The next day I slipped into my seat and glanced around uneasily. Most kids were near the window checking on their bug habitats.
“Eew!” Lacey wailed.
Thinking she’d found a blob of my rotten potato from yesterday, I scrunched down.
“My moth laid eggs!” she said.
“Cool!” Max said. “Let’s see.”
Kids crowded to look at Lacey’s moth eggs. I didn’t see Nick over there. Mr. Allen was crouching next to the bookcase. He’s probably still cleaning from yesterday, I thought. The air stung my eyes and nose. Ammonia with an underwhiff of rotten potato. I wanted to turn right around and go home. I opened my desk and stuck my head inside. Maybe I could just stay that way for the rest of the year.
Next to me, Lacey’s desk lid swung up just a little. I saw a hand slip a red pouch into her desk, and I peered around the edge of mine. Max was walking away. What did he hide in there? I wondered. I hoped he wasn’t getting in on the gross-out contest. If he put something disgusting in Lacey’s desk, we’d all hear about it. And because I sat next to her, I’d hear about it extra loud.
I heard Nick plunk into his seat across from me and I forgot about Lacey’s desk. On my way to school, with a warm breeze turning the corner on spring, I’d tried look at the good side of things. At school I didn’t have to pretend anymore that Nick wasn’t my friend. He wasn’t. I had almost convinced myself it would be a big relief. It wasn’t.
Summer scraped her chair closer to mine. I moved farther under my desk lid, shuffling books like I was looking for something. I had to stay away from her. Owen may have been the one swinging the potato bag, but Summer had kept egging him on. I was through being dragged into their gross-out war.
My desk lid swung up a bit. Summer crowded her head and shoulders in underneath with me. I moved as far to the other side as I could.
“Don’t worry, it’s over,” she said. My desktop rested on her head. “I told Owen I’m not going to try and outdo him anymore. I told him I give in. I told him he’s the King of Disgusting.”
I wasn’t sure if I’d heard her right. Summer had backed down? I was having trouble picturing it.
“That’s what I did.” Summer nodded. The desk lid bobbed up and down. “I told Owen he won.”
Yeah, until the next time I’m standing between you and a bag of slime, I thought. Then the game will be right back on. No thanks. I raised the lid and sat up straight in my seat. Summer scooted her chair back over to her desk.
After a minute, I noticed something. Instead of the faint but still-awful stench of ammonia and rotten potato, the classroom was starting to smell like Sunday mornings. Mr. Allen hadn’t been cleaning under the bookcase. He’d plugged in a coffeemaker. I closed my eyes and let the delicious coffee aroma carry me home to our happy, sunny kitchen. Maybe Dad was right—maybe things weren’t as bad as they seemed.
“Hazelnut,” I said to nobody in particular. I opened my eyes. That’s when I saw the potato sitting on the corner of my desk. I felt all of the air go out of me like a dead balloon.
I swept the potato into my desk, hoping no one else had seen it. A tiny piece of paper fluttered to the floor. I felt Nick looking at me, and I flicked an angry glance his way. His face was all red and he jumped right up and hurried to the coatroom. Had Nick left the potato on my desk to remind me of what happened yesterday? Could he really be mean enough to want to rub it in?
Summer leaned way over in her chair, practically doing a handstand to get the piece of paper. She handed it to me. “Did this come with the—?”
“Yes,” I cut her off. I didn’t want her to say “potato” out loud. I didn’t really want to read the note, either, but I had to know who had left the potato on my desk. “This is for your pillbug,” the note read. It was printed on computer paper and could have been from anybody.
I caught my breath. What did this mean? Was it a terrible joke, or was someone trying to help? I’d been full to the brim with my own misery and had forgotten all about feeding my poor pillbug. With that hazelnut coffee scent wafting through the air around me, I decided to believe someone was trying to help. I opened my desk and took out the potato. At the sink, I washed it and cut off two small pieces.
The bell rang and Mrs. Novotny came into the room. The kids from her class were lined up outside in the hall with their coats on, ready to go out for gym. “You have the best-smelling room in the building, Mr. Allen,” she said.
“Why, thank you, Mrs. Novotny,” Mr. Allen said with a smile. “May I offer you a cup of coffee?”
“I was hoping you’d say that. I’ll enjoy it during my planning period.” Mrs. Novotny held up a purple and white mug. Mr. Allen poured.
I dropped the bits of potato into my bug habitat. The pillbug seemed okay. I wondered if it was going to eat the potato. I wondered if Summer could really stop competing with Owen.
Mostly I wondered if Nick Fanelli was back to just pretending he wasn’t my friend.