فصل بیست و نهم

Chapter 29

Bradley was too excited to sleep. Mrs. Ebbel will be so surprised, he thought. She’ll tell the whole class, “Only one person got a hundred percent—Bradley!” But there were so many things that could still go wrong. What if I lose it on the way to school? he worried. What if Jeff and his friends steal it? Twice during the night he got out of bed to make sure it was safely folded inside his arithmetic book.

What if I did the wrong page? He was no longer sure whether Mrs. Ebbel had said page 43 or Page 62! He tried to remember exactly what she said to him.

He sat up in horror. She never said it was arithmetic homework. Mrs. Ebbel had just said a page number. She never said what book! She could have meant history, or language, or any of his other books!

He lay back down and trembled. His tears wet his pillow.

He got out of bed early in the morning, checked to see if his homework was still there, then quickly got ready and left for school without eating breakfast.

On the way he stopped to make sure he still had his homework. As he opened his book, the paper fell onto the sidewalk, right next to a puddle of water.

He stared at it, horrified by what he had almost done, then quickly picked it up and placed it back in his book. He held the book tightly shut the rest of the way to school.

He was one of the first ones there. He had to wait for the doors to open. He kept on the lookout for Jeff and his gang. He stood with his back to the school wall so they couldn’t sneak up behind him.

He saw Andy. He thought Andy had seen him, too, but if he had, he didn’t do anything about it.

When the doors opened, he was the first one in Mrs. Ebbel’s class. He sat at his desk—last seat, last row—and waited.

As the other kids came in, he saw them put sheets of paper on Mrs. Ebbel’s desk. He wondered if that was their homework. He now had a new worry. He didn’t know how he was supposed to turn in his homework.

Jeff entered, placed a piece of paper on the pile on top of Mrs. Ebbel’s desk, then came toward the back of the room.

It must be his homework, thought Bradley. What else could it be?

“Shawne,” he said aloud.

The girl who sat in front of Jeff turned around.

“Are you supposed to put your homework on Mrs. Ebbel’s desk?” “Don’t tell me what to do, Bradley!” Shawne snapped. “You worry about your homework, and I’ll worry about mine, okay?” She turned back around.

It was almost time for school to start. What if I have to put it on her desk before the bell rings or it doesn’t count? He fumbled through his book for his homework, stood up, then headed for Mrs. Ebbel’s desk.

He became more nervous with each step he took. His mouth was dry and he had trouble breathing. He could hardly see where he was going. He felt like he was going to faint. Mrs. Ebbel’s desk seemed so far away. It was like he was looking at it through the wrong end of a telescope. His heart pounded and his homework rattled in his hand.

Somehow he made it to her desk and tried to focus on the sheets of paper the other kids had put there. It looked like arithmetic homework! Page 43!

But instead of feeling better, he felt worse—like he was going to explode.

“Do you want something, Bradley?” asked Mrs. Ebbel.

He looked at his homework shaking in his hand. Then he tore it in half and dropped it in the wastepaper basket next to Mrs. Ebbel’s desk.

He instantly felt better. His head cleared and his breathing returned to normal. His heart stopped pounding.

He walked back to his desk, took a deep breath, exhaled, and sat down. He folded his arms on his desktop and lay his head down sideways across them. He felt sad, but relieved, as he gazed at the gold stars.