Lonely Oak Chapter 95 - Broken Wisdom
Nachos. One of the few lunch items that many kids could actually stand. After all, it was simple and easy. The nacho chips tasted okay, even if they were a little stale sometimes. The cheese was probably not healthy. But it was so runny and gooey, and...
Lonely Oak Chapter 101 - An Emmy In Ket's Clothing
Emeral breathed with concentration, counting in her head. Her arms were stretched behind her, fists pointed down at forty-five degree angles. The muscles in her back and shoulders tingled with a satisfying twinge as they were loosened. She let out her...
Lonely Oak Chapter 90
The tiger walked toward the counselor's area. Past the library, into the first-grade hallway. He had not been to this area... well, not since first grade, of course. It was decorated with pale blue bricks, which actually looked freshly coated. When he...
Lonely Oak Chapter 116 - Meeting Of The Minds
The soft tic and tock of the clock counted the seconds within the small room. Beyond the frosted plastic _shoji_, the soft tinkling of wind-chimes broke up the motronomic march of the red hand. Blurry, mottled shadows swayed back and forth across the...
Lonely Oak Chapter 115 - Elective Selective
"The school time is seven thirty-nine. Have a great day!" There was a slight pause, where normally the muffled clatter of the microphone getting put back would signal the end of the announcements. But, after a half-pause more, it didn't come. "Oh, I...
Lonely Oak Chapter 94 - Bubble'n'Squeak
The day was humid. Since P.E., clouds had shrouded the skies and now the sun was hidden behind a gray, cumulonimbus monolith. Thankfully, now and again, a gentle breeze stirred the air. But that was a luxury, up in the Slide Tower. Emeral looked out...
Raspberry Line Chapter 6 - hTife
Emeral waded through the crowd, as if through a murky swamp of reeds, kelp and driftwood. Why teachers had them line up at the door was a mystery to her, because it all ended up as a boiling race to eat food that probably needed to be shielded behind...
Lonely Oak Chapter 125 - The Golden Leaf Award
Finally, it had arrived: the Last Day at Lonely Oak Elementary. Kinders, firsts, seconds, thirds, and fourths, all came through the doors with anticipation of summer and fun. Of no more school food; rubbery pizza, flimsy salads, watered-down...
Lonely Oak Chapter 124 - The Treasure Of Lonely Oak
"It's so muggy out! Feels worse than the Amazon." "Yeah right, you never been to the Amazon." Nevertheless, it was very humid. As soon as the kids set foot outside, they regretted it; water almost began condensing on their fur and whiskers. It was...
Lonely Oak Chapter 123 - Principal Versus Principle
Ket felt like he was dragged through his dream out of his sleep. The alarm blared in his ear with what sounded like the decibels of a thousand air-horns. He pushed up, his arms tingling from pins and needles. He glanced at the clock even as it...
Lonely Oak Chapter 122 - Round Two
In each classroom, the kids spent the rest of the remaining nearly-two-hours of the school-day cleaning up the classrooms, packing their things away, and returning the desks to their groups or rows. Ket was relegated to a back-corner of the room,...
Lonely Oak Chapter 104 - Swimmer's Ear
The red wolf whistled. "Wiggin's class, let's go," Mr. Wiggin called, walking backwards across the cross-walk. On the other side, he tallied all of his charges. "C'mon, Max, that means you!" Ms. Hupp's class waited, as the beaver-kid lagging behind...