Big Whopper (5 page)

T
hey reached the art room out of breath.

Three seats were left.

“That was
koun
,” Sumiko said. “That means ‘good luck’ in Japanese.”

But Ms. Katz was wearing a jacket. “Let’s go outside,” she said. “Bring paper. Bring colored pencils. We’ll draw in the schoolyard.”

Everyone raced for the door. They didn’t even need jackets. It was warm out.

Great for sitting on the benches.

Over their heads were a million trees.

Well, maybe not a million.

But they were all different colors. Red, and yellow, and orange.

It was fall, after all.

Destiny put her backpack on the bench next to her.

She wanted to save space for Mitchell.

Terrible Thomas jumped up onto the table.

Destiny rubbed his ear.

She listened. Maybe he’d purr.

He didn’t.

Thomas was an irritable cat.

Now Gina walked around. She twirled her pearl necklace.

She was looking for a seat. All the benches were taken.

Humpf! Gina was a pain.

But still—

Destiny scrunched over. She saved a teensy bit less of the bench for Mitchell, too.

“You can sit here,” she told Gina.

Gina plopped herself down.

She took up a lot of room.

Mitchell dashed outside. He squeezed onto the one inch of bench.

He grinned at Destiny. “I have news. It’s about something that belongs to you.”

“What’s that?” Gina asked.

Mitchell wiggled his nose at her.

Destiny knew what he meant. He was telling Gina not to be nosey.

He leaned closer to Destiny. “I dumped your drawing,” he whispered. “It’s in with the noodles and gravy.”

Destiny sat back. Whew!

She didn’t sit back for long.

Gina was staring at her. “Can you put two discoveries up on the board?” she asked.

Destiny thought about it.

But while she was thinking, Ms. Katz came along. “These trees are lovely.” She waved her no-nail-polish hands around.

“Yes,” Destiny said. The whole world was lovely now that she didn’t have to worry about Abraham Washington.

She looked at the school windows.

Some kids were swinging on the gym ropes.

In the auditorium, some kids were working on a play.

A book club was meeting in the library.

Destiny loved the Afternoon Center.

She loved everyone.

Gina was still looking at her.

What was that all about?

Destiny picked up a pencil.

She began to draw a tree. She made a nice round ball of leaves on top.

She thought about the plant that had discovered how to grow.

She picked up a green pencil.

She drew a small plant next to the tree.

Gina poked her elbow into Destiny’s side.

“Hey,” Destiny said.

“Sorry,” Gina said.

Did she really sound sorry? Destiny wasn’t sure.

“I wanted to ask you,” Gina said again. “Can you write two discoveries on the board?”

Two discoveries!

“I guess so,” Destiny said.

Gina began to sing.
“La-da-dee-da.”
She stopped. “The discovery is about you.”

Destiny took a breath.

It must be about the Abraham Washington picture!

Gina was going to tell everyone in the Zelda A. Zigzag School about her whopper.

It would be on the discovery wall for everyone to see!

CHAPTER 8
THURSDAY

I
t was trip day at last.

Destiny’s hair was piled up on her head. It was in a puff with a pink ribbon.

She stopped at the not-so-white paper wall.

A sixth grader named Peter Petway had written a discovery.

It had something to do with numbers. They were squeezed in all over the place.

Destiny passed her own blank space.

It was the only clean spot on the whole wall.

Mitchell and Habib were standing there. “We did one together,” Mitchell said. “It’s discovering how to make a parachute.”

“Does that work?” Destiny asked.

“Why not?” said Habib. “We’re going to try it tomorrow. You can watch.”

“Cool.” If only she could think up something.

It was time to go to the bus.

No one pushed.

No one stomped.

Everyone handed in their permission slips
quietly. That was because strict Mrs. Farelli was going with them.

Ms. Katz was there, too. She was at the back of the bus. She was singing with the fifth graders.

Destiny slid into a seat next to Sumiko.

“That’s
koun
for me,” Destiny said.

Sumiko smiled. “You remembered it means ‘good luck.’”

Mitchell sat in front with Habib.

Mitchell’s sister, Angel, was squished in with Mrs. Farelli.

“Lucky we’re together,” Destiny whispered to Sumiko.

“Hai,”
Sumiko said. “Yes.”

The trip was fast. In two minutes the bus pulled into the parking lot.

Mrs. Farelli marched to the front. “Remember,” she said. “Afternoon Center people don’t run around like coyotes.”

“Ruff ruff,” Habib whispered.

Outside the bus, Mrs. Farelli counted everyone. “Two by two,” she said. “Like Noah’s Ark.”

Destiny and Sumiko smiled at each other. They were going to be partners.

But wait a minute! Something wasn’t working out right.

Charlie was ahead of them. He was walking by himself.

“Ak’un,”
Sumiko said. “Bad luck!”

“Double
ak’un
,” said Destiny.

Sumiko and Charlie had to be partners.

Destiny twirled around.

Gina was marching along behind her. “We’re partners,” Gina said.

“Stick to your partners like glue,” Mrs. Farelli called after them.

“Let’s go to the gift store first,” Gina said.

She waved a dollar in the air.

Destiny felt her pockets.

They were both empty. She had forgotten her money!

She tried to think of something else to do. “Let’s go into the Discover the Heart and Lung room,” she said. “We can walk right inside a heart.”

“Whose heart?” Gina asked. She had a pile of quarters in her hand.

“Nobody’s heart,” Destiny said. “It’s made out of plastic.”