CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE
1 HOPSCOTCH
2 MS. COLMAN’S CLASS
3 ON THE PLAYGROUND
4 A SURPRISING ANNOUNCEMENT
5 FIELD TRIPS ARE STUPID
6 THE RUNAWAY DOG
7 AWFUL ART
8 LIBRARY PROJECT
9 SEA TURTLES
10 PAMELA’S PROBLEM
11 THE NIGHTMARE BEGINS
12 ZOO TOUR
13 THE BABY-ANIMAL EXHIBIT
14 HARRIET AND THE TORTOISES
15 TURTLE VICTORY
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
COPYRIGHT
HOPSCOTCH
“Want to play hopscotch?” Jannie Gilbert asked Pamela Harding.
Pamela thought hopscotch was a baby game. But it was sort of fun. And she was good at it. Pamela had often seen older girls playing it — even girls in fourth and fifth grade. She guessed they did not think it was babyish.
“Okay,” Pamela said. Jannie, Pamela, and Leslie Morris ran to one of the hop-scotch games that no one was using. Jannie and Leslie were Pamela’s two best friends at Stoneybrook Academy in Stoneybrook, Connecticut. They were all in Class 2A, Ms. Colman’s second grade. Pamela had been in Ms. Colman’s class for a couple of months. Jannie and Leslie had known each other (and practically everyone else in Ms. Colman’s class) since kindergarten.
At the hopscotch game, Pamela took off her necklace. It was a silver chain with a silver heart charm on it. She held it up.
“This is my marker,” she said. Everyone knew that chains made the best markers because they almost always landed where you threw them. They did not roll or slide very much.
“I have my lucky key chain,” said Jannie, pulling it out.
Leslie frowned. “I will have to use a rock.” She looked on the ground by the fence for a rock. It could not be too round or too flat. It could not be too small or too big.
“Come on, Leslie,” called Pamela. “We will be here all day!” Pamela tapped her foot and rolled her eyes. “Just grab a rock and let’s go!”
“Yeah, Leslie,” said Jannie. “Let’s go!”
Leslie grabbed a rock and ran back to the game. She put her marker on the first square, next to Pamela’s necklace and Jannie’s key chain.
“Finally,” said Pamela. “Let’s do one-potato, two-potato to see who goes first.”
“Okay,” said Jannie.
“Okay,” said Leslie.
Pamela was not surprised that they agreed with her. Jannie and Leslie almost always agreed with Pamela. That was why they were her best friends.
When Pamela and her family had moved to Stoneybrook, she had left all her old friends behind. Friends she had had since kindergarten. It had been so, so hard. When she had first come to Ms. Colman’s class, she had not known how to make new friends. But after the first week or two, Jannie and Leslie had started hanging out with her. That was fine with Pamela. At least Jannie and Leslie were not goody-goody babies, like some of the other girls in Ms. Colman’s class. And they were not loud-mouthed know-it-alls, like one girl in particular.
When Pamela was on ninesies, Tammy and Terri Barkan came over to the game. Terri and Tammy were twins. They were in Ms. Colman’s class too. Counting Pamela, there were eleven girls in Ms. Colman’s class and only six boys.
“Are you going to be much longer?” asked Terri. “We want to play a game with Natalie and Sara. And school is about to start.”
“Um,” said Leslie.
“Too bad,” Pamela said. She had to let the Barkan twins know who was boss. She carefully hopped back, picking up her necklace on the way. Then she threw her marker down to number ten. It landed exactly in the middle, without touching a single line. “We are going to play all the way back too.”
“No fair,” said Tammy. “Your game should be over when you finish tensies.”
“Not this time,” said Pamela. She hopped right over the ten and off the hopscotch game. Then she leaned over and picked up her marker again.
Tammy and Terri walked away, frowning at her. They put their heads together and talked angrily. Pamela did not hear what they were saying. And she did not care.
“Those babies,” she said. And she began hopping again.
MS. COLMAN’S CLASS
When the bell rang, Pamela and Jannie picked up their hopscotch markers. (Leslie did not have to save her rock.) Then they walked slowly to Ms. Colman’s class. Pamela always walked slowly when the bell rang. Running to class was babyish.
