Running Away Read online

  The archangel put his hands in his pockets. “Be careful, little angel.”

  Thursday

  Thursday started awful. Science projects were due, and Mrs. Cronin looked at Danielle when she didn’t turn hers in. She just looked and looked and didn’t say a word. In fact, all day long every time Danielle glanced Mrs. Cronin’s way, she was looking at her.

  At the very end of the day, when Danielle was about to walk out of the classroom, Mrs. Cronin gave out a little yelp. “Danielle,” she said.

  Danielle stopped by her desk.

  Mrs. Cronin rubbed her arm. Then she shook her head. “Nothing.” She went back to her seat and started to sit down, when she jumped back to her feet. “Ouch!”

  Danielle stared at her.

  Mrs. Cronin rubbed her backside. “Danielle, can you hand in your science project tomorrow?”

  “No, Mrs. Cronin.”

  “Why not?”

  “I haven’t done it.”

  Mrs. Cronin looked sad. “Did you begin it?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  Danielle looked at the clock. “If I don’t hurry, I’ll miss my bus home.”

  Mrs. Cronin nodded. “Okay. Go on home.”

  Danielle hurried to the bus.

  “Here, Danielle,” called Clarissa, waving wildly from the second row. “I saved you a seat.” She had saved Danielle a seat all week. Clarissa was delighted that Danielle had taken to riding the bus with her. She looked around at all her friends now and smiled proudly.

  When they got home, Clarissa and Danielle went around to the back door together.

  Ma was standing there waiting. “Hi, kids.”

  Clarissa kissed Ma. “I had a great day.”

  “I’m glad, Clarissa. You can tell me all about it when you’re taking your bath tonight. Right now I need to talk with Danielle. Would you do me a favor and keep an eye on Roger? He’s playing in the den.”

  Clarissa looked at Danielle curiously. “Sure.” She kissed Ma again and ran into the house.

  Danielle put on a smile, but she didn’t feel happy at all. “What’s up, Ma?”

  “That’s what I wanted to ask you.” Ma led the way into the kitchen. “Have a seat.” She poured Danielle a glass of milk and put a bowl of apple slices in front of her. “Mrs. Cronin called me.”

  Danielle shoved a slice of apple in her mouth. Her stomach felt like cold lead.

  “She told me you haven’t handed in any homework for a long time. And you didn’t do a science project.”

  “Volcanoes,” muttered Danielle as she chewed.

  “Right. Volcanoes.” Ma sat down opposite Danielle. “What’s going on?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Ma took a deep breath. “Do you have homework tonight?”

  Danielle nodded.

  “Can I see it?”

  “It’s just reading.”

  Ma held out her hand. “Can I see?”

  Danielle opened her backpack and handed Ma the reading book. “Chapter Six.”

  “All of it?”

  “Yeah. I mean, actually, tonight we’re supposed to read the last part. But I haven’t read any of it yet.”

  Ma blinked. “How about we sit on the couch side by side? You can read your chapter, and I can read something I’m supposed to read, too.”

  “About photography?”

  Ma bit her bottom lip. “Yes.”

  “Okay.”

  They went into the living room and read. Chapter Six told the story of the Lewis and Clark expedition. It wasn’t boring at all. Every now and then Danielle looked over at Ma. Ma smiled at her and went back to her reading. Danielle read the whole chapter.

  “Are you done?”

  “With the reading.”

  “So now you’re supposed to do something else?” asked Ma.

  “There are questions at the end of the chapter.”

  “Let’s go into the kitchen and you can sit at the table and write your answers while I make dinner.”

  They went into the kitchen, and Danielle wrote the answers to all ten questions. She folded her sheet of paper and put it in the book and shut the book and put it in her backpack. She felt great. Something was done. Something was finally done, from start to finish. She came over and stood by Ma. “Can I help you?”

  “Stir the pasta, okay?”

  Danielle picked out the perfect stirring spoon and set to work.

  “What else have you got to do tonight?”

  “That’s all.”

  “Really?”

  “I swear.”

  Ma ripped lettuce into the salad bowl. “It seems all this started just around the time my photo appeared in the Inquirer. Is that so, Danielle?”

  “I guess.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Ma sliced tomatoes. Her hair swung forward, so Danielle couldn’t see her face, but Danielle saw a tear splash onto a tomato slice. “I used to sit by you when you did your homework. Then I stopped. I’m sorry, Danielle.”

  “Don’t be sorry. It’s not your fault.” Danielle stopped stirring and hugged Ma. “I got behind. And then I didn’t know what to do. It’s like I thought I could never catch up, so why try?”

  Ma put down her knife and squeezed Danielle to her. “It must have felt terrible.” She rested her cheek on the top of Danielle’s head. “I’m so sorry I abandoned you. I had other things on my mind and I just forgot you needed me. You seemed happy and you didn’t complain and you’ve always been such an easy kid, so happy and ready.”

  “I’m sorry I quit, Ma.”

  Ma sniffed and wiped at her nose. “We’ll both do better now. What else are you behind in?”

  “Everything.”

  “So where you do want to start?”

