Jimmy, Chris thought, has started spring vacation early. He sat at his desk with his cheek resting heavily on his hand. The skin around his eyes was stretched. He looked Chinese. It was the last day before the April break, and Jimmy was angry at Mrs. Zajac. She had caught him with homework done in his mother's handwriting again, and she had called on him several times, trying to wake him up and to get him to do some math himself. As she walked to the other side of the room to work with the top math group, Jimmy rearranged the hand supporting his cheek. He made it into a fist, but left the middle finger sticking out. Eyes closed and middle finger hanging down, pendant from his cheek, Jimmy defied her, as Roman generals once defied each other.
Chris turned to the window until her smile faded. "Poor Jimmy," she thought. "He just hates to think."
She advanced on the boy from behind. "Wake uh-up! Good mor-ning!" He leaned away from her but withdrew his middle finger.
Al's voice intoned over the intercom at midmorning: "Attention, staff. It would help me out immensely if you could fill out the census forms before you leave today, so I can work on them next week."
Chris looked up at the squawk box and smiled. That, she figured, was Al's way of telling them that he would be working over April vacation.
Al's voice again: "Can I have your attention, staff. Please. We have a new vending machine in the office. If you have a chance, go and take a look at it."
Chris looked up at the squawk box. This time she shook her head.
The children gave her a surprise party in the afternoon. During the preparations, hanging crepe streamers while Mrs. Zajac was away at lunch, Judith said to Jimmy, "Do your math and she'll be happier." Jimmy did some of it.
"Ahhh! You little sneaks! Isn't this nice!" Oh, my, didn't Mrs. Zajac look surprised! How had they managed to keep the party a secret?
Judith eyed her from under lowered brows.
Chris wasn't sure she wanted a vacation. Al came by the room while the class was at gym. "Did they give you a gift, Chris?"
"Yes. They gave me a chocolate bunny and a chocolate Easter egg, and they're going right to my hips."
The children came back shouting. She let them. She merely corrected grammar. "Mine, Felipe. Not mines. Mine."
Saucy Henrietta from math class poked her head in the door. "Bye, Miss Ajax."
"You're going to be a week smarter. Right, Henrietta?"
Henrietta nodded deeply.
"Bye, Miss Zajac."
Whose voice was that? There was slender Juanita, her lovely frizzy hair and shapely ears, and her dimples. Was this the first time she'd heard Juanita speak out loud voluntarily?
"Goodbye, Juanita. You have a nice vacation."
She said goodbye to Robert and to Claude. She wished them nice vacations, and hoped that something of Robert's new attitude would survive the week off. There'd still be the last of April and all of May to work on Claude.
The walkers had lined up at the door. She went up to Jimmy and cut him out of the line. Tapping him in the chest while he made his low, monotonic laugh, Chris backed him over to the corner where Miss Hunt used to sit.
"Do you think school's hard, Jimmy?"
"No."
"Jimmy, you don't like it when I call on you in math."
"No."
"Why?"
Jimmy was shy now, rolling his head from side to side and looking at his feet. "Because. It makes me feel stupid."
"But you aren't stupid. You have the answers sometimes. Why do you think Mrs. Zajac calls on you?"
"So I'll pay attention."
"Do you think she cares if you learn?"
"Yeah-uh."
"Do you think that might be another reason why I call on you?"
"Yeah-uh."
"But you're right." She took him by his thin shoulders. She turned him around, pointing him toward the door. She hugged him from behind. "I do call on you partly so you won't fall asleep. Otherwise, I'm afraid you might be snoring."
In her grasp, Jimmy smiled.