5th Grade Freak-out

5th Grade Freak-out

  Copyright 2013 Elena Vermeer

  Fourth Grade of Excitement

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1 – Back to School

  Chapter 2 – Lizboa – And a Quarrel

  Chapter 3 – The Anonymous Letters

  Chapter 4 – Shocks and Surprises

  Chapter 5 – Miss Granger

  Chapter 6 – A Search Party

  Chapter 7 – Lizboa Gets a Phone Call

  Chapter 8 – Honesty or Love

  Chapter 9 – Evelyn and Lizboa

  Chapter 10 – Histories

  Chapter 11 – A Poem

  Chapter 12 – End of Term

  A Final Word

  Chapter 1 – Back to School

  It was a jolly sight: the school dining hall filled with a group of chattering girls after it had stood in quietness for the summer. The noise would seem loud and obnoxious to any new girls who had not settled in yet, but once they started enjoying themselves, this noise would be friendly.

  At the table of the 5th graders, Bianca Helicon sat at the head of the table. Felecia and Harriet sat next to her. Bianca was the head girl not only of the 5th grade, but also of the school. Felecia and Harriet were the vice head girls.

  Ah – they were all back – Bianca’s friends: Esther, the head-girl last year and sports captain this year; the Bringham-Jones sisters, Alice, Alexis and Evelyn; Celine Tebbits; the quiet, talented pair, Alicia and Elsie; Carlotta and Andrea, the two who were always up to mischief; the twins, Janet and Jennifer; and the Chinese girl, Baixue.

  There were three new faces at the table: a pretty girl with curly auburn hair down to her slim waist, dazzlingly blue eyes and crimson lips; a brown, attractive girl, tanned and well-mannered; and, to most of the girls’ surprise, a brown boy, who looked much like the new brown girl.

  With much curiosity about the new faces, the lively girls finished their dinner. They headed towards the common room, and the new students followed. Mrs Sullivan also came in.

  Mrs Sullivan shouted over the merry chatter of the girls: “Girls! Be quiet. Please let me introduce you to your three new friends.”

  Mrs Sullivan pointed at the pretty girl with the auburn hair. “This,” she said, “is Lizboa Gordon. She has transferred here from the…what was your school again?”

  Lizboa answered, “Olympian Sports School. I liked sports, so I went there. But I soon found out that what we learnt did not meet my standards, and that the school did not benefit my sports in any way. I knew that your school, McJone’s Foundry School, has a good name for sports, and won the Young Children’s Tennis Championship last year, so I’ve come here. I hope that you have a few players who can stand up to me?”

  Esther, who had been the respected head girl a year ago, frowned. Lizboa was just a new girl, and had no right to be boasting about her talents, and assuming that she was better than the others. She said coldly, “If you thought that there weren’t any players that could stand up to you, why did you come here?”

  Lizboa glared at Esther, and opened her mouth to say more, but Mrs Sullivan continued her introductions. She pointed to the two brown children. “This girl is Frances Salvatone Ceqae. She is Argentinean, and has won a scholarship here. This is her brother, Gabriel Salvatone Ceqae. He did exceptionally well in his last school, and has come here on an exchange program.”

  Frances and Gabriel looked at the class with friendly eyes.

  Esther stood and addressed the three new students. “We are very glad that you can join us, and we hope that we can be friends soon.”

  Frances said, “We hope so too.” Gabriel nodded.

  The next day, Mrs Sullivan gave out a quiz to test the standards of the girls – oh, and boy.

  Gabriel and Bianca were top; Frances, Esther and Felecia were second; Alice, Alexis and Evelyn were third; Harriet was fourth; Baixue and Elsie were fifth.

  The other new student, Lizboa Gordon, only got 43%, and was bottom.

  “Lizboa!” scolded Mrs Sullivan. “You are a new student, and you can be closer to the bottom than my other girls, but there is no reason to be so low. Why, 43 percent is not even good enough for a pass! The second bottom, Kassy, at least got 76 percent. Can you even calculate the difference between you and Kassy?”

  Lizboa rolled her eyes. She counted her fingers, wrinkled her brow, and, after making the impatient mistress wait for at least a minute, said carelessly, “Er…43?”

  The class erupted in laughter. They thought Lizboa was intentionally defying Mrs Sullivan. Lizboa was partly being defiant, but mostly it was her lack of skill. She had never even tried to learn Math, English or any other subject. Her only interests were sports and nature. She hated anything that had to be learnt indoors, but subjects such as nature she considered fun because the experiments were always held out-of-doors.

