Baartock

  Chapter 2

  It was only a short drive, though it felt very long to both Baartockand Mr. Fennis. When Mr. Fennis finally parked the car at Marvis T.Johnson Elementary School, he got out and helped Baartock out of theback seat.

  "I'm sorry I yelled at you, Baartock," apologized Mr. Fennis, helpinghim out. "You almost made us crash when you grabbed the steeringwheel. You don't do that in your folks car, do you?"

  "Don't like!" said Baartock angrily, as he kicked at the side of thecar.

  "Don't do that! It's my car. It may not look pretty, but it's paidfor and takes me where I want to go."

  "Go home," said Baartock and he started to walk off the way they had come. Like all trolls, he had an almost perfect sense ofdirection and couldn't get lost. This place wasn't at all like thewoods and he didn't like it. It was all new and frightening to him.Since he was a troll, he wasn't going to be scared, or not much anyway.He was supposed to do the scaring.

  "Come on, Baartock. Let's go on into school." Mr. Fennis grabbedBaartock's hand.

  "Don't want school! Want to go home!"

  So, with Mr. Fennis pulling one way and Baartock pulling the other,they went into school. As soon as they got inside, Baartock stoppedwanting to go home and started looking at this new kind of cave he wasin. There were big boards fastened to the walls, covered with lots ofcolored papers. There were cases with glass frames with more coloredpapers behind them. The walls were a bright yellow, and there werelights overhead. Even the floor was smooth and shiny. There were a lotof new things for him to see. He was still looking around when they gotto the school office.

  "Ms. Laurence, Baartock seems to have missed the bus this morning,"said Mr. Fennis to the woman sitting at a desk, behind the counter.Ms. Laurence was the school secretary. "I found him still waiting bythe road."

  "Baartock? I don't know any Baartock."

  "Well, he's seven, so he must be in Mrs. Stogbuchner's class. Couldyou get him down there? I've really got to get back to my class.Good-by, Baartock." With that, Mr. Fennis hurried out of the officeand down the hall, leaving Baartock in the office.

  Baartock looked at Ms. Laurence. Then he looked all around the room.When he had seen enough he said, "Not Mississtog-Buchnersklass. Gohome! Now!" Baartock thought it might be fun to meet someone with awonderfully scary name like Mississtog-Buchnersklass, but he was tiredand wanted to go home. He was just out the door, leaving Ms. Laurencecalling "Baartock! Stop!" when he crashed right into Mrs. Jackson, theprincipal.

  Mr. Fennis told Mrs. Jackson about Baartock just as soon as he hadgotten into his classroom and she came running to the office. Mrs.Jackson had been a school teacher for many years and principal for afew more, but she wasn't sure that she had ever seen a child quite likethe dirty, wild, little one, who was trying to pull away from her."Stop right now!" Mrs. Jackson's voice echoed up and down the hall.Baartock stopped squirming and stood, wide-eyed, staring at her. Hedidn't know humans could sound like that. Down the hall, classroomdoors opened and several teachers looked out. Mrs. Jackson ignoredthem as she pushed Baartock back into the office and closed the door.

  "Please tell me your name." Before he could say that he wasn't oldenough to have a name, Ms. Laurence answered "Baartock."

  "Baartock," said Mrs. Jackson as she brought him over to a bench, "sitdown. Tell me how you got so dirty."

  "Rolled in mud. Want to go home."

  "You certainly must have rolled in the mud. I understand you missedyour bus this morning."

  "Mrs. Jackson," said Ms. Laurence, who had stopped watching them andwas busily looking through some papers, "We don't have any studentnamed Baartock." School had just started the week before, but Ms.Laurence was sure that she knew the names of all the new students. Andwhere to find their records.

  "Is today your first day?" asked Mrs. Jackson. "Yes! First day!First day!" Baartock answered right away. Finally he had found someonewho understood that today was his first day to go scare people by allhimself.

  "But, Mrs. Jackson, I don't have his registration forms, medicalrecords, or anything." Ms. Laurence was now going through file drawers.

  "I'm sure you'll find them. Baartock and I will just go down to Mrs.Stogbuchner's class, then I'll be back to help you look," said Mrs.Jackson as she opened the door. "Baartock, let's go meet your teacher.I'm sure you'll be very happy in her class."

  "Want to go home!" repeated Baartock rather loudly as they walked downthe hall.

  "Please don't shout, Baartock. We don't want to disturb the otherclasses. I'm sure you would like to go home. I would like to go home,too, but we're supposed to be here. And we'll get everythingstraightened out about your bus schedule, so you won't miss your bustomorrow. I'll make sure that you get home after school is over. Justbehave yourself and do what Mrs. Stogbuchner tells you."