Sadly, all my best efforts have failed and today Mom is coming to school with me. She is volunteering in the school canteen for a day. Now I love my Mom…it’s just when it comes to food she is VERY alternative. We eat enough salads to feed the vast grazing herds of Africa! Mom’s idea of junk food is dipping your carrot stick into yoghurt. If it wasn’t for Dad, I wouldn’t even know about sugar or chocolate.
Our school canteen sells what they call a balanced menu. That means some healthy foods (by normal standards) and some less healthy foods – the really yummy stuff. So I’m a bit worried about how Mom will cope having to serve up food that goes against her healthy food values.
Once at school, Mom puts on her school canteen apron and bids me goodbye, with a cheery, “Be the best you can be, Madonna.” That’s my Mom, Mrs. Absolutely Positive.
I should have realized something was wrong when I kept getting odd looks as some of my classmates arrived in our room, after putting in their canteen orders.
Lunchtime revealed the full extent of my problem when a group of about ten students approached me as I sat next to Shelby and we began eating our lunch. Tiny (my nickname for David Burrows – the class football hero – who was actually a giant!) stood in front of me. “Maddi, is that your mother in the canteen? The one who is ruining all our lunches!”
“Well,” I mumbled, “my mom is in the canteen, she is quite a good cook, I don’t think she would RUIN anyone’s lunch.”
Then the whole group started yelling out their complaints in a storm of jumbled words.
Books for Girls - 4 Great Stories for 8 - 12 Year Olds Page 20