Chapter 6
The ride to school was long and bumpy. Alice watched the kids crowd into the seats and hold on tight whenever the bus took a corner. "Hold on!" Beth grinned, at one point.
"What?"
Beth put both of Alice's hands on the seat in front of her just as the bus went over a particularly large bump. The kids in the back seat, one of whom had been sleeping, shrieked and then burst into a fit of laughter as they rose off their seats.
"That's why we sit back here," Beth told her, still smiling. "It's almost like flying."
Alice smiled back, wondering if the moment of weightlessness would the closest she'd get to flying. For a moment she envied Mestra, who would be learning to fly a broom this year. Then the bus lurched and she slid across the seat into Beth, who had to hold on to the seat in front of her and brace herself against the seat across the aisle with her feet. They both laughed as the bus straightened out and they were able to slide back into their seat. When they got to the school everyone stood up at the same time and pushed their way off the bus. Alice wondered why they were in such a big hurry.
"Come on, Alice. We've got to got the office first and see where your class is."
The girls fought their way through the crowd and up the front steps. In the big front office Beth stepped up to the high counter and spoke to the secretary.
"Excuse, me? Miss Voigt?"
A tall woman in a blue suit stood up from her desk behind the counter and came around to their side. "Hello, Beth. What can I do for you this morning?"
Beth pushed Alice forward, "This is my cousin, Alice. She's from England."
"Is she? My, you've come a long way, young lady. How do you like here in the colonies?" Miss Voigt laughed at her own joke. Alice looked at Beth, wondering if she should take this woman seriously. Beth rolled her eyes and tried to hide a smile.
"I'm having a lovely time, thank you, ma'am," Alice told the woman.
"Oh good, I'm so glad."
"Miss Voigt?" Beth asked. "It's Alice's first day, she's supposed to meet her guidance councilor?"
"Oh! Yes, of course. Let me just look you up," Miss Voigt hurried back to her desk and began pressing a series of buttons in a boxy machine. "You can go ahead to class, Beth. You don't want to be late. I'll help Alice from here."
Alice panicked for a moment at the thought of losing her guide, but Beth just grinned at her. "I'll see you at lunch!" she said before heading out the door and down the hall.
"Ah, here you are," Miss Voigt spoke to her computer as Alice watched Beth through the office window. "You belong to Mrs. Marchon. I'll take to her office straight away." Miss Voigt beckoned Alice behind the counter and led her through a door to a string of offices. The secretary knocked on the third door. While they waited for Miss Marchon to answer, Alice read some of the comic strips that were taped on the door.
"Come in!"
"Mrs. Marchon? This is Alice Grey, our new student from England." Miss Voigt let Alice into the room.
"Thank you, Donna," Mrs. Marchon waved to Miss Voigt, who smiled at Alice before returning to her desk in the outer office. The councilor was an older woman, her hair completely gray, but there was something in her face that suggested the energy of someone much younger.
"Hello, Alice. Have a seat. I am Mrs. Marchon," she gestured to a chair in front of her desk. "How are you this morning?"
"I'm fine."
"Well, first off, I'd like to welcome you to the States, and to our school."
"Thank you."
"Now, I don't know much about where you went to school before you came here, there seems to be some problem with the paperwork... So until we find out more, we've placed you in Mrs. Lionne's class. I'm sure that you'll like her. I'll be taking you down to her class in a moment. But first, I want you to remember that I'm here for you. If you have any questions..."
"I'll be certain to come to you."
"Good. Well, then, let's get you to class, shall we?" Mrs. Marchon stood up and, closing Alice's folder, added it to a pile on her cabinet. "Right this way." She led Alice back through the narrow hall to the outer office with its large plate glass windows. From there they went through to the large main hall, down several corridors and around the corner to Mrs. Lionne's fourth grade classroom. Mrs. Marchon knocked on the door as she went through it. A short woman standing in front of a blackboard turned and paused in the middle of her lesson.
"Mrs. Lionne, this is Alice Grey, your new student."
"Oh, good! I wondered when we'd get to meet her." Mrs. Marchon and Mrs. Lionne stepped aside for a moment to talk about Mrs. Lionne's new addition.
After what seemed like ages for Alice, standing in front of the class, Mrs. Marchon said good-bye and returned to her office. Pulling Alice in front of her, Mrs. Lionne addressed her class. "Class, this is Alice Grey, she'll be joining our class for the rest of the year. I want you all to make her feel welcome. Miss Grey, why don't you tell us a little about yourself?" Mrs. Lionne sat on the edge of her desk and gestured for Alice to take her place in front of the class.
"Well, I, err... My name is Alice Grey..."
The class laughed. Alice frowned and stared at the floor. "Err... I'm from England. I used to live in St. Ives..." she looked at Mrs. Lionne to see if she'd said enough. The teacher wasn't looking at her though. She was watching two boys in the back of the room. Alice couldn't tell what they were up to, but it was clearly no good.
