For
Hannah Vera Natasha Janette
a very special baby
Contents
Title Page
Dedication
1 Stoneybrook Academy
2 Little and Big
3 Seth’s New Door
4 The Big Rock Candy Mountain
5 The Wizard of Oz
6 Andrew’s Punishment
7 The Tattletale
8 The Biggest Tattletale in the World
9 Karen Fights Back
10 The Tryouts
11 More Tryouts
12 Midgie’s Adventure
13 Pamela
14 Switch Day
15 The Three Investigators
16 Field Day
17 The Kids Run the School
18 Pamela Sings
19 Andrew Tells the Truth
20 Jamboree Night
About the Author
Also Available
Copyright
Stoneybrook Academy
“Hey! Give it back! I’m telling!”
“Okay, go ahead and tell … tattletale.”
“I am not a tattletale.”
“Oh, yes you are!”
I sighed. I looked at my watch. Then I looked at the fighters. They were Jannie Gilbert and Chris Lamar. They are in my class at school. I am in second grade at Stoneybrook Academy in Stoneybrook, Connecticut. Who am I? I am Karen Brewer and I am seven years old. I like to talk. Sometimes my mouth gets me in trouble. I have long blonde hair, blue eyes, and some freckles. I wear glasses. I have two pairs. The blue pair is for reading. The pink pair is for the rest of the time.
“Are you going to give it back?” yelped Jannie.
Chris shook his head. He was holding Jannie’s hair ribbon. He dangled it in front of her.
“Chris!” shouted Jannie.
“Hey, Chris,” I called from my desk. “That is a lovely ribbon. It will look so cute in your hair. I cannot wait to see you in it.”
Chris dropped the ribbon in a hurry. Jannie snatched it up.
“Thanks, Karen,” she said.
“No problem,” I replied. Jannie is not really a friend of mine. But I do not like teasers. So I decided to help her out. I know all about teasers. That is because I have one brother and three stepbrothers.
It was a Friday morning. The kids in my class were hurrying into our room. I looked around. Behind me, Nancy Dawes and Hannie Papadakis were sitting at their desks. Nancy and Hannie are my best friends. We call ourselves the Three Musketeers. I used to sit in the back row with them, but Ms. Colman moved me to the front when I got my glasses.
Ms. Colman is our teacher. She is T.H.E. B.E.S.T. (I do not know why I put those periods in there. Except that is what Hannie does when she wants to make something look important. Like this: I.M.P.O.R.T.A.N.T.) Anyway, Ms. Colman is the best teacher. My best teacher ever.
That day, she let me take roll. She even let me put the check marks in her book. Hannie, Nancy, me. Check, check, check. Chris Lamar. Check. Jannie and her two friends, Leslie Morris and Pamela Harding. Check, check, check. (Pamela is my best enemy.) Ricky Torres and Natalie Springer. Check, check. They sit on either side of me in the front row. They wear glasses, too. (Ricky is my pretend husband. We got married on the playground one day.) The twins, Terri and Tammy Barkan. Check, check. Addie Sidney, who was pushing herself into the room in her wheelchair. Check. Bobby Gianelli and Hank Reubens and the rest of the kids. Eighteen checks in all.
When I finished taking the roll, Ms. Colman said, “Class, I have an announcement to make.” (Oh, goody! I just love Ms. Colman’s Surprising Announcements.) “At the end of the month,” she said, “our school will celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary. We will celebrate for one week. During that week we will have a science fair, Field Day, Switch Day, Jamboree Night, and more.” (I did not know what some of those things were, but I did not care. They sounded like fun.) “Jamboree Night will be on Friday at the end of the celebration,” Ms. Colman went on. “Every class will perform in it — a skit or a song or whatever. Then the entire school — teachers, too — will sing our school song. Your parents and brothers and sisters and friends may come to see you in the show.”
I raised my hand. “Ms. Colman?” I said. “What is our class going to do in the jamboree?”
Ms. Colman smiled. “That,” she said, “will be your homework this weekend. Think about what our class can do.”
