The Newsy News Newsletter (4 page)

The best part of being lunch monitor is making the after-lunch report. While the monitor consults the spiral notebook, everyone looks at him or her suspiciously. As soon as anyone's name and offense is recounted, that person is already jumping up to protest. Especially the boys. Ms. Shelby doesn't accept protests if there are witnesses to the offenses. She just walks over to
the behavior chart next to the whiteboard and switches the green behavior card to orange—the warning color.

At lunch Antonia takes her special seat at the end of the long cafeteria table. She keeps a sharp eye on her classmates while she eats. Gerald blows bubbles in his milk. Quietly, Antonia opens her notebook and jots that down. Gerald pays no attention. Leslie laughs, with chewed-up food clearly visible. Again, out comes the notebook, more notations entered.

Nikki watches this uneasily. She doesn't like the way Antonia acts when she is lunch monitor. It's as if all she wants to do is catch someone doing something wrong. Nikki takes a sip of milk. Maybe she should warn Leslie, who seems to be taking great pleasure in grossing everyone out. Nikki looks down at the untouched apple on her tray. She doesn't want it, but she can't throw it away—not when children are starving in parts of the world, as Ms. Shelby always reminds them.

Nikki takes a big bite of apple. Then Arthur catches her attention. He is blowing through his straw to make the straw paper roll out, then back in, like one of those party favor toys. That doesn't escape Antonia's notebook, either. out it comes for another entry.

In the yard after lunch, most of the girls in Ms. Shelby's class get caught up in a game of waterfall with the two long ropes. Before they know it, the freeze bell is ringing and it is time to line up.

The first thing everyone has to do upon entering the classroom is pull out their Sustained Silent Reading books and begin reading for ten minutes. This is to be done without talking. Ralph usually just stares at the pages, Nikki notices, never turning them. Just staring at them with his chin on the desk. Nikki is tempted to point this out to Ms. Shelby, but she would probably remind Nikki that she has enough to do taking care of herself.

Actually, sometimes Nikki just stares at the pages as well, whenever she feels like thinking more than reading. on this day she wants to think of how Antonia acts whenever she is lunch monitor. She doesn't even give a warning. It is almost as if she is happy to catch people breaking the rules.

Nikki looks over at Deja now. She is reading a book about howler monkeys. on the cover is a longhaired monkey swinging from a tree, its mouth open just like a big
O.
Deja is mouthing the words, even though Ms. Shelby has told them to try to read without doing that.

Soon, Sustained Silent Reading time is finished. They get to put their books away, to the relief of some but the dismay of others. It is time
for Antonia to give her report. It is time for some behavior cards to go from green to orange.

"Antonia, do you have a report to make?" Ms. Shelby asks.

Antonia stands up and takes the small spiral notebook out of her pencil box. She flips it to the right page. She looks around. She begins. "Leslie was laughing with her mouth open with chewed-up food in it so that we could all see it."

Leslie frowns. Ms. Shelby looks as if she is trying to keep from smiling.

"Remember what I said, class. only make a note of the behaviors we talked about: rough-housing, playing with food, throwing away food that's been untouched, shouting..."

Nikki notices that the whole time Ms. Shelby is saying this, Antonia is looking down, with her mouth pursed. Nikki knows that look. Antonia is not pleased. Nikki can guess what she is thinking. People who show their chewed-up food should not be excused.

Antonia goes on: Arthur was shooting the paper off his straw. Gerald blew bubbles in his chocolate milk, then sucked some up and shot it across the table at Jose. She pauses then. "That's it," she says, sounding almost disappointed. She is about to sit down when she jumps back up again. "oh, and Deja didn't eat all of her apple. She threw away most of it."

Deja opens her mouth to protest, but Ms. Shelby silences her with a look.

"I noticed it on her tray at the last minute, so I didn't get a chance to put it in the notebook, Ms. Shelby."

Nikki feels like protesting as well. She remembers Deja's apple. It was mostly eaten.

Ms. Shelby sighs and puts Arthur's and Gerald's orange cards in front of their green cards. "I'm hoping I can replace these with green by day's end," she says. Antonia puts away the lunch monitor notebook and sits down.

"As for you, Deja," Ms. Shelby continues, "you have to try to eat what's put on your tray—at least most of it. Not just a couple of bites. I'm giving you a warning this time." Deja looks like it is all she can do to keep her mouth shut.

Later, on the way home from school, Deja says, "That dumb Antonia. What's her problem? I didn't think she still had it in for me. After all, I did invite her to my birthday party out of the goodness of my heart."

"Maybe she didn't see it that way," Nikki says. "Maybe she thought your auntie made you invite her."

"oh, whatever," Deja says, then changes the subject. "Don't forget. We're getting subscriptions today."

"uh-huh," Nikki says.

Deja looks over at Nikki with a questioning look on her face, as if checking to see if Nikki is in full agreement.