"Timothy Wilson and William Zeigert! You will kindly focus your attention at the front of the room." The smaller boy, Billy, Alice thought, shoved something under his desk before both boys snapped their heads back to the front. Folding their hands on the desks in front of them, both boys looked at their teacher innocently. "Yes, Mrs. Lionne," they chorused.
"Go on, Alice," the teacher prodded when she had the class's full attention. "Tell us something about yourself. What do you do for fun?"
"She eats crumpets!" called Tim in a false British accent. The class giggled.
"She plays croquet!" called Billy.
"Would you like a spot of tea?" Tim mimed pouring his friend a cup.
"Why, yes, old chap, That'd be-"
"Enough," sighed Mrs. Lionne. "Why don't you take that desk in the second row?" Mrs. Lionne pointed Alice to an empty seat. Relieved not to be the center of attention anymore, Alice stepped quickly to her desk - little too quickly, as it turned out. She tripped over someone's backpack and landed on the floor.
"Are you ok?" asked a pale girl with dark hair and huge glasses. She had been sitting in the seat across the aisle from Alice's, but now she was kneeling on the floor with her.
"I think so. Yes. I'm fine. Nothing to worry about. Happens all the time." Alice struggled to her feet, stumbling a little as she untangled her leg from the backpack. Mrs. Lionne had completely lost control of her class. What had started as snickers and giggles had broken down into several conversations across the room. While the teacher tried to quiet them down, the other girl helped Alice pick up the books that had fallen out of her bag.
"Don't listen to them; they're all a bunch of jerks."
"Err... thanks." She finally got everything back in her bag and climbed into her chair.
"Sorry about my backpack..." whispered the girl sitting in front of the pale girl.
"Shhh!"
"Oh, "shhh!" yourself," said the girl with the backpack. Alice turned around to see where the sound had come from. A skinny girl with red braids glared at her.
"Really, Lauren, it's none of your business anyway," whispered the girl who had helped Alice.
"Shhh!" whispered Lauren again.
"Geez! What is wrong with you? Do you have a leak?" asked the girl with the backpack.
Lauren glared at the other girls. "You're going to get us all in trouble. You've already interrupted Mrs. Lionne's class."
The brunette raised her eyebrow, causing her big glasses to tilt a little. "It was an accident, and besides, look around! Mrs. Lionne isn't even looking over here."
"Jaime Martin!" Mrs. Lionne had quieted the other half of the class and returned to where the noise had begun.
"Yes, Mrs. Lionne?" Jaime straightened her glasses and turned back to the front.
"If you and Miss Gayle have finished your conversation-" Lauren blushed. "I'd like to return to today's lesson."
"Yes, Mrs. Lionne," the Jaime responded quietly.
"Mrs. Lionne?" the girl in front of Jaime raised her hand.
"Yes, Miss March, do you have something to add?"
"Yes, ma'am. It was my fault. I mean, Alice tripped over my bag and then Jaime was only defending me to Lauren and-"
"That's fine, Kelly. I don't care whose fault it is, I just want to move on now, ok?" Mrs. Lionne smiled at the girls.
"Yes, ma'am." Kelly pulled her backpack safely under her desk, on the off chance that anyone else might walk by.
Now that she had her class's full attention again, Mrs. Lionne asked them to take out their big Language Arts books, which each student kept in his or her own desk. She gave them a list of spelling words to work on for the next week and had them take turns reading aloud from the book. Alice loved the story, which was about a girl their age crossing the United States in a covered wagon. She couldn't wait until the next day, when they would read another chapter. After their Reading lesson, Mrs. Lionne led them to the cafeteria for lunch. Alice looked for Beth in the big white lunchroom, but couldn't see her cousin anywhere.
"Alice? Do you want to sit with us?"
Alice looked around and saw Jaime sitting with Kelly. She smiled and put her lunch bag down. "I was supposed to sit with my cousin, but I don't see her-"
"Who's your cousin?" asked Kelly. "Maybe we know her?"
"Beth Jenkins. She's in the fifth grade."
"Never heard of her. Sorry."
"Does she have a little brother?" asked Jaime. "A second-grader?"
"Yes, Jake. I don't think they get on well, though."
"I definitely know him. He's friends with my brother. Jeff's eight too. I don't really know Beth though. Sorry," Jaime said, in between bites of her sandwich.
"Well, I suppose I'll see her later." Alice emptied the bag Mrs. Jenkins had packed her - a sandwich, an apple, a juice box, a little bag of crisps, and two cookies. Jaime's lunch looked pretty much the same, although the jam her sandwich was a different color. Kelly had a green plastic tray with something fried, a chocolate milk, some chips and a cupcake.
Jaime followed Alice's eyes to Kelly's strange meal. "What *are* they serving today, Kel?"
Kelly prodded her meal. "I'm not sure... Salisbury steak, I think." Her examinations had not made her more comfortable with the food. "Maybe I'll just eat the fries."