* * *
The regional bee was in two weeks. It was going to take place in the capital, over an hour away, and Mom was coming with me. The Singhs had invited us to join them for dinner after the bee. I expected the dinner was really going to be a victory celebration for Hari. I’m sure that’s what his parents expected, too.
It would have been the best time of my life if only Atticus had been speaking to me.
The past couple of weeks had been horrible. I tried to talk to him over and over again. But he wouldn’t even look at me. Every time I called him, Mrs. Brightwell (with a hint of glee in her voice) told me he couldn’t talk right then. At lunch, Atticus started sitting in the middle of the Ms. Smith table, as far away from me as humanly possible. At recess, he played baseball and kickball and zombie with the boys.
It wasn’t Mae who leaked his secret. It was Hannah. She overheard us talking about it when we came back to the living room after taking care of Noah. We thought Hannah was sleeping, but clearly, she was not. Mae found out that Hannah told her friend Scarlett Murphy about Atticus, and since Scarlett is the blabbermouth of fifth grade, it went viral. Mae felt terrible about it and even tried to talk to Atticus. He wouldn’t listen to her, either.
I told my mom everything. Well, everything except what his secret was. Even though, because of me, it wouldn’t be hard for her to find out. My mom came up with the idea to call Caroline. So I did. I told her what happened and Caroline listened. She told me she would talk to Atticus but that maybe I should give him some time. When I hung up the phone, I was relieved to know that at least one of the Brightwells didn’t completely hate me.
It was strange not having Atticus to talk to. I didn’t remember what that was like. I could talk to Mae and Isabel at recess, and play with them, too, but it wasn’t the same. I realized that with a best friend it’s the bits in between the talking that are just as important. The bits where you’re not talking. Where you’re not playing. Where you’re not doing anything. You’re just being friends.
I started taking the acorn he gave me to school every day. For luck. I needed luck. More luck than was in that little acorn but I kept it with me anyway. If I ever needed a magical power, now was the time.
* * *
Spring arrived, and that meant the Grover Cleveland fifth grade was going to the zoo. It was a forty-five-minute bus ride to the city of Kent and the medium-sized zoo there. On the bus, I sat next to Marcus Johnson in the seat behind Sissy and Elena.
Elena and Sissy were talking loudly about this girl and that boy. It didn’t take long before they were talking about Atticus. I knew Elena was trying to make me angry and it was working. I watched her ponytail bounce up and down every time the bus hit a pothole, and I wished I had a pair of scissors. If I had, that ponytail would have been mine.
The three buses from Grover Cleveland arrived at the zoo at 10:00 a.m. Atticus and I had been excited about the zoo trip forever. We had been to the zoo before but not on school buses—not on school time. I was so jealous last year when I watched the fifth graders board the zoo bus. Atticus and I saw the whole thing through Ms. Kinney’s window. That was when we were in the same class. That was when we were looking forward to going on the zoo trip together.
The bus door opened with that whoosh sound it makes, and we started getting off. We lined up in our classroom lines and each line had a line leader for the day. The line leader for Mrs. Jackson’s class was Augustus Sawyer, and he thought that was great. He wore a big blue hat with a pirate flag sticking out of it. We couldn’t miss him if we tried. Every class had a parent volunteer with them as well. Our parent volunteer was Chloe’s mother, Mrs. Martin.
Mrs. Jackson blew a whistle and everybody quieted down. She was standing next to a woman with long blond hair, khaki shorts, and a clipboard.
“Students, this is Miss Heather,” Mrs. Jackson said. “She is going to be our zoo guide for the day. Please stay in your class lines and we will proceed into the zoo area.”
“Welcome to the zoo, fifth graders!” Miss Heather said, very enthusiastically. “We’re going to have a great day! We have so many mammals and birds and reptiles to visit. And I know you all can’t wait to see how far we’ve come on the new gorilla exhibit. It’s going to be quite a day!”
Atticus was standing up ahead in the Ms. Smith line. I wondered if he could tell I was looking at him and wouldn’t turn around. Mae’s friend Emma was standing in front of him. Her last name was Ballard, so she always came before Brightwell in the line. She turned and said something to Atticus and I heard him laugh.
