mother will be glad about this. She really thinks milk should be white that’s all. So it took a lot of time to help her understand about my chocolate need on Tuesdays. And now this! I used up all of my best begging energy for nothing. I should have asked for a horse instead.
“Come on, Luci Megan”, I grumped to my best friend as we trudged from the ‘pick up your tray here’ window. We looked down at our sloshy peaches, stringy beans, our noodle whatever you call it, white regular everyday milk, and our burnty cookies, and then slowly found a double place to sit at our table. We accidentally looked over at the small brown carton on Margaret’s tray and we both sorta felt like crying.
“Come on, Luci Megan”, I grumped to my best friend as we trudged from the ‘pick up your tray here’ window. We looked down at our sloshy peaches, stringy beans, our noodle whatever you call it, white regular everyday milk, and our burnty cookies, and then slowly found a double place to sit at our table. We accidentally looked over at the small brown carton on Margaret’s tray and we both sorta felt like crying.
“Stay calm.” I whispered to Luci. “During this tragedy, we must stay calm, because we are not in kindergarten anymore you know.”
“It’s not in the budget Luci.” And I sighed a little, like my mother. With Luci and me, I always have to be the strong one. My mind was running races for a good idea to make us feel better about our lives. “We have to think of something to fill its place; something to cheer us up until next Tuesday Luci. It doesn’t help to act like we just got poisoned when things don’t go our way. We can’t just sit here and look at the deep deep hole of what didn’t go…we need to fill it up with something else instead.” My Grandma always says stuff like that. But chocolate is a big hole to fill and burnt cookies are a yucky thing to smell. So, we better think of something really really fantastico.
Right in the middle of a mouthful, I got a great idea! “Luci, we have to separate out.” Luci looked at me like a question mark without words. “I think I have an idea and you need to trust me because we have to separate out for about two days. But I will write you notes and stuff and tell you what to do and you are still my best friend.” Luci just sat there a bunch bewildered as I picked up my tray and moved to the other end of the table.
Maybe I should have given her more information so she would finish her peaches at least. So I hurried back to her end of the table and whispered quick: “Luci, we are going to get our names to the first of the lines for a change. You didn’t choose to come to an “R” family”, and then I thought about it a second. Maybe she did. But even so, I don’t know if we knew about the alphabet and lunch lines and stuff until we came to earth and so my plan was still a good one.
"Anyway, Luci, we have to stand up for truth. And the truth is: that sometimes, we people at the back of the alphabet should be at the front of the lines. If our teacher thinks two of us thought it up by ourselves, then it is more than if we say it together in one group. Get it?” I don’t know if she did, but after I got back to my tray, I peeked out of the corner of my eye and saw her eat one more bite of beans.
I wrote nine good notes to Luci over the next two very very long (and I do mean long)days:
Note 1: “Don’t look at me too much Luci, or everybody will know we are making a plan.”Note 2: “Dear Luci, I miss you, but we HAVE to finish this quest for the sake of all the last of the alphabet people all over this school. Stay true, whatever you do!"
Note 3: “Ok Luci, you will finally be happy for TODAY IS THE DAY! Just go up to Ms. Clay and ask if the back of the line can switch with the front.”
Note 4: “Oh, I forgot to tell you to do it between spelling and reading, so it won’t be so OBVIOUS…if you know what I mean.” That one had 4 smiley faces at the bottom. I could tell that Luci was starting to get nerves going.
Note 5: “What do you mean you don’t know what to say?”
Note 6: “Just act normal Luci. Don’t pass out now. Just act like real people and go to her desk and say, ‘Hi Ms. Clay, I was wondering if we could sometimes put the Z people where the A people are or something.’ Luci, you will know what to say, I don’t have any room to write any more words on this piece of pa…”
Note 7: “Don’t worry so much Luci, PALEEEESE! Just take a breath. CALM DOWN!, It doesn’t matter your words as long as you say them absolutely perfectly right, ok?”
Note 8: Luci, just get it over with. Maybe my mom will let me buy you a bunny or something good for your birthday! Just do it!”
Note 9: You did it! You are so brave and you are my very very very best friend…ok…ok, now it is my turn…ummm…what do you think I should say?”
I stood on my tippy toes and peeked in the window. Luci Megan didn’t like our plan so much anymore, but she was a good sport because her birthday is coming up and so she is sorta thinking about presents and about being happy to help. “Hold still Luci!” There was Ms. Clay at her desk. She was correcting spelling and she was alone. I held on to the bricks and tried to steady myself back down. Oh No. That is really what I call Mud. “You know Luci, it wasn’t very easy for me to balance on your back either ya know.” I had to say that because when she got up she would see what I was seeing right then…and it was mucho mud on her pant knees.