And since Pamela walked slowly, so did Leslie and Jannie.
Inside Ms. Colman’s room, Pamela strolled to her desk. Jannie and Leslie went to theirs. Leslie sat next to Pamela, but Jannie sat one row back and one chair over.
All around her, Pamela’s classmates were running to their desks, talking and laughing. Chris Lamar was feeding Hootie, the class guinea pig. Karen Brewer, Hannie Papadakis, and Nancy Dawes were still talking. They called themselves the Three Musketeers.
Karen was Pamela’s best enemy. She was a loudmouth. She could not sit still. And she hardly ever remembered to raise her hand in class before she spoke.
Ms. Colman walked into their room. “Good morning, class,” she said with a smile. “Please take your seats.”
Pamela sat up a little straighter. She liked Ms. Colman. Ms. Colman did not play favorites. And she could make almost anything sound interesting.
“Omar, could you please take attendance for me?” asked Ms. Colman.
Omar Harris walked to the front of the room. He opened the attendance book and got his pen ready.
“Tammy and Terri Barkan?” Omar began. “Karen Brewer? Nancy Dawes? Sara Ford? Bobby Gianelli? Jannie Gilbert? Audrey Green? Pamela Harding? Me — I am here. Ian Johnson? Chris Lamar? Leslie Morris? Hannie Papadakis? Hank Reubens? Natalie Springer? Ricky Torres? Everyone is here, Ms. Colman.”
“Thank you, Omar,” she said. “Now, class, I have an announcement to make.”
“Oh, goody!” said Karen. “Goody gumdrops.”
There she goes again, thought Pamela. Shouting out without raising her hand.
“Remember our unit on wild animals?” asked Ms. Colman. “Today we are going to start another unit on animals. But this time we will learn about baby animals.”
Leslie looked at Pamela and smiled. Pamela did not smile back.
“Please open your science books to page sixty-three,” said Ms. Colman. “It is a chapter about animal parents and their young. Does anyone know what a baby goat is called?”
“A kid!” said Bobby.
“What about a baby pig?” asked Ms. Colman.
“A piglet,” said Hannie. “Everyone knows that.”
“And a horse?”
“A colt,” said Karen.
“A colt is a baby male horse,” explained Ms. Colman. “A baby female horse is called a filly. A foal is a baby horse of either sex.”
Pamela yawned behind her hand. Animals did not interest her very much. Why did they have to do a whole unit on them?
“Audrey, could you please begin reading the chapter?” asked Ms. Colman.
“Animals everywhere have babies,” Audrey read. “Some have live babies. Some lay eggs. In this chapter, we will see how different kinds of animals reproduce. First we will look at reptiles.”
“Thank you, Audrey,” said Ms. Colman. “Karen, could you read the next paragraph?”
Karen began to read. Pamela looked at Leslie and rolled her eyes. Then she propped her chin on her hand and looked down at her science book. Why couldn’t they learn about something else, like weather? Pamela liked weather. There were many different kinds of weather. Some kinds of weather were very exciting, such as tornadoes and hurricanes.
Pa
mela sighed and turned the page in her science book. Tornadoes would be much better to learn about than baby reptiles.
ON THE PLAYGROUND
“I think spring is on the way,” said Jannie the next day. “It is much warmer.” She, Pamela, and Leslie were in line to play foursquare at recess.
“I will be glad not to have to wear a coat anymore,” said Pamela. “I hate being all bundled up.”
“Me too,” said Leslie. “Hats and mittens and gloves and scarves. Winter is a pain.”
“You are right,” said Pamela. “I like springtime, with flowers and new grass and no snow.”
“Me too,” said Jannie.
The three of them played foursquare for awhile. Pamela liked foursquare. It was not babyish. It was hard to play well. It was fast and exciting. She stayed in the first box for a long time. Finally she got hit out by Hank Reubens. Pamela, Leslie, and Jannie walked around the playground.
“Hey, Natalie,” said Pamela. “Did you tape your socks up today?”
