Baartock got up from the table and took his tray over to the window in the wall. Looking inside, he saw that there was someone to take the trays and wash the plates and forks and spoons. Leaving his tray, he went out the door to the playground to find Jason.
Chapter 9
By the time Mrs. Stogbuchner came out to the playground to call her class, Baartock had almost forgotten how hungry he was. He had found Jason and they had raced four times, and Baartock had won three times. Then several other boys had joined in, and they'd played tag. That was a whole new game for Baartock. He liked being 'it', then he could do the chasing. When he was 'not it', he could run faster than any of the other boys, so they didn't try to chase him at all.
They went back into the classroom, and all the children went to their seats and got out their pencil boxes. Baartock was horrified to discover that his pencil box was missing. It wasn't on the table where he'd left it. It wasn't in the drawer at his place at the table. It was his brand-new pencil box and he hadn't even used the crayons yet, and now it was gone. He didn't see it anywhere.
"Hello. You must be Baartock."
He looked around to see an adult standing right behind him.
"I'm Mrs. Pangle, Timmy's mother." She pointed at one of the boys at the next table. "I come in two afternoons a week. I'm the aide for this class."
Baartock might have asked what an 'aide' was, but he was worried about his pencil box. "If you're looking for your box, I put it in your cubby."
"Where cubby?" He didn't know that he had a cubby, but if that was where his box was, he wanted to find it.