Harry Versus the First 100 Days of School

by Emily Jenkins

  But Harry is certain that Evaline is wrong.

  “I like people who don’t pull pants down,” he says. “My pants are nobody else’s business.”

  DAY 26. MONDAY, OCTOBER 15

  Jobs change today. Wyatt gets to be Line Leader. Diamond’s new job is Paper Passer. Mason is Book Bin Monitor. Kimani is Calendar. Abigail is Electrician, which means she gets to turn the lights off when they leave the room.

  Harry’s job is Plant Manager. He is supposed to check the classroom plants to see if they need water. If the dirt is dry, he waters them.

  The plants are ugly and brownish green.

  Who wants to be Plant Manager?

  No one in a million years, that’s who. No one in all of Brooklyn, thinks Harry.

  “Can I switch to Line Leader?” he asks Ms. Peek-Schnitzel at the end of the day.

  “My friend, you know there is no switching jobs.”

  “What if Wyatt wants to switch?”

  “There is just no switching. Everyone will change jobs in about a month anyway.”

  “What if Wyatt loves plants so much? Because I think he loves plants. I think maybe he told me he loves ferns and other planty things. Yes.”

  “Just stick with your job,” says the teacher. “You might grow to like it.”

  “What if I switch with Kimani? I could go back to Calendar.”

  At this, Ms. Peek-Schnitzel ruffles his hair. “There is just no switching, no switching, no switching, my persistent friend Harry Bergen-Murphy,” she says. “Do you know what persistent means?”

  “Annoying?” Charlotte calls Harry annoying sometimes.

  “No, no. It’s a compliment,” says Ms. Peek-Schnitzel. “Persistent means to continue trying even when things aren’t going your way. You’re very persistent, and I admire that.”

  “So…”

  “So there is still no switching,” says Ms. Peek-Schnitzel.

  DAY 27. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 16

  All first graders at the Graham School study Self and Community. That’s why Ms. Peek-Schnitzel’s students made self-portraits and drew family circles. Today they go on a neighborhood walk. It is bright and sunny outside.

  The teacher talks to the kids about shop owners and community workers. She points out the trees along the sidewalks: ginkgoes, northern red oaks, and crabapples. “Crabapple trees have always lived in Brooklyn,” she tells them. “But the ginkgo trees were brought over from China. Crabapples are indigenous plants. Remember our sparkly word? Ginkgo trees are not indigenous.”

  Three parents go on the walk with the class: Kimani’s mom, Orlando’s papa, and Robbie’s mom.

  They pass the firehouse and see a real fire engine. They pass a bus stop and watch the city bus drive by. The last stop is a visit to D’Angelo’s bakery, owned by Ms. Peek-Schnitzel’s friend Gina D’Angelo. Ms. D’Angelo shows the kids her bakery kitchen. There are racks for the trays of cookies and a whole wall of ovens. Huge silver mixers stand in a row. They look even more fun to use than the electric pencil sharpener.

  After the tour, Ms. D’Angelo lets them taste samples. Harry tastes an Italian lace cookie, a rainbow cookie, and an anisette. The anisette is yuck. He sneaks a second lace cookie.

  “Maybe I could be a cookie-baking expert,” says Harry, chewing.

  “Great idea,” says Mason. “I would love if you were a cookie-baking expert. ’Cause I could help eat the cookies!”

  “And I would give you cookies, ’cause we are best friends,” says Harry.

  Wyatt shakes his head. “You can’t do that in first grade,” he says. “It’s like dangerous mixing machines and hot ovens.”

  “I help my mom bake cookies,” says Harry.

  “Everybody does that,” says Wyatt. “That’s not an expert.”

  “I could be an expert at eating cookies,” says Harry.

  “You are already,” says Mason, pointing to the partly eaten lace cookie in Harry’s hand. “You bit it, you chewed it, you swallowed it. You’re an expert!”

  “Nuh-uh,” says Wyatt. “Anyone can eat cookies.”

  On the way home, Mason and Harry walk together. It doesn’t matter that Wyatt is acting all proud to be Line Leader. Mason and Harry don’t need him.

