The Magical Ms. Plum by Bonny Becker Page B

sleeve.
    Mindy raised her hand. “I could help Tashala clean it up, Ms. Plum.”
    “I’m sure Tashala would appreciate that,” said Ms. Plum.
    Mindy jumped up, took the scoop from Tashala, and quickly cleaned up the piles. She even cleaned off and shined Tashala’s boots with a paper towel.
    Tashala sniffed. “Thanks, Mindy,” she whispered.
    “I’ve changed a lot of diapers,” Mindyexplained. “I have twin baby brothers. They’re a couple of poop machines.”
    “Now, don’t forget, Tashala, you’ll need to muck out your desk every few hours or so,” said Ms. Plum.
    “Can I still help?” asked Mindy.
    Tashala looked at Mindy Minn and then down at her little horse. “I think you should have him,” she said.
    “You do?”
    Tashala straightened her shoulders. “Fair is fair. It’s the cowboy code.”
    Mindy carefully lifted up the stallion. He seemed calm and happy in her arms. She took a deep breath of his dusty, oaty horse smell.
    “Can I give him a name?” Mindy asked.
    Tashala swallowed and nodded. She knew it was going to be the pinkest name ever.
    And it was. But when Mindy announced that the horse was named Sir Prance-alot, Tashala squashed back her wince and gave Mindy a hearty cowboy slap on the back.
    Mindy gave her such a hearty arm punch back that Tashala almost fell off her chair.
    “Oh my gosh! Sorry! I have four older brothers,” Mindy explained.
    “No harm done,” said Tashala, rubbing her arm. “You pack quite a wallop there, Mindy.”
    “Why, thank you,” said Mindy, blushing a pretty pink.
    And suddenly they both grinned.

    At recess, Lucy and Nadia ran up to their friend Madison
.
    “You won’t believe what happened in Ms. Plum’s class today!” Lucy said
.
    “It was amazing,” said Nadia, her eyes wide
.
    And Lucy tried to say, A little horse came out of the closet. It fit in Mindy’s arms!
    But somehow out popped, “Horses poop!”
    “So?” said Madison
.
    Lucy tried again. Her lips twisted and her tongue curled. She seemed to be trying really hard to say something. But out came, “Horses, they poop!”
    Lucy looked at Nadia
.
    Nadia tried to say, It was brown with a black mane. It was real, but it wasn’t scary like a real horse. It was as small as a cat
.
    But out came, “Horses poop a lot!”
    Then she and Lucy nodded hard
.
    Madison stared at them like they were crazy
.
    Lucy looked at Nadia, and Nadia looked at Lucy. All they could do was smile. The secret smile of those who had Ms. Plum
.

Eric Soderberg had the fastest mouth in Ms. Plum’s class. You had to be fast when there were eight people in your family all talking at once at the dinner table. Eric was the youngest Soderberg, so at home he barely ever got a word in edgewise.
    At school it was different. Eric talked all the time and was always “stepping on other people’s lines.” That’s what Ms. Plum called it. She said it meant that Eric was always finishing up other kids’ sentences, giving their answers, and finishing their jokes.
    That morning during break, Brad tried to share his new joke.
    “Where do crocodiles keep their money?” he asked.
    “In a riverbank,” Eric said quickly.
    And everyone laughed like it was Eric’s joke.
    Ms. Plum looked up and asked, “Who can get me some lined paper from the supply closet?”
    Carlos’s hand shot up first.
    But Ms. Plum crooked her finger at Eric.
    Carlos started to say, “Hey, that’s—”
    “Not fair,” Eric finished for him. “Sorry, dude.”
    Eric grinned and went to the supply closet. He opened the door and stepped inside. He took a deep whiff of the yummy, nameless smell and picked out five sheets of lined paper. Next to the stack of paper he saw a little green parrot staring at him. The parrot had bright black eyes and a red spot on his head. Was he real? The parrot cocked his head left, and then right. He was real!
    “Wow!” said Eric. “That’s so—”
    “Awesome!” squawked the parrot.
    Then the parrot fluttered up to