“It’s not an opinion,” says Wyatt. “It’s a true fact.”
DAY 48. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16
Today Harry has a plan. He got advice from Charlotte last night. He just has to wait till lunchtime.
“Abigail and Harry, sitting in a tree,” says Wyatt, as they all sit down with their pizza in the cafeteria.
“Nuh-uh,” says Abigail again. Her eyes look big and watery.
“You’re getting on my nerves, Wyatt,” says Diamond.
But Wyatt doesn’t stop.
Harry speaks loudly, saying the rhyme Charlotte taught him:
Happy llama, sad llama
Totally rad llama
Super llama, drama llama
Big fat mama llama!
Don’t forget Obama llama, yes, we can!
Moose, alpaca!
Moose, moose, alpaca!
Moose, alpaca!
Moose, moose, alpaca!
He does the hand movements Charlotte taught him, making hand llamas that swoop and wiggle with his fingers.
“Ooh, what’s that?” says Wyatt.
“Yeah, show us,” says Diamond.
Everyone does “Happy Llama, Sad Llama” for the rest of lunch and recess.
Wyatt doesn’t sing the “Sitting in a Tree” song again. He has forgotten all about it in the fun of “Moose, Moose, Alpaca.”
Harry is grateful for the llama rhyme. And for Charlotte, too.
DAY 49. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19
Today, Kimani’s mom comes to school to teach the children how to make tiny pom-poms. She wears her hair in a printed kerchief and carries a huge bag of craft supplies.
Kimani looks so proud and happy.
Harry wishes his mom would come to the classroom to do crafts, too. Or his dad. If Daddy visited, he could teach everyone that funny dance that’s like a monkey.
Kimani’s mom shows the kids how to wrap yarn around a plastic fork. You tie it in the middle and then cut the edges to take it off.
“Then you fluff it out,” she says, holding up a pom-pom.
She has four different colors of yarn.
Harry makes green pom-poms. So does Diamond. Abigail makes purple. Mason and Wyatt make yellow.
Kimani starts with red but switches her yarn so her pom-poms have all different colors together. She is good at making them already. “I do it at home all the time,” she tells the kids at Goat Table.
Then everyone glues their pom-poms to the ends of pipe cleaners so they look like flowers. They tie their bouquets with white lacy bows.
“White lacy bows are for girls,” says Wyatt scornfully.
“People shouldn’t limit themselves,” says Kimani. “That’s what my parents say.”
DAY 50. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20
Jobs change again today.
Harry doesn’t get to be Line Leader. Mia does.
Harry is only Electrician. He turns off the lights when the students leave the room.
The sight words for the week are his, her, old, and stop. As usual, Ms. Peek-Schnitzel wants the students to write four sentences to make a story using the words.
But today, Harry can’t think of any sentences. His brain won’t make them.
Wyatt is writing. Mason is writing. Kimani and Abigail and Diamond are writing.
Harry drums on the table.
Pom-pom (pause)
A dom-pom-pom
Pom-pom (pause)
A dom-pom-pom
“Harry, my friend?” says the teacher.
“Yes?”
“Please remember your sight words.”
But Harry really feels like drumming. So he drums with sight words.
Old pom-pom
His pom-pom
Old pom-pom
Her pom-pom
Mason has written his sentences already, so now he starts drumming, too. Together they go:
Old pom-pom
His pom-pom
Her pop-pom
Stop!
Old pom-pom
His pom-pom
Her pom-pom
Stop!
“Hello again.” Now the teacher is standing over them. “Mr. Mason and Mr. Harry, what is going on here? There’s a lot of noise.”
“I finished my sentences,” says Mason.
Ms. Peek-Schnitzel looks at his paper. “Yes, you did,” she says. “So I’m going to ask you to choose a book from the book bin. You may read until the lesson is over. Now, Harry?” Her voice is loud.
Harry puts his head down on the desk.
Ms. Peek-Schnitzel clears her throat. “Why is your head down?”
The words come out small. “You always yell at me.”
“I do raise my voice sometimes when my students are not listening,” she says, more gently.
Harry keeps his face down on the table. “It’s still yelling.”
“Well.” Ms. Peek-Schnitzel takes a deep breath and exhales. “I don’t want to be yelling. I really don’t. But sometimes I feel frustrated, just the way you probably do.”
“Harry made a poem, Ms. Peek-Schnitzel,” says Diamond suddenly.
“Excuse me?” says the teacher.
“He made a poem from his sight words. He had to drum it to make the rhythm good.”
The teacher wrinkles her brow, but she softens and says, “All right, Harry, would you say your poem for me?”
Harry sits up. He doesn’t dare drum, again, so he says the rhythm by itself. His voice feels tiny. He stares down at the table as he speaks.
Old pom-pom
His pom-pom
Her pop-pom
Stop!
Old pom-pom
His pom-pom
Her pop-pom
Stop!
“That will do very nicely,” says Ms. Peek-Schnitzel.
“It will?” Harry is surprised.
“It’s got a great rhythm,” says the teacher. “Now write it down, please. Silently.”
