"What's the problem?" she repeated, almost in a shriek. "I'll tell you what's the problem! What if you fell and split your silly head open?"

"But I didn't," I protested weakly.

23. Jinxed!

The last class of the week was Home Ec. with Ms. Tandy. She gave back our baby notebooks. I glanced inside. A-plus! I guess I really earned that grade!

Ms. Tandy said, "Some of your notebooks were pretty sketchy, and that's reflected in your grade. About the babies: most of you were pretty good. At the same time, most of you were a little rough. I think if it was a real baby, you'd see the baby's reaction and be more gentle. That said, a couple of you actually hit the baby."

"Or threw it off a train," someone muttered, and everyone laughed. I looked at the floor.

"Right," Ms. Tandy said drily. "I'm going to talk individually with the girls who mistreated their babies, and then I'll give you that part of the grade. For now, let's talk about how what this experience was like for you."

"The crying drove me up the wall," one girl said. "It kept waking me up."

"I just stayed home all weekend," another remarked. "I was too embarrassed to go out with that thing."

"Those of you who did go out," Ms. Tandy asked, "did people treat you any differently?" My cheeks colored at that, so she called on me.

"People thought it was real," I said, "and they thought I was a teenage mother. They made all kinds of rude remarks and looked at me like I was some kind of — I don't know — something awful. They said my parents didn't raise me well. It was horrible."

"One lady called me a tramp," someone said. "And some other names I can't repeat. Can I?"

"No," Ms. Tandy said. "I think we can imagine. So what have we learned?"

After school Eden and I went to her house and ran through the routine a few times. "Tomorrow we have to work on the weak spots," Eden said. "We have to get more flow. It's got to be more fluid."

"Okay," I shrugged.

"Are you mad at me for inviting your mother tomorrow?" she asked.

"No, I don't care."

"Hey," Eden said. "I have a present for you!" She ran out of the room for a moment and came back with a short skirt. "When I saw that train cartoon, I realized that you always wear long skirts."

"It's the dress code," I said.

"Yeah, but other girls wear short skirts to school."

I sighed. "I guess Mrs. Zeff didn't get her claws into them. They watch me. They check what I'm wearing, every day."

"Right, I forgot." she said. "But it's the weekend! So put it on!"

I quickly changed. It was a cute little thing that came to middle of my thigh. It was blue, and had some white lace trim. The skirt fanned out a little, sort of like a bell. "Do you like it?" Eden asked. I nodded. "So twirl!" she said.

I twirled and jumped and swung my hips to make the skirt shake. "Hey, I like it!" I said. "It's fun."

Eden was pleased that her gift was a success, and she walked with me when I left for home. "I'll go as far as the school," she said.

We talked about one thing and another, and when we reached the school we stopped. I don't know if you remember, but the front door of the school doesn't face the street: it's on the side of the building. And there, near the front door, were two boys. One was sitting on the ground, and the other was running around like a freaked-out chicken. As we got closer, we could see that the sitting boy was having trouble breathing. Eden and I ran over to see.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Cory's having an asthma attack!" the panicked boy told us. "I knocked and I rang, and I ran all around the building, but nobody's inside!"

"Okay," I said. I looked at Eden; she was goggle-eyed. "Does he have any asthma medicine?"

"Yeah," his friend said. "But it's in the building. In there." He pointed up, to an open window on the third floor.

"You mean his medicine is in that room?" I asked.

"Yeah! That was our last class. He left his backpack in there."

I looked at the brick wall and said, "All right. I can do this." I took off my shoes, and said to the boy, "Don't look up my skirt." He nodded, frightened, and I started to climb.

My toes and fingers fit into the space between the bricks, and I kept close to the wall as I climbed. At first it was pretty easy, but once I got about halfway up, my arms started shaking. Still, I didn't have any choice but to keep going. I didn't look down, and I didn't stop.

The worst of it came when the window I was aiming for was just a few feet away. I felt a burst of panic welling up inside me and a little voice said I'm not going to make it! but I had to. I had to. If I didn't make it, I would fall. I had to make it!

When they do this on TV it looks easy! I told myself. Beads of sweat ran from my forehead into my eyes, stinging them, but I didn't dare stop to wipe.

I'd imagined that once I grabbed the windowsill that I could just haul myself up and in, but my arms were so weak that I had to keep climbing with my feet until half my body was over the sill, inside the room. As soon as I slid to the floor, the lights came on. In that moment I spotted the backpack and saw Ms. Tandy at the light switch. My arms were shaking like crazy.

"Marcie Donner! Have you lost your mind? What in the world are you doing?"

I didn't have the breath to speak, so I grabbed the backpack and threw it out the window to Cory's friend. I waved Ms. Tandy over and gasped, "Come see."

When she got to the window, the friend had pulled the inhaler from the backpack, and was just handing it to Cory. "Asthma 'tack," I puffed.

She was speechless for a moment, then said, "Let's get down there!" At that, I put one leg up on the windowsill. She pushed it back to the floor, incredulous. "Are you crazy!? Not that way! We'll take the stairs! Like normal people do!"

As we ran, she looked at my feet. "Barefoot, too? Oh, Marcie, what are we going to do with you? I saw you climbing, but I was afraid to say anything — I didn't want to make you fall."

By the time we exited the front door, Cory was drawing deep, heavy breaths, like someone who'd been running a long time. "Thanks," he gasped to me.

Ms. Tandy knelt beside him and put her hand on his forehead. "Are you all right?"

Cory nodded. "I just needed my inhaler."

"Don't any of you kids have cell phones?" Ms. Tandy asked. We all shook our heads. She looked at me and said, "Marcie, you need to get a cell phone."

"Me? Why me?"

Her hands shook for a moment, then she said, "Because somehow YOU are always in the middle of things! If you had a phone, you could have called your aunt, who is a nurse, or some other emergency number, or even 911! Oh!" I could see she was frustrated, but I didn't understand why.

I looked at Cory, who was panting slowly, as if he'd been running. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah," he said. "Thanks. I really appreciate it." Then his eyes drifted down, and he stared at my legs, not leering, but as if he was studying them.

I put my hands on the hem of the skirt and pressed it against my thighs. "Hey!" I gently chided.

He was startled. "Oh, sorry!"

"Marcie," Ms. Tandy said. "Look at me."

"What's the problem?" I said. "I got his medicine, and he's alright."

"What's the problem?" she repeated, almost in a shriek. "I'll tell you what's the problem! What if you fell and split your silly head open?"

"But I didn't," I protested weakly.

"You were lucky!" she retorted. Then she sighed. "You did a good thing and a bad thing at the same time, Marcie. Normal people — especially girls in short skirts — don't go scaling walls! Into locked buildings! Someone could have called the police, and — by the way — if you think you're keeping a low profile, guess what! You're not!"

Cory, who was still sitting on the ground, followed this with great interest.

Ms. Tandy was struggling to find the right words. Then she said, "Look, Marcie. You have to realize that life isn't like a comic book! You're not some kind of action hero!"

Cory's face lit up, as if he'd just had a revelation. His breathing became regular, and he stood up. "Maybe she is!" he said. "Maybe she is an action hero!"

Ms. Tandy and I looked at Cory in disbelief, and at the same instant we both said, "Give me a break!"

Ms. Tandy's eyes twinkled. Then she pointed at me and said, "Jinx! You owe me a coke!"

© 2007 by Kaleigh Way