Snaggle Doodles

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  To Michelle Poploff

  “Who knows where the storeroom is?” Ms. Rooney asked.

  Emily Arrow dashed out of the coatroom. “Me.”

  “Good,” said Ms. Rooney. “I need a box. Pick two helpers.”

  Emily looked around the room.

  She loved picking helpers.

  Everyone was raising hands.

  Everyone was saying, “Pick me, Emily. Pick me.”

  Everyone but her friend Richard Beast Best. And Matthew Jackson.

  They were rolling pencils across their desks.

  “I pick Jill,” Emily said.

  Jill Simon came up to the front of the room.

  She had four braids. Two in front. Two in back.

  She was fat and a little wobbly. Like peach Jell-O.

  “And …” said Emily, “Linda Lorca.”

  Linda came up to the front.

  She didn't have braids like Jill.

  She had a lot of thick brown hair.

  She was always twirling it around her fingers.

  “Now,” said Ms. Rooney. “Listen carefully. The box is in the corner/It's big and brown. It has INV written on it.”

  Ms. Vincent, the student teacher, came to the front of the room.

  “Do you want me to go too?” she asked Ms. Rooney.

  Emily looked at Ms. Vincent.

  She was beautiful.

  Today she was wearing a pink skirt and a purple sweater.

  Ms. Rooney shook her head. “I think the girls can do it alone,” she told Ms. Vincent.

  Emily raced out of the classroom.

  Jill and Linda were right behind her.

  They climbed the stairs to the third floor.

  They banged open the storeroom door.

  It was pitch black inside.

  Emily felt for the switch.

  She flipped on the lights.

  The storeroom was full. She could hardly walk.

  “Some mess,” Jill said.

  Emily stepped over some boxes. She looked around.

  A cardboard cannon stood in one corner. The sixth graders had used it in a play last year.

  In the middle of the floor were stacks of old readers.

  Baby readers.

  Emily picked one up.

  COME AND GO, it said on the cover.

  It was full of dust.

  Suddenly the lights went out.

  The door banged shut.

  Emily blinked. It was too dark to see anything.

  In the back of her there was a sound.

  A strange sound.

  It sounded like a ghost. Or a monster.

  Emily's heart began to pound.

  Jill screamed.

  The lights went on again.

  “April Fool!” shouted Linda.

  “Snaggle doodles,” Emily said. She waited for her heart to stop pounding.

  “I thought it was a vampire” Jill said. “A spooky—”

  “I knew it all the time,” Emily said. She crossed her fingers.

  “It's April first,” Linda said. “Everyone tries to fool everyone else

  Emily didn't say anything.

  She wanted to pull Linda Lorca's fat brown hair.

  “That wasn't nice,” Jill said.

  “Don't be silly,” Linda said. “Emily knew all the time.”

  Emily pulled an old flowerpot out of her way.

  “Let's look for the box,” said Linda.

  “I'm looking,” Emily said. “It's right here. In the corner.”

  Emily leaned over. On the top of the box was a big INV. “I told you,” she said.

  They pushed some other boxes aside.

  Then they dragged the INV box across the floor.

  “What's INV?” Jill asked.

  Emily tried to think.

  “Invitations, I bet,” Linda Lorca said. “Wedding invitations.”

  “To Ms. Vincent's wedding?” Jill asked. “It's a pretty big box.”

  “That's because Ms. Vincent's going to ask a lot of people,” said Linda. ‘Teachers. Not kids.”

  “Really?” Jill asked.

  “Really,” said Linda. “I know something else, too. Ms. Vincent's new name. It's Mrs. Stewart.”

  “Nice,” said Jill.

  Emily wanted to ask Linda how she knew so much.

  But she kept her mouth closed.

  She didn't want everyone to think she didn't know all about Ms. Vincent's wedding.

  Emily began to lift the box.

  “Let me,” Linda said.

  “I think we should all take a corner,” Jill said.

  “I was the first one picked,” Emily said.

  She lifted the box a little higher.

  She could just get her arms underneath it.

  She rested her chin on top.

  She started down the hall.

  She took tiny little steps.

  Jim the custodian came along. ‘Til carry that,” he said.

  “Good idea,” Linda said.

  “I can do it,” Emily said.

  “It's pretty big,” he said.

  “It's not heavy,” Emily said.

  “If you're sure …” he said. He turned the corner.

  Emily stopped at the top of the stairs.

  She had to catch her breath.

  “I think we should help,” Jill said.

  “I think you're going to drop it,” Linda said.

  Emily shook her head.

  The box slid out óf her hands.

  “Snaggle doodles!” Emily yelled.

  The box banged down the stairs.

  The top opened.

  A bunch of things fell out.

  Not wedding invitations at all.

  Red and green paper. An old wheel. Pink balloons. A yellow plastic horn.

  They dashed down the stairs.

  ‘‘You should have let us help,” Linda said.

  “If we broke something …” Jill began. She looked as if she were going to cry.