DAY 51. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21
“What are you doing for the break?” the teacher asks at morning meeting. “I am going with Carl and my mother to Carl’s brother’s house for Thanksgiving. He is a terrible cook, so I always volunteer to bake the pies. Carl makes green bean casserole.”
Kids raise their hands and say what their plans are. Wyatt’s grandma is having people over. Wyatt will help make cranberry sauce. Diamond’s mothers will have a party with rainbow tablecloths and not call it Thanksgiving at all. Abigail’s family will volunteer at a homeless shelter in the morning. Then they’ll have a cake with candles because it’s Abigail’s birthday.
Harry and Charlotte will visit their father in Boston. Mommy is renting a car and will drive them tonight. On the phone, their dad said he bought an apple pie for him and a chocolate cake for Harry and Charlotte. Daddy will make a chicken, since none of them likes turkey, and they’ll have biscuits and gravy. They will watch the Thanksgiving Day parade on TV.
Harry doesn’t know how to explain all this to the class, though, so he doesn’t raise his hand until the teacher asks about gratitude again.
“I’m grateful for chocolate cake,” he says.
DAY 52. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26
When they come back after the break, it is Abigail’s school birthday celebration. Her dad brings carrot cupcakes to the classroom after lunch.
Yuck.
Harry looks around the table. Diamond and Abigail are eating theirs happily. So are Mason, Kimani, and Wyatt.
Harry licks the frosting off his cupcake and leaves the cake part alone. It feels rotten to get excited about a cupcake and then for it not to be chocolate. Or even vanilla.
His tummy isn’t happy. That frosting
was kind of blechy.
Then Harry pukes. All across the desk. It comes out in one big blurp.
Diamond screams. Mason screams. Abigail and Kimani scream.
Wyatt laughs.
Everything is loud.
Ms. Peek-Schnitzel asks if he’s okay.
No, he is not.
She wipes the puke from Harry’s shirt and jeans. Even his shoes. Then she asks for a volunteer to take him to the nurse while she cleans up the table and the floor.
Mason takes him. He gives Harry his blue-and-red plastic horse to hold. “Ice Cream McGee will make you feel better,” says Mason as he heads back to class. “He’s a get-well horse.”
DAY 53. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27
Harry does not go to school today. He stays home sick with the flu. He even has a temperature.
Mommy stays home with him. She reads the beginning of a chapter book about a bear who might be named Edward and might be named something else, but it’s hard to understand and he keeps falling asleep, so she lets him play Fluff Monsters instead. He has to eat tummy medicine that tastes like chalk, but he still pukes three times.
DAY 54. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28
Harry does not go to school today, either, even though his temperature is almost normal.
He and his mother play Go Fish, War, and Crazy Eights. Mommy makes plain rice and Harry eats a little of it. They watch funny animal videos. They also read Harry’s book from the library, the one about wild boars, four times.
Harry thinks the wild boars look like guinea pigs, but Mommy says they don’t, at all.
When she gets home from school, Charlotte sits on his bed to do her homework. The two of them watch TV. Evaline calls to talk to him. So does Daddy. And he manages to eat some chicken and applesauce for dinner.
When he isn’t puking, it really isn’t that bad, being sick.
DAY 55. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29
Harry is back at school.
“Don’t feel embarrassed,” says Abigail, running up as soon as Harry walks into the classroom. “Everybody pukes.”
“It’s true.” Kimani nods. “Puking is for everyone.”
“I puked on the subway once,” says Diamond.
“I puked at my aunt’s house,” says Mia.
“I puked on my mom,” says Robbie.
“I puked once and it was pink,” says Orlando. “Because I ate raspberries right before.”
“I puked once and it had popcorn in it,” says Mason. “Like big, puffy popcorn blobs. Plus the whole Halloween disaster.”
“I never puked,” says Wyatt.
“Not even when you were a baby?” asks Abigail.
“Well, sure, when I was a baby,” says Wyatt. “But that doesn’t count.”
“I don’t want to talk about puke!” cries Harry. “I’m sick and tired of puke.”
Mason pats his arm. “It’s so interesting to everyone,” he says kindly. “We can’t help it.”
DAY 56. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30
Harry and Charlotte are walking to school. “I have to tell you something,” says Charlotte.
“What?”
“We have a class guinea pig now. In room 4-303.”
“That’s terrible!”
“No it’s not. Her name is Goblin,” says Charlotte. “You’ll like her.”
But Harry will not. He doesn’t want to meet a guinea pig. Even in a cage.
He figures a guinea pig is a large pig with tusks and teeth. It will be all slobbery. It might snort at him with its big wet nose.
At morning meeting, Harry raises his hand. “Did you know that there’s a guinea pig in room 4-303?” he asks.
“Sure,” says Ms. Peek-Schnitzel. “Goblin.”
Kimani raises her hand. “I love guinea pigs.”
Robbie raises his. “I love guinea pigs even more than Kimani does.”
“You don’t know that,” snaps Kimani. “You can’t measure love.”
“I don’t like them,” says Harry.
“I thought everybody loved guinea pigs,” says Robbie. “Like, everybody in the whole world.”
