Two Friends, One Dog, and a Very Unusual Week, page 6
Ms. Moreno’s eyes had gotten very wide. “I would just like you to sit on the rug,” she said slowly.
Rani plopped down on the rug and sat bolt upright. With her eyes clamped tightly shut, she lifted both hands to her head and squeezed as if she were trying to hold it together.
“Rani? Are you all right?” Ms. Moreno asked. She sounded alarmed.
“I can still feel all those words settling in,” Rani announced.
“Oh.” Ms. Moreno took her own seat in the rocking chair. “Well, everyone—”
Rani’s eyes popped open and she took her hands down from her head. “All in!” she announced.
Emily glanced around.
Almost everyone in the class had their eyes fixed on Rani. There were giggles and whispers. Penelope’s mouth was slightly open, but when she caught Emily’s gaze, she turned her face away and seemed to become deeply fascinated by the insect book display.
“Weird!” Anson murmured with delight.
Clearly, Emily would have to do a better job of explaining the rules to Rani.
Ms. Moreno cleared her throat. “I hope everyone was able to finish the chapters of Hatchet you were reading at home. Someone tell me what’s been happening to Brian.”
Penelope’s hand shot into the air. “He went fishing,” she said.
“So now he’s going to be okay,” Dylan Okoshi put in. “He can get food whenever he needs it.”
Anson shook his head. “He can’t just be okay,” he objected. “There’s still, like, half the book to go. That’d be really boring if he was just okay now.”
“Let’s find out, shall we?” Ms. Moreno opened the book. “This next part gives us some real clues about what the author’s message is. ‘Mistakes,’ ” she read aloud. “ ‘Small mistakes could turn into disasters.’ ”
Emily was so busy thinking about how true that was that she missed the next several paragraphs.
Rani, however, didn’t.
“It’s definitely true about skunks,” she whispered to Emily. “They’re not as cute as people think!”
Emily made a shushing motion with her hand.
“Skunks aren’t afraid of anything. They’re kind of—”
Ms. Moreno stopped reading. “Emily and Rani,” she said. “Save the conversation for later, please.”
Emily winced. She hated it when teachers acted as if being talked to was the same as talking.
“Because once my mom and I went canoeing on the Allagash River and there was this skunk,” Rani went on. “You wouldn’t believe it if I told you about the skunk. But hippos are worse. They’re territorial, see, and they don’t want anybody else in their part of the river. So—”
“Rani.” Ms. Moreno’s voice was a little firmer than before. “Unless this is something the whole class needs to know, please settle down.”
“Sure!” Rani jumped up eagerly. “Everyone should hear this, because if you encounter an angry hippo, it’s really important to know what to do. They’re way more fierce than they look. They don’t smile. You know how in picture books they’re always smiling? But in real life they don’t. And they’re much faster than you think.” She took a step into the middle of the rug, slowing turning so that she could talk to the entire circle of kids around her. “You’re not going to be able to outrun one, so don’t try. And diving in the river to escape is a really bad idea, because hippos can swim.”
Rani paused to make motions with both arms as if she were doing the breaststroke through a murky river. Ms. Moreno seized the chance to speak up.
“Rani, this is supposed to be story time,” she said a little weakly.
Rani nodded. “I know. This is a really good story I’m telling. Once I was having a picnic by a river and a hippo charged right out of the water. I figured he was going to trample all over my peanut butter sandwiches, and I’d put a lot of honey on them, so I didn’t want to lose them. What I did was—”
“Rani!” Ms. Moreno broke in.
“Yes?” Rani turned to her. “Do you like peanut butter and honey sandwiches too?”
Ms. Moreno took in a slow breath.
“Story time means that I read the story,” she said. “The students sit on the rug. And listen.”
“Oh.” Rani plopped down on the rug next to Emily. “But it’s probably lucky for that kid Brian in the book that he only had a skunk to worry about,” she added. “Instead of a hippo.”
Ms. Moreno lifted the book from her lap. Anson leaned over Emily and poked Rani in the arm.