“Oh, be quiet,” said Natalie. She headed off to play jump rope with Tammy, Audrey, and Sara.
Pamela giggled. Natalie’s socks were always falling down. She was famous for it. Pamela liked to tease her about different ways to make her socks stay up. Leslie and Jannie giggled too.
Karen, Hannie, and Nancy were playing under the big oak tree in the yard. They had made little piles of acorns. Pamela did not know what they were doing.
“It’s the Three Weirdketeers,” said Pamela.
“Who asked you?” retorted Hannie.
Pamela grinned and kept walking.
In one corner of the playground was a jungle gym. Bobby had climbed to the very top of it, high in the air.
“Come on, you guys,” he called down to Chris and Omar. They stood at the bottom of the jungle gym, looking up at him. “Come up here. I am at the top of a pirate ship, looking for land. You can help me look.”
“Um,” said Chris. He looked at Omar. Omar looked back.
Pamela walked closer to the jungle gym.
“We will help you look for land halfway up,” called Chris. He climbed on the first rung of the jungle gym.
“Okay,” said Bobby. “I am the top watchman, and you are the bottom watchmen. When you spot land, yell, ‘Land ho!’ ”
“Okay,” said Omar. He started to climb next to Chris.
“Why don’t you all be top watchmen?” Pamela called to Chris.
Chris looked at her. “No, that is okay,” he said. “I like being a bottom watchman.”
“Me too,” said Omar.
“You are afraid,” said Pamela. She turned to Jannie and Leslie. “Chris and Omar are afraid to climb to the top of the jungle gym.”
Chris frowned at Pamela. So did Omar.
“We do not need three top watchmen,” said Omar.
Pamela laughed. “That is not the reason,” she said. “The reason is you are afraid to go higher.”
“Am not,” said Chris.
“Are too,” said Pamela. “If you are not afraid, then I dare you to climb higher. Go all the way to the top.”
Sara, Ian, Natalie, and Hank had come closer to hear what was going on.
Chris looked at Bobby, who was at the top of the jungle gym. He looked down at the ground. “I am not afraid, but I do not feel like climbing to the top of the jungle gym.”
“You are both big babies,” said Pamela. “I could climb to the top of the jungle gym with one hand tied behind my back.”
“Just be quiet, Pamela,” Omar said angrily.
“Babies, babies,” said Pamela in a singsong voice. “Chris and Omar are both babies. Scaredy-cats.”
“Stop that!” said Chris. He looked very angry.
Pamela thought it was funny that Chris and Omar were scared to climb higher.
“Bye-bye, babies,” said Pamela, wiggling her fingers. “See you in nursery school.” She walked away, giggling. Jannie and Leslie walked with her. “They should just admit it,” said Pamela. “It is silly to pretend not to be scared.”
“Really silly,” Jannie agreed.
“I’ll say,” said Leslie as they headed back to the classroom.
A SURPRISING ANNOUNCEMENT
“Good morning, class,” said Ms. Colman on Thursday.
“Good morning, Ms. Colman,” said the kids in 2A.
Ms. Colman asked Nancy to take attendance. Nancy found that everyone was present.
“Thank you,” said Ms. Colman. “Now, class, I have some exciting news. I have just learned about a new exhibit at the Bedford Zoo. It is an exhibit about baby animals. It will start next week.”
“Oh, boy,” said Natalie. “I will ask my parents to take me there next weekend.”
“Actually,” said Ms. Colman, “I have planned for us to take a field trip to the Bedford Zoo. We will go there in two weeks.”
“All right!” said Hank. He punched the air.
“Hooray!” said Karen, bouncing in her seat. “I love the zoo!”
“What animals will we see there?” asked Sara.
“Many different kinds,” answered Ms. Colman. “You will be able to pet and even hold some of the babies. In the meantime, we will continue to learn about animal babies. Please open your science books to page sixty-six.”
“Wow! I want to hold a baby animal!” whispered Leslie. “Maybe even a lion cub, or a baby deer, like Bambi.”
