Harry gets to transfer the guinea pig into her larger habitat. She feels quivery and warm in his hands.
He takes some cucumbers from his lunch box and puts them in her food bowl. “Bye-bye, Goblin. I love you. I’ll come see you again soon.” Then he turns to Charlotte’s teacher, Ms. Gillooley. “Guinea pigs need friends,” he tells her. “I learned it from my library book. Goblin needs at least one other guinea pig in order to be happy. Also, she likes strawberries, but she should only have them sometimes, for a treat.”
“Thank you for telling me that, Harry,” says Ms. Gillooley. “I will take that information very seriously.”
“You’re welcome,” says Harry.
As he walks back downstairs to Ms. Peek-Schnitzel’s first grade, Harry realizes something: it is the last thing he ever thought he’d be, but Harry Bergen-Murphy is now a guinea pig expert.
DAY 63. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11
Today is the first day Ms. Peek-Schnitzel’s kids have computer class. They will have computer once a week for ten weeks. Everyone is so excited. The computer teacher is Ms. DeRosa. She wears all black and has her hair in a tight bun. She smiles at them as she wheels in one cart and then another, both filled with laptops.
“Everybody sit on your hands,” she tells them.
All the kids sit on their hands while Ms. DeRosa puts a laptop in front of each person. Harry wants to touch his so badly! He is allowed to play on Mommy’s tablet but never her computer.
Finally, they open their laptops. The teacher explains all the parts. Each computer has a screen, a keyboard, and a trackpad. “Please don’t touch any buttons on the keyboard!” she says. “You are still just looking with your eyes.”
Ms. DeRosa makes sure they all have a program open about honeybees. It’s a game! Now she lets them use the trackpad. Harry practices using it to touch bees that are flying across the screen. Next, they practice dragging the bees down to flowers so they can go home to make honey.
Mason leans over. “It’s not as good as Fluff Monsters,” he says. “Plus I know how to use a trackpad already.”
“It’s almost as good,” says Harry. “My bees are gonna make so much honey.”
Later, the students do a keyboarding exercise. They have to find the letters of the alphabet and type them. A is for anteater, and when you have typed all your As, an anteater pops up on the screen. B is for bear.
Harry is glad because after he types all his Gs, there is a goat. And he sits at Goat Table!
He looks up to tell Mason, but Mason is sitting still, with his lower lip sticking out.
“What’s wrong?” whispers Harry. Ms. DeRosa asked them to stay quiet.
“I got bored. Then I typed buttons I wasn’t supposed to type,” says Mason. “Or maybe I clicked something. I’m not sure.” He turns the screen to face Harry. It has a bunch of words on it in a tiny font. “I can’t make the animals come back. The computer went blurp!”
“Let’s close it and hide it,” says Harry. “Then she’ll never know.”
“Great idea,” says Mason.
“She’ll be able to tell,” whispers Diamond, still typing. “She knows we are six kids at Goat Table, so there must be six computers.”
“Mason can go to the bathroom,” says Harry. “Then there will be only five kids.”
“I’m going right now,” Mason tells Harry. “You hide the computer.”
Mason goes over to Ms. Peek-Schnitzel and gets the bathroom pass. Harry closes Mason’s computer and slides it onto his lap.
Where can he hide it? Can he get it into one of the book bins? Will it fit in someone’s backpack? Can he put it underneath a pillow in the reading area?
Oh, no! Ms. DeRosa is coming over to Goat Table. Harry shoves Mason’s laptop up his shirt.
Then he goes back to typing. H is for hippo.
Ms. DeRosa looks at the screens for each kid. She squats down by Harry.
He is feeling kind of sweaty, but he keeps typing. I is for iguana. J is for jaguar.
“Excuse me,” says the teacher. “I think one of my computers has climbed up your shirt.”
“Oooh, busted,” says Diamond, very quiet.
“Will you take it out, please?” says Ms. DeRosa. “That’s not how we handle our laptops at the Graham School.”