  “Well, math might be a good place.”

  “After dinner you can begin.”

  Danielle shook her head. “I didn’t bring home my book.”

  “All right. Then bring it home tomorrow and we can sit side by side as you do all the assignments you’ve missed. And you should do all the new assignments Mrs. Cronin gives over the weekend, too.”

  “Okay,” said Danielle. She felt like she was floating. She would finally catch up. Ma would help her. “Okay.”

  Angel Talk

  The Archangel of Responsibility tugged at the loose end of yarn on the ball in the little angel’s hands. “You gave that teacher a poke with your knitting needles, didn’t you?”

  “No.”

  “No?”

  “No. I gave her five pokes.”

  “Five? What for?”

  “You saw the first two, as Danielle was about to go home. Number three got her to take a closer look at the note Danielle’s father had signed and realize that something had been erased from it.”

  “But what was erased was only the word ‘no’ that Danielle had written.”

  “Mrs. Cronin didn’t know that. The erasing made the whole note look suspicious. So I gave her a fourth poke to get her to telephone Danielle’s home.”

  “Once she spoke to Danielle’s mother, that must have been enough.”

  “No,” said the little angel. “Mrs. Cronin wanted Danielle’s mother to come in for a conference tomorrow. So I had to poke her a fifth time so that she’d explain everything over the phone and Danielle could get help right away.”

  “Not bad,” said the archangel. “I have to admit I’m surprised pokes worked on a grown-up, and I’m not delighted that you did it when I had told you not to. But, in fact, you made things a lot better.”

  “Well, that’s that,” said the Little Angel of Responsibility. “The mother is back at her job as mother, and Danielle is on the road to good work habits again.” She measured out a long strand of yarn. “I think I’ll weave her a bookmark, too. Like the one I did for her mother. She’ll be needing it with all the reading she has to catch up on.”

  “Wait a minute. There’s a big difference between things being a
lot better and the job being finished,” said the archangel. “It’s good that Danielle is doing her work with her mother sitting beside her. But you know that’s not enough.”

  “It worked for Danielle before all this started.”

  “Well, sure. But it can’t go on forever, anyway. Think about it. Clarissa has a little homework these days and she’s going to have more every year. And someday even Roger will have homework. The mother can’t sit beside all of them as they do every bit of their work.”

  “Maybe the father can help out.”

  The archangel laughed. “Sure he can. He does laundry and cooks and all the other household chores, just like the mother. But that’s not the point. Come on, little angel. Take a larger view of it. We get tasks all the time—at school, on the track field, with our friends. Our parents can’t be beside us every step of the way.”

  “And this mother needs to do her photography, anyway,” said the little angel slowly.

  “Yes. But it’s not the mother I’m concerned with. For Danielle’s own sake, she needs to learn how to face a task and complete it—on her own. Without that, she’ll never be reliable or responsible.”

  “And she’ll never be proud of herself.” The little angel shook her finger emphatically. “She hated being behind in her work. It worried her so much, she was giving up on everything. Even track.”

  “Exactly.”

  The Little Angel of Responsibility took out her knitting needles and clacked them together loudly. “Off to work!”

  Math, Volcanoes, the World

  Danielle followed Clarissa in through the back door. Rosie greeted them and led the way into the kitchen.

  Roger sat at the table finger painting. “Hi. Want to paint with me?”

  “Sure,” said Clarissa. She dropped her backpack and rolled up her sleeves.

  Danielle looking longingly at the paints. She was great at finger painting. One of her best paintings hung over her bed. Something poked her in the shoulder. “I can’t,” said Danielle. “I have to do my math homework.”

  Ma came into the kitchen right then. “How many math assignments do you have?”

  “Five.” Danielle winced. Even to her ear it sounded like a lot.

  “And do you have other homework this weekend?”

  “No new homework. But at some point I have to do the last four spelling homeworks.” Danielle screwed up her mouth. “And my volcano project. The one that was due yesterday.”

  Ma raised her eyebrows. “Wow. So what’s first?”

  Danielle got tired at the whole idea. But suddenly she felt a bunch of pokes in her backside. “Well, getting a book on volcanoes is probably the hardest. Everyone checked them out of the library. I have to go to Nether Providence. If the book’s still there, that is.”

  “You said the projects were due yesterday,” said Clarissa. “So maybe everyone else has turned in their books already.”

  Danielle brightened. “Maybe. I’ll go to our library first, then.”

  “Good idea,” said Ma.

  Danielle rode her bike to the library. Judy was leaving just as she arrived. “Did you turn in your volcano book?” asked Danielle.

  “Yup.”

  Danielle ran to the circulation desk. There was a volcano book, not even shelved yet. “I need that book,” she said to the librarian.

  “Oh, hi. I remember you.” The librarian smiled and checked the book out to Danielle.

  Danielle rode her bike home. She put the book in her room, then ran into the kitchen and took out her math book. She worked on math problems while Clarissa and Roger painted and Ma cooked.

  Most of the problems were easy, but one confused Danielle. She stared at it a while, then she closed the math book and drummed her fingertips nervously on the cover.

  Something poked her hand. It hurt.

