by Gail Donovan
“Cool!” said Becca.
“Ooh,” cooed Trina. “Poor thing!”
Some kids stayed, staring, like they couldn’t get enough. Others ran off and came back holding the hands of their little brothers and sisters. Then those kids left and came back with their friends. Josh lost track of how many kids came to see Gorfman. Fifteen, twenty, twenty-five?
“Let me see!”
“I can’t see!”
“Don’t push!” said Josh. “Everyone will get a turn.”
The kid with the buzz cut couldn’t get enough. When Josh shooed kids away, the kid got back in line for another turn.
“What’s your name?” asked Josh the next time the kid got to the front again.
“Kyle,” he said. “I’m gonna get my sister! Hold on!” He ran off across the playground.
While Josh waited for Kyle to come back, the bell rang. Kids began swarming inside for lunch. Josh waited as long as he could, but finally he zipped up his lunchbox and went in, too.
Inside, Josh scoped out the fifth-grade table. He was so late that the only seats left were way down at the boys’ end of the table. He slid onto the end of the bench, next to Ben B. and across from Ben T.
Payson was sitting beside Ben T. “Hey,” he said to no one in particular.
“Hey,” said Ben B. “Chop suey!” He made a mock karate chop.
“Sop chewey!” said Ben T., and laughed hysterically.
“That wasn’t fair,” said Ben B. to Josh. “Silent Lunch yesterday.”
“Yeah!” agreed Ben T. “Mrs. Sturdevant was picking on you!”
“Thanks,” said Josh.
“Watch out,” warned Payson. “Here she comes!”
Mrs. Sturdevant came pacing between the long tables and paused at the boys’ end of the fifth-grade table. Her face seemed like it was hardened into a permanent scowl, and even her hair seemed hard, like you wouldn’t be able to get a brush through it.
“Don’t talk!” said Payson. “Quick, eat!”
Josh took a big bite of his bagel, and Payson and Ben B. and Ben T. all shoved food in their mouths. Just then Payson caught his eye.
And then he grinned. And it was like all of a sudden they were friends again. Josh started laughing, which wasn’t great timing, since his mouth was full of bagel and cream cheese. He began coughing and choking and laughing all at once.
Mrs. Sturdevant stopped at their end of the table. “Mr. Hewitt,” she said. “Are you all right?”
Josh swallowed, coughed, and nodded. “I’m okay,” he gasped. “Sorry!”
Mrs. Sturdevant looked at him suspiciously, then moved on.
Josh and Payson and the two Bens burst out laughing.
Payson took half his sandwich and gestured to Josh. “I’ve got PB&J,” he said. “Want to trade?”
Josh didn’t really like peanut butter and jelly. But he did like the idea of not being in a fight with Payson anymore. And somehow, laughing at Mrs. Sturdevant together had felt like their fight was over. Maybe offering to trade lunches was some kind of peace offering.
“Halves?” he asked.
“Sure,” said Payson.
It felt like a truce. Not totally friends again, but not enemies, either.
They were swapping half lunches when somebody tugged at Josh’s arm.
“Hey, Cady’s brother!”
It was Kyle, with the littlest kindergartner Josh had ever seen. She had blond hair pulled back tight in two thin braids. She looked terrified.
“Hi, Kyle,” said Josh. “I waited for you as long as I could.”
“Xandra wants to see it,” said Kyle.
“See what?” demanded Payson.
“The frog with the extra leg,” said Kyle.
“You have the frog with you?” asked Payson. “I thought it was dead!” He looked half disgusted, half impressed.
“It is,” said Josh. “It’s frozen. I’ve got an ice pack.”
“Kyle!” called Michael from the middle of the table. “You guys aren’t supposed to be here! You better take Xandra back to the kindergarten table.”
Now the entire fifth grade was watching Josh’s end of the table. Xandra looked even more scared. Her blue eyes got extra big in her tiny-kid face.
Kyle didn’t budge. “Show her the frog!”
Michael stood up and came down to the end of the table. “Kyle, go back! I know them,” he explained to Josh. “Their mom’s gonna freak if they get in trouble.”
