I went over to Jennifer’s house after school and we played with Lumpy, her guinea pig. I think she knows me now. She sees me so often. But it’s hard to tell with guinea pigs. Soon as the weather gets a little warmer, Jen’s going to bring her over to meet my pigs. Good thing she’s a she and not a he.
Jen’s mother has started working part-time in the afternoons and she’s got to go home right after school so she can watch her little brothers and sister. And she puts potatoes on to cook for supper and stuff like that. I watch her and sometimes help her and it’s really fun. The other day we made a salad - she washed the vegetables and I cut them up into a wooden bowl. It’s never so much fun doing things at home with Mom standing over me and telling me do this, don’t do that, and stuff like that.
“How come you know how to do all this stuff, Jen?” I asked her the first time.
“Oh, I don’t know”, she said. “I always used to watch my mother, and sometimes she let me do stuff and she got out of the kitchen so I had to do it myself. What’s so great about that?”
“I don’t know how to do anything, much.”
“Well, what do you want to do?”
“I don’t know. Nothing, I guess. My mother’s always doing things, so there’s nothing for me to do. But if I ever had to do something I don’t know if I’d know what to do.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean. Want to make bran muffins with me?”
And so she got all the stuff we needed out of cupboards and it didn’t take long at all to mix up a batch of bran muffins. The funny thing was, she let me do most of the stuff and all, and it wasn’t so hard. I kind of remembered the things to do from watching Mom, and it was fun. Only thing was, I had to go home for dinner before the bran muffins came out of the oven and at school next day, Jennifer said all the muffins went so fast, there just weren’t any left over. She said she told her mother I made them mostly, and her mother said, thanks very much.
We had a fire drill at school this morning, and wouldn’t you know it, I didn’t have any shoes on. We were at Home Economics. The stuffed animals are almost finished, and the bell rang and Miss Blount started to herd us all out the doors and I wasn’t the only one without shoes on.
“Miss Blount”, me and some other kids started saying, “We can’t go out…” But she didn’t give us a chance to finish, and said in her loud voice, “nonsense! Out you go this instant!” And sure, what’re you supposed to do, so we went out and stood around outside in the freezing cold and snow.
We all had wet feet and when we got back in, were we ever cold! We asked permission to go to our lockers to get our shoes on and the rest of the morning was really uncomfortable. Mr. Drouin, the principal, made an announcement over the P.A. that it was noted some students were outdoors without shoes.
“Henceforth”, he said, “No students are to be devoid of footwear in this school. There will be fines visited on any students who are found without properly shod feet in the classrooms, halls, or wherever.”
“Why weren’t you wearing your shoes?” Jennifer asked me. She never does anything wrong. She’s the most sensible person I know.
“I didn’t know we were going to have a fire drill.”
“Well sure, no one knew that, but Jen, you should always have your shoes on anyway. What if you ever stepped on a tack or something? You could easily get a straight-pin or a needle in your foot at Home Economics or something.”
“I know, I know. The thing is, you know those shoes my mom bought me, the ones I really, really wanted to have?”
“You mean the black-and-tan laced ones?”
“Right. Well, they’ve got those heels and soles that’re almost platform? I guess my mom was right. They’re not very comfortable. I just can’t stand to wear them, but I don’t want to tell my mother. She’d hit the roof.”
“That’s a problem, all right. But you better wear your running shoes or something from now on, eh Jen? Like I wouldn’t have been too comfortable outside in the snow with no shoes on.”
I know she’s right, and I’m stupid. When we were waiting outside to be let back in, she made me stand with my feet kind of on her shoe toes but it wasn’t easy to do and I got all wet anyway. We must’ve looked pretty silly wobbling around like that.
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