This was the first time Baartock had gotten to school in the morning before it started. No-one seemed to be going inside. Jerry, a black-haired kid who had played tag, was getting off the next bus in front. He saw Baartock and came running over.
"Want to go to the playground?" he asked.
They went around the building to the playground. Jason was already there, and they raced a couple of times, then they went over and climbed on the jungle gym. They were just sitting at the top when the bell rang. A lot of the children ran to the building and went inside.
"That's only the first bell," said Jerry. "We've got lots of time." So they sat for a while longer, until Jason started to get down.
"I'm going in," he said. And all three of them went into the classroom, just as the bell rang again.
Chapter 12
School in the morning wasn't very different from school in the afternoon, Baartock decided. There were some of the work-sheets that had to be colored, but these were of shapes of things and numbers. They got to work with a lot of pieces of paper with numbers on both sides that Jason said were called flash-cards. He said that you were to add the numbers on the front of a flash card, and your answer was the same as the one on the back of the card. The morning went by very quickly for Baartock.
Then, right before lunch time, Mrs. Stogbuchner read another story. This time, he understood most of the story. It was about a boy taking care of sheep, and when he got lonely, he would yell 'Wolf!' and all the villagers would come. They got angry at the boy, when they didn't find a wolf. But the boy got lonely and did it again, and the villagers got angry again. Finally, when the wolf did come, and the boy yelled 'Wolf!' the villagers didn't come.
When Mrs. Stogbuchner finished reading the story, Baartock asked, "Why boy not scare wolf?"