Nikki sighs. "I don't think it's right that Antonia is trying to get so many kids in trouble. I don't think that's helpful," she says. "I think I'm going to write about how when people get to be a monitor, it shouldn't be just to get other kids in trouble. I'm going to add it to this week's newsletter."

"Yeah. She can't be trying to get people in trouble all the time, just for fun. That's not right," Deja agrees.

They reach Deja's house. Deja sees Auntie's car in the driveway. She must have gotten out of work early. "Let's hurry up and get permission to get subscriptions to our newsletter," Deja says.

"Deja, we need to write the newsletter first."

"We can write it after we get subscriptions."

"But then people will be paying for nothing," Nikki says.

"No, because it's not gonna take us long to write our newsletter. Probably just a couple of hours."

"Deja, it's going take longer than that. Let's get the subscriptions afterward."

Deja seems to think about this. "okay," she says.

Nikki is right. It takes more time to write the newsletter than Deja said it would, even though each article is not more than a paragraph. They both write, then Nikki edits and revises a little bit, just like Ms. Shelby has taught them. Deja types because she can hunt and peck faster.

Nikki looks up from scanning Deja's latest paragraph and says in an exasperated voice, "Deja, why can't you write neater? I can't read what you've written here."

Deja stops her hunting and pecking and snatches the handwritten page out of Nikki's hand. She squints at the paper. It seems she can't read it herself. "Oh," she says finally. "It says, 'People who are bad monitors shouldn't be monitors at all. They ...'" Deja stops and peers at the
paper. After a long moment, she says, "Well, you write it, then. It's about how dumb Antonia is, trying to get me in trouble."

Nikki sighs deeply. This is going to take way longer than she thought.

When they finish, it doesn't exactly look like a newsletter. It is plain, and it doesn't have columns. Each paragraph is in a different-colored type. Deja has changed the headlines to sound more like news. And she's added a bunch of exclamation marks:

MRS. MARKHAM'S ROSES VIEWED BY THOUSANDS!
SERIOUS ACCIDENT ON FULTON STREET!
BAD MONITORS AT CARVER ELEMENTARY!
PRICES SLASHED AT GLOBAL TIRE!
MR. ROBINSON LOCKED OUT OF HIS OWN HOUSE!
MISS IDA VISITS SHUT-INS!
VIANDA'S CAT FINALLY COMES HOME!

"I didn't put in these exclamation marks," Nikki says. "Like, 'Miss Ida Visits Shut-ins!' It's stupid to top that off with an exclamation mark."

"I just want people to be excited."

"You can't force people to be excited, Deja."

Deja looks off to the side, but says nothing.

Their newsy newsletter is only one page—front and back. And it only covers both sides of the page because they've used a big font. Now all they have to do is print one side, then stick the paper back into the printer face-up and print the other side. Because they use a different color for each article, the last few newsletters are a bit faded. The color ink is running low.

"We're ready to sell!" Deja exclaims. She runs to the bottom of the stairs and yells up to where Auntie Dee is talking on the telephone in her bedroom. "Auntie Dee, can me and Nikki go for a walk?"

Auntie Dee comes to the top of the stairs and looks down. She squints suspiciously. "A walk?"

"Just for twenty minutes, and we'll stay on this street. It's a Friday..." Deja adds, a little whine to her voice.

"Twenty minutes," Auntie Dee says. "And I'd better be able to look out the window and see you."

"Okay." Deja turns to Nikki. "Come on, let's go."

"I'll take this side, and you take across the street," Deja says.

"Wait a minute. I'm not getting it," Nikki says, frowning.

"What is it now, Nikki?"

"We're selling the newsletter and getting subscriptions at the same time?"

"Yeah," Deja says. "Once they see the newsletter, they're gonna want a subscription."

"But they're going to have to fill out stuff and then get the money. That's going to take more than twenty minutes. Why don't we just sell the paper without all that subscription stuff?"

"But I like our subscription form, and anyway, what are we going to do with all those forms?

Nikki thinks about this. "The recycle bin?"

"Wait a minute, Nikki. We need those forms. They're going to be for the people who aren't home. We're going to put them in their mailboxes."

"Are they going to mail them to us? They can just walk them over."

"Nikki, why are you making things so complicated? We need to get started. We're wasting time."

There is no answer at the first house Nikki goes to. For some reason she is glad. She has nine subscription forms and nine newsletters. She slides a subscription form into the mail slot. One house down and eight to go. Actually, she'd rather slip a subscription form into everyone's box. She is a little nervous at the thought of talking to people about the newsletter.

Nikki looks across the street. Deja is already talking to Mrs. Cheevers. She and her husband are retirees. Mrs. Cheevers is fishing around in a little change purse and plucking out a quarter. Nikki watches Deja do an about-face and strut down the Cheeverses' walkway, head held high. She looks confident.

Slowly, Nikki approaches the front door of the next house. She reaches up and rings the doorbell. She waits, listening. She looks at the pots of geraniums on either side of the door. It is
Vianda's house. It looks different and feels different this close up. She can hear footsteps. Her heart sinks. Then the door is opening.