The class quieted down in a big hurry when a man walked into the room, nodded at us and wrote a name on the blackboard.
MILES J. BENEDICT JR.
When he turned away from the blackboard he cleared his throat. "That's me," he said, pointing to the name on the board. Then he cleared his throat two more times. "I'm your new teacher."
Nancy poked me in the ribs and whispered, "Can you believe it?" The whole class was whispering and grinning.
Mr. Benedict went back to the board. He wrote six phrases. Then he turned to us. He put his hands behind his back and kind of rocked back and forth on his feet. He cleared his throat so I knew he was going to say something.
"Now then… uh… you know my name. I'll tell you something about myself. Uh… I'm twenty-four years old. I'm uh… a graduate of Columbia Teachers College and uh… this is my first teaching position. Now that you know about me, I want to uh… find out about you. So, if you will copy these six phrases off the board and then complete them I'd uh… appreciate it. Thank you." He coughed. I thought he was going to wind up with a very sore throat.
Mr. Benedict Jr. handed out the paper himself. I read his phrases.
My name is
Please call me
I like
I hate
This year in school
I think male teachers are
I nibbled on the edge of my pencil. The first two were easy. I wrote:
My name is Margaret Ann Simon.
Please call me Margaret.
The next two were harder. I liked and hated a million things. And I didn't know what he wanted to know about. Also, he wouldn't answer any questions. He sat at his desk and watched us. He tapped his fingers and crossed his legs. Finally I wrote:
I like long hair, tuna fish, the smell of rain and things that are pink.
I hate pimples, baked potatoes, when my mother's mad and religious holidays.
This year in school I want to have fun. And also learn enough to go to seventh grade.
I think male teachers are…
That was the worst! How was I supposed to know? Every teacher is different. But I couldn't think of a way to fit that in. So I wrote:
I think male teachers are the opposite of female teachers.
There! That ought to do it. It was a stupid answer but I thought it was also a pretty stupid question.
At two-thirty Nancy slipped me a note. It said: Secret club meets today after school my house-no socks!
I went home to change before going to Nancy 's. My mother was waiting for me. "Let's have a snack and you can tell me all about your first day of school," she said.
"I can't," I told her. "No time now. I've got to go to Nancy 's house. I'm joining her secret club."
"Oh, that's nice," my mother said. "Just tell me about your teacher. What's she like?"
"It's a he," I said. "His name is Mr. Benedict and this is his first job."
"Oh gads! A first-year teacher. What could be worse?"
"He's not bad," I told my mother. "I thought he was very nice."
"We'll see how much you learn," my mother said.
I changed into shorts and a polo and walked to Nancy 's.
5
The others were already there. Janie Loomis, Gretchen Potter and Nancy. That was it. We sat around on the porch and Nancy brought us cokes and cookies. When Gretchen helped herself to six Oreos at once Nancy asked her how much weight she'd gained over the summer. Gretchen put back four cookies and said, "Not much."
"Did you see Laura Danker come in this morning?" Janie asked.
"Which one is she?" I said.
They all giggled. Nancy spoke to me as if she were my mother. "Margaret dear-you can't possibly miss Laura Danker. The big blonde with the big you know whats!"
"Oh, I noticed her right off," I said. "She's very pretty."
"Pretty!" Nancy snorted. "You be smart and stay away from her. She's got a bad reputation."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"My brother says she goes behind the A amp;P with him and Moose."
"And," Janie added, "she's been wearing a bra since fourth grade and I'll bet she gets her period."
"Did you get it yet, Margaret?" Nancy asked.
"Get what?"
"Your period," Nancy said, like I should have known.
"Oh-no, not yet. Did you?"
Nancy swallowed some soda and shook her head, "None of us has yet."
I was glad to hear that. I mean, suppose they all got it already and I was the only one who didn't. I'd feel awful.
Gretchen smacked her lips, brushed the cookie crumbs off her lap and said, "Let's get down to business."
"Agreed," Nancy said. "First of all we need a good club name this year. Everybody think up a name for our club."
It got quiet. Everybody thought. I didn't really think but I pretended to. I didn't even know anything about the club so how could I pick out a name?
Gretchen suggested the SGCT which meant the Sixth Grade Cu-Tees. Janie said that sounded really dumb. So Grechen told Janie if she was so smart why didn't she suggest a name. Janie suggested the MJB Girls which meant the Miles J. Benedict Girls. Nancy told Janie she'd forgotten the Jr. on the end of his name. Janie got mad and excused herself to go to the bathroom.
"As long as we're on the subject," Nancy said, "what do you think of Miles J.?"
"I think he's cute!" Gretchen giggled.
"He is-but he's too skinny," Nancy said.
Then I finally thought of something to say. "I wonder if he's married!"
Janie joined us again. "My guess is no. He doesn't look married."
"Anyhow, did you see the way he looked at Laura?" Nancy asked.
"No! Did he?" Gretchen opened her eyes wide.
"Naturally! Men can't help looking at her," Nancy said.
"But do you think she looks that way on purpose?" I asked.
The others laughed and Nancy said, "Oh Margaret!" Nancy had a great way of making me feel like a dope.
Then we talked about Mr. Benedict's questions and Gretchen told us that she wrote male teachers are very strict-because if Mr. Benedict thought we were afraid of him he'd bend over backwards to be really easy going and nice. I thought that was pretty clever and wished I had written it myself.
"Well, the whole idea of those questions is just to find out if we're normal," Janie said.
I hadn't thought about that. Now it was too late. "How can he tell if we're normal?" I asked.
"That's easy," Nancy said. "From the way you answered. Like if you said, I hate my mother, my father and my brother, you might be weird. Get it?"
I got it.
Nancy snapped her fingers. "I have the perfect name for our club," she said.
"What is it?" Gretchen asked.
"Tell us," Janie said.
"We'll be the Four PTS's."
"What's it stand for?" Janie asked.
Nancy tossed her hair around and smiled. "The Pre-Teen Sensations!"
"Hey, that's good," Gretchen said.
"I love it," Janie squealed.
We had a secret vote to pass the club name and naturally it passed. Then Nancy decided we should all have secret sensational names such as Alexandra, Veronica, Kimberly and Mavis. Nancy got to be Alexandra. I was Mavis.
Nancy reminded us that nobody in school was to know anything about our secret club and that at secret meetings such as this we were to use our secret names. We all had to solemnly swear. Then we all had to think up a rule.