by Nan Sweet
Chapter 3
Across the white board Mrs. Huffity had written “Responsibility” and underlined it three times. Ivy frowned and wondered if it had something to do with the homework she lost on Monday. It was found after recess folded in half inside her English book. It was with great relief that Ivy turned it in for she was one who cared a great deal about grades.
Carrie's seat was empty and had been all day. Recess was boring. Ivy had wanted to tell Carrie about the dreams she had and how weird it all was. That was when Mrs. Huffity pulled out a cardboard box. It was one of those boxes that copy paper comes in. Lifting off the cover, she said, “We're going to learn about responsibility today.”
The front row had a pretty good view of whatever it was in the box and they started oohing and aahing. “What is it?” Alison, from the front row, asked.
“It's an egg.”
Ivy groaned and Barry, who sat in the seat in front turned and whispered. “Do you know what this is about?”
“No,” Ivy wished she could say more. She liked Barry. A lot. One time he helped her find her glasses when she took them off to play. She thought she'd put them in her jacket. He was really cute with hair that flopped over his eyes sometimes. And he spent the whole time helping her look until they found them on the window ledge.
“Now, class, pay attention.” Mrs. Huffity was giving Ivy the teacher stare, although parents had it, too. Ivy hated it because right after the stare, she turned pink, or fuchsia or some other shade of red, as she did just at that moment.
David raised his hand and Mrs. Huffity called on him. Ivy wondered why. It wasn't like David ever said anything useful or nice. Usually he was just being mean or silly when he raised his hand. She thought Mrs. Huffity should just ignore him, and then maybe he wouldn't raise his hand and say mean things.
“Yes, David?”
“Are we going to color it and go Easter egg hunting?”
One of the girls next to him said, “It's almost Halloween!”
David stuck out his tongue.
“No, no. This is a special project. You will each take care of the egg, one student will care for the egg throughout the day, take it home at night, making sure of course to keep it warm. That student will then return it the next morning. The egg should hatch sometime in the next few weeks, if you've all done your jobs correctly.”
Lisa raised her hand. She sat in the back row. “Can you pass it around the class? I can't see what it looks like.”
Mrs. Huffity lifted the box onto her desk and invited each row to walk by the egg in turn. Ivy was shocked to see that the shell looked just like the one in her dream, a gentle pink and cream color with sparkling golds and green threaded through it. Inside the box, the egg rested on a dark blue flannel blanket with pink colored hearts all over it.
David stopped in front and crossed his arms. “It's not even real. It's a fake egg.”
“I assure you it's real.” Mrs. Huffity was usually a very calm teacher, but her voice had an edge just then that gave Ivy the shivers.
“So what if it hatches before we each get a turn?” David asked.
“I'll take volunteers. The egg will only hatch when it is comfortable and safe.”
Once everyone had seen the egg and was back at their desk, Mrs. Huffity took a pen and went to the giant calendar where their daily events were marked. “So, who wants to take the egg home tonight?”
Half a dozen hands went up and Mrs. Huffity slowly assigned each student to a day. “Now, Alison, you'll have the egg over the weekend. Will that be okay?”
“That will be fine Mrs. Huffity.” Alison was the prettiest girl in class and always got the best grades. Ivy knew she shouldn't feel jealous, but she couldn't help it. Everyone liked Alison.
“Well, then you can opt out of two assignments from either Friday or Monday. For the rest of you, any day you've volunteered you can skip one assignment for each day.”
“What? Why didn't you say so? Can I have a whole week?” David raised his hand. He threw one of his pencil erasers at the back of Gillian's head while Mrs. Huffity was turned to the calendar to write his name down.
“No, only a day for you to start. You'll have next Monday.”
Ivy suddenly felt a whoosh in her stomach. What if David put the egg in his locker? What if he forgot it there and then pulled out his binder and the egg fell and broke all over the floor. It probably wasn't a real egg anyway. I mean what teacher would pass a live egg to her class? And eggs needed their mamas to keep them warm. Still, she had a queasy feeling because of her dream, and all of the parts of it that came true already.
After writing down fifteen names, no one else raised their hand. Of course, there were more than fifteen people in the class, but Ivy, for one, was afraid to be responsible for that egg, especially after her dream. Mrs. Huffity noticed. “Ivy, don't you want to volunteer for a day?”
“No, thank you.” Ivy pushed her glasses up higher on her nose.
“Buck Tooth would probably accidentally sit on it anyway.” Some of the other kids laughed. Mrs. Huffity gave David a yellow card for being mean, but Ivy's feelings were already hurt. They always called her that, David and Joe. It made her feel ugly and unliked.
Mrs. Huffity carried the box to Sara, who got the first turn. She gently put the box on her lap and looked down. “Can I touch it?”
“Gently, yes. There are some rules to taking care of an egg. Here Barry, pass one of these out to each student.”
The handout said, “Care of your Dragon.”
A few members of the class snickered and other whispers rose while Barry finished handing out the papers. By then Ivy had already read hers. The egg should be kept warm and always near someone who could keep it safe. According to the rules, the egg needed companionship. From the front of the classroom, Mrs. Huffity waved the rules, “Talk to the egg as much as possible. It will make for a chatty little dragon when she hatches.”
Ivy raised her hand, curiosity taking hold. When Mrs. Huffity called on her, she said, “You keep saying her. How do you know it will be a girl?”
“It's just something I know.” Mrs. Huffity said.
David snickered and said under his breath so that the kids around him could hear, “Yeah, because she made it up.”
Ignoring him, Ivy read further down the page. Predators? Number five on the page mentioned creatures who thought baby dragons a tender morsel, quite delicious in fact. Gollivants, dwarves and minotaurs were considered dangerous with gollivants being the most troublesome to the young, although completely harmless to fully grown dragons.
She smiled. Mrs. Huffity was very imaginative. Ivy liked playing pretend, too. Sometimes she was a flying warrior with wings and a sword that whizzed through the air. Or a mermaid with a fishy tail, and when she swam through the water no one was faster or better at swimming than she was. Something always got in the way of her day dreams. She'd be asked a question or told to get out her math book or someone would say her name. Ivy sighed. She wished dragons were real. That would be exciting.
The list didn't seem too bad. Anyone could talk to an egg for a day. And they could ignore the part about hatching because everyone in the class knew the thing wouldn't hatch. She would have liked to volunteer, but her dream was just close enough to reality to scare her. Even if deep down, she knew the egg wasn't real. So she sat quietly at her desk and wondered what Carrie was doing, and barely paid attention to Mrs. Huffity's warnings about the egg hatching process.
