Someday Angeline Read Free Page B

Goon or Angelopolis. But like all his jokes, nobody noticed—not even Miss Turbone. After that, no matter how hard he tried to say “Miss Turbone,” it always came out “Mr. Bone.”
    He liked her a lot. In fact, until he met Angeline, she was his favorite person at the school. Now she was his second favorite.
    She had a soft face and pretty brown hair, and she wore big round glasses. He loved her glasses. He thought she looked prettier with the glasses on than without them.
    “Okay, who knows the answer?” asked Miss Turbone.
    “Uh-oh,” thought Gary. He didn’t even know the question. He looked down at his desk, hiding, like the way an ostrich hides by sticking its head in the sand. He hoped Mr. Bone wouldn’t call on him.
    Miss Turbone looked at Gary. She could tell by the way that he was looking down at his desk that he didn’t know the answer. Some teachers, like Mrs. Hardlick, would have called on him for just that reason. Some hunters like to shoot ostriches that have their heads buried in the sand.Miss Turbone called on somebody else.
    She liked Gary. She felt sorry for him because all the other kids called him “Goon” and he didn’t have any friends, but besides that, she also liked him. However, she didn’t think a great deal of his jokes. She didn’t know he called her “Mr. Bone.” She might have thought that one was funny.
    When the bell rang and all the other kids left for lunch, she told Gary she wanted to talk to him.
    He walked up to her desk. “Yes, Mr. Bone.”
    It sounded like “Miss Turbone” to her, probably because that was what she expected to hear. “Can you stay after school today?” she asked.
    “I’m not in trouble, am I?”
    “No,” laughed Miss Turbone. “I’m going to set up a couple of fish tanks on the back ledge. I thought you might like to help me.”
    “Okay,” said Gary. “May I ask a friend to help us, too?”
    “A friend?” questioned Miss Turbone.
    “Oh, sure, Mr. Bone,” said Gary. “I have lots of friends.”
    Miss Turbone smiled. “You may invite anyone you’d like, Gary,” she said. She was glad he had made a friend.
    “Her name’s Angeline,” said Gary. “You’ll like her. She’s real smart and she has a great sense of humor.” He headed outside to lunch, eager to tell Angeline about setting up the fish tanks with Mr. Bone.
    “Gary,” called Miss Turbone.
    He stopped and turned toward her. “Yes, Mr. Bone?”
    “I’m your friend, too.”
    It was a very hot day, just as Angeline had predicted. It was the hottest October fifth since they had started recording the weather.
    Abel and Gus drove up and down the city streets, one house at a time, collecting people’s garbage. Sometimes Abel drove while Gus picked up the cans and dumped them in the back of the truck, and other times Gus drove and Abel did the dirty work. They traded off. Besides everything else, the hot weather made the garbage stink worse than usual, especially as the day wore on and the garbage had been out in the sun all day, baking in the heavy metal cans.
    They stopped at a little park to eat their lunch. The bathrooms were locked, so they had to puttheir hands in front of a lawn sprinkler to wash up. It felt so good that they ran in front of the sprinkler and let it spray all over them. It was so hot that they knew that by the time they finished eating, their clothes would be dry.
    Abel bit into his sandwich. “Yech!” he exclaimed. He pulled apart the bread and looked inside. “Peanut butter and jello,” he muttered, realizing that he and Angeline must have accidentally traded lunches.
    “What’s this!” exclaimed Angeline, holding her sandwich away from her. She had taken one bite out of it. “Salami! I hate salami!”
    “I’ll trade with you,” said Gary. “I love salami.”
    “Okay,” said Angeline. “What do you have?”
    “Salami,” said Gary. “I just love salami.”
    They traded salami sandwiches.
    “Today after school, do you want to