I looked down at the ring I was wearing on my finger. It was silver with a little elephant on it. My dad gave it to me for my eighth birthday but I hadn’t worn it for a long time. Then I felt for the acorn in my pocket. It was there. All I needed was a four-leaf clover and I would be set. Mrs. Jackson blew her whistle again and we started moving toward the zoo.
Once we were inside, we were allowed to get out of our lines as long as we all stayed together. Mrs. Mendez was in charge of keeping us in one big group and she was very serious about it. When Marcus ran over to look at the three-toed sloth, Mrs. Mendez went after him and dragged him back by his ear. I guess that was the only snot-free spot she wasn’t afraid to touch.
We visited the reptile house and saw an alligator, many snakes, and a very large and old turtle. The turtle was inside a fence all by himself. I stopped and stared at him. He seemed lonely.
In the bird enclosure, we saw flamingos, cranes, and a peacock with the longest feathers I had ever seen. Miss Heather told us to watch as the peacock opened his feathers like a big fan. It was beautiful. The feathers were all kinds of colors. I looked at Atticus, who was watching with Adam and Kevin. It was the kind of thing Atticus and I would have talked about for days.
Then we went to see the mammals. Everybody liked this part of the zoo trip the most. It was fun to watch them feed the giraffes and rhinoceroses. Miss Heather told us how animal groups had all kinds of interesting and weird names. “You all know that cows come in herds but look at Mr. Rhino over there,” she said. We all looked at the huge rhinoceros with the giant horn growing out of his head. “Does anyone know what a bunch of rhinoceroses is called?”
She waited but nobody answered.
“A crash,” she said. “A group of rhinos is called a crash of rhinoceroses.”
“No way,” I heard Augustus say.
“Way,” said Miss Heather. “And guess what they call a group of giraffes?” One of the giraffes lifted up his long neck and turned to us as if he were waiting for an answer.
“It’s called a tower. A tower of giraffes,” she said when no one answered. “A crash of rhinoceroses ran down the hill and crashed into a tower of giraffes. Get it?”
“Tell us some more!” a kid from Mrs. Mendez’s class said.
“Okay, there’s a zeal of zebras. A cackle of hyenas. An unkindness of ravens and—look over there!”
We looked over at the elephants just in time to see one of the really big ones blow water out of her trunk. “That’s Bessy,” Miss Heather said. “And Bessy has been at this zoo for twenty-six years. She is one of our favorites here and Bessy belongs to a parade of elephants. As in, Bessy joined her parade of elephant friends as they marched in the elephant parade down Main Street. Get it?”
We followed the exuberant Miss Heather onward, along the zoo path. She showed us a sleuth of bears and then, a pride of lions.
I walked by myself among the other fifth graders. I saw Mae in her group of Hannah, Courtney, and Emma and wondered what a group of girls would be called. They were laughing and taking pictures of the animals. I knew I could have joined them if I wanted. I just didn’t feel like it.
Up ahead, I saw Elena, Sissy, and Chloe. They were always together. They were like the cackle of hyenas we saw. They hunted together and pounced together. A cackle was a good name for the group of them.
Then there was Isabel. She was walking with her eyes in the book she w
as holding. As far as I could tell, she didn’t even know we were at the zoo. In that moment, I realized I wasn’t a Mae or an Elena. I was an Isabel. An Isabel without an Atticus.
We followed Miss Heather around the winding path and then she turned to us, very excitedly. “Welcome to the jungles of Africa and our new gorilla exhibit—still under construction but to be completed by next December,” Miss Heather said proudly as we all gathered around. “Have you heard the one about the Girl Scout troop that ran into the troop of gorillas?” She paused for a second, waiting for a response. “Get it?”
“Ha, ha,” Adam said from up front. Atticus was standing next to him pointing at a gorilla that was swinging on a tire hung from a tree.