“What did you do about the hippo? And the sandwiches?” he whispered.
“Shhh!” Rani told him, her eyes on Ms. Moreno. “Story time. Anyway, hippos don’t like peanut butter.”
Ms. Moreno raised her voice a little as she started to read again, but Emily wasn’t sure anyone was really listening. Kids murmured and whispered and stared at Rani. Anson kept shaking his head. “They don’t like peanut butter?” he muttered. “What do they like?”
Emily tried to pay attention. But in her imagination, huge gray hippos thundered through the Canadian pinewoods, spitting out peanut butter sandwiches and grumbling because they wanted egg salad.
It was a relief when Ms. Moreno snapped the book closed and told the class they could choose their own books to take home. Emily hopped up from the rug and showed Rani around the shelves. “You can pick any book you want,” she explained.
Rani considered a giant dictionary with a gleam in her eye. Emily shook her head and pulled one of her own favorites off the shelf—Binny for Short. “You’ll like it. It has a dog in it.” She pushed the book into Rani’s hands.
“Checkout time!” Ms. Moreno called.
They lined up by the librarian’s desk, books in hand. Anson leaned past Annie Park to tap Rani on the shoulder. “Hey, you never said—” he began.
But by that time, Rani and Emily were at the front of the line. Ms. Moreno smiled at them as she scanned their books.
Rani beamed back. “Whose turn will it be to tell the story next time?” she asked eagerly.
Ms. Moreno frowned, a little confused. “Well, it’s…my turn usually.”
Rani looked puzzled. “Doesn’t anyone else have any good stories? I have lots! One time—”
“Come on, Rani.” Emily tugged Rani back toward the library door.
“Hey, I want to know—” Anson started to say.
“Anson, your book, please?” Ms. Moreno asked him.
When the whole fourth grade was lined up at the door, Ms. Moreno came to lead them down the hall. As they passed the school entrance, Rani swerved while everyone else went straight on.
Emily snagged Rani’s arm and pulled her back in line. “Where are you going?” she whispered.
“Home. Aren’t you coming?”
“No!” The two of them had slowed down, creating a gap in the line. Emily scurried to catch up. “You can’t go home now, Rani. There’s lots of school left.”
“There is?” Rani blinked in astonishment. “My brain feels very full. All those words, you know. Are you sure that isn’t enough education for one day?”
“No! We’ve got math next. And science. And then there’s lunch.”
Ahead of them in line, Anson spun around. “But what do the hippos eat for lunch?” he bellowed.
Rani gazed at him in mild surprise. “River weeds, of course.”
Anson stared at her. “That’s it?”
“Of course not,” Rani told him. “They like pickles to go with them.”
Emily managed to get Rani down the hall and into their classroom without much more difficulty. Rani seemed to like math. And during science she was so interested in watching dry ice change from a solid to a gas with no liquid state in between that she mostly stayed in her seat.
Emily began to hope that Rani might actually make it through the rest of the school day.
Then lunchtime arrived. In the cafeteria, the fourth graders found seats at their long table. But not Rani. She slipped away to a window, opened it, and whistled through the gap between her teeth, loudly enough that heads turned all around.
Emily gestured frantically. What was Rani doing?
At the table, kids slapped down trays or flipped open lunch boxes or dug into sacks to pull out food. Rani came to sit beside Emily empty-handed.
“Rani, you said you had lunch,” Emily said.
“No, I didn’t,” Rani answered calmly.
Emily thought back to that morning in her kitchen. Her mom had asked Rani if she had a lunch…. No, her mom had asked Rani if she was all set for lunch. Wasn’t that the same thing, though?
Maybe she should tell Rani to get in line to buy lunch. Or it might be simpler just to share. She ripped her almond butter sandwich into halves and offered one to Rani. “Here,” she said.
“Thanks!” Rani gave her a bright smile. “But I’m fine. I’m just waiting.”
“Waiting for what?” Anson asked from the other side of the table.
