Josie Baker looked down at the holes in her teddy-bear pants and the skinned knees underneath. Her knees weren’t nearly as painful as the waiting. Waiting was torture. She didn’t know how long she had been in the principal’s office. From the other side of the frosted glass, she could see the outlines of two figures. In the cop shows her dad sometimes let her watch with him, an officer might have a suspect sit in the interromation room for a long time just to make them nervous. That must be what the principal and recess teacher were planning. They were letting her sweat while they discussed how to make her crack.
Josie knew she had to be very careful about what she said or better yet, say nothing at all. They’d try to trick her into admitting wrong doings.
She could hear bits and pieces of the accusations of the teacher in the hall, but the information was all hearsay, passed along by an unreliable source – Laura Holten. The cop shows would give her a name like the notorious Laura Holten or say she was “the most ruthless criminal this side of the Mississippi,” or something cool like that.
Suddenly the door opened and in walked the principal. He leaned back against the front of his desk, eyes boring into her soul. It was a power move to make her feel small, and Josie knew it. He crossed his arms over his big chest and planted a smug grin on his bearded face. He was about to play hardball, but Josie was ready for it.
“Josie,” he said. “Miss Murphy was just telling me you got into a bit of trouble on the playground today. Would you like to tell me what happened?”
“Not without my lawyer.”
She leaned back into her seat, placed her arms on the sides of the wooden chair and held on tight. Josie could play hardball too.
He did a slow blink and pinched the bridge of his crooked nose. Maybe he had been in a playground scuffle or two in his day.
“Josie, just tell me your side of the story so we can work out this business.”
“Since I’m the only person being interromated, it seems like you’ve already decided which story to believe,” said Josie. She looked past him at the wall behind his desk. It was probably an elaborate two-way mirror disguised as the principal’s office wall. Her third-grade teacher Mrs. Johnson and Laura were no-doubt listening to this whole conversation from an observation room.
“I really don’t want to call your parents, Josie, but I will if you don’t cooperate.”
Josie imagined Barb and Dale Baker getting the call and having to leave work to pick her up. Nothing good could come from that scenario.
“Fine,” she said. “I’ll talk.”
“Good,” Principal Hill said, moving to his seat behind his big oak desk. He folded his hands on his desk and leaned in towards her, his face serious.
“It all started in kindergarten,” Josie began.
For as long as Josie could remember (kindergarten) Laura Holten had been trouble. Josie’s very first day of school at Milton Elementary, she was placed at the same table as a young girl, perfectly dressed, with long golden hair. The girl, Laura, had a habit of tossing her hair back with her hands or a shake of her head, making a spectacle of the long blonde locks. Josie could have disregarded the hair tossing business if only her irritation had ended there. Laura was one of those kids who adults thought were perfect, but really she was the worst.
After a long and hot recess, the kindergarten class lined up at the tall grey water fountain. Laura was in front of Josie in the line. Josie was so thirsty from fifteen minutes of hard play, she thought she might pass out.
“Laura,” she said, dizzy with dehydration. “You’ve had long enough. We’re all thirsty too.” Josie gestured to the line of classmates behind her.
Laura narrowed her eyes and continued slurping from the fountain water.
“Why are you so thirsty?” Josie asked, wiping sweat from her brow. “You only played hopscotch.”
“Come on,” called another kid from the back of the line. “We’re dying back here!”
Laura opened her mouth and lapped up the water like a prissy poodle. Josie wrinkled her nose in disgust. Josie wasn’t about to let Laura get the upper hand.
“You’ve had long enough,” Josie repeated, pushing Laura out of the way of the fountain. Josie got on her tiptoes, pressed the cool metallic button, and leaned into the water stream, but before she could even take a drink, Laura tattled like the rat she was.
“Mrs. Able, Josie pushed me.”
The kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Able, pulled Josie from the line and lectured her about pushing without even listening to Josie’s side of the story. Josie was a hero, not a hoodlum. Emboldened by her sacrifice to her fellow cotton-mouthed kindergarteners, she didn’t even respond to the lengthy lecture. She swallowed what little spit she could muster and marched back into the classroom, untied shoelaces trailing behind her.
