I NEVER thought Sister Theo was our friend before. She’s always yelling orders and bawling us out, but Dorothy, said Sister helped her out of a scrape.
Dorothy goes to classes at St. Mark’s now, the Catholic high school in town. All the students in grade ten, eleven and twelve do. Brother Pitt drives them in a yellow school bus every day.
Anyway, Dorothy had some exams to write and her supervisor wouldn’t let her study for them. The senior girls have a really mean Sister. Her name is Sister Kerr. She walks like a man, tough looking, and she talks in a gruff voice. She uses judo on the girls to make them obey. Sometimes when they are scrubbing the floor on their knees she kicks them on the behind to make them go faster.
She really hates Dorothy. “You Stones think you’re so smart,” she sneers. “But I’m going to take you down a peg or two.” She makes Dorothy clean toilets and work in the kitchen washing dishes.
Sister Kerr sends the senior girls to bed at eight o’clock every night even though they have a lot of homework to do. At first Dorothy took her books to the little lavatory in the hall outside their dorm and studied there for awhile. But then the watchman reported to Sister Kerr that someone had that light on very late at night. Sister Kerr started patrolling the halls after that and Dorothy didn’t know what to do. That’s when she told Sister Theo about it. Sister Theo found Dorothy a flashlight so she could study under her blankets at night. After that Sister Theo fixed up a study place for Dorothy behind the piano in the intermediate rec. They put a blanket over it so the watchman wouldn’t see the light. Sister Theo told Dorothy not to tell Sister Kerr about it because the supervisors are not supposed to interfere with each other.
Dorothy told me some of the teachers are mad at Sister Theo because she’s in charge of the dancers. They don’t like the dancers getting special things like trips out of town and extra clothes. They say we don’t get our homework done. Sometimes I wish we could quit dancing and concerts. I love basketball and track and field. I’m the second fastest sprinter in school. I can do the hundred yard dash in thirteen seconds. But dancers are not allowed to join track meets because we might get hurt. We wouldn’t be able to perform. Also Father Sloane says we have to give other girls a chance to take part in things.
Anyway, I don’t know why Sister Kerr thinks us Stones think we’re smart. I just hope she’s gone by the time I get to high school.