“Delivery,” Rani answered.
Emily turned toward the open window. Otto was outside, his front paws up on the sill. A polka-dot lunch sack hung from his jaws.
Rani ran over to him. “Thanks!” she said cheerfully, taking the sack.
Emily hurried over to the window and tugged Rani back to the fourth-grade table before Mr. Cleary, who had lunch duty and who was talking to Ms. Moreno at the cafeteria door, could notice that they were both out of their seats.
“Ew.” Penelope wrinkled her nose. “You let a dog carry your lunch? In its mouth?”
“Well, he needs his paws for walking,” Rani answered.
Emily held her breath as Rani opened up her lunch sack, but there was nothing more unusual inside than a plum and a chunk of pita bread stuffed with lettuce and hummus. Rani took a huge bite and chewed while answering questions from all the fourth graders about Otto and how Rani had trained him to bring her lunch. Except for Penelope, who didn’t say a word, although Emily noticed her glancing at Rani from time to time out of the corner of her eye. And except for Anson, who wanted to talk about hippos.
On the playground after lunch, he called to Rani from the tallest platform on the climber. Rani clambered nimbly up. Emily followed.
“What happened when the hippo charged out of the river?” Anson demanded.
Rani blinked at him. “What river?”
“The one you were having a picnic next to!” Anson bellowed. “With peanut butter sandwiches!”
Rani frowned.
“I’ve eaten peanut butter sandwiches by a lot of rivers,” she said. “Peanut butter is good for you. Although it doesn’t have as much protein as a tarantula. Insects are very nutritious. Arachnids too, of course.”
Just then Penelope’s head appeared over the edge of the platform. “What are you talking about up here?” she asked suspiciously.
“Eating tarantulas,” Anson said.
Penelope made a face, but she climbed the rest of the way up the ladder and sat down cross-legged between Rani and Emily. “That’s gross. That’s unsanitary.”
Anson rolled his eyes. “Then go away if you don’t like what we’re talking about.”
“You can’t exclude people. Excluding is mean.” Penelope smoothed the skirt of her brown jumper over her knees.
“Excluding?” Rani echoed.
“You have to let everybody play all the time,” Emily explained to Rani. “There’s a rule.”
“Oh.” Rani grinned. “That’s great! Otherwise we’d be like the orangutans and keep people out of the tea parties.”
Penelope’s face wrinkled. “Orangutans don’t—”
Rani whipped off the orange scarf around her waist. “How about Capture the Flag?” she asked.
Emily and Anson exchanged a glance. There were quite a few games that weren’t allowed on the playground of the Henrietta Minnow School. Was Capture the Flag one of them? Emily wasn’t sure. Anson didn’t seem sure either.
Before they could decide, Rani leaned forward to stuff her orange scarf down the back of Penelope’s dress.
“Penelope’s got the flag!” she sang out. “Capture her! Ten-second head start!”
Penelope made one squirming attempt to yank the scarf out, but she couldn’t reach it. Looking alarmed, she turned and fled down the ladder.
“One…two…three…” Rani shouted.
“Rani!” Emily grabbed at her friend’s arm. “Mrs. Pinkney is Penelope’s mom. Remember?”
Rani nodded happily. “Sure! Four…five…six…”
On the ground, a group of kids had gathered. Penelope was squeaking, “I don’t want to play! I don’t want the stupid flag!” as she twisted around, trying to remove Rani’s scarf from the back of her jumper.
“You’re not supposed to say stupid,” Annie Park told her. “I’m on Rani’s team!”
“Seven-eight-nine-ten!” Rani shouted. She brushed Emily’s hand off her arm and vaulted to the ground, landing in front of Penelope.
“You have to let us play with you, right?” Rani asked. “Isn’t that the rule?”
Penelope stared at Rani in utter confusion. Then she began to run, with Rani close behind.
Emily was still making her way down from the climber. She was pretty sure this was all going to be against a rule. And no matter what, it was important to keep Rani as far away as possible from Penelope.
She jumped the last few feet and had just landed when the orange scarf slipped out of the back of Penelope’s dress and fell to the wood chips.
Emily sighed with relief.
Rani snatched the scarf up.
“Capture me!” she crowed, and scrambled up the nearest slide.
Frantic thoughts swirled inside Emily’s brain. She had to catch Rani. She had to warn her about breaking rules…about upsetting Penelope…about everything!
There was a rule about not going up a slide, but Emily found herself tearing on hands and knees after Rani. Anson was just behind her.
Rani leaped from the top of the slide with the scarf fluttering in her hand. Emily didn’t dare jump, but she threw herself between Anson’s legs and dove down the slide, trying to catch up.
Rani pelted across the swinging bridge with Emily on her heels. When Rani leaped over the railings, Emily wriggled under.
She was dimly aware of cries behind her. “Stop!” “That’s not safe behavior!” “She made me be the flag!” The other kids chasing Rani—Anson and Annie, Samira and Gabriel, Maureen and Antonio—spread out like a comet’s tail across the playground.
Somehow the closer Emily got to Rani, the less she was thinking about stopping her. Or warning her. Or making sure she followed every playground rule.
All of Emily’s attention was now on the flag, flirting and fluttering so temptingly just beyond her reach. She was so close to grabbing it! Of all the kids chasing it, she was the first!
Rani’s silver shoes flashed and the orange scarf danced. Emily lunged for it and felt it brush through her fingers. She slipped and rolled in the woodchips, ending up flat on her back, both arms flung out, laughing at the sky.
Rani was laughing too. High above Emily, she waved the orange scarf in long swoops through the air. “Can’t capture me!” she sang. “Nobody can capture me!”
Rani looked so high up, Emily almost thought she might float away. It was something Rani would do. She’d rig a harness from a cloud or train a passing albatross to carry her in a sling. She’d soar into the sky, calling to everyone below to join her….
“Rani! Get down from there!” Anson called.
Emily sat up. Her head swam for a moment and then cleared.
Rani was not floating through the sky. She was dancing along the top of the playground wall, closer and closer to the gates.
“Rani, you have to get off the wall!” Emily called. “Now! Quick!”
She still wasn’t sure if Capture the Flag was against the rules…but she knew that climbing the wall definitely was.
“Okay!” Rani called back.
She leaped off the wall…but she didn’t land on the ground. Instead, somehow, she was clinging to the flagpole.
Hugging the slippery pole with her legs and arms, Rani shimmied upward. The orange scarf was clenched between her teeth.
“Is she going all the way to the top?” Anson asked. He was at Emily’s shoulder.
Emily didn’t know. She had the sense that a crowd had clustered behind them, but she worried that if she dared to glance away even for a moment, Rani was sure to fall.
Almost at the top by now, Rani let go of the pole with one hand and took the scarf from her mouth. Somehow she clipped the scarf to the pole just below the flag. A breeze lifted them both, and the orange swath of fabric rippled through the air along with the stars and stripes.
Rani slid down the flagpole and landed lightly on top of the wall. “Nobody will capture it now!” she declared.
That was when Mr. Cleary arrived, breathing heavily, his tie coming loose.
“Stay there!” he shouted at Rani.
Rani smiled at him.
“Everyone else keeps saying I should get down,” she said. “And now you want me to stay up here. Which should I do?”
Mr. Cleary pointed a trembling finger at Rani. “Don’t move,” he said anxiously. “We’re getting a ladder. Stay still!”
“Sure thing,” Rani agreed. She seemed to take Mr. Cleary’s instructions very seriously, because she planted both hands on her hips and froze, perfectly still.
She didn’t stir so much as a finger until Mr. Hayes, the school custodian, shuffled over to the wall with a ladder on his shoulder. He propped the ladder up close to Rani’s feet.
Then he climbed up himself, puffing a little.
“Now let’s get you down,” he said as his head came level with Rani’s knees. He reached up a hand.
