Keena Ford and the Field Trip Mix-up Read online

  So as we were starting our homework, Eric said, “I have a new rule for the Homework Hut.”

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “You can snip in the air,” he said.

  I had no idea what he was talking about.

  “I got in trouble with Ms. Hanson today,” Eric explained. “With scissors. I snipped in the air. When we snip with scissors we are only allowed to snip paper. But I just started snipping for fun, so I got my name on the board.”

  “Well then,” I said, “it is a new rule. In the Homework Hut, you can snip in the air!” I grabbed my scissors out of my backpack. I started snipping them. I got so excited that I crawled out of the Homework Hut and stood up on the balcony. I was snipping around in the air like crazy. “Snipping in the air is fun,” I said to Eric. The scissors made a happy, scratchy metal sound.

  Then the scissors made a “thwap!” sound. Like there was something between the blades of the scissors other than air. Then I heard a “thump” as something hit the railing of the balcony.

  I looked at the railing. One of my beautiful, thick braids was bouncing over the edge. I reached for it, but I was not fast enough. I looked through the bars and watched my braid land on the roof of a green car that was parked in the alley.

  I made an “aaaaaauuuurrrrr” sound. It was all I could say.

  Eric poked his head out of the Homework Hut. “Uh-oh,” he said. “You cut off your hair.”

  “Aaaauuuurrrrrrr,” I said again. I reached up and touched the side of my head. The ponytail holder where my braid had started was still there, but right past the ponytail holder was just a little stump of hair. Eric and I both stared down at my cut-off braid.

  “Let’s go get it,” Eric said. I couldn’t say anything. I was still in some kind of a shock. Then we heard a “vrrroooom” sound. The green car started to move. It turned a little bit to get around the car in front of it, then it just drove off with my braid still on the roof.

  Eric and I stared at each other for a few minutes. I didn’t even cry. My brain just felt frozen like a block of ice. Then my brain unfroze and I started to cry. Eric just patted me on the shoulder. “There, there,” he said, like an old lady might say to a kid in a movie. I cried and cried and cried.

  “What am I going to do now?” I said.

  Eric looked very worried. Then all of a sudden he popped his eyes wide open. “Wait here. I’ll be right back,” he said. He stood up.

  “Are you going to tell Uncle Jay?” I asked him.

  “Nope,” said Eric. “I think I have a plan.” He left the Homework Hut.

  I waited and waited for what felt like eleven hours. I just sat in the Homework Hut and stared at my scissors. Finally Eric came back. He was carrying a purse.

  “I’m confused,” I told him.

  “This is Mrs. Carlito’s purse,” he explained. “I asked her if I could borrow a few things.”

  “I’m still confused,” I said.

  “Mrs. Carlito knits hats,” Eric said.

  “I know that,” I told Eric. “But I can’t wear a woolly hat on the field trip.”

  Then Eric pulled a big clump of black yarn out of the bag. “Ta-daaa!” he said. “You are not going to wear a hat. You are going to make a new braid. All we have to do is braid the yarn and then put the yarn braid under your ponytail holder. No one will ever know the difference. Do you know how to braid?”

  “I think so,” I said. I divided the yarn into three parts. I tried to make each part nice and thick. Eric fastened the three sections together with a rubber band. Then I wove the pieces together.

  Eric stuck the end of the yarn braid under the ponytail holder so that the yarn braid covered up the stump of hair. Then he stepped back to look at it.

  “It looks, um, nice,” he said. “Well, I had better take this stuff back to Mrs. Carlito.”

  “What else was in the purse?” I asked him.

  “Some glue, in case we needed it,” Eric said. He grabbed his backpack too. “See you tomorrow, Keena.”

  I thanked Eric for helping me, and then I gathered up my stuff. I walked very, very quickly back to my room, and I looked in the mirror at my yarn braid. I got another “I ♡ my teacher” barrette out of the cabinet and attached it to the bottom of the yarn braid. I thought it looked pretty good, but I didn’t know if I should show Uncle Jay, so I got ready for bed. I got in and out of the bathroom to brush my teeth without anyone seeing me, because I moved like a very fast invisible secret spy. Then I opened my bedroom door just a crack and hollered, “GOOD NIGHT, UNCLE JAY!!” before I got into bed and turned out the light.

  FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1

  9 A.M.

  Something everyone should know about yarn is that it looks different after you sleep on it. When I woke up this morning my yarn braid was kind of flat and wrinkly. It didn’t look like my real braid at all, even after I tried to fix it. It looked like the hair of this doll I saw in a movie one time, when this girl was very, very poor, and she lived in an old barn. She had only this one very raggedy-looking doll that she loved more than anything in the world. The doll was made out of some string sewn onto a dried potato skin. Even if someone loved me more than anything in the world, I did not want to look like that old raggedy-looking potato doll. So I decided to cover my head. I went to Mom’s room to look for a scarf. And guess what I found? I found a scarf that looked just like an American flag. I decided it would be perfect to wear to the United States Capitol. I tied the scarf around my head.

  When I sat down for breakfast, Uncle Jay didn’t say anything about my scarf. He just raised one eyebrow very high up on his forehead. “I’m going to the Capitol today,” I told him. “And this scarf looks like the American flag.” I watched Uncle Jay very carefully. He just raised his eyebrow again and went back to eating his cereal.

  When I got to school, I told Ms. Campbell that my mom didn’t get a chance to do my hair before she left and that I really, really wanted to wear my scarf to the Capitol. I think she felt sorry for me, so she said okay! Now all of the girls in my class are writing in journals while we are waiting for the bus to arrive.

  I feel sort of bad that I said Mom didn’t fix my hair, but at least I get to wear my scarf and everything is going to be fine. My friend Linny Berry said she thought my scarf looked really cool! This trip is still going to be the best ever.

  4 P.M.

  The field trip was NOT the best ever. It was the worst ever. I am never ever going back to the United States Capitol.

  The trip started out okay. I liked the bus ride better than the last time I had been on the bus. The last time I rode the bus was on the first-grade trip to the pumpkin patch. I was the only person who did not get to pick a pumpkin to bring home on the bus because I had a little problem with a scarecrow. A scarecrow is like a giant fake man made of clothes stuffed with hay. A scarecrow is put on a stick. He is supposed to scare the birds away so they don’t bother the pumpkins. In this movie called THE WIZARD OF OZ there is a scarecrow that is actually a REAL GUY, only he does not have a brain. So at the pumpkin patch I tugged on the scarecrow’s sleeve to get his attention just in case he was real. Then all of a sudden there was HAY everywhere that had popped out of the scarecrow. The scarecrow was not real, and he was kind of ruined. So I did not get to pick a pumpkin and I was very sad on the bus ride home from that pumpkin patch.

  Anyway, this bus ride was much better. I sat next to Linny Berry and we played tic-tac-toe. Mr. Lemon sat right behind us. Mr. Lemon is the time-out teacher and he came with us as a chaperon. A chaperon is a grown-up who watches you on a trip to make sure you don’t get into trouble.

  When we got to the Capitol, we had to get in a very straight and very quiet line. I was not the caboose, but Tiffany wasn’t either. She was in line right in front of me.

  We were supposed to be very, very silent as we walked into the building. Everyone was quiet except for this girl named Addy. She was wiggling and saying “U.S. Cap-i-tol, U.S. Cap-i-tol,” over and over until M
s. Campbell gave her the scary eye and she got quiet, restful, and still like the rest of us.

  We walked in the building and saw a long hallway with white walls and a very shiny floor. We went down the hall and went to the door to the representative’s office. There was a big sign on the door that said REPRESENTATIVE PALMER THOMAS—MARYLAND. “Stand very quietly,” Ms. Campbell told us for the 200th time. She peeked her head in the office and a lady came out.

  “Hello, class,” she said. “My name is Jean and I work for Congressman Thomas. We are very excited that you have come to visit today.”

  I raised my hand.

  “Yes, the young lady in the flag scarf,” said Jean.

  “Who is Congressman Thomas?” I asked. “I thought we were visiting Representative Thomas.”

