Miss Hennesley, our Phys.Ed. Teacher (she’s nice), has been taking our class out skating, lately She says she’ll try to get us as much ice time on the rink as she can. So I took my skates with me to school today, and we all walked over to the area rink. It’s really getting cold out now. For sure we’ll soon have snow.
We had balls of fun on the rink. It’s the second time we’ve been out skating this month. Really great. Everybody grabs everyone else’s wool toques and throws them ‘way over the other side of the rink, then you have to go looking for them. It’s fun. Kind of. Sometimes irritating, too
What wasn’t so nice I guess, was that Donna, you know, the plump girl (she’s fatter than me) well, she didn’t know how to skate even though she had a pair of skates, and Miss Hennesley said, bring them anyway. So what she did, Miss Hennesley, was get a chair out on the ice for Donna so she could hang onto it, and push it in front of her, to kind of get her skating legs. Me and Laura encouraged her. We thought it was a really good idea. Miss Hennesley said, she’s got to learn and that was the most painless way she knew of.
Well, I don’t know how painless it was. I mean, she didn’t fall or anything like that, and she was doing all right, but some of the other kids, like the in-groups and Sally too, laughed and called her a hippopotamus on ice. And Donna-Hippo, and stuff like that. Donna didn’t seem to mind this time. I guess he’s getting used to it. And we told her to ignore those ignoramus-potamouses (we made that up). Anyway, it looks like Donna is on the way to learning how to skate. She was doing pretty good, before we had to leave.
And we had to leave early. We were only there just over an hour and we were supposed to be there for an hour and a half, but what happened was, there was this accident. The kids were all fooling around like I said, and some of the girls were acting pretty silly to get the guys to notice them and all that. Well, this girl, Pearl Stafford; she’s one of the biggest show-offs wouldn’t you know? Well, she kind of fell and she fell right on her face, which is kind of a funny way to fall, because usually you fall backwards when you’re skating.
Well, she fell forward and she must’ve hit her teeth on the ice or something, because we were skating around when we heard a yell and looked around and saw a bunch of girls all in a group. Turned out Pearl had knocked off half of her two front teeth and she was bawling. Miss Hennesley skated over to Pearl and we all gathered around, and Miss Hennesley told us to keep skating, not to bunch up there.
She looked at Pearl and asked her a few questions. I guess she wanted to know if someone pushed her, probably. Of course, we all had to leave. Miss Hennesley got us all back to the school and sent Pearl home after she called her mother. Did she ever look weird, with her top lip kind of squooshed in because her teeth were half gone. I don’t care if she is a show-off. I’m sorry it happened to her. I wouldn’t want it to happen to anyone. Just goes to show you, you never know what’ll happen when you fool around too much. I guess.
“I KNEW something like that was going to happen”, Sally-know-it-all told us.
“How could you know?” Jennifer said. Not me - Jennifer Thackeray. “After all, everyone was having fun.”
“I know, because I heard Tommy Smithers say he was going to go after Pearl and give her a good shove if she didn’t stop pulling his hat off.”
“Well, he didn’t push her. She fell by herself, Smarty.” Good for Jennifer.
“That’s how much YOU know, child. I say he pushed her, then skated away so no one knew, not even her. You just can’t trust boys.” And she smirked at us like she does. “Anyway, she deserved it. She’s too damn snotty by half. That’s what my mother calls getting your comeuppance.”
“That’s an awful thing to say about someone!” I said, and I meant it. I wouldn’t even wish a mean thing like that on her. I think.
“Come on, Sweetikins”, she said to me, (the witch). “You don’t like her any more than I do. You’ve always got to let on that you’re holier than anyone else. Pretty sickening, the way you’re always sorry for everyone.”
“Well, I’m with her”, Jennifer T said, and I could have hugged her, I felt so grateful for someone sticking up for me, because usually when Sally has her little sticky says, no one says anything, much. “I think it’s pretty small to relish someone else’s misfortunes”, she said, and was I ever surprised. I didn’t even know Jennifer could talk so well, like she was grown up or something. Just goes to show you, you never can tell with those quiet ones, like Mom always says.
“Oh you two! Why don’t you take yourselves off and say a prayer for her?” And Diane laughed and Laura laughed. Was I ever surprised! How about that Laura? How about that for a best friend?
Jennifer said to me “Why don’t we?” And we did. We just walked away from them, the rats, and sat by ourselves, the two of us, for the rest of the day. And it was nice. I never really got a chance to talk to Jennifer much by herself, before. Whenever we were with other people she was always quiet and didn’t have too much to say. Not like me. I always thought she was a mouse, but it turns out she’s a quiet mouse that roars when she wants to.
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