Two Friends, One Dog, and a Very Unusual Week, page 7
“Okay!” Rani said.
She shook Mr. Hayes’s hand, jumped off the wall, landed at Mr. Cleary’s feet, spread out her pink skirt, and took a bow.
Mr. Cleary let out a long, long breath.
“Rani? Please come with me to the office,” he said.
Inside herself, Emily groaned.
The rest of the fourth grade went back to their classrooms, minus Rani.
All the time they were practicing their cursive, Emily kept glancing at the door. But Rani didn’t show up until they were halfway through a video on the American Revolution. She seemed like her usual self—not at all like a kid who had just gotten in trouble.
Emily didn’t get a chance to find out what had happened in the office until after the bell rang for the end of the day. All the kids piled into the hallway and Emily grabbed Rani’s arm.
“What did Mr. Cleary talk to you about?” she asked anxiously.
“A lot about rules,” Rani answered. “Don’t all these rules get in the way of the education?”
Maybe a little bit, Emily thought. But she didn’t think she should say so.
“I could probably manage either the rules or the education,” Rani went on thoughtfully. “But not both. Are there rules in this club too?”
Emily sighed. “Yes.”
On Fridays after school Emily went to the Friendship and Feelings Club. That morning, her mother had arranged with Mr. Cleary for Rani to go too.
“Like about how to drink your tea?” Rani asked.
“No, other stuff. And Penelope goes to the club too. So, Rani, don’t…I mean…” Emily struggled to find the right words. “Just try not to…do anything. You know. That Penelope will tell her mom about. Anything more. Please?”
Rani looked puzzled. But she nodded. “I’ll try,” she said.
Emily could tell that Rani meant it. But that didn’t reassure her much.
They walked into the Friendship and Feelings room together. Emily went straight to the Feelings Chart. It hung on the wall beside the door.
On the chart were round circles with eyes and mouths—smiling, scowling, and everything in between. You were supposed to pick a circle showing how you felt today and move it beside your name.
Emily had to admit that she wasn’t quite sure what she was feeling today. It had been worrying, keeping an eye on Rani all the time. But there had been the wild excitement of Capture the Flag. And the hippos during story time had been sort of fun too.
Anyway, she didn’t really have to figure out how she was feeling, because Emily always picked the same face—the one where the mouth had a very slight curve for a smile. It meant you weren’t as happy as the face with the big wide grin, but you weren’t frowning (angry) or crying actual tears.
Most importantly, if you picked the slightly smiling face, Mr. Cleary would not make a point of coming to talk to you about how you were feeling that day. Mr. Cleary ran the Feelings and Friendship Club. From across the room, he smiled so widely that it looked a little fake to Emily.
“Rani! How lovely to see you again!” he exclaimed.
Mr. Cleary really liked the idea of a fresh start. He talked about it a lot, after somebody had broken a rule or cried or gotten mad. “Time for a fresh start!” he would say.
Emily guessed he was trying to show Rani that she was still having a fresh start after the Capture the Flag game and her visit to his office.
“Emily, have you explained to Rani how the Feelings Chart works?” Mr. Cleary went on.
“You take the face that matches your feelings and put it by your name,” Emily mumbled. “There’s one for guests. There.”
Rani studied the chart, picked the face with the widest grin, and slapped it next to the Guest label.
“Excellent! Excellent!” Mr. Cleary said. He swooped away to encourage all the kids to settle on the green rug.
Penelope eyed Rani from across the room. She marched over to the Feelings Chart, pulled off her own slightly smiling face with a rip of Velcro, and slapped a scowling face next to her name. Without a word she stomped over to sit on the rug.
The rest of the kids shuffled into a circle. Anson came in and forgot to visit the Feelings Chart in his hurry to grab a seat next to Rani.
“Can we play Capture the Flag again?” he whispered. “That was epic!”
Mr. Cleary sat down in his own place in the circle and clapped twice. All the kids who’d been paying attention clapped twice back at him. Emily got in on the second clap.