The new part of the gorilla exhibit was very jungle-like. There were lots of trees and plants and several gorillas. It was bright and nice and the animals looked happy there. The old part of the exhibit was not so nice, though. It was behind a big wall of bars and looked like an old rusty gorilla jail. There was only one gorilla in this section. He stood alone behind the bars. He was the biggest gorilla of them all. He had massive shoulders and his back was covered in silver fur.
“Gorillas can live to be fifty years old in captivity,” Miss Heather said. “They live in small groups or troops like this one. You can see several females in the new exhibit section and then there’s Toby.” She pointed to the big gorilla behind the bars. “Toby is our silverback male and he is thirty-five years old,” she said. “He has been at our zoo for ten years.”
I looked at Toby, who was eating a humongous leaf.
“Gorillas’ hands are much like our own,” Miss Heather continued. “They have four fingers and an opposable thumb. Just like us. Does anyone know what an opposable thumb is?”
I saw Isabel look up from her book. “A digit that can bend and wrap around the other digits,” she said. Then she looked down at her book again.
“That is correct,” Miss Heather said. “Everyone look at your thumbs. See how your thumb can bend in ways that your fingers cannot. See how your thumb can wrap around all the other fingers or digits on your hand. Primates—apes, chimpanzees, gorillas—are a lot like us. They have opposable thumbs to grab hold of things like tools and bananas. They also have opposable toes. Anybody here have an opposable toe?” she asked.
I saw everyone look down at their feet. “No. None of us has an opposable toe,” she said with a laugh. “But our ancient relatives did. Over time, we just didn’t need them anymore. Some scientists think in thousands of years we won’t even have toes. Because we simply won’t need them. Who thinks we’d look funny without our toes though?” she asked.
Everybody nodded and laughed. “We would look super funny,” Marcus said as he stuck up his foot and wiggled his toes through his sandals.
“Now look at Toby,” Miss Heather said. “He has opposable toes on both his feet so that he can grab things with his toes. That way his feet work like another pair of hands. It’s pretty great being a gorilla, don’t you all think?”
“Yeah!” I heard some fifth graders yell out. Augustus started making gorilla sounds and scratching under his arms like a big monkey with a pirate flag on his head.
Miss Heather ignored him. “Gorillas are often shown on TV and the movies as aggressive animals but mostly, they are shy and peaceful. In fact, the gorilla is primarily vegetarian.”
I looked at Toby. He was a vegetarian just like Atticus. He had the biggest black eyes I had ever seen. They were sad eyes. While the rest of the fifth grade moved to the other side of the exhibit, I stood there staring at the big gorilla.
With the spelling bee and everything that happened with Atticus, I hadn’t thought much about mind-talking with animals lately. I had kind of given up on that.
But here I was, at the zoo, staring at a huge gorilla who seemed as lonely and sad as me. We both looked like we had lost our best friend.
I closed my eyes and decided to send him a message.
Toby, I said as loud as I could in my head. I’m sorry you are so sad. You look like you should be happy and free out in a real jungle. I’m sorry you’re here. But I’m glad you’re here, too. Because I could use a friend.
Mind-talking with him made me feel better—even though I knew he probably didn’t hear me. And even if he could, it didn’t matter now. Only best friends got magical powers during their Infinity Years.
It hit me like a tidal wave. Only best friends got magical powers during their Infinity Years.
I didn’t have a best friend anymore. I would never get my Infinity Year power.
My eyes began stinging under my eyelids. I had lost Atticus and my Infinity Year.
That was a lot to take in. I wasn’t sure my little self could manage it. I felt a pang deep in my stomach, so painful I doubted it would ever heal. And then, as I stood there, eyes closed, right there at the gorilla exhibit, I realized something. I had been fooling myself. Magical powers and Infinity Years weren’t for girls who betrayed their best friends. Or for girls whose dads were in jail. Of course, Atticus got his power. Atticus was good. He was trustworthy. He was the best best friend you could ever have. No wonder it worked out the way it did.
Note to self: Infinity Year powers DO NOT happen for girls like me.
I sniffed and wiped my nose with the back of my hand. I opened my eyes.
