Even better than one chapter a week. I am starting off with one chapter per day of Rachael’s life, but plan to spread the chapters out later: Dawn

Chapter 70 – Class Parliament

Wednesday, Sept 7, 2016

At their stop in the bakery Rachael and Lullana got more than hugs. Wednesday was croissant day, and Rachael got a bag with two dozen in it. Both girls left the shop with a roll in their hand, and when they got Tony he got one as well. They arrived at school a minute or two before the buses arrived, and Rachael was able to hide her stash in their locker. They went outside to meet their friends as the buses came in, and then headed to homeroom. It was kind of cute to notice people stopping in the hall near the locker, and sniffing deeply of the bakery smell.

In homeroom there were few announcements, but Ms. Smith said that it was time to get nominations for the class election on Friday. A girl from the back stood and said. ‘I nominate Sapphire Jewison.” Sapphire was from the other middle school and apparently had been one of the A-list girls there. Ms Smith asked if anyone would second the nomination. After a long pause, Rachael raised her hand and seconded.

Then Larissa raised her hand and said: “I nominate Rachael Barron.” Immediately six or seven other students spoke out to second her.

“Any further nominations?” Ms. Smith said. “No? Then I declare Rachael and Sapphire the candidates. The vote will be Friday. Posters are not allowed in this election. Each candidate will give a campaign speech tomorrow in homeroom of not more than three minutes.”

After that it was first period, which Rachael’s schedule listed as Phys. Ed. She walked the hall along with Ms. Smith. “I have a spare this period, due to trying out for the team. Are we getting the gym today?”

“I’m afraid not, Rachael. The boy’s coach has taken all the after-school slots for the next month. We will steal some balls and shoot on the hoops outside in the parking lot, once the cars leave. I don’t know how we will manage when it gets too cold outside.”

Rachael and Lullana had math after their spare, which they had spent in the gym helping the smallish class. Rachael’s gentle training helped some of the girls get the feel of the ball, and her joyous enthusiasm made the class fun for the girls.

Math was still easy for Rachael, but Lullana was having trouble with the concepts of variables in algebra, so Rachael helped her, and a boy sitting near them, get over the concept. Lunch was the next period, and Rachael handed Lullana her lunch, and said she would get to the table in a few minutes.

Rachael walked up to the table the basketball team ate at and approached the tallest girl, who was still shorter than Larissa. “Who is captain here?” she asked. A shorter girl sitting next to the tall one said. “I am, and only team members can sit here.”

Rachael opened the bag of croissants and used a napkin inside to start handing out the rolls to the girls, who seemed to go into foodgasms when they bit into one. “I don’t want eat here,” Rachael said. “I am trying out for the junior team, but will probably still eat with my friends even if I get picked. What I am here for is to complain about the gym allocations. It seems that the boys get it all the time.”

“Yeah, last year we had to start coming in early to get a gym, which sucks, because you have to get up before 6 to be there for 7, and you wind up with shower-head for the first class.”

“That isn’t fair, and this is what we are going to do …” Rachael explained her plan and the eyes and smiles on the faces of the team got wider and wider as she told them what they could do. At the end every girl was in favor and said they would do their part if Rachael could lead the others.

Rachael went back to her table, and doled out the rest of the croissant’s to her closest friends. Robert was the only boy to snag one. Mikki and Larissa both considered the rolls treats, and knew that they had to stop at the bakery to pick up the orders that their mothers had made.

“I have to go to the bakery after class,” Carly said. “School is over at 2:30 … will there be some left?”

“Maybe,” Rachael said. “They are always gone by three, even with the bigger batches Mike has been making. What you should do is call the bakery and make an order. Then you will be sure to get some.” Carly and another four girls all went to their phones as Rachael dictated the number. Carly and Becca got through: there were only two lines to the store. The others got busy signals and had to wait until the first ones were served.

After lunch the girls had Science, and Ron’s years of university anatomy made the Biology class simple. Again, she helped Lullana, who had never really thought about what happened inside the body. French was next, and the African girl had never taken the language, so was behind even the Canadian students who had slept through the French they had taken: an hour a week in primary school and then an hour a day in middle school.