“Feelings Circle!” Mr. Cleary announced.
Emily glanced over at the Feelings Chart. Only Penelope’s face had a frown on it. Everyone else knew better.
“Penelope, why don’t you tell your friends what you’re feeling?” Mr. Cleary asked. He bent forward a little encouragingly.
“Recess was just really, really hard for me,” Penelope announced.
Emily let out a silent sigh and tugged at the gold zipper on one of her new shoes as Penelope explained how it had felt to be the flag in Capture the Flag. Beside her, Rani fidgeted.
“Aren’t we going to do anything?” she whispered.
Emily shook her head. “We have to finish Feelings Circle first.”
“Well, Penelope, an excellent job of sharing,” Mr. Cleary said.
“I wasn’t finished,” said Penelope.
“Oh. I see.” Even Mr. Cleary drooped a little. “Well, we want to have time for everyone, so—”
“Someone shouldn’t make someone else be the flag if someone doesn’t want to be the flag!” Penelope went on. “Because I think—no, I feel—”
Emily switched to the zipper on her other shoe.
Rani pulled one of her black curls to its full length and let it bounce back. Then another.
Anson was collecting old staples that had sunk into the fibers of the carpet. He showed them to Emily and Rani on his slightly grubby palm. Seventeen.
“Thank you, Penelope,” said Mr. Cleary. “Very much.”
“But I’m not—”
“We want to have time for everyone in the Feelings Circle, Penelope. Do you feel better now that you’ve shared? Would you like to change your face on the Feelings Chart?”
Penelope scowled. “No.”
“Oh. Maybe later.” Mr. Cleary turned to Penelope’s neighbor with a smile. “Anabel?”
“Fine,” said Anabel.
All the kids after Anabel said, “Fine” too. Or “Good” or “Okay.” They’d all learned it was the quickest way to get the Feelings Circle over with.
Rani, however, had not learned this.
“And our new friend? Rani? How are you feeling?” Mr. Cleary asked. His smile stretched even wider.
“Ebullient!” Rani sang out. She jumped to her feet. “I feel ecstatic, enthusiastic, exceptional!”
Rani did a handstand right in the center of the Feelings Circle. Her sneakers flashed.
“Feet on the floor, please!” Mr. Cleary cried out.
Rani arched her back and let her feet fall to the ground. In a full backbend, she looked up at Mr. Cleary with her hair bobbing around her face.
“What a good idea!” she said. “I feel even happier upside down.”
Emily winced. She leaned forward, trying to catch Rani’s eye. Didn’t Rani remember she’d promised to try not to do anything odd? To follow all the rules?
But then, Rani probably thought she was following the rules. Feet on the floor was what Mr. Cleary had said—and that was where Rani’s feet were.
“She’s right!” Anson announced. His voice was a little muffled, because he was doing a headstand and his T-shirt had flopped down over his face. “It does feel better like this. Penelope should try it!”
“Friends, this is not the gymnasium!” Mr. Cleary called out. “There are no floor mats! Please, let’s—”
Anson fell over. Emily had to dodge to avoid his feet. He sat up, red-faced and grinning.
Maybe, just maybe, Emily thought, it would be better if other kids were upside down too. Then Rani wouldn’t be the only one to blame. Or the only one Mrs. Pinkney would hear about.
For that to work, it would need more than Rani and Anson.
Emily had never been able to do a headstand in her life. Or a handstand either. But Rani made it seem so easy. And Anson had fallen over, but he hadn’t gotten hurt.
She got into a crouch and tucked her chin down into her chest. Wasn’t that how you started? She rocked forward so that the top of her head was on the ground, her arms braced on the carpet.
She hesitated.
Did she feel happier like this? She wasn’t sure. It felt cramped and dark and quiet, like being tucked up in a mousehole. And that was actually kind of nice.
