Read Online Ms. Miller and the Midas Man by Mary Kay McComas - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Mary Kay McComas
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presentation. This would be basically the same thing, except it would be extracurricular and the seniors would be responsible for it. And any profits they made would go to a senior class campout in the spring.”
“A senior class campout? In the woods? All night? Together? With boys and girls together?” they asked, in a garble of exclamations.
He laughed quietly and went on. “The whole school could help with the play, for maximum exposure. This would give them a chance to experience acting, to sing if we do a musical. Art work on props, stage work, costuming, promotion, public speaking...a little bit of everything that was cut from the curriculum.”
“But together? All night?”
“Just the seniors, with chaperons. And with their parents’ permission. All of them months short of going to college and being off on their own anyway.”
As he’d suspected, there was more resistance to the students’ sleeping together than to putting on a play. When he made it clear that he’d be coordinating the project and that the campout could just as easily be a day at an amusement park, the friction shriveled to a feeble rub. Deciding to do the play and leaving the other matter up in the air—for further discussion at a later time—brought their meeting to a rapid close and left him with plenty of time to set step two into motion.
The teachers’ conference room at Tylerville Elementary School was as warm and stuffy two weeks before the new school year as it had been two weeks before the end of the last—a short eleven weeks earlier.
It had been a short summer for Gus. Finally being able to afford some changes in her little house had been so exciting in June. By the end of July, her energy was lagging but things were shaping up. The house was beginning to take on a personality of its own—warm, cheerful, comforting—and it was rubbing off on her.
She’d wake to sunshine soaking into and shining off the muted yellow of her bedroom walls; she’d stretch lazily, secure in her sense of belonging, and reflect on the fact that she was truly happy.
Had she ever actually known she was happy before? She must have, because she hadn’t always been completely miserable, but...well, maybe she’d just been too busy to notice it before.
Taking the time to notice your happiness sounded ridiculous, but—
“Why, Scotty! Mr. Hammond,” stammered the principal, her dry droning of the school board’s objections to the present health insurance policy ending abruptly when he sneaked, bold and noisy, into the room.
Gus’s heart rate slipped automatically into panic overdrive. A vacuum sucked the air from the room and the temperature soared.
Like everyone else she turned her head to look at the interruption. A cool breeze in tan slacks, his white cotton shirt open at the neck, sleeves rolled up to his elbows—he tickled goose bumps across her warm flesh. His smile was as refreshing and exhilarating as a dip in a mountain lake. God, he was annoying.
“Mrs. Pennyfeather. Please, don’t let me interrupt,” he said, trying his best to appear repentant. Ha! Gus almost laughed. “We...we’ve had a bit of a brainstorm over at the high school this morning and I wanted to come over and get your input—since it would involve some of your students as well. But I guess it can wait till you’re done here.”
“Oh,” she said, startled, confused, and curious. “Well, we were just finishing up. I must say, I can’t imagine what all this is about. Did you want to speak in private?”
It was then that he looked about at the gathering, as if he’d just suddenly realized what he’d walked in on. His open, friendly gaze barely grazed Gus, still she felt targeted and pierced through and through. The fool winked at her.
“No no. No need for privacy. We were so excited about it at our meeting that it’ll be all over town before lunchtime,” he said, walking to the front of the room. He beamed that smile of his like a beacon in a
“A senior class campout? In the woods? All night? Together? With boys and girls together?” they asked, in a garble of exclamations.
He laughed quietly and went on. “The whole school could help with the play, for maximum exposure. This would give them a chance to experience acting, to sing if we do a musical. Art work on props, stage work, costuming, promotion, public speaking...a little bit of everything that was cut from the curriculum.”
“But together? All night?”
“Just the seniors, with chaperons. And with their parents’ permission. All of them months short of going to college and being off on their own anyway.”
As he’d suspected, there was more resistance to the students’ sleeping together than to putting on a play. When he made it clear that he’d be coordinating the project and that the campout could just as easily be a day at an amusement park, the friction shriveled to a feeble rub. Deciding to do the play and leaving the other matter up in the air—for further discussion at a later time—brought their meeting to a rapid close and left him with plenty of time to set step two into motion.
The teachers’ conference room at Tylerville Elementary School was as warm and stuffy two weeks before the new school year as it had been two weeks before the end of the last—a short eleven weeks earlier.
It had been a short summer for Gus. Finally being able to afford some changes in her little house had been so exciting in June. By the end of July, her energy was lagging but things were shaping up. The house was beginning to take on a personality of its own—warm, cheerful, comforting—and it was rubbing off on her.
She’d wake to sunshine soaking into and shining off the muted yellow of her bedroom walls; she’d stretch lazily, secure in her sense of belonging, and reflect on the fact that she was truly happy.
Had she ever actually known she was happy before? She must have, because she hadn’t always been completely miserable, but...well, maybe she’d just been too busy to notice it before.
Taking the time to notice your happiness sounded ridiculous, but—
“Why, Scotty! Mr. Hammond,” stammered the principal, her dry droning of the school board’s objections to the present health insurance policy ending abruptly when he sneaked, bold and noisy, into the room.
Gus’s heart rate slipped automatically into panic overdrive. A vacuum sucked the air from the room and the temperature soared.
Like everyone else she turned her head to look at the interruption. A cool breeze in tan slacks, his white cotton shirt open at the neck, sleeves rolled up to his elbows—he tickled goose bumps across her warm flesh. His smile was as refreshing and exhilarating as a dip in a mountain lake. God, he was annoying.
“Mrs. Pennyfeather. Please, don’t let me interrupt,” he said, trying his best to appear repentant. Ha! Gus almost laughed. “We...we’ve had a bit of a brainstorm over at the high school this morning and I wanted to come over and get your input—since it would involve some of your students as well. But I guess it can wait till you’re done here.”
“Oh,” she said, startled, confused, and curious. “Well, we were just finishing up. I must say, I can’t imagine what all this is about. Did you want to speak in private?”
It was then that he looked about at the gathering, as if he’d just suddenly realized what he’d walked in on. His open, friendly gaze barely grazed Gus, still she felt targeted and pierced through and through. The fool winked at her.
“No no. No need for privacy. We were so excited about it at our meeting that it’ll be all over town before lunchtime,” he said, walking to the front of the room. He beamed that smile of his like a beacon in a
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