Pamela just looked at Leslie. She pulled out her textbook and flipped to the correct page. On page sixty-six were several photographs. One picture was of a tiger cub. Its mouth was open, showing tiny, sharp little teeth. Another picture showed a mother snake, surrounded by dozens of slippery baby snakes. Just looking at that picture made Pamela shiver. There was also a picture of a nest of baby mice. They looked pink and squishy.
Pamela swallowed hard. All these baby animals looked scary, maybe even more scary than grown-up animals. Pamela had a secret: She did not like animals. Her family had never had pets, other than her father’s aquarium of rare fish. And Pamela did not have to touch those. She did not even have to feed them.
She had never liked any of her friends’ pets. Dogs were all yelpy and jumpy, and cats hissed and scratched. Other animals were yucky too. Horses could bite, and a cow could stomp on your foot and break it. A goat could butt you with its horns. That would hurt.
Going to the zoo was okay, because all the animals were in habitats. They could not get out. But this field trip sounded awful. Getting up close to mothers and babies? Touching or even holding a baby animal? Pamela would rather walk on a tightrope.
Maybe not everyone would have to touch an animal. Maybe Pamela could just watch others touch them. But she would still have to be pretty close to them. What if an animal broke free and jumped on her? What if one bit her?
Pamela felt almost sick just thinking about it. All of her classmates were still talking excitedly about the field trip. Each person had a favorite animal that he or she hoped to see. But Pamela knew this was going to be the worst field trip ever.
FIELD TRIPS ARE STUPID
For the next few days Pamela tried hard not to think about the field trip. It was two weeks away. Anything could happen. Maybe Ms. Colman would decide a field trip was too much trouble. Maybe no one’s parents would volunteer to come along and help out. Maybe they would have a late-spring blizzard, with lots of feet of snow.
During school, though, everyone talked about baby animals all the time.
“Will you stop talking about that stupid field trip?” Pamela asked Jannie at lunch the following Tuesday.
Jannie looked surprised. “I cannot help it,” she said. “I am so excited. What if there is a baby elephant?”
A baby elephant could sit on me and mash me flat as a pancake, Pamela thought. Her stomach began to hurt and she pushed her sandwich away.
“Yeah, or a baby sea lion,” said Leslie excitedly.
“My brother heard that the zoo has a special place where you can even pet baby sharks,” said Sara.
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“Baby sharks!” cried Leslie. “I would be scared to pet one of those.”
“Me too,” said Jannie.
Me three, thought Pamela, but she did not say it.
Jannie looked at her. “I bet Pamela would pet a baby shark,” she said proudly.
Pamela stared at her. Was Jannie teasing her? Did Jannie know she was afraid of animals?
“You are right,” said Leslie. “Pamela is not scared of anything. She said she could climb the jungle gym with one hand tied behind her back.”
That is different, Pamela thought. Being up high is not scary. Being mushed flat by an elephant is scary.
“No one would have to pet a baby shark if our field trip got canceled,” said Pamela.
“Canceled?” said Sara. “Why would it be canceled?”
“It had better not be canceled,” said Jannie. “I am dying to go. Aren’t you?”
“Yes,” said Leslie.
“No,” said Pamela. She did not want anyone to find out that she was afraid of animals, even baby ones. “This field trip sounds stupid. Baby animals — who cares? Baby animals are for babies.” She spoke loudly, and Tammy turned around from the next table. Pamela waited for Jannie and Leslie to agree with her.
“Why do you say that?” asked Jannie. “I love baby animals.”
“They are stupid,” said Pamela. “I wish we would go on an interesting field trip.”
“I think the zoo sounds very interesting,” said Sara.
“I always like going to the zoo,” said Tammy.
“I would rather go … shopping,” said Pamela. It was the first thing she could think of. She looked at Jannie and Leslie. “Wouldn’t you?”
“Um,” said Jannie.
“Maybe it is a little babyish,” said Leslie. “But I love seeing all the animals. One time when I was there with my mother, I saw the male lion roaring, roaring, roaring. It was so loud. It was great.”
Just the idea of seeing a huge, fierce lion roaring was enough to make Pamela feel all shaky inside. But she did not dare show it.
“Well,” she said, putting her nose in the air, “I still say this field trip sounds stupid.”