her head into the washbasin. “The water’s

cold.”

“It’s probably a good thing we don’t have

warmer water,” said Mrs. Larson. “You

wouldn’t want to cook the egg in your hair, would you?” She rubbed and Ramona snuf-fled. She rinsed and Ramona sniffed. Finally Mrs. Larson said, “That’s the best I can do,”

and handed Ramona a wad of paper towels.

“Dry yourself off the best you can,” she said.

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“You can wash your hair when you get home.”

Ramona accepted the towels. As she sat

on the cot, rubbing and blotting and seething in humiliation and anger, she listened to

sounds from the office, the click of the typewriter, the ring of the telephone, Mrs.

Larson’s voice answering.

Ramona began to calm down and feel a

little better. Maybe Mrs. Kemp would let

her wash her hair after school. She could

let Willa Jean pretend to be working in a

beauty shop and not say anything about

her Sustained Silent Reading. One of these days Willa Jean was sure to catch on that she was just reading a book, and Ramona wanted to postpone that time as long as possible.

Toward the end of lunch period, Ramona

heard teachers drift into the office to leave papers or pick up messages from their boxes.

Then Ramona made an interesting discovery.

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Teachers talked about their classes.

“My class has been so good today,” said one teacher. “I can hardly believe it. They’re little angels.”

“I don’t know what’s the matter with my

class today,” said another. “Yesterday they knew how to subtract, and today none of

them seems able to remember.”

“Perhaps it’s the weather,” suggested

another teacher.

Ramona found all this conversation most

interesting. She had blotted her hair as best she could when she heard Mrs.Whaley’s big

cheerful voice speaking to Mrs. Larson.

“Here are those tests I was supposed to hand in yesterday,” she said. “Sorry I’m late.” Mrs.

Larson murmured an answer.

Then Mrs. Whaley said, “I hear my little

show-off came in with egg in her hair.” She laughed and added, “What a nuisance.”

Ramona was so stunned she did not try

57

to hear Mrs. Larson’s answer. Show-off !

Nuisance! Did Mrs. Whaley think she had

broken a raw egg into her hair on purpose

to show off ? And to be called a nuisance

by her teacher when she was not a nuisance.

Or was she? Ramona did not mean to break

an egg in her hair. Her mother was to blame.

Did this accident make her a nuisance?

Ramona did not see why Mrs. Whaley

could think she was a nuisance when Mrs.

Whaley was not the one to get her hands all eggy. Yet Ramona had heard her say right

out loud that she was a show-off and a nuisance.That hurt, really hurt.

Ramona sat as still as she could with the