Mason comes back from the bathroom. He sees what is happening and stands frozen in the doorway. Harry takes the laptop out from under his shirt and gives it to the teacher.
“What is going on here?” Ms. DeRosa asks Goat Table.
No one says a word.
Ms. DeRosa looks at her clipboard. “I see this is computer number five and it was checked out to Mason. Which one of you is Mason?”
No one answers. Harry bites his lip.
Finally, Mason comes over. “I am Mason, and I typed keys I should not type,” he says. “Sorry.”
“I am Harry, and I put the laptop up my shirt,” says Harry. “I’m sorry, too.”
DAY 64. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12
Ms. Peek-Schnitzel makes a chart of people’s ages. It has numbers up to one hundred. She tells them her age. She is sixty-three years old. Her husband, Carl, is sixty-four. Her mother, Nanny, is ninety.
In Harry’s home, Mommy is thirty-eight, Harry is five, and Charlotte is nine. All the kids chart the ages of the people who live with them.
Students want to include their dogs and cats and ferrets, but Ms. Peek-Schnitzel says it’s only for humans. “Our chart shows one hundred years,” she explains. “Humans can live to be one hundred, but dogs and cats never do.”
“But they could,” says Mason.
“No, sadly, they can’t,” says the teacher. “I’m sorry.”
“But maybe,” says Mason.
“It isn’t going to happen, I’m afraid,” says the teacher. “I wish it were different, though.”
“We don’t know for sure,” says Mason. “It still could maybe happen.”
“We’re only going to put people on the chart,” says Ms. Peek-Schnitzel.
“I don’t want Pebble to die,” says Mason.
DAY 65. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13
Harry’s wiggly tooth falls out during morning meeting. Just falls out! He feels it in his mouth and then it is in his hand, looking small and a bit bloody.
The teacher helps him save it in a plastic baggie. He shows everybody the gap in his mouth. It feels slippery when he touches it with his tongue.
“You have a real first grader smile now,” says Ms. Peek-Schnitzel. “You must be getting comfortable in first grade. Am I right?”
She is right. Harry grins.
At recess, Harry and Mason sit side by side on top of the small climbing structure. “I don’t want to turn six,” Mason says.
“Why not?” Harry asks. “I want to turn six.”
“I just don’t.”
“But you have your party. I’m going to your party,” Harry says. Mason’s party is coming up.
“I want my party,” says Mason. “I just don’t want to get old. What did it feel like to lose your tooth?”
“It felt unusual,” says Harry.
DAY 66. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14
All morning, Mason keeps poking his teeth and telling Harry they are wiggly, but Harry isn’t so sure. During writing, the students have to write four sentences using their sight words of the week: friend, tired, play, and happy.
Mason writes:
Harry is still trying to think of sentences. He looks at Mason’s paper. “Did Pebble die?” he asks.
“No,” says Mason. “It’s just a story.”
“Why did you write a sad story?”
“My babysitter’s dog died,” says Mason. “So now I’m worried.”
Harry looks at Mason. Then he writes his own story.
He r
eads it to Mason. Mason grins. “ ’Cause we’re best friends, right?” he says.
“Right,” says Harry.
“You guys are always talking about what best friends you are,” says Diamond.
“Yup!” says Harry.
“But you know,” says Diamond, “you could have lots of best friends. It doesn’t have to be leaving other kids out, the way you make it.”
“What?” Harry never thought of it like that.
“It’s true,” says Kimani. “You talk about it a lot. Like, I could say I have a first best friend and a second best friend and a third best friend. I could say that, and give people numbers, but I don’t. Because it could make kids cry and stuff, that’s why. And my parents said not to.”
Oh.
Harry looks at Abigail. She has finished her sentences and is tracing her name over and over with a pink pencil.
He looks at Wyatt. Wyatt is done writing and now has a book to practice reading. Neither of them glances up.