  Emily began to pick things up. A box of rubber bands. A bunch of old glass doorknobs.

  She tossed them into the box.

  “Nothing's broken,” Emily said.

  She scrambled to pick up the box again.

  She didn't want Linda or Jill to grab it first.

  Ms. Rooney would think it was great that she could carry it all by herself.

  Next to her Linda sniffed. “Ms. Rooney told all of us to do it.”

  “You have dirt on your face,” Emily said.

  “I do?” Linda asked.

  She rubbed her nose. “April Fool!” Emily yelled. She opened the classroom door and marched inside.

  “Spring is a time for new things,” said Ms. Róoney. “Leaves on the trees. Spring jackets.”

  Emily reached into her desk. She pulled out Uni, her little rubber unicorn. She galloped him across her desk.

  Then she looked out the open window.

  “New fresh air,” she said. She took a deep breath.

  “Right,” said Ms. Rooney. “And new inventions. Did you know that the safety pin was invented in the springtime?”

  “And Coca-Cola,” said Ms. Vincent, the student teacher.

  “And erasers on pencils,” Ms. Rooney said.

 
“And baseball bats,” said Beast.

  “Really?” asked Ms. Rooney.

  Beast raised one shoulder in the air. “I took a guess,” he said. “It's baseball time.”

  “We'll have to look that up,” said Ms. Rooney. “Good thinking anyway.”

  Emily raised her hand.

  She was going to say that maybe bathing suits were invented in April. Or jump ropes.

  “We're going to make our own inventions,” said Ms. Rooney.

  Emily put her hand down.

  She didn't know one thing about making inventions.

  Ms. Rooney went to the chalkboard. “We'll work together in groups,”

  Emily raised her hand again.

  She knew about groups.

  She had been captain of a math group one time.

  Maybe Ms. Rooney would let her be the head of an invention group.

  “Not so fast, Emily.” said Ms. Rooney. She picked up a piece of chalk.

  THINK, Ms. Rooney wrote on top of the board.

  LISTEN, she wrote next.

  SHARE, she wrote on the third line.

  She turned to the class. “That's how we work in groups,” she said.

  Emily wished Ms. Rooney would hurry up.

  She wanted to get to the inventing part.

  “Yes,” said Ms. Rooney. “It's important to learn how to work together. Sometimes we can get more done and—”

  Linda Lorca raised her hand. “If you have a big box to carry, and a couple of people to carry it”—Linda stopped to take a breath—-“then it doesn't get dropped.”

  “Right,” said Ms. Rooney.

  “Snaggle doodles,” said Emily under her breath.

  In front of Emily, Beast wasn't paying attention.

  He pulled out a piece of paper.

  Emily watched him draw a boy.

  The boy was wearing a baseball suit.

  Then he drew a baseball.

  The ball was landing on the boy's head.

  “CLUNK,” Beast wrote on the bottom of the picture.

  Emily started to laugh.

  Beast was laughing too.

  “I hope you're listening,” Ms. Rooney told them.

  Emily sat up straight.

  She tried to stop giggling.

  She wished she knew how to invent something.

  “Now,” said Ms. Rooney. “I think we're ready.”

  She looked around the room. “Linda,” she said. “You can be the head of the first group.”

  Emily looked at Linda.

  Linda was smiling.

  That Linda Lorca.

  She loved to be the head of things.

  Emily raised her hand fast.

  But Ms. Roonéy didn't call on her.

  She called on Jason Bazyk and Wayne O'Brien for the other two groups.

  “Snaggle doodles,” Emily said under her breath.

  She looked down at her desk.

  She didn't want Ms. Rooney to know that she had a mad face.

  Next to her Dawn Bosco had a mad face too.

  “I hope you remember what we said,” Ms. Rooney told them. “About groups, and working together, and leaders

  Emily nodded a little.

  She didn't even know Ms. Rooney had been talking about leaders.

  Maybe that was because she had been watching Beast draw.

  It didn't make any difference, though.

  Ms. Rooney hadn't called on her to be a leader.

  She had called on Linda Lorca.

  Linda Lórca probably would be a terrible leader.

  She hadn't even been captain of a math group.

  Emily followed Linda to the back of the room.

  She leaned against the science table.

  Alex Walker and Matthew came back to the science table too.

  Is everybody here?” Linda asked.

  “Of course we're all here,” Emily said. “Four of us.”

  She wanted to say, “Can't you count?”

  She didn't, though.

  They might think she was angry because Linda was the leader.

  Matthew leaned against the science table too.

  Emily tried to inch away from him.

  Next to Beast, Matthew was the nicest kid in the class.

  But Matthew must have wet the bed last night.

  Matthew wet the bed almost every night.

  Linda Lorca was inching away from Matthew too.

  Ms. Rooney called the rest of the groups.

  Jason's group went to the front of the room.

  Wayne's group sat on the side.

  Ms. Rooney opened the big INV box. “Let's see which group can make the best invention^’ she said.

  Ms. Vincent went to the front to help Ms. Rooney.