  Danielle stopped drumming and opened the book again. She made another go at that math problem. Oh, yeah. Now she understood. She worked out the answer in neat columns of figures.

  “Time to clean up.” Ma screwed the lids on the finger paints. “How far did you get, Danielle?”

  “I did three whole assignments.”

  Ma smiled. “I’ll check them after dinner. For now, help me set the table.”

  Pa came home, and they all ate together. Then Danielle worked on her last two math assignments while Ma checked her first three.

  “Nice work,” said Ma.

  “Looks like you have a lot more homework than usual,” said Pa.

  Danielle looked at Ma. Ma looked back at her with questioning eyes. Danielle could let Ma tell Pa—but it was Danielle’s mess, so, really, it was up to Danielle to tell Pa. She took a deep breath. “I’ve got some catching up to do. That’s why it’s so much.”

  “Catching up?”

  “Yeah. But I’m doing it. I got up-to-date on my reading last night. And these are my last two math assignments. And tomorrow I have to make a poster on volcanoes and write a report. And then I have some spelling homework. I’ll do it all, Pa.”

  “Of course you will.” Pa looked over Danielle’s shoulder. “I’m no good at spelling, but I can check these math problems when you’re through, if you want. And I’ve always been fascinated by volcanoes.”

  Danielle finished the math and waited while Pa checked her work. It was right—every question.

  She hummed to herself as she put her things away and as she climbed the stairs and as she showered. It felt good to have her parents beside her when she worked—it felt good not to be alone anymore.

  And she had forgotten how much fun math could be. And how terrific it felt to struggle with a hard problem and finally get it right. In fact, she didn’t really need to ask Ma and Pa to check all the problems. In the future she could ask them to check just her hard problems.

  Danielle sat on her bed and opened the volcano book and read. When she looked at the clock, it was already nine-thirty. Danielle was exhausted. And she’d done more schoolwork today than she’d ever done before.

  She picked up her clock. It was an alarm clock, and Danielle had never used the alarm before. But she knew how to set it. Track practice started at ten in the morning. If she got up at nine, she could eat a fast breakfast and read about volcanoes for almost an hour. That would give her enough information to do her report.

  She set the alarm for nine, turned off the lamp, and lay down.

  Then she sat up, turned on the lamp, and reset the alarm for eight. The bell on top made a tiny ring as she changed the alarm time. An extra hour would give her enough time to draw the poster, too. And if she had time left over, she would read extra and make her report that much better. She would surprise Pa when she came home from track and sat down to do the report with all the information already in her head.

  Danielle went to her desk and got out the old piece of poster board from last year. One of the corners was bent, but otherwise it looked good as new. She smoothed the corner flat and lined her Magic Markers up along the edge of the poster board. Everything was ready.

  Danielle smiled, turned off the lamp, and fell asleep.

  Angel Thoughts

  The newest Archangel of Responsibility spread her wings and took to the air. The tiny ring of the alarm as Danielle reset it announced her earning her feathers. She wanted to stick around and see Danielle’s science project when it was finished. But more than that, she wanted to finish her own task without any more distractions of any sort. After all, the Little Angel of Imagination had waited a long time for his prize for winning the chess match.

  A light drizzle made the archangel give a little shiver. Then she laughed. Handing the Little Angel of Imagination a rainbow scarf just as the sun came out again would be perfect. She flew as fast as she could.

  Danielle’s Volcano

  About the Author

  Donna Jo Napoli is the acclaimed and award-winning author of many novels, both fantasies and contemporary stories. She won the Golden Kite Award for Stones in Water in 1997. Her novel Zel was na
med an American Bookseller Pick of the Lists, a Publishers Weekly Best Book, a Bulletin Blue Ribbon, and a School Library Journal Best Book, and a number of her novels have been selected as ALA Best Books. She is a professor of linguistics at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, where she lives with her husband. Visit her at DonnaJoNapoli.com.

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  First Aladdin Paperbacks edition June 2000

  Text copyright © 2000 by Donna Jo Napoli

  Illustrations copyright © 2000 by Lauren Klementz-Harte

  Aladdin Paperbacks

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster

  Children’s Publishing Division

  1230 Avenue of the Americas

  New York, NY 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  Designed by Steve Scott

  The text of this book was set in Cheltenham and Minister Light.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Napoli, Donna Jo, 1948–

  Running away, Donna Jo Napoli ; illustrated by Lauren Klementz-Harte.

  —1st Aladdin Paperbacks ed.

  p. cm. — (Aladdin Angelwings ; 10)

  Summary: The Little Angel of Reponsibility tries to help Danielle act more responsibly, particularly regarding her homework, but the angel has problems keeping her own priorities straight.

  ISBN 0-689-83210-9 (pbk.)

  ISBN-13: 978-1-4814-6588-5 (eBook)

  1. Angels—Fiction. 2. Responsibility—Fiction. 3. Homework—Fiction. 4. Schools—Fiction.

  I. Title. II. Series: Aladdin Angelwings ; 10.

  PZ7.N15Ru 2000

  [Fic]—dc21 99-87419