CHAPTER 3: November—Mary Anne

I arrived at school on the day before Thanksgiving. The History project was due that day, but Logan and I had turned in our Titanic project the week before.

The morning went by in a flash. I had first period math with Kristy, Dawn, Abby, and Logan. At the end of class, Mrs. Fredericks stood up. "Since today is the day before Thanksgiving," she said, "there won't be any weekend homework."

Second period was English with Stacey and Logan. We turned in our group project, which was to present a scene from a Neil Simon or Noel Coward play. Ours was from Neil Simon's The Star-Spangled Girl, and it was Andy Hobart's introduction to Sophie Rauschmeyer when she comes running to him after Norman Cornell starts mopping her kitchen floor after she'd waxed it. (By the way, Stacey and Logan were the actors, and I was the director, even though I did feed one line from my seat. That arrangement suited me just fine, since I'm terrified of being onstage, thanks to that ballet recital the summer I was seven.) We received an A, just as I'd expected.

In third period gym with Kristy and Stacey, we got to show off the acrobatics that we'd been working on. Since I'm not the most athletic person in the world—something else I inherited from my parents, sorry to say—I couldn't help crashing into Kristy while I was doing it. We also learned that the next unit would be volleyball, my most hated sports activity. In fact, I still remember the time in fifth grade when I'd almost broken Alan Gray's nose. Even though he has the maturity level of a five-year-old, I still felt terrible that he'd gotten hurt. Let's just say that for the first time in my life, I knew exactly how Ben Stiller felt in that one scene from Meet The Parents.

In fourth period science with Stacey, we gave our report on the solar system. She did the talking, and I put the visual aids up on the projector, which I was more than happy to do. Like I said before, I have horrible stage fright, so I could never be an actress. I'm just glad that Stacey was there, so I couldn't run out of the room and puke, like Anne Hathaway did in that one scene from The Princess Diaries.

At lunch time, Kristy, Logan, Jason, and I sat at our usual table. The day's lunch was a turkey sandwich, mixed vegetables, apple crisp, and milk. For once, Kristy didn't make any disgusting comments about the school lunch, which I thought was a nice change of pace.

"You know what?" I said, taking a bite of apple crisp. "My Grandma Baker is coming for Thanksgiving."

"Really?" Logan asked, taking a bite of corn.

I nodded as I took a sip of milk. "She should be at my house when I get home today."

"That's great," Kristy said, finishing her vegetables. All of my friends had met my grandmother, and they all seemed to like her.

"Yeah," Jason agreed, piling his trash on his tray. That's when we took our trays to the trash can. A few minutes later, the bell rang.

The afternoon also passed quickly. I had sixth period study hall with Jason, then seventh period History with Kristy, Claud, Stacey, Abby, Logan, and Jason. Logan and I got our Titanic project back with a B-plus. In eighth period Home Ec. with Stacey, we started on an apple pie, which wouldn't actually be done until after we'd left. I hoped the teacher wouldn't accidentally turn the oven up, instead of off, when they're almost done.

I couldn't wait to get home and see Grandma.

When we got home from school, we found Dad and Sharon in the living room. Both of them looked a little sad. "What happened?" I asked as I hung my jacket up on the hall tree.

"Sit down, girls," Dad said.

I sat in the armchair, and Dawn sat on the couch. "What happened?" I asked.

"We just got a call from the airline," Dad began. "Grandma's plane had to make an emergency landing in Columbus, due to fog."

Upon hearing that, I just stared at them, unable to say a word. This wasn't what I was expecting to hear. I'd been looking forward to Grandma's coming to Stoneybrook since last spring, which was when she came to see SMS' production of Carnival, which I wasn't expecting. And now, her plane had been grounded.

"How long will it be before she can come?" I asked when I'd finally found my voice.

"We don't know yet," Dad answered. "The airline said the passengers would stay in Columbus overnight, then they'll see how conditions are in the morning."

"So, she'll still be able to come for Thanksgiving, right?" I asked hopefully.

"Well, there's a fairly good chance, honey," Dad said.

I was really disappointed that Grandma wouldn't be able to make it until the day after Thanksgiving, or even later, for that matter. This year, Jeff would be flying in, and we'd still go to the airport to meet him. Hopefully, he'd make it, even if Grandma couldn't.

Oh, well, at least we'd have somebody visiting us this year.