Harry feels himself flush. He is glad when Ms. Peek-Schnitzel asks them to get in line for lunch.
DAY 67. MONDAY, DECEMBER 17
Winter break is coming soon. Kids are talking about baking Christmas cookies and going to see the decorated windows of the department stores. Kimani is making people presents out of yarn. Harry and Mason went ice skating on Saturday with Harry’s mom. Abigail and Diamond saw The Nutcracker.
Some people are going on trips while school is out, but Harry will stay home. Baba and Grandpa Mike will come to visit and sleep in the living room. They will make latkes for Hanukkah. Harry and Charlotte will get presents. On Christmas Day, the family will go out for Chinese food and a movie. Harry won’t see his dad, because Daddy is going to Ireland.
At morning meeting, Ms. Peek-Schnitzel writes the word tradition on the Sparkly Word Wall. She explains that it means a thing your family does every year, passed on from grandparents to parents to kids. “What winter holiday do you celebrate?” she asks.
Everyone raises a hand.
“Let’s make a list,” says Ms. Peek-Schnitzel. “Our traditions might be different, but we all have them. We might eat special foods, or pray, or do ceremonies, see family, or have parties.” Kids all want to share their traditions. Some students celebrate just one holiday. Some celebrate more than one. The teacher writes on the whiteboard.
“It’s a poem!” shouts Diamond after everyone has spoken.
And so it is.
They practice saying the list together.
Christmas. Christmas.
Kwanzaa and Christmas.
Hanukkah. Hanukkah. Hanukkah and Christmas.
Solstice. Hanukkah. Christmas. Christmas.
Christmas. Diwali, but it’s over already.
Ramadan, but it’s not yet.
(and pause)
Ramadan, but it’s not yet.
(and pause)
Christmas. Christmas.
Kwanzaa and Christmas.
New Years!
Hanukkah. Nikommo, and Christmas.
Bodhi Day. Hanukkah. Christmas. Christmas.
Christmas and Diwali, but it’s already done!
Harry starts clapping out the rhythm as they read it.
The other kids clap, too. It is such a happy beat.
“Can we do it again?” he asks when they have finished. Ms. Peek-Schnitzel invites everyone to stand. She points at the words as they clap and dance to the rhythm of their first-grade holiday poem.
DAY 68. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 18
It’s Holiday Feast Day in Ms. Peek-Schnitzel’s class. Parents and caregivers come in the morning and bring snacks to celebrate the season. Harry’s mom is here.
They are not harvest snacks, thank goodness. Instead, there are round pecan cookies dusted with powdered sugar, carrot cupcakes from Abigail’s dad, candied orange peel, and thin Russian pancakes. Also, brownies with red and green candy on top, cinnamon buns, baklava, and tiny cupcakes, decorated blue and white for Hanukkah.
Some parents explain how the food they brought connects to their family traditions, but honestly, Harry doesn’t listen. He is too busy eating brownies.
Everyone fills their plates, and the classroom is buzzy and happy.
Then Wyatt pukes. He pukes all across Goat Table.
And the floor.
And the chair.
And his shoes.
Diamond screams. Mason screams. Harry’s plate of treats is all pukey. Ms. Peek-Schnitzel runs over with a towel and begins wiping Wyatt.
“It is too much sugar,” says Wyatt’s grandma, touching his back.
Wyatt is crying. Big blobby tears run down his face and into his drool and into his puke. Grown-ups run around with damp paper towels, helping to clean. Kids scream and point.
Harry is sad about his plate of treats, but he remembers how it felt to puke at school.
Terrible, that’s how.
Poor Wyatt.
Harry goes to the classroom sink. He gets a paper towel and wets it. He gives it to Wyatt so Wyatt can wipe his face. “I’ll take him to the bathroom,” Harry tells Wyatt’s grandma.
He gets the bag of extra clothes from Wyatt’s cubby and they go together down the hall.
DAY 69. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 19
Wyatt is back at school already. “Careful with your pants!” he says to Harry as he slides into his chair for math. Wyatt reaches over and pulls back Harry’s waistband. Snap!
