The Mighty Miss Malone Read Online Free PDF Page A

snickeled, “Deeza’s a number two!”
    “Okay, kiddo. Jump real high and drop a quick elbow into Dolly’s left eye, then do a sharp uppercut to Benny’s jaw. They’ll never see it coming!”
    All there was left for me to do was quietly and with a bunch of dignity walk to my desk.
    I told myself, Stop being silly. Keep your chin up.
    But as soon as I sat down, my arms folded on my desk and my head thunked down.
    Mrs. Needham said, “And we close this year with another A for Miss Clarice Anne Johnson.”
    I couldn’t bear to look. Clarice would be unconsolable.
    I raised my head when I heard Clarice’s gut-wretching yips and yaps.
    I am so proud of that girl!
    Clarice had decided to pretend she was excited by jumping up and down. She hopped like a bunny to the front and gave our traitor teacher a huge hug! Clarice is such a champion! She was making sure our classmates took their mocking eyes off of me and put them on her by waving her paper in the air and braying like a donkey.
    I loved her even more than I already had.
    “Well, kiddo …”
    I clenched my teeth so hard that the back ones startedhurting. That’s the only way to make that second brain quit talking. When it shut up I laid my head back down on my desk.
    I’ll probably be pondering what went wrong until I’m weak and weary.

Chapter Five
Maid of the Mist

    I didn’t even hear the bell ring or notice that my horrid classmates were gone.
    I could feel Clarice rubbing my shoulder. Mrs. Needham called from way, way off, “Miss Johnson, wait outside. Miss Malone. Sit up. Are you all right?”
    I wanted to say, “Other than having my life destroyed by your A minus, I’m fine, thank you,” but I raised my head. “No, ma’am.”
    “What did you think about my comments?”
    I sniffled, smoothed my essay on my desk and looked down to see what she’d written.
    We have discussed this many times before, Miss Malone. In the future, give your thesaurus a break. One more session like this andthat poor book will burst into flames. Good writing is simple and communicates naturally. Your past work has shown this is something you can easily do. I appreciate that you are not digressing as much. As for this essay, when I ask for two pages that’s all I will accept. I’m aware how upsetting this will be. A point is being made, and this shouldn’t be a complete surprise. This will be the most important paper you have ever written. Please see me after class
.
    Mrs. Needham said, “Well?”
    I wiped my eyes on the back of my hand.
    “You said this is the most important paper I’ve ever written.”
    “Depending upon how you react, I believe it could be.”
    I looked at the red minus sign that looked like a tiny bloody slash cut into my work and my soul by a razor of hate.
    “But I worked so long and hard. Why did I get a A minus?”
    “Deza, come here.”
    This day was getting stranger and stranger. She had never called any of us by our first name.
    Mrs. Needham sat at Benny Cobb’s desk. “Have a seat, Deza.”
    I started to sit next to her but she said, “No, there,” and pointed at the chair behind her desk.
    “Really?”
    “Miss Malone, sit.”
    The old saying that every cloud has a silver lining is true!
    I’d pretended a million times that I was sitting here and giving my unappreciative, hardheaded students a lesson. I had even lifted buckets of rocks at home a couple of times with Jimmie to build muscles so I could call Dolly Peaches and Benny Cobb to the front of the class, then mercilessly beat them intobloody pulps with a yardstick for embarrassing and bullying their classmates and not trying hard enough on their work.
    I’d imagined that many years from now, I’d pick one of my favorite students, maybe it would be Clarice’s daughter, to work a problem on the blackboard.
    The chair had burgundy leather and buttons and was cool and smooth on the back of my legs. I looked at the classroom and forgot all about that red grade.
    Well, pretty