Cricket thought about Zoe’s answer to Mr. Schraalenburgh’s question. In a way, she had been like that girl Jeanine whom Zoe knew in her old school. When she was the teacher’s pet, in the past, she didn’t have any friends either. This year she hadn’t been singled out as special by the teacher. But she did find that all the students in her class seemed to like her better. Last night Connie had called to ask her to explain the arithmetic homework, and then they had talked together about a program they had both seen on TV. Connie had never called her on the telephone before. And at lunchtime, everyone was friendlier with her than they used to be, too.
“Marmalade is the teacher’s real pet,” said Cricket.
“And now Orangeade, too,” giggled Zoe.
That evening, Zoe telephoned Cricket. She had two questions to ask her. The first was, would she like to go ice skating with her after school on Wednesday. Cricket said yes.
The second question was, could her stepfather please write a story in the newspaper about how they had found the stray orange cat and brought it to Mrs. Schraalenburgh. “He wants to tell about it, but he remembered what you said about using your name in the newspaper. Please say that it’s okay,” begged Zoe.
Cricket thought for a minute before answering. “Will he write something nice?” she asked. The whole thing had turned out fine in the end, but she still felt a little silly for bringing the wrong cat into the teacher’s home. Would Zoe’s stepfather make them sound foolish?
“I promise that it will be nice,” said Zoe.
“Okay,” said Cricket. “You can tell him yes. He can write about the search for the teacher’s pet.”
The next morning in school Mrs. Schraalenburgh smiled at both Cricket and Zoe as she reported to the class the good news that Marmalade had returned safely home. But other than that brief announcement, no other mention was made of her afternoon visitors. Cricket realized that she had been silly to expect otherwise. Mrs. Schraalenburgh didn’t have favorites. She wouldn’t want to single out the two girls who had gone out hunting for the lost cat. She would never be Mrs. Schraalenburgh’s special pet. Somehow, knowing this did not make Cricket feel sad today, although a month or two ago, she would have felt awful about it. Instead, she was awfully glad she was in this section of fourth grade. At lunchtime, she sat next to Zoe and they giggled together and planned for their afternoon of skating the next day.
And so on Wednesday two nice things happened to Cricket. She went ice skating with Zoe. She didn’t learn how to skate backwards, but she and Zoe made a date to go skating again on Saturday. In return, Cricket promised Zoe that she would teach her Chinese jump roping. Zoe had never learned how, but it was a popular recess activity in every grade Cricket had ever been in. Cricket had also invited Zoe to come to her house after skating on Saturday. Zoe was going to stay for supper and she would meet Monica, too.
The second nice thing didn’t happen until it was almost bedtime on Wednesday evening when Mr. Kaufman was reading the newspaper.
“Cricket,” he called. “Come here. I want to show you something.”
Cricket came into the living room and looked over her father’s shoulder at the paragraph that he was pointing to in the paper. She had forgotten all about the column that Zoe’s stepfather wrote for the newspaper.
This is what it said:
On Monday, two fourth-grade students from Mrs. Schraalenburgh’s class went looking for their teacher’s missing orange cat. Cricket Kaufman and Zoe Mitchell walked up and down the streets in the cold. In the end they found two things. They found the wrong orange cat and they found each other. Mrs. Schraalenburgh has adopted the homeless stray cat that the girls delivered to her house. And the girls have become good friends. Zoe Mitchell said it was the best thing that could possibly happen on a Monday afternoon.
Reading the words over her father’s shoulder, Cricket Kaufman smiled with pleasure. She rushed to the telephone to call Zoe. It was the best thing that could possibly happen on a Wednesday evening, too.
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