  He’s not even their friend.

  DAY 28. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17

  Halloween is coming. In Harry’s neighborhood, grown-ups will sit on the steps of their homes with bowls full of candy for trick-or-treaters. Before the holiday, they decorate their buildings with pretend spider webs and spooky plastic statues.

  Harry’s mother put four big pumpkins on the steps of their apartment building. A neighbor taped a paper skeleton to their front door. Another neighbor put out a white blow-up ghost and a bunch of orange lights. Now Harry’s building looks very Halloweeny!

  Mommy will be a butterfly. She wears the same pair of wings every year, on top of her coat. Charlotte will be a vampire. And Harry has thought of the best Halloween costume. He’s going to be Gar-Gar, the black-and-yellow Fluff Monster!

  Yesterday after school, Evaline took Harry and Charlotte on the subway to a fabric store. They bought two colors of thick, hairy fluff material. Mommy will sew them together to make Gar-Gar.

  Today Harry has some of his fluff in his backpack to show to Mason, Diamond, and Abigail. He gets it out at recess.

  “Let’s all be Fluff Monsters!” shouts Diamond.

  Yes!

  Mason can be Boompus, the purple Fluff Monster.

  Diamond can be Gorf, the green one.

  Abigail can be Dumpler, who is red and orange.

  It is the best idea in the world.

  DAY 29. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18

  Mason has already gotten his Fluff Monster fluff. During morning playtime, he shows a tiny piece to Harry. It is so purple!

  Wyatt comes over to the cubby area where they are standing. “Is that for your Halloween costume?” he asks.

  Mason explains. “Harry, me, Diamond, and Abigail—we’re all trick-or-treating together. We’re being Fluff Monsters.”

  “Whatever,” says Wyatt. “Fluff Monsters is for babies.”

  Harry wants to push Wyatt for saying that. It makes him super mad, because Fluff Monsters is important to him.

  He clenches his fists and keeps them by his side. “I don’t want you to be a Fluff Monster anyway,” he tells Wyatt. “It’s just for me, Mason, Diamond, and Abigail. No one else.”

  Wyatt’s face crumples.

  He turns and walks away.

  DAY 30. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19

  Today for math, the teacher gives each table one hundred Dixie cups. The children line them up in rows of ten. Ten rows of ten make a square.

  “Now, what can you build together?” she asks.

  One group builds a swimming pool. Another tries to make a bus. The kids at Goat Table agree to build a castle.

  Harry stacks the cups so their rims touch. He and Mason build tall, wobbly towers. Abigail makes a castle wall. Kimani draws on two of the cups and cuts them with scissors so the cups have wings. Then she does things with tape. The cups look like dragons!

  Diamond copies her and makes some castle chickens.

  Wyatt tries to make a dragon, too, but it ends up mangled.

  “Maybe it’s a castle slug,” says Harry.

  “It’s not a slug,” says Wyatt.

  “It could be a slug if you cut the wings off,” says Harry. He goes back to putting a cup on the tippy-top of his tall tower.

  “No it can’t!” snaps Wyatt, and sweeps his arm across the table.

  The castle towers fall.

  The castle walls fall.

  The castle dragons and the castle chickens fall.

  “You ruined it!” cries Harry.

  “So what?” yells Wyatt.

&n
bsp; “We should have taped the towers,” says Kimani.

  “And the wall,” says Abigail.

  “We should have taped everything,” says Kimani.

  Diamond cries because Mason has stepped on one of her chickens by accident. Now it is a flat chicken. Mason picks up Dixie cups from the floor.

  Ms. Peek-Schnitzel comes over and helps the kids clean up. “Sometimes projects like these are frustrating,” she tells Wyatt. “We are all learning to work together. That’s part of the experience.”

  But Wyatt begins to cry. He cries without putting his hands over his face, just shaking and whimpering while his cheeks get wet.

  The teacher gets people settled with bins of books for reading and takes Wyatt into the reading area to talk quietly. She gives him a box of tissues and pats him gently on the back.