Goody. Easy homework. I thought about Jamboree Night. I thought about inviting the people in my families to see it. My two families. I would have to invite a lot of people.
Little and Big
Not many people have two families, but I do. And this is how it happened. A long time ago, when I was very little, I had just one family. Mommy, Daddy, Andrew, and me. (Andrew is my little brother. He is four now, going on five.) I liked my family. But Mommy and Daddy were not happy. They began to fight. Soon they were fighting a lot. Finally, they decided they did not love each other anymore. They loved Andrew and me very much. But they did not love each other. So they got a divorce. Daddy stayed in the big house where we had been living. (That is the house he grew up in.) Mommy moved to a little house. She took Andrew and me with her.
After awhile, Mommy and Daddy got married again. But not to each other. Mommy married Seth. He is my stepfather. Daddy married Elizabeth. She is my step-mother. And that is how Andrew and I got two families. Now we live with each family for a month at a time — a month here, a month there. (The big house and the little house are both in Stoneybrook, Connecticut.)
This is who lives at the little house: Mommy, Seth, Andrew, me, Rocky, Midgie, Emily Junior, and Bob. Rocky and Midgie are Seth’s cat and dog. Emily Junior is my pet rat. Bob is Andrew’s hermit crab.
This is who lives at the big house: Daddy, Elizabeth, Kristy, Charlie, Sam, David Michael, Emily Michelle, Nannie, Andrew, me, Shannon, Boo-Boo, Goldfishie, Crystal Light the Second, Emily Junior, and Bob. (Emily Junior and Bob go back and forth between the little house and the big house with Andrew and me.) Kristy, Charlie, Sam, and David Michael are Elizabeth’s kids. (She was married once before she married Daddy.) So they are my stepsister and stepbrothers. Kristy is thirteen. She baby-sits, and is a very good big sister. Charlie and Sam are old. They go to high school. David Michael is seven like me, but he does not go to my school. Emily Michelle is my adopted sister. She is two and a half. Daddy and Elizabeth adopted her from the faraway country of Vietnam. I like her so much I named my rat after her. Nannie is Elizabeth’s mother. She helps take care of the people and pets at the big house. Shannon is David Michael’s big, floppy puppy. Boo-Boo is Daddy’s fat, old cat. (Sometimes he scratches.) Can you guess what Gold-fishie and Crystal Light are? They belong to Andrew and me.
I made up special nicknames for my brother and me. I call us Andrew Two-Two and Karen Two-Two. ( I thought up those names after Ms. Colman read our class a book called Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang.) We are two-twos because we have two of so many things. We have two houses and two families, two mommies and two daddies, two cats and two dogs. We have clothes and toys and books at the big house, and other clothes and toys and books at the little house. And I have those two pairs of glasses, and even two best friends. Hannie lives across the street from Daddy and one house down. Nancy lives next door to Mommy.
Being a two-two is mostly okay. Except for when I am at the little house and I miss my big-house family. And except for when I am at the big house and I miss my little-house family. But that does not happen very often.
In case you are wondering, the month that my school would turn twenty-five was May. May was also a little-house month.
Seth’s New Door
“Snap, crackle, pop! Rice Krispies!” I said.
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It was Saturday morning. I had finished my breakfast. (I had not eaten Rice Krispies. I just like to say those silly words.) I carried my dishes to the sink. Then I decided to go outside. I was still wearing my nightgown, but I needed to find out how warm it was so I would know what clothes to put on.
Guess what. I could not go out the front door. That was because Seth was there. He had taken the screen door off of its hinges. It was leaning against the door frame. His tools were spread around him.
“What are you doing?” I asked him.
“I am finally going to put up a new screen door,” he replied. “This one is so old it practically fell off by itself.”
I looked into the yard. The new screen door was lying on the front walk. I could tell that Seth had made it himself. In his workshop. That is what Seth does. He builds furniture and cabinets and things. Seth is a very good carpenter.
I did not want to bother Seth, so I went out the back door to check the temperature. It was nice and warm. Goody. I ran to my room. I put on blue jeans, a T-shirt, socks and my sneakers. That was all I needed to wear. Then I ran downstairs and outside. (I used the back door again.)
