HEAT WAVE | leat wave * piewalice Summer-tough Yeserted now Feet. To Be So Mean scorch Kool-aid stand by Betty Saunders -- Gone Ce heming | Dat LI assel PISCES Stars dot sky. | , \ t/t I dream of being a others passipg down and up Swim kind. Any Free free. from set patterns, Dream, I will. - Sandy Austin PROCRASTINATION TOMMOROW is. the day TOMORROW is the day TOMORROW is. the day TOMORROW is the day TOMORROW is the day TOMORROW is the day TOMORROW is the day TOMORROW is the day OMORROW s_ he ay MORROW e_ y ORROW RROW ROW OW Paul Goff 32 “Stop it! Leave me alone!” Annie screamed as she broke into tears. I turned quickly and looked over my shoulder to the back of the classroom. The afternoon sun, reflecting off the fresh snow, shone brightly through the windows and I had to squint, to try to see what thew were doing in the room. “You mental retard!” I heard one boy yell. The other laughed. When I could see what was going on, I saw Annie crouched in the corner by the bookcase. Her straggly brown hair covered most of her face and she muffled quiet sobs as she burried her face in her hands. Larry, the tallest (and meanest) boy in the fifth grade, was poking Annie in the back with a ruler. “Oh that Larry!” I muttered to myself, giving an unconscious yank on my blonde braid. “I’d like to see someone picking on him for once!” “Hey, M.R., why ‘don’t you wash your hair?’ teased Larry as he flipped a piece of her long hair with his ruler. “Poor Annie,” I thought, “Why can’t they just leave her alone?” I pushed my pencil across the desk and let it roll into the pencil holder. ' “Well, someone ought to help her,” I said to myself. I looked around the room at the others who were doing their arithmetic. Lori was looking at them too, Her black eyes flashed as she saw what they were doing. She shook her head sadly and turned around flipping her brown ponytail as she turned. I saw one or two others look at them but they went back to their arithmetic, too. Pulling one of my braids across the front of my face, I could smell the shampoo my mother had used to wash my hiaijr the night before. I tossed the braid over my shoulder and took a deep breath. “I guess it'll have to be me.” I thought and slid my chair away from my desk. As I stood up and faced the back of the room I had to squint again to see. “M.R., M.R., the girls giggled. “Well that nothing but an M.R.,” did it!’ I mumbled. some ) I swallowed of the boys hard and chanted looked while at them. “Leave her alone,” I said firmly. “Leave her alone?” Larry mocked. “Who are you, our new teacher?” Everyone laughed and I felt my face going red. “She can’t help the way she is — but you can.” The class was silent as they stared at me. I cleared my throat again. Now, leave her alone,” I said. I sat down and scooted my chair into my desk and picked up my pencil to finish my arithmetic. My hand was shaking a little as I wrote: Five times five equals twenty-five. I could hear them whispering and laughing behind me. ) 33