Keena Ford and the Second-Grade Mix-Up (3 page)

“You get to write with a PEN?!” I shouted. “I thought it was against the law to write with a pen in the second grade.” I only write with a pen when I do art projects at home. Or when I have to write apology letters at home. Eric must be very excited.

But Eric didn’t look very excited. He was looking at the floor beside my left shoe. Then he said he had to go home.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1

10:30 A.M.

 

 

This morning we wrote our names and birthdays on paper birthday cakes. Then we got to color the birthday cakes using any color we wanted.

My birthday is February 9. My mom calls me her valentine because I was born very close to Valentine’s Day. But I didn’t write my birthday as February 9. I wrote it a special way with just numbers that I learned from Brian. You write a number for the day and a number for the month. And you put a line between the numbers. The day of my birthday is 9, and the month is 2, because February is the second month of the year. So I wrote: 9/2.

I am lucky to have an older brother who teaches me things.

Now we are writing in our journals and Ms. Campbell is hanging up our birthday cakes. She has the names of the months hanging on the walls. She is putting our cakes next to the name of the month of our birthday.

Wait . . . she just taped my cake next to “September.”

Uh-oh.

And just now she said, “Excuse me, ladies. I am very excited to report that we have a class birthday tomorrow, September 2. Keena Ford will be the first student to wear our special birthday crown.” Then she looked at me and smiled. “Keena, I hope you like chocolate cake,” she said.

I tried to open my mouth to tell Ms. Campbell that there must be some mistake. My birthday is February 9. But I thought about that birthday crown. And I thought about the cake. I love birthday cake almost as much as I love pudding pie. So when I opened my mouth, this was what came out:

“Yes, Ms. Campbell. I LOVE chocolate cake.”

 

When Brian came home from school, I wrote down 9/2 and showed it to him. I said, “You told me this says February 9.”

“That says September 2,” he said.

“No,” I told him. “My birthday is on the ninth, and February is the second month of the year.”

“I know THAT, smarty-pants,” Brian said. “But in America, you write the MONTH first. Then the day. It should look like this . . . ”

Then he took my pencil and paper and wrote 2/9.

I looked at his 2/9. Then I looked at my 9/2. Then I understood my big, big mistake.

I think I have gotten myself into some kind of a mess.

“Why are you asking me these dumb questions, anyway?” Brian wanted to know.

I told him it was for my homework. Then I ran to my room really fast. I needed to think of a plan to get myself out of trouble.

I thought about my big mistake for one hour. Ms. Campbell thinks my birthday is tomorrow, but it’s not until February. I didn’t mean to lie to Ms. Campbell. If I let her keep thinking that my birthday is tomorrow, that is kind of a lie. All I have to do is tell Ms. Campbell about the mix-up. I will explain that my birthday is NOT September 2. And if she asks why I didn’t tell her before she made a chocolate cake, then I can just tell her that I got confused. I thought about this plan to tell her the truth. Then I came up with another plan: I will just pretend to be sick tomorrow.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2

10:30 A.M.

 

 

Last night I coughed a little bit when Mom tucked me in. Just so she might think I was coming down with something. Then this morning when she woke me up I coughed REALLY, REALLY loud.

Mom pretended she didn’t hear me.

When she turned the lights on, I said, “Could you turn those off? My head is pounding.”

She said that my breakfast was ready.

I guess she wasn’t getting the hint that I was trying to be sick. So I said, “I feel just plain awful. I think I have the flu. I can’t go to school today.”

I waited for Mom to say, “I’m sorry, Valentine. Where does it hurt? I’ll make you some chicken soup.” But she didn’t. Instead she said, “Keena, I don’t have time for you to be sick all week. If you’re really sick, I will take you to the doctor for some shots. Then you will feel better right away. It’s probably nothing a few needles can’t fix.” She looked like she really meant it about the needles.

Lying to a teacher is really bad. But getting stuck with needles when I wasn’t sick seemed even worse. I got up and put my school clothes on right away. I decided to think of a new plan.

When Mom was walking me to school she kept looking at me kind of funny. I think my eyes were very big and round because I was thinking so hard about my new plan. When she gave me a kiss at the door to school she looked at me for a second. Then she said, “Keena, if you start to feel worse, have the school call me. I will take you to the doctor.” Then she looked at me funny again. I just nodded with my eyes still big and round. I wanted to shout, “Help! It’s not my birthday!” but I just said, “Okay. Bye, Mommy.”

My new plan was going to be the same as my first plan: to tell Ms. Campbell the truth. But when I got to my classroom Ms. Campbell had the birthday crown sitting on my desk. It was purple with silver sparkles and it said “BIRTHDAY GIRL” in big silver letters.

It was so cool.

I put the birthday crown on my head.

