It was time for the Afternoon Center. Destiny started down the stairs. She passed the schoolyard window.
Bus Thirteen was parked outside all by itself.
It didn’t look so bad when it wasn’t driving kids around.
Just a plain old bus.
Mrs. Terrible Thomas, the cat, was up on the roof.
She was having a sunbath.
The kittens were down below. They were climbing up the side of their box.
Destiny could see a little orange paw.
But there was no time to watch buses and kittens. Even though she loved that orange ice cat.
“Hurry,” she told herself.
She rushed down the stairs.
She was almost flying.
It was a good thing Ms. Katz was still in the library. She wasn’t so happy with kids flying down the stairs.
But saving Ms. Katz was more important than staying on the ground.
Yolanda was on the bottom step.
“I thought and thought,” said Yolanda. “I have an idea.”
“I thought and thought, too,” said Destiny. “And I have an idea, too.” She sank down on the step.
“First,” Yolanda said, “we should tell the whole Afternoon Center about this.”
“Tell Ms. Katz?”
Yolanda shook her head. “Not Ms. Katz. She’d be too sad. And not Jake, either.”
Destiny looked up at the ceiling. “Maybe it would be better not to tell the grown-ups yet.”
She leaned forward.
She had to talk fast.
Jake would be coming down the hall with his broom any minute.
Destiny could see two ice cream cups, four smushed-up homework papers, and an ant just waiting to be swept up.
“My idea is we’ll ask everyone to write poems,” Destiny said. “Hundreds of poems. Thousands of poems. All about Ms. Katz.”
“Millions,” said Yolanda. She rubbed at her stained shirt.
It must have been through the wash, Destiny thought. She could see only a pale little spot.
Yolanda shook her head. “It’s too bad I’m not a better poet.”
“It’s too bad I’m not a better reader,” said Destiny.
“You don’t have to read,” Yolanda said. “You just have to make up the poems!”
Destiny took a breath. “Hey, I never thought of that.”
They flew into the lunchroom.
Today the snack was fat pretzel rods. Four to a person.
Destiny counted them out.
She made a few mistakes.
“Hey,” Gina said. “I have only three and a half pretzels.”
Destiny whispered in her ear.
“Oh, no!” Gina said. “I’ll start a poem as soon as I finish my snack. It won’t take me long. I don’t have as many pretzels as everyone else.”
Destiny told Mitchell the news and Yolanda told Habib.
“Good thing you gave me six pretzels,” Habib said. “I think better when my stomach is full.”
Soon all the pretzels were given out.
Everyone knew about writing poems for Ms. Katz.
There were no pretzels left for Destiny.
That was all right.
She ate the salt at the bottom of the bag. Then she went outside with Yolanda.
Peter Petway was out there already. But he wasn’t playing ball with Ramón.
He was working on the Zigzag News—Read All About It.
Destiny leaned up against the bricks of the school.
She pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket.
Yolanda pulled out paper, too. “Do you know what rhymes with Katz?” she asked.
“Hats,” Destiny said.
“That’s good,” Yolanda said. “Ms. Katz has a great baseball hat.”
Destiny could see her lips moving.
“Ah,” Yolanda said. “How about this? I like Ms. Katz. I like her hats.”
Destiny nodded.
She thought of a poem. She wrote quickly.
Ms. Katz is the best.
She never gives tests.
Yolanda leaned over her shoulder. “You’re turning out to be an excellent thinker.”
Destiny closed her eyes.
Yes, she was feeling happy.
Not only was she an excellent thinker. She was going to save Ms. Katz.
Orange Ice kitten climbed out of the box and tumbled to the ground.
Destiny stood up.
She raced over to the kitten and put her back in the box.
“There. Safe,” Destiny said.
She patted the kitten’s soft little head.