Of course Boris and Steggo were not back in three minutes. When ten minutes had gone by, I ran back in to look for them.
Steggo was leaning up against the cafeteria door, so I poked my head inside.
The lights were off, but the spicy baking smell still hung in the air.
When my eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, I saw the gingerbread schoolhouse across the room. Guess who was standing there drooling over it?
I marched over and yanked Boris away from the schoolhouse by his shirttail. When I let go, he fell forward and went right through the roof.
“What’s going on in here?” It was Ms. Marzipan.
Boris acted like he was hurt! He pointed at me.
“Mimi, if you don’t practice better self-control, you’re going to end up at the reformatory.”
The reformatory! If I hadn’t been so mad at Boris, I would have smiled.
Ms. Marzipan snapped on the lights. “Now I’m going to have to spend the next hour piecing the roof back together with frosting.”
“I’ll help you,” Boris volunteered.
Ms. Marzipan just gave him a look.
Boris and I didn’t speak the whole way home.
I drove up and parked by the drainpipe. Tonya and Yoshi were outside cheering and clapping for Mr. Bosco. We had each decorated our own window. And now Mr. Bosco was running lights up the sides of the Periwinkle Tower and under the eaves, too.
“Look! We might win the decorating contest!” Tonya twirled around and around and waved her wand at Mr. Bosco.
Yoshi bounded across the yard. “We might beat the reformatory!”
Boris and I stomped into the building.
We did not have the holiday spirit.