Josh hesitated. “I’ll show her later, Kyle. Okay?”
“No,” said Kyle. “Now.”
“What should I do?” Josh asked Michael. “This kid’s kind of stubborn.”
“That’s true,” agreed Michael, frowning. “Maybe you should just hurry up and do what he wants.”
Josh glanced around nervously. “All right, all right!” He opened his lunchbox and showed Xandra the frog.
Xandra screamed.
Xandra screamed the loudest scream Josh had ever heard.
Xandra kept on screaming, even after Mrs. Sturdevant swooped over and commanded, “SILENT LUNCH!”
A huge roar of protest went up from the fifth-grade table.
Payson jumped up and said right to Mrs. Sturdevant’s face, “That is so unfair!”
Even right-answer Charu said the wrong thing: “Silent Lunch because of one little kid?”
Mrs. Sturdevant took Xandra, whose screams were subsiding to a whimper, over to the kindergarten table. By the time she got back to the fifth-grade table, Principal Gorman was on the scene.
“What’s going on here, Mrs. Sturdevant?” asked the principal. She was wearing another outfit that made her look like she was playing captain dress-up, with a white jacket and big gold buttons. “And who is responsible?”
Mrs. Sturdevant pointed at Payson and said his crime, as if that was his new name. “Talking back,” she said. “Talking back”—now she pointed at Charu—“out of his seat”—that was Michael. “And that one,” she said, pointing at Josh, “he’s got something in his lunchbox that made Alexandra scream.”
“I didn’t mean to!” said Josh. “I thought she wanted to see it! I wouldn’t make anybody look that didn’t want to! But lots of kids are interested in Gorf”—Josh tried to stop himself, but it was too late—“man,” he finished.
“Interested in what?” asked Principal Gorman.
It was the silentest Silent Lunch Hollison Elementary had ever known. The entire school heard Josh’s answer.
“Gorfman,” he said. “It spells frogman, backwards—well, sort of. Actually the G-O-R-F does spell frog if you turn it around, but M-A-N isn’t backwards, that’s the man part—”
Usually Josh didn’t even feel like he was talking too much, and then all of a sudden people were mad at him. This time he did know. He knew he should shut up, but it was like he couldn’t stop.
“—I mean, I guess I could have changed it to N-A-M and had it be Gorfnam so the whole thing would be backwards, or actually I guess it would be Namgorf, wouldn’t it?, but I didn’t think of that. So”—he was finally managing to wind down—“it’s Gorfman. . . . It’s . . . my frog.”
Stifled giggles began to sweep through the cafeteria.
Josh couldn’t help himself. Giggling was contagious. He started to laugh, bit his lip to try and stop it, and ended up making a choked, chortling sound.
Leaning over, Principal Gorman slowly lifted the cover of the lunchbox.
Even Josh had to admit that Gorfman had seen better days. He was looking like . . . well, he looked like he’d been dead for three days, frozen, and then thawed.
Mrs. Gorman raised her voice so everybody could hear. “The students who were out of line with Mrs. Sturdevant will report to my office for recess tomorrow,” she said. “That means Payson Campbell, Michael Robinson, and Charu Whitting. Josh, you will report to my office for recess for the rest of the week.” Then, with a grimace, Mrs. Gorman began zipping up the lunchbox.
“Hey!” said Josh. “What ar
e you doing with my frog?”
Gingerly, holding it away from her body, the principal picked up the lunchbox. “I am confiscating this.”
As quickly as he could, Josh jumped up, but his legs got tangled in the long bench attached to the table, and he fell.
Nobody laughed. Nobody wanted to miss anything.
From the floor, he shouted, “You can’t do that!”
“Actually, Josh,” she said. “Yes. I can.”
Chapter 13
Power Up
Josh headed straight for the vernal pool when he got off the bus.
“Wait up,” said Cady, trotting along behind him. “Wait for me.”
Josh climbed the stone wall. “Stop following me, Cady.”
“I can come,” she said, struggling over the wall and trotting to catch up. “You’re not the boss of me.”
“Look,” said Josh. “I had a bad day, okay? Why can’t you leave me alone?”
