Free Smart Dog by Vivian Vande Velde Page B

the school nurse because she had bonded her fingers together with Super Glue, Sister Mary Grace said, "Oh, my, almost time for lunch! Let's clean up, then we'll have our egg fashion show, and by then the pizzas should have arrived. Then it's good-bye till after Easter." She sounded as though she was really looking forward to the good-bye part.
    So was Amy.

The Easter Egg Parade
    After all the broken eggs and extinguished candle stubs and leftover bits of paper, felt, and feathers were gathered together to be thrown out, it was time for the Easter egg parade.
    One by one, alphabetically, each family displayed their eggs in the clear plastic containers Mrs. Pudlyk had provided so that the eggs could be seen yet carried with minimum risk of damage.
    Mrs. Pudlyk, Amy was fairly certain, would never again come to a school function. But she had a brave—if somewhat strained—smile as each family walked by.
    When Sister Mary Grace got to the G's, Amy managed to scrape her chair against the floor at the same moment Minneh coughed, both on the last word of Sister Mary Grace's announcement, "Betty Ann Gorman and her son, Sean."
    "Excuse me," Minneh whispered in a delicate little voice that contrasted with the whooping-cough bellow she'd just given.
    Mom clearly suspected Minneh's whole family
was
highly contagious, but at least she didn't seem to question the timing. Still, when the Gormans stopped in front of their table, Mom leaned closer for a better look at Sean. "Hi!" she said brightly.
    "'lo," Sean mumbled, pretending not to recognize her. In a bored but rapid monotone, he described his Ukrainian-style egg, with its stars, leaves, and windmills. He showed more enthusiasm for his second egg, which he'd decorated to look like a football.
    As Mrs. Gorman moved on to the next table, Amy said, softly, "Gee, that's really neat, Steven"—with just the slightest emphasis on
Steven,
to let Sean know, just in case.
    Sean caught on quickly. His voice was perfectly normal as he answered, "Thanks, Amy."
    Mom was peering closely at him. "You know," she said, "we saw your twin the other day."
    Perhaps Sean caught on a bit too quickly. Instead of realizing she simply meant they'd seen someone who looked remarkably like him, he assumed Amy had made up a story about his actually having a twin. "My twin," he repeated, nodding. "Yes. Sean."
    "You have a twin?" Mom asked in amazement.
    "Ahmmmm..." Sean said, confused now, stalling for time.
    "I didn't know you had a twin," Amy said, to let him know he was on his own for this story.
    "Yeah," Sean said. "Yeah, that's right. I'm Steven, and my brother—my twin brother—is Sean."
    "So he must be in a different class," Mom said. "Since Amy didn't know him." She thought about that for a half second. "Though it's odd—"
    "He goes to a different school," Sean interrupted. "My parents are divorced. So they split me and Sean up."
    "How sad!" Mom gasped.
    Just then Sean's mother, ready to move on from the next table, noticed how far behind he'd fallen and called, "Come on, Sean, you're holding things up."
    Sean whispered to Mom, "Poor Mother. She gets confused a lot since the divorce." To make sure Mom found that reasonable, he added, "Probably because of all the drinking she does on account of trying to forget about my father running off with his aerobics instructor." He mimed drinking from a bottle.
    Mom looked shocked but only said, "You poor thing."
    Sean nodded and continued on to the next table.
    Mr. Tannen leaned over the girls to say to Mom, "It's sad how many dysfunctional families there are these days."
    She probably would have agreed more wholeheartedly if he hadn't been scratching his rash and sniffling as he said it.
    When it was time for Amy and her mother to show off their eggs, Amy insisted that Mom go first. That way, Amy, walking behind, could bump into her and keep her moving. Which was exactly what she did at the Gormans' table.
    Mom ignored her. She rested her hand on Mrs. Gorman's