“Hi, Nancy!” I called. I could see Nancy next door in her yard. She was skipping rope. “Can you come play?”
“Sure!” Nancy replied. She gathered up her rope. We went to my front yard to see who else might be outside. We found Andrew, Bobby Gianelli, and his little sister Alicia (Alicia is Andrew’s girlfriend), and Kathryn and Willie who live across the street. Kathryn is six and Willie is five.
We were about to start a game of statues, when Nancy said, “Hey! What are Rocky and Midgie doing outside?”
I looked around. There they were. Rocky was sitting in the sunshine. He was giving himself a cat bath. Midgie was chasing her tail. Then I glanced at our house. Seth’s new screen door was in place. I ran to look at it. It was beautiful. But it did not close all the way. Not until I slammed it. Otherwise, it stuck open a little bit — just enough for Rocky and Midgie to poke their noses through. That was how they had escaped into the yard.
I stepped into the house. “Hey, Seth!” I called.
“Indoor voice, Karen,” said Mommy. (Why are grown-ups always telling me to quiet down?)
“But Mommy, look at Seth’s door,” I said. “It sticks open. And Rocky and Midgie got outside.”
“They did?” cried Mommy. She jumped to her feet.
We do not let Rocky and Midgie outside by themselves very often. We are afraid they will run away or something.
Mommy and I dashed outdoors. Andrew helped us bring Rocky and Midgie back into the house. Then we found Seth. Seth looked at the door. He swung it open and shut a few times.
Finally he said, “I cannot fix this right away. I need a special part first. For now, can everybody remember to push it closed all the way after you go through it?”
“You may even slam it,” said Mommy.
“We will remember,” said Andrew and I.
But guess what. The very first time I used that door I forgot to close it behind me. I forgot the second time, too. Luckily, Midgie and Rocky stayed in the house where they belong. I will remember to close it from now on, I told myself. Then I thought I. W.I.L.L. R.E.M.E.M.B.E.R.
The Big Rock Candy Mountain
Sunday was another warm spring day. I went outside as early as I could. Andrew followed right behind me. He remembered to slam the screen door closed. BANG.
“That door is so noisy,” said Andrew. He put his hands over his ears. Andrew does not like loud noises.
“I know. But it is better than letting Rocky or Midgie outside,” I said.
Andrew frowned. “Miss Jewel does not let us slam doors.”
Miss Jewel is Andrew’s preschool teacher. Andrew loves her. He has loved her since the minute he first saw her. He thinks Miss Jewel is wonderful. He is always talking about her. And he does everything she says to do.
“Well, we have to slam this door,” I told my brother. I looked around for Nancy or Bobby or somebody. I was tired of talking about doors with Andrew.
Across the street Kathryn and Willie were rolling their bicycles out of their garage.
“Hi, Kathryn! Hi, Willie!” I called.
“Hi!” they called back.
Then I saw Bobby and Alicia. Bobby was pulling Alicia along the sidewalk in her red wagon. Soon Nancy came outside, too.
“Hey, you guys,” I said to Bobby and Nancy. “Have you been thinking about the jamboree?”
“Yes,” said Nancy.
“No,” said Bobby.
“Well, let’s think about it now.” My friends and I sat on our front steps. We rested our chins in our hands. We watched Andrew and Alicia and Willie and Kathryn.
“We could put on a skit,” said Bobby. “It could be about the King of Canada and his stolen underpants.”
I giggled. “But who would play the king?”
“Not me,” said Bobby. “I would not want to stand up in front of everyone in school without my underwear.”
“We could put on a real play,” said Nancy. “Little Red Riding Hood or something.”
“I do not think we have time for that,” I said. “I think we have to do something short.”
“Like what?” asked Bobby.
“Like sing a song.”
“Like what song?”
“I don’t know. Any song.” Honestly. Sometimes Bobby can be a pain.
“Karen? Can we get something to drink?” asked Nancy. “I’m thirsty.”
“Sure,” I said. “Come on inside.”