  A minute later she came back to Emily's group.

  She dumped a pile of things on the science table.

  “This is my special month,” Ms. Vincent told them.

  ‘ ‘Your wedding,” Emily said.

  “Right,” said Ms. Vincent. “April 28.”

  “Are you having flower girls?” Linda Lorca asked.

  “I already asked that,” Emily said. “A long time ago.”

  Ms. Vincent smiled. “No flower girls.” She went to the front of the room.

  Emily thought about Ms. Vincent's wedding.

  She wished she were Ms. Vincent's flower girl.

  She'd be wearing a long pink dress.

  She'd carry a basket of pink flowers.

  She sighed.

  She wished she could at least go to Ms. Vincent's wedding.

  “I hope I get to go to Ms. Vincent's wedding,” said Linda.

  Emily didn't say anything.

  She looked at the things on the table.

  A cardboard cereal box. Two pink balloons. A red belt. A white plastic cup. Two black socks. A flashlight.

  Matthew picked up a balloon.

  He began to blow it up.

  “Listen, Matthew,” Linda said. “Let's not be putting our mouths on everything. There'll be germs all over the place.”

  Emily looked over to the side of the room.

  Wayne's group was staring at a pile of stuff too.

  Jill Simon had a pine cone in her hand. “I don't know what to do,” she was saying.

  She looked as if she were going to cry.

  “Don't be a baby,” Sherri Dent told her.

  Emily looked back at her own group.

  Matthew had put a green paper hat on his head.

  He was playing a make-believe drum.

  Alex Walker held a dog's mask up to his face.

  He began to make barking noises.

  “Stop fooling around!” Linda yelled.

  “Let's get started,” Emily said.

  “This is my group,” said Linda. “I'm the one who says, ‘Let's get started.’ ”

  Linda was getting very bossy, Emily thought.

  This was going to be a terrible group.

  They'd probably have a terrible invention.

  Emily pulled Uni the unicorn out of her pocket. She stood him next to the fish tank.

  She wondered if Drake and Harry, the class fish, knew what a unicorn was.

  Up in front Ms. Rooney clapped her hands.

  “I hope you're off to a good start,” she said.

  “Some start,” said Alex.

  “No start,” said Matthew.

  Linda raised her hand. “I can't get everyone to—”

  “This is a big project,” said Ms. Rooney. “You'll have to think about it. Next week we'll work some more. And the week after.”

  Just then the bell rang.

  Three times.

  Three times more.

  “Line up,” said Ms. Rooney. “It's a fire drill.”

  “Too bad,” Linda Lorca whispered. “I just thought of a terrific invention. I even thought of a name for it.”

  Emily lined up behind Linda.

  She put her finger up to her mouth. “Shh.”

  Linda shouldn't be talking
during a fire drill.

  It was against the rules.

  Emily marched out of the classroom.

  She wished Linda were the head of someone else's group.

  She wished she could think of a terrific invention.

  She wished she could think of a name for it.

  It was Wednesday, the next week.

  Recess time.

  Emily marched under the monkey bars.

  “Turn, turn, de, turn,” she said. “All dressed in white.”

  She made believe she was marching down the aisle.

  The rest of the class were sitting in pews. They were smiling.

  They thought Emily was the prettiest flower girl they had ever seen.

  A little stick hit Emily on the head.

  “Snaggle doodles,” Emily said. She looked up.

  Matthew Jackson was sitting on top of the monkey bars.

  He was grinning at her.

  Emily grinned back.

  “What's this snaggle doodles stuff?” Matthew asked.

  “I made it up,” Emily said. “I like the sound of it.”

  “But what's it supposed to mean?”

  Emily raised one shoulder. “I say it when I'm really mad … or worried… or really happy.”

  She stepped over Beast.

  Beast was lying in the dirt. He was digging a hole to China with a stick. He had started it yesterday.

  “Pretty good,” Emily said.

  “Up to my wrist,” Beast said.

  “Terrific.”

  “Not so terrific,” Beast said. “I was almost to my elbow last week. Jim the custodian filled it in.”

  Emily leaned over. “Look at that great worm.”

  “I wonder if it's the one we saved last fall,” Beast said. “Remember? We took him out of a puddle.”

  “Maybe,” Emily said. “He looks the same.”

  “All worms look the same,” Matthew said. “Some are just a little longer. Or fatter.”

  “Listen,” Emily said. “I've been thinking of something all week.”

  Matthew threw another stick down.

  “Are you listening?” Emily asked. “It's about—”

  Just then Linda Lorca came over.

  Jill was right behind her.

  Today Jill was wearing fat white ribbons on her four braids.

  “Here comes the bride,” Jill sang.

  Emily sighed. “I'm trying to tell everyone my idea.”

  “Can I hear too?” Jill asked.

  “Yes,” Emily said.

  Linda Lorca stuck her foot into Beast's hole. “Up to my ankle pretty soon,” she said.

  “If Jim doesn't come along,” Beast said.