Baby Animal Zoo

by Ann M. Martin

  “Um, I guess it is also fun to go shopping,” said Leslie.

  Pamela could tell that Jannie and Leslie did not agree with her. But at least they were not arguing with her. Pamela shrugged as if she did not care one way or another. She took a sip of milk but could not eat any more lunch. She was still too upset, thinking about the big lion roaring in her ear.

  THE RUNAWAY DOG

  After lunch Pamela, Jannie, and Leslie walked outside. Pamela did not feel like playing anything, not even foursquare. She just wanted to sit and think of a way to not go on the field trip.

  She plopped down on a bench near the oak tree.

  “Do you want to play hopscotch, or jump rope?” asked Jannie.

  “Neither,” said Pamela.

  Jannie and Leslie looked at each other.

  “What is wrong, Pamela?” asked Leslie.

  “Nothing,” Pamela said grumpily.

  There was a gate in the playground fence not far from Pamela’s bench. It was supposed to be shut at all times, but right now it was open a little bit.

  Ricky and Hank were playing catch nearby. Their baseball gloves were on. Hank was wearing his baseball cap. Back and forth, back and forth they threw the ball. Pamela could not think of anything more boring.

  “Woof!”

  Pamela jumped. She looked up to see a dog standing next to the fence. His owner was tugging gently on his leash.

  “Come along, Rex,” said the dog’s owner. “Those boys cannot play fetch with you right now.”

  “Woof!” said Rex. He pulled against his leash, and the man pulled back.

  “Hi, doggy,” said Ricky through the fence. He held up his softball. “Do you like to play ball?”

  “WOOF!” barked Rex loudly. He gave a sudden lunge, and pulled his leash free. Then he ran to the gate and pushed it open with his nose.

  Pamela gasped. “A dog! A dog!” she cried. She leaped up.

  The dog looked at her, his mouth open.

  “It is a puppy,” said Jannie. “He is a golden retriever puppy. My cousin had one. He is awfully pretty.”

  Rex stood still for a moment, looking around. His owner came through the school-yard gate to get him. Then, with his tail wagging and ears flopping, Rex bounded toward Pamela.

  “Oh, no!” cried Pamela. She jumped off the bench. A dog! A horrible dog! He was going to bite her or jump on her or slobber on her! His paws were probably muddy, and he would get mud all over her coat! Pamela started to run across the playground. When she looked back, the dog was chasing her. He was catching up.

  “Help!” yelled Pamela. “Help! Save me!”

  Racing across the playground, Pamela saw the jungle gym. Dogs probably could not climb jungle gyms.

  Pamela could barely hear Leslie call, “He is just a puppy, Pamela!”

  Pamela ran to the jungle gym as fast as she could. When she reached it, she scrambled up the bottom rungs. The dog stopped below her and barked. Pamela almost lost her grip, but she kept climbing. Higher and higher, so the dog could not reach her. When she looked down, he was standing on his hind legs, his front paws on the bottom rung.

  Was he trying to come after her?

  Her heart pounding, Pamela climbed up and up. Finally she was at the very top of the jungle gym. She was breathing hard, and she was very hot under her coat. Her hat had fallen off somewhere, and her hair was messy. She had torn one of her tights while she was climbing the jungle gym.

  Down at the bottom, the dog barked up at her, his tail wagging.

  “Go away!” shouted Pamela. “Go away, you dumb dog!”

  The dog cocked his ears and looked at Pamela.

  Then Pamela saw that everyone on the playground was watching her. The dog’s owner rushed to him and grabbed Rex’s leash.

  “Naughty Rex,” he said firmly. Then he looked up at Pamela. “He will not hurt you. He is just a puppy. He was trying to be friendly.”

  Pamela glared at him. Trying to be friendly! Was he bananas?

  Chris was standing next to the man. He grinned at Pamela, then petted the dog. “Nice puppy,” Chris said cheerfully. “Good dog.” The dog panted and wagged his tail.

  Omar stepped forward. He petted the dog’s head. “What a nice dog,” he said. “He is so gentle and friendly.”

  “He would never hurt anyone,” said Rex’s owner. “I am sorry you were scared,” he called to Pamela.

