Still Just Grace Read online

  At the end of class Mr. Frank came over and asked us how we were doing with our project. By mistake he called Grace "Grace" again and not Grace F. like he was supposed to, but this time it didn't make me grumpy like before.

  Something New at My House

  I had never before in my life had anyone else with the name of Grace in my house, and then today there were three of us. I introduced each new Grace to Mom and she said, "Oh my, this is a little bit confusing. How does this work at school?" But before either of the other Graces could answer I said we had to go upstairs to work on some homework.

  I didn't want Mom to know that my name at school was Just Grace. It was exactly the kind of thing that would make her mad, and then she would go to the school and complain. And even though I 100 percent don't like the name Just Grace, having Mom come to the school all angry about it would be worse. Only babies complained about stuff like that to their mom, and I was not a complainer baby!

  My Room

  I let the other Graces sit on my bed and even touch my things, and it did not bother me one little bit. Grace had the bead-head necklace on and I told her she could still keep it for a while if she wanted, then I asked her about the Mr. Frank secret.

  GRACE HOLDING MY NEW ARIZONA PILLOW

  The Big Secret

  Grace asked me to close my bedroom door so no one else could hear and then she said the big secret was that Mr. Frank was an alien. Both of us other Graces screamed, "AN ALIEN?" at the exact same time.

  Then the Grace who used to be the Big Meanie started laughing and said no, she was only joking, but that Mr. Frank being an alien would be way more exciting than the real true secret. She said the real true secret was that Mr. Frank was her very own next-door neighbor, and that before he was Mr. Frank the student teacher he used to be called Jeffrey. And that last summer when he was still Jeffrey, he had even baby-sat her and her little sister, Annie, two times. She said that she was really good at calling him Mr. Frank but that he was always forgetting to remember to call her Grace F.

  We other two Graces smiled when she said that because it made us feel a whole lot better to know the reason Mr. Frank was always making that mistake. It's harder for old people to change to new ideas. Young people like us can do it much better. Grace told us all about the things she knew about Mr. Frank, and of course we promised not to ever say even one word about any of it to anyone.

  Things About Mr. Frank

  1 He used to have a girlfriend named Rebecca, but now Grace never sees her anymore.

  2 He is really good at playing basketball and almost always makes the basket.

  3 He likes to wear T-shirts with the names of rock groups on them when he is not working at our school.

  4 He has a dog named Winkie. It is a golden retriever, but Winkie is pretty fat, so he doesn't look so much like a regular golden retriever.

  5 He loves to wear his baseball cap, which has a picture of a tractor on the front of it.

  Grace said Mr. Frank is a nice neighbor, and then both of us other Graces said we thought Mr. Frank was a nice teacher too. I was sure hoping that our project would work out great and he could stay a teacher forever.

  All this talking about Mr. Frank being Grace's neighbor made me think about my very own neighbor Mimi, and how I never got to even stand next to her anymore because there was fur stuck on everything I owned. As soon as the Graces left, I got out the vacuum so I could suck up every single piece of Captain Furry fur in my whole entire room. I had to set the vacuum to the super-suck level, because once a piece of Captain Furry fur is on something it sticks there like it is glued. After cleaning I sat down and drew a new comic because it seemed like forever since I had done one and it is something I really like to do.

  Morning

  I asked Mom to make French toast for breakfast because when my empathy power is working super hard this is what I like to eat. Plus, today was going to be the best day ever because I was wearing my Supergirl underwear, Grandma's silver locket, and a shirt and pants with not one single piece of Captain Furry fur anywhere. I know this because I checked it in the mirror two times, two times, which is four, to be extra sure.

  FUR-FREE ME

  Project Day

  As soon as we got into the classroom, Mr. Frank said we had to go stand with our group partners. Then one person from each group had to pick a number from a baseball hat. We three Graces all smiled because the hat Mr. Frank was using had the picture of a tractor on the front of it, and that meant it was his favorite hat. I went to pick the number and got number three. This was excellent, because for our project to work right we had to start it in the morning and then not finish it until later in the afternoon.

  The Projects

  The first group to do their project was the group of Trevor, Ruth, and Francis. All the boys like Ruth because even though she is a girl, she pretty much likes to do boy things more than girl things. But their project was not just a boy thing. They had a huge pile of mixed-up magnetic letters set up next to a big magnetic tray a dictionary, and a timer clock.

  Francis said that they were going to spell out six words in six minutes and that the audience, which was us, got to pick out the words. Everyone started shouting out words at the same time until Mr. Frank said we all had to calm down and take turns. Once we had told them all the words, Trevor pushed the timer button and they started. Ruth had to look in the dictionary to make sure they'd spelled everything the right way.

