Open House night. She felt small and

frightened, but she held fast to her courage, 164

as she ran up the second half of the flight of stairs.

Ramona found Mr. Cardoza’s room. She

quietly opened the door a crack. Mr.

Cardoza was telling his class, “Spelling secretary is easy. Just remember the first part of the word is secret and think of a secretary as someone who keeps secrets. You will never again spell the word with two a’s instead of two e’s.”

Ramona opened the door a little wider

and peeked inside. How big the desks

looked compared to her own down in

Room One! She heard the whir of a wheel

spinning in a mouse’s cage.

Mr. Cardoza came to investigate. He

opened the door wider and said, “Hello,

Ramona Q.What may we do for you?”

There was Ramona standing on one

foot, trying to hide her dirty sock behind

her shoe while Beezus’s whole class, and

165

especially Beezus, stared at her. Beside her classmates Beezus did not look so big as

Ramona had always thought her to be.

Ramona was secretly pleased to discover her

sister was a little less than medium-sized.

Ramona wondered how Beezus would

report this scene at home. Mother! The door

opened, and there was Ramona standing

with one shoe on. . . .

Ramona refused to let her courage fail

her. She remembered her manners and

asked, “May I please borrow your stapler? I

can use it right here in the hall, and it will only take a minute.”

Once again she had that strange feeling of

standing aside to look at herself. Was she a funny little girl whom Mr. Cardoza would

find amusing? Apparently not because Mr.

Cardoza did not hesitate.

“Certainly,” he said and strode to his desk

for the stapler, which he handed to her

166

without question. Mrs. Griggs would have said,Tell me why you want it, Ramona. Miss

Binney would have said, Won’t you let me

help you with it? Mr. Cardoza closed the

door, leaving Ramona in the privacy of

the hall.

Ramona knelt on the floor and went to

work. She stapled the three paper towels

together. The towel folded in thirds she

placed at one end of the other towels and

stapled it on three sides to make the toe of a slipper. She had to push down hard with

both hands to force the staples through so

much paper. Then she turned her slipper

over and sent staples through in the other

direction to make it stronger. There.

Ramona slid her foot into her slipper. With

more time and a pair of scissors, she could

have made a better slipper with a rounded

toe, but this slipper was better than an old boot, and it should last all day, school paper 168

towels being what they were.

Ramona opened the door again and held

out the stapler. Mr. Cardoza looked up from