“Wyatt!” The name pops out of Harry’s mouth, pretty loud.
“What?” says Wyatt. “I’m just kidding.”
“Stop it.” Harry can’t quite believe how strong and bossy his own voice sounds.
“What’s the big whup?” says Wyatt. “It’s a joke.”
Harry thinks about what Ms. Peek-Schnitzel has told him about using his words to say his feelings. “Stop it. Stop it forever, please, because it scares me. And thank you very much.”
“Stop it from me, too,” says Diamond. “That isn’t how you tell a joke, Wyatt.”
“Me too,” says Mason. “Stop it forever and ever.”
“Whatever.” Wyatt looks at his five table mates. Then he looks away. Ms. Peek-Schnitzel puts a bin of Mathlink cubes on Goat Table. Wyatt gets very interested in choosing red and yellow cubes. They all get interested in choosing cubes.
“Okay, fine, I’ll stop it,” says Wyatt finally.
DAY 70. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20
During art, Ms. Yoo sets out jars of craft supplies. “We’re going to make holiday picture frames for your families,” she says. “You’ll cover a cardboard frame with buttons, pasta, beans, and other items. When the frame is all decorated, bring it to me and I’ll spray-paint it gold or silver. It’ll be ready to take home tomorrow, once it’s dry.”
There are six shapes of pasta, several kinds of dried beans, buttons in different sizes, paper clips, Legos, and more. Students each get a bowl. They walk around collecting what they want to glue onto their picture frames.
Harry starts with bow-tie pasta. He glues them across the bottom of his frame and up one side, but when he goes back to get more, they’re gone. No more bow ties.
Wyatt has a different problem. He started with sequins, and they’re so tiny, they’re hard to work with. He only has one line of them along the edge.
“I’ll never finish,” he says.
“I’ll never finish,” says Harry.
“What if I get you more bow ties and you can help me glue sequins?” Wyatt suggests.
Harry isn’t sure he wants to work with Wyatt.
“I know Amira and Robbie both have bow ties,” coaxes Wyatt. “I can definitely get you more.”
Okay, then. Wyatt gets Amira and Robbie to share their bow ties while Harry glues sequins on Wyatt’s picture frame
.
“My grandma is going to be happy,” says Wyatt when the projects are done.
“My baba is going hug it and kiss it and carry it in her purse all the time,” says Harry.
Ms. Yoo spray-paints both picture frames a beautiful gold.
DAY 71. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21
On the day before winter break, the Graham School hosts a holiday concert during last period. The music teacher, Ms. Boggs, stands up and gives a speech. Ms. Peek-Schnitzel’s kids stand with the other first-grade classes and sing “Jingle Bell Rock.” They all have jingle bells to shake during the song.
After the concert, there is a bustle of coats and hats. Grown-ups say “Have a good holiday” and “Happy new year.”
Everyone walks out of the auditorium into the snow. It falls joyfully on Harry’s face as he holds hands with Mommy and Evaline. Charlotte walks ahead with a group of her friends.
“Hey, Harry!” Wyatt calls. He is with his grandmother, just behind them.
Harry turns around.
Bam! A snowball hits him in the arm. Snowball fight!
“I’ll get you!” Harry yells, bending down to scoop some snow into a ball. He throws it at Wyatt.
Thwack! It hits Wyatt on the leg.
Wyatt makes one and throws it back. It hits Harry’s shoulder and sprays snow onto his mom.
“Kids,” says Mommy, laughing. “Please.”
Wyatt throws another. Harry throws another.
Wyatt throws one that goes right in Harry’s face.
“Children,” scolds Wyatt’s grandma. “That’s enough. You’re getting snow on everyone.”
Then they’re at the corner. Harry has to turn, heading down the street to his apartment. Wyatt and his grown-ups begin to cross the street.
Harry Versus the First 100 Days of School Page 7