  Scared! Pamela started to deny it. Then she realized that everyone in the whole yard had seen her run away from the dog. They had seen her yell for help. They had seen her climb the jungle gym. And here she was, still at the very top.

  “Come on down, Pamela,” called Chris. “Come pet the nice puppy.”

  Pamela thought about climbing down. After all, the dog had not bitten anyone yet. But then Rex barked. Pamela stayed where she was.

  “I am sorry,” said the man again. He told everyone good-bye, then led Rex out of the playground. He latched the gate firmly behind him.

  “Pamela is afraid of dogs,” said Chris. “What else are you afraid of?”

  “Pamela never feeds Hootie,” said Ricky. “She never takes him home on weekends.”

  “She is afraid of him too,” said Omar. “Afraid of a little puppy. Afraid of a guinea pig.”

  Omar and Chris started laughing. They slapped high fives.

  “That is why you do not want to go on the field trip,” said Sara. “You do not like even tiny baby animals.”

  Pamela wanted to disappear. Jannie and Leslie looked up at her. Pamela started to climb down slowly. Her secret was out.

  AWFUL ART

  Pamela did not want to go to school the next day. She knew the kids would tease her. But it turned out not to be so bad. Once Chris sneaked up behind her and barked, making her jump. And Natalie mentioned that she had a very nice dog at home. A dog who did not mind if Natalie’s socks fell down. Pamela’s cheeks burned.

  Other than that, no one teased her very much. Of course, Karen pointed out that she had two dogs and two cats, because she had two houses. (Karen’s parents were divorced. Mostly Karen lived with her mother. But she spent every other weekend at her father’s house.)

  Pamela made it through the week.

  After lunch on Friday, Ms. Colman handed a sheet of paper to each student. On each sheet was a drawing of some kind of animal. Some of them were mammals. Some were reptiles. Some were birds. The pictures were not colored in.

  There were three baskets of art supplies on a desk. One basket held scraps of fake fur. One basket was full of feathers in all colors and sizes. The last basket held strips of vinyl printed to look like different kinds of reptile skin.

  “You may color your animal any way you want,” said Ms. Colman. “Then you may add fur or feathers or skin, depending on your animal.”

  Pamela’s animal was a turtle. She took out her crayons and colored its head and legs green. She gave it brown eyes.

  Chris leaned over her shoulder. “Is that a barking turtle?” he asked.

  Pamela scowled at him.

  “Maybe it is a snapping turtle,” said Omar. “Snap! Snap!” He clapped his hands together as if they were a turtle’s mouth.

  Pamela pretended she did not hear him. She left her desk and went to the front of the room. In the reptile basket she found some thin pieces of plastic that were stiff like a turtle’s shell. She brought them back to her desk.

  Next to her, Leslie was gluing pieces of fake fur onto her picture of a bat. Pamela could hardly stand to look at the picture. She thought bats were disgusting and probably mean.

  Leslie glanced over at Pamela. “That is a nice picture of a turtle,” she said.

  “Thank you,” said Pamela. Leslie and Jannie had not teased her once about the dog. They had not even mentioned it. Pamela was glad they were her friends. “Turtles are probably slimy.”

  Leslie looked surprised. “No,” she said. “Sometimes they are wet, if they have been swimming. But they are not slimy. A friend of my brother’s had a
turtle. He let me pet it. The shell was hard and smooth. Like Tupperware.”

  “Oh,” said Pamela. She had never touched a turtle. She did not want to.

  “Leslie, that is a very nice bat,” said Ms. Colman.

  “Thank you,” said Leslie. “I like bats.”

  You like bats? Pamela thought in horror. Are you bananas? Pamela almost said that out loud. But she did not want to tease Leslie, since Leslie had not teased her.

  “Bats are very interesting creatures,” said Ms. Colman. “There might be some baby bats at the zoo exhibit.”

  “Cool,” said Leslie.

  Pamela felt sick.

  “When you are done with your pictures,” said Ms. Colman, “you may hang them on the bulletin board. Then we will play a guessing game about animals.”