Ms. Peek-Schnitzel decides to take a poll, the way they did with the apples in science class. She writes Do you like guinea pigs? on the whiteboard. Each kid says yes or no.
Twenty-three students like them.
Two students do not: Harry and Abigail.
“Now I feel weird for hating them,” whispers Harry to Abigail.
“Not weird,” says Abigail. “Unusual.”
DAY 57. MONDAY, DECEMBER 3
Charlotte shows up at the door of Ms. Peek-Schnitzel’s first-grade class. “Can Harry come to my classroom for a visit, to meet our guinea pig?” she asks the teacher.
Ms. Peek-Schnitzel tells Harry he may go, but Harry shrinks into himself and shakes his head.
“Don’t you want to?” asks the teacher.
No. Harry already told Charlotte no. Why is she here talking about it again? He pulls his sweatshirt up to hide his face.
DAY 58. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4
It is library day. Everyone climbs into the make-believe ship. Ms. Tellicherry reads a story about a tiger who stops wearing clothes and runs around naked. It is so funny!
When it is time to choose books, Ms. Peek-Schnitzel walks over to Harry. “I found a book about guinea pigs,” she says, kneeling next to him. “A science book. Would you like to take it home?”
No way. Harry doesn’t want that yucky book. Why is everyone always trying to push guinea pigs on him?
He’s going to take the naked tiger book home, and that’s all there is to it.
DAY 59. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5
In science, Mr. Daryl is done with apples and pumpkins. Now he is teaching about sharks.
The children are supposed to copy the shark names into their science notebooks. Harry arranges his so they look like a poem and shows it to Diamond.
Nurse sharks, angel sharks,
Hammerheads and great whites.
Bramble sharks, carpet sharks,
Cookie-cutter, lemon.
“I know you think I’m gonna say it’s a poem,” she says. “But it’s not. Those are just shark names.”
The sharks have all different shapes and sizes. Harry likes the cookie-cutter shark, because it sounds like cookies. And because of its triangle teeth.
As the class lines up, Mr. Daryl calls Harry up to his desk. “I heard you might need some information about guinea pigs,” the teacher says.
“That’s okay,” says Harry. “I don’t need to hear about them.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, please,” says Harry. “And thank you very much, you’re welcome!”
DAY 60. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6
Charlotte taps on the door of Harry’s classroom just after morning meeting.
Really? Again?
Harry is not going up to fourth grade. He’s just not going.
Ms. Peek-Schnitzel beckons Charlotte in, but Harry’s sister disappears for a moment into the hallway. She comes back with another fourth grader. Together, they lug a wire cage that has wood shavings at the bottom.
“This isn’t her regular cage,” Charlotte says. “It’s her travel cage.”
Peeking out is a live Fluff Monster. For real!
It is fluffy like a Fluff Monster.
It has brown and white spots like a Fluff Monster might have.
It has cute beady eyes like a Fluff Monster, and stubby legs that are so short it looks like its feet are attached directly to its body.
It is the cutest thing in the world.
Charlotte and her friend set the cage right in front of Harry. The Fluff Monster wrinkles its nose and makes a snuffling sound. Harry reaches his finger out to stroke its fluffy head.
&nbs
p; “I still don’t like them,” says Abigail.
“Don’t like what?” says Harry.
“Guinea pigs,” says Abigail.
“This is Goblin?” Harry can’t believe it.
“This is Goblin,” says Charlotte.
He keeps stroking Goblin gently on the head. Her fur is soft, and he can tell she’s a little nervous. “I thought she was a giant scary pig,” says Harry.
Charlotte laughs. “Really? But I told you you’d like her.”
Ms. Peek-Schnitzel laughs, too. “I didn’t know you thought that,” she says.
“She’s a Fluff Monster,” says Harry. “Look how cute.” He pets Goblin again.
“Now that you say they’re Fluff Monsters, I might have to start liking them,” says Abigail.
DAY 61. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7
Goblin is coming home with Harry and Charlotte. The guinea pig will live in her travel cage for the weekend. They can feed her and take her out, as long as it’s just in the bathroom so she doesn’t get lost.
But what does she eat? And how are you supposed to hold her?
During lunch, Harry goes upstairs to see Ms. Tellicherry in the library. She lets him return the naked tiger book and get the science book about guinea pigs.
Harry wants all the facts.
DAY 62. MONDAY, DECEMBER 10
Harry knows everything about guinea pigs now. Mommy read the science book to him, and they watched two videos about care and feeding. For example, he learned that guinea pigs mainly eat hay, but they need vitamin C, so broccoli and red pepper are very good for them. And they make a lot of noise, like chirping and purring.
After the videos, Harry and his mom looked at like, one hundred pictures of baby guinea pigs online. There are all different kinds! Ridgeback, Peruvian, Abyssinian, Silkie, and more. Goblin is an Alpaca guinea pig.
Harry and Charlotte carry Goblin back to school in her travel cage. Harry goes up to the fourth-grade classroom. It is full of seriously huge people.
Harry Versus the First 100 Days of School Page 6
