THE ‘My EVERYDAY’ SERIES

Being Cool

(from My Exciting Everyday Escapades)

A few days later, they were sitting on the swings when Ireentje asked, “Hey, Debbie, do your parents let you chew gum?”

“I guess they might,” she answered slowly.  “But they don’t buy it, so I don’t know.”

“Huh. Mine say it’s disgusting. That a person chewing gum looks like a cow.”

Debbie giggled. “Only if they’re white with black spots.”

Ireentje sighed. “I’d really like to try it. Just once. I think chewing gum looks so cool.”

Debbie pretended to chew before jumping to her feet. “Well, let’s get some for ourselves!” She began walking around with her eyes glued to the ground, stopped short, and pointed. “Look!”

Ireentje looked down. There was a piece of pink gum. No one had stepped on it.

Debbie bent down and pried the gum off the playground with her fingernail.

“Stop! My mommy says gum on the ground is germy. She doesn’t let me touch it.”

Debbie shrugged as she turned the gum over in her hand. “Looks clean to me. I think it’s bubble gum!”

Ireentje closed her mouth but watched her friend closely. Would she suddenly get very sick?

Debbie looked around. “Nobody’s watching, so let’s sneak inside and take it to the sink in the hallway restroom. We’ll wash it. Then, it’ll even be clean enough for you!”

“I’m not sure that’ll work.” Ireentje worried but trailed after her friend.

“Of course, it will. We’ll be thorough.”

As Ireentje watched, Debbie stretched the gum, washed it, stretched it again, and washed it again. “That should do it,” Debbie said.

Then Debbie divided the gum and popped her half into her mouth. “Try it!” she grinned at Ireentje before blowing a giant bubble.

Ireentje sniffed the gum. It smelled delicious! She reluctantly put the gum into her mouth and began to chew. It tasted so good, and Ireentje knew, just knew, that she looked really cool. She chewed with her mouth open like she’d seen teenagers do. “If Mommy and Daddy could see me now, they’d know this is cool!”

Debbie grinned and put her arm around her friend. “It’s even cooler if you call them Mom and Dad. You sound like a baby!”

Ireentje didn’t answer but thought it over. Even cooler would be to use only words she could spell. She decided to call her mommy “mother.” After all, she could spell “mother,” but she wasn’t sure about “mom.”

The bell rang, and Ireentje and Debbie went into class. Although chewing gum was against the rules, they reasoned Miss Johnson wouldn’t know if they didn’t chew.

Only a few minutes had passed when Miss Johnson asked Ireentje what she had in her mouth.

“Not going to tell you,” she said, trying to keep her lips together.

“Open your mouth.”

Ireentje quickly pushed the gum under her tongue and opened her mouth.

“Lift your tongue.”

Ireentje closed her lips and said, “No!” without opening her mouth. It sounded strange.

Mitch had seen Ireentje chewing in the playground. “Miss Johnson, she has gum in her mouth.”

“Thank you, Mitch, but we don’t tell on people in my class.” Miss Johnson held out her hand in Ireentje’s direction. “Spit it out.”

Ireentje did. She had no choice.

“Miss Johnson, Debbie has some, too,” Mitch tattled again.

Ireentje stuck her tongue out at him while Miss Johnson took Debbie’s gum.

Boys are the worst, she thought. It was such a waste. She and Debbie had planned to keep the gum on their bedposts so it would last for a week. Now, it was in the garbage, and Miss Johnson was sure to notice if they tried to get it out.

“Ireentje, Debbie, go to the principal’s office. Mitch, come to my desk. We need to talk about tattling.”

After exchanging a glance, the girls held hands, walked down the hall, and knocked on his door. What would he do?

“Come in.”

Ireentje drew in a huge breath and glanced at Debbie. Her face was the color of milk.

The principal, Mr. Bumble, made a steeple out of his hands. “Why are you here?”

Both girls looked down and began shuffling their feet.

Mr. Bumble cleared his throat. “Well?”

Taking turns, Ireentje and Debbie told him the whole story, stressing that they washed the gum first.

Mr. Bumble’s face turned rather purple, and his eyes twinkled. Ireentje thought he seemed to be struggling not to smile. But that couldn’t be right.

“You broke a school rule. No gum in class. Worse, that gum was germy, no matter how much you washed it. I really hope you don’t get sick.”

Ireentje’s eyes grew wide, and she glanced at Debbie. Debbie smirked and shook her head so slightly that Mr. Bumble didn’t notice.

“Sit down, girls. I have to call your parents.”

“Great,” Debbie muttered under her breath, sinking into a chair.

Ireentje tucked her hands under her legs.

When their mothers arrived, Ireentje and Debbie got in trouble again. Later, when Ireentje’s father got home, things didn’t improve.

She went to bed very sorry for chewing gum in class and even more sorry for getting it off the ground. But Ireentje noticed Mr. Bumble and her parents were wrong. Neither she nor Debbie got sick. And they had looked cool. Very cool.