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Show Peppermint Monday Chapter 9: Past Eaton Bridge There were only a few more weeks of school and everyone was excited. Even pa acted much happier than usual, and he still had his grading to do. Grading never excited pa. He said it was because he hated to see students fail and some always did. I guess Billy was one of those. I doubt it bothered pa much to flunk Billy though. I agreed with pa on that subject. Billy deserved to flunk. I expected to get a "B" out of history, which wasn't bad. Pa didn't give many "A"'s. I knew Elizabeth Howell would get one, but after that I had no idea. We were supposed to have another speech meet, but it got cancelled for some reason. Mr. Sonders said I had plenty more speech meets in the future. He was proud of me. I was glad because I had done quite bad on his last test. I needed him to be proud of me when he posted his grades. Russ seemed content, probably because Jake was with him so much. Jake had convinced Russ he would live a lot longer, at least Russ acted as if he had. They laughed a lot and went on a lot of walks. Jake had even brought hjm a caged raccoon to keep him company. The coon had lost a chunk of its' belly. Jake had crudely stitched its' belly closed and coated it with that stinky selve he used. I couldn't see how that stuff could make anything better. I got sick after a mere whiff of the so-called medicine. Russ liked the coon though and it gave him something else to do with his long days. Cheddar avoided the coon whenever possible. I think he was jealous. He would perch on Russ' wheelchair and look the opposite direction. Maybe he wasn't jealous at all but hated the smell of the salve as much as I did. Renae had lost some of her previous friendliness toward me, which I half expected. After she had found out that I had gone with Matt to the |