In first grade, the hair wars began. Josie had been growing her long brown hair forever, six years in fact, and it finally reached mid-back. When she brushed it, it was even longer. During reading time, Laura and Josie were both looking for books on the reading cart when trouble started brewing.
“Your hair is getting long,” said Laura.
“Yeah, I’m growing it out,” said Josie, playing it cool. All those times she hid from her mom’s home haircuts were paying off.
“Mine is still longer,” said Laura.
“Is it?” said Josie. Ugh, Laura was such a bragger. She didn’t even give Laura the satisfaction of looking at her. Josie continued scanning the leveled books on the cart. She grabbed a level “M” book, advanced for first grade.
“Quiet at the book cart,” said Mrs. Jayden as she peaked over her red readers at the girls.
“I bet mine is longer,” whispered Laura, grabbing a level “O” book.
“Nope.” Josie put her “M” book back and reached for a “P.”
“Fine. Let’s ask someone else whose hair is the longest.”
“Okay.” Josie turned toward Laura, trying to sound nonchalant, but inside her stomach clenched. This was her moment. She might finally have longer hair than Laura’s. It would prove Laura wasn’t better at everything like she thought she was.
Who could Josie trust for this contest? She looked around the room. Kate? No. She was Laura’s desk neighbor. There could be loyalty there. Sara? No. She and Josie had a run in over the last jelly sandwich at lunch the week before. Robin? Yes! Robin played jump rope with Josie and Cara, Josie’s neighbor from Plum Street, on most recess breaks.
Robin looked around and then pointed to herself in question.
“Yeah, you!” whispered Laura. “Come here.”
Robin put down her Boxcar Children book, glanced around the room at all the students quietly reading, looked nervously at Mrs. Jayden, and then back at the Josie and Laura crouched behind the metal book cart. Robin shook her head.
As Robin was about to go back to reading, Josie pulled one sticker from her pocket and waved it at her. Robin looked down at her desk, contemplating. She held up two fingers. Josie dug deep into her second-hand Jordache jeans and found another sticker. This one was the scented banana sticker she had traded three of her best stickers for at recess. Josie took one more whiff of the sweet banana smell and held it up to Robin, who nodded her assent and joined them at the bookcase, hand outstretched.
“We want you to tell us whose hair is longer,” said Laura.
“Okay,” said Robin, tucking a strand of her black bob behind her ear.
“And you have to be fair,” said Josie, handing over the two stickers.
“Girls, I said keep your voices down.”
“Sorry Mrs. Jayden,” they said in unison, like well-trained little soldiers.
Robin put the stickers in her overall pocket and went to her desk. She came back with a pink plastic ruler. Both Laura and Josie turned to face the bookcase. While Robin carefully measured, Josie held her breath and closed her eyes tight. This was it, after over a year of watching Laura flip her hair, Josie was finally going to have the satisfaction of knowing her hair was longer.
“It’s Laura,” whispered Robin.
“No!” yelled Josie. She clasped her hands to her mouth, but it was too late.
“Josie Baker,” said Mrs. Jayden. “Out to the hallway.”
Josie grabbed her book, marched out of the classroom, and flopped onto the hard, cold floor of the long hallway. She tugged on her hair, willing it to grow. No doubt there were underground dealings between Laura and Robin. Apparently jumping rope wasn’t enough to secure an ally in her rivalry with Laura. Besides, Robin didn’t have long hair. She probably didn’t understand how important the contest was for Josie. Opening her book, Josie groaned. She was not a level “P” reader.
Second grade hadn’t been any better. To start the school year, Josie’s mom had taken them to the thrift store in Milton to look for school clothes. Josie was so excited about a grey sweater with rows of pink hearts on it. She begged her frugal mom for that sweater, promising to wear it all the time.
“Please mom! It’s so soft. It’s so pretty. PALEEEESE!”
Josie anxiously awaited a cool fall day to wear her new sweater and in October her chance finally came. That morning the radio said it would be the high of 65 degrees. Perfect sweater weather. Josie pulled the sweater over her Wonder Woman undershirt and headed out the door to the school bus stop.
In Mrs. Melrose’s second-grade classroom, Josie sat upright in her chair, feeling ready to learn in her new-to-her sweater. She rubbed her hand along the sleeve of the sweater, stroking the soft, fuzzy material. As Josie opened the wood top of her desk to find her number two pencil, she turned and noticed Laura looking at her sweater. It felt good to have something nice that Laura didn’t have.
