'What is it, Grimm?'
'That page has been ripped out of my book,' she stuttered.
Grumpner's face turned red. Even from the back of the room, Sabrina could spot a throbbing vein on his forehead, preparing to explode. Luckily, the old grouch was distracted by a short, pudgy boy running into the classroom. He rushed past the teacher and hurried down Sabrina's aisle, where he slipped behind a desk and opened a book.
'Wendell!' Grumpner bellowed at the top of his lungs. The chubby boy looked up from his desk, wiped his nose with a handkerchief, and looked genuinely surprised by the teacher's anger. It took all of Sabrina's willpower not to break out laughing at the boy's dumbfounded expression.
'Yes, Mr. Grumpner,' Wendell replied.
'You are late, again,' the teacher said.
'I'm sorry. I forgot to set my alarm clock,' the boy said meekly.
'You forgot?' Grumpner exploded. 'Well, that's just great! I bet you didn't forget breakfast this morning! Everyone can see that! Maybe we should cover your alarm clock with candy and French fries; then you'd never forget to set it!'
'I said I was sorry!'
The old man stomped down the aisle and roughly pulled the boy out of his seat. He dragged him to the front of the room so everyone could see his humiliation.
'Do you know why you are always late, Wendell?' Mr. Grumpner asked. 'It's because you are a worthless fat-body. Isn't that right?'
This woke up the class, who roared with laughter. Toby, the bug-eyed boy, nearly fell out of his chair giggling.
'Well, I'm sure I could stand to lose a little weight, but I wouldn't go so far as to say…!' but the chubby boy never got to finish. Grumpner shoved a piece of chalk into his hand and spun him toward the chalkboard.
'And you are going to write it until the end of this class. You may think that because you're the principal's son you don't have to play by the rules, but I'm not afraid of your father. I have tenure. Get started!'
Wendell turned to the chalkboard and wrote I AM A WORTHLESS FAT-BODY. The students roared with laughter again, but Sabrina barely noticed. She was too stunned by what Mr. Grumpner had said. Wendell was the principal's son-the child of an Everafter? Sabrina had never imagined that the Everafters might have children or that they would send them to a school where all the other kids were human. She gazed around the room, watching the rest of the class laugh at the boy as he scrawled the mean sentence over and over again. Could any of them be Everafters, too?
As Sabrina drifted from class to class, she began to realize that Mr. Grumpner wasn't the only teacher on the verge of a nervous breakdown. In fact, the entire sixth-grade faculty was a collection of bullying, screaming nightmares. They shouted through most of their classes, dishing out detentions like scoops of ice cream. Not that Sabrina could really blame them, though. The kids in her classes were real pains in the butt. They slept through the lectures and none of them had done their homework.
Even in gym class, the kids staggered around exhausted. Unfortunately for them, gym class turned out to be the one place you really needed to be alert. Their teacher was Ms. Spangler. Spangler the Strangler, as the kids called her, was a bulky little woman with a ponytail and an evil glint in her eye, who apparently knew how to teach just one game-dodgeball. Sabrina had played dodgeball many times at school in New York City. She considered herself to be pretty good at it; she remembered being the last kid standing many times, so in Ms. Spangler's class, when the first rubber ball smacked her in the head and made her brains rattle in her skull, she knew that something about this dodgeball game was different.
Getting knocked out of the game early gave Sabrina a chance to study the other kids. It was easy to see who the dangerous ones were-the only two really playing the game. Sabrina recognized one as the giggling idiot Toby, from her homeroom class, but the other was a knuckle-dragging hulk with ratty hair. To be honest, Sabrina wasn't sure if it was a boy or a girl; all she knew was that Toby and It were vicious. Together, they whipped balls at the other kids at alarming speeds. When a kid fell down, the duo would pummel him or her mercilessly with the hard rubber balls. Even worse, Ms. Spangler encouraged the craziness. She ran around the gymnasium blowing her whistle and pointing out the weaknesses of the players to Toby and the big It, urging them to target the pudgy, small, slow, and awkward. Whenever a kid was hit and eliminated, Ms. Spangler clapped happily, like a child on Christmas morning.
There was only one other kid in the class who had the energy to defend herself. Sabrina recognized her, too. The pretty blond from Sabrina's homeroom managed to duck out of the way of several shots, dodging and jumping until she, too, was struck and tossed out of the game. She joined the battered kids waiting on the sidelines. When she spotted Sabrina, she smiled and waved. It was the first act of kindness Sabrina had experienced the whole day.