She could smell the carpet, with its scent that was harsh and clean in a chemical way, and dusty too, and old. It smelled like all the kids’ feet that had ever walked across it, the soles of their shoes sticky with dirt and spilled juice. And paint from the art room. Mud from the playground. Macaroni and cheese from the lunchroom. Chocolate milk too. Maybe a crunched pretzel or a bit of orange peel that had been trodden into the crannies of a sneaker.
Plus, Emily’s feet were still on the floor. So she wasn’t actually breaking a rule.
“Friends! Friends!” Mr. Cleary clapped desperately. “Let’s come back to our Feelings Circle, please!”
A bit reluctantly, Emily came out of her crouch. She shook her head and blinked. Rani was still in her backbend. Two more kids had just fallen over. Maureen Kenilworth was draped face-up over a chair with her feet on one side and her head on the other.
Rani flipped upright. Maureen slithered off her chair. “Let’s get started on our activity,” Mr. Cleary said. He smiled as if he’d realized that he’d forgotten to do it for a while.
“Great! What are we doing?” Rani asked eagerly.
“Coloring,” Emily told Rani. The activity was almost always coloring. She waved a hand at the table in the back of the room, where paper and crayons and markers had been laid out.
“Cool!” Rani charged toward the table. Emily followed more slowly.
“Can’t we go outside?” Anson asked gloomily as he, too, headed for the table. He always asked this. He never got an answer.
“Express yourself!” Mr. Cleary told the club. He spread his arms wide and wiggled his fingers. “Express your feelings!”
Emily did not mind drawing, but she found it hard to do any kind of art when someone was telling her to express herself. It was much easier just to draw a picture than it was to decide if you were feeling orange or purple that day.
She settled in next to Rani. The only way she could imagine Rani expressing her feelings was by using fireworks or shooting stars. Would markers and crayons really be enough?
She glanced at Rani’s paper. It was blank.
Rani was drawing on her hand instead. She had made a bracelet of intricate black lines going around her wrist.
“All done!” she announced. She smiled up at Mr. Cleary, who had come to stand behind her chair. “What’s next?”
“Next?” Mr. Cleary asked Rani. He frowned at her decorated hand.
“Our next activity?”
“There is no next activity,” Mr. Cleary said. “This is what we are doing. Expressing our feelings. Through art.”
“On these little bitty pieces of paper?” Rani sounded bewildered. “But aren’t we a lot bigger than a piece of paper? I know! Let’s put on a play!”
Mr. Cleary shook his head.
“In this club, we do not do anything that might make someone feel badly,” he explained patiently. “Not everyone can have the lead role in a play. We don’t want anyone to feel left out.”
Rani cocked her head to one side, thinking this over. “Singing?” she suggested.
“Not everyone has the same talent when it comes to music.”
“We could play soccer!” Rani suggested. “Or kickball!”
Anson brightened up. Mr. Cleary did not.
“Certainly not!” He was beginning to look a little panicked. “Do you know the statistics on childhood concussions? Now. Friends.” He took a slow, careful breath. “We need to focus. And express our feelings. On paper.”
For a moment Emily felt as if her own breath were stuck in her throat. Would Rani listen to Mr. Cleary?
What would happen if she didn’t?
Everyone seemed to be wondering the same thing, including Mr. Cleary. They were all waiting for the next words to be spoken.
But the next words weren’t Rani’s. To Emily’s surprise, they came from her own mouth.
“What about snack?” she asked.
Her voice felt faint and brittle. She thought no one would hear it. But because the room was so quiet, everyone did.
“Yes!” Mr. Cleary exclaimed. He sounded very relieved. “Snack! Certainly! Thank you, Emily, for the reminder. A healthy snack.”
He hurried away to a closet on the other side of the room.
“Good idea!” Rani said to Emily. “I’m hungry. All the expressing and education really wears you out.”
Emily had to agree.
Mr. Cleary was back with a tray. There were little paper cups on it, and each cup had exactly five pretzel sticks and three grapes.
