Kristy in Charge Part 6

The cla.s.s remained silent another minute.

Then havoc broke out again.

Mary Anne slid back into her seat, shaking her head. Mallory sat behind Mrs. Simon's desk and read over her notes while spitb.a.l.l.s, papers, and all sorts of odds and ends flew past her.

This was the scene Mrs. Simon returned to. Her presence - combined with the outraged expression on her face - snapped everyone back to attention. "You will all be writing an additional report on the poetry of Robert Frost," she said icily. She turned to Mallory. "Do you feel up to continuing?" Mallory nodded. She came out from behind the desk and began her reading again.

She interpreted it dramatically, with a lot of feeling. I'd read the poem before, but it had never seemed so meaningful to me. When she was finished, I saw that Mary Anne had tears in her eyes. A few other kids did too.

Pete Black raised his hand. "So do you think the narrator really means he has promises to keep before he dies?" he asked.

"You could look at it that way," Mallory agreed.

Some other kids made intelligent comments too. When the cla.s.s ended, some kids actually clapped.

Mary Anne and I rushed to Mallory. "You did it," Mary Anne said to her. "You were great." Mallory didn't look happy, though. More than anything, she seemed exhausted. 'At least it's over," she said.

"But don't you feel great about how it ended?" I asked. "You really got their attention." Mallory shrugged. "What? For ten minutes?" A boy named Alex walked past the desk. "Nice job, Spaz Girl," he said as he went by.

Mallory grinned bitterly. "That's my new name." "They'll forget all about it by next week," Mary Anne said.

I could have advised Mallory to laugh it off, but I knew that wouldn't be easy.

I thought of all the insulting names I'd heard kids call teachers. I suddenly wondered if that hurt their feelings too.

TOT had been a much more intense experience than I'd expected. Mallory and I would never be the same again. We'd learned things about ourselves and about our cla.s.smates that weren't simple to understand.

But one thing was for sure - I'd never again think teaching was an easy job.

About the Author

ANN MATTHEWS MARTIN was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, NJ, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane.

Although Ann used to be a teacher and then an editor of children's books, she's now a full-time writer. She gets ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences. Others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events.

All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. (So is Stoneybrook.) But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, other times she chooses names she likes.

In addition to the Baby-sitters Club books, Ann Martin has written many other books for children. Her favorite is Ten Kids, No Pets because she loves big families and she loves animals. Her favorite Baby-sitters Club book is Kristy's Big Day. (By the way, Kristy is her favorite baby-sitter!) Arm M. Martin now lives in New York with her cats, Gussie, Woody, and w.i.l.l.y. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework - especially making clothes for children.