  “A congressman is the same thing as a representative,” Jean told me.

  “Is it in the thesaurus?” I asked.

  I heard a man laughing behind Jean. She looked over her shoulder. “And here he is!” she announced. She stepped to the side and a man walked into the hallway.

  “Hello class,” said Representative Thomas. “Thank you for visiting today.” He was wearing a suit and some black shoes that were very, very shiny. “Are you ready for your tour with Jean?” he asked. The other girls in my class started nodding their heads. I nodded my head very fast so he would know I was really excited. All that fast nodding made my scarf slip a little bit.

  “Hey, what’s that?” I heard Tiffany say beside me.

  All of sudden she reached up and pulled my scarf!! It fell to the floor. I tried to reach up and cover my wrinkly yarn braid, but it was too late.

  “What is that string for?” Tiffany said. It felt like everyone in that whole hallway got very quiet and looked at me. “What happened to your hair?” she said even louder. Then she started to giggle.

  I covered my eyes with my hands. That way I could not see everyone looking at me. There were tears all over my hands in about four seconds. I heard Ms. Campbell say, “Tiffany, that is enough” in a kind of voice that meant Tiffany better watch out. I didn’t hear anyone else laughing. Then Jean started talking about the different office buildings and how the members of Congress go to the Capitol to vote on new laws.

  I tried to listen, but I kept my hands over my face because the tears were still coming out. Then I felt someone touch me on the shoulder. I almost yelled, “Get offa me!” because I was so mad and sad, but I peeked through my fingers first to see who it was.

  IT WAS REPRESENTATIVE THOMAS OF CONGRESS!

  He said, “Ms. Campbell, may I please speak to this student in my office for a moment?”

  I moved my hands from my eyes to see what Ms. Campbell would say. She nodded her head. So then I followed Representative Thomas into his office. And now I will just call him Rep Thomas because “Representative” takes a very long time to spell. Anyway, his office had a very big chair and lots of picture frames on the walls. Some of the frames had pictures of people shaking hands, and some of the frames just had pieces of paper with writing on them.

  “What’s your name?” is the first question that Rep Thomas asked me. “Um . . .” I said. I think I was kind of nervous, because I couldn’t remember at first. “Um, Keena Ford,” I finally said.

  Then I started to get a tiny bit worried that maybe he was going to tell me that I could not go in the U.S. Capitol with only one real braid. “Keena,” he said in a serious voice, “watch very carefully.” I did not know what I was watching for, but I opened my eyes extra wide so he would know I was paying good attention. Then he reached up and touched his own hair. And he pulled on it right where his forehead ended and his hair started. AND IT LIFTED UP OFF HIS HEAD! One part of his hair just lifted straight up in one big clump. I was so confused. I think my mouth came open.

  “This is not my real hair,” explained Rep Thomas.

  “That looked just like the way the corner of the carpet looks when I lift it up to hide candy wrappers under it,” I said. Then I touched my yarn braid. “I cut off my braid by accident,” I said. “This is not my real hair either.”

  “I figured,” said Rep Thomas. “I wanted to show you that not everyone’s hair is perfect. I think you were very creative to make a new braid for yourself.”

  “Thank you very much,” I said. Then I told him that my dad has a bald head and lives in Maryland, which is the state that elected Rep Thomas. And I told him about our elections for student council. “I wanted to be the delegate, but I did not win,” I said. “I am just the runner-up.”

  “I did not win my first election,” Rep Thomas told me. “You should try again next year.”

  “I will,” I said. “I saved my poster.” Then I asked Rep Thomas if I could still go on the tour.

  “Of course!” Rep Thomas said. Then do you know what he said? He said he would go on the tour too! With his new friend Keena Ford!

  THAT IS ME. I was very excited that Rep Thomas called me his friend.

  When we came back into the hallway, Jean was giving stickers to all the kids so that people would know we were there for a tour and not just sneaking around. Jean looked surprised and a little worried when Rep Thomas said he was going to go on the tour too. Since Rep Thomas knows the most about Congress, I don’t know why he didn’t just say the stuff on the tour instead of Jean. Maybe he made her say the tour for her own good. That is the same reason why grown-ups always make kids do stuff that the grown-ups could do by themselves.

