Edenville Owls

Chapter 25

I hid my schoolbag in the boys’ room and threw the newspaper away in the trash barrel, then went upstairs to my classroom. I felt so strange. I felt like somebody else. I opened the back door of the classroom silently and slipped in and sat down.

“Bobby?” Miss Delaney said.

“Yes, ma’am,” I said.

“Where in heaven’s name have you been?”

“Boys’ room, Miss Delaney.”

She nodded.

“See me after class, please,” she said.

When class was over and I went to the front of the room, Miss Delaney said, “Are you feeling all right?”

“I was feeling kind of sick,” I said. “But I’m better now.”

“Why didn’t you tell me where you were?” Miss Delaney said.

“I... I was embarrassed,” I said.

She smiled.

“Yes,” she said. “I can understand that.”

“You can?”

“Of course,” she said. “Some things are embarrassing.”

I nodded.

“But we have rules,” Miss Delaney said. “And you can’t just disappear for much of the day and I let it go.”

I nodded again.

“You’ll need to stay after school today,” Miss Delaney said. “For an hour.”

That wasn’t bad.

“Yes, ma’am,” I said.

She looked at me for a moment. She had very big eyes. Like Joanie. Except hers were brown and Joanie’s were blue.

“No argument?”

“No, ma’am.”

“And what is all this yes ma’am and no ma’am business?” she said. “You are usually quite a bit more mouthy.”

“I did something wrong,” I said. “I know it. I think the punishment is fair.”

She looked at me some more.

“Very mature,” she said.

“Thank you.”

I was pretty sure she knew I was lying. But she didn’t say so.

She just smiled and said, “Now go sit down, and while you’re serving your time, please write me a two-page essay on why we have to keep track of the students in our classes.”

I went back to my desk, sat down, and got out some lined paper and a pen. I was a good writer. The essay would be easy. I knew that. Miss Delaney knew it too.

I felt bad lying to her, and worse because I thought she knew it. Just like I felt bad about sneaking into her house. I seemed to have to do a lot of bad things to do a good thing. It made me uncomfortable. It was kind of spoiling the adventure. But it wasn’t just an adventure — Miss Delaney really needed help. What I needed to do was talk with Joanie.