On the playground that morning, kids of all ages found their favorite ways to spend the glorious fifteen minutes of recess. Some played Red Rover on the grass field, some slid down the spiral slide, some did flips on the monkey bars. That day, Josie and Cara were swinging on the tall metal swing set when Laura approached.
“I like your new sweater,” Laura called up, as Josie pumped her way into outer space, imagining she was the commander of a United States space shuttle.
“Thanks!” Josie called down, almost to Jupiter.
“Where did you get it?”
“At a store.” Josie kept pumping, not wanting Laura to interrupt her mission.
“What store?”
“I don’t know.”
“I was just wondering because Megan Duncan from third grade had one just like it last year.”
“Oh yeah?” asked Josie. Her shuttle exploded and she began to fall out of orbit. Her feet touched the ground. Did Megan have a sweater like hers? Could it be Megan’s?
“Yeah,” said Laura. “I just asked her about it, and she said her mom donated it to the thrift store along with some other old stuff Megan didn’t want anymore. I just wondered if you got it there.”
“No.” Josie lied.
“It’s okay if you did Josie,” said Cara, glaring at Laura.
“I said I didn’t!” Josie jumped off the swing and ran across the asphalt playground yard towards the school. The recess teacher grabbed her before she could go into the school.
“Where are you headed Miss Baker? Recess isn’t over.”
“I have to go inside.”
“Why?”
“I need to take this itchy sweater off,” she said. “I hate it.”
Laura never had to wear stupid second-hand clothes. She always had the best name-brand stuff like the L.A. Gears Josie wanted so bad but could never have. Not without a clearance tag anyway. Her mom said they were too expensive.
When the teacher said she’d have to wait to go inside, Josie ripped the sweater off and stood shivering in her Wonder Woman undershirt until the shrill recess bell rang. As the children lined up to go inside, kids pointed at Josie and whispered behind their hands. She looked down, trying not to cry.
In the classroom, Mrs. Melrose asked Josie to put her sweater back on and when Josie refused, she was sent to the nurse’s office, who gave her another second-hand shirt to wear for the rest of the day. Josie never wore the grey and pink heart sweater again.
This year, Josie and Laura were both in Mrs. Johnson’s third-grade class. The year started alright, Laura even complimented Josie on the yellow smiley face shoelaces Josie got from her older sister. But things went downhill fast.
Josie was good at math, so one day Mrs. Johnson asked Josie to help Laura with her division worksheet during recess. Even though Josie was excited she knew something Laura didn’t, she didn’t want to miss recess. After Josie explained how she did division problems, Josie ran outside, hoping to salvage part of recess. When Laura got her division paper back the next day it had several wrong answers. Laura accused Josie of sabotaging her homework.
“I’m sorry you don’t understand division,” said Josie. “I tried to show you.”
“You didn’t help me on purpose!” cried Laura. “You don’t want me to be good at math!” She went straight to Mrs. Johnson to make her allegation, which resulted in Josie unfairly missing another recess.
Josie was at her wits end with Laura. For years, Josie had to listen to Laura brag about her stuff and how good she was at everything. She teased Josie. She tattled on Josie. She just drove Josie crazy. Why did rich, bratty Laura spend so much time worrying about Josie anyway? Why wouldn’t she just leave Josie alone?
Today at recess, Josie was jumping rope with Cara and Robin. Cara and Josie swung the rope and when Robin was about to jump in, Laura got in line to jump after her. Josie stopped the rope mid-swing.
“Laura,” said Josie. “We’re just playing the three of us.”
“I just want to jump one time,” said Laura.
“No,” said Josie.
“Come on Josie, let’s just jump,” said Robin.
Cara gave Josie a tentative look, but when Josie started swinging the rope, Cara followed suite. Robin timed her jump into the swinging rope and when she entered Cara and Josie began their rhyme.
“Cinderella, dressed in yella, went upstairs to kiss a fella. Made a mistake and kissed a snake. How many doctors did it take? 1,2,3,4,5,” And on six, Robin missed her jump.
“Okay,” said Josie. “My turn.”