And found out that maybe I was wrong.
I watched as Toby let go of his humongous leaf and grabbed the bars in front of him with both hands. That gorilla was looking right at me.
Both of us just stood there and looked at each other for the longest time. I felt like I was breathing for the first time since I lost Atticus. I knew that even though there was silence between us, Toby and I were mind-talking to each other.
“That gorilla remind you of something?” The words startled me. I turned and saw Elena. She was standing right next to me.
“Or should I say—does that gorilla remind you of somebody else behind bars?” she said in her very mean way.
Yeah, I knew what she meant but I tried to not listen.
“Did you hear me, Avalon James?”
I bit my lip. She needed to quit talking. I saw Chloe and Sissy walk up behind her. The three of them were definitely a cackle.
“Leave me alone,” I said. Where were the teachers? I thought. Why wasn’t anyone stopping her?
“Sure. No problem,” she said, and turned to go. “But—” She wheeled back around, lifted up her camera, and pointed it toward Toby. “Don’t you think I should take a picture? We could send it to your dad. You know, from one jailbird to another.”
I couldn’t help myself. I wrapped my opposable thumb around my unopposable fingers and I punched Elena in the face. Right in front of Toby the gorilla.
Blood was suddenly everywhere. I looked down at my throbbing fist and saw the culprit. My elephant ring. It had cut Elena right across the cheek.
For a second, I just marveled at all the blood. How could I be responsible for all of that? It was the first time I wanted to take a picture all day.
Then Elena touched her face. When she saw the blood on her hand, she started screaming like I had cut off her arm.
Sissy and Chloe started screaming, too. They were pointing at me and yelling for their moms. Everything started moving in slow motion. I looked over at Toby the gorilla. He was still looking at me with his big black eyes. Miss Heather had said that gorillas were nonviolent creatures. Mostly. Well, I was mostly a nonviolent creature, too. As Mrs. Mendez grabbed my arm and started dragging me away, I hoped that Toby knew that.
The incident required five stitches and a trip to Mr. Peterson’s office. Stitches for Elena and Mr. Peterson’s office for me. That was when I found out that, like my mom, Mr. Peterson believed in consequences. Big ones.
FIFTEEN
Mr. Peterson’s office smelled like coffee and old air.
There were bookshelves against the walls filled with books of all description. Kids’ books, grown-up books, textbook
s—jammed together in spaces that were not built for so much paper. There was a first layer of books on the shelves in the regular way. There were more books stuffed on top of them. Then there were books crazily stacked in front of the other books. It was like a game of Jenga. If you added just one more book, the whole thing might come down.
I could hear Mrs. Mendez talking to Mr. Peterson in the outer office. I couldn’t hear exactly what she was saying but the general idea was: Avalon James is bad.
After Mrs. Mendez grabbed me at the zoo, I had looked for Mrs. Jackson, but she was all the way on the other side of the exhibit with most of the other fifth graders. My zoo trip was immediately terminated. Mrs. Mendez took me to the zoo office, where I had to sit in a room all by myself for the rest of the afternoon. In zoo jail.
On the way back to school, I had to sit in the front of the bus right next to Mrs. Mendez. It was terrible. She never spoke to me. All the other kids on the bus were laughing and having fun. Except for Elena. She wasn’t there.
When we got back to school, Mrs. Mendez took me directly to Mr. Peterson’s office.
I sat in a chair across from Mr. Peterson’s desk staring out the big window that looked onto the playground. It was the end of the day but school hadn’t let out yet. The fourth graders were still at recess. Another girl was sitting under my tree.
Mr. Peterson walked in and closed the door behind him. “Mrs. Mendez told me what happened at the zoo today,” he said, and sat down behind his desk.
I wanted to say, Mrs. Mendez hates me. She’d say anything to get me in trouble. But I didn’t. I just said, “I know,” and looked down at my shoes.
“Can you tell me what happened, Avalon?” he asked.
“Elena said something bad to me,” I said quietly. “I couldn’t help it.”
The Infinity Year of Avalon James Page 12
