CHAPTER 7: March—Logan

I arrived at school on the last day before spring break. According to the calendar, it was also the first day of spring, but I couldn't see it yet.

King caught up with me at my locker as I was putting my jacket and umbrella away. As usual, he couldn't resist ribbing me about my baby-sitting. Fortunately, he doesn't do it as often, since he was the one who found a lost Johnny Hobart at the health fair when we were in eighth grade. "So, Bruno, how many diaper pails will you have to clean out during vacation?" he asked.

"Beats me. Why, did you want to help?"

After homeroom, I met up with Kristy, Mary Anne, Dawn, and Abby outside the math classroom. The five of us went into the room and sat in the back row.

As soon as the teacher, Mr. Warren, entered the room, he said, "Good morning."

"Good morning," we mumbled.

"Hey, come on, people, it's the last day before spring break. Let's see some enthusiasm here," the teacher commented. "It's not like I'm asking you to do my taxes. And besides, my accountant does that. When he does them right, that is."

That, of course, sent the class into a round of laughter. I could be wrong, but I think I heard King or one of his buddies let loose with that God-awful high-pitched laugh from Amadeus. (Jason and I were talking about that recently, and I asked him how that movie could've won for Best Picture, and his only response was, "Mysteries of life.")

After that, the rest of my morning ran like this: second period English with Stacey; third period gym and fourth period French with none of my BSC friends; and fifth period study hall with Kristy, Mary Anne, and Jason.

Sixth period was lunch. The four of us sat at our usual table. The day's lunch consisted of a fish sandwich, French fries, mixed fruit, and milk.

"So, what are you guys doing for Easter?" I asked as I opened my milk.

"Well, Sharon's brother and his family are coming for the weekend," Mary Anne said.

I remembered when Dawn and Mary Anne told me about when Amy, Dawn's eight-year-old cousin, stayed with them while her parents were in London a couple of years ago, and how she'd been a bratty six-year-old the whole time she'd been there. I'd heard that she'd even escaped from Dawn and Mary Anne while they were playing hide-and-seek, and Stacey had found her at the day care center at Bellair's. At the time, Stacey and the BSC weren't exactly on friendly terms, because Stacey was acting like she was way too mature for them, spending too much time with her now ex-boyfriend, Robert Brewster, and his crowd, and finding Amy had been her ticket back in. I really hoped Amy had matured a little over the past couple of years.

"Karen and Andrew are spending the weekend with us, but they'll go back to their mom's that night," Kristy said, taking a bite of her sandwich.

"Wow," I said. "Not much to do, huh?"

"Anything is better than doing Mr. Warren's taxes," Mary Anne pointed out.

After we finished laughing, we took our trays to the trash can. At that moment, the bell rang.

That afternoon, I had seventh period World Geography with Kristy, Claud, Mary Anne, Stacey, and Jason. I had eighth period science with Kristy, Abby, and Jason.

There was no track practice that afternoon, so I just put on my jacket, grabbed my umbrella and a couple of books, and headed home. I was looking forward to spring break.

That night, I baby-sat for Matt Braddock. We've baby-sat for him lots of times. His sister, Haley, who's eleven, is a BSC member. That night, Haley would be hanging out with Vanessa Pike, so there would just be nine-year-old Matt.

Matt is profoundly deaf, and uses sign language, but I've recently heard from Jessi that Matt is learning to lip-read. The only thing is, we still have to use sign language, because that's the only way he can communicate with us.

"Hi, Matt," I said, signing at the same time. "How are you?"

"Great," he said. "I made the honor roll at school this quarter, as well as perfect attendance."

"That's awesome," I said as we high-fived. "So, we've got a few hours. Would you like to play, or did you want something to eat?"

"Let's play for now," he said, motioning for me to follow him to his room, where he got out his Jeopardy! game.

Don't get me wrong—I've always loved that game, and when I was little, Dad would sometimes make the Daily Double noise whenever a contestant made a selection without actually hitting it. The thing is, Matt has the junior edition of the game, and a lot of the questions are waaaaay too easy for someone my age. The way we usually play is, we show each other the card, then write our answers on the notepad and show them to each other. Even though I wasn't sure I wanted to play, it would at least give us something to do.

About an hour later, Matt told me he was hungry. "Okay, let's get something to eat. Your mom left some tomato soup to be warmed up, and I can make us grilled cheese sandwiches."

"Okay. Sounds good."

At that moment, Haley came in. "Hi," she said.

"Hi," I answered. "We were just getting ready to have some dinner. You hungry?"

"No thanks," she told me. "Vanessa and I just had dinner at Burger King."

"That's okay," I answered.

While Matt and I ate our dinner, Haley sat and watched the Braddocks' DVD of It's The Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown. About forty-five minutes later, Mrs. Braddock came home.

"How'd it go?" she asked.

"It went pretty well," I told her.

After she paid me, I went out the door.

On Easter Sunday, our church had the annual Easter egg hunt for the kids. This year would be Kerry's last, and if you ask me, she was glad to be leaving it behind. Hunter, on the other hand, was years away from going through that.

"I'm getting too old for this, Mom," Kerry complained. I could understand where she was coming from, but at the same time, I'm just glad she didn't say the "I'm getting too old for this shit" line from Lethal Weapon.

"This is your last year, honey," Mom said. "Try to have an open mind about this, okay?"

"All right, when you put it that way."

As Kerry and Hunter started their Easter egg hunt, I thought that spring vacation had gone very well.