  Harry tries to sound out the words in his book, but they’re hard and he can’t concentrate. Wyatt is sniffling too loud.

  DAY 31. MONDAY, OCTOBER 22

  At the Graham School, on the day of Halloween, there will be a Storybook Parade. Students will dress in costumes inspired by characters from books. Hooray!

  Harry remembers the parade from kindergarten, but the kindergartners didn’t march. They only watched.

  “Is a My Little Pony book okay?” asks Kimani during morning meeting. “ ’Cause that’s a TV show.”

  “Is Star Wars okay?” asks Robbie.

  “If it’s in a book, then it’s fine,” says Ms. Peek-Schnitzel. “You need a copy to carry with you in the parade.”

  “Is Captain Underpants okay?” asks Wyatt.

  Harry leans in to hear the answer. He does not want Wyatt thinking about underpants.

  “Captain Underpants has lots of books,” says the teacher, “but I don’t think underpants and a cape are enough clothing for school.”

  “Is the Incredible Hulk okay?” asks Elijah. “He only wears pants and no shirt.”

  “Everyone should wear tops and bottoms, shoes and socks,” says Ms. Peek-Schnitzel. “And remember, it’s not a Halloween parade. Some of our Muslim friends, our Orthodox Jewish friends, and other friends here at Graham School do not celebrate Halloween. We don’t bring that holiday to school.”

  Harry already knows he will be Gar-Gar the Fluff Monster. He will definitely have enough clothes on.

  DAY 32. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23

  During reading, Abigail whispers to Mason, Diamond, and Harry. “We have a problem.”

  “What is it?” Harry whispers back.

  “No Fluff Monster book. We need one for the parade,” says Abigail.

  “That’s right,” says Wyatt, looking up. “If you don’t have a book, you can’t be it. Teacher said.”

  Uh-oh.

  They spend the rest of reading time looking through the books in the bins. They search for Fluff Monsters.

  They don’t find a single one.

  DAY 33. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24

  Mr. Daryl, the science teacher, has the students float pumpkins in bins filled with water. “Indigenous people here in the Northeast grew pumpkins for food, along with many other vegetables. Nowadays, pumpkins are still an important food for the many types of people in this area. We cook pumpkin pies, soups, and muffins, especially at this time of year, the harvest season.”

  The little pumpkins float.

  The big pumpkins float.

  “That’s because they’re mostly hollow inside,” says Mr. Daryl. “They’re not as dense as the water. Later today, we can cut them open and see the insides. When we’re done, I’ll take them home to roast the seeds and make pies.”

  Everyone is pushing pumpkins down to watch them pop back up to the surface. Harry and Mason get their sleeves wet.

  Then Harry dips his head in.

  Hee hee. His hair gets soaked. The cool water drips down his neck and over his face.

  “Your hair is unusual!” says Mason.

  Harry rubs his head to make his hair stick up. “Now it’s even unusualer.”

  Mason dips his head in. The water makes droplets all through his hair.

  Harry dips his head in again.

  The bin tips over. Water floods the science room.

  Uh-oh.

  Mr. Daryl strides over.

  “He’s gonna be mad,” Harry whispers to Mason. “He’s gonna yell. Cover your ears.”

  But the teacher just laughs. “Today is the first time I ever did this project with first graders,” he tells them. “Good thing I brought towels.”

  Mr. Daryl gives the boys towels, and they help dry the floor. When Harry looks up, he sees that Wyatt and his partner, Mia, have wet hair, too. So do Diamond and Adam. “I was really hot, but now I cooled down,” says Wyatt.

  Harry smiles. Wyatt’s shirt is drenched and his hair is drippy. “That tub was like a tiny swimming pool,” Harry says. “Right?”

  “Just the right size for my head,” says Wyatt. “My head or a pumpkin. Look, I’m a pumpkin head!” He takes a pumpkin and puts it in front of his face.

  Sometimes Wyatt is funny, Harry has to admit.