“You don’t have to be so mean to me!” cried Cady. “It’s not my fault! I didn’t take your frog!”
Josh sighed. She was right. It wasn’t her fault he was in trouble. That was the problem. It never was her fault. It was always his fault. Which made it really hard to be nice to her. Still, she had a look on her face Josh didn’t like. That trembling-lip look he’d seen on Xandra’s face just before she screamed. The last thing he needed was for Cady to start screaming or crying or run tattling to their mom about what happened in school today.
“Okay, you can come. But promise you won’t tell Mom or Dad about Silent Lunch today.” He thought for a second and added, “Or Silent Lunch yesterday.”
“Deal,” she said, sticking out her pinkie finger. She loved to pinkie-promise.
Josh wrapped his little finger around Cady’s. “Come on,” he said. “Follow me.”
They bushwhacked through the woods. The ferns had unfurled even more since Josh had been there with Michael, but he and Cady waded through them easily. The bigger saplings he held aside for her.
When they reached the pool, Josh found that the tadpoles were all still tadpoles. No froglets yet. No way to tell—yet—if the tadpoles would develop the way they were supposed to, losing their tails and growing the right number of limbs.
Josh and Cady splashed around catching tadpoles until the water was too muddy to see clearly, then let the cloudy water settle and clear, then splashed around some more. A mourning dove hoo-hooed, and a chipmunk chit-chitted from a tree. Josh told Cady all about how amazing amphibians were: how tadpoles could get oxygen through gills, like a fish, but when they got to be frogs they breathed through lungs, like a human. Cady listened with a happy, important look on her face. She never told him he was talking too much.
They stayed out until they heard their mother calling, “Jo-osh! Cady!”
“Time to go,” said Josh, and just to be nice, added, “Get your pony.”
Back at the house, Cady galloped inside, the screen door banging behind her. A minute later she was back clutching two Popsicles in one hand and a toy horse in the other. She handed him a Popsicle. “Mom says it’s all-you-can-eat-Popsicles ’cause the fridge is still off and they’re going to melt!”
“Cool,” said Josh. “Thanks.”
The bucket he had used to take Gorfman to school was still sitting on the patio, and he grabbed it and scooped up a bucketful of water. “Power up, guys,” he said, pouring water on the sunflower seedlings. “Make me proud.”
“How can a flower make you proud?”
“It’s my experiment,” said Josh. “Lacey said the more I water them, the bigger they’ll grow. I’m going to save the seeds from the tallest one and use them to grow more plants next summer, and then save the seeds from the tallest one again, and in a few summers I’ll have the biggest sunflowers you ever saw.”
“Like a new species?”
Josh sat down on the steps beside Cady and took an icy lick of grape Popsicle. “Maybe not a whole new species,” he admitted. “But a new variety.”
“If you make a new flower,” she asked, “do you get to name it?”
“Absolutely,” he said. “I mean, hopefully.”
“What are you going to name it?”
It was Lacey who had given Josh the idea for his experiment, when she handed him the seeds from her biggest sunflower, saying, “My best seeds for my best boy.”
“I’m going to name it after Lacey,” he said aloud. “Lacey’s Mammoth Sunflower.”
“You’re lucky,” said Cady. She bit off the last chunk of her Popsicle and started making her toy horse canter up and down the step.
“How come?”
She made her horse jump over his leg. “You have three grandmothers,” she said.
Josh had always thought of Cady as the lucky one, not him. She had the regular number of parents and grandparents. She was the one who never got in trouble. But maybe she had a point. Matt and Lacey were awesome. Josh wouldn’t want his mom and dad to know about the Silent Lunches, but he wouldn’t mind telling Matt and Lacey. They would understand. Lacey had given him the sunflower seeds. Matt had said a prayer for Gorfman, right out loud, in church.
They wouldn’t take the principal’s side, like his parents would. They’d be on his side. They’d help him.
Wait a minute. Josh felt like his brain had just made a jump inside his head.
Matt and Lacey would help him. For real.
Josh ran into the house, grabbed his mom’s cell phone, and punched in the number. When Matt picked up, he plunged right in.