  It was pretty exciting, and near the end of the time we all started chanting, "Go, go, go," and Mr. Frank and Miss Lois didn't even tell us to stop. They got all the words on the board with only ten seconds left over. It was a great project! I could tell that even Miss Lois thought so because she was smiling.

  THEY SPELLED SOME REALLY GOOD WORDS

  The next group to do their project was Mimi, Max, and Sammy. Mr. Frank looked a little surprised when they took off their shoes and socks, but he didn't say anything. Max told the audience, us, that he and Mimi and Sammy were going to make each letter of the alphabet using their bodies and then shout out as many adjectives as they could think of that started with that letter. I couldn't believe how good they were. You could really tell that they had practiced. My favorite letter was the N because that was the one where Mimi was upside down doing a handstand, and that was a new trick for her and not at all easy to do.

  After the Z and "zany" everyone clapped like crazy and Mimi and Max and Sammy all smiled like crazy. And the whole time I even forgot that I used to think that Sammy was disgusting. While they were putting their socks and shoes back on, Grace, Grace, and I got ourselves organized. We even had a name for our project: it was called What You Lost, which was a pretty excellent name because everybody loses stuff, even rich and famous people.

  What you Lost

  Grace went around the room and gave everyone, even the teachers, a little piece of paper with a number on it. Everyone was going to be part of our project. We told them all to keep their number secret and then the other Grace gave everyone one of the posters she had made. They looked really nice. She made three different kinds so not everyone got the same one.

  After that I put all the boxes in a line at the front of the room. Each box had its own beautiful number on the front and a little slit in the top where you could put a note.

  EXAMPLE OF SOME OF THE NOTE BOXES

  I could tell that no one had any idea of what we were going to do, which was fine because we were going to explain everything and they were going to love it. I was kind of nervous when I went in front of the class. But when I looked at my two Graces, they made the G sign that Grace who used to be the Big Meanie had just invented that very morning, and seeing that gave me the extra braveness I needed.

  HAND G SIGN

  So I took a big breath and said, "This is called the What I Lost project, and it is about communication ... the written-down kind. We gave each and every single one of you your very own poster." And then I looked at Miss Lois and Mr. Frank, becau
se we had given them one too. I learned that from Miss Lois. If you want to get someone's attention in a class, you have to give that person the teacher stare. And I wanted Mr. Frank and Miss Lois to notice that we were the only group ever who was including them right in our project with the rest of the class. Then I continued with the explaining part. "On every poster there is a blank space where you have to write down the name of something that you have lost, like a shoe or a button or anything you can think of. You can write about a tangible thing or a not tangible thing." Tangible was a big word that Augustine Dupre helped me with, and one that I was sure was going to impress Miss Lois. I told everyone what it meant because tangible is not a word that most kids can understand without some explaining to help them. "A tangible thing is something that you can hold or feel." And then I wrote some examples on the board so everyone could understand.

  I almost wrote down unicorn under the not tangible list. It was good I remembered about Sandy, because she would have for sure cried about that again.

  Then I filled out my Lost poster right in front of them all so that they would know exactly what to do when it was their turn. "See, right under the word lost you write in something you have lost. Like I just did." Lots of kids in my class don't pay attention, so it's a good idea to explain stuff really carefully, as if you are talking to someone in kindergarten or something.

  WHAT I WROTE ON MY POSTER

  When I was finished everyone said "Ooohh" and looked at Miss Lois. She was smiling only a little tiny smile, but still she didn't look mad, so this was a good thing. Then it was time to explain the very end part of the project. I held up my little secret number card so everyone could see it. It had a number 11 on it. I showed them all where to write their secret numbers on their posters. I wrote my number in the square at the top of my poster and on the six little squares on the bottom of the poster.

  "Now what?" asked Ruth. Miss Lois made her teacher hand sign that means "If you have a question, please put up your hand." Ruth looked at Miss Lois and then put her hand up. Just like Miss Lois, I pointed at her and said, "Yes?" and she said, "What happens now?"

  It was a good question because that was exactly the next thing I was going to talk about. So I said, "Well, when everyone has finished the posters we are going to hang them up all around the class so everyone can walk around the room and read them. When you see a poster that you want to write something about, you pull off one of the little pieces of paper at the bottom and write your message on it. Then you take your message over to the box with the same number on it and drop it inside."

  "It's just like the boxes we use on Valentine's Day," shouted Sammy, "except those ones have your name on the front." Mr. Frank said, "Sammy," and Miss Lois gave him her teacher look because he had broken two school rules at the same time, shouting and not putting his hand up. But he was right about the valentines boxes. And it was a good way to explain it to the class. I smiled at him even though he had interrupted me and then gotten in trouble. Mimi could be right—maybe Sammy was kind of okay. Plus, I hadn't seen him pick his nose in ages, which was definitely a good thing.