  The first place we went was UNDERGROUND. There is a hallway that goes from the reps’ offices to the Capitol, but it wasn’t shiny like the office hallway. It just had lots of pipes and other people with stickers. We stood in a line beside a big toy of the Capitol in a glass case. When you make a toy building that doesn’t do anything and no one can touch, it is called a “model.” I guess they had the model of the Capitol so that if you had to wait in line for a long time underground you wouldn’t forget what it looks like on the outside.

  While we were waiting in line, Jean started explaining some stuff to us about Congress. She said there are two kinds of people in Congress: senators and representatives. They have different meeting spots, and only the senators get their own desks. And the senators can scratch their names into their desks without even getting punished.

  After we got our stickers checked, we walked down another very long hallway and up some stairs into the real Capitol. We saw a big staircase on one side and some HUGE metal doors against the wall on the other side. The metal doors had tiny people carved into them. Jean told us that the doors were made of bronze and that they used to be in the circle part of the Capitol but that they were too heavy for people to open. So now they are on the lower floor of the Capitol, and if you opened the bronze doors you would just walk into the wall.

  We walked up another bunch of stairs into the circle part of the Capitol called the rotunda. The ceiling had a very beautiful painting on it. It had angels and clouds and rainbows, which are my favorite things to have in a picture because they are on the cover of my new journal. The painting also had George Washington, the first president of the United States. George Washington is not on the cover of my journal, but I think I am going to draw him on there. Jean said it took the artist eleven months to paint the painting on the ceiling!

  We walked around and looked at a bunch of paintings and statues. Jean showed us a painting of when the Declaration of Independence was signed. The Declaration of Independence is a big yellowy piece of paper that we sent to England to tell them we did not want them to be the boss of the United States anymore. This was a LONG, LONG time ago. In the picture there were a bunch of guys. Two of the guys are George Washington and John Adams. And in the picture George Washington is stepping on the foot of John Adams! On purpose! I looked around for Rep Thomas to ask him if George Washington got in big trouble for that one, but he was talking to Tiffany.

  I did not like it that Tiffany was trying to be friends with my new friend Rep Thomas.

  �
��Okay, girls,” I heard Jean say. “It’s time to move to the next room.” We followed Jean into a place called the Statutory Hall. There are many statues in that room. My favorite statue is of the first king of Hawaii. The statue is very big, and the king is wrapped up in a kind of cape. And you know what? His cape is made of SOLID GOLD!! Jean said that the statue had to be in the corner of the room because it was so heavy, if they put it in the middle it would fall right through the floor.

  I was going to ask Rep Thomas why they kept putting these heavy things in the Capitol that had to go against the wall, but this time he was talking to Addy and Royann.

  Ms. Campbell said it was time to line up to go back downstairs so we could visit another part of the Capitol. Once again LIKE USUAL I was stuck in the middle of the line. We were lined up at the top of a staircase, in a narrow hallway between two columns. “Be VERY careful on this staircase,” Ms. Campbell warned.

  “Uh-oh,” I heard Tiffany say behind me. “I need to tie my shoe.”

  “Well, step out of line and tie it,” Ms. Campbell said to Tiffany. “Just don’t fall behind.”

  Tiffany was going to be the caboose AGAIN! I just knew it!

  We walked down about six more steps. I was trying to be very careful like Ms. Campbell said. Addy was in line right behind me. She said, “This is the best field trip ever! Representative Thomas said I was his new friend Addy Smith.”

  “And I’m his new friend Delegate Jones!” Royann said.

  When Royann and Addy said those things, it made me feel a little bit jealous. I felt like I was not Rep Thomas’s most special new friend. He probably did not even remember my name now that he had made so many other friends.

  All of a sudden I really, really needed to be the caboose. I was so sick and tired of being in the stupid middle of the stupid line. I decided to move fast so Ms. Campbell wouldn’t notice. When we were about six steps from the bottom, I let go of the handrail and turned around super fast to run up the stairs.