“Matt—hi—it’s me. Listen, remember that lady at church and that little girl? And the mom—I mean the little girl’s mom and the old lady’s daughter—liked frogs? And then how she ended up being a teacher? Do you think maybe she would want to see Gorfman?”
“My guess is she most definitely would,” said Matt. “Seeing as she’s a biologist.”
“So could you maybe find out if—you know—I could talk to her?”
“I’m on it,” said Matt. “I’ll call Mrs. Donatelli right now and see if I can get Dr. Donatelli’s phone number. I’ll let you know as soon as I get in touch with her.”
Josh snapped the phone shut and did a little dance.
“You’re in a good mood,” said his mom, coming into the kitchen. “Did you have a good day at school?”
“Not exactly,” said Josh. “But it’s getting better.”
Chapter 14
Plan A
When Josh, Michael, Payson, and Charu reported to the office on Wednesday, the secretary used one hand to point out where they should sit, and with her other hand she picked up the phone: “Hollison Elementary, this is Mrs. Burton, how can I help you?”
Josh sat down in one of the kindergarten-size seats. Through the open window floated the shouts of the kids at recess, and a warm breeze that made Josh wish he was outside. He bet Michael and Payson and Charu wished they were outside, too.
Charu was silently fiddling with the end of her braid. “Did Mrs. Gorman call anybody’s parents? She didn’t call mine.”
“No,” said Michael. He took a piece of paper from the basket in the middle of the table and started drawing.
“Me neither,” said Payson, folding a piece of paper into a box and batting it across the table to Josh.
“She didn’t call my house, either,” said Josh in a low voice. “Which is good, ’cause I’m already grounded from computer for . . . something else.”
“Maybe she was embarrassed,” offered Michael, “because of the name thing. Gorfman. Gorman.”
“No,” Payson disagreed. “They only call home for big stuff. Like if you hit someone.”
Payson sounded like he knew what he was talking about. Josh wondered who he had hit.
Josh flicked the paper box back to Payson, then pushed the basket of crayons toward Charu. “Here,” he said. “You’re allowed to draw.”
“We are?” she whispered.
“Haven’t you ever had office recess before?” asked Payson
in a surprised voice.
At her desk, the secretary held her hand in the air and slowly lowered it: Keep it down. Meaning, they didn’t have to be completely silent. They could talk quietly.
Charu shook her head. “I’ve never been sent to the principal’s before.” She pulled a folded-up piece of paper from her pocket and stared blankly at the page. “Besides, I should work on my spelling. I’m supposed to learn ten new words a day.” Her voice sounded like she might be going to cry.
Even though Josh couldn’t even remember the number of times he’d spent recess in the office, he knew what a big deal it would be to someone like Charu. She was easily the kid most likely to win the good citizenship award at fifth-grade graduation. Or she had been. He put down his crayon.
“Sorry, Charu,” he said. “I didn’t mean to get you in trouble.”
“It’s not your fault,” she whispered. “Mrs. Sturdevant totally overreacted!”
“Totally,” said Payson.
“Totally,” echoed Michael, nodding in agreement.
“You mean . . . you guys aren’t mad?” asked Josh.
Mrs. B. hung up the phone, and for a moment nobody said anything. Then the speech therapist came in for her mail and started chatting up the secretary.
Payson leaned forward. “Sure we’re mad,” he whispered. “At Mrs. Sturdevant and Mrs. Gorman!”
“This is so messed up,” said Michael. “You made an amazing scientific discovery and instead of us studying it, we’re being punished!”
Charu wadded up her spelling list and shoved it back in her pocket. “And I went back to that site and it said that leopard frogs are on a Special Concern list. That’s like one step away from endangered!”
They all started talking at once, until Mrs. Burton said, “Keep it down, kids.”
Josh felt like he would burst if he couldn’t talk. But he felt good, too. Payson and Michael and Charu were on his side.
Payson was probably on his side because he liked being in a battle against the teacher and the principal.
Charu was on his side because she knew that some things were more important than next year’s spelling bee, and the frog was one of them.