Chapter 2
It was only a short drive, though it felt very long to both Baartock and Mr. Fennis. When Mr. Fennis finally parked the car at Marvis T. Johnson Elementary School, he got out and helped Baartock out of the back seat.
"I'm sorry I yelled at you, Baartock," apologized Mr. Fennis, helping him out. "You almost made us crash when you grabbed the steering wheel. You don't do that in your folks car, do you?"
"Don't like!" said Baartock angrily, as he kicked at the side of the car.
"Don't do that! It's my car. It may not look pretty, but it's paid for and takes me where I want to go."
"Go home," said Baartock and he started to walk off the way they had come. Like all trolls, he had an almost perfect sense of
direction and couldn't get lost. This place wasn't at all like the woods and he didn't like it. It was all new and frightening to him. Since he was a troll, he wasn't going to be scared, or not much anyway. He was supposed to do the scaring.
"Come on, Baartock. Let's go on into school." Mr. Fennis grabbed Baartock's hand.
"Don't want school! Want to go home!"
So, with Mr. Fennis pulling one way and Baartock pulling the other, they went into school. As soon as they got inside, Baartock stopped wanting to go home and started looking at this new kind of cave he was in. There were big boards fastened to the walls, covered with lots of colored papers. There were cases with glass frames with more colored papers behind them. The walls were a bright yellow, and there were lights overhead. Even the floor was smooth and shiny. There were a lot of new things for him to see. He was still looking around when they got to the school office.
"Ms. Laurence, Baartock seems to have missed the bus this morning," said Mr. Fennis to the woman sitting at a desk, behind the counter. Ms. Laurence was the school secretary. "I found him still waiting by the road."