  For the guessing game, Ms. Colman gave each student an index card. The index card had three clues about an animal on it. The kids were supposed to read the clues aloud, then guess what animal they were about.

  Karen went first. (She always tried to be first, Pamela thought.)

  “I am cream-colored with big brown spots,” she read.

  “A jaguar!” shouted Ricky. Karen shook her head.

  “I live on the African savanna,” said Karen.

  “A leopard!” cried Bobby.

  “I am very, very tall,” said Karen.

  “A giraffe?” guessed Natalie.

  “Yes!” said Karen.

  Big deal, thought Pamela. Anyone could have guessed that. She was glad the bell rang before it was time for her to read her index card. The week was over. One more week until the field trip.

  LIBRARY PROJECT

  “Good morning, class,” said Ms. Colman on Monday. “This week we will have a special library project. It will help us get ready for our field trip next week.”

  Pamela almost groaned out loud.

  “It will be your job to choose an animal — any kind of animal — and find books in the library that tell you about it,” said Ms. Colman. “Try to find out about your animal’s babies. For example, are they born live or do they hatch from eggs? How do their mothers care for them? What do they eat?”

  Tammy raised her hand. “I already know what animal I want to learn about,” she said. “I choose kangaroos.”

  “That is a good idea,” said Ms. Colman. “After you learn about your animal, you will write a report on it. Your report should be at least ten sentences long. It will be due on Friday. And our field trip is next Tuesday.”

  “Yea!” said Audrey.

  Yuck, thought Pamela.

  “I do not know what animal to choose,” Pamela told Ms. Colman. Class 2A was in the library. Most people had already chosen their animals and were looking for books about them.

  “Well, what is your favorite animal?” asked Ms. Colman.

  “I do not have one,” said Pamela truthfully.

  “Hmm,” said Ms. Colman. “Your picture of a turtle was very nice. Would you like to learn more about turtles?”

  Pamela thought about it. She did not really want to learn about turtles. But she did not have much choice. And maybe turtles would not be so bad. Any animal that felt like Tupperware could not be totally horrible.

  “Okay,” said Pamela.

  Ms. Colman and Mr. Counts, the librarian, helped Pamela find books on turtles in the nonfiction section. Pamela sat down on the floor and looked through several of them. She was surprised to find that there were many, many kinds of turtles. Some were very small. One kind was so large that a child could ride on its back. Some lived only on land. Some lived both in water and on land. And some lived almost all the time in water. These were called sea turtles.

  Sea turtles were kind of pretty. They were pale green. They lived in the ocean. Pamela did not think she would run into one anytime soon. She decided to write about sea turtles.

  “Snap, snap!” said Omar, clapping his hands by Pamela’s head. She jumped, then glared at him.

  “Will you stop that?” she whispered.

  “What is the matter, Pamela?” said Omar. “Did you think I was a fierce, maneating puppy?”

  Pamela narrowed her eyes. “I guess there is only one way to get away from you,” she whispered. “I will have to climb to the top of the jungle gym.”

  Omar quit grinning. He frowned at her. “At least I am not scared of puppies and guinea pigs,” he whispered back. Then he turned and went to another part of the library.

  Pamela looked down at her book. If someone had not left the playground gate open, no one would have found out her secret. Then Pamela would not be teased all the time. She hated being teased.

  She read some more about turtles. Dumb old turtles. She picked up two books and took them to Mr. Counts to check out.

  SEA TURTLES

  The leatherback sea turtle can grow to be longer than six feet and weigh more than seven hundred pounds.

  Gee, Pamela thought. That is one humongous turtle.

  Ms. Colman’s class was working on their reports. Pamela was reading a book called Into the Sea, which was all about sea turtles. She also had an article from a National Geographic magazine. Pamela’s father had helped her read it at home.

  “Wow!” said Ricky. “Did you know that a wild lion can practically eat its weight in raw meat? All at one time.”

  “Listen to this,” said Hannie. “Beavers’ front teeth grow their whole life. If they did not always gnaw on trees, their teeth would grow so long that they could hurt themselves.”

  Pamela tried to shut her ears. She hated hearing all these weird facts about animals. The more she knew about them, the scarier they seemed. This project was making her miserable.