  Sandra Orr put her hand up so I said, "Yes?" and pointed at her. "Can we write more than one message? What if we see two posters we want to write about?" I was glad it was an easy question to answer, and I said, "You can write as many messages as you want."

  Then I pointed at Robert Walters because his hand was up too. "Why do we have to keep our posters a secret? What if I want everyone to know it's about me and I wrote it because it's so excellent?" This was a harder question to answer, but I thought about it for a minute and then said, "It's just a rule so no one will get embarrassed." Robert was not my favorite person in the class. He always thought everything he did was wonderful, which it was not. His favorite shirt, which he wore all the time, said I'M NUMBER 1 on the front of it. He was more like number 1,000,000,000,000,000,000, but I don't think all those zeros would fit on it.

  And then before anyone could ask any more questions I gave my Graces the secret signal, and all together we said, "Start your posters now!" I was tired and super glad to sit down back at my desk. It's a lot harder to be a teacher than a student. Now I could understand why Mr. Frank was having so many troubles with it.

  So far so Good

  Mr. Frank let everyone work on the posters until it was time for recess. And the only person who said anything in that whole entire time was Miss Lois. She asked us if it was okay to draw a picture on the poster if we wanted. Of course we three Graces all said okay, because it was an excellent idea. And I was really surprised that such a good idea about drawing was coming from Miss Lois. This whole time I thought she only liked words.

  At recess time we stayed to help Mr. Frank put up all the finished posters, and when everyone came back to the class after recess, you could tell that they all thought the posters looked amazing, which they did.

  More Projects

  It was really hard to keep concentrating on the other projects because I was trying to read the posters instead. I just couldn't help it. Mr. Frank must have noticed other people doing it too because he interrupted Gary Sunni, and Margaret, who were in the middle of their project, and said, "As soon as this next group is finished, everyone will have twenty minutes to walk around the class to look at the Lost posters and put notes in the boxes."

  Their project was about changing nouns in the Three Bears story and then reading it to us. It was kind of funny because they changed the bears into princesses and the porridge into silly foods like lollipops, worm soup, and cupcakes. You could tell which parts Gary had helped with because Sunni and Margaret are not the kind of girls who like disgusting things. After their story we finally got to go around and read the posters.

  My Favorite Posters

  I liked this one because I could tell that Miss Lois made it. No kids drink coffee, plus I recognized her handwriting. It was proof that she for sure liked our project. At first I was surprised that she likes elephants so much, but then I remembered that she once said she would like to ride on an elephant. It made me wonder if Miss Lois's house was filled with elephant stuff.

  WHAT MIGHT BE IN MISS LOIS'S HOUSE

  I wrote notes for five of the posters and then put them in the right numbered box. Mr. Frank was not going to get in trouble this time, I could tell. He was smiling a big smile at Miss Lois, and she was smiling right back at him.

  THESE WERE MY NOTES BACK

  What Happened at Lunchtime

  I tried to find Mimi so I could tell her that she was the most excellent human N I had ever seen, but the Graces found me first and wanted to talk about our project. I was sharing their joy 100 percent, so it was nice to all have lunch together.

  More and More Projects

  There is one thing that I know for sure, and that thing is that I am going to know everything about nouns and other sentence parts and language when these projects are over. We listened to two more groups and then Mr. Frank gave us another ten minutes to look at the posters one last time. I don't know how I missed it before, but hanging next to the fire alarm was the most saddest Lost poster ever.

  It reminded me of how I was feeling when Mimi had her new friend Max following her everywhere so I had to for sure write a note to help this person feel better.

  I had to use both sides of the little paper.

  Then Finally We Got to Open Our Boxes

  Mr. Frank said we could open our boxes at the end of the day. I was super glad about that, because I was crazy with waiting to see what was inside. I was hoping he wasn't going to make us wait until every single project was finished, because that for sure was going to probably take a week. A week is a long time to be looking at a box and wondering what's inside. That kind of waiting can make you have a hard time with concentrating on anything else, which is the exact kind of thing that makes a teacher angry. I sure hoped Miss Lois was paying attention to how Mr. Frank was making all the right decisions with his teaching.

  In My Box

&nbs
p; There were six notes in my box, which means every single little rip-off note got used, and they were all good except for one. If I didn't know the Big Meanie wasn't really a Big Meanie anymore I would have guessed that the bad note was maybe from her, but because I know her now I could tell that it wasn't. So somewhere in the class there was another meanie, but that didn't matter so much because all the other notes were so perfect, especially the one from Mr. Frank, even though he signed his name and didn't keep it a secret. Plus I could tell that the new meanie was only really a mini meanie anyway, and probably just jealous. Still, I kind of wondered who it was.