Fay dodged behind the kindergarten shuttlebus and pulled Barnaby after her.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThat is not Mr. Clobbins, the PE teacher,\u201d said Barnaby, with a snort.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cAnd those kids are not playing kickball,\u201d said Fay.<\/p>\n
\n\tThey crouched behind the front wheel, peering over the nose of the bus.
\n\tFifteen first-graders, who were normally taught very good manners by their teacher, Mrs. Gulbert, were now being taught very bad manners by a fat bald pirate. <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cTAKE THAT YA\u2019 SLITHERING SLIME-EATER!\u201d yelled fifteen first-graders in unison.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cGood!\u201d yelled the fat pirate. \u201cGOOD! Now swing your cutlass, like this!\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tFifteen first-graders gave the daisies they were clutching a mighty swing and petals flew everywhere.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThat\u2019s al\u2019right,\u201d said the fat bald pirate encouragingly, \u201cbut it\u2019ll look better when we fix you up wif\u2019 real blades.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThis is not good, thought Fay. Not good at all. Sure, Mr. Clobbins\u2019 fitness drills were deadly boring, but first graders with swords were likely to chop their babysitters\u2019 feet off.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI\u2019m going to try to get inside,\u201d whispered Fay, edging toward the front of the bus.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cDo you have a screw loose?\u201d squeaked Barnaby. \u201cThey\u2019ve probably barbecued everyone else by now! You\u2019ll never come out alive!\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cStill,\u201d said Fay. \u201cWhat if I can do something? You can go get the cops or come in. Your choice, I don\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tFay looked back at the bald pirate with the first-graders. They were standing in a circle holding what was left of their daisies in the air and making ferocious faces at each other. She hoped their growling was loud enough to drown out her footsteps as she made a dash for the cafeteria workers\u2019 door.<\/p>\n
\n\tSqueezing through the door, careful not to squeak…she was inside! Then she froze. There were at least three pirates right here in the kitchen. She flattened herself against the giant steel refrigerator where the lunch ladies kept ice cream.<\/p>\n
\n\tA gangly pirate with a curly red ponytail was looking out the window with a Jolly Rogers cereal box plastic spyglass. \u201cCain\u2019t see no-one,\u201d he said. \u201cMust\u2019ve been Jimbo out thar\u2019 with the wee ones.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWell then he oughter\u2019 shut up a little,\u201d growled an old pirate with bad teeth, who was squinting as he tried to squidge a little plastic coin into his flippin\u2019 eights cup with a big plastic coin.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWhat…you wanna\u2019 give me them flippin\u2019 eights and you go teach them babies Hanky?\u201d chuckled a bearded, brown-skinned pirate.<\/p>\n
\n\tHanky snarled and headed for the refrigerator. Fay slid for the dishwashing sink and ducked under it. <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI\u2019m gonna eat them babies, if\u2019n I can\u2019t find anything better \u2018round here,\u201d replied Hanky, giving the refrigerator door an aggressive yank.
\n\tHe gave a disgusted grunt. \u201cStill nothin\u2019 in this, whatchacallit, Friggy-dairy but that slimy cold stuff that makes me teeth ache,\u201d he grumbled. \u201cWe gots to find us some more Jolly Rogers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n \tHanky slammed the refrigerator door and trudged over to the window. Fay scrambled on all fours from the sink to behind a stack of lunch trays. Then from the lunch trays to underneath a table. From a table to another table. From the table to the hallway.<\/p>\n
\n\tA short, bony pirate with a Jolly Rogers spyglass was keeping guard at the school entrance across from the cafeteria. Every so often he took some practice swings at the cardboard policeman who always stood just inside the main door. Feeling confidant about her sneaking skills, Fay slid quietly along with her back to the lockers until she was surprised by an open locker door which slammed with a bang. For a moment she froze, alarmed that she\u2019d be spotted. But it was not pirates who began to clammer and yell. It was the teachers, all of them, and the school principal, Mr. Squibbly, who were locked in the supply closet and wanted out now.<\/p>\n
\n\tShe peeked through the small window in the door and shrugged at them. I can\u2019t let you out yet, she told them by mental telepathy, even though she was quite certain they didn\u2019t understand. You\u2019d end up skewered.<\/p>\n
\n\tTeachers in a closet is not such a bad thing,<\/em> Fay assured herself. But keeping kids at school unnecessarily late is completely unacceptable.<\/em> \n\tFay got a good softball grip on the orange and rolled a speedy grounder at the cardboard policeman. As Mr. Officer fell flat on his face, and the skinny pirate gaped at him in surprise, Fay made a silent sprint for the school office and ducked behind Mr. Squibbly\u2019s desk.<\/p>\n \n\tReaching up, she felt for the loudspeaker microphone from the desktop, pulled it down and made herself comfortable on the floor. Fay dodged behind the kindergarten shuttlebus and pulled Barnaby after her. \u201cThat is not Mr. Clobbins, the PE teacher,\u201d said Barnaby, with a snort. \u201cAnd those kids are not playing kickball,\u201d said Fay. They crouched behind the front wheel, peering over the nose of the bus. Fifteen first-graders, who were normally taught very good manners […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=183"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183\/revisions\/185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\tFay could think of only one thing to do. But she\u2019d have to get into the school office without being seen by the bony pirate. There had to be a way to distract him. Very quietly she opened the locker door behind her and felt around. Perfect. An orange. A nice squishy moldy orange. <\/em><\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cGet ready to have your timbers totally shivered, you boneheads,\u201d whispered Fay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"