I led my friends into the kitchen. I got a juice box for each of us. Then we headed back to the porch. When we reached the front door, we found Seth there. He was tugging Midgie inside by her collar.
“Ahem,” said Seth. “Who left the screen door open?”
“Uh-oh. I guess I did,” I replied.
“Well, I found Midgie on her way out. Karen, please remember to slam the door shut. It will only be for a few more days,” said Seth.
“Okay. I promise.”
Nancy and Bobby and I sat on the steps again. (After I had slammed the door behind us.)
“Okay, what song could we sing?” asked Bobby.
“How about ‘The Big Rock Candy Mountain’?” I suggested.
Nancy and Bobby hooted.
“No, that is too silly!” cried Nancy.
“And it has the word cigarette in it,” added Bobby. “Gross.”
My friends and I rested our chins in our hands and thought some more. But we did not come up with an idea we could agree on.
The Wizard of Oz
On Monday, Ms. Colman talked about our school’s anniversary again. “Anyone who wants to enter the science fair must talk to me about a project by Friday,” she said.
I thought of something. I raised my hand. “Ms. Colman? What is Switch Day?” I asked.
“Oh, that will be fun,” my teacher replied. She was smiling. “On Switch Day, everything here at Stoneybrook Academy that is done by grown-ups will be done by students instead. We will switch around. You kids can be the teachers, the principal, the nurse, the cafeteria monitors, the janitor, and so forth. And us grown-ups will be students.”
I looked back at Hannie and Nancy. We grinned at each other. That sounded gigundoly fun.
Pamela Harding raised her hand. “Who gets to be you?” she asked.
That was exactly what I was wondering.
“The grown-up jobs will be chosen by lottery,” Ms. Colman said. “If you want to be a teacher or the janitor or whatever, you will put your name on a slip of paper. One name will be chosen for each job. You may try out for as many jobs as you like, but you may get only one. And if you do not want to try for any, that is fine. This is just for fun.”
Ms. Colman told us a little more about the science fair then, and about Field Day, too. And then Mrs. Noonan came into our room. Mrs. Noonan is the music teacher. Ms. Colman sat at her desk while Mrs. Noonan stood in front of our ro
om.
“Mrs. Noonan is here to help us decide what to do at Jamboree Night,” said Ms. Colman. “I hope you all thought about it over the weekend. We need some good ideas.”
“Ooh! Ooh!” cried Pamela. She waved her hand back and forth.
“Yes, Pamela?” said Mrs. Noonan.
“I have a great idea. I could sing a song and everybody else could stand behind me and hum.”
Of course nobody except Pamela liked that idea.
“We could put on a play about little woodland creatures,” said Natalie Springer. (She leaned over to pull up her droopy socks.)
Nobody except Natalie liked that idea.
“We could sing ‘The Big Rock Candy Mountain,’ ” I suggested.
Nobody except me liked that idea.
“We could write a skit about teachers,” said Hank Reubens.
All the boys liked that idea.
“We could write our own song,” said Hannie.
All the girls liked that idea. (The boys thought it sounded like too much work.)
“We could sing a medley.” That was Mrs. Noonan’s suggestion. “Do you know what a medley is?” she went on. “A medley is a song that is made up of parts of other songs. For instance, we could sing a medley of songs about school. Or of songs about animals.”
After a long time, our class took a vote. We voted on three things: a skit about teachers, a song we would write ourselves, and a medley of songs from The Wizard of Oz.
The medley won. Mrs. Noonan said she would put the song parts together for us. All we would have to do was learn the medley.
“I think,” said Mrs. Noonan slowly, “that the medley will be performed by the entire class, but that we should have three solo parts as well. So on Wednesday, anyone who wants to, may try out for a solo. You may sing anything you like at the tryouts. I’ll see you in two days, girls and boys.”
Yes! Solo parts. I was definitely going to try out for one.
Andrew’s Punishment
In my families, if we have very big news to share, we usually wait until dinnertime to do it. That is because everyone is together then. You can make your news into an important announcement. So that day I waited until dinner to tell my little-house family about Jamboree Night, and about trying out for a solo.