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“I can do that, Harding”

The door behind them opened, and Rhonda Ivers walked into the room

“Yousaid, and Noah was on his feet in a flash

Vivi Ann grabbed his arm as he tried to pass her, yanked him around to face her He was now eye to eye with her; tall and gangly “You coht home after school Do not pass Go Do not collect two hundred bucks Got it?”

He wrenched free “Yeah, yeah”

When he was gone, Harding said, “I hope you knohat you’re doing, Rhonda” Giving the here I need to keep an eye on the lunch crowd”

Rhonda waited for hi metal desk Amid the piles of paper stacked on top of it, she looked frail and birdlike She wore the sa she had some twenty years earlier when she’d tried to teach Vivi Ann to appreciate Beowulf “Sit down, Vivi,” she said

Vivi Ann was so tired of this; it felt as if she’d been battling one invisible foe after another for twelve years Ever since Al had asked Dallas what he’d done on that Christht

“We all know Noah’s story,” Mrs Ivers said when Vivi Ann sat down “And his proble out, why he’s unhappy”

“You think he’s unhappy? I thoughtI hoped it was just norst”

Rhonda gave her a sympathetic smile “You know the kids make fun of him?”

Vivi Ann nodded

“He needs a friend, and perhaps so, but that’s for you to decide, of course I’e Arts this year I’ve done the calculations and there’s no way he can make up all the lessons he’s missed”

“If you hold hirade it will just compound his problem Then they’ll think he’s stupid as well asdifferent”

“Such was my analysis” Mrs Ivers pulled a black and white bound co and slid it across the desk “That’s why I’rade If he’ll fill this journal with honest writings this suh school”