“No, I’m going next,” said Laura.
“No!”
“It’s fine Josie,” said Cara, always the peacemaker. “Just let her jump one time.”
“Once,” said Josie, narrowing her eyes at Laura.
Laura flashed that fake sweet smile she usually saved for teachers as Josie and Cara started to swing the rope again. Laura began moving her hands in the motion of the rope and timing her entrance. She made it in with ease.
“Cinderella, dressed in yella went upstairs to kiss a fella. Made a mistake and kissed a snake. How many doctors did it take? 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10…” By now they were up to thirty and Josie started to swing the rope a little faster. Cara shot her a confused look but did her best to keep up. Laura had no trouble changing speed with the new tempo. “45,46,47,48…”
As the numbers got higher, several kids from kindergarten to fifth grade surrounded the small group of jump ropers and began to count along.
Of course, Laura was good at jump roping too. Josie lost control of her temper and her arms. Soon she began whipping the rope with a force like no other third grader could manage. Laura’s eyes showed signs of fear, her legs signs of fatigue, but she jumped on.
“63,64,65,66…” sang the chorus of kids.
Josie whipped the rope faster and faster, her rapidly rotating arms at risk of flying her from the ground like a helicopter. This was war. She spun faster, until there was a sickening thump, a cry of pain, and the collective gasp of the crowd. She had whipped Laura Holten right in the face with the school’s long, plastic segmented, red and white jump rope. Laura immediately began to cry.
“You did that on purpose,” she said, pointing at Josie.
“No, I didn’t,” said Josie. “It was an accident.”
“You’re a liar! You tried to whip me with the jump rope.”
Wide-eyed, Robin and Cara slowly backed away from Josie, leaving her to fend for herself. Surrounded by concerned kids, Laura walked toward the school, calling for the recess teacher in between sobs.
Unsure what to do, Josie dropped the jump rope and ran as fast as she could, until a loose piece of playground asphalt tripped her. She fell to her knees, ripping holes in her stretchy new teddy bear pants, just like her sister predicted would happen because Josie couldn’t keep anything nice.
Josie got up and kept running without even dusting herself off. She ran up the long metal slide and crouched down in the covered top. She would stay there forever, or at least until the school bus came. Now she looked down at her skinned knees. Blood seeped through the tattered pants. Josie blew on her injured knees, feeling the sting of the exposed, raw flesh, and then rested her head down on her bloody knees and cried.
“So, you see, Principal Hill,” said Josie. “This moment has been coming for years. Swinging that jump rope, I just snapped. It was like an out of body experiment. I lost all control.” Sometimes that alibi worked on the cop shows, maybe it would work on Principal Hill.
“You purposely hit Laura in the face with the jump rope?”
“Not exactly,” said Josie. “I wasn’t aiming for her face, I just wanted to mess her up so she would stop jumping and leave me alone.”
“Oh Josie,” said Principal Hill. “I don’t know what to do with you.” He blew air out of his lips, making a silly noise that caused Josie to grin. “This isn’t funny.”
Josie tucked her lips in, shook her head and tried to look very serious.
“I know what it’s like to have a rival, to be competitive, and to be just plain jealous.”
“I’m not jealous!”
He held up his hand to silence her.
“It’s not always easy to get along with everyone, but what I find helpful is to really try to find the good in people. What are some good things about Laura?”
Josie looked up and groaned slightly. “Nothing comes to mind.”
“Dig deeper.”
“Still nothing.”
“Josie Baker, there has to be something good about Laura.”
She took a deep breath and exhaled in a huff. “Okay,” she said. “Laura has nice hair.”
“Something about her, not about how she looks.”
“I heard she has a waterbed.”
“Immaterial.”
“Ugh.”
“You can do this.”
Josie bit her lip and tried hard to think of something good about Laura. All that came to mind was the mean things Laura did. Or the stuff Laura had. Josie closed her eyes tight and thought back through the last three years. There had to be something.
She opened her eyes and smiled.
“Well, this summer at the pool I let her play pirates and mermaids with me and some other kids. She was a mermaid, and I was a pirate, obviously. Laura was pretty good at playing make believe. She even knew some pirate words.”
“Like what?”
“Well, she called me a scallywag. And she threatened to steal our coffer. That’s a treasure chest.”