  Pamela had already started to write her report. It was not due until Friday, but the sooner she wrote it, the sooner she could forget about sea turtles. She did not think sea turtles were as bad as lions or beavers. But she was ready for the baby-animal unit to be over.

  Pamela thought about writing “very sad” if turtles were all gone, but decided not to. Just “sad” was okay. There. Her report was done.

  “Pamela, guess what?” Leslie said. “Bats can eat more than twenty thousand insects a night.”

  “Oh, yuck,” said Pamela. She wrinkled her nose.

  “Cool,” said Bobby. “Do they have insect-breath in the morning?”

  Leslie giggled.

  Pamela felt queasy. “Just be quiet, Bobby,” she ordered. “Do not be such a baby. Only babies make jokes like that.”

  Bobby looked a little angry. Then he smiled a mean smile. “You are wrong, Pamela,” he said. “Only babies are afraid of puppies. So what does that make you?”

  “I am not a baby,” said Pamela.

  “Oh, yeah?” said Chris. “Only babies are afraid of guinea pigs. Wah, wah.”

  “I am not afraid of Hootie. I just think he stinks,” said Pamela.

  “You are scared to go on our field trip,” said Omar. “You are probably going to be scared of the tiny baby animals.”

  “Will not!” said Pamela.

  “She will probably stay home sick on Tuesday,” said Bobby. “She will be too scared to even come.”

  “I will not!” said Pamela. She could not admit that she had thought about pretending to be sick that day.

  “I dare you to come on the field trip,” Chris taunted her.

  “I dare you to pet a baby animal — any one,” said Omar.

  “That is not good enough. I dare you to pick up and hold a baby animal,” said Bobby. He laughed. “I know you will not do it.”

  Pamela stood up and put her hands on her hips. “No problem,” she insisted. “I will show you. You are the babies, not me.”

  The boys laughed. “We will see,” said Chris.

  Oh, no. What have I done now? thought Pamela.

  PAMELA’S PROBLEM

  “Mom!” called Tamara. “Have you seen my new jeans?”

  Pamela’s sixteen-year-old sister ran down the stairs. Pamela was sitting at the kitchen table, doi
ng her homework. She was trying hard not to think about the field trip the next day. All last week Chris, Omar, and Bobby had reminded Pamela about their dare. They said if she did not hold a baby animal, they would write “Pamela Is the Biggest Baby at Stoneybrook Academy” on T-shirts. Then they would wear the T-shirts every day for a month.

  “Which new jeans?” asked Pamela.

  “The ones with the daisies on them,” said Tamara.

  “I saw Daddy put them in the laundry basket,” said Pamela.

  Tamara smiled at her. “Thanks.”

  Pamela watched her sister fish the jeans out of the piles of clean laundry. Tamara was the best big sister ever. She never teased Pamela or made her feel like a baby. She let Pamela borrow her perfume sometimes. She let Pamela try her fingernail polish and her makeup. She even let Pamela stay in the room when her friends from high school came over. It made Pamela feel very cool. Pamela wished she could be friends with Tamara’s friends all the time. But she could not. Mostly she had to be friends with other second-graders. And they mostly seemed like babies.

  Pamela bet that Tamara’s friends would not have dared her to hold a baby animal on the field trip.

  Mrs. Harding was in her home office. Pamela could hear her typing on her computer. Mr. Harding was asleep on his recliner in the den. He did that every night after dinner.

  “Tam?” said Pamela. “I have a problem.”

  Tamara glanced up from the laundry. “Yeah? Like what?”

  “It is a major problem,” said Pamela.

  “Oh. We better have an ice-cream sandwich, then.” Tamara got two ice-cream sandwiches out of the freezer. She handed one to Pamela. “I have ten minutes before Maribeth gets here, so let’s make this fast.”

  “Okay,” said Pamela. She told Tamara the whole story, about the dog on the playground, and how Chris and Omar had been teasing her. She told Tamara about the dare on the field trip.

  “Hmm. Well, I do not like animals that much either,” admitted Tamara. “Except I think Daddy’s fish are pretty.”