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Show 17 favorite maxim or saying . . . a proverb . . . something that-well-that sustains you or amuses you." She put on a threatening face. "We'll get to know each other yet!" It was then Parker heard some kind of commotion outside the door. Someone was rattling the knob. A polite knock followed. "Come in!" Greg Sanelli called out, looking happy about the diversion. Mrs. Simpson frowned. "Did I leave that door locked? Would you get it, John?" By then the polite knocking had taken on a certain authority: WHAM, WHAM, WHAM! John was at the door in two steps, throwing it wide to the angry-looking girl in the hall. "This a closed society or what?" she said, pushing past John. This isn't foxy Tiffany, Parker thought, happy for the interruption himself. The girl led with her chin as she marched to the front of the room and everything about her made him want to laugh. Above the plaid smock, which even he knew wasn't flattering for someone her size, she wore this crazy flop-brim denim hat. Wore it straight across her head, as if to contain the mass of blonde hair exploding from under it. The whispered word "character" reached Parker's ears. She thrust her card at Mrs. Simpson. "I've paid my fees, but I need your signature to be in here." Mrs. Simpson scanned the card. "Oh . . . then you're Dyna-" "Yeah, spelled D-y-n-a. Dyna Suggs. Go ahead and say it, you'll get used to it." She turned and grinned. "Ain't it awful?" she confided to the class at large. Chuckles and grins answered her from around the room. Where'd she come from? Parker looked across two rows at Jan, who shrugged shoulders and eyebrows at the same time. If Jan didn't know her, she had to be new. "Well, I'm glad you made it," Mrs. Simpson was saying. "Look, I didn't mean to be late," the girl said, reaching up to adjust her hat. "I got on the wrong bus." Would the teacher believe that? "Don't all the buses get here before 7:40?" Mrs. Simpson asked. |
