My respect for Alanis grew instantly. She looked at me with a smile around her eyes.
"In any case, young lady. I would hope you improve your grammar this year. 'Ain't' is not proper."
"Yes, ma'am, I will certainly try my best." Alanis replied.
Her tone was so obviously false that it made Nikki and Raspberry smile. Mrs. Browne snapped herself back in her seat. She glared at her, and then she looked hard at me.
"I know it's difficult to start at a new school. but I would be very careful about whom you choose to be your friends. Now all of you return to your classes. We'll see where this ends,"
Alanis stood quickly, and so did Nikki and Raspberry. I slipped off my seat and followed them out the door. Alanis didn't turn to me until we were in the hallway. Then she put on her hat again and embraced me.
"You did real good in there. Jordan. You are my sister now," she said and squeezed me to her.
"Damn. I was sweating in there." Nikki said.
"You're always sweating," Alanis told her. "You almost gave it all away, trembling so much and looking so gaga-eyed. Don't say anything to anybody, hear? Let's keep all this to ourselves until lunch. See you soon," she told me, and they headed for the stairway.
I returned to my classroom, where everyone was busy writing his or her biography. They all looked up curiously when I entered. Mrs. Morgan didn't say anything. I wondered if she could see how I was still shaking. She nodded at my desk. and I sat and began again. My hand trembled as I picked up my pen to begin writing. I wrote about all the terrible things that had happened to our family when my parents had their accident. but I didn't write about Ian and Miss Harper, All I said about him was that he was very, very smart and wanted to be a medical research scientist someday. Of course. I explained why I had come to live with my great-aunt Frances.
Afterward, Mrs. Morgan collected our biographies. Then she passed our textbooks and workbooks to us. We began reading aloud so she could evaluate how we all read. I thought I did as well as anyone else. By lunchtime, we had been introduced to our English, math and science books. We would start our history book af
ter lunch, and then she said she would give us our homework assignments. Tomorrow morning, after she had read our
biographies to be sure there was nothing offensive in them, she would circulate them so we could all get to know each other better. but I thought they all knew each other well enough. They were all going to learn about me mostly.
She then went into a lecture about class behavior. She told us that everything we did that was wrong carried what she called negative points. She explained that at the end of the quarter she would subtract those points from our class averages and we could actually fail even though we'd passed all the tests. Everyone looked frightened about it. especially Gary. The chubby boy who had come unprepared. I thought she was looking hard at me the whole time.
When the bell rang for lunch. Mrs. Morgan called me to her desk as the class began leaving the room. She waited until everyone was gone.
"I have been told by the school nurse that she has been informed you have had menarche, is that collect? I assume you know what it means."
"Yes. Mrs. Morgan."
"If you should have any problems while you are in my classroom. I don't want you blurting it out. understand? You simply raise your hand and ask to go to the nurse. If you need to go to the nurse, go there. If you can handle yourself on your own, go to the girls' room. I can tell you that I've never in all my years had a girl in my class with this problem." she added.
I don't know why she told me that. It made me feel even more terrible.
"Now go to lunch and be sure you obey all our school rules. I'm sure," she added as I started to turn away. "that I'll learn the reason for your being called to the principals office only minutes after you began here. This is a very busy school year for everyone in this class. I have absolutely no time or tolerance for interruptions."
I said nothing. I guess her husband's not home, I thought, recalling what Alanis had told me about her. I lowered my head and hurried out of the room. The hallway was already cleared, because the students were in the cafeteria. When I arrived there. I found the line was long at the counters. but Alanis appeared quickly and seized my right arm. She was still wearing her hat. Apparently. only Mrs. Browne took the time to tell her not to wear it in school.
"Where were you? We're all waiting. We sorta talk and make sure we're all on the same page."
"Mrs. Morgan kept me back to tell me things," I said. "What things?"
"About what to do if I should have a period while I'm in her room. She said I was the first girl she had in class with the problem."
"I bet she's lying."
"Why would she lie?"
"I don't know. Teachers lie, too. Don't be surprised. C'mon." she said and took me by the hand to cut us in front of some younger students who were too afraid of her to complain. "Pick anything you want. You have more than enough money," she said. "We'll keep the change in our own private bank."
"We're not going to have another party, are we?"
"Sure we arr. Don't let Mrs. Dart-face scare you." "Dart-face?"
"Mrs. Browne. Doesn't her face look like someone used it for a dartboard?"