With five minutes left in class the girls packed up and left early: Lullana would have to finish her papers as homework. Larissa and five other girls were on the basketball tryout group, and they followed Rachael to the girls change rooms. When they got there there was already a dozen girls changing, and more kept coming in.

Leaving early meant the girls were changed and ready to go when the bell rang and the phys. ed. classes left the floor. Larissa started passing out balls, and the girls practiced dribbling and shooting. Rachael went to the small gym and found that the senior girls were there, with a dozen members of the senior team, and seven junior team members: grade 10s who had been on the junior team last year.

Rachael started working with the girls in her class, and Larissa was doing the same with others on the bounce pass. A few minutes later the first confused boys came into the gym, and found no balls to play with, and little space with over 50 girls shooting.

Then the rotund male coach came in and blew his whistle. None of the girls stopped, confusing the man who was used to being in charge here. He blew again and again. Rachael walked up to him.

“You might as well put that away,” she said. “You are not our coach.”

“You girls need to leave,” the man said. “The gym is for the boys. You can work out in the parking lot.”

“Nuh-uh,” Rachael said. “The boys got the gyms yesterday: we get them today. You can take the boys out for a run. Ms. Smith did a mile in just over 5 minutes. See if you can beat her time.”

“I don’t run. The boys run,” the coach blustered. “And your Ms. Smith is in for a world of hurt if you don’t leave now. Just put the balls back on the rack. You are wasting time for my boys. Hopefully the seniors are working out in the small gym.”

“If they are, then they are working with the girls,” Rachael said.

“What?” Rachael wondered if that was actual steam coming out of the white hairs that grew out of the man’s ears. “My boys need the practice. They represent the school.”

“And the two girls teams don’t?” Rachael asked. “I heard that the only games the teams won last year was by the junior girls.”

Just then Ms. Smith came into the gym with Mrs. Donner, the principal who was holding a sheet of paper. They stopped at the door, watching the action, until the male coach saw them, and he stormed over to them, with Rachael following behind.

“These girls are keeping my boys from the gyms,” the man raged. “They aren’t scheduled, but they have taken over.”

“Just when are the girls scheduled?” the principal said. “Ms. Smith has given me the gym schedule you made and every slot has been allocated to the boys. The provincial mandate is that there should be equal access to facilities for all. Your schedule does not follow that principle.”

“I am the Athletics chair, so I make up the schedule. Girls aren’t important. They can work outside, I always give them four balls when they need them.”

“Four balls out of what? Thirty? How is that equal access,” the principal said. “Take your boys outside. Ms. Smith said that the girls ran four laps yesterday. Your boys will probably gain from doing the same.”

The coach continued to fume, but saw he would get nowhere with the principal. So he eventually led his boys out to the track. Ms. Smith thanked the principal and then headed to the small gym to get her seniors going. She knew that Larissa and Rachael would keep the tryout groups in order.

When she returned 15 minutes later Larissa was teaching layup shots and Rachael had the slower students, letting them to be comfortable with the ball through gentler passes. Ms. Smith just stood back and tried to assess the students. There were five vacancies on the junior travel team. Many of the girls that had been with her last year at the middle school were better than the others, but some of the others could be trainable if they were sufficiently athletic. Larissa and Rachael would make the team for sure. And the black girl who had run her in the ground was working with the slower girls with Rachael. She had no ball sense, but could learn, and since she was clearly a friend of Rachael, she might make the team as a sub. There was a tall girl with Larissa that seemed to be struggling. The coach went over and brought her over to Rachael’s group.

“We thought with her height she would be best with Larissa,” Rachael explained. “You are right, she needs to work on ball skills with my group.”

After showers, the girls came out and headed home. The boys came in from their run early, and Rachael went up to the Jackson brothers.

“Thanks a lot, Rachael,” Steve said as he got a hug from Lullana. “Four laps of the track: half the team didn’t make it even though we teased them that the girls had done it yesterday.”

“Well, to be fair a lot of the girls didn’t make it yesterday.” Rachael admitted. “We don’t need a ride home today. We are walking with a lot of girls to my house for a study hour or two: She pecked Robert on the cheek and asked: “Did you do the full four laps?”