  DAY 34. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25

  Parents and caregivers have been invited to the classroom. They were told to bring seasonal snacks for the Harvest Festival. It seems like seasonal means “pumpkin-flavored,” because like Mr. Daryl was saying, people have made pumpkin cookies, pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin muffins topped with roasted pumpkin seeds.

  Harry’s mom brought apple cider. She is here in her hospital scrubs, which are a bright blue top and matching pants. It’s a nurse’s uniform. She is going to work right after this. She talks to Diamond’s mama about sewing the Fluff Monster costumes, explaining how she made a fluffy hood for Harry’s head. “I’m not worrying about monster feet,” she says. “He’ll just wear his regular shoes.”

  Harry gets a plate with all four pumpkin treats. He brings them to sit next to his mom on the rug.

  Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. And yuck.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll eat them for you.” His mom laughs. “I like pumpkin.”

  “I like chocolate,” says Harry.

  She digs in her purse and gives him a square of milk chocolate. Harry unwraps it and moves onto her lap. The flavor floods his mouth, and his tongue finds a wiggly front tooth. It’s loose!

  He shows it to her even though his mouth is all chocolaty. She gives him a big squeeze.

  For the rest of the day, Harry wiggles his tooth back and forth in his mouth.

  Math, wiggle!

  Reading, wiggle!

  Recess, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle!

  He feels so different, with his wiggly tooth.

  DAY 35. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26

  Yesterday, Harry’s mother asked Evaline to take him and Charlotte to the big public library so they could look for Fluff Monster picture books.

  They looked.

  And looked.

  They researched on the computer. They even asked the librarian for help.

  No luck.

  “I’m being Harry Potter for the parade,” says Kimani today at lunch. “My dad read me Book One, and anyway, my brother already had the costume.”

  Harry knows about those books from Charlotte. “Harry Potter is a boy,” he tells Kimani. “You can’t be him.”

  “Yes I can,” says Kimani. “Harry Potter is for everybody. Didn’t your parents teach you that?”

  “I have to be a Fluff Monster,” says Mason. “My dad already bought the fluff.”

  “Mama bought the fluff, too,” says Diamond. “And started sewing. No way she’s going to make a different costume.”

  “My whole costume is finished already,” says Abigail.

  So is Harry’s.

  But do Fluff Monster books even exist? There are only five
days left until the parade.

  DAY 36. MONDAY, OCTOBER 29

  Harry’s mom took him shopping over the weekend. There were no Fluff Monster books at the nearby bookstore. “There has been a book published,” said the store lady, looking at her tablet. “But just one. It’s called Fluff Monster Party. And sadly, it is out of print. I can’t get it for you. I think you’ll have to find it at the library.”

  “We already checked the library,” said Harry’s mom. “But thank you.”

  Now, on her day off and while Charlotte is at a playdate after school, Mommy takes Harry to a farther-away bookshop.

  There is no Fluff Monster book there, either.

  As they walk home, Harry asks if she would order it from an online bookstore.

  “Let’s try,” she says, checking her phone.

  Yes, she can buy Fluff Monster Party, but because the book is out of print, she can only buy it used. That means it will ship slowly from the used bookshop.

  Too slowly.

  There is no way Harry will get it by the day after tomorrow.

  Bam! Bam! Harry stomps his feet. They are walking under Mommy’s umbrella. He is hungry and cold and his feet just stop walking and start stomping instead.

  Bam! Bam!

  She bends down to look him in the eye. “Can you use your words?”

  Harry nods but says nothing. No words come.

  “Do you want to say the words out loud?”

  “I’m…disappointed!” yells Harry. “Disappointed and mad. Plus disappointed and mad!”

  A lady walking by turns to stare at him, but he doesn’t care.

  “We could call it D and M,” says Mommy. “That might be easier to say. It could be a code between us.”

  “D and M!” yells Harry.

  “D and M!” yells Mommy. “But listen,” she says in her normal voice. “I’m sure Ms. Peek-Schnitzel will be flexible about the storybooks when she sees how awesome your costumes are. She’s a very nice teacher. I’ll just tell her we had trouble finding it.”