"Baartock? I don't know any Baartock."
"Well, he's seven, so he must be in Mrs. Stogbuchner's class. Could you get him down there? I've really got to get back to my class. Good-by, Baartock." With that, Mr. Fennis hurried out of the office and down the hall, leaving Baartock in the office.
Baartock looked at Ms. Laurence. Then he looked all around the room. When he had seen enough he said, "Not Mississtog-Buchnersklass. Go home! Now!" Baartock thought it might be fun to meet someone with a wonderfully scary name like Mississtog-Buchnersklass, but he was tired and wanted to go home. He was just out the door, leaving Ms. Laurence calling "Baartock! Stop!" when he crashed right into Mrs. Jackson, the principal.
Mr. Fennis told Mrs. Jackson about Baartock just as soon as he had gotten into his classroom and she came running to the office. Mrs. Jackson had been a school teacher for many years and principal for a few more, but she wasn't sure that she had ever seen a child quite like the dirty, wild, little one, who was trying to pull away from her. "Stop right now!" Mrs. Jackson's voice echoed up and down the hall. Baartock stopped squirming and stood, wide-eyed, staring at her. He didn't know humans could sound like that. Down the hall, classroom doors opened and several teachers looked out. Mrs. Jackson ignored them as she pushed Baartock back into the office and closed the door.
"Please tell me your name." Before he could say that he wasn't old enough to have a name, Ms. Laurence answered "Baartock."
"Baartock," said Mrs. Jackson as she brought him over to a bench, "sit down. Tell me how you got so dirty."
"Rolled in mud. Want to go home."
"You certainly must have rolled in the mud. I understand you missed your bus this morning."
"Mrs. Jackson," said Ms. Laurence, who had stopped watching them and was busily looking through some papers, "We don't have any student named Baartock." School had just started the week before, but Ms. Laurence was sure that she knew the names of all the new students. And where to find their records.
"Is today your first day?" asked Mrs. Jackson. "Yes! First day! First day!" Baartock answered right away. Finally he had found someone who understood that today was his first day to go scare people by all himself.