By lunchtime, Sabrina was bruised and belittled, but her main concern was Daphne. Sabrina could handle a screaming teacher or a bully, but her sister was only seven. This school would eat her alive.
Once Sabrina had her tray of food, she searched the cafeteria for her little sister, fully expecting Daphne to be huddled in a corner bawling her eyes out. She was stunned to find her sitting at a table packed with bright-eyed, happy kids, all hanging on her every word. As Sabrina approached the table, the children exploded with laughter watching her sister pull a ruler out of her big beehive hair.
'Daphne, you are the funniest person I have ever met,' one of her little friends said.
'Are you OK?' Sabrina asked her sister.
Daphne smiled and nodded. 'Time of my life.'
Daphne was the hit of the second grade and Sabrina wasn't about to take it away from her. Instead, she trudged through the cafeteria looking for an empty table. She thought she had found one, but just as she was about to sit down, two kids quickly slipped into the seats as if she weren't there at all. She moved in the direction of another deserted table but the same thing happened again. Sabrina was starting to wonder if she could eat standing up, when she felt her feet come out from under her. Her tray flew forward, sending her lunch splattering across the cafeteria. She slammed to the ground hard, pounding her chin into the cold floor, and saw little lights explode in front of her eyes.
Standing over her was the It from gym class. The kid was apelike, with long, thick arms, a hulking body, and an under-bite. When Sabrina spotted the little pink ribbon sticking out of Its knotted hair, she finally realized It was a girl.
'Ooops,' the girl grunted. Toby, the bug-eyed weirdo, was standing next to her, laughing.
As embarrassed as she was, Sabrina wasn't at all surprised. She had been bullied before. The orphanage had been like a prison at times, and the new kids always got the worst of it until they proved they could give as well as they got.
'You did that on purpose,' she said as she calmly got to her feet.
'What are you going to do about it, Grimm? Cry on me?' the big girl laughed.
'If you know my name, then you should know I don't cry,' Sabrina said, clenching her fist tightly and then socking the girl in the face. As the big goon fell backward, Sabrina's dreams of dull school days fell with her. For when she turned to look around the cafeteria, the sleepy-faced kids from her class were now wide awake and in awe of her.
'You shouldn't have done that,' Toby hissed.
'You're exactly right,' a voice shouted. A meaty hand grabbed Sabrina's arm and dragged her away. It was Mr. Grumpner and the vein on his forehead was throbbing.
'She started it,' Sabrina cried.
'And I'm ending it,' Grumpner shouted back.
Sabrina sat in Mr. Sheepshanks hot, windowless office waiting for her punishment. The mousy secretary with the thick glasses told her that the guidance counselor would be with her as soon as he was available. Three hours later, he still hadn't shown up.
Sabrina sat and reflected on her day so far. Apparently, the sixth grade was a nightmare, and no one had been courteous enough to let her know in advance. She thought it would be all books and tests-not guerilla warfare. Thekids were hateful. The teachers were despicable. It was just like being back in the orphanage.
By the time Mr. Sheepshank and his smiley-face bow tie showed up, Sabrina was seething with rage. Mr. Grumpner followed him into the office, looking indignant, and the two men sat down.
'So, Sabrina,' the counselor said. 'Do you want to tell us why Natalie is in the school infirmary with a black eye?'
'I'll tell you why!' Mr. Grumpner growled, nearly jumping out of his seat. 'This one is trouble.'
Mr. Sheepshank sat back in his chair and licked his lips as if he were preparing for a big meal. 'Go on, Sabrina, what happened?'
'That ugly freak tripped me on purpose,' Sabrina said, wiping the sweat from her brow.
'That's what she's saying,' Grumpner interrupted. 'I saw the whole thing.'
'If you'd seen the whole thing, then we wouldn't be sitting here!' Sabrina snapped, surprised by how quickly her anger had boiled over. Her head was starting to pound again. Maybe she was getting sick.
'Listen to that attitude,' her teacher bellowed. 'I don't know how school works in the big city, but in my classroom you will respect me or else!'
'Yeah, I've seen what 'or else' means in your classroom,' the girl said. 'I've seen how you teach children to respect you. You insult them, make fun of them, and drag them around. I dare you to try it on me! I just dare you!'
Mr. Grumpner backed away as if he had just stumbled upon a hornet's nest. 'Are you going to let her talk to me like that?' he whined to the counselor.
'I believe that letting your feelings out is healthy,' Mr. Sheepshank said. 'Sabrina has a right to defend herself.'
'Save your new-age psychobabble,' the teacher grumbled. 'What are you going to do to punish her?'