  Mrs Sullivan also thought that Lizboa was defying her. “Lizboa Gordon! How can you give such a ridiculous answer and hold up my class with your ridicule? Now say the correct answer.”

  Lizboa once again frowned in deep thought. After a minute or so, she said, “Is the answer 35? That’s what I got this time.”

  Mrs Sullivan, unlike Miss Kellie, who had taught the girls last year, always suspected that the girls were pulling her leg.

  “Lizboa! I hate to punish any girl – especially new ones – on the first day. But seeing your behavior, I must go against my will. Copy out the times tables till twenty five times! You got most of your sums wrong in multiplication.”

  Lizboa whispered under her breath, “Lazy old Sullivan!”

  Mrs Sullivan saw Lizboa’s lips move, and demanded, “Lizboa, what did you just say?”

  Lizboa said loudly, “Lazy old Sullivan!”

  Mrs Sullivan asked indignantly, “When am I ever lazy? And how long have you been here? Not even 24 hours!”

  Lizboa replied, “You’re too lazy to make your own times table, so you just find any reason to tell your students to do it for you!”

  “Well, since I want some copies of the math rules from pages 12, 13, 14, 15, 25, 31, 43, 56, 67 and 88, I think you could copy them. Oh, and I need an example of how they are applied, so tomorrow you will have to answer some questions about them!” said Mrs Sullivan with a sickly sweet smile.

  Lizboa answered sarcastically, “I’m so honored.”

  Bianca thought this was too outrageous, so she said, “Lizboa, sit back down. We’ve wasted enough time on you already.”

  The bell rang for break. Mrs Sullivan said, “Class dismissed. Bianca, I am putting the matter into the hands of the head girl.”

  Most of the girls were glad that the arrogant girl who was exceedingly proud of her sports had learnt a lesson, and had been sat on.

  Bianca went up to Lizboa and said, “Lizboa, come to my study.”

  When they got there, Bianca said, “Sit down, Lizboa.”

  Lizboa sat down and crossed her legs. Bianca started organizing the papers on her desk. After a minute or so, Lizboa said, “Are you going to make me watch you organize the whole school?”

  Bianca put down her papers, and said sharply, “Be patient.”

  Lizboa scowled, and sneered, “Well, I’m not going to be patient. I’m going to play tennis, and you can send someone to tell me to come up whenever you’re ready.”

  Bianca didn’t answer, and went on organizing for two minutes or so. Lizboa was just getting up and going to the door when Bianca said, “Lizboa, your performance in class today was unbearable. I do hope you remember this lesson, and try harder. Tomorrow, if you defy Mrs Sullivan when she is taking out time from the whole class just for you, this matter will no longer be in my hands – I will hand it to the headmistress. There is no good reason for you to have such a
bad start.”

  Lizboa put on an annoyed look.

  Bianca smiled, and said in a gentler voice, “Now, come on, I’ll help you with the Math.”

  Lizboa stormed to the door, put her hand on the doorknob, and said to Bianca defiantly, “No, I don’t need your help.” She flung the door open, went out, and slammed the door loudly.

  Lizboa sat on the bench by the tennis courts. She knew that although she had no interest in Math or other subjects, she had the capability to do well. She didn’t want this to get into the hands of the headmistress, so she said to herself, “All right. I’ll go back, copy the table and the rules, look over the rules, and do well tomorrow, just so I don’t have to go to the headmistress.”

  The next day, Mrs Sullivan took math class.

  “Lizboa!” she said, ten minutes before the end of the lesson. “It is time for me to test your knowledge of the rules that I told you to copy yesterday.” She wrote a question on the chalkboard: 34/99 pounds of cabbage cost $17/66. How much does one pound of cabbage cost?

  Lizboa thought for a few moments, and then answered cheekily, “One and a third dollars. Doesn’t that seem too cheap, Mrs Sullivan?”

  The class giggled. Yet they couldn’t hide their surprise at Lizboa actually getting it right.

  Mrs Sullivan rolled her eyes. Then she drew a diagram, which happened to be a large cube, each side 23 meters.

  “What is the volume of this cube?” asked Mrs Sullivan. “Oh, you may use scrap paper.”

  Lizboa groaned and scribbled her working out on a piece of scrap paper and said, “12,167 cubic meters, Mrs Sullivan. What would you store in such a big cube? I suppose you found it at the water works!”

  The test went on, and Lizboa made few mistakes, though none of the questions were answered without a smart comment. Mrs Sullivan said at the end, “Lizboa, this shows that when you try, you can do well, but you refuse to do so.”

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