“That’s fun. See? You two have something in common. You both know about pirates. I bet if you tried hard, you could find more things you have in common with Laura.”
“Yeah,” said Josie. “Maybe she likes The Goonies? It’s the best pirate movie ever”
“Without a doubt,” said Principal Hill.
“Hey you guys!” hollered Josie in her best Sloth voice.
“Baby Ruth?” responded Principal Hill in another top-notch impression.
Josie’s shoulder slumped, and her head bowed. “I’m sorry, Principal Hill.”
“Thank you, but I don’t think I’m the one who needs the apology.” He pointed to the door. “Head down to the nurse’s office and get those knees bandaged up. We don’t need you bleeding all over the school.”
Josie got up and opened the door. She traced the backwards etched letters spelling Principal, and not Interromation, on the office door window. Maybe Principal Hill thought she got off easily with an apology, but Josie wondered if jailtime was better.
“Stay out of trouble,” he said. “Or you’ll walk the plank. Or at least swab the decks.”
When Josie entered the small nurse’s office, she saw Laura sitting on the big cushioned black bench with an icepack pressed to her face. Josie plopped on the bench next to her and Laura turned away.
“Where’s the nurse?” asked Josie.
“She’ll be right back,” said Laura.
“Oh,” Josie looked down at her swinging legs. “How’s your face?”
“What do you care?” Laura scoffed, still facing away from Josie.
The ticking of the clock got louder and louder in Josie’s ears. She noticed the familiar smell of Band-Aids and antiseptics the nurse used on her with frequency. Josie could go back to Principal Hill’s office right now and renegotiate her punishment instead of apologizing. Maybe detention wasn’t so bad. Maybe her parents wouldn’t freak out if he called them. No, they would definitely freak out. She cleared her throat.
“I’m sorry, Laura,” said Josie, barely above a whisper.
“What?” asked Laura.
“I’m sorry, okay!”
“No, you’re not,” said Laura. “You probably had to come and say that.”
“Yeah, so,” said Josie, crossing her arms. “It’s still not easy.”
“Fine.”
“Fine.”
Laura started to sniffle and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
Josie groaned.
“I shouldn’t have swung the rope so fast and hard, okay?” she said. “I didn’t mean to hit your face. I just didn’t want you to jump rope with us.”
“Why not?”
“Because you just barged in without asking,” said Josie. She lowered her voice. “And because you’re better at jumping rope than me. Just like everything else.”
“I didn’t jump to show off.”
“Well, you should have asked first.”
“You never want to play with me,” said Laura. “I have to barge in.”
Laura turned to face Josie, still holding her icepack firmly on her cheek.
“You think you’re so cool just because you have a bunch of friends,” she said. “You don’t have to be stingy about it. Other people need friends too.”
“You have friends,” said Josie.
“No, I don’t,” said Laura. “Not really. People just pretend to be my friend. They want to come to my nice house and eat pizza, but they never invite me to their houses. What’s the big deal about little Schwan’s pizzas anyway?”
“When you only get store brand pizza, Schwan’s is a big deal.”
Laura looked down at Josie’s bloody pants.
“Are your knees okay?” she asked.
“They’re alright, it’s my butt that’s gonna to be real sore when my mom sees my new pants,” Josie laughed.
Laura didn’t even smile. She just turned away again.
“I promise to be nicer,” Josie said with a groan. “But you need to stop bragging…and being a tattletale.”
“You need to stop making everything a competition!”
“Touche.”
“Tushie?”
Josie let out a snort and as the nurse walked into the office to two giggling, rather beat-up looking girls. The nurse took the cold pack from Laura’s face and examined the reddened skin.
“It’s a little swollen,” she said. “I would ice it again when you get home from school. But for now, back to class.”
“Could I wait for Josie?” asked Laura.
Josie looked at Laura in disbelief.
“Sure,” said the nurse. “That would be nice of you.”
Both girls sat with legs dangling from the bench of the nurse’s office while Josie’s battered knees were cleaned and bandaged. Then they quietly walked back to Mrs. Johnson’s class together.
“Do you like the Goonies?” asked Josie.
“Arrrrg you kidding me?” said Laura in a pirate voice. “I could watch Brand all day.”