10
Everything was mostly back to normal on Thursday. Miss Kinde returned with only a slight sniffle, so 3B got to work on their creative endeavor as loudly as they wanted. Felix and Miranda talked about sets and prop locations while Fletcher and Desdemona practiced their pliés and handsprings. Norris, reading over Norbert’s shoulder, offered synonyms for words like tremendous and exceptional. Other than the unusualness of having so much fun in school, the only unusual thing that happened was at lunch, when Maude announced that Hillary Greenlight-Miller could direct Banana Pants.
Hillary nearly choked mid-swallow. Once she recovered, she was, for once, speechless.
“Really?” Miranda asked Maude. She’d never known Maude to back down so easily. Especially not with Hillary.
Maude nodded. “I’m too busy.”
“With what?” Miranda asked.
“My chickens, my tomatoes, stuff like that,” Maude said quickly.
“But it’s not tomato season. And I thought Rosalie was happy now that she’s officially the house chicken.”
“Well . . .” Maude looked at the rows of recyclable lunch trays that lined their table. “I have improved my method of letter writing,” she said. “And it might be working. I should focus on that.”
“That’s great!” Miranda felt happy that Maude was happy and was also extremely relieved that it didn’t require her to write a single word.