“Your boyfriend finished first,” Steve laughed. “I figure he thought he was chasing you.”

“Well, don’t you ever challenge Lullana to a race,” Rachael said. “She is faster than our teacher. You will never catch her.”

“I would let him catch me,” Lullana said softly with a smile.

The boys left after another squeeze and then the girls looked to see that 10 girls were standing at the door to the change room, staring.

“What hunks,” one girl said. Where can I get one like that?

“The one guy is in Grade 12,” another noted. “Isn’t he a bit old for a Grade 9?”

“Lullana is older than we are,” Rachel explained. “Steve is older than her, but not by so much. Robert is our age. But he is mine, and don’t you forget it.”

The girls walked in a group to DaSilva’s, a new place to several of them. Rachael bought a sack of apples and a bit of garlic bologna. Then they were to the bakery, where picking were slim. It was past 3:30 after the practice but there were still some goodies. Rachael picked up the loaf of Love bread and dozen Clouds that she had on order, and handed Clouds out to the girls, who got the wide-eyed look of amazement that most people felt when they first tasted the buttery rolls.

At the house the girls first worked on the French paper. Technically they were supposed to have the paper completed before leaving but had snuck out, so Larissa and Rachael helped the others finish the paper, and then drilled them on some of the other things that were covered.

While Larissa was working on the French paper in the living room with the girls, Rachael went into the kitchen and made bologna sandwiches with Love Bread. When she served them, the girls all raved about the taste, and Rachael decided that her ploy to find more customers for the bakery had worked.

“Is that why so many of you girls bring your own lunches?” asked a girl name Kerrie. “That pasta they served today in the cafeteria was like mush.”

“The salads they serve there are okay sometimes,” Rachael admitted. “But I prefer to make my own and know what I am getting. And a sandwich and salad makes a healthy lunch. Mikki and I have been eating smart since last spring, and we are both a lot thinner now.”

“I can’t believe you were ever chunky,” Kerrie said. “You seem so fit. Not skinny like some girls, but kinda … athletic.”

After the French work, and the sandwich, Rachael suggested that they take a break and jog over to Veteran’s Park, which was nearby. There were some moans about the idea of running, but Rachael pointed out that tomorrow the boys would get the gym and they would be running again, and practice today would make it easier tomorrow.

As the girls ran, Larissa and Rachael shouted out words in French or English, and the girls had to shout back the corresponding word in the other language. As a result, a half hour run also helped reinforce their French. A side benefit was that concentrating on translations kept them from feeling so tired from running, and the half hour was much less taxing than they thought it would be.

When they got back, and all had a good drink of water they went through the Math work, since many of the students had left that class early as well. Rachael did most of the tutoring herself on this, since none of the other girls was excelling in Math. Rachael wondered if she should bring some of the original nerd boys to the next session to help.

Over half the girls were able to take the city bus home, but four lived where there was no service, so when Geoff got in he drove them home in the bakery van. That gave Rachael time to start a quick spaghetti dinner, with Lullana’s help.

Bobby turned up in time to toss the salad, and then ate a rushed dinner. He had his first hockey practice at the arena that evening. Of course the entire family was coming to watch.

Technically it was tryouts for the travel team. Boys who didn’t make that team would play in house league. But Bobby was the only one trying out for goalie. Another boy, who didn’t skate well, was co-opted into the back-up goalie position. While the other boys were doing skating drills, Bobby showed the back-up lad how to best defend the net.

When it came time to have a mini-game at the end of practice, Bobby and Marc were on different teams. Marc was the only player to score on Bobby, whose team won 3-1. The coach told Marc, Bobby and the back-up goalie that they had made the team. He wanted a second practice the following week before choosing the other players.

Back at the house it was nearly bedtime for Bobby and his parents. Rachael bribed the boy into taking a bath before she and Lullana crawled into his bed to read Harry Potter with him. Rachael had the African girl read some of the pages, and noted that her reading was improving.

“Dear Lord”, Rachael said later. “Thank you for another wonderful day. I am meeting more girls, and I think the French lessons will help them. I know the running will. And thanks for making Bobby enjoy hockey so much. I bet he will be a real hunk when he grows up.