Remembering Mrs. Rossi (9780763670900) (10 page)

Where are you, Mrs. Rossi?

Did you forget to come to school?

Where are you, Mrs. Rossi?

Don’t you like us anymore?

Hey, Mrs. Rossi! I saw you

That time at the market

Yikes! Teacher in the market!

Hide! Duck! Spy!

Spy on Mrs. Rossi

Shopping with her girl

Shopping with her Annie

The way my mom shops with me

Where are you, Mrs. Rossi?

Nobody’s mom should die

There are things you should know about Mrs. Rossi. Like the color of her hair.
Brown!
And guess what she eats for lunch every day?
A bagel with cream cheese and tomatoes!
And guess what’s on her desk?
Pictures of her family, and when you look at the pictures, you feel like you know her whole family!
Mrs. Rossi is always losing her DAILY LESSON PLANNER (10 times a day) and guess who always finds it?
ME!
I wish I could look inside. Just one little second,
pleeeeease,
but no one’s allowed, not even me. Mrs. Rossi writes top-secret stuff in there, and I bet there’s good stuff about me in there.

This is true. One time my head hurts a little, so I get to have lunch in the classroom. Just me and Mrs. Rossi. Then I do something.
(Shhh.)
I look inside the DAILY LESSON PLANNER. Just for a second, but she sees. I hate how she says, “I’m surprised at you, Carrie.”
It’s the second worst day of my life.

Here’s the last thing you should know about Mrs. Rossi and me and how Mrs. Owens called my parents that day. She told my parents and then my parents told me, and everyone cried. Because Mrs. Rossi died.
It was the worst day ever.

One time I forgot my house key. I hate when I forget my house key because they don’t let you go home after school. Which isn’t fair. They make you go to the principal’s office. Mrs. Owens always says the same thing. Which is this:
I’m afraid we’ll have to call your mother at work, Alex.

I hate calling my mom at work because her boss is mean and she has to talk in a whisper to her own kid. When she hears I forgot my house key again, she gets mad because I’m never
responsible
enough to suit her. Now bad news. She can’t leave work or pick me up for a whole
hour.
Which isn’t fair. I’m hungry
(starving)
and I
hate
being the last kid in school.

I sit all by myself on that hard bench in the office and no one even talks to me. I look in my book bag for something to eat and there’s nothing to eat, not even gum, and if you think I’m doing homework, forget it. Even the teachers are going home. They’re all punching out and you never saw so many happy teachers in your life. I say hi to Mrs. Rossi even though I’m in a bad mood. I tell her my mom is always late; she needs to be more
responsible.
Mrs. Rossi laughs. Which is nice because people don’t usually think I’m that funny. Then she starts digging around in her big bag: Cards! A box of animal crackers, the kind little kids eat!

We play gin rummy and eat all the crackers and I win three times. Mrs. Rossi wins five. Then my mom comes and I go home.

Dear Mrs. Rossi,

I’m still pretty mad at you. I don’t think you should have called my parents that time. Plus I wish you didn’t call in the middle of dinner. Grownups always forget about dessert when your teacher’s on the phone. Plus I wish you didn’t say, LEO IS NEGLECTING HIS HOMEWORK.

Because now I’m not allowed to watch TV for the rest of my life. Plus now I have to do my homework in public every day, at the kitchen table while my mom is making dinner. Poor old Leo — work, work, work. When my dad comes home from his job at the shoe store, the whole family sits around looking at my homework. Even my little brother Herbie looks, and he can’t even read! I like when my mom says,
I knew you could do it, Leo.
I like when my dad says,
Go get ’em, Leo.
He always says that if you do a good job.

Your student forever,

Leo

It is raining cats and dogs! We can’t go out for recess! Everyone’s mad! Then Mr. Rossi knocks on the door and Mrs. Rossi jumps in the air because here is her
husband
!! He has
cupcakes
!! Hey, it’s
Mrs. Rossi’s birthday
!! We all sing happy birthday but she won’t tell how old she is!! I love cupcakes so much!

Mrs. Rossi was a spy. She had to be. She’s the only one who figured out where I was going all those times after school. Not even Joe figured it out, and he’s my best friend. Not even my mom figured it out, and she’s my mom. I’m supposed to go straight home after school. I always used to. Then I found the firehouse. It’s over on 113th Street and I started going there. I liked having a secret. I liked sitting on the curb across the street from the firehouse. I liked waiting for something to happen. Mostly nothing happened but that’s okay. I liked watching the guys over there when the big red door was open. They looked nice. I didn’t say anything or wave, no baby stuff. Sometimes I drew stuff. I’m not a great artist or anything but I like to draw. I guess if I keep practicing, I’ll get really good.