Mr. Cleary moved down the table, handing each child a cup. Rani crunched her pretzels in a single bite. She tossed the grapes up into the air one by one and caught them in her mouth.
“I love grapes!” she said, and held out her cup to Mr. Cleary. “Any more?”
“Ah. No.” Mr. Cleary frowned. “Portion control is very—”
“Oh, well, then.” Rani stood up. “Thanks for the snack. Excuse me a moment.”
She walked over to the window and opened it. She unlocked the screen and flung that up too.
“Safety! Please!” Mr. Cleary gasped as Rani grabbed both sides of the window frame and leaned out. She whistled, loud and shrill.
Mr. Cleary was at her side in a moment. “Rani, the window stays closed!” he said.
“Okay,” said Rani. “I’ll be sure to close it when I’m done.”
Before Mr. Cleary could react, she hopped onto the windowsill and somersaulted off it.
Mr. Cleary yelped. Emily dashed over and peered out to see Rani picking herself out of a bush.
Just for a moment, Mr. Cleary’s panic had made Emily forget that this classroom was on the first floor.
“Is she hurt?” Mr. Cleary gulped. “Tell her not to move. I’ll go get the nurse. Nobody move!”
“She’s fine,” Emily told Mr. Cleary as Rani stood up, plucking leaves and twigs from her curls.
From outside the window, Rani reached up to the screen and tugged it down.
“You sound kind of worried,” she said gently to Mr. Cleary. “I’m sure you can find a worried face for the Feelings Chart if you need it. Oh, there he is!”
Rani waved at Emily and ran to Otto, who was trotting serenely across the blacktop.
“Dog on the playground! Dog on the playground!” Mr. Cleary choked out. “Children, stay here. In this room. Oh my—”
He dashed to the door. They heard his shoes thumping down the hallway.
Anson was now at Emily’s elbow. “What’s she doing?” he asked eagerly.
Rani, with Otto by her side, had run over to the school gates and flung both wide open. On the other side, a white van was parked by the curb. The driver stuck an arm out of the van’s window and waved to Rani.
Rani came jogging back to the classroom window. “Who wants ice cream?” she called.
“Me!” Anson shouted. He threw up the window screen and flung one leg over the sill.
Later on, Emily tried to figure out how Rani had found the ice cream van so easily. Had it just been driving by? Had Otto somehow shown the driver where to go?
But at the moment, she and the rest of the Feelings and Friendship Club were not thinking of anything but ice cream.
As Anson teetered on the windowsill and the others crowded around to peer outside, only one person remained seated.
“We’re supposed to stay in the room,” Penelope said. She colored so hard that her crayon snapped in two.
Anson fell out of the window and into the bush.
“Yes,” said Emily slowly. “We are.”
Was that so important, really? If she took a second to think about it, Emily wasn’t sure. What harm would it do to go onto the playground? They went out there every day.
Still, Emily couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for Mr. Cleary. If he came back and found that the whole Feelings and Friendship Club had vanished, he’d be frantic.
“Rani?” Emily raised her voice a little. “Mr. Cleary told us to stay in here.”
“Oh, he did? Okay. Come on, Anson, inside!” Rani boosted a bewildered, leafy Anson back through the window. He tumbled headfirst onto the carpet.
“What about the ice cream?” he demanded.
“Just wait!” Rani dashed toward the open gates where the white truck was idling. She said a few words to the driver. Then, to Emily’s astonishment, the truck backed up a little, turned, and headed right through the open gates and into the schoolyard itself.
Anson whooped with delight.
The truck came slowly over the blacktop, scattering stray woodchips. Rani dashed ahead of it and hurtled in the window just before the truck swerved and came to a stop alongside the building.
The serving hatch in the side of the truck was even with the classroom window. It slid open and the driver stood behind it, wearing a white paper hat. Otto’s nose popped into view under the driver’s elbow.
“What can I get you?” he asked.
“A Mississippi mud bar!” Anson shouted.
“A cherry slushie!” Maureen Kenilworth chimed in.