Oops. “Stay here Luci!”
I took a huge deep breath and hurried into the school and into our room before the bell would bring everybody back from recess. “Hi Ms. Clay.” It isn’t polite to interrupt even if my idea was more important. And then I just stood there, wishing I wasn’t there, while she finished the spelling page she was on. Finally after about three years, she looked up, over the top of her glasses at me.
I took a giantic breath: “Well, I was thinking about a new creative innovation of a huge idea for our school.”
“That’s nice of you to think about our school,” she smiled. Tell me about your idea.”
And so I told her all about how Skunks and Tyrontasorousas and other back of the line animals might be nicer if they weren’t always last and stuff. Scientifically, I wonder if we should put the Alphabet backwards just to see if all the letters should feel important. She was squinting a bit. I think she was wanting to really understand where I was coming from with this and I was all of a sudden not so sure and so it was a huge relief when that bell rang right then.
Next thing you know…Ms. Clay is announcing to everyone that we will change things up a bit on Monday. Well, believe me, after waiting all weekend for Monday and changing things up a bit…we CERTAINLY did. Luci and I and all of the R-Z people got to give our science reports first. Yikes! I thought I had two more days…and my ants had not even found the sugar yet! Then, we got to be first to lunch. WONDERFUL, except the hurry, hurry, hurry, people are waiting behind you all day, part. After art, we got to be the first to clean the sinks. WOOEY! I couldn’t remember all of my spelling words with everyone looking at me at the front of the line. Drats! We got out first to recess, but that meant we had to ‘check out the ball and be responsible to bring it back and check off our names or our names were on the list’! When I was in my old spot, I didn’t even know a list exists.
It was an exhausting Monday. Luci and I walked home from school, tired as cats in the sun. The front of the line isn’t really what we wanted is it Luci?” I complained, “It is a guinea pig place to be, don’t you think Luci?”
She just looked at me and threw her hands up in the air, “You are such an all or nothing Hadley K! First, you are at the back and now you are at the front. Now what?” I had to think a really really long time. But right in the middle of remembering about all the mud on her pants, I burst into a giant smile: “Luci! I have a plan.”
“Oh no, Oh no,”she hollered and started to run.
“Luci,” I shouted, “we really need to be in the K-R group!” She was already running up her walk and before I could tell her that I would write her really good notes, she ran into her house and shut the door quick.
I couldn’t even hardly believe myself! The very next day, Luci and I, and all the alphabet ends are smack dab in the middle of the lunch line as if Ms. Clay had read my mind. “This is my kind of people Luci, I was meant to be in the K-R group. There is no fun in being at the first or last of the Alphabet but this is heaven.” (Well, it’s probably like Telestial or something, cuz’ I was thinking that Celestial would mean we were home and school was out for the summer or something like that.)
“Anyway, here we are Luci, right in the middle and so we get our chocolate milk and we are a bit squished but it is worth it, isn’t it Luci. And we don’t have to check out balls for recess, or wait a long time for our turn, or be first to spell or last to leave and so this is the best, huh Luci!”
And then we were about up to the tray window, and life was like blissfull and everything, until I spied the crate of chocolate milk. I added quick in my mind. Oh No! Don’t tell me. Oh NO! What is up with this? Only this one Tuesday all week and only four brown cartons left. What is up with this? Only 4 CARTONS of Chocolate Milk! I speed counted: Monte Rasmussen, Neil Reed, Martha J. Rolland, and me. I had to think quick.
“You know what Luci, I don’t think the middle of the alphabet is all that people think it is. It is just squish, squish, squish. I liked it better when we were who we are, sorta.”
Yikes! I thought. I was only two people away from the last chocolate milk in the whole wide school. I thought about how that delicious creamy chocolate of wonderful would glide past my happy tongue all the way down to my toes. OH NO! For a second, I wanted to grab that chocolate milk and run. I’d hide behind the playground tree and drink it all by myself.
But most of all, I didn’t want a chocolate page to ruin my whole 'Angels with silent notes taking' book. After all, I WAS wearing my CTR ring on purpose.
“Luci, I have a splendiferous plan! We really really need to separate out. You stay here." Luci looked at me like a question mark without words. "Luci, I have a plan, you have to trust me; I’m going to the back of the line where we used to be. I think way back there is the best place in the whole alphabet for me. And Luci, you really are my very very best friend.”