On one side of the chalkboard, Ms. Campbell had written with different-colored chalk: “Happy birthday, Keena Ford!” She had drawn three balloons. It was the first time I had gotten my name on the board and it didn’t mean that I was in big trouble.

I knew I needed to tell Ms. Campbell that today wasn’t really my birthday. So I raised my hand. I could feel my heart beating really fast. She said, “Yes, Keena?” and looked at me with a big smile on her face. She was smiling at me because it was my special day. And all I said was, “I like the balloons on the board, Ms. Campbell.” And even though I DID like the balloons on the board, I felt like a big fat liar.

Now I’m sitting here with this birthday crown on my head, trying to think of what to tell Ms. Campbell. I have to tell her the truth before lunch. After lunch I will see Eric, and he will know it’s not my birthday. And he will tell my class. Then I’ll be in trouble.

 

 

I meant to tell Ms. Campbell when we were lining up for lunch. I had taken off my birthday crown and set it on my desk. When Ms. Campbell said, “Keena, are you not going to wear your birthday crown to lunch?” that was when I was going to say:

“No, Ms. Campbell, I am not going to wear my crown to lunch because it is not really my birthday. My birthday is February 9.”

But I didn’t say that. I didn’t say it because right before Ms. Campbell asked about the crown, she had gotten something out of the little refrigerator right behind her desk, and she had shown it to me. It was a chocolate cake that said “Happy birthday, Keena!” in light purple frosting.

That cake looked DELICIOUS. I really, really wanted a piece of that cake.

So I told Ms. Campbell that I wasn’t wearing the crown because I didn’t want it to get dirty at recess.

It was true that I DIDN’T want the crown to get dirty. But I still felt like a big fat liar.

When we got to lunch, I looked over at the table where Ms. Hanson’s class was sitting. I was looking for Eric. I knew that if he heard something about the chocolate cake, then everyone would find out it wasn’t my birthday. I didn’t see Eric at the table. I guessed he was in the bathroom.

Then I remembered—Eric had to go to the dentist! He was mad about going because he would miss lunch and recess but he would have to come back for math. I decided there was no way that Eric would be back before the end of recess. I also decided no one would know if I was celebrating my birthday a little early. So I raised my hand. “Ms. Campbell, can I go get the birthday crown? I think I want to wear it after all.”

After recess Ms. Campbell announced that we were having a special treat. I knew it was my birthday cake. She called everyone over to the carpet near her desk. All of the other girls had to sit, but I got to stand near the cake. Ms. Campbell and the class started singing “Happy Birthday” to ME. Even Linny Berry was singing. It was so exciting. I started to kind of believe that it really WAS my birthday. I had a big smile on my face. I even sang at the end of the song, except instead of singing “Happy birthday, dear Keena,” I sang “Happy birthday, dear me.” I squeezed my eyes shut and opened my mouth really wide. I felt like I was on stage. I sang the last line as loud as I could: “HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEEE!”

All of a sudden I realized that I had been singing the end of the song all by myself. Everyone else had stopped singing. I opened my eyes. Ms. Campbell and my classmates were looking toward the door. I thought maybe there was another surprise, like balloons or a pony, so I looked too.

There were no balloons in the doorway. There wasn’t a pony there either.

Instead, standing in the doorway was . . . my mom.

Boy, was I ever surprised.

My mom looked surprised too.

Ms. Campbell said, “Hello, Ms. Ford. Did you come to celebrate Keena’s birthday?”

My mom stood with her mouth open for a few seconds. She looked at me. I could feel my face getting warm. Then she said to Ms. Campbell, “No, I came to see if Keena was feeling better. She said she felt sick this morning, and I didn’t let her stay home. I wanted to see if she was okay. It looks like she is just fine.” She looked at me with her eyebrows raised. When my mom raises her eyebrows, it means I have some explaining to do.

Ms. Campbell said, “Oh no! Sick on her birthday? I didn’t know. She didn’t say anything to me.”

Then my mom said, “May I speak to Keena in the hallway, please?”

It took me a long time to walk from Ms. Campbell’s desk to the classroom door. When I got to the door, my mom took my hand and pulled me into the hallway. Then she took the birthday crown off my head.

She leaned down really close to my face. “Keena,” she said in a loud whisper, “what is going on?” She did not look happy. My face got very, very warm.

“M-Ms. Campbell thinks today is my birthday,” I said.

“I noticed that,” my mom said. “I want you to tell me RIGHT NOW why Ms. Campbell thinks today is your birthday.” Her voice was a little louder this time. And she looked really, really mad.

“I wrote the date wrong on my paper cake,” I said. I told her how I wrote 9/2 instead of 2/9, so Ms. Campbell thought my birthday was September 2